The party was in full swing, and Rainbow Dash wasn’t having fun. Probably because Rarity was having too much fun.
“Mm, your chest fluff is so silky smooth, darling.” Rarity purred as she toyed with said chest fluff.
Dash fought back a blush and glanced around the room. Streamers of violet, white, and light blue hung from every corner of the room, while matching balloons bobbed up and down around the dance floor with the sea of ponies surrounding them. Pinkie had done an awesome job, as always, but Rainbow wondered if Rarity had even noticed all the effort.
“Rarity, you’re embarrassing me!” Rainbow hissed. This was not good.
Rarity snorted and waved around an empty punch glass. “Nonsense! The world deserves to know of your chest fluff!” She hiccupped and snuggled closer into the pegasus’ breast.
Rainbow sighed. She’d seen Rarity get tipsy before, but this… she’d never seen anything like this. But she wasn’t scared or anything. The word “scared” wasn’t even in Rainbow’s vocabulary! She was just… uncomfortable. Everypony got uncomfortable sometimes, right?
“Everypony! Are you ready to get fabulously funky?” Pinkie shouted across the room. Roars of approval and hoots of laughter from the dance floor below met her in response, and Pinkie grinned. She signaled to Vinyl Scratch, who nodded and placed a hoof on her soundboard.
The lights overhead dimmed as Pinkie picked up the mic. “Then let’s get this party started!”
Happy shouts and hoofstomps were drowned out by a pounding violin and electric piano tune. Rarity swayed and jerked against Rainbow’s chest, nearly in time with heavy beat ringing throughout Sugarcube Corner. There was a tickle; Rarity was saying something into the fluff that Dash, even with her better-than-average hearing, could not understand.
Great.
“Rares, you, uh… you wanna sit down somewhere?”
Furious nodding into chest fluff.
“Okay, let’s sit down over there. Away from the punch.” Rainbow dragged a sputtering Rarity across the room. Sure, she probably didn’t have to stick to the walls, away from all the other ponies, but that’s what friends did, right? Best friends, at least.
Rainbow rested the unicorn onto a cushioned chair, out of the action on the dance floor and propped up her head. Rarity’s hoof appeared to be gripping something, and Dash’s jaw dropped.
“You, uh…” Dash gulped. “You found some more drink, did ya?” Curse Applejack and her damned cider! She hadn't even seen the mare pass by.
“Ooh, my, yes! I really don’t know how Applejack does it, but this zap apple cider is to die for!” Rarity attempted to place a hoof across her forehead, but smacked herself in the face with a cry of pain.
Dash tried not to groan. Of all the nights that this had to happen, it had to be tonight. Though…
To be fair, it was Rarity’s birthday, and she had actually showed up without any stunning outfits or accessories or anything. Rarity was a normal pony tonight, and, well… normal ponies did get drunk, Rainbow supposed.
Rarity perked up. “Rainbow Dash! Come here.”
“I’m standing right here!” Rainbow was met with a pout. “Okay, okay.” She plopped herself down on an adjacent chair, turned towards Rarity. “Better?”
Rarity smiled, and Dash felt herself to start to sweat. This wasn’t a smile between friends. This was a smile she’d seen Rarity pull on Trenderhoof, and Blueblood before him. But that was crazy, it couldn’t be that she—
Could it?
Rarity was saying something. “...please, I have to tell you something! It’s important!” she all but hissed. Her eyes gleamed with something Rainbow couldn’t quite place.
Dash gulped. “Uh… what do you want, Rarity?” she asked, bracing herself for some horrible response. Surely Rarity wouldn’t do anything… bad. Not at her own party!
“Hmm…” Rarity smiled. “Another drink. But first!” She motioned for Dash to come closer, and the reluctant pegasus shuffled up. “Oh, come now, I don’t bite…”
Rainbow leaned in, and Rarity cupped her hooves around Dash’s ear. Rainbow was definitely sweating. How was Rarity even this close to her without needing to wash her hooves?
“Like I said, Rainbow…” Rarity whispered. It was getting warm in here, wasn’t it? Surely it wasn’t just Dash. No, Twilight probably adjusted the temperature for “optimal party conditions” or something egg-headed like that. That had to be it.
Rarity’s breath sent shudders down Dash’s spine. “I don’t bite… hard.”
Warmth blossomed over Rainbow’s face and refused to leave. She was absolutely sure her coat was an awful combination of blue and bright red, but she didn’t care. This… this felt good. This was a good feeling, she told herself. Hadn’t this been what she’d wanted for a while? So why did it feel so unsatisfying?
Oh no, Rainbow thought. What if…?
Rarity couldn’t have known the same was true about Dash, right? That Rainbow felt the same way? Or did she? Rainbow groaned to herself and buried her face in her hooves. What was she going to do now? She couldn’t just tell Rarity!
But what if she already knew? What if it was all a clever setup the entire time? No, Rainbow Dash knew when she was in danger; it was her middle name, after all. She, like most pegasi, had a severely biased tendency in the “fight or flight” response, and that was to book it as fast as she could in any direction away from the danger, safety be damned!
But on the other hoof, she couldn’t just leave Rarity here by herself, not when no one was watching. Not when Rarity had...
Well, not when Rarity had just confessed. She might take it as a “no,” and that’s not what Rainbow wanted. She needed some distraction, some way of saying “great but not right now could I sleep on it a bit and get back to you thanks.” One full, fluid thought that would get the point across in a good way.
And so, without much fanfare or forethought on Rainbow’s part, the guests at Sugarcube Corner could now see clearly into the night sky through the ceiling, courtesy of one Sonic Rainboom.
Rarity, of course, had fallen asleep.
Rarity’s tea was cold.
She could have used her horn, she supposed, but what would be the point? She wasn’t thirsty anyway, wasn’t hungry or tired or much of anything at the moment. Rarity had been making tea every morning for as long as she had been able to levitate the cup and had only brewed it this morning out of habit.
Rarity lifted her pounding head off the table and winced at the sunlight pouring through her windows. Why hadn’t she drawn the curtains last night? She was not usually this careless… though if last night’s events were anything to go by, maybe she was more careless than she had thought.
Twilight had had to explain it to her, of course. After all, some ladies simply could not stomach alcohol like others, and Rarity was without a doubt in the former category.
Her mind wandered to Rainbow Dash, and her head ached in response. Rarity knew Twilight meant well, but there were some things that hurt to hear, friend or no, princess or otherwise. Dash had flown off during the party, Twilight had said. No reason given, but Rarity had a pretty good idea that it hadn’t needed to be. There was the faintest memory of Dash looking embarrassed, right at the cusp of what Rarity could remember. Twilight had filled in the blanks with what, exactly, Rarity had said.
A groan of regret escaped her, and Rarity plopped her head back down on her hooves. Dash would forgive her, surely? Face to face, though. A sincere and heartfelt apology. For all her demeanor, Dash’s pride had been wounded last night. Twilight had said as much, and her judgment was usually sound.
And then there was the roof. Insurance companies, for whatever reason, did not cover “accidental, alcohol-induced sonic rainbooms” that caused severe structural damage. Twilight, dear that she was, had sorted it out with the Cakes, with the understanding that both Rarity and Rainbow Dash perform community service around the town and help out in Sugarcube Corner to pay off the damage.
Rarity shuddered and grabbed at her teacup. Shaking, she lifted it to her lips and took a small sip.
It was still cold. She set it down and lowered her head again, mane falling limply to her side.
Rarity couldn’t imagine what Rainbow thought of her after last night. She hadn’t meant to say anything, she really hadn’t, and now she’d gone and ruined a friendship for good. Where once there may have been a singular ray of light, a strong and blinding companionship, there now were two very separate and distinctly weaker beams, neither close to the other and all the while spreading further and further apart.
There was an old phrase about loose lips that came to mind, and Rarity buried her head further into the table.
It was a nice table, strong wood and beautifully finished. Her father had given it to her when she bought the boutique in Ponyville, as a sort of housewarming present. Carpentry and woodworking were not Rarity’s forte by any means, but her father was a simple unicorn from a simple family and didn’t mind getting his hooves dirty. He had taught her, growing up, that it didn’t matter whether she had made a mistake or not, so long as she did what was right. The table wasn’t perfect, either, and clashed horribly with the inside of Carousel Boutique. Years of design and initial stitching had nicked and dented the surface.
But it was still functional, still did what it did as best as any other could do.
Rarity came to a decision. Slowly, with as much grace as one could manage with a hangover of this magnitude, she rose out of her chair and popped her joints, little sighs escaping from the back of her throat.
Torsos with half-finished outfits watched Rarity with non-existent eyes along the edges of her workroom as she marched downstairs, towards the boutique entrance. She was going to just tell her. She was going to tell that pegasus everything about what she had said last night, and that she hadn’t exactly meant to say it out loud to her face, but that her feelings were there. It didn’t matter if Rainbow felt the same way; this was the right thing to do. She had to explain herself.
Rarity reached out for the door handle and stopped. The sun was not going to help her headache, and neither would talking to Rainbow. But, she thought, it must be done, for her sake if not for mine.
She threw open the door and flinched at the sight of Rainbow Dash frozen in place, hoof poised to knock. They stood there, staring, for what felt like an eternity, neither of them daring to move a muscle or so much as blink. And then:
“I’m sorry for—”
“Look, about—”
Silence again.
Rarity broke it first. “We… need to talk, don’t we?”
Rainbow, after a minute, nodded. “We should.”
They looked at each other.
“Would you… like to come in for some tea, Rainbow Dash?” Rarity fidgeted, tail flicking.
Rainbow cracked a weak smile. “I… yeah. Yeah, I would, Rares.”
They could talk it out, realize that Rarity had had too much to drink but that yes, she really did feel that way about Rainbow Dash, weathermare extraordinaire. Maybe, just maybe, Rainbow would understand and make a confession of her own, without the influence of any substance because she was the Rainbow Dash, who had some semblance of self-control, or at least more than the unicorn in love with her.
Rarity didn’t, couldn't, dare dream of making amends with Rainbow this quickly, this soon after. It probably would never work out the way she had imagined it, no insinuating line of questions and adorable flirting over dinner at that one Prench restaurant in Canterlot. It won’t work out, Rarity told herself.
As Rainbow stepped over the threshold, the pegasus shot Rarity a grin, and a startling thought entered her mind.
Maybe it will.
Author's Note
This is the end of the story. It is not the story I originally envisioned telling, but here we are.
I'm sorry if you were expecting something different; I was, too.
Thank you for reading.
