It was a peaceful night throughout Ponyville, a cool summer breeze rolling through the silent village. Of course, nopony was around to enjoy any of that, as it was nearly 3AM.
As such, Twilight Sparkle was sound asleep, curled up on a makeshift bed of half finished books, as she was wont to do, much to the frustration of her reptilian assistant. The room had long gone dark, as the candle she had been using had burned to nothing hours before, and the only illumination came from a single window in a nearby wall.
It was the sound of a sharp crack coming from this particular window that began to rouse the young Princess. Blinking her eyes blearily, Twilight raised her head and craned her neck to peer around the room, trying to figure out exactly what had woken her up, and what time it was. Seeing nothing but a very dark room, she hazily shrugged it off and began to close her eyes again. It was just as they fell completely closed that yet another stone was hurtled against the window.
"Wha!" Twilight screamed, her head whirling around just in time to watch the offending pebble fly off the glass, hurtling back to the ground several stories below. "What in the.." she muttered to herself, now far more awake then she had been a minute ago. "Who in the name of Celestia is throwing rocks at my window? And at..." she glanced at a nearby desk clock, "ugh, three in the morning...."
Rubbing sleep from her eyes, Twilight stood from her strangely comfortable book pile and headed out towards a nearby balcony. As she stepped out into the fresh air, the pleasant breeze blew the last bit of sleepiness from her, and she stalked out to the railing, craning to look down towards the ground...just in time for a rock held in a familiar light blue glow to hit her square in the head, just below her horn.
"Ack! OW! Why!?" Twilight howled in confusion and pain, massaging her now sore forehead. Making sure there were no more incoming projectiles, she again leaned over the railing and peered downward. Far below, in front of the castle's main door, stood a curiously wobbly white and purple shape. "Rarity?" Twilight called down uncertainly.
"YEAH I SEE YOU UP THERE! OPEN UP THIS INSTANT SPARKLE!" Came a faint, angry shout, from far below.
"Ugh, what could this be about..." Twilight wondered with a grimace. Normally she'd be thrilled to have one of her friends come over for a visit, but it was the middle of the night, and Rarity had just pelted her with a rock, seemingly on purpose. She was briefly tempted to shoo the mare off and ask her to come back in the morning, but if she was angry about something, it was probably best to deal with it now. Deciding she'd rather not descend far too many stairs at the moment, Twilight leaned back over the railing. "Hold on please!" she called down, before concentrating on her friend, her horn glowing with magenta energy.
With a sound like a muted thunderclap, Rarity disappeared from below, and reappeared on the balcony, allowing Twilight to get her first good look at the mare. She was swaying unsteadily back and forth with a heavy flush on her muzzle, and an expression of concentrated anger on her face the likes of which Twilight had only ever seen directed at Sweetie Belle before. It was clear Rarity had been drinking, and quite a bit based on her wobbles, but what could she possibly be so mad about?
"Oh, of course," Rarity huffed immediately, a sneer curling her face. "Twilight Sparkle, the genius magician, too great for even stairs or doors, look how I can just teleport ponies around from 100ft away!"
"That was barely fifty feet..." Twilight interjected weakly. "Rarity, what's the matter? You seem really upset?" she asked, a look of genuine sympathy and worry creasing her muzzle.
"Pfffffft!" Rarity scoffed angrily, stomping off towards the door back into the castle. "You would say that! Little miss perfect-icorn! Someone drunkenly barges into your home and your initial reaction is concern? Pathetic!" She hissed before disappearing into the darkened castle.
"What is going on..." Twilight whimpered to herself, sitting in mild shock and trying to process what was happening. She had never seen Rarity like this before, and while her initial thought was to try and help her clearly upset friend, as best she could tell, she herself was the problem. After a minute or so, Twilight shook her head to try and clear her thoughts and stood to head back inside, deciding she could make little progress into figuring things while sitting out on the balcony.
It took a bit of searching, but eventually Twilight found Rarity in the kitchen, struggling, and mostly succeeding, to pour some wine from a freshly opened bottle into a glass.
"Rarity..." Twilight said with a gentle frown, approaching the unicorn slowly. "Don't you think another glass of wine may not be the best idea right now?"
Rarity took a glance at the wine glass floating in her magic, then looked back to Twilight, before taking a small sip, sighing as she swallowed. "Yes, you may be right, but maybe you should have some Twilight..." she said as a rather evil grin spread across her face.
Twilight was about to sigh with relief, hoping this meant her friend was beginning to calm down, but was interrupted as she was suddenly doused in a torrent of red wine. "Aaaaaagh! Rarity what the hell! WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU!" Twilight yelled in frustration as she used her wings to try and wipe the liquid from her face.
"WHAT'S GOING ON WITH ME!? WHAT'S GOING ON WITH ME!? WHAT'S GOING ON WITH YOU TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" Rarity bellowed. "You think I don't see how it is!? Am I just not good enough!?"
"Wha? What are you talking about?" Twilight asked, her anger fizzling immediately in place of utter bewilderment.
"You and your, your...HAREM, of unicorns!" Rarity spat, pointing a hoof accusingly. "Every girl with a horn that rolls into our lives, and what do you do, you sidle right up next to them with sweet words and that obnoxiously pretty smile of yours! Every single one of them, every single one of them except..." she raged, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"Rarity, I..." Twilight began to say, but was promptly cut off.
"No, shut up! Do you have any idea how hard it's been? How long I've wanted to say something? Every single time I thought I could finally tell you, I see you with another mare! At your coronation I had rehearsed a beautifully corny line about finally finding the perfect royal suitor, but no, you had to go chasing after that Sunset Shimmer pony! And you wouldn't even let us come with you! Oh and to top it all off, then you were writing little love notes back and forth with her for months!"
"B-b-but...!" Twilight stammered, but it was not to be.
"I'M NOT FINISHED! After that ruckus, I finally got the nerve back up to try and tell you how I feel, but that stupid map sends us to that horrible little town, and who do we find but that awful Starlight Glimmer! Even after we ran her off, I could tell you were still thinking about her, and what do you know, the second she shows up again you go chasing after her. She tried to ruin all our lives, PERMANENTLY...MULTIPLE TIMES, and suddenly she's moving in with you!"
"But Starlight is..." Twilight tried yet again, but to no avail.
"AND TRIXIE! TRIXIE of all ponies! After everything that's happened, she waltzes in, makes friends with your new marefriend, and suddenly she's spending nights at the castle too!"
"Rarity if you'd just let me expl..."
"Whoooooo!" Rarity interrupted, predictably, though this time all the anger seemed to rush out of her as she wilted slowly down onto the kitchen floor. "Oh my, that took much more out of me than I expected. I'm sorry dear, I'm just going to take a quick nap on this....wonderfully...cozy...mattress...zzzzz"
Twilight stared at the now fast asleep bundle of unicorn on her floor with annoyance, before sighing heavily and rolling her eyes. "Well then..." she muttered, casting a quick spell to cleanse her coat of the quickly drying wine, and scooping Rarity up gently with her magic before plodding off down the hall towards her bedroom.
As she passed by the multitude of spare bedrooms, one of the doors creaked open, and Starlight Glimmer poked her head out. "Hey Twilight, is everything okay?" She asked with concern.
"Yeah, Trixie thought she heard yelling?" Came another voice from inside the room.
"It's nothing girls, you can go back to pretending you're not making out all night." Twilight said with a snicker as she continued past.
Starlight frowned briefly, about to retort, but instead just shrugged and turned back into the room, closing and locking the door with a girlish giggle.
After a few more minutes, Twilight pushed open the door to her rather unused bedroom and floated Rarity gently onto one side of the bed. Just as she finished, she noticed a book on her bedside table was glowing and vibrating rhythmically. She picked it up and flipped to the most recent page.
Dear Princess Twilight,
This world's Twilight said yes! We're going to the museum together on Saturday. I almost can't believe it! Thank you so much, I never would have had the courage to ask her without your help! I'll write again soon.
Your Friend,
-Sunset Shimmer
Twilight smiled as she read the note, then closed the book and set it back down on the table. With a deep yawn and a drawn out stretch, she climbed into the bed and wrapped her wings and forelegs around the unicorn next to her, falling asleep almost immediately.
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Rarity awoke with a start, memories from the previous night flooding her panicked, hangover ridden mind. "Twilight!"
"Yes, Rarity?" Came a Soft voice next to her.
She looked over and saw Twilight, calmly seated at a nearby desk, writing in a rather large scroll.
Rarity frowned, tears again welling in her eyes. "Oh Twilight I'm so sorry, I said such awful things to you..."
Twilight placed her quill down on the desk before standing and walking over to the bed, her face set in an unreadable mask. "Did you mean it?"
"Did I...mean it? Why of course not! I could never say such things about you and really mean them!" Rarity pleaded, her head bowed, eyes locked on her hooves.
"None of it?" Twilight asked, her brow quirked.
Rarity continued to avoid looking at her. "Well I suppose there's not much use in trying to hide it now. I did mean what I said about how I felt about you, but this is the very last way I wanted you to find out..." she whispered as she wrung the bed sheet nervously between her hooves.
"I see..." Was all Twilight said, her face as impassive as ever.
"Oh!...I'm so sorry...I'll just...I'll just lea..."
"Shut up." Twilight growled, strangely with a smile on her muzzle, as she stepped onto the bed and pushed Rarity onto her back. "Pfffft, unicorn harem, yeah right..." She said with a giggle, before leaning down and pressing her lips against Rarity's.