Three Dates and a Prune

by MagnetBolt

Final Exam: First Dance

“You look beautiful in those silks.”

Twilight made a noise, distracted.

“Are you alright?” Emir Ali ibn Arabia asked, finally getting Twilight’s attention.

“Hm?” Twilight looked up from her food. “Sorry. It’s just been a hectic week.”

“I was afraid your meal was sitting poorly with you,” he said. “Your Equestrian food is, and I mean no offense, quite bland to my taste. Perhaps soon I will be able to host you in my own home and you can enjoy the many flavors of my land.”

Twilight smiled weakly. “I’d like that. I’ve had some Saddle Arabian food, but I’m sure it’s not nearly as good as an authentic experience.”

He nodded. “You’re right, Princess Sparkle. There’s nothing quite like the real thing. Perhaps you have heard of the philosopher Jaunty al’Star?”

Twilight perked up. “You’ve read al’Star?”

“Of course. Saddle Arabia has a long history of scholarly pursuit. When Discord drove Equestria into chaos, it was our honor to preserve the culture and learning of the world. To this day the oldest and finest colleges are in our borders.”

“As I remember, al’Star wrote about authenticity as a philosophical concept. He railed against ponies that acted in what he called ‘bad faith’, which he defined as acting the way they thought they should, like playing a part, rather than how they would act on their own.”

“Indeed.” Ali picked up a canape. “This food is made to look pretty, but it’s empty at its core. Food to look good on a buffet, rather than something you could eat every day.”

“Yeah…” Twilight frowned. For a moment she’d seen something on the dance floor. A flash of white, purple, and gold. “Did you see that?”

“Hm?”

“I thought I saw… There!” She pointed.

“A rather attractive mare. A friend of yours?”

“I’ll be right back. Hold this.” Twilight gave Ali her drink and made her way onto the dance floor, ducking through the slowly twirling ponies until she reached her goal.

“Oh, Twilight, I was wondering when you’d notice me,” Rarity said. She let go of her partner. “Thank you for the dance, darling.”

Her partner bowed and vanished into the crowd.

“Was that…?”

“Twilight, we had a conversation just two days ago about how it’s improper to discuss other mares when you’re on a date.” She offered her a hoof. “Come along, we’ll make a scene if we stand still.”

Twilight blushed and took Rarity’s hoof, letting her lead as they danced among the crowd. “Why are you here? How are you here? The tickets sold out months ago!”

“I happen to know some very important ponies,” Rarity explained.

“You got a ticket from your clients?”

“Oh no, I had to crash the party. I just wanted to remind you that I’m well-connected! It was far too last-minute to actually get a ticket. After all, I had to resize this dress to fit!” She winked. “I’ll have to refund her deposit but it was worth it just to see the surprise on your face.”

“You crashed the Gala?!” Twilight hissed.

“You didn’t leave me much choice.” The music changed. “Ah, good. This is our song, darling.”

Twilight’s ears perked up. “This is a tango. Rarity, you never taught me how to tango!”

“Don’t worry, this is an excellent time to learn.” Rarity swept her into a spin. “After you left, I realized you would never make the right decision unless I came here myself.”

“And what is the right decision?”

Rarity dipped Twilight and kissed her.

“Oh.”

“Darling, I don’t have tickets for the Gala, but I do have two for what I’m told is an excellent show in Las Pegasus.”

Twilight bit her lip. “If we leave now, we can catch the late train before it leaves.”

“What about Ali ibn Arabia?”

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to talk about other ponies when I was on a date?”

“You did learn something.” Rarity smiled and pulled her back to her hooves.

Twilight’s horn glowed softly, and they vanished between the beats of the song.

Comments

[Papa Dragon]

Shit.
I dont care much for this ship but damnt I love you writing.
Lets do this!

[Papa Dragon]

OK that was good.
Loved that exit.

[Eroraf86]

Prince Ali, lonely is he, al Arabia,
Though to me, he seems to be not a bad guy.
That blasted Princess Twilight
And Rarity left him tonight.
When war's declared, those two amorous mares will know why.

[Hopeful_Ink_Hoof]

What's here is interesting and not bad. It's all very minimalistic though. Could use a little more detail and description. For example, what did Twilight's dress look like? The princess? Rarity's dance partner? That last one has Twilight acting like she knew them, but we the reader have no indication who it might be. It could be one of their friends, one of Rarity's clients, or even her dressing dummy. We can imagine Twilight, Rarity, and Rarity's home because we've seen it, but with most other things, little to nothing is given for our imagination to work with when filling the details in.

[Voidwalker]

That... escalated quickly.
For a moment, when Twi and Rarity made out, I thought that it came out of left field. But then again - Rarity kept those feelings hidden for quite a while and Twilight does have a tendency to get swept up/overwhelmed, so all was good.
But the Gala... hm. The Gala.
For the Element of Generosity, it's impressively selfish of her to go after Twilight as persistent as she did. Not that I mind - even Rarity deserves to be selfish at times. But 'actually' stealing her away from Ali? Kissing his date? That's embarrassing. Twilight was so worried about him declaring war and just like that, she gave him quite a lot of reasons to do just that - because she lost herself in the moment? One can only hope that he's the better pony.
It's just... I don't know. I can understand Rarity. Pursuit of one's desires and such. But after thinking things over, I think I'm a little cross with Twilight here...

Anyway - the story was good and their banter throughout their lessons were just great - thank you for writing.

[LostArchivist]

That just seems abrupt.

[Arzoo]

Eh, Twilight felt like only neurotic and that there was no person underneath, and the while political marriage thing never resolved at all and was clearly just an excuse for the real romance target.

[Eclipse Moonshine]

Eeekk!! Adorables!!! LOVED IT!!

[FanOfMostEverything]

Certainly a fun story, though the framing device feels lost amid the advice-turned-seduction, to say nothing of never giving Ali a chance to account for himself. I suppose Equestria will just have to go with plan B: Crank up the sun until they cry uncle.

Hey, it worked for a millennium.

[Ri2]

...Hmm. Kind of an abrupt ending there. I'd kind of hoped we'd get a chapter for each lesson, maybe hear a bit more about Twilight's interactions with the guy, but...oh well. Was fun anyway.

[Vaguely Demented]

Abandoning him like that at a social function filled with press and other leaders actually could start a war. Or at minimum heavy tariffs.

[Purple-Smart Heart]

The excellent banter really built up my hopes... and then they almost immediately doink and Twilight invites repercussions from a visiting royal, and my hopes are dashed like the Prince's.

Also you never once gave a reason for Rarity to hate that stallion so, which makes Twilight splitting on him in the middle of the most important social function of the year feel even more hollow and out of character.

[forbloodysummer]

I have to agree with the other comments on the ending, but the rest of the story more than made up for it. This was a great read; thanks for writing it!

[Cerulean Blue]

The banter really made the story, and everything just flowed from one part to the next.

[fanreader999999]

Adorable.

[Iron Comet]

Great story, only issue was how quickly it ended!