//------------------------------// // 181. Luna's Flower // Story: Azure Edge // by Leaf Blade //------------------------------// “Twilight Sparkle is a dragon.” Rarity let those words hang in the air like a cloud of suffocating mist as she waited for Luna to respond, Rarity’s hoof tapping anxiously against the creaky hardwood floors of the dingy, nearly empty tavern that Rarity and Luna were having their little meeting inside. Luna took a sip of her beer and gently put the can on the table. She was normally so crass, so to see her treat the can so delicately disturbed Rarity. “I want to know why you didn’t turn her in,” Rarity continued, unable to bear the silence for even one second longer. “I didn’t realize you needed to talk about something quite so drastic,” Luna hummed, steepling her fingers in front of her. “Why only come to me now? Did you just learn about her true form?” “I’d rather keep the details to myself,” Rarity said, a chill running up her spine, “if you don’t mind.” “Ah, of course,” Luna nodded and stood up, Rarity instinctively standing up to match her and it struck her immediately how cold it was in the tavern. “You still care about Twilight Sparkle, you’re still on her side despite her being a dragon. It makes sense that you would be anxious around the vice-captain of the Slayers.” “Give me a reason not to be,” Rarity said, surprising herself at how well she was able to keep her cool, even refraining from attaching a desperate ‘please’ to the tail of that sentence. “I can do that,” Luna nodded before taking the last of her beer can and pouring it into her mouth, the can raised several inches above her. She certainly was still the Luna that Rarity always knew, no doubt about that. “If you can trust me enough to let me show you something.” Rarity hesitated. Of course she wanted to trust Luna, but could she? If Luna was truly on her side, couldn’t she just say it? But that wouldn’t be very ‘Luna’ of her, would it; she was nothing if not obtuse. At the end of the day, Rarity had no idea what was the right decision, and she couldn’t quell the storm of voices in her brain arguing for one thing or the other, so she cut through it by focusing on Twilight’s advice: what did Rarity want, and how did she feel. And what Rarity wanted was to trust Luna. “Okay,” Rarity said with a nod. “Okay,” Luna smiled serenely, and that familiar wave of relief washed over Rarity. Luna held out her hand. “Please, follow me.” Rarity took a deep breath and gingerly placed her hand in Luna’s, and it was hard not to feel completely dwarfed by the difference in size between the two ponies, and just knowing that if Luna turned out to be Rarity’s enemy, there wasn’t much she could do to stop her. She would damn well try though. She wasn’t giving up on Twilight Sparkle without a fight, not after everything that had happened. Luna’s horn glowed with a cool blue light, and after a loud crack of her magic, Rarity found herself not inside the dingy tavern she had so recently been sharing drinks in with Luna, but a lush garden glowing with vibrant neon colors that shimmered mesmerizingly under the glow of an artificial moon. “What is this?” Rarity asked; she was transfixed, her eyes wide with curiosity, confusion, and wonder. “This is my private garden,” Luna said fondly, and Rarity could see her visibly relax, and even a slight smile crept onto her lips. “It is my personal refuge from the world, known only to me and those that I trust the most in this world.” Rarity wondered if she should say what she was thinking. She was never too good at keeping her feelings close to the chest. “Has your si—” “No.” Well. That was that then. Luna took a few steps forward, and Rarity followed behind at a relatively safe distance; although a cursory glance around didn’t reveal any kind of exit to Rarity, so if Luna turned on her now, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. Certainly though, there was no reason to fret, right? Luna had Rarity’s best interests at heart. Right? “Luna?” Rarity said weakly. “What was it that you wanted to show me?” “Don’t worry,” Luna said, waving off Rarity’s concern with her hand, “she’ll be here in a second. She always comes running when I arrive.” “Well, I can’t exactly leave without you, so…” a soft, high-pitched woman’s voice rang in Rarity’s ears from behind her. Rarity turned to see the source and was starstruck by an ivory unicorn mare with pastel pink hair that flowed down her back and off her shoulders like a field of cherry blossoms decorating a cliffside. She was like some kind of holy fusion between Rarity herself and Fluttershy— a rather interesting thought that Rarity would need to file away for later— but most of all, the most notable thing about her, was that she was absolutely stunningly gorgeous. “Wh—uh—” Rarity said gayly. “Rarity,” Luna said, suppressing a laugh, and the other woman just responded to Rarity’s lesbianism by striking a dazzling pose, “this is my girlfriend, Fleur de Lis. Fleur, this is Rarity, one of the Slayers I told you about.” “The librarian’s girl, right?” Fleur giggled, and Rarity swore she must have been under some kind of siren spell because of how her brain was melting at this woman’s every movement and action. “Y-yes, that’s me,” Rarity gathered up some modicum of composure and said. “You talked to your girlfriend about me, Luna? Should I be flattered?” “Hm, perhaps,” Luna hummed. “Fleur, Rarity has come to talk to me about dragons, so I thought I would introduce her to an expert.” “Oh, I see,” Fleur sighed and put her hands on her hips. “It’s gonna be like that. Fine by me, Luna, but we had better not miss our appointment! You promised you were taking me out tonight, and I’m holding you to it.” “Of course, my sweetheart,” Luna bent her knee to Fleur and took the woman’s hand in hers, giving Fleur’s fingers a gentle kiss. “But you know of course, that I’m a Princess. If we miss an appointment, the restaurant will just give me another—” “I don’t care about that,” Fleur huffed, raising her hand to stop Luna’s sentence. “Noble women don’t miss appointments. If we say we’re going to be at a certain place at a certain time, we follow through.” “Fair enough,” Luna chuckled, and Fleur just rolled her eyes playfully. Rarity wasn’t sure what to make of their dynamic, at least not until she saw the way Luna’s eyes glowed and her smile sung when she looked at Fleur, and it made Rarity’s own heart melt. It reminded her of the way she looked at Twilight. And Fluttersh— “Ahem,” Rarity cleared her throat awkwardly. “So? What am I supposed to see?” “Get ready, doll,” Fleur said, her eyes glittering with an ethereal flame as she raised a hand up to her face. “Cuz I promise you, you aren’t prepared for my beauty.” Before Rarity’s eyes, Fleur’s hands caught fire, burning with a pale pink blaze that caught Rarity off-guard. Fleur danced with the flames in her hands even as her hooves caught fire, then her tail and mane, until flames licked every inch of her body, then expanded outwards until a massive conflagration broke out in Luna’s garden. Luna was smiling. No, she was beaming. Rarity had never seen a look of such passion and desire on Luna’s face before now. Before Rarity could question it, the flames subsided, and in their place was a beautiful, glittering silver-scaled dragon. “Oh,” Rarity said, falling to her knees as the weight of this revelation just suddenly hit her. “OH.”