Rarity smiled as she saw the friendly faces of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. "Oh, hello Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor," Rarity replied as she bowed.
Cadance giggled as she and Shining took the seat adjacent to Rarity. "No, need to be so formal, you can just call me Cadance," the pink alicorn replied as she sat down.
"And you can just call me Shining Armor," the prince chimed in as the train started chugging down the track.
"So what brings you here?" Cadance asked.
"Oh, just some business with Sapphire Shores, she wanted me to make a dress for her upcoming show," Rarity replied.
"Oh that's interesting, I can't wait to see what you come up with for her, your designs are all lovely," Cadance chimed in.
Rarity blushed at the comment, trying her best to remain humble and modest. "Thank you, but it really ain't nothing, I can just see a good design before I draw it," Rarity said as Cadance smiled.
"It's a talent few possess, but it is remarkable and the trademark of a real artist," Cadance replied, making Rarity blush more.
Rarity cleared her throat to change the subject, "So what brings you two on the train?" Rarity asked as she adjusted herself in her seat.
"Well, Shining and I have some free time after assisting aunt Celestia with some work, so we thought we'd pay Twilight a surprise visit," Cadance said as Shining nodded.
Rarity's eyes lit up as she smiled. "Oh, she'd love that, she always talks so fondly about you two," she said as she looked down. "Speaking of love, can I ask you two a question?" Rarity asked, seeing a perfect opportunity to ask them and get their thoughts on the matter she is concerned with.
"You just did," Shining said while trying to repress his smile. Cadance gently nudged him causing him to laugh.
Rarity snorted a bit, holding back her own laughter at Shining's joke. "You'll make a great father if you tell jokes like that," Rarity said, making Shining Armor blush and Cadance laugh.
"You got that right, Rarity, I guess he's just practicing," Cadance replied making Shining blush even more.
Cadance returned her attention to Rarity. "But regarding your question, of course, you can ask us anything, what's on your mind?" Cadance asked as Rarity looked down.
"Dreadfully sorry if this brings up bad memories, but I was wondering, do you two think the changelings could be befriended?" Rarity asked.
Cadance looked down with a solemn expression. "It does bring back memories, but it's ok, but if I'm being honest, no, I really don't think so, their queen used mind control on my husband and almost took him away from me, not to mention locked me underground by luring me in their disguised as Shining under the pretence of pleasure, almost took over Canterlot, and almost ruined my perfect day," Cadance said as Rarity's ears folded down. "I know some of my reasons may seem petty, but I do have other reasons, like I said, they almost took over Canterlot and the changelings seem unpredictable, I wouldn't want to be blindsided by one if I let my guard down," Cadance said as Shining began to gingerly stroke her back.
"But what if there were good changelings, do you two think you could be friends with them?" Rarity asked.
"Maybe if this was a perfect world Rarity, but there is no such thing as a good changeling," Shining said as Cadance nodded in agreement.
"Oh, I see," Rarity said, defeated by Shining's words.
"Why are you asking this question anyway?" Cadance asked, causing Rarity to freeze up. Nopony had asked her that since Twilight so she let her guard down a bit.
Rarity snapped out of it as she remembered what she told Twilight. "Oh, the whole ordeal scared my sister, Sweetie Belle, she's afraid they'll come back for revenge and I told her I would protect her, and I just thought that maybe there might be a chance to make peace with them" Rarity replied.
Cadance smiled and nodded. "That was sweet of you to try and comfort her, hopefully that hope is enough to bring your wish to fruition, but Shining and I are doubtful, as royals we know we have to have open minds, but the safety and well-being of our subjects must come first," Cadance replied, bringing up Luna's point that she had conveyed to Celestia not too long ago.
"I understand," was all Rarity could say as she took out her notepad and started writing. Under Celestia's and Luna's names and thoughts, she wrote.
Cadance and Shining Armor: Both Cadance and Shining Armor think it's nigh on impossible to make friends with the changelings let alone believe that any good ones exist, their reasons though petty don't seem as racist as Rainbow's, but are still discriminatory, though I still can't fault them too much for they share the same mindset as Luna.
Rarity wrote as the train chugged merrily on the tracks. Rarity put her notepad back in her saddlebag only to be seen by Cadance.
"What do you have there?" Cadance asked as Rarity smiled impishly.
"That's a personal matter, I can't go around divulging all of my secrets now can I?" Rarity replied with Cadance giving a chuckle.
"You're right, I'm sorry for being nosey," Cadance apologizes as the train starts squealing to a stop.
"That's quite alright, darling," Rarity said as they got up from their seats and got off the train at Ponyville station.
"I hope you two have a lovely visit with Twilight," Rarity said as she left Cadance and Shining Armor at the station.
"We will," Cadance replied as her and Shining waved Rarity off.
Rarity wandered the streets of Ponyville until finally coming to a stop at a public bench. She sits down to relax as she wonders what to do now. "I only have two more ponies to ask, Pinkie will most likely be positive, but I should still ask nonetheless," Rarity says to herself as she sits on the bench.
Rarity would never say "ain't". That and I don't think anyone would consider Cadance and Shining's reason for hating changelings to be at all petty. They have every right and very valid reasons to not like changelings.
11694491 Oh they're all cherngelerngs.
Everypony and EVERY THING is a changeling! The rocks are all changelings, the trees are all changelings... even the air molecules are changelings! The electromagnetic force itself is a changeling! THE ENTIRE REALITY IS CHERNGELERNGS, ERMAHGERD!!
11701035
Agreed. Should be something along the lines of "Thank you, but it was nothing, really."
Do we get an explanation as to why Rarity sharing love with the rest of her friends hasn’t caused her to transform by now?
11701109
Given the alternate universe tag it could boil down to; changelings in this world just don't.
I know what she is going to ask and here's my question.
Do you really want to know?
Given their wedding got almost ruined by changelings, its understandable about their view
11701250
Doesnt make it right.
11701617
sadly
11701647
I say this because we've had 3000+ years to learn not everyone in a culture is evil.
11701662
uh huh
11701662
And it’s still something each generation needs to learn anew, just like millennia ago.
Also, to play Grogar’s advocate for a moment: if changelings had the right (or maybe that’s “wrong”) kind of hivemind and acted as a unified collective with little to no individuality to each body, then they might legitimately be an exception since they wouldn’t so much have a “culture” in the first place as more be a single entity distributed over a multitude of brains. And in that case, trying to redeem any given apparently single changeling would indeed be kind of pointless -- you’d have to be able to reason with the whole swarm entity of which the “changeling” in front of you would just be one mouthpiece and set of ears.
And the thing is: until Thorax showed up, we didn’t really have much to go on and establish how much individuality the single “common” changeling actually had even in canon. If the showrunners had preferred it that way, they could have actually been just mindless mooks under Chrysalis’s sole control without contradicting anything (the occasional sight gag notwithstanding), and that would basically have put paid to any notion of seriously befriending one. As such I unfortunately can’t blame many of the ponies that Rarity is asking for arriving at just that conclusion -- in part exactly because they of course don’t (yet) know that she’s always been a changeling perfectly capable of friendship herself, so they’re missing a key piece of the puzzle right there!
“Really ain’t nothing?” That doesn’t sound like how Rarity speaks. Why is she saying a line that seems like it was written for Applejack?
Business acquaintance it was in the end. Well ! Two down, two more to go ! But a "reveal" of sorts doesn't seems likely. The negative seems more stacked now.
As a "proper lady", there's no way Rarity would use the word "ain't", or use a double negative unintentionally.