I woke up, and the world had shifted beneath me while I slept. My head sank deeper into my pillow as memories from last night played in my head. Why wasn’t I still on the moon? That seemed… Twilight’s head still rested on my chest as sunlight pierced my eyelids. I struggled to remember the end to last night. We were staring up at earth, a bottle of wine in each of our stomachs, and I was as close to passed out as I could be without actually being asleep. Then, I’d said…
My eyes snapped open and I saw my marefriend sleeping on my chest. Why was she still here? Shouldn’t she be working or… “Twilight?” I love you. The words from last night echoed in my head. Why had I drunk so much? Of course I’d say something completely regrettable around her; I just had to step my hoof in it once things started going well.
“Hey, you’re up!” Twilight said, whipping her head around to look at me. “I was starting to worry I’d have to go to court before I could talk to you. How are you feeling?” I love you, too. Wait? Had she…
“Twilight, last night, did I… Did I say that I love you?” I asked. Maybe it was a drunken dream. Maybe everything was fine? Of course, if it was, I’d ruined it now.
She frowned, looking at me like I’d just told her Santa Hooves wasn’t real. “Yeah…” she said, voice wavering. “Did you not mean it?”
“Yes, of course, I did,” I said, sitting up in bed to rub my forehead. Twilight lifted her head up instead of letting it fall onto my lap. “With every fiber of my being, I meant it; I’m just worried I spoke too quickly. A relationship is like a dance, and those three words should be… not the culminating incident, but they can’t be rushed.”
“But… you meant it, right?” Twilight asked, staring at me. “Because I meant it, too. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Well, one of the things. I also kind of made some progress on translating Princess Platinum’s will.” She pushed herself up into a sitting position. “Actually, let’s talk about this first, because right now, I’m eighty percent positive that you’re a princess. Listen to this.”
She floated her notes from her nightstand over to her. “To my youngest daughter, Tarnished Silver: For your crimes, may your name be eternally lost to history. Freezing in your rock, abandoned to the north, may your dynasty forever ruminate on the sins they committed against our family. For your attempts to sell your sisters into bondage, I have no choice but to disinherit you – but because, even at the height of your villainy, you refused to kill, I allow you to stay in your exile. To you, I leave only a hope and a promise. You and your dynasty are to forever be barred from the nobility until you learn to think beyond yourselves. Only when the virtue of generosity takes root in your daughter’s heart will the schism between our lineages be mended. Only then will you be allowed to reclaim your birthright.” Twilight stopped her reading and looked up at me.
“It goes on for a while about how Princess Platinum just wants Silver’s children to be able to call themselves Platinum’s granddaughters, but… Rarity, I’m really–” She blinked. “Rarity, why are you laughing?
“Wa-hahaa!” I very possibly cackled. All this time… How many years had I dreamt of being a princess? Years spent dreaming of my prince? Now, only after I’d completely abandoned those hopes... My mind raced with long-forgotten images. Get a hold of yourself, Rarity. Twilight wants to talk with you about your relationship, that’s as important as – that’s far more important than the fact that you might be a princess, even if – Yes, Twilight’s more important. My potential title isn’t going anywhere. “Oh, Twilight,” I said, finally getting a hold of my mad laughter. “Depending on what time we fell asleep last night, this is the best thing I’ve heard all day. Of course, it could also be a very distant second.” I leaned forward to nuzzle her cheek. “Thank you for going through all this trouble on my expense. You really didn’t have to.”
“I think I did,” Twilight said before giving me a little kiss. She was a more affectionate marefriend than I would have suspected, although I wasn’t particularly upset by the development. Each one of those little touches she gave left me tingling all day. “You’re my marefriend, and you’ve done so much for me, I thought I had to make it up to you somehow.”
“Twilight,” I said, lying back down so she could rest her head back on my chest. “We don’t do things in a relationship to even the scales. We do what we can to make the other pony happy.” I frowned, replaying my words in our head. “That’s not saying our only purpose is to make the other happy, that leads… That leads to a different type of toxic relationship, like poisoned honey dragging you into oblivion. You don’t need to experience one of those. It’s more like… If I see you’re suffering, I’ll help you. Not because I expect you to pay me back in the future, but because I want to see you smile.” I smiled at her. “Besides, I am the Bearer of Generosity, so you can’t really be expected to keep up with my largesse.”
In truth, I could probably spend the rest of my life helping her, and it wouldn’t be anywhere near what she’d given me these last few months, even if we weren’t counting the potential princesshood. Twilight laughed. “Good point.” She nestled up closer to me. “So, what do we do now? We both love each other, does that mean we should–”
“Only if you want to, dear. I want your first time to be special. Something you’ll be able to cherish for the rest of your life, even if things don’t end up working out between us.” She frowned and I hastily amended my statement. “Not that I expect that to be the case, of course, but if the worst should happen, I’d like it if you didn’t wind up filled with regret. I want to make this relationship perfect for you.”
“Whatever we do for our first time, I know it will be perfect, but… no, I don’t want it to be right now. In the morning before work feels a bit weird. Not that I’m against it, I’ve read about it in some of those books of yours, but it never seemed really big and romantic.” She closed her eyes and hummed to herself. “Hey, Rarity, what do you want to do with the Boutique?”
I frowned. That particular issue had been simmering in the back of my mind the last few weeks. I was already essentially living at Twilight’s, and as long as we were dating, that wasn’t going to change. So… what? I wasn’t going to abandon my life’s work for Twilight, was I? But I definitely didn’t want to abandon Twilight for my life’s work. The issue turned in my mind. “I’ll need to spend some time thinking about that, Twilight.” I pushed myself up and got out of bed. “For the moment, though, I have to get ready for the parade of nobles. I do not want to have another day where I’m disheveled before the ‘cream’ of Equestria.” I laughed at that. No, not particularly funny, but it was better than thinking about how many bad impressions I’d made yesterday. “Oh! I met a perfectly lovely mare yesterday, who wants you to look over her family’s claim near Quarry Junction. I scheduled her to speak with you around noon.”
“Got it,” Twilight said, following me up onto her hooves. “Is she on the docket?”
I nodded. “She should be. Yesterday was… a bit frantic, but I’m pretty sure I gave the guards the revised docket. If not, just tell them to pick it up from me at my office.” I gave a little laugh and shook my head. Maybe after work, I could stop by and open the Boutique for a few hours. Wasn’t the Boutique supposed to be my work?
“Anyways,” I said, trotting to my the bathroom, “can you get yourself ready for court?”
Her horn lit up and a second later, her mane restyled itself. Yes, I suppose that's one way of taking care of it. Maybe I could teach her how to– Wait. Did she style her mane before she showered? “Twilight, please don’t tell me you plan on going to court today without showering.”
“Well, I just thought it would save time. I didn’t want to be late,” she said, frowning and looking between me and the bathroom. “Plus, with you using the bathroom, that would mean I’d be even later.”
I rolled my eyes. “Twilight, dear, we can use the shower at the same time. It’s one of the perks of being a couple. Would you like that?”
She nodded so hard, her neck was at risk of breaking. I tilted my head to the bathroom. “Then come on”
♦♦♦
Several hours later, I hummed at my desk between appointments, reveling in the sensation of being completely and utterly clean. Granted, it had been rather strange to shower with a pony and not doing anything, but I’m sure Twilight appreciated the pragmatism. When she was ready, I’d show her the other things we could do while showering together.
I took a break from my musings to glance at the clock. Almost one. Alabaster Cream’s appointment should have just wrapped up. How did that go? I looked back down at the loose approximation of a schedule sitting down in front of me. Probably better than this was. Why did I take it upon myself to do Twilight’s scheduling when she was such a natural at it? Right, because this way, I was protecting her from the nobility. Dreams of princesshood flickered through my head. If Twilight was right, and I must not let my dreams get ahead of myself, but if she was right, we could split the load between us. I could spend the days dealing with nobles, while she dealt with regular ponies.
My humming was interrupted as the door slammed open and a white and green comet with a yellow tail moved to tackle me. I was comparing things to comets now? Definitely Twilight’s influence. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” it said as I landed on my back. “I don’t know what you did, but thank you.”
“I’m not sure what I did, either,” I said, identifying the blur trying to squeeze the life out of me as Alabaster. Maybe I needed a guard stationed outside my door to keep ponies from just rushing in. “But either way, you’re welcome. Now could you please get off me?”
“Oh, of course,” she said after tumbling off me and getting back on her hooves. “I just wanted to thank you. Twilight acknowledged my family’s claim and gave us some bits to build a house and develop the land. Oh! And she really liked my dress.” She gave a dramatic swish for me. Not that the dress was supposed to be swished like that, it wasn’t very stately, but I couldn’t fault her enthusiasm.
“Really?” I asked, getting up on my hooves. That could be… either very good or bad. No, they couldn’t have known I made that dress. “Did you happen to tell Twilight just who made the dress?”
“Of course not,” Cream said, shaking her head and letting her curly gold mane bounce. “I thought she already knew. I did tell all the nobles who asked me about it on the way here, though.”
A vision of an oncoming tsunami filled my mind’s eye as cash registers cha-chinged in the background. This wasn’t bad, this was the very opposite of it, in fact. Yes, we could grow our business. Maybe I could cut back my office hours and dedicate more time to dressmaking. My appointments weren’t usually that long; I didn’t need to be here the entire time Twilight was in court.
Somepony knocked on the door. And that would be the wave breaking. “Come in,” I sing-songed as Cream gave me one last thank you and an offer of dinner the next time I was in Canterlot before scurrying out of the room.
“Ah, hello,” a stallion said, marching into the room, head held high. “A little bird told me you’re a tailor of some renown, and I was wondering if I could commission a suit from you.” He gestured to the immaculate tuxedo he was currently wearing. “This old thing’s starting to get a bit frayed, and I thought I might hire Ponyville’s onl– best tailor. You know, support the local artisans and such. Now, I know you mostly make dresses, but fashion is fashion, right?”
“Of course,” I said, pulling out quill and parchment. I’d made… maybe twenty suits in my whole life, but it’s not as if they were that hard. Besides, as long as he could say it was by me to all his noble friends, what would he care about quality? “Just give me a name and what you’d like, and I’ll whip up a few sketches for you to look through by tomorrow evening. Alright?”
♦♦♦
I stared at the pile of papers in front of me. Thirty-eight. Thirty-eight nobles came in wanting to commission a dress, and I had to turn all of their notes into sketches by tomorrow evening. I’d definitely have to cut down on office hours, then. Maybe I’d make it so I’d only accept commissions on Monday, finish sketches by Tuesday, and then spend the rest of the week designing dresses. I could have office hours from ten to noon. That could work. I shuffled the papers into my satchel and trotted back to Twilight’s study. The long walk felt a little shorter each day.
Strange though, if that was actually the castle shrinking the distance. It usually did things in big climactic shifts, not tiny incremental changes. Familiarity perhaps? I mulled it over as I made my walk. “Twilight, I’m home,” I said, opening the door and moving to my usual spot amidst my dresses. Twilight looked up from her books on female equine anatomy and… the Camel Sutra. Oh dear, she was going about our first time with the same… dedication she went about everything else. If I looked around, I could probably find a notebook filled with her ‘ideas.’
“Hey,” she said, smiling at me like her reading material was the most natural thing in the world. “So, something weird happened at court today.”
“Oh?” I asked, tilting my head as I trotted to my chaise. The moment I sat down, she was moving to join me.
“Yeah, after I talked to Alabaster Cream, a bunch of nobles left their gallery. Did I do something wrong?”
“You complimented her dress,” I said, floating my papers out of my satchel and looking through the requests. “So they decided to hire her dressmaker.”
Twilight nodded, seeing the ripple of her actions spreading through the nobility. “Are you alright? Can you deal with all that work? I mean…” She glanced at the bundle of papers as I floated them out of my bags and onto my chaise. “That seems like a lot of dresses.”
“More than some,” I said. I filled her in on my plan to reduce my office hours, and she gave her approval.
“So! What are we going to do tonight?” she asked, kissing my neck. “I’m reading… stuff, but I can do that later. Another date? Should we do dinner? No, we did that last night. Of course, we have to do dinner every night, so that’s maybe not as big a deal as I thought. What do you want to do for dinner? It would be nice if we could get a full-time chef to feed the guards… and us. But mostly the guards; I can cook for myself.” She most certainly couldn’t. Her cooking was… Well, it wasn’t Sweetie Belle bad, but it was certainly in the same neighborhood, and with Spike having more and more on his plate, he couldn’t exactly be counted on to fix all our meals.
“I’ll cook,” I said, before my dropping my voice down to a conspiratorial whisper. “In fact, as long as you promise not to tell anypony, I’ll fry the two of us some eggplants.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you fry things? I thought that was–”
“No, it’s not exactly haute cuisine, I’ll grant you that, and I’d certainly never order anything fried at a restaurant, but I do have a something of a weakness for…” I remembered the way a certain prince had described it. “Carnival fare. Just… like I said, I’d prefer it if we kept this as our little secret. Well, ours and Spike’s, I suppose.”
She smiled as we moved down to the kitchen. “Sure thing, Rarity. Is fried eggplant as good as it sounds?”
“Darling, it’s better.”
♦♦♦
Twilight’s books on romance continued to multiply on her desk. From a few sources, she’d created a veritable mountain of books on equine relations, most focusing on relations between mares. Honestly, I didn’t know there were so many of those… types of instruction manuals in existence. She hadn’t broached the topic with me though, and I hadn’t quite figured out how to delicately mention to it to my marefriend, so a little agreement had been reached where we both decided not to mention her collection.
That changed today. I looked up from my latest dress and took a deep breath. “Love–” The word rolled off my tongue like water from a duck, and had quickly become my preferred appellation for her. “Have you considered that perhaps all this research is… Well, that you’ve gained as much value from your readings as you can?”
She shook her head. “No. Well, I’ve considered it, but I haven’t. I still don’t know everything there is to know about sex, and if I don’t know everything, I might mess up our first time. After all the trouble you went through for our first date, I can’t mess this up, and you already know so much…” She took a deep breath, and I tried to take her last words as a compliment. “I need to be an expert.” I could have kissed her for not making some lame pun about being a ‘sexpert.’ Actually, why wasn’t I? She was my marefriend, wasn’t she?
A few seconds later, our lips finally parted. “Twilight, you don’t need to drive yourself crazy worrying about our first time. If anypony’s going to worry, it should be me. It’s your first time ever, after all.”
“But that’s exactly the problem!” Twilight said, leaning against the one small fraction of her desk that wasn’t covered in books. “It’s my first time. You have so much more experience than me, and I don’t want to mess it up. What if I’m bad? What if I’m so bad that you don’t want to be with me anymore?” If she hadn’t been so sincere, I would have been offended by her “experienced” remark.
I sighed. “Twilight, it will be fine. We’re all rather inexperienced when we start out, and we’re all inexperienced at different things. If it makes you feel any better, you’ll only be the second mare I’ve ever been with, so I don’t have a particularly large pool to compare you with.” I leaned in and nibbled at her ear. “Besides, how do you get to Carneighgie Hall?”
Twilight giggled. “Practice. And… we’ll have a lot of practice?”
“Most certainly, Twilight. I imagine one day shortly after our first time, we’ll dedicate an entire weekend for… practice,” I said. Twilight nodded along in thought.
“Do you think…” She frowned. “Could we have a few practice first times before our actual first time! You know, rehearsals? Is that even a thing we can do?”
Well, it was certainly unorthodox, and by most reasonable definitions, wasn’t possible, but Twilight was my princess. Who was I to deny her? “As you wish.”
“Great!” she said, humming to herself like she’d just solved one of her magic problems. “I’d still like to wait for the right moment to start practicing, if that’s okay. Sorry for making you wait so long.”
“It’s absolutely fine,” I said, sitting next to her and resting on her side. “Like I said, you’re in charge of determining the when.” I smiled as I felt the heat radiating from her. “Besides, if I ever get too agitated, I have ways of relieving the stress.”
“Can I watch?” Twilight asked, whipping around to look at me, her eyes sparkling. “I… uhmm… I’ve been curious. I never really had the opportunity to… you know, because I was sharing a room with Spike, and then after a while, I’d just gotten used to it. Plus, I never really had a pony to think about, but then after doing all this reading the last few days and kissing you, I’ve been thinking… Can I watch? It could be instructional!”
That was… Twilight’s intensity could latch on to the strangest things. “Yes, I suppose that would be fine, although I hope it would be more than just instructional. Perhaps even recreational.”
“Wonderful!” Twilight said, clopping her hooves together. “I’ll just get my notes and–”
“Absolutely not,” I said, my voice going icy. “Twilight, I adore you. I love you, and I want to share this with you, but I don’t want to feel like some research project.” I softened and kissed her cheek. “I know it’s comforting for you to act like a scientist when you’re entering into uncomfortable territory, but I promise, I’ll be here to guide you.” She nodded her assent, and I checked to make sure the doors were closed and magically latched them before moving to my chaise, floating my papers off so I’d have the entirety of it to myself. “Just tell me when you want me to start, my princess.”
♦♦♦
Having Twilight watch me was… more enjoyable than I expected. I’d never really done anything like it before, but having a mare focused so intently on my every action while I tended to... well, while I tended to delicate matters myself, it added another layer of excitement to the whole thing and turned it into something of a performance piece. A very private performance piece, meant for only one pair of eyes.
And like any good performer, I felt the need to top my previous performances. Soon, costumes and character work were brought into the mix. I think Twilight enjoyed those little creative flourishes. At the very least, I did, and judging from her reactions… She was a very quick study.
“Rarity,” Twilight said one night, her breath heavy as she rested her head on my chest. “I want to go up north this weekend. To investigate your family’s old estate. I think we’ll find the last piece of evidence we need to prove you’re Princess Platinum’s descendent. I’ve… We’ll just go to scout it out, see if I can find anything promising. If not, I’ll get a proper dig team to go over it later, but… what do you say, it could be a nice romantic weekend for the two of us.”
“Weren’t we supposed to have a nice romantic weekend at the spa once your first week of court was over?” I asked, frowning as I looked out through her balcony at the stars fixed overhead. In the past month, I’d learned more about them than I ever thought possible. Twilight had taken it upon herself to describe for me the story of every last star in the night sky. It was… I could listen to her talk until every star went dark.
“We were! We are! We’re going to, I’ve just been so…” She sighed. “I’m sorry, I was so focused on my reading and stuff, and you had your dresses, I just thought it could wait until later. We can do that instead this weekend, if you want.”
“Oh no, it’s fine, I’d much rather spend the weekend camping near Equestria’s northern border digging through some archaeological ruins instead of being pampered in a spa,” I said.
Twilight kissed my stomach and a back leg kicked at the air. She’d spent the last few weeks learning all the places I liked being kissed and had was putting that knowledge to good use. There was only one place left for her to kiss, but she was saving that particular first time for later. “Thanks, Rarity,” she said as the kiss ended. “I promise we’ll do your spa thing soon.” I swear, as smart as she was, she had to try to act this obtuse. “I’m glad you’re going with me. Sleeping in my tent wouldn’t be anywhere as near as fun without you.” Wait, was she hinting that–? No, she’d been completely quiet about that for the last few weeks. Apparently, our current routine was enough for her right now.
“Yes, well, I suppose if you’re going on an expedition to prove I’m a princess, I can stand to rough it for a few days,” I said, smiling at her and resting my eyes. Besides, it would get me a few days away from the neverending deluge of commissions. Maybe taking a few days off work wasn’t the most productive use of my time, but I needed some time off to recharge my creative energies, and a weekend with Twilight was just what the doctor ordered.
“Great,” she said. “I’ll get all our stuff packed up, and all you need to do is come with me. This is going to be the best weekend ever.” Yes, well, I very much doubted that, but if it made Twilight happy, I could grin and bear it for a few days. Besides, it wasn’t as if she was asking me to go digging around in the dirt and snow with her.
♦♦♦
I squeezed through a half-open passageway in the wall, centuries-old dust scraping against what areas of my coat weren’t covered by my cloak. Apparently, Twilight thought I’d make a wonderful research assistant, and that meant trekking through every nook and cranny in this warmth-forsaken castle with her. “You’re doing really well, Rarity,” Twilight said from her position a few hooves in front of me. “We should be reaching the library soon, and from there, I should be able to find something that will link your family to Tarnished Silver.” She let out a little laugh that didn’t make her sound like a mad scientist at all. “We’re about to rewrite the history books.”
“Wonderful,” I said, biting my tongue as my horn caught a cobweb. I stifled my scream and ignited my horn, lighting the web up in a brief burst of flame. How had Twilight’s horn not scraped against the web? She was taller than I was by a few inches, and I hadn’t seen her duck. I growled. Maybe this old castle was sentient too, and just liked tormenting me. Considering how many times I’d had to deal with spider webs today, that seemed most likely. “I think I’ll just wait for them to be rewritten in our tent.”
“Come on, Rarity, we’re in the middle of your family’s ancestral estate, fallen into disrepair after centuries of neglect, searching for proof you’re royalty. It’s like something out of a Daring-Do book,” Twilight said, twisting around a sharp turn in the warped passage, while I hopped over a rather prominent crack in the floor.
“You do know I’ve never read those books, right? I was never really a fan of adventure stories. More than enough of it in my personal life, I think,” I said, keeping my hoofing on the slanted floor. “And I’m with you, I just need to do a little complaining to cope with the fact that I’m in a castle so dirty it makes the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters look pristine.” At least whoever built that castle believed in design aesthetics. This castle looked like the twisted musings of a mad mare. Which, on reflection, it probably was.
“Well, I think this is our room,” Twilight said, moving through an opening in the hallway, brass hinges the only reminders of the door that used to be there. I followed her in, and there it was, a library lined wall-to-wall with books. On one shelf, lodged between a collection of what looked to be journals, sat a glowing green orb. “It’s amazing these books are so well preserved. Maybe they cast a preservation spell on them?”
“Uh-huh,” I said, taking a step towards the orb. What was it made of? It looked to be a single polished sphere of… I wanted to say malachite. Maybe jade. “What do you think that is?” No, it couldn’t be malachite, there were clouds moving inside it. Something else, then? Whatever it was, it would make a lovely paper weight for my office. I reached a hoof out for it.
Twilight’s eyes darted to the sphere, her horn glowing, and her face scrunched up. “Rarity, don’t, there’s someth–”
My hoof touched the orb and the world burned away, leaving me standing in a black haze. Several hooves in front of me, a grey fog started to solidify into a pony. “So, my dynasty finally returns to me. Tell me, girl, how many generations removed are you from me?”
“At least a thousand years,” I said, tilting my head at the dull-grey mare with faded brown and silver streaks in her mane, and trying to ignore the fact that her back half was a mass of shadow that blurred into the void surrounding me. “Tarnished Silver, I presume?”
She stomped her hoof into the “ground” and for a second the black haze flashed red. “The name mother gave me when she stripped me of my birthright. The name given to me for daring to have ambition. For daring to dream of being more than the youngest daughter of a princess.” Her face twitched. “But yes, the name is what the history books most certainly know me as.”
Well, this was fun. I got to speak with my great-to-the-nth-degree grandmother. Of course, she was a crazy old bat who’d tried to stage a coup over a thousand years ago, but I was used to dealing with disappointing family members. “Actually, the history books don’t mention you at all. Somepony went through great expense to expunge every mention of you from the historical record. Now, how would I go about getting out of here?”
She laughed. “I wonder who it was? Gold Heart? No, too kind. Maybe one of her daughters? Yes, they had a trace of cruelty in them. Either way, they’re gone, and I’m still here. Barely.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “And why is my granddaughter so eager to leave? She just got here.”
I took a step back from her and tilted my head. Diplomacy, Rarity. “Oh, you know, I was just looking through the estate to find some evidence I’m descended from you. Our lineage has faded into obscurity these recent generations, and I’m trying to raise us up back to nobility.”
“Nobility?” she spat. “We were once in line to the Equestrian throne, and now my descendents live as commoners?” Well, wasn’t she nice. She’d probably fit right in with today’s nobles. “This legacy isn’t worthy of me. Why should I help a pony as worthless as you?”
“Because helping me is the only way you’re going to get your name remembered,” I said, staring at her and standing my ground as a black tendril formed out of the mass behind her and drifted towards me. No, not terrifying at all. “Just let me out of here, and I’m sure I can find something linking us in your library.”
She nodded and tapped her chin. “I suppose I could do that, but…” Her eyes narrowed. “Your cutie mark, so much like Mother’s seal. How long has it been since we birthed a daughter with a bearing as regal as yours? You could restore our house to glory. But how can I be sure? Why should I trust you with a mission so important?”
I bit my lip. I could tell her I was dating a princess; that might soften her disposition somewhat, but on the other hoof… What if the news just enraged her? Could she try to take my body over? I definitely didn’t want to tell her I was the Bearer of Generosity. She’d probably see it as some sort of weakness. And if I told her that the rest of Princess Platinum’s descendents had died out... That did seem like the type of thing that might make an insane centuries-old unicorn try to take over my body, if such a thing was possible.
“It most certainly is,” Tarnished Silver said, tendrils of darkness forming around me as my hooves got stuck to the floor.“And I think that’s a very good idea. Thank you for suggesting it.” She tilted her head. “Also, you shouldn’t think such things about your ancestors. You’ll never know when they can hear you.” Oh, because of course she could read minds. Why not? We were in some strange mental plane, so why couldn’t she just read my thoughts? My mind burned trying to think of some way out.
She laughed, the tendrils inching closer. “We’re nothing but minds, here. I can hear your thoughts just as surely as I can hear your words. Anyway, I’m not going to hurt you, just borrow your body for a while. I’ll even let you stay in my orb while you wait. I promise, once we have an appropriately aged-daughter, you’ll be back to you in no time.”
Oh, absolutely not. I grit my teeth and steeled myself with thoughts of the mares I loved most in the world. “No. You’re not,” I said, speaking the words with the utmost conviction. I summoned every memory of Twilight’s brilliance I could, and broadcast them to her. “My marefriend, Princess Twilight Sparkle, is the most intelligent mare I know, and I daresay she knows me better than I know myself.” Memories of Twilight solving a mystery on a train. Restoring me to my right mind after Discord’s escape. Unscrambling our cutie marks. “If I start acting strangely after I touched your orb, she’ll put two and two together... and if you think being trapped in this orb is bad, I dread to think what will happen when Twilight’s done with you.”
I took a deep breath as the tendrils recoiled, a frown forming on Silver’s face. Another idea entered my head. Possibly very stupid, but… Well, why not throw everything at the wall in the hopes something sticks? Of course, she knew that now. How did she keep herself from voicing all her thoughts? “Besides, I don’t think… A thousand years ago, you refused to kill your siblings in your attempted coup. You could have, but you refused. I think… I think family’s more important to you than you care to admit.”
She sighed and the tendrils collapsed back into nothing. “Equestria’s changed too much since my day. You’re right, I’d probably make a mistake, and ruin my dynasty’s chance to claim mother’s title. You, on the other hoof… You can go and fulfill my dream. That’s better than nothing.” A white door appeared between us. “The orb only reacts to ponies of my blood. It might not be official proof, but I’m sure between you and your marefriend, you’ll find the evidence you need.”
There was a pause as she sat down. “Generosity… Was that the key? I discarded it as a weakness, but you… You used it to achieve greatness. You’ve given me something to think about, granddaughter. If you ever feel like coming by again, I promise I won’t try to take over your body.”
“And I’d trust you... why?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
She laughed at that and gave me a look I’d seen all too many times in the mirror. “Beyond the fact that I’m letting you go, you know just as well as I do that a lady always keeps her word. I might have lost… much, but I still try to hold myself to a code of conduct. I just forget, occasionally.” She shrugged. “Besides, I’m sure the next time you visit, you’ll have taken some precautions. Now go, before I decide your company is too good to pass up.”
I decided not to say anything smart and trotted through the white light to find–
–myself lying on a sleeping bag next to Twilight Sparkle, who was too busy staring at the orb to notice I’d opened my eyes.. “Did I miss anything?” I asked, yawning and stretching my forelegs, as I tried to ignore the dull ache in my side and head.
She pounced on me and brought a deluge of kisses down. “You’re alright!” she said, briefly lifting her head up. “I was worried that– What happened? You touched the orb, then completely collapsed. I brought you back here as quickly as I could, but I… um... might have bumped you against the wall a few times.”
I winced. That would explain the aching, then. “The orb… is it possible to seal a pony’s mind in one after death?” I asked.
“It is, but it’s completely illegal and Princess Celestia wiped out almost all knowledge of the spell when she came to power. I only found out about it in some very classified books.” I was about to ask her why, but Twilight saw the look in my eye before I could. “A pony who knew how to cast the spell could trap any pony’s soul in any object of their choosing.”
Ah, that was as good a reason as any. “Then I suppose that must be what happened. I touched the orb, and it trapped my soul so I could have a talk with my great-to-the-power-of-somethingth grandmother.”
“Wait!” Twilight asked, looking from me to the orb for a second. “You’re saying Tarnished Silver’s soul is in there? Really? And you talked with her? How did that go?”
“I’d say it averaged out as okay – and strangely enough, she’s not the worst mare in my family.” Those last words clicked into my head, and a wave of elation built up inside me, rising through my back legs and climbing ever higher. It bubbled up, and I struggled to keep it from gushing from my mouth. The orb only worked on her blood, which meant– Which meant– I was– I was a–
“Wahaha-haaaa-haaaahaha…”
♦♦♦
“Rarity,” Twilight said, “you’ve been laughing for almost ten minutes. I’m starting to get worried.”
“...hahhhaaaaaaahh-haaa-haa-wahaaa…”
“Great, she’s started her laugh over again.”
♦♦♦
“Still laughing?” Twilight asked, poking her head back into the tent and bringing a collection of books with her.
I shook my head. “I think I’m fine for–” I was a princess. “Wait, no. Wahahahaaaa-hahaha…”
♦♦♦
My laughter subsided and Twilight lifted her head from one of her books. “Are you good? Or should I just plan on not sleeping tonight?”
“I’m good,” I said, my whole body sore from laughter. Who knew several hours of uninterrupted laughter could become painful? “I’m sorry, it’s just… I’m a princess. An actual royal princess. Not a princess-consort, but a princess. I–” A smile broke out on my face and I trotted over to kiss the most wonderful mare in Equestria. “None of this would have ever happened without you.” Another kiss, this one lingering for several seconds as I savored the tenderness of her lips. “I don’t know how I can ever make it up to you.”
She shrugged before wrapping a forehoof around my neck and nuzzling my cheek. “It’s like you said, you don’t do things in a relationship because you want to keep things even, you do them because you want to see the other pony happy.” Another kiss. “I just wanted to see you happy for a few minutes, and it was totally worth it, even if your laughing went on… just a bit longer than I expected.”
I gave a brief nervous laugh, and felt my cheeks burn. “Sorry, Twilight, but it’s not every day my wildest dream comes true. You’ll forgive me for being a little…” I trailed off as I noticed a bottle sticking out of her saddlebag resting in the corner of our tent. “Twilight, what’s that?” I asked.
“Champagne,” she said, floating the bottle and two champagne flutes out and setting them up on the little folding table she’d brought with her. “I thought if there was good news, we might want to celebrate, and this sounds like good news to me. Sure, we can’t prove anything yet, but at least we both know.” She popped the cork and poured our glasses. “What should we toast too?”
I lifted my glass. “To you, Twilight Sparkle. Without you with me these last few months, I don’t know where I’d be.” Her cheeks tinged scarlet as we drank our toast. She poured us both another glass.
“To Rarity,” she said. “My best friend, my marefriend, the first thing I see when I wake up each morning, and the last thing I see at night. The only mare who can listen to me lecture for hours on end and ask for more. My constant companion and the rock I can lean on when things get tough–” She’d been rehearsing, it seemed.
“Twilight, stop, you’re embarrassing me,” I said, feeling flushed from her words. “You don’t need to–”
She silenced me with a kiss. “But I want to, Rarity. I want you to hear how incredibly important you are to me before I do…” She downed her glass of champagne in a gulp. “Before I do this.” Her hoof slid down my body towards– We were doing this now?
“Twilight, if you don’t want to–”
She shook her head. “No. More than anything else, I want to, and I want to do it now.” She smiled at me as she slowly angled me towards our shared sleeping bag. “I’ve been struggling to make sure our first time is perfect. I spent weeks watching to figure out what you like – well, that was one of the reasons…” She laughed to herself. “But I still couldn’t figure out how to make sure it was absolutely perfect. Then I thought, what could be more romantic than the two of us in a tent, huddled together for warmth after you discover you’re royalty? We’d celebrate, we’d drink, and then it would just click.”
I felt her breath burning down my neck and warming my entire body as she leaned in to nuzzle me. “But that stupid orb, it almost ruined everything, and then… looking at you, I realized how much you absolutely meant to me, and if I’d lost you, if I never got to share my first time with you… When you woke up, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. It has to be tonight, Rarity. I don’t want to risk us not having this.” She guided me down to the sleeping bag. “Please tell me you want this. Please tell me this is the right time, because if it’s not, I don’t know when it will ever be better.” She let out a nervous little laugh. “I mean, I can’t make you a princess again.” Well, she could, but she’d have to marry me for that to happen..
Her eyes pleaded to me. I smiled, and lifted my forehooves up to wrap around her neck and draw her down to me. “Twilight Sparkle, if relinquishing my claim to nobility was what I had to do to be with you this instant, I’d sign it away with a smile.” Before she could say anything, our lips were against each other, and we melted into each other. She breathed her joy into me, filling me to bursting.
It’s strange. I was freezing in Equestria’s northern wastelands, only an inch or so of padding keeping me from the dirt, with a mare who, while adept in theory, was completely lacking in practice... but that mare was Twilight Sparkle, and that made all the difference in the world.