Bonus Mini-Story: "Responsibility"
Rarity gasped as the pink pony before her nibbled a line from the base of Rarity’s neck up to her ear. Then, as Pinkie Pie began licking along the outer edge of that same ear, Rarity bit down on a moan even as she went into a full-body shudder. Every lick was warm and wet and delightfully vulgar.
Never let it be said, Rarity thought wryly, that Pinkamena Diane Pie does not have a silver tongue …
It was the thought of Pinkie’s full legal name that snapped Rarity back to her senses. She opened her eyes--eyes which she hadn’t even noticed had slipped shut--and saw Pinkie’s beautiful face just a few inches away. Pinkie was grinning at her. The grin was playful, silly, and affectionate, but Pinkie’s eyes? Those deep blue eyes were heavy-lidded. Hungry.
Another shudder ran straight down Rarity’s spine.
Even so, Rarity was a mare of no small amount of willpower and self-control, and so she set aside how much she wanted to ravish that pink mare and instead gently pushed Pinkie back with her fore hooves.
“What’s wrong, Rarishine?” Pinkie Pie waggled her eyebrows, an action which somehow managed to be ridiculous and seductive both at once. “I thought we were playing doctor?”
Rarity took a deep breath. “No, darling. I had asked you how you became a doctor.” She took a few steps back and, glancing over to the nightstand that sat beside Pinkie’s bed, levitated over a business card that had been sitting there. Reading aloud from the card, she quoted, “Pinkie Pie, Esq., D.D.S., Ph.D. Sugarcube Corner, Proprietress. Caterer, Party Planner, and Balloon Animal Artiste.”
Pinkie’s grin flickered, momentarily. Then the earth pony laughed. “Oh, that! Why would you wanna hear about something dumb and boring like that?” She grabbed the business card between her teeth, trotted to the opposite end of her studio apartment, and set it down on a low set of bookshelves. “Ooh, I know! Instead of that, I could tell you about how I won first prize in the tri-county balloon animal making competition!”
“Pinkie …”
“And then I can make you a big, fancy dinner, like the ones you eat in Canterlot, and then after dinner you can cast that one spell that Twilight likes to pretend she didn’t teach you!”
“Pinkie!”
“And then, after that, I could give you the bestest massage ever, with all of those funny-smelling oils and--”
“Pinkamena. Diane. Pie.”
Pinkie’s ears went flat against her head, and she scuffed a hoof along the floor of the apartment. She glanced over her shoulder at Rarity and, when she did, Rarity saw that the other pony’s eyes were glistening.
“Oh, my dear Pinkie …” Rarity sighed and crossed the room, wrapping Pinkie from behind in her very best hug. “You needn’t tell me the story, truly. Not if you don’t wish to do so. I just … I hate the thought that you don’t trust me. Or can’t trust me, perhaps.”
Pinkie shook her head. “Nuh-uh! I do trust you, Rarity! I totally do! It’s just …”
Rarity waited in silence for Pinkie to continue. As she waited, she gently stroked the earth pony’s mane. It wasn’t much, she knew, but it was something.
“It’s not really a very happy story.”
Rarity tightened her hug. Still she said nothing.
Pinkie sighed and leaned back against Rarity’s chest. “Back when I was a filly, I always got really good grades in school--I even got to skip ahead some grades--so my parents thought maybe I could get a scholarship to a state college.”
When Pinkie stopped there and fell quiet, Rarity allowed a few seconds to pass before she asked, “And did you?”
“Uh-huh. Full tuition, room and board, everything. And I liked my classes a lot! I was a music major when I first started, and I really liked learned all kinda neat stuff about singing and writing songs.” She let out another sigh, but it sounded different than the first one. Less sad and more … wistful. “And I super, duper liked meeting all the other ponies from all over Equestria, but …”
“But?”
“But then things got bad, back at the farm. There wasn’t a lot of money, and there wasn’t a lot of food. And I was the oldest! My sisters were just fillies who still lived with Mom and Dad! So I had to …” Pinkie Pie shrugged. “Well. It’s not very … not very responsible … being a music major …”
And as Pinkie sniffled and as Pinkie’s shoulders began shaking, Rarity buried her face in the voluminous pink mane in front of her and closed her eyes. She held Pinkie to her as tightly as she could.
The seconds ticked by as an uncustomary silence reigned through Sugarcube Corner. In the stillness, the two ponies leaned heavily against one another, and the two ponies’ breaths slowly synchronized, their chests rising and falling as one.
Finally, in a trembling voice, Rarity whispered, “Pinkie Pie, you are the most generous pony I have ever met.” She pressed a tender kiss into Pinkie’s mane. “And I have never loved you more than I do right here and right now.”
Author's Notes: I wrote a little story set in the "Seeking Beauty" continuity for a Thirty Minute Ponies writing prompt: "Doctor Pinkamena Diane Pie!" Krizak demanded that I add it here as a bonus chapter, and I always do what Krizak tells me, so here's the cleaned-up version.