She splashed her face with the cold water once more, hoping to make her blurry vision fade away. She couldn't help but let out a large yawn after her long restful sleep. A magical veil grasped the faucet handle, gently pulling it shut. She understood her need to be ready and go about her day but she ever so slightly wanted to just drop everything and lounge about for once. To not have to deal with the normal stresses of her average work day and live her way for a day. What wouldn't she give for a change of pace?
Her personal towel floated out from underneath the cabinet with the name Rarity delicately embroidered onto it.
Rarity sighed, using her horn to dim the light. As she walked away from the washroom her glossy white cat circled around her in hopes of a morning treat.
"Not now, Opal. I need to work all day today if I want this order done in time." Rarity warned her needy cat.
Opal stopped dead in her tracks and began her usual unhappy pout.
"Come now, don't be that way." Rarity said with a friendly nudge. "Let's make a deal, after I'm done working today we can do something super extra special together, like maybe a nice fur brushing and styling?"
Opals ears immediately perked up and she gave a satisfied nod.
"Good." Rarity smiled. "Now if you would excuse me, I have five dresses to start and finish."
Opal gracefully hopped up onto her comfortable resting place on the bed a began to delicately groom her coat.
"Now where to begin?" Rarity asked to herself as she slipped into deep thought. Random drawers around the room sprang open and the materials inside floated out with same light blue veil surrounding it. At the same time, five identically posed mannequins floated out of an open closet door, settling in a semi-circle around the deeply concentrated unicorn. The cloth and gems began wrapping themselves around the mounted figured, slowly morphing themselves into the basic outlines of five colorful dresses.
The first dress was a deep blue, flowing dress with a few lighter blues as highlights. On the chest, it had a prominent diamond cut sapphire mounted in the secure neck piece. The shape matched with the color made the piece mimic the look of a rolling ocean wave.
The second was more pentagonal in its shape but compensated with the custom weaved fabric that displayed ancient tribal etchings onto the rock-like shapes. The dull grays and browns were complimented by the bright reds and oranges of the shiny metallic fabric weaved into it. Using a complicated series of stiff wires, the rocky dress called upon the essence of the earth.
The other three followed a similar path, each taking from a unique natural inspiration. The third was a breezy white dress that represented a windy day, the fourth a bold and fiery dress that almost seemed to literally be on fire thanks to a convenient arrangement of sequins, and the fifth being a flowery dress that looked to grow out of the core of the creation.
"What do you think, Opal? Do you think my new 'Elemental Series' shows any promise?" Rarity asked her grooming cat.
Opal paused her self-cleaning for half a second to glance up and immediately went right back to grooming.
"That's what I was thinking too." Rarity agreed. Small details of the dresses morphed and changed to adjust to her new vision. "One more thing here and... done! What about now?"
The cat shot an annoyed look at Rarity and hopped down from her resting place to better examine the dress prototypes. After carefully looking each one up and down, Opal gave her a nod of approval.
"Oh joy!" she said joyfully clopping her hooves together. Beginning to adjust various bits of the dresses, a loud grumble resonated from her belly. "Silly me, I must have forgotten about breakfast."
Opal shook her head, motioning to the steadily ticking wall clock.
"Yes, I suppose you do have a point there." Rarity sighed, "I'll just go get a quick snack and then it's right back to work."
The fabrics and pins slowly lowered back into their original storage bins and drawers. Some of the materials didn't fit as well as they did before making everything look cluttered and unorganized. Rarity didn't pay much attention to it, her mind was locked on a single purpose, the pantry. The door handle was gripped with her blue magic and the food closet swung open, cascading there with fresh smells of wheat and fruit.
Right now, the world was practically at Rarity's hooves. It might have only been her choice of a snack but it made her feel in control. Without hesitation she floated a green wrapped package off of the top shelf. She had to blow a thin layer of dust off of it but she knew it was definitely worth waiting for. The faded tag spelled out 'To My Dearest, Rarity' in a delicate cursive. The bow magically untied and fell to the floor along with the lid, revealing the treasure within.
Spike wasn't and still isn't a very good chef, but gems had always had a sweet spot in his heart. Somehow that love turned into freakishly good gemstone candy. Rarity didn't know how he was able to make such wonderful treats but he did. The glowing green gems formed a heart shape, all of them fitting perfectly together in a jigsaw puzzle sort of way.
These candies became Rarity's favorite treat the moment Spike gave a box to her as a birthday gift the previous month. She asked if she could get a couple more boxes after eating all of them in a less-than-graceful way. Two days later, the dragon appeared at her boutique's doorstep with a crate of the gem treats. Nearly anytime Rarity could, she was nibbling on more of those wonderful candies. Up until the point where she had eaten her way down to the very last box, which she had vowed to save for at least a little while.
Now In Rarity's mind, she had decided that a little while meant approximately two days. She had made this decision nearly exactly two days ago. This moment couldn't have come any sooner. Popping one of the edges into her mouth, she cantered back into her workroom.
"Hey Opal! Who wants a gem candy?" Rarity asked magically dangling a gem candy above the still grooming Opal.
Opal sprang into action, her tail waggling in anticipation for her impending treat.
"That's what I thought." Rarity smiled. The candy floated down right in front of the eager cat's paws, who immediately pounced on it. Rarity let out a small giggle
"Now just nibble on that for a while if you would, and hopefully when you're done, I'll be ready for a little R&R with my favoritest kitty who ever lived." she said cutely and pursing her lips.
Opal simply purred and found her way back to her resting spot.
"Alright, now let's get back to work." Rarity nodded determined to finish her dresses and began floating the materials back into the center of the room.
The ground suddenly began to shake violently taking Rarity's balance and throwing her to the ground, along with all the cloth and pins that she had been holding. Her side hit the ground with an audible thump.
"Ow!" she yelped. "What in Equestria was that?"
Another wave struck the boutique, causing multiple things on shelves to fall and break. A picture of Rarity and her sister Sweetie Bell slowly slid towards the edge of the tall shelf where it rested. Rarity noticed its impending fall and made a desperate dive to catch it. Landing on her chest and without an inch to spare she caught the fragile picture. She let out a sigh of relief she floated the picture into a cushioned box of fabric.
After another minute of on and off quaking, the destruction finally came to a stand still and not a moment too soon. The entire boutique was in shambles,other pictures that couldn't be saved lay face down and shattered across the wall where they once hung. Her worktable had been flattened by the wardrobe that had stood next to it along with her top of the line sewing machine that had cost her a fortune. The industrial quality machine rested in pieces across the floor. Rarity was too flabbergasted by what she saw in front of her to even pass a glance to the now broken machine.
She stared with mouth agape at the scene where her dresses had once been. They hadn't fallen apart or broken, that much the mare could fix with some effort, but the dresses had completely vanished along with the mannequins that they were so artfully wrapped upon.
"How?" she muttered under her breath. "How did the... What?" she tried blinking away what she couldn't see, with no results. She struggled to understand what had just happened and searched desperately for answers as she paced around the site where the dresses once were. There was no possible way to explain what had just happened. The unicorn unsteadily sat down and took deep breaths.
The box of gem candy which had been teetering on the edge of the desk table toppled over, spewing out all of its contents across the floor. Opal saw all of the spilled candies and immediately sprang into a feeding frenzy. Rarity sighed and began to pick up the gems before her cat ate all of them when a glowing object caught her eye.
The black cube looked to have fallen out of the box along with the candy. It buzzed with an unnatural energy that Rarity wasn't sure whether or not was safe. She cautiously reached a hoof out to nudge it only to be zapped with an intense bolt of electricity.
"Ouch!" she yelped in pain as she immediately retracted her appendage. "What was that for?" she questioned the inanimate box. It only sat there buzzing in response.
This time she picked it up using her horn and gently placed it on the desk table for a better look. However, the box simply burned through the table with another flash of energy.
"My goodness..." Rarity mumbled staring into the hole the lightning cube made. The heavy wood visibly steamed from the heat. "What are you?"
The cube shocked one of the legs of the table and toppled it on Rarity who let out a loud gasp as she was taken down. She hit the ground hard but was able to catch the table before it squished her. She unsteadily picked herself up and glared down at the cube.
"I'm going to need with help you, aren't I?" she asked with a sigh. She then looked over to Opal. "I need you to watch over the boutique while I go over to Twilight's place to figure out what this thing is, okay?"
The greedy cat looked up a Rarity with her cheeks filled to the brim with gem candy and gave a big smile, the gems forming perfect rows of jagged teeth.
"You be good now." Rarity warned as she wrapped her scarf around her neck. Floating the now empty box that held the gem candy over to her, she placed the cube inside. It immediately burned through just like it did to the table. "This is a big problem." the mare admitted. After staring intensely into space for a while, she came up with a plan.
She ran into her kitchen and returned with a large glass dome that Pinkie had let her borrow to keep her birthday cake fresh on the platter. She slowly lowered over the cube, static began crawling around the glass in every direction. Opals eyes lit up and she began playing with the electricity. She meowed in delight as the static followed her paws as she moved them.
"Well isn't that interesting..." Rarity commented as she stared awestruck at the tiny purple lightning bolts. She shook her head, refocusing on the task at hoof. "Opal, you wouldn't mind standing guard would you?"
The cat payed little attention to her master and simply continued playing with the static.
Rarity stared down at Opal with an eyebrow raised. "Well, alright then. I'm off to see if Twilight knows what that... Thing might be, please do try to be safe won't you?"
Opal murmured slightly and continued playing. Rarity sighed shaking her head and left. Opal waited a few seconds, watching the door patiently to make sure she wasn't coming back and then slowly turned back to the electrical dome. She swiftly outstretched her tongue and leaned into the dome. A wonderful flash filled the room and Opal was shot back onto the bed, landing safely in the mountain of pillows. She shakily stood up and tried to blink away the dizziness. With a crackle of static her fur puffed out in all directions. She waddled around for a moment before falling back into the fortress of plush pillows.
The cube noisily buzzed away, charring the carpet around it. It suddenly began to shake vigorously, Opal took shelter behind the pillow fort as the room shook along with it. With a loud pop, the shaking stopped abruptly. Opal dared a peek and saw not one, but two cubes now. The frightened cat buried herself in the pillows and eagerly waited Rarity's hopefully speedy return.
Author's Note
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