Ribbons and Lace

The morning hours, at least, were busy enough to divert Rarity entirely. Having been consumed by Gala preparations and then closing early the previous afternoon, she had more customers than usual – not to mention quite a bit of catch-up work to do. She opened all the shop’s windows to let in the clear, pinkish morning light and a fresh northerly breeze, and after an hour or so, Rarity felt quite able to laugh at herself. The perplexing feelings of the previous evening didn’t trouble her so much under the bright light of day.

“Silly filly,” she smiled as she did some needlework on a chic but restrained business collar for the mayor. “As I suspected, it was merely hormones. All taken care of now.” And the disagreeable little voice in the back of her mind could just shut up about it, thank you very much.

It was lunchtime before she knew it, and after that, the spa! Dear Lotus would have her work cut out for her, as tense as Rarity had been over the past week. But, in any case, rushing wouldn’t bring the appointment any sooner, so she took a leisurely lunch at the cafe and paused to browse the book shop for a new novel on the way back.

Rarity wasn’t a voracious reader like Twilight Sparkle, but the solitary rack of romance novels still offered little she hadn't read before. Nothing new from Terra Cotta or Rose Papillon… no new up-and-coming authors… and the next “Heavenly Gates” novel was months away yet. She considered picking up a newer work by Silkyshine, an author she’d previously discarded, but then her eye snagged on the very top shelf. That was where the proprietor put the more… “unconventional” fare to keep it beyond the reach of youngsters. Her attention had been caught by a thin, gray book. It seemed almost out of place amid the riot of gaudy colors and lurid gold-leafed titles that inhabited the rest of the bookcase. The plain spine sported only a row of stark white block letters: Other Mares.

She looked away quickly. That wasn’t her kind of book. Silkyshine had a new one called Heart of a Pegasus. Who knew? Perhaps she’d improved over the past couple of years. She floated the book out of the rack and started to peruse the blurb.

Rarity’s eyes gravitated back to the thin gray book. She peeked over her shoulder, as if worried someone might see her and divine exactly which book held her interest. Maybe… perhaps she could admit she was just a little… curious. She surruptitiously glanced to either side. Nopony was looking at her. She snatched up the book and stuffed it underneath Heart of a Pegasus – the latter as a backup in case Other Mares didn’t pan out, certainly not just to hide the little gray book against a casual look – and plunked them down on the counter before she could change her mind.

She trotted back to the boutique and popped upstairs to deposit her purchases. Perhaps she would finish her lunch break with a few pages of Other Mares. As the books hovered in front of her, though, she noticed something she hadn’t as she rushed out of the bookshop: stacked together, their titles lined up to read, “Pegasus Mares”.

She hurled the books across the room.

Rarity cut her lunch break short and sat down to do some embroidery until the spa appointment, but she worked slowly, often pausing to stare into space. All right, fine. She had to admit that the previous day hadn’t left her as unscathed as she had preferred to imagine. It did bother her. But even if she were to acknowledge that she might be interested in mares in general – which she didn’t! – she could hardly spring such a thing on Fluttershy.

Sitting still made her antsy. Nervous energy quivered through her limbs and set her heart fluttering, urging her to move around, to do something... physical. She pushed away the mental image of Fluttershy before the unwelcome sensations she had given in to the evening before started creeping back into her belly.

Rarity finally dropped the embroidery with a low 'tch!' of frustration and started pacing. She couldn’t concentrate long enough to get anything useful done, and that was yet another burr under her saddle. The book she had bought seemed to beckon from upstairs, but quiet reading wasn’t what she wanted either.

Well. Not just reading.

She almost felt like venting her frustration on Applejack’s trees. Even the danger of a chipped hoof would be preferable to trying to sew in this state. The longer she stewed, the more annoyed she got with herself. It was as if her own body and mind were betraying her, conspiring to keep her from her commitments! Plus, she had no one else to blame, which irked her even more.

She paused in front of the mirror, glaring at her reflection. "Why are you doing this to me?!" she screeched. "Didn't I give you what you wanted?" Her reflection just screamed in return.

Rarity finally stormed outside for a walk. The cheerful sun didn’t do much to lighten her foul mood. For once, she was thankful she lived in laid-back, slow-paced Ponyville rather than Canterlot or Manehattan, where a day’s delay would have brought angry customers beating down her door. One way or another, she simply had to move around, even if it meant falling even farther behind on her work.

And if you procrastinate long enough, perhaps you’ll need to call in Fluttershy to help you catch up, sniggered the wicked voice in her thoughts. Maybe you’ll even need to pull an all-nighter together. She grimaced darkly at the unwanted intrusion, too distracted to notice how her expression made other ponies hurry to clear out of her way.

She would catch up that night. By herself.

Three circuits of the park hadn’t done much besides tire out her legs. Her thoughts still stampeded in futile circles, shying away from particular trains of thought like a certain rather skittish pegasus. Still, the appointed time drew near, so Rarity paused to compose herself, then set out for the spa at last.

“Good afternoon, Lotus!” she called with false cheer. There was no sign of Fluttershy yet. Well, Rarity was a touch early. The pegasus wouldn’t be more than a minute or two behind her.

She settled on one of the couches to wait.

She stood up.

She poked through the magazines on the table. Fluttershy pouted adorably on the cover of a six-month-old copy of Mares’ World. She frowned and flipped it over. It didn’t help, Fluttershy was selling bath oils on the back, too.

She sat down.

She stood up.

Surely Fluttershy must be running terribly late! Where in Equestria was that mare?

She glanced at the clock. It had been three minutes.

Lotus Blossom was worriedly watching Rarity try to wear a rut in the carpet when the door jingled open two exceedingly long minutes later. “Oh. You’re already here,” Fluttershy said in her low, breathy tones. “I’m sorry I’m la—”

“Think nothing of it, darling!” Rarity trumpeted, practically springing to get into her robe for the sauna. “The usual, please!”

The sauna was nothing short of glorious. Lotus dumped a ladel full of water on the heated rocks, and a curtain of hot, steamy air enveloped Rarity. She let out a long, tension-laden sigh as the enervating heat soaked into her body. The frantic urge to move seemed to leach out through her pores. She slowly stretched out on the bench, forcing her neck and shoulder muscles to relax. If not for the damp, she could have wished she’d brought her embroidery.

“Is everything all right, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked. “You looked kind of tense yesterday. I mean, really tense.”

Rarity felt her shoulders knot up again in an instant, tighter than before. Drat that mare’s insight! “Everything’s fine, Fluttershy!” she lied. “I was just worried about the results of such a high-profile commission.”

Fluttershy seemed to accept that, or at least didn’t press the point. “Oh. Well, if you want, I could come by this evening and help you out with it some more…”

A flash of panic made Rarity’s voice almost a yelp. “That won’t be necessary! I– I mean, I have some other work to attend to,” she finished in a more moderate tone, grateful that the heat of the room would cover up her flush. Fluttershy wilted a tiny bit, and Rarity belatedly realized that she had been trying to offer the chance to chat about her troubles in private. Well, that was out of the question. She decided to pretend that she had missed the subtext entirely.

It wasn’t until Lotus opened the door that she realized she had lapsed into broody silence for several minutes.

“I’m fed up with shop talk, honestly,” Rarity said as the spa ponies painted mud masks onto their faces. That much was true enough. “Why don’t you tell me about your animal friends?”

“Oh? O-okay, if you’re really interested!” Fluttershy’s voice was brimming with suppressed surprise.

“Please do, darling. I simply must get my mind off other matters,” she said vaguely. Slices of cucumber covered her eyes, and soon the soft scrape-scrape of a cornicure joined the pegasus pony’s lilting voice.

“Well, just yesterday Angel-bunny found an otter on the river bank…”

The otter with the sprained tail took them clear through the massage, Fluttershy’s voice growing steadily more confident as she rambled her way through the story. The way she spoke almost had the quality of a lullaby, comforting and musical. Rarity wasn’t entirely certain she would not have fallen asleep without the masseuse hammering on her spine!

“I’m not boring you, am I?” the other mare asked suddenly, self-consciousness creeping back into her tone.

Rarity gave a little start. She had been drifting a bit. “Not at all! I enjoy listening to you talk. You have a very soothing voice.”

Rarity could hear the blush in Fluttershy’s voice as it dropped even lower. “Oh! Um. Thank you. Very much.”

“Do go on?”

Before she could, though, Lotus Blossom broke in. “Pardon me, ladies, but the mudbaths are ready for you,” she announced as the mare finished the massage, and the faintly fishy scent of seaweed drifted into the room.

Soon, Rarity was wrapped in seaweed and sinking into the warm, buoyant embrace of the mud bath while Fluttershy went on about a mouse with a broken leg. The weightless sensation of floating in the hot mud reminded her of her brief flirtation with flight in Cloudsdale. Perhaps some day she might put in the work to develop enough skill to cast such a spell herself. She could almost see herself flitting effortlessly beside the other mare, gliding just above the treetops while Fluttershy chatted companionably about her animals. The idea made her heart feel as light as one of Pinkie's balloons.

The sense of peace and joy shattered the instant she realized what she was feeling. Furiously, Rarity shook the cucumbers out of her eyes. She couldn’t watch the backs of her eyelids any longer. Simply being with the pegasus shouldn’t make her this happy! With her eyes open, though, she couldn’t help glancing toward Fluttershy. Up to her neck in mud with her eyes closed, the shy mare chattered as if she’d completely forgotten the presence of everypony but Rarity. In fact, she’d never heard Fluttershy string this many words together in a row before. The unicorn’s cheeks pulled her lips up into a dopey grin.

The grin vanished and a claustrophobic sensation seized Rarity’s breast. She couldn’t open her eyes. She couldn’t close her eyes. She was trapped in the mud with a torturous trickle of unwelcome happiness dripping on her head!

She sucked in a few calming breaths. Relax... breathe. This was her favorite part of the spa treatment. She was in control. She was serene.

She was staring at the pegasus mare again.

Rarity shifted to face the other direction and nearly let out a yelp, her face going bright red. The viscous mud tugged at her nethers with every motion, reminding her that her body still had other things on its mind. She crouched down lower in the mud, trying to force down the part of her mind that wondered what the other mare's backside looked like, coated with mud. Trying to ignore the creeping sensation that the mud was oozing... into her with every motion. She felt herself start to tremble, panic and arousal and disgust all roiling together in the heat of the mud, threatening to boil over.

She wanted Fluttershy, but she didn’t want to want her! Liar. She didn't want to feel the urge to slide a hoof between her thighs beneath the mud, touching herself in secret to the sound of Fluttershy's voice. Pervert. She didn't want to imagine Fluttershy doing the same while thinking of her. Filthy. She was chained to a pair of ponies pulling in opposite directions, and both of them were Rarity! She knew she was losing it. She couldn't hold all her emotions in check at once. Boil over it did.

An enormous clamp closed around the unicorn's chest, squeezing her heart and lungs. Rarity tossed her head and snorted, her pupils constricting in instinctive terror.

Can’t move run can’t breathe have to run legs trapped drowning have to get out of here now run run RUN!

A scream exploded from her lips and Rarity began struggling her way out of the mud. Fluttershy stopped short mid-word, her eyes wide in alarm, and the twins made a tremendous clamor of begging her to let them help her out lest she slip and fall. She didn’t listen, couldn’t wait. She bolted for the showers, hooves scrambling and mud spattering in every direction.

Rarity viciously tore the strips of seaweed from her body with her teeth and turned on the shower, shaking with reaction from the panic attack. How could she be too tense for the spa?!

A tentative tap came at the door. Rarity paused to take a deep breath and collect every ounce of serenity she had left before she answered it. “Please give me a moment, darling,” she said to a concerned Lotus Blossom, then closed the door in her face.

The cool spray rained down on her, washing away mud and sweat. The one thing she desperately wanted to wash off, though, stained her like permanent ink: desire. It refused to spiral down the drain though she scrubbed her coat until it gleamed.

She leaned her head against the wall as the shower slicked her mane down against her neck., wondering whether to cry or scream or just beat her head against the tile. It was all the fault of that accursed dress!

Oh? the wicked little voice added from a more honest corner of her mind. Did the dress make you horny when Fluttershy wasn’t wearing it?

It was supposed to make mares attractive!

The key word being ‘mares’. Q.E.D., Rarity. The insolent voice seemed intolerably smug.

That was absurd. She’d never been attracted to Fluttershy before yesterday.

Except for inviting her over on the least pretext.

She was a good helper!

And going to the spa together every week.

That’s not unusual for good friends!

And you wish she could be more, don’t you?

No!

…Maybe?

You’re in denial, darling.

Rarity spat something very unladylike and shut off the water with far more force than necessary. She felt like her brain had popped a stitch and was slowly coming unraveled. She finally had to admit it: she was thoroughly infatuated with Fluttershy.

The worst part was, she couldn’t even talk it over with anypony. Fluttershy had, naturally, been her favored confidant for some time. Who else was she supposed to tell? Rainbow Dash would laugh in her face, besides being the very last pony in Equestria she would ever ask for romantic advice. Applejack might be… “earthy” enough to commiserate, but she would certainly be laughing on the inside, and the farmer would never, ever let Rarity forget it. Twilight would just start going on about “repression” or “transferrence” or some other psychological nonsense. Pinkie Pie would… well, the stars alone knew what Pinkie Pie would do on the best of days, but her default response seemed to be “throw a party at it”.

At least the sensation of being torn in two had vanished. There was nothing for it. Now that she’d acknowledged what she’d been denying to herself for so long, she had to do something about it, and soon. Plans began assembling themselves in her head as she took another calming breath and opened the door again.

“I apologize for my theatrics, everypony…”