Rarity sat at the Ponyville café, having a light lunch. It was a fair day in Ponyville, with the temperature pleasant and the cloud cover sparse until the storm scheduled next week. Every table in the area was filled as couples treated each other to easy conversation and good food and other ponies walked the streets going about their daily jobs lazily so the day would seem to last longer. Her orders were taken care of through the week, the spa had fresh stock of the oils and shampoos imported from Canterlot ready for her today, and she was able to help one her closest friends with the tribulations thrust upon them by fate. All in all, Rarity mused to herself as she nibbled at the last of her salad, it was a wonderful time to be out of the shop and relaxing.
“-nd Luna tried giving me Ponyville as a fief, never mind that the feudal system totally died out in Equestria on September 3rd, 1103, when Count Marzipan was forced to relinquish his authority after Major Ironside brought the 4th Pegasopolis Guard into his royal estate, except the laws had never actually changed to reflect that and Luna’s decree was still technically law, so everyone had to figure out if any other legal documents had been drawn up concerning it and undo them, which made my second address to the nation awkward as I tri-”
Rarity sipped quietly from her tea as the newly-crowned Princess continued to vent her frustration and nervousness over her appointment to royalty and the troubles it brought. Entirely expected, really; no one properly prepares to be royalty. Even Rarity had to admit that everything happening to Twilight right now was far more complicated than the fashionista had envisioned in her fantasies involving Prince Blueblood. A real shame he turned out to be such an insufferable prick.
“-dering what the finances of the town are. I mean, the Princess didn’t mention anything about managing the financial aspects of the realm, but something might happen that demands her and Luna’s attention and I’d need to help manage the country for a time, so I should move volumes 13 and 14 of Death and Taxes up my reading list, but I still need to get to Civics and Refo-”
Savoir Fare made another pass at their table, and Rarity negotiated another round of teas for the mares and another DLT for Twilight using a few elaborate hoof gestures that wouldn’t have been out of place for a wise mystic holed up in a frost-capped mountain somewhere. Satisfied the order would be carried out as he wandered off to help another table, Rarity slowly finished her iced tea, savoring the light taste of lemon and sugar. Maybe she should take the opportunity to figure out what to gift everyone at Pinkie’s “Hooray, You’re a Princess!” party?
“-lomatic relations with the Crystal Empire, which is nice and all since I’ll get to see Cadence and my brother again, but I really don’t want to take the flying coach since it’ll just be me and the guards and they’re just so unnerving when they treat me like a Princess, it’d be a lot better if I could just take the train, and Spike is going to be here the whole time beca-”
“TOM!”
Twilight froze, midway through the motion of bringing her sandwich over from Savoir’s tray as she attempted to process the statement that came from Rarity. The massive shift in attention caused a few tics to crop up as Twilight’s mind shifted gears, ranging from the subtle twitch in her right eye and slight mouthing of words she didn’t actually have yet to the much more noticeable flaring of her wings. Every other patron at the café was now looking at the table, and one proactive pony had already fled the area entirely.
When Twilight finally refocused enough to start seeing her surroundings again, she saw Rarity sitting down, newly filled iced tea floating in the air next to her head, with a single hoof raised imperiously over the table, both her hoof and her gaze pointing at some unseen object above her shoulder. Twilight turned momentarily to see what was behind her, but all she saw in that direction were thatched roofs and a few errant clouds in the sky. Twilight still wasn’t firing on all cylinders yet, but as she turned back to Rarity, she managed to sum up her feelings quite nicely.
“Huh?”
Rarity was back to casually sipping her iced tea, as though the last five seconds were a product of Twi’s imagination. Since Rarity seemed entirely unconcerned with the recent sequence of events, Twilight waited a few more seconds to come up with a more eloquent way to phrase her feeling of confusion.
“Is something wrong, Rarity? That kinda came out of nowhere.”
“Not at all, dear,” Rarity said, swishing her drink around in the air with her magic, “I’m just responding to the last statement you made. That’s all.”
Twilight struggled with her memory for a few seconds, thinking through everything she had ranted about so far, when she finally recalled the last major thread she had managed to get to. “Something about Spike?”
“Ye- er, no, actually. The one right before that, dear.” Rarity set her drink down and waved her hoof in the air like she was rewinding the conversation. “The bit about your trip to the Crystal Empire.”
An answer! Twilight latched onto Rarity’s statement, finally able to pay full attention to what her friend was saying. She could start asking reasonable questions now! “Alright, I remember now. What does a “Tom” have to do with that?”
“”Remember that rock I had that, er, unfortunate incident with when Discord was hiding in the Canterlot maze?” Rarity barely concealed the shudder that came with the horrid memory of what she was going to do with that rock. “We just bring him along for the trip. Easy enough.”
The Twilight Express was threatening to derail again. “I don’t follow.”
Rarity pushed her hair up with a foreleg, testing the bounciness of her curl. “It’s just a bit of creative thinking. See, most royal coaches can only support two ponies at most. If you absolutely insist that that Tom is a national treasure of some sort and it needs to be with you at all times for the trip, an alternate transport will be needed to fit all three of us.” She brought her hoof up underneath her chin as she thought over what she said. “Maybe not a national treasure, but that’s a minor detail we can figure out later. If you wait until the trip is about to start to tell the guards this, the train will be the quickest way to get up to the Kingdom. It’s not like the guards can argue with a Princess, anyway.” Satisfied with her logic, Rarity picked up her drink again and continued to enjoy the taste, leaving Twilight to think over it.
After a few moments, taking a few bites from her sandwich to help space out her thoughts, Twilight finally offered a few thoughts of her own. “That’s… an interesting idea. Why Tom, though, and why are you coming along now? I’m the only one who needs to go.”
Rarity brushed off the concerns. “I could use another trip up north. I don’t have any contacts up there to help distribute my products, and I’m certain the styles of the Crystal Kingdom are going to catch on in Equestria eventually. I need to investigate the fashion scene up there so I can work on my own designs inspired by it. As for Tom… well, you could just insist on the train anyway and probably succeed, but this is more entertaining.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like something Rainbow or Pinkie would say. Have the dyes finally gone to your head like they’ve always said they would?”
Rarity stuck her nose in the air and brought her hoof to her chest, puffing it out as the nobility in Canterlot often did before they said something incredibly egotistical “Are you suggesting I am being frivolous, Princess Sparkle? Perish the very idea! A proper lady must always be elegant and refined, and the mere suggestion that I would enjoy bringing a rock along on a major diplomatic function for the sole purpose of seeing how the guards react is damning, Princess. DAMNING!”
Rarity ended her statement by throwing her hooves as far out as they’d go and waving them around spastically, a move that sent the already tittering Twilight over the edge into full blown laughter. Rarity didn’t take long to join her, and their laughter could be heard all the way to Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie’s smile grew a little bit bigger as she was baking pastries. After a few minutes that came and went far too quickly, the mares had calmed down enough to resume their conversation.
“Thanks for laugh, Rarity. With the way everything has been piling up, I really needed this lunch. If you’ll be joining me for the trip, you’ll need to be at the library no later than seven thirty. The guards will bring the chariot around at that time.” Twilight paused, furrowing her brow as a new thought occurred to her. “What about your business and your sister?”
Rarity shrugged her shoulders and stood up, resisting the urge to do a little dance to work out her sore legs after sitting for several hours. “I can put off my orders for a few days. ‘Accompanying a Princess’ is a reasonable excuse for any situation. As for Sweetie Belle, she’s out of town with my parents visiting Neigh Orleans. They’ll be back in a month or so. Plenty of time for this trip.”
Twilight stood up as well, stretching out her wings and doing an awkward little dance to work out her sore legs. She was sitting for longer than she thought. “Alright, Rarity, I need to get back to work. I’ll go ahead and send a letter to Shiny when I get home and let him know to expect one more. We’ll make your trip as productive as possible, I promise.”
Rarity giggled. “Oh, you’re the one who needs the trip more, darling. A mare can’t spend all her time fretting or her hair will end up a dreadful mess, and spending time with your brother and foal-sitter will be just the thing to save you from such a terrible fate!” Twilight rolled her eyes in response as her friend left to go back to her shop.
“I’ll try to think of it that way instead, Rarity. Thanks for all your help again!” As Rarity gave the usual assent along the lines of “No, really, it was nothing,” Twilight thought back over Rarity’s suggestion for her upcoming trip. She had to admit she was blowing the whole trip out of proportion along with a lot of other stuff, but the fact that Rarity had insisted on bringing Tom along was strange. Not only did she hate bringing anything related to Discord’s first return up, her suggestion was so outlandish that it had to be triggered by something, and she couldn’t figure out what it was.
Taking a deep sigh, Twilight pushed the thought out of her head. She had more important things to be worrying about. Like rereading Ancient Equestrian Customs and Traditions for the third time, and stocking up on rubies for Spike to eat, and making sure Pinkie had cleaned out that disastrous attempt at making a new flavor of bubblegum taffy from her lab, and writing a letter to the Princess summarizing everything she had done in preparation for her trip...