A Love as Rare as Dragonfire

by Alabenson

Confessions

Although the annual Friendship Summit held by Princess Twilight hadn’t quite achieved the same level of prestige held by the Grand Galloping Gala (at least according to the elite of Canterlot) it was still one of the most significant events of the year. In the weeks leading up to the event, the gossip mills of Canterlot were always abuzz regarding who Princess Twilight had chosen to extend invitations to, and by extension who the Princess viewed as ‘worthy’ of representing Equestria to the other species. At least, that’s what being invited meant according to those Canterlot nobles who were invited, anyway.

“To this day, I think Twilight should have just stayed in Ponyville,” Moonwhisper grumbled as he watched the guests line up to enter the castle and greet Twilight. “We could have set up court in her existing castle, the only practical advantage Canterlot has is that most of the bureaucracy is here, and Twilight doesn’t need physical proximity to that in order to run things.”

“I don’t know, I actually kind of like Canterlot,” Pharynx remarked with a smirk.

“Pharynx, the only reason you like Canterlot is because the population is large enough and self-centered enough that you can run infiltration exercises here with minimal hassle,” Moonwhisper said.

“That’s not true. I also like it because its got plenty of tunnels underneath the streets to sneak around in,” Pharynx replied, his smirk widening into a full-fledged grin. “Hey, how many changelings do you think we’ve got in Canterlot right now? Take a guess.”

“There are currently a total of seventeen changelings living in Canterlot who are actively posing as ponies. This includes two who are posing as members of the palace guard, and who rotate their identities on average every five and thirteen days respectively.” Pharynx stared at Moonwhisper in disbelief for a few moments before glancing away in annoyance.

“You’re no fun,” Pharynx grumbled.

“Fun or not, its my job to maintain Canterlot’s security, and part of that means keeping tabs on the local changeling population. It also means keeping tabs on any other potential sources of problems for the city,” Moonwhisper added pointedly as he turned to glance up at a seemingly empty patch of air.

“How in Equestria do you do that?” Discord asked as he stepped out from thin air.

“Trade secret. Now, what exactly do you think you’re doing here? These Friendship Summits may not be as formal as a traditional diplomatic gathering, but they’re still—” Moonwhisper was abruptly silenced as Discord pressed a claw to his lips.

“Don’t you worry, Twilight and Fluttershy have already asked me to refrain from applying my personal flair to these little parties. You have my word that I won’t make the summit any more chaotic than it’s already going to be.” Discord paused and pulled out a bucket of popcorn. “I’m mainly just here to enjoy the show.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but are you talking about Spike’s plans to talk to Rarity about his feelings for her?” Moonwhisper asked with a rapidly growing sense of dread.

“Is that what that is? I thought I smelled something tasty, I just figured that was from you and Twilight,” Pharynx said before noticing Moonwhisper glaring at him while Discord looked on in amusement. “What?”

“In any event, I wouldn’t expect the situation to descend into complete chaos. “Admittedly, from what I’ve picked up Spike didn’t pay much attention to my advice against making a big production of things, but I haven’t seen any red flags that things are about to go complete out of control, either.”

“Or, maybe you just haven’t been paying close enough attention,” Discord suggested. “I’d day more, but I’d hate to spoil the surprise. You’ll just have to wait and see how things play out for yourselves.” With that, Discord vanished in a flash, leaving Moonwhisper and Pharynx staring at a patch of empty air.

“Something tells me I should probably check on Spike before things get completely out of hoof. The last thing Twilight needs is for the summit to descend into complete pandemonium because of a love confession gone wrong.” Pharynx nodded and the two soldiers rushed off to head off the impending disaster.

Meanwhile, Discord watched with glee from his vantage point just to the right of Equestria’s normal reality. “Perfect. Nothing sends a situation into chaos quite like somepony stumbling in and trying to keep everything under control. Now all that’s left is to make sure our lead actress plays her part.”

*********

Rarity strode into Canterlot Castle with her head held high and a sway to her hindquarters, projecting confidence with just a hint of potential scandal. Everything about her appearance that evening, from her black dress to her manestyle to the gold and fire ruby necklace around her neck, had been carefully selected to project the exact message she wanted. As a result, Rarity could feel herself become the center of attention as she trotted through the castle hallways, conversations quieting as she passed and everycreature turning to stare. Truly, at that moment Rarity appeared to be the very embodiment of elegance, beauty and, most of all, self-assurance.

Which was good, because internally Rarity felt more anxious than she ever had before in her life. “Come on, Rarity, focus! You can do this. All you need to do is find Spike, get him somewhere quiet and out of the way and then demand he tell you to your face how he feels about you. Nice and simple. Now if only my heart would stop playing jump rope with my intestines,” Rarity paused to take a deep breath, which did absolutely nothing to calm her nerves.

“Well well well, somepony’s certainly ‘dressed to impress’, as I believe the saying goes.” Rarity barely suppressed a squeal of surprise as Discord’s voice echoed in her ear. Doing her best to appear unfazed, Rarity quickly glanced around for any sign of the draconequus, but she couldn’t see anything. “Really, Rarity, I’d think by now you’d know me well enough to know that just because you can’t see me doesn’t mean I’m not here.”

“What in Celestia’s name do you want?” Rarity hissed under her breath. “Do you have even the faintest notion of how important this night is going to be for me?”

“Of course I do! I’ll remind you that the dragon you’re planning on pouring your heart and soul out to just so happens to be a close, personal friend of mine,” Discord’s disembodied voice huffed.

“I suppose even Spikey-wikey can’t be entirely perfect,” Rarity muttered irritably before addressing her unseen annoyance. “Well, if you know how important this all is, then I don’t suppose you’d mind leaving me alone? This is going to be a very personal moment and I’d really rather not have an audience. Especially one containing a Spirit of Chaos.”

“Oh, of course I understand completely. I was just a little worried that you might get cold hooves, what with this being an encounter that could decide the course of the rest of your life. But, you wouldn’t let a little thing like that get under your skin, now would you?” Rarity could feel her eye start to twitch as Discord continued. “I don’t know how I could have been so inconsiderate. I’ll tell you what, why don’t I make certain that the two of you have all the privacy you need for your little meeting?”

“Fine, whatever, do what you want,” Rarity snapped. This response was met by silence, and once Rarity was certain that nocreature had overheard her talking to herself she quickly resumed her search for Spike. To Rarity’s surprise, her interaction with Discord had left her feeling far more focused, and she now moved through the crowds with a newfound sense of purpose. “Hmph, it seems telling off Discord was exactly what I needed,” Rarity thought to herself. “Perhaps Fluttershy’s right about Discord not being nearly as bad as his behavior and history would lead one to assume. Or, this could just be an unintended consequence of Discord’s efforts at being annoying. Probably the latter, now that I thing about it. No matter, though, I won’t allow whatever it is that Discord’s up to distract me. Tonight is too important!”

As Rarity marched off, Discord watched invisibly with an overly satisfied grin spread across his features. “And now, Rarity has expressly given me permission to make sure she and Spike have some alone time. Well, Fluttershy couldn’t possibly object to my helping a few friends find love, now could she? Especially not when one of them has practically begged me for my assistance.”

*********

“I have to admit, we sere somewhat surprised to receive Princess Twilight’s invitation to attend this summit,” the centaur ambassador, Nyak, remarked. “King Vorak had always been under the impression that Princess Celestia and the ponies of Equestria would rather have as little to do with us as possible. And, honestly, given the trouble some of our subjects have caused in the past we couldn’t really blame you if that was the case.”

“Yeah, well, Twilight understands that you can’t really judge a whole race just based on a few bad apples,” Spike replied. “I mean, just look at the changelings. Once we showed them that they didn’t need to follow Queen Chrysalis and steal other creatures’ love they all turned out to be pretty nice. Besides, Scorpan managed to make friends with Starswirl, and he wasn’t the easiest pony to make friends with back then.” As Spike spoke, his eyes darted about the ballroom as he looked for a potential escape route. Normally, Spike would have been more than happy to embrace his role as Twilight’s Royal Adviser and Chief Friendship Ambassador, but at that particular moment he had even more pressing concerns.

“Is there something wrong, your…grace?” Nyak asked, appearing as though he wasn’t entirely sure of the correct honorific.

“Just Spike is fine. And nothing’s wrong, I…just thought I saw King Thorax! I should probably go say hi to him.”

“Ah, of course. Do give his highness my regards,” Nyak replied as Spike backed away and tried to disappear into the crowd. This was a feat that quickly proved to be nearly impossible, however, owing to the fact that Spike was one of the only dragons in the room, not to mention towering head and shoulders above most of the guests. Luckily for Spike, however, a potential distraction / escape route soon presented itself.

“Oh, hey Spike! Man, I’m glad I found you. I always feel so awkward whenever I have to go to one of these big diplomatic things.” Spike spun around to see Thorax standing just to his right. “So, what are you up to? I’m guessing you’re busy schmoozing with the other delegates. I keep hearing that’s what I’m supposed to be doing at these things, but I’m not really sure what that means, exactly. I tried asking Discord once when he visited the hive, but he just covered me in green slime and I’m pretty sure that’s not actually it. I mean, I’d be fine if it was, that’s kind of something that changelings used to be really good at, but—”

“Thorax! I really need your help with something! Something incredibly important!” Spike interrupted before Thorax could continue any further.

“Of course! There isn’t a problem with the summit, is there?” Thorax asked.

“No, its nothing like that. This is more of a…personal thing. You see, I’m kind of planning on talking to Rarity tonight and telling her how I feel. About her,” Spike explained.

“Ooh, I was wondering what that was. I’ve been smelling some really potent romance brewing since I got here. Pharynx thought it might be Moonwhisper and Twilight, but from what I’ve heard what they’ve been getting up to would smell more like lust, which is a completely different thing. Pharynx would actually know that if he ever spent any time outside the hive, but he was always too much of a warrior-type to—”

“Thorax! Focus!” Spike said. “I have everything set up in one of the side halls that we’ve roped off, but I can even get near it without some ambassador or noble wanting to talk to me, let alone finding Rarity to get her there.”

“That does sound like a problem. So, what do you need me to do?” Thorax asked.

“Well, first, if you could walk with me while I head to the room where I have everything set up that would be a big help. If everycreature sees me with you, then they’ll probably think we’re talking about something important and they won’t try and drag me into something. Normally it wouldn’t bother me so much, but I really need to see this thing with Rarity through,” Spike added.

“Okay, that makes sense, I guess. But, how are you going to get Rarity to the room if you’re in there already?” Thorax asked. “I guess I could try getting her there once I’m done getting you past the crowds.”

“Really? That’d be great! Raven was supposed to help, but I think she had a nervous breakdown after Ember and Prince Rutherford had a yelling contest. Though, honestly, I don’t really see what the big deal was. They did it outside and Ember didn’t even set anything on fire this time.”

“Personally, if you ask me, I think they were being more than considerate,” an all too familiar disembodied voice commented. “Some creatures are just far too sensitive when it comes to dealing with a little chaos.”

“Discord, what are you doing here?” Spike groaned. “I thought you promised Twilight you weren’t going to cause any trouble at these summits.”

“And I’m not,” Discord replied. “I’ll have you know that I haven’t unleashed a single bit of magical chaos all day, and you can’t tell me there aren’t at least a few creatures here that deserve to have their outfits transformed into cheese.”

Spike looked like he was about to argue the point for several moments before letting out a defeated sigh. “I really wish I could disagree with you on that one. But, if you’re not here because you’re up to something, then why are you here? This really doesn’t seem like the sort of party you’d be interested in. You’re more jazz and swing dancing.”

“Ooh, you like swing dancing? You should visit the hive sometime for one of our monthly dance-offs,” Thorax exclaimed.

“You know, I may just take you up on that. In the meantime, though, I believe our dear friend needs our help with his planned romantic endeavor,” Discord said. Despite Discord being invisible, Spike could clearly picture the leering grin plastered across the draconequus’ features.

“Look, Discord, I appreciate the offer, but I’m pretty sure Thorax and I have this covered,” Spike replied. “Really, all I need to do is get to the room where I have everything set up and then wait for Rarity –”

“Done and done!” Discord exclaimed happily, and with the sound of a snap of his claws Spike vanished in a flash of light before reappearing in the room he had set aside for his confession.

“Discord! Actually, no, calm down, this is fine. I’m right where I wanted to be, so if this is the worst Discord gets tonight then I’ll take it as a –”

“Spike?” Freezing in place, Spike slowly turned around to see a somewhat bewildered-looking Rarity standing right behind him. “Spike, how did I – Discord,” Rarity said sourly, answering her own question before she even asked it. “Still, this might be for the best. There’s something that we need to talk about, something extremely important.”

“I know, I – wait, did Discord already tell you why I wanted to talk to you?” Spike asked.

“No, he did not,” Rarity replied. “Wait, why did you want to talk to me?”

“Well, its just that there’s something I really need to tell you. It’s something you probably already know, you’ve probably known it for a long time, to be honest, but…I need to say it out loud. Even if this changes things between us, I need to tell you and you deserve to hear me say it!” As Spike spoke, Rarity did her best to remain impassive, the hint of tears forming in her eyes the only clue to the emotions roiling just beneath the surface.

“Alright then, Spike,” Rarity began with a slight hitch in her voice. “I’m at least glad you agree I deserve for you to tell me this to my face. So, go on, tell me what you need to tell me.”

Spike closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Something was wrong, he knew Rarity well enough to tell she was upset about something, but he had no idea why. Suddenly, horror filled Spike’s mind as the obvious answer struck him like a thunderbolt; something about the way he had set everything up had offended Rarity somehow. It was what Moonwhisper had tried to warn Spike about earlier. By making a big production out of everything Spike had just proved himself to be nothing more than an immature adolescent who hadn’t given a moment’s thought to what Rarity would have wanted. Still, it was too late to take any of it back, all Spike could do was go forward and face his inevitable rejection with as much dignity as he could muster.

“Rarity, I…love you. I fell for you the moment I saw you, and ever since then those feelings have just gotten stronger. You’re beautiful, but also strong, caring, and the most selfless pony I’ve every known.” Spike paused for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts. “I get that you probably don’t feel the same way, and you’re probably upset at the way I’m dumping all this on you, but—” Whatever else Spike was about to say was quickly forgotten as Rarity launched herself through the air and caught Spike in a flying tackle, throwing her hooves around his neck and pressing her lips against his.

“Oh Spike…” Rarity said breathlessly as she finally broke off their kiss. “You really mean it? After all this time, you still feel that way about me?”

“I gwich hom?” Spike managed to blurt out, his expression displaying a completely lack of coherent thought.

“I can’t believe I thought for a moment that you had lost your feelings for me,” Rarity continued as she nuzzled Spike.

“What? Why would you think that?” Spike asked, his sudden alarm snapping him back to his senses.

“Er, no reason. I just let my imagination get the better of me, I suppose,” Rarity quickly replied with a nervous life, while making a mental note to apologize to Applejack for not listening to her yet again. “In the meantime, why don’t we head back to the reception, and we can talk about what all this is going to mean for us later tonight. You do still have your responsibilities as Twilight’s Royal Adviser, after all, and I have a reputation of my own to keep up as well. Dear Celestia, the gossip columns are going to have a field day when they find out about us. Perhaps we should give them something extra special to write about before the night is over,” Rarity added as she gave Spike a look that made him feel as though his scales were on fire. “For now, though, let’s just get back to the—” Rarity opened the doors leading out of the room, revealing an empty, black void where the castle was supposed to be. “Spike, darling, there seems to be a slight problem with our exit.”

“Why, what’s the – where’s the castle?” Even as Spike spoke, however, the answer to his question hit him like a lead weight. “DISCORD!”

Comments

[Hillbe]

Discord!
Some place private... Derpy's mail bag?
Sorry I can't deliver you two with due postage

[Magic135]

My favorite paring together.

[Richard79]

Well that's one way to be totally alone with the one you love. Locked in a void outside of reality and Equestria.