Equestrian Empire

It was an idyllic scene at Carousel Boutique, the most fashionable store in the east, perhaps even all of Equestria. Though she’d yet to impress the royal family themselves, having never met them, the owner, Rarity, was sought after by people all around the country for her designs. It was little wonder, for each of her pieces was made with painstaking craftsmanship.
With only an hour or so left in the morning before she opened the shop, Rarity was absorbed thoroughly by her latest creation. She sat at her worktable, her small glasses perched on her the end of her nose, her narrow-eyed gaze focused intently on the delicate beadwork illuminated under the magnifying glass in front of her. A threaded needle sat clenched between her teeth as she worked, her fingers steady as she stitched the intricate finishing touches.

“One more,” She said on an exhale, speaking to herself. The only other inhabitant of the shop at the moment was her tempermental white persian cat Opal, who was nowhere to be seen. Instead, all around the room was colorful chaos, fabrics and ribbons an colored sketches everywhere you looked.

Someday, she thought with a dreamy sigh, setting her needle to the fabric for the final bit of trim. Someday she would be able to go to Canterlot, and dazzle their majesties with her creations. The regal Celestia would coo over her gowns, and perhaps even the militant Luna would be persuaded to her glamorous dresses. Ah, then she could move her boutique to that beautiful, wonderful city, and maybe, just maybe even the devilishly handsome Prince Blueblood would take particular notice of her…

The building suddenly shook violently as if suffering from an earthquake, jarring Rarity from her daydreams. Even as she registered the severity of her shop shaking, she could only stare in dismay at her handiwork, tears welling up in her pretty blue eyes. The sudden movement had made her hand jerk, causing her to tear the needle through the delicate fabric, leaving a jagged canyon where a beaded flower was meant to be. To add insult to injury, she heard the soft tinkling of beads striking the floor.

“It’s RUINED!” She wailed, tossing off her jeweling glasses onto the desk and sobbing, pillowing her head on her folded arms.

She distantly heard Opal give an angry warning growl over her bawling, but thought nothing of it until the house shook again. And again. Rarity picked up her head and blinked several times, staring as her belongings around the room continued to vibrate and fall into disarray.

“What in the world?” She jumped up, determined to find out who dared set off fireworks so close to her shop, and so early in the morning, too!

As Rarity emerged outside from her boutique, however, her still-shining eyes widened in shocked horror at the sight that greeted her. It wasn’t fireworks rocking the boutique; it was a full-scale airship battle happening directly above the town!

“By the Elements,” Rarity breathed, staring. She could see that all the ships were gilded save one, the one being fired upon. She frowned in incomprehension even as she hurried inside to find her most functional pair of shoes. She didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t about to stand outside her store barefoot. She would help.

The only problem was that Rarity loved all forms of fashion, including shoes, and so it took her longer than she would have liked to find the exact boots she wanted. If only she didn’t have eighty-three pairs…oh, who was she kidding? She needed them all, and it wasn’t like she could go to war in stilettos.

And so it was that she returned to her front stoop just in time to see the enemy ship explode like a fiery sun over her chic neighborhood.

Rarity shrieked, clapping both hands over her mouth as the helpless sound escaped her. She watched with morbid fascination as pieces of the ship and—she swallowed hard—bodies fell from the explosion like fiery rain. Then the sky rumbled to life as the dozen or so airships re-engaged their engines and headed westward toward Canterlot. Rarity barely heeded their retreat, her stare on the atrocity before her. She looked around, but it seemed she had been the only witness to this…insanity. What was Equestria coming to?

Determination surged through her. She had to do something. Suddenly glad for her forethought about functional shoes, she left her boutique in a sprint. These people needed help, and now. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to slow some of the falling debris, but only managing to catch half of it. Levitating a pair of scissors across a room was far, far different from fighting gravity on large pieces of metal.

“Help!” She shouted at the top of her lungs, hoping to rally her neighbors. “I need help!! I—”

She cut herself off when she saw someone falling straight for her, and she gave it her all, holding out her hands and throwing her magic at the person, hoping to stall them to a float so they wouldn’t pancake to the ground at her feet. Her stomach twisted at the very notion, but she managed it, the person levitating down to the grass before her safely.

“Whew,” She gasped out, not used to using her powers this way. As she took a step toward the person she’d saved, something fell on her, knocking her hard onto her back and making her wheeze for breath. She lay there for a dazed moment, then pushed off the small piece of metal that had struck her, focused again on the person nearby. They lay lifeless in the grass, and Rarity couldn’t tell much about them for all the ash covering them.

“Hello!” She managed, kneeling over them while still glancing up warily now and then for more wayward debris. “Are you alright? Can you hear me?” Rarity called frantically, catching another falling person out the corner of her eye and barely stopping them from hitting the ground at full speed.

Sooty eyelids fluttered open to reveal startling sapphire eyes, before narrowing on her. “Name and location,” The tough but clearly feminine voice barked.

“Rarity, and this is P-Ponyville,” The seamstress stuttered, completely overwhelmed by all that was happening.

“Is there anyone else?”

Rarity grimaced, pointing at the second person she’d caught. “I don’t know,” She murmured. “I saw the ship explode—”

“Explode?!”

The person looked up at the sky, their jaw going slack at the sight of the aftermath. “No…”

“Highness!”

A man’s voice shouted, making Rarity jump, before he ran up to the two of them, offering a hand to the fallen woman. Rarity could only blink up at the two of them while he pulled the woman up, speaking again. “Highness, we need to—”

“Shut it,” The woman replied sharply, but it was too late.

“Highness?” Rarity repeated in a high, breathy voice, starry-eyed with awe as she stared up at the blackened woman before her.

The woman sighed in exasperation as the man explained, running a hand through hair that glimmered orange through the soot. “This is top secret, miss. That’s an order.”

“Oh!” Rarity gasped in delight. She had met one of the princesses, her dream was happening! But the morning had taken its toll, and her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted dead away in the grass.

“Great.” Flamewing muttered, his scowl deepening beneath his ash-streaked face as the locals chose that exact moment to appear.

“Miss Rarity!” One cried, looking from the impeccably-dressed unconscious girl to the two smoke-stained survivors. “What did you to do to her?!”

Flamewing and Luna exchanged a quick glance, a whole conversation passing between them. He nodded, barely resisting a salute, before dashing off. “You’ll never catch me!” He shouted.

Luna had to swallow the sudden feeling of desertion at seeing him run off. She would definitely miss him. “Hurry, he’s the one that did this to the poor girl!” She cried pitifully. At least she wasn’t technically lying. Just like that, the small group of townsfolk chased after the distraction, leaving an injured Luna with a sleeping Rarity.

Luna ran a hand through her hair, surveying the sky once more with a grimace. Damn you, Celestia, she thought, hoping that Flamewing would find more survivors. Meanwhile, she had to get out of here as well, but as she took a step, she winced, her left leg rebelling at having her weight put on it. She glanced down at it in consternation, noticing once more the prissy woman who must have saved her. There was no way she had survived that fall on her own. She almost felt guilty for leaving her there, but she couldn’t stay here. Too much was at stake.

She took all of three more slow, painful steps before a country-accented voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Now, lies like that might fool the other folk ‘round here,” The woman drawled, and Luna followed the sound to a figure leaning against a nearby building, one leg cocked and a cowboy hat drawn low over her face.

“But me,” She said, tipping back her hat to reveal a level stare and a blonde braid, “Me, I like the truth.”