Rarity was making a dress.

Well, calling it a dress would be a tad disingenuous.

In actuality, it was more a suit of armour with a frock in place of a cuisse, and no greaves at all. It was made up of plates of steel that could slide over one another to allow for more mobility, which were connected together with a chain-mail frock- an innovation that she was quite proud of. It had been commissioned by the local armoury as a gift for a dignitary that was supposed to arrive next month… and they had wanted it to look fabulous.

Of course, after only about ten minutes spent in the monochromatic hellhole that was Siberia, inspiration had struck her light a bolt of lightning, and she had retreated inside her nice, warm, cosy quarters to work in peace. Applejack had accompanied her so they could chat for a while, but had eventually left to look for Twilight.

Hmmm… cross-stitching or paladin for the padding? One’s more durable, but the other’s less likely to nip on delicate bits.

She considered the question for a moment, and then settled on cross-stitching. She could just run some more fabric over the rougher bits. They were paying her handsomely- she could spare some more material.

Besides, she was pretty sure the armour was more decorative than anything else.

Satisfied with her justification, she threaded her needle and pinched it between her fingers in anticipation of the first stitch.

Gee, I sure hope nothing bad happens! she thought forcefully, glancing about the cabin for anything that might distract-

wa-THOOOM.

The sound reverberated, shaking her room and causing some ornaments to fall off the walls. The ship itself creaked painfully, tiling perilously to starboard and giving her a far clearer view of the ground underneath them than she was comfortable with.

Then, slowly, it rocked itself back.

“Never fails.” she muttered offhand, setting her needle aside and reaching for her overcoat. On the outside, she remained unfazed. As a dignified businesswoman who had to deal with interruptions like this on the hour every hour back home, she was used to terrifying things almost killing her.

That didn’t mean she was just going to sit back and take it, though.

Tying down her trunk and other tools to ensure they wouldn’t fly out of the window if the ship was hit again, she stepped out into the narrow hallway, preparing herself for the cold as she sauntered onto the deck.

It didn’t help.

The chill still stole her breath away immediately, making her freeze in place for almost a full minute as she tried to adjust.

Over the howling wind and steady thum of the engine, the sounds of arguing reached her ears. One of the voices was unfamiliar to her, but she recognised the other as belonging to one of the crew.

“Relax, it isn’t even that bad.” the unfamiliar voice reasoned, drawing out the syllables.

“…it’s a hole in the bloody ship!”

A snap, and the world seemed to compress and expand around her. In the distance, the clouds retreated fearfully. The ground grew legs and leapt up to meet them as all light faded, leaving her with a deep, primal fear of the dark that would persist until the day she died.

And then it was over.

Everything returned to normal.

…well, the mental scars would never fade, but that was an issue for another day. The girls and her paid good money for their therapy sessions, after all.

“See? It’s fine!” the voice maintained. “No harm done!”

As Rarity gathered up her courage and approached the incanscessant bickering, the crew member spoke.

“…what was that?”

“Dark magic.” the other said dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Oh, and by the way; here’s your pretty princess.”

And so, the fashionista turned the corner to see what in the world was going on.

Honestly, she would’ve been better off not knowing.

A young girl absolutely drenched in black and brown held Twilight Sparke upside down with her magic, facing down an utterly terrified crew member. Said crew member yielded another few feet as the girl dumped Twilight like a sack of potatoes.

“…what the hell?”

The newcomer groaned, running a hand through her fiery hair. “She was prancing around in the village square demanding that everybody get up bright and early for a good head start on the daaaaaay! Eugh.”

The crewmember deigned to respond, but then noticed Rarity’s approach.

“Wait!” he pointed at her. “She’s the one who knows everything!”

And with that, he was gone.

Leaving her to deal with their new visitor.

Hmm.

Rarity inspected the new girl closely. Worn clothes, stains everywhere, hiding something wrong with her arms, knows her colour scheme very well, probably a pyromancer, way shorter than she looks but makes up for it with her tall boots.

On the ground, Twilight snored.

“…good evening.” Rarity began, flicking a lock of magenta hair behind her ear and flashing a blindingly exasperating smile in the direction of the newcomer. It was a doozy; she called it the ‘mmm, please’, and it was remarkably good at making others feel inferior.

“Knock it off.” the other girl growled, waving a hand towards Rarity’s face. “And for the record… your friend can’t hold her caffeine all that well.”

The fashionista didn’t let up on the smile; instead electing to turn it up a couple lumens. “Well, dear, why did you give her caffeine in the first place? Surely-”

“Oh, fuck you!”

There was a pause, during which the purple-haired girl gave the other another once-over. While she was most assuredly uncouth and absolutely horrendous company… there was something rather endearing about her demeanour.

So she grinned, and extended a hand. “Rarity.”

Her fiery opponent accepted. “Sunset. I look forward to insulting you further.”

Hiding her giggle with her dainty palm, Rarity responded.

“So do I.”

“…could one of you please help me up?”

Twilight was dealing with the aftermath of consuming large amounts of caffeine.

It sucked.

Fatigued as she was, she’d taken the liberty of retiring to her quarters post-haste, and had wrapped herself in all the blankets she owned. Sure, she should probably have been out looking for her friends, and ensuring that they weren’t outdoors when the blizzard hit… but her massive headache made even entertaining the prospect of leaving her bed unbearable.

Still, in the low light of the oil lamp that blazed overhead, and the warmth of the internal heating system… she couldn’t deny that she felt much better.

So she lay there, suspended in a state somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, revelling in her cosy surroundings.

Just as she was about to succumb to her exhaustion, she heard her door creak open, and a gust of cold air heralded the arrival of none other than Sunset Shimmer.

As it turned out, the girl wasn’t entirely heartless. Upon realising what Twilight was doing, she had quickly closed the door, and attempted to remain quiet.

“…hello?” she whispered, trying to ease Twilight into conversation. The purple-haired girl simply groaned, attempting to cover her eyes.

“What happened to Rarity?”

Sunset considered the best way to answer the question, swaying slightly on her feet.

“She’s finishing up a dress she was making.”

“What about… the others?”

“What others?”

Twilight groaned again, starting to extract herself from the blankets, but was stopped by Sunset.

“Dude, talk to me before you decide to do something.”

“…alright. I’m talking about the girls; Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. They’ll be about town, and I need to go and find-”

“NO YOU DON’T!”

Both girls jumped as Pinkie Pie materialized out of the ether, hanging suspended in the air for a solid five seconds before she dropped squarely onto the mountain of blankets on Twilight’s bed.

“Rainbow Dash is outside!” she sang cheerily, throwing her hands up into the air. “The only ones you need to find now are Applejack and Fluttershy!”

"That's nice." Twilight groaned, clutching her head and trying to ignore all the things that didn't make sense. "But-"

“Oh, wait! You have a hangover! I can help you!” Pinkie claimed, adjusting her glasses. “I’ll have you know that I have a masters in curing hangovers.”

“You-”

Twilight was silenced by the pink-haired girl producing a disturbingly official looking degree from Canterlot University. According to it, Pinkie had triple-majored in ‘Curing Hangovers’, ‘Steam Locomotion’, and ‘Methematics’.

Sunset squinted. “Wait, is that a misprint?”

“Nope!” Pinkie tossed the degree away, and nobody saw where it went. “I also have a PHD in ‘Defying Entropy and other laws of the natural world’. Is that useful?”

Twilight was about to respond, but another bout of pain wracked her nerves, forcing her to slip back underneath the blankets.
"Gimme a second." she rasped, looking to Sunset- who was shuffling awkwardly. "I'll be-"

“No, you rest." she interjected, straightening. "I’ll go find your friends. It's the least I can do."

There was a silence in which Twilight stared at Sunset, wondering what she hoped to gain with that particular bit of altruism.

“Hey, I’m not a monster.” she retorted, flapping her wings and propelling herself out of the room. “I just look like one.”

The subsequent silence was broken only by Pinkie’s loud cheer.

Applejack had been pacing a hole into the wooden floorboards when Sunset emerged from belowdecks. She was absolutely drenched in snow, and was shivering despite her heavy overcoat.

“Twilight’s down there.” Sunset mentioned, squaring up to take off. “Any questions you have can be directed towards her. Also, do you know where I can find Fluttershy?”

The other girl opened her mouth, but closed it immediately once it became apparent that she wouldn’t be able to force any words past her chattering teeth. Instead, she elected to gesture in the general direction of a grove of ash trees.

“Thanks!”

And with that, Sunset took to the air. Though the blizzard was slowly kicking in, the winds were still manageable. They wouldn’t stay that way for long, however, so it was imperative that she found the last of Twilight’s friends.

It would also help take her mind off what she was about to do.

She was going home.

…

…

…don’t think about it!

She groaned in frustration, spiralling towards the ground. It didn’t really make sense that one of Twilight’s friends was out in the middle of the woods, either. It would’ve made far more sense to stay near the town, especially with the storm bearing down on them.

Speaking of the town, she’d probably have to talk to her contacts about how she was finally leaving. It would be a shame, really… at least she’d be able to keep using the dream-walking spell.

With that, she ploughed face-first into a snowdrift.

…ow.

She lay there for a while, cursing herself for not learning how to land.

Then a small hand nudged her shoulder, presumably to ensure that she was still breathing.

“…ummm… are you alive?”

Sunset sighed, rolling over to find a young girl decked out in a yellow sweater that had ‘my other car is a draconequus’ written on it. Said girl was nervously fiddling with her pink hair, and avoiding eye contact.

…well, her name checks out.

“Fluttershy, I presume?”

“Y-yes, I-” suddenly, the pink-haired girl noticed something, and leapt forward.

“Whoa!” Sunset exclaimed as Fluttershy began prodding at the membrane of her wings. “Personal space, please?”

Immediately, the other girl shrunk back. “S-sorry. It’s just that… you need to take very good care of your wings. If you don’t wash them properly, or stretch them too much… you could develop a fatal infection!”

Sunset stared for a second.

“…how do you know that?”

“I- I help animals.” she mentioned, still curling her hair around her index finger. “And some of them are bats with wings like yours.”

“…that’s nice.” Sunset responded after a long, arduous pause. With one hand, she gestured over her shoulder towards the airship looming on the horizon. “You should probably go. Twilight’s looking for you.”

“Oh!” Fluttershy began, but was cut off by Sunset.

“I’ll answer questions on the ship. Long story short, I’m coming with you guys. Capisce?”

Fluttershy began to say something, thought better of it, and sighed. “Alright. Though I think Discord wants to have a word with you.”

“Who?”

The world shattered, spun, and rearranged itself so that there was suddenly a massive draconequus standing behind Fluttershy. Said draconequus snapped his fingers, leading to Fluttershy disappearing in a poof of yellow smoke.

“Hello!” he began, twirling a walking stick that had definitely not been on his person a second ago. “You’re the one that ran away, right?”

Sunset sighed. Apparently, the eldritch terror that was Discord had gotten free, and was on good terms with the Princess.

Fuck. Might as well.

“Yes, I am. I see that my reputation precedes me.”

“Hmmm.” he stroked his goatee, gazing into the sky. “Not really, no. You’re not much of a celebrity back in Equestria… kinda faded into obscurity after all the stuff that happened with Twilight Sparkle and her gang.”

She shrugged. “Figures.”

“Anyways, I have a proposition for you!”

…fine.

“I’m listening.”

He grinned, exposing one yellowing fang. “As you might be aware, I am a creature that feasts on chaos! And you know what’s going to cause a lot of chaos?”

A trembling talon extended towards her.

“…me?” Sunset asked, catching on.

“Bingo!” Discord exclaimed, clapping his hands. “So, here’s the deal; I give you a book, and you promise to read it.”

Sunset ruminated on the offer for a second.

“What’s the catch?”

“There isn’t one. In fact, now that I think about it, you don’t even have to promise to read it!”

The draconequus laughed raucously, leaning on his dapper walking stick and clutching his comically large top-hat in his right hand. Then he choked, hacking up a few rabbits that grew wings and flew away.

“…what?”

Discord gave one last cough, hitting his chest for emphasis, and a book escaped his gullet to land on Sunset’s face.

“Ah.” he cleared his throat, wincing as the book slowly slid off. “That would be the complete instruction manual for chaos magic. Please make sure to use it irresponsibly.”

Sunset blinked. “Don’t you mean-”

“I know what I said.”

And with that, he vanished in a puff of navy-blue smoke. The smoke itself proceeded to disperse into approximately twenty translucent woodpeckers, which began attacking the ashen trees with gusto.

…Sunset sat still for a while, trying to process all that had just happened.

Then she considered the ramifications of learning chaos magic.

Then, as she was about halfway down the list of cons (Discord could be trying to trick her, she could bring harm to other people, it was incredibly fickle and difficult and could cause her to lose her grasp on the rest of her magic) she realised that it would really piss Celestia off.

Guess that settles it! she thought cheerily, levitating the book (which had been lovingly embroidered with a rendition of Discord’s visage) into her saddlebags. Securing the bag to her side, she spread her wings and took to the skies.

…

…

…

…this ought to be fun.

Author's Note

Leave comments! Like, plot things! Or something! im so tired fucc