Chapter Text
A few days had passed since Rarity’s traumatic run-in with that strange unicorn mare. A large chunk of the royal guard was off in search of her, forcing Rarity and Twilight to have to stay home at the school. The girls spent most of their time studying when not off granting miracles, so there wasn’t anything particularly different about their routine, but Rarity couldn’t take her mind off things long enough to make any progress.
She sat staring out the window of her home in the Canterlot Palace, the one she shared with Twilight. Frowning, she gazed up at the stars above connecting the dots between them. Rarity sought out the few constellations Twilight had shown her, putting them together like a jigsaw puzzle, but even doing mental puzzles wasn’t enough to keep her occupied.
Rarity looked down at her leg, now freed from the splint. Turns out, she really had just pulled a muscle, so the splint wasn’t too necessary, but stabilizing her leg forced her to stay off it, which did help heal it quicker. While she wasn’t feeling back to a hundred percent just yet, Rarity was grateful Applejack took action like that to prevent further injury. She would’ve never thought to have done something like that on her own, so it’s good that Applejack was there.
She wondered if Applejack would ever come to visit like she told her to, or even send a letter. Rarity liked to know if the miracles she granted helped, so hearing from the ponies she aided was special to her. The fact that she hadn’t heard from Applejack yet had her worried though. Maybe she got busy and decided to write instead of coming in person, she thought.
Carefully hopping down from the plush bench by the window, Rarity hobbled her way over to the door to her room, being mindful about not applying too much pressure to her still slightly sore limb. She opened the door with her magic, the light from the hallway pouring into her room.
Wandering down the hall, Rarity made her way to Twilight’s bedroom. She rapped on the door gently with her hoof, noticing the door was ajar ever so slightly. She hesitated for a moment, wondering why she would have left it open. Whether inside or not, Twilight always kept the door closed. Not getting a response, Rarity pushed the door open, light spilling into the dark room.
“Twilight? Are you here?” She called out. The room was still and looked almost untouched. Rarity couldn’t help but feel a little weirded out by the silence, feeling far too alone in her shared home. She pressed on, entering the room with caution. Her steps were soft and muffled against the elegant embroidered rug on the floor as she approached the only other place she could imagine Twilight to be- the balcony.
The glass doors to the balcony were slightly open as well, which gave her a little hope. The doors automatically locked if you closed them as a safety measure, so Twilight kept them open if she was outside. Rarity didn’t know why she didn’t automatically assume Twilight was out on a night like tonight, with not a single cloud in the sky and all the stars out on full display.
She pushed on the glass door leading out to the balcony, seeing nothing at first. “Twilight?”
“Yeah?” She said, her face buried in her telescope. Rarity jumped at the sudden reply, not expecting her to be right beside the door. Twilight didn’t even bother to raise her head, far too focused on whatever she was looking at. She was laying on a small pillow on the balcony, a few books and journeys strewn about around the feet of the telescope.
“Goodness, don’t frighten me like that,” Rarity sighed.
“Sorry,” Twilight pulled her face away from the telescope, looking up at Rarity with wide, curious eyes. She squinted, pulling her glasses down from on top of her forehead. “Did you need something?”
“Oh, no,” Rarity said, her tone dwindling. Twilight nodded, turning back to her telescope. “I just wanted to know if you had checked the mailbox in a few days, or maybe even seen the mailpony?”
Twilight’s small adjustments on the telescope paused as she thought. She shook her head gently, trying not to shake the large looking glass. “Expecting something?”
Rarity hummed, using her magic to take a second pillow from beneath one of Twilight’s books and making herself comfortable on top of it beside Twilight. She hoped she wouldn’t notice. “No, not really. I’ve just…been thinking.”
Leaning away from the telescope once again, Twilight frowned at Rarity sympathetically, “You’re still not acting like yourself.” She pushed the eyepiece away, the telescope swiveling to the left. “Do you wanna talk about what happened? You still haven’t said anything about what went down after you disappeared from the crowd.”
Shifting on the cushion beneath her, Rarity looked away, avoiding Twilight’s eyes. She sighed quietly, parting her lips to speak, but saying nothing. She didn’t even know where to begin. Should she start with what happened when she last saw Twilight? Or, maybe Twilight knew and was watching, since the chaos wasn’t exactly quiet, and the ground shattering and cracking probably got her attention anyway. What about the teleportation spell on the bridge? No one knew where Rarity and Applejack disappeared off to after she somehow successfully performed the spell, which included Twilight.
“If something happened that you can’t tell the Princess, I can keep it a secret,” Twilight said, reassuringly putting a hoof on one of Rarity’s. “I don’t like to have to hide things, but I also don’t like to see my friends in trouble. So, I’ll do my best to help.”
“It’s not that,” Rarity said. She turned to look at Twilight again, grinning shyly. Her brows were curved downward in a timid manner as she tried to laugh off the uncomfortable feeling welling inside her, “Well, it’s kind of that, but that’s not what I’m worried about, specifically.”
“Oh?” Twilight buzzed with intrigue. She narrowed her eyes, honing in on the other Unicorn.
Rarity looked around a bit shiftily, shrugging a single shoulder. She faced Twilight again, pleading at her with her eyes, “You must promise not to tell Princess Celestia about this. Understood?”
“Understood!” Twilight nodded, motioning as if she were closing a zipper across her lips with her hoof. She gazed back as she waited patiently for Rarity to continue, visibly antsy.
Rarity frowned, fidgeting with the embroidered edge of the cushion she sat on, “I…I might have granted a miracle to somepony who wasn’t on our list.”
Twilight’s eyes shot wide open. “You wha-?!” Rarity threw her hoof over her mouth, shaking her head rapidly. Twilight pulled her hoof away, disbelief spreading across her face. In a much lower tone, she began to scold Rarity like she were a filly, “You understand what that does to the system we have set up, right? Princess Celestia only allows us to provide that service under extremely specific circumstances. What were you thinking?”
“No, no, you don’t understand! Just listen to me!” She whispered, scowling at her peer. Rarity groaned, jumping up and beginning to pace on the balcony. “When I lost you in the crowd, it singled me out and allowed that mare to hunt me down. That’s when the pony who rescued me showed up.”
She trotted over to the edge of the balcony, kicking up onto her back legs and resting her hooves on the banister. Staring out at the city of Canterlot below, and beyond into the smudge in the distance that was Ponyville, Rarity held her breath for a moment. Glancing back at Twilight, Rarity smiled softly, “She helped me get out of there and even fixed up my leg for me. She had travelled to Ponyville just to see us, Twilight. She was desperate, it was the least I could do.”
Removing her glasses with her magic, Twilight rubbed her eyes, groaning disapprovingly. She placed her square spectacles back on her snout and rose to her hooves, slinking her way over to Rarity’s side against the banister. “What was it?” She asked, her tone low.
“She wanted me to grant her sister protection,” Rarity nodded slowly. She rested her head on her hoof, leaning forward on the banister. “It was simple enough to do. I mean, we get at least two or three requests for it per run. Divine Protection is easy and doesn’t have any negative side effects, so I had no issue granting it.”
Rolling her head to the side, she grinned at Twilight, who stared back in silence for a moment. “My concern is knowing if her sister is any safer or not. I haven’t heard from her yet.”
“Your generosity gets the best of you, Rarity,” Twilight said, smiling a bit despite the issue she took with her actions. “But, I must commend you for that. That was rather noble of you.”
Rarity flicked her mane over her shoulder, holding her head high, “Well, a true princess does whatever she can for her patrons.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, nudging her playfully, “And gets herself in so much trouble that the palace has to postpone the two future rulers’ crusade until the following week.” Rarity blushed, waving her hoof dismissively at Twilight as she laughed. “As far as Celestia knows, all that happened was that you were whisked away in an attack. We’re lucky we didn’t get punished.”
Nodding, Rarity breathed a sigh of relief. They were rather lucky Princess Celestia didn’t give them both hell for what went down. Not only did they stray away from the Guard, but Rarity created quite the chaos in her very public battle. Thankfully, Princess Celestia seemed to be much more focused on finding the culprit of the attack rather than penalizing her protégés.
That was the good thing about studying directly under Equestria’s ruler- there was always somepony looking out for Rarity and Twilight. For somepony who had always struggled with feelings of insecurity due to a troubled past like Rarity’s, it really helped her feel more at home. She always knew there would be a risk studying under the mentorship of Princess Celestia, but knowing that ponies were out there to keep her safe made her feel a lot better about it.
Of course, she still couldn’t shake the worry that plagued her following the random attack the other day. Why had the mare gone after Rarity specifically? Not that she would rather it be Twilight who had been targeted, but she was much more powerful than Rarity was, magically, so it stood out as strange to her that she in particular had almost been a victim to the strange mare.
She couldn’t even begin to imagine what the motive was. While they had been targets to random attacks before, it was never like this. There seemed to be no cause at all for the ambush, as if the strange Unicorn had decided to strike on a whim. Rarity hoped that the Guard would find her and hopefully get some answers, because whatever the issue was, she wanted to do her best to resolve it as peacefully as possible.
“Who even was this pony who saved you?” Twilight broke Rarity’s train of thought. She came to once again, finding herself gazing longingly out at the stars. Blinking away the confusion, she turned her attention to Twilight, raising a single brow at her. “Did you know her?”
Her mind flickered back to Applejack again, and how she immediately jumped to rescue Rarity without a second thought. Sure, she needed a miracle, and that’s why she did it. She told Rarity that was the case, but she couldn’t help but feel like maybe it was fate she had been rescued by her.
Applejack was not only quick to act, but kind to her, even while acting purely on instinct to save Rarity, and it made her feel kind of special. Normally, Rarity was the one blessing others, but she had been blessed by being rescued. Maybe somepony had wished for Divine Protection over her, too.
“Actually, no,” replied Rarity, quietly chuckling a bit. She locked eyes with the moon in the distance, smiling from ear to ear. The wind blew by, a gentle whisper in her ears telling her that she had to have been spared for a reason. “I have no idea who she was, but I’m glad she was there.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much, then,” Twilight added, hopping down from the banister. Rarity turned and watched her as she strutted back over to her telescope, making herself comfortable where she had been sitting just a few moments prior. “You’ve never mis-cast a spell before, and I’m pretty sure we’d know if you had, by now. Not everypony will get back to you.”
Pursing her lips, Rarity bobbed her head. “I suppose you’re right,” she whispered. “But a filly can dream.”