The music of the heartfelt waltz filled the ballroom as Rarity broke off from her friends at the buffet table and stepped onto the dance floor, ready to do battle on her chosen field.
All around her, the crème de la crème of Canterlot swayed to the gentle cadence of the song, friends showing off the fruits of their dance lessons – to the embarrassment of everypony around them — businessponies networking on the sides, and couples losing themselves in each others' eyes. Rarity counted herself in the first two groups, and desperately wished she was part of the third as well, but fate had not been so kind as to give her a partner to dance with.
She flitted about the opulent room, making a few connections here, negotiating a deal there. It was a masquerade ball, so all the ponies were in costume, but the masks did little to hide everypony's identities. She had even had the chance to speak to Princess Celestia for a few moments about making her a dress to wear at the next Summer Sun Celebration – pro bono, of course.
Celestia was the only princess at the Grand Galloping Gala. Luna and Cadance had made their customary yearly excuses to avoid the whole soiree, and Twilight was too busy organizing things behind the scenes to come out onto the dance floor.
A wistful sigh escaped from Rarity's lips as her thoughts dwelled on the youngest princess of Equestria. It was for the best that Twilight wasn't here, she supposed. Her presence would have been endlessly distracting, and Rarity needed to focus on ensuring her career's future. Twilight was probably having the time of her life on the lower floors directing and coordinating everything anyways.
Rarity continued to trot through the mass of ponies, her keen eye so fixated on finding her next target that she nearly crashed into a purple mare wearing an elegant turquoise dress that flowed down her whole body like a majestic wave. She looked up into bright violet eyes hidden beneath a silver mask and her breath caught in her throat. The mare placed a jeweled hoof upon Rarity's foreleg.
"If I profane with my unworthiest hoof this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: my lips, two plumed pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
"Twilight!" Rarity dared not raise her voice above a whisper even as she pulled back her hoof. "What in Equestria are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the backrooms ensuring that this ball proceeds smoothly?"
Twilight waved off her concerns with a hoof. "The staff have things well under control, and parting was such sweet sorrow that I fain could wait until the 'morrow." Her voice dropped into a lilting cadence at the end of her explanation.
"Twilight, please." A sharp glance around the ballroom confirmed that nopony was watching them, much to Rarity's relief. Still, her heart pounded in her chest at how close they were to being discovered. "We're in public. Everypony is going to see us."
"I have this mask to hide me from their eyes." If she hadn't been terrified at the precarious position Twilight had put them in, Rarity would have laughed at Twilight's attempt to look suave and pass a hoof over her muzzle in a mysterious fashion. "And but thou love me, let them find us here."
"This is serious," Rarity hissed. "Do you know how much danger you've put us in?"
"Alack, there lies more danger in thine eyes than twenty of their swords! Look though but sweet, and I am—"
"Enough!" Rarity's tone brooked no disagreement. "Stop this nonsense at once!"
Fortunately, that seemed to sober Twilight out of whatever madness had possessed her. "I thought you'd like this," she said, pouting. "Forbidden love at a masquerade ball? It's something right out of a Spear Shaker play."
"Quite." They were still unnoticed for now, and Rarity smiled through gritted teeth in order to not arouse any suspicion. "But it's one thing to fantasize about flaunting our tryst beneath the noses of the nobility, and rather another to court the very real threat of scandal that you've placed us in."
"And here I thought you were the romantic one." Twilight sighed dramatically, and Rarity had to appreciate just how perfectly exaggerated it was. It seemed she was learning quickly from her. "Alas, it seems only I have a heart for poetry."
"Twilight, what's gotten—" The words died as it finally clicked in Rarity's head. Twilight knew all too well the consequences should they ever be found out. She wouldn't be acting like this unless... "what have you done, Twilight?"
A smirk curled her paramour's lips upwards. "Oh, I might have finally figured out that phasing spell I was talking about the other day."
Memories of a very technical conversation — well, lecture, considering she had hardly been equipped to engage Twilight in whatever minutiae she was stuck on — returned to Rarity as she recalled the purpose of the spell. "You mean, we're invisible?"
"Not exactly." Twilight's voice began to rise in that adorable way that signaled that Rarity was not going to understand anything for the next few minutes. "You see, by altering the wavelengths which we reflect so that they're phase-shifted with respect to the incoming—"
"But nopony can see us right now," Rarity said, cutting off Twilight before she could get going. She glanced around, confirming that they still hadn't been noticed.
"...Yes." Twilight's pouting was genuine this time.
Rarity raised an eyebrow. "And why didn't you inform me of that before scaring the cutie mark off me with your public display of affection?" she asked.
"Well, I thought it'd be fun to play out one of Spear Shaker's plays." A hint of mischief glimmered in her eyes. "And I don't get to put you off-balance very often, you know."
"I suppose you have a point." Heart thrilling at the knowledge that they were hidden from the eyes of the nobility, Rarity leaned forward to give Twilight a quick peck on the lips. "Now, I believe you were about to seduce me with your knowledge of classic literature, dear."
"I— right." After all these months, it stilled amused Rarity to no end how addled she could make her princess with just a kiss. "My lips, two plumed pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." Twilight puckered her lips, and Rarity barely kept herself from laughing.
Still, she had a part to play, and Rarity was ever the consummate actress. "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hoof too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; for saints have hooves that pilgrims' hooves do touch, and temple to temple is holy templars' kiss." She drew back with a coy smile, batting her eyelashes at Twilight as she gave her best "come hither" look.
Twilight recovered quickly enough, and her eyes positively smoldered as she recited the next verse. "Have not saints lips, and holy templars too?"
"Ay pilgrim, lips that they must use in pray'r." At this point, Rarity was reasonably certain that the tense passion coiled between them would be noticeable despite any sort of cloaking spell, but she couldn't really make herself care about the threat of discovery.
"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hooves do!" Twilight stalked forward, desire radiating from her every step. "They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."
"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake." Their eyes met, and Rarity was lost.
"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take." She was so close now — Rarity could feel the heat from her muzzle. "Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purg'd."
This time, the kiss was slow, and passionate, and rendered Rarity completely incapable of rational thought, her mind spiraling into endless galaxies of pleasure as she and Twilight teased and explored and reveled in each other until they couldn't breathe anymore.
"You kiss by th' book," Rarity commented breathlessly when they finally broke apart.
"Thank you!" Twilight exclaimed, all smoke and mystery gone from her demeanor.
Rarity giggled. "Oh, I needed that, truly," she said. "This evening has been dreadfully stressful, and very lonely without you."
The music started up again, a slow, haunting ballad that filled the room with hope and dread as the stallion on stage began to sing of youth and ephemeral love. Twilight's eyes watered as she reached out a hoof to Rarity. "And all my fortunes at thy hoof I'll lay, and follow thee my lady throughout the world."
"My true love is grown to such excess cannot sum up sum of half my wealth," Rarity replied as she took Twilight's hoof. They swayed back and forth in time with the song, leaving behind the realities of their situation as they celebrated the secret love they shared under Luna's inconstant moon.
In a few minutes, Rarity knew that they would have to return to their duties. Twilight had to check on the preparations for the rest of the ball, and Rarity had to return to her networking. And both of them would have to keep their relationship a secret lest their positions both be damaged. Tomorrow, they would be back to sharing discreet gazes and hiding from the world when they shared their passions.
But in this moment, as the music swelled and the magic concealed them, two lovers danced to a promise of a bright future, of a time when chains would be torn by courage born of a love that's free. Of a world of shining hope for Twilight and her Rarity.