His Inspiration

by Jordan179

Chapter 2: Rarity's Realization

Spike stared at Rarity.

She was absolutely serious, as serious as he had ever seen her be. There was no sign of hyperbole, of the playful, deliberate exaggerations in which Rarity routinely indulged to make her life more dramatic and exciting, and amuse herself and her good friends. Such were not exactly lies, but not precisely truths either.

Rarity did not generally believe her own exaggerations; not to the extent that Twilight Sparkle did when she was freaking out over some imagined dereliction of personal duty. But she enjoyed them, unlike Twilight.

Twilight Sparkle had raised Spike like her own child, though technically she was his adoptive elder sister. And Twilight Sparkle was brilliant. And crazy.

In the last five years, Spike had fallen ever more deeply in love with Rarity Belle. And Rarity was brilliant. And crazy.

Spike -- who was highly intelligent, and, thankfully for the safety of everypony in the vicinity of the small but super-strong, adamant-toothed and clawed, moonsilver steel armored fire-breathing Dragon, not noticably insane -- had long since detected the pattern. Which did not mean that he could do much to change it, even had he wanted to change it, which he really didn't.

Spike was doomed to love -- in one manner or another -- briliant and crazy Unicorn mares.

Which was okay. He could deal with brilliance and insanity.

He had, after all, been dealing with both since he had hatched.

There was, however, an art to doing so properly. Sometimes one directly confronted the irrationality, beat it down with one's force of words. And sometimes one gentled the beloved, brilliant, and crazy Unicorn mare out of her insanity, giving her just a little help to see where she was going wrong.

In fifteen years of living with Twilight Sparkle, Spike had become very, very good at judging the difference between the best occasions for each strategy.

He judged this an occasion for gentleness. But first, he had to scout the mine a bit more.

"Rarity," he asked softly, "has there ever been -- outside of dreams, I mean -- anything betwen Dashing Cape and yourself?"

He steeled himself for the answer. He was quite aware that Rarity sometimes saw stallions -- though less and less during the time he had known her. He acknowledged this, as he did all reality. Which didn't mean that he had to like it.

Rarity looked at him as if he were crazy.

'Goodness, no!" Rarity declared. "Spike, you must understand. Our experience in that awful little place was first of boredom, then suffering, then exhilerating danger. It was scarcely an ice-cream social, with shy glances, or stolen kisses behind the meeting-hall."

She made a pretty little frown -- though, of course, in Spike's opnion, Rarity was almost incapable of making any expression that was not beautiful.

"Though of course," she reflected, "we had a rather jolly little party after we defeated Starlight Glimmer. That wan't quite so bad. But, really, we were more relieved that it was finally all over, than really cheerful. Certainly, we were not in any mood for romance. Those poor Ponies, the ones who'd lived there -- they'd suffered far worse than we. They'd been under her tyranny for years." She looked distressed as she contemplated their pain. "It was more for them, really.

"But no. I barely exchanged two words with him. Just enough to learn his name and Talent -- he was a clothier, of course, and I imagine now one of greater ability than he was able to demonstrate under the Sameness. I wished him well, now that he could be himself again, and hoped that he would prosper in his trade. Mostly politeness -- though, of course, I meant those sentiments.

"I really felt for his former plight, I suppose. He must have had a sense of beauty and fashion, just as do I, and he'd lost it, for so long. Beeen without it for months, perhaps years, under that horrid Sameness. I almost went mad after a few days of it -- what must he have endured?"

She stroked her chin.

"That must have been the seed of my dream! I must have identified with him, sharing my trade as he did, and imagined myself in his place." She frowned. "Only the dream mingled that with the fear I really felt, when I was Starlight's captive, that I should never get free of her. So I dreamed myself working alongside him, as I might really have been if Starlight had broken me.

"The rest of it, I suppose, was a mish-mosh of logic, lust, and the Night-Shadow warping my imagination for its own evil ends. The Night-Shadow wanted me to despair, so it rummaged around in my mind and made me conjure a scenario in which I would feel utterly awful and helpless, so that I might accept its treacherous offer of aid. Ugh!" she said, shuddering. "I despise those foul creatures!"

For a moment she hung her head, refusing to meet Spike's gaze. Then, she looked directly at him. "One of the worst parts of that dream," she said, "was that I imagined I must be forever deprived of your dear friendship. I am so very glad that it was all just a lie; nothing but a dark dream!"

She reached out and affectionately stroked Spike's cheek.

For a moment, Spike simply luxuriated in the sensation of her touch. Then, he reluctantly did his duty, and asked the important question: "What do you suppose Dashing Cape wanted?"

"Why ..." said Rarity, as if the question had just occurred to her. "I ... don't know!" She screwed up her face (very cutely, in Spike's opinion) then said: "Whatever it was, it must have been very important to him to make him travel here to Ponyville, all the way from the foothills of the Crystal Mountains."

Spike waited for it to hit her.

"Oh -- my gracious," said Rarity.

Spike could almost hear it as Rarity managed to avoid saying anything saltier than 'my gracious.' He admired her verbal skills.

"Oh, sweet Celestia!" she added, by way of variety. "Spike, we have been incredibly rude to the poor stallion!"

We? Spike thought, but wisely chose not to say aloud, instead mutely nodding in agreement.

"He came all the way from Northern New Yoke Province to see me, and I slammed my door in his face!" The last phrase she almost wailed.

"Oh, yeah," said Spike.

"Oh, no!," Rarity cried in dismay. "The poor dear -- he's surely not to blame for my dream! We simply must make amends to him -- hear him out, and find out why he came!"

"Yep," agreed Spike.

"Be a darling and find him, please?" Rarity asked. "Tell him I was in the midst of some very delicate work right then, apologize for me,find out what he wants, and have him come back here in half an hour." She glanced at herself in the mirror. "Make that an hour I simply must make myself properly presentable." She smiled archly. "After all, we were almost married. In my dream."

"Sure thing, Rarity!" Spike didn't like that last comment, but it would be silly to take offense over it.

Rarity frowned. "Oh, whatever you do, do not tell him about the dream. I would be mortified!"

Spike smiled. "Don't worry," he said "I understand you."

"You always do, dear Spike." She smiled very warmly at him. "You always do."

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Rarity is working on the designs for her planned Canterlot Boutique, when she receives an unexpected visitor -- a Pony she devoutly hoped never to see again.

Let me guess: Blueblood.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Let's be honest here: Have we seen any sane, brilliant unicorns in Equestria? Maybe one or two of Twilight's classmates, but it's not like we've seen them long enough to get a peg on their mental stability. Twilight, Rarity, Trixie, Starlight, Sunset, Moondancer... this is not a stable stable of mares. Fortunately, Spike can wrangle unicorns with the best of them, and thank goodness for that.

[Jordan179]

8161282

No, but she probably wouldn't be happy to see him, either.

[Jordan179]

8161283

It's true that MLP seems to be firmly in the camp that with great intellect (and creativity) come some degree of madness. The series as a whole also has a sort of overarching moral that what keeps the slightly mad sane is friendship: long-term stable positive relationships with other beings. Friends give one other viewpoints on life than one's own, and caring about friends, one becomes less obsessed with one's own problems.

This is certainly true of Twiight Sparke, Celestia needed six Element Bearers, but she was probably also worried that a friendless Twilight Sparkle might go the route of Sunset Shimmer -- or Luna Both of whom become saner when they open themselves up to friendship.

One of Twilight's advantages in keeping her sanity has been the love of Spike. And Spike has learned how to deal with a brilliant, slightly-crazy mistress. This, I would argue, has socially pre-adapted him to becoming Rarity's companion, as well.

[cottonfield worker]

this pony dude is gonna try to get the succ from rarity

let's hope spike stops him from getting that succ

[Jordan179]

8163562

That general scenario has occurred to Spike, though Rarity's not that easy, and Spike knows it. But he is worried about the possibility of a rival.