Over the course of the next several days, Twilight noticed something change slightly in Rarity's behavior. She first noticed it two weeks after the dinner with Rarity’s parents, though, as she thought on it, Rarity had been like this for quite a while. It just seemed to have been exacerbated in the recent days.
Twilight, unsurprisingly, followed a very rigid and efficient daily routine. She would wake at 6 AM, then take a quick shower. After she was clean, dry, and dressed, Twilight would brew herself a cup of green tea, gather up a roll of parchment and a quill, then sip her tea while she wrote up the day’s schedule, never failing to finish both tasks by 6:43, at the absolute latest. Then, she’d wake Spike, which could take anywhere from five minute to an hour, give him his list of chores, then wake Rarity. This was shockingly the hardest part.
“Rarity! It’s 8:45!” said Twilight, shaking her girlfriend gently. “Honestly, I don’t know how you keep the Boutique open if you’re this lazy!”
“Ugh…” groaned Rarity. She batted Twilight’s hand away, turned on her side, and resumed her sleep.
“Rarity! Come on, we have work to do today! Did you forget?” asked Twilight, trying, and failing, to stir the mare in her bed. “If we don’t have those wetsuits done and charmed on time, I’m gonna look really bad!” Twilight and Rarity had volunteered a few days prior to design fifty enchanted wetsuits for Ponyville High School, so they could take a field trip to visit the Seaponies. The deadline was in five days, and work hadn’t even started. Unless Twilight wanted to be known as the evil princess who crushed the dreams of marine-loving children, progress needed to be made.
“Rarity!”
“Fine, I’m coming,” mumbled Rarity. In the span of what Twilight estimated to be several eternities, Rarity slowly and grumpily sat up in bed. Without a word, she got up, and walked to the bathroom. Deciding to accept that as a victory, Twilight ran downstairs to the kitchen and brewed a fresh pot of coffee.
While she was pouring out a large mug of java, Rarity made an appearance. She clutched her robe as if it were the only thing keeping her alive, and she had a horribly irritated expression on her face. Twilight smirked slightly and offered the steaming mug to her.
“Ugh. Coffee?” droned Rarity tiredly. “None for me, thanks. I absolutely despise coffee.”
“What? How is that possible?” asked Twilight, taking a sip instead. “I thought people who hated mornings loved coffee.”
“People who hate mornings hate everything before 12:30,” grumbled Rarity. “Now, what are we due for today? Those damned wetsuits, correct?”
“Y-yeah. You need to sew them, and then they need to be hit with that waterproofing insulation charm,” said Twilight. “How many do you think we can get done today?”
“I’m not a machine, Twilight, I can’t just spit out projections for you,” said Rarity, her voice loaded with a bit more venom than she intended. “I’ll do what I can.”
Not much more was said about that, and the two went down to the main chamber to work. Rarity was crabby and grumpy for the first half of the day. It wasn’t until they broke for lunch did she seem to return to her normal, polite self. What’s more, she never seemed to acknowledge the difference, which further drove Twilight’s curiosity. This behavior just had to be new. There’s no way that she managed to ignore this for all the time they had lived under the same roof.
Whenever Twilight failed to come up with any sort of explanation for any occurrence, she went absolutely insane. Theories were written, research was done, and hair was pulled. She had to know why Rarity was suddenly such a non-morning person. More importantly, she had to find a way to fix it.
The next day
The next morning, Twilight woke Rarity just as she had the day before. Also like yesterday, Rarity had little to say while rising from bed, mostly just mumbling about how atrocious her hair must look. Twilight, exhausted in her own right for staying up all night, smiled sleepily before leaving the bedroom, running down the stairs, and preparing Rarity a cup of coffee.
A bath-robed Rarity walked into the kitchen, yawning as she did. Before she could even make it to the fridge, Twilight was on her, practically shoving the mug into her hand.
“I don’t like coffee,” said Rarity flatly. “Furthermore, I am offended by the implication that I need it. I am just fine, thank you. Just a bit sluggish.”
“Just try it,” urged Twilight. “I guarantee you, this is like no coffee you’ve ever had before.”
“I don’t-” Rarity’s sentence was interrupted by her own yawn. “Excuse me. I don’t want to try the coffee. What I want to do is get dressed, walk down to Sugarcube Corner, and buy as many scones as I can fit in my mouth. Care to join me?”
“I promise, you’ll like this,” said Twilight, not lowering or retreating the mug in the slightest. “I made it myself.” Almost against her will, Rarity snorted at that comment.
“Darling, there are twenty seven coffee makers in the castle, and those are just the ones I know about,” said Rarity. “Making a cup of coffee can’t be too difficult.” Twilight chuckled, then forced the mug into her girlfriend’s hands, leaving no more room for discussion.
“Ah, you misunderstood me,” said Twilight. “I made the coffee, the beans themselves. Cross-bred and enchanted them myself, you should love them!”
Rarity looked at Twilight with an annoyed, dismissive look, which was quickly and crushingly defeated by Twilight’s puppy-eyes. Groaning to herself all the while, Rarity brought the mug to her lips and took a sip of the scalding, bitter drink.
“So, what do you think?” said Twilight, grinning widely. “Be honest with yourself.”
“Wonderful," said Rarity, trying her best to sound convincing. "Positively amazing. I don't know how I lived so long without it."
"You hate it. You're just saying that so I'll leave you alone."
"My, you're smart," Rarity levitated the mug to the sink and dumped it down the drain. “Sorry, love, I can’t help it. I just can’t stand the taste.”
“Looks like I’ll have to try a bit harder,” said Twilight, racking her brain for another solution. “I can’t say I didn’t expect this. I’m sure I can come \up with an energy drink or something that you’ll like. It’s hardly the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.”
“Yes, I’m sure you’ll invent something wonderful,” yawned Rarity, with equal parts of exhaustion, sarcasm, and skepticism.
“Well, overcoming obstacles is kinda my thing,” remarked Twilight. “Challenge brings out the best in me.”
Twilight walked off with an odd look of excitement and determination, which left Rarity a little worried as to what her girlfriend had in store. Still, she didn’t have time to worry about that. She had to make herself presentable to the outside world. Given her grumpy, cloudy mood and her uncharacteristically messy hair, this might take a while.
Twilight was exhausted. In the past two days, she had slept for roughly three hours. She had to jump many hurdles and break many laws of physics to get her hands on what she hoped would help Rarity function a bit better in the early hours. The effort would soon prove to be worthwhile, for it would be the wake-up call that her darling Rarity deserved. Or so she hoped.
Twilight went about her schedule as was the norm for her: shower, tea, list, Spike, Rarity. And, once again the normal for the princess, the last step was the most difficult and overall unpleasant. Rarity rose drearily from bed, just as she always did, and vanished into the bathroom instantly. Twilight, who was too tired to notice, let alone be offended, quickly ran downstairs to put the finishing touches on her little potion. She leaned against the counter, her Florence flask filled with some glowing golden liquid and hovering over an artificial and magical purple flame
“Got something new for me to try?” asked Rarity, practically stomping into the room. “I’m willing to give it a shot, assuming it won’t make me gag.” Twilight grinned madly, then grabbed her flask. She cast a quick chilling spell on it, and handed it to Rarity.
“You have no idea what I had to go through for this, Rares,” said Twilight. Rarity was very taken aback by Twilight’s appearance: Her eyes were dark and baggy, and her hair was almost as messy and disheveled as her own.
“What is this?” asked Rarity, staring at it uneasily.
“I had to call Discord… Discord!” exclaimed Twilight madly. “I had to call him for this recipe! He made me travel through two different dimensions and play a demigod in a game of Horse for this,” Twilight laughed nervously to herself. “I haven’t played basketball in years! That potion, it’s an energy drink he calls Demon. It should solve all your problems. Try it. If it works, I’ll start brewing a larger batch right now.”
Rarity held the flask in her hands as if it might explode in her hands. She cautiously brought the potion to her lips, then, deciding not to stall, drained the whole thing in one huge swig. Both Rarity and Twilight eagerly waited for something to happen.
And they waited. And they kept waiting. After ten minutes, it was apparent that nothing would happen at all. Rarity tiredly shrugged her shoulders, unaware as to just how dejected Twilight truly was.
“I played basketball for this…” she said with a quiet sort of disbelief. “Discord knows how much I hate basketball… That greasy, slippery, son of a… Are you sure it’s not working?” As if to punctuate just how much of a failure the drink was, Rarity let out a loud, long yawn that was so tired, it nearly put Twilight to sleep.
“Well, you tried your best, darling, and that’s what counts,” yawned Rarity. The tiredness in her tone made her seem far more sarcastic than she was actually trying to be. “You know, it’s okay to fail sometimes. Nobody is perfect.”
“Rarity, I’ll see you tomorrow,” said Twilight. “I have a lot of work to do.”
“Are you kicking me out?”
“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant!” Twilight amended quickly. “No, I’m going down to my lab. Don’t expect to see me until tomorrow.”
“Your lab?” asked Rarity. But it was too late, for Twilight had already run off for that mysterious, formerly unheard-of laboratory.
True to her word, Twilight remained locked down in her secret lab for the duration of the day. She never emerged for food or drink, and Rarity found herself sleeping alone that night. When she awoke in the morning, it wasn’t from Twilight’s gentle nudging. Rather, she was awoken from the angry shoving and high-pitched squealing of an eight-year old.
“Rarity!” squeaked Sweetie Belle. “You butt!”
“Sweetie Belle, what are you doing here?” asked Rarity tiredly. She was more than used to this sort of treatment from her sister. “And don’t call people that. It’s rude.”
“Well, you are!” said Sweetie, giving one more shove for good measure. “You’re being a butt.”
“I am not being a butt!” Rarity managed to generate enough energy to sit herself up. She couldn’t believe the nerve of her little sister! She also couldn’t believe she just said the word “butt”.
“You’re a butt, and if you don’t stop being a butt, Twilight is gonna break up with you,” said Sweetie Belle matter-of-factly. “She’s a princess, so she doesn’t have to date a butt if she doesn’t wanna.”
There were several moments through their lives in which Rarity genuinely considered leaving Sweetie Belle on the steps of the nearest orphanage, and this was one of them. So many things, layered on top of each other, annoyed Rarity in so many ways: The early hour, her sister’s crude and childish nature, the implication that she was a bad girlfriend, and the very idea that Sweetie Belle had any idea of how the relationship between the two mares worked.
“Sweetie Belle, I am only going to say this once,” said Rarity. “Go home. I will not tolerate you breaking into Twilight’s house just to annoy me.”
“I didn’t break in, you butt!” said Sweetie. “Twilight let me in, and we had tea with Spike, and then she told me what a butt you’re being!”
“She called me a butt?”
“She didn’t have to! I know a butt when I see one!” Sweetie Belle was very, very upset with her sister, and Rarity could tell just by looking that her anger was genuine and well-founded.
“You mean about how I’ve been behaving lately?” asked Rarity. Sweetie Belle nodded ferociously. “I suppose I have been a bit crabbier than usual, but it’s truly not altogether my fault. I’ve been having a hard time sleeping, and-”
“Stop making excuses. You told me that there was never a good reason to be mean to a friend,” said Sweetie Belle. “Doesn’t that count for you and your girlfriend? It has the word ‘friend’ in it, so aren’t the rules the same?”
Rarity was about to open her mouth to retort, but she couldn’t find anything immediately wrong with Sweetie’s argument. She was completely right, of course, and Rarity couldn’t immediately come to terms with that.
“Oh my god…” gasped Rarity. “I’m being…I’m such a…”
“Butt?”
“I was going to say something along the lines of ‘grouch’, but I suppose so,” admitted Rarity. She rolled out of bed and rose to her hooves. “I have to make this right! Where is she?”
“She’s in her lab downstairs,” said Sweetie Belle, grinning from ear to ear. Her plan had worked. She gave Rarity a nod of confirmation, and the two made their way out of the bedroom, down to the main chamber, then down another flight of stairs, one that Rarity had never seen before. Sweetie Belle nudged her sister forward, and the two transcended down the dim, torch-lit staircase.
They arrived in a large, circular room. Lined against the wall were desks, tables, and unidentified machines that Rarity were afraid to even look at. The room had a constant dull roar to it, with noise from machines beeping and alchemy sets bubbling. Rarity was amazed how she’d never heard, let alone seen, this laboratory that Twilight apparently sought solace in regularly.
Twilight herself currently had her face buried in her arms, resting on a desk in front of some unknown, beeping machine. Above all the noise in the room, the most prominent sound was the snoring. Rarity smiled slightly to herself, lighting up her horn and grabbing a blanket from upstairs with her magic. She hovered it down to her hand, then gently draped it over Twilight’s sleeping body, leaving a small kiss on her forehead.
“I’ll make it up to her in the morning,” said Rarity. “For now, she rests.” Rarity shook her head in disbelief. “God knows she deserves it.”
“Rarity, I’m sorry I called you a butt,” said Sweetie Belle. Rarity sighed, then grabbed her sister underneath her arms, hoisting her into the air. With a little aid from her magic, Rarity swung Sweetie around and planted her on her shoulders.
“Don’t be. If I am being a butt, I’d rather hear it from you,” said Rarity. “Come on. I hear Pinkie Pie is making waffles at Sugarcube Corner.”
“Okay!” squeaked Sweetie. The two exited the lab, trying their best not to disturb the thoroughly exhausted princess. Rarity pursed her lips in thought, trying to decide how best to make things up to Twilight. She soon decided that the best way to make amends is to learn to wake up more gracefully. After all, Twilight only went through all this trouble for Rarity’s own benefit. With a smirk, Rarity decided that she didn’t need coffee or an energy drink. Twilight Sparkle would be her morning coffee.