I Love To See You Smile

Chapters

It's true, some days are dark and lonely
And maybe you feel sad
That it isn't that bad
But Pinkie will be there to show you
Epilogue: Tea

It's true, some days are dark and lonely

Rarity sighed heavily. She stared down at the fabric as it chose, again, to bunch up in her sewing machine. Careful not to tear the delicate gown she was working on, she worked the snag, but it was stuck between two moving parts. After much gentle coaxing of the parts and material, she became impatient, tried to apply just a little force... and the expensive fabric tore badly.

She yanked the whole thing out in disgust, growing increasingly upset with the whole day. Now she’d have to waste even more time replacing the damaged section - time she did not have.

She tossed the ruined dress over a nearby equinniquin. Get it together, Rarity! This is an important order; Fancypants is counting on you! She walked over to her fabric storage shelves, but to her chagrin could not find the specific roll she sought. Wonderful, that was the last of it - more delays. It didn’t help that the fabric in question was not exactly common. Moonlight silk is not even made in this country! It also didn’t help that three rolls had been filched by the Cutie Mark Crusaders for some unknown reason; she knew this only because, yet again, one of the telltale patches had fallen from their capes. Another had been rendered... unusable. What remained had been used on the gowns already in progress.

Rarity sat down and gnashed her teeth, silently fuming at yet another delay. What did I do to deserve this!? Did I break a mirror? Has Discord escaped? A prank by Pinkie Pie or Dash perhaps? Have I been cursed? She tried to dismiss the thoughts as irrational, but the more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that some unknown agency was working against her. She screamed aloud and looked around the room for possible foes; seeing none, she grasped a perfectly innocent teacup and smashed it against the wall.

Finally her eyes fell on the dress. The dress... yes... that must be the source. She looked at the offending garment hatefully. Menacingly, she leveled a pair of shears at it with her magic. “You! This is all your fault... you inanimate... object...” She pointed a hoof at the equinniquin. “I am onto you, dress! This is all your fault isn’t it? You were plotting with my sister and my cat! The moment you are finished you are getting sold off so I’ll never have to look at you again!” She huffed at the cloth, daring it to say something. After several seconds of the staring contest, Rarity concluded that not only was she clearly victorious, she may, in fact, have gone completely mad.

Her stomach rumbled painfully, reminding her of the fact that she had neglected to eat in the last day or so. Oh, thank goodness, I must simply be a bit delirious from starvation. Hmmm, I suppose that, since I need to go out and get more fabric anyway, a quick stop at Sugarcube Corner might be in order.

She was still grumbling a little as she walked to the bakery, the sky above as dark and foreboding as her current mindset. Rainbow Dash, you are slacking off again! Why isn’t anything going right today? Is it too much to ask for things to go smoothlyfor once?

She arrived at the Corner without further incident, and quickly opened the door with her magic. A very happy voice piped up, interrupting her dark thoughts. “Hey, Rarity!”

“Oh, hello, Pinkie Pie.” She slapped a mask of decorum on her face and pulled it into the rictus of a smile. “Lovely day today, is it not?”

Her friend smiled back, clearly delighted to see her. Strangely, Sugarcube Corner was empty save for the two of them. “Everyday is a super terrific day when a friend comes by!” Pinkie’s ears flattened for some reason. “But um... you may not think so in a second, it’s about to rain.” The rain began pouring outside at the precise moment the hyperactive mare said ‘rain’. “I was really surprised when you walked in; I thought you hated getting your mane wet! I asked myself: ‘Self, why is Rarity all grumbly and distracted that she’s walking around outside and is totally about to get wet?’ Then I saw you walking in here, and I was like ‘Oh, okay, she must need something to eat! I sure hope she doesn’t mind staying in here for a bit or she’s gonna get soaked.’ So yeah...” Thunder rumbled outside. She reached for the ‘Open’ sign on the door and flipped it to ‘Closed’ before locking the door, humming a little as she did so. “Anyway! We might be stuck in here awhile. Do you want something hot to drink or maybe some cupcakes or I made some nice muffins or-”

Rarity ground her teeth in silent fury. “I would love something to eat... thank you.” She sat down with a huff. Perfect! Just perfect! More time I don’t have, and I get to spend it with the most annoying pony in existence. She recoiled at the thought; that had to be her anger talking. Pinkie really was quite a dear... in small doses. It really wasn’t Pinkie's fault that she could find joy in just about any situation. Good intentions or not, however, I really do not need this right now. Her teeth began to ache with the constant gnashing.

“Rarity? You can’t eat your own teeth, silly! Here, have a cupcake!” Pinkie set the tray down and popped a couple of the pastries into her mouth, making them disappear at a rate that would have any stage magician questioning how it was done.

Rarity lifted a cupcake in her magic and bit into it. Perfect, as usual. Even her friend’s skill in baking was irritating to her right now. She chewed daintily and in silence, trying to force the anger down into a little raging ball of fury she could stuff into one of her mental closets, where it wouldn't be able to slip out in an unguarded moment. Pinkie did not deserve to be treated with anger when she had done nothing to warrant it.

Without warning, a pink, blue-eyed face filled her vision. “So, d’ya wanna talk about why you’re such a Grumpy McGrumperton today?”

Rarity shook herself from her reverie. To her horror, she was making an absolute slob of herself in her inattentiveness . She had crumbs sticking to the side of her mouth! She daintily dabbed them away with a napkin, giving her time to fish for an appropriate response. “Why, I have no idea what you mean, darling! I am perfectly fine! Why, if anything goes right today I shall be forced to sing about it!” She stopped herself, backtracking quickly. “Sorry, anything more I mean. Yes, yes, happy-go-lucky me...”

Pinkie scrunched up her face in concentration as she studied Rarity. “Huh. ‘Cause you really don’t look happy. I mean you look happy but everything you say and do seems really fake just like all those ponies at the Gala. Plus I get this little tickle behind my ear when I’m near somepony who is sad or upset and my ears feel reeeeaaally tickly right now... I suppose it could be a bug or something - do I have a bug behind my ear Rarity?”

She was now on top of the table, standing on her head and balancing herself with her forelegs while trying to give Rarity a good view of the back of her ears. “Do you see any? I can’t see back there. Ooooh, that’s tickly. Are you sure you’re not unhappy Rarity?”

“Pinkie!” Rarity was getting a view, all right, but her eyes were being inexorably drawn to places quite unrelated to the upside-down mare’s ears - inappropriate places, without even so much as a fluffy pink tail to offer them a modicum of modesty. “Please... get down from there,” she requested, hastily averting her eyes. ”I confess! You have seen through me; I am not exactly in the most jubilant of moods.”

Pinkie leaped down from the table with an impressive backflip and retook her seat, waiting patiently. She made a ‘go on’ gesture with her hoof and grinned widely, waiting for Rarity to say more.

Rarity stared at her, realizing Pinkie was trying to get her to share. She huffed a bit. “Look, it’s nothing serious. I have just had a bad day, or days... week I suppose.”

“I kinda guessed that; you looked ready to blow a fuse a couple times and I think you might want to go see Colgate if you keep grinding your teeth like that.”

Rarity sighed heavily, uncertain whether to be touched by her concern or exasperated with her. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Rarity, we’re gonna be stuck together in here for a while, and you’re unhappy. I like it when my friends are happy. I want to see if I can help you smile! Pleaaaase let me try?” Pinkie smiled brightly and fluttered her eyes.

Rarity was doing her best, she really was. However Pinkie was just... too Pinkie right now. She sighed heavily, and trampled the building anger once again. “Darling, I am trying very hard not to be irritated with you. Nothing that has happened to me today is your fault, but I simply have far too much going wrong at the moment. You are a dear and wonderful friend. To that end I feel I need to inform you that if I spend one more minute in your presence I will say something incredibly hurtful, and neither of us wants that.”

Her friend smiled brightly. “Oh, is that all? I thought you were mad at me! Phew! So what’s going on then? Do you want to hear a song or I could throw you a party or make you a cake-”

Rarity stared at her in frustration. “I just told you I need to be alone...” That mare doesn't have any sense of propriety. “Fine then, I’ll spell it out for you: it’s just the usual stress; I took on one too many dress orders again. The designs have been eluding me, so that really killed a lot of time. I also had my sister and her two friends make off with some very expensive materials.”

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Reliving her morning was not helping her mood. “Then Opal used another roll when her litter box was not pristine... The dress I was working on this morning was the last straw, the fabric bunched up and ripped. When I checked for more of the material I need, I had run out entirely. I completely lost my temper at that point. Thus far I have taken it out on one teacup, I am fairly certain I yelled at a dress, and now I am here trying not to do the same to you. Do you see now, Pinkie?”

Pinkie smiled even wider. “Oh, just normal day to day stuff building up? You just need to let off a little steam then! When you get home, stay away from your work for a little while. Grab a nice book, brew some tea, and just relax." She winked in an exaggerated, suggestive manner. "And if you still feel stressed out, you could just spend a little time stirring the honey pot. Gets the edge off every time!” She giggled into her hoof, blushing.

Rarity paused, examining her closely. What? “Pinkie, I don’t think honey is going to relieve my stress...” she replied cautiously, a bit perturbed by the other mare’s seemingly bizarre suggestion.

Pinkie cocked her head to one side. “No, no, I mean, um... You know, shining the diamond?” She seemed baffled by Rarity’s blank look, scrambling for some euphemisms that the prim and proper mare might be familiar with. “The disappearing hoof trick? No? Um... weaving the carpet? Ooooh I know! Tickling your fancy!” Rarity was becoming impatient. “Well, I’d say ‘clopping’, but you probably do it with magic...”

Rarity spent one more moment looking confused, brushing at an ear with a hoof as if she half-believed that she had simply misheard. Then the plain meaning of Pinkie’s words hit her, and her white face began to look very green as she tried to refrain from retching up her cupcake. “Ugh, no. Just... no! A lady should not do such things, Pinkie Pie, much less talk about them! I cannot believe you would even suggest...”

Her friend tried to stifle her giggles, but finally couldn’t keep them from welling up anymore and laughed out loud. She stopped abruptly, however, when she noticed that Rarity wasn’t laughing with her. “Um... wait, you were joking, right? Everypony does it.”

“How very crude! No, not everypony, dear - I, for one, find the whole idea rather filthy. I can assure you that I have never-” She was interrupted by Pinkie, who seemed to be valiantly trying to inhale all the air in the room at once.

After picking her jaw up from the table, Pinkie sputtered, “Omigosh you’ve never-”

“No!” Rarity cut her off brusquely.

“Never ever ever?” Pinkie leaned forward, staring, her mouth still agape in disbelief.

“I don’t like to repeat myself. Especially about such... vulgar things.” She shot Pinkie a look of pure disgust.

“But-” Pinkie studied Rarity’s face closely, seemingly expecting some sign of humor, some twitch at the corner of the unicorn’s muzzle that would give away her, thus far, very convincing act. “But how do you even live like that?”

Rarity stuck her nose up in the air and adopted a haughty mien. “I do quite well, thank you very much. Some things, I firmly believe, should be reserved for the wedding night.”

After closing her slack muzzle with a hoof, Pinkie’s smile returned, and she nodded sagely. She had her answer now. “Rarity, there’s nothing wrong with a lil’ right hoof relaxation, even if you are trying to save that for the wedding night. Trust me, you can’t let all that tension build up on you like that! I mean, at first you’re fine, but then one day you find yourself at a party with a bag of flour and a pile of rocks and they start hitting on you. Do you know how awkward that is? How does a mare choose? I mean, Rocky is a sweet guy, but Madame Le Fleur is just so classy... ” Her eyes grew unfocused and her gaze drifted off to the ceiling, seemingly lost in her thoughts, reminiscing about her inanimate paramours.

Rarity just eyed her friend dubiously as she ventured off on yet another one of her (annoyingly frequent) trips into her own little world. “Pinkie...? Pinkie!” She had to raise her voice to snap the pink pony out of her vivid daydream. ”Much as I appreciate your concern, I don’t think doing... that... will fix things. A lady should simply not indulge in such vulgarity. It’s uncouth!”

Pinkie laughed suddenly. “I never said it magically made life all peachy keen. It just makes you feel really happy for a while, and lets out some of that stress you have eating away at you.” She poked a hoof into Rarity’s chest. “Besides, how would you even know it wouldn’t help? I mean, you did just say that you’ve never even tried it...”

Rarity edged away from that prodding hoof, feeling distinctly uncomfortable as she scooched back on her chair. “I-I didn’t say I never tried...”

Pinkie’s eyebrows shot up. “A-ha! Now I understand everything! Wait, no, that other thing... What happened? I mean, it’s a little different for everypony - did you get frustrated and give up?”

Rarity blushed heavily and attempted to brush off the inappropriate question. “It’s not something I would really care to discuss.”

“Why not?”

The fashionista shot her a cross look; at times Pinkie reminded her uncannily of Sweetie Belle, with her endless barrage of ‘why?’-questions. “Because it is a strictly private matter!”

Pinkie’s face scrunched up in frustration. “Well, what if I Pinkie Swear never to tell anypony?”

“I-I...” Rarity hesitated, torn between keeping her problems to herself and opening up to her friend.

Pinkie countered with a hangdog look, complete with eyes that seemed to be made entirely of giant pupils, brimming with shining tears.

It made Rarity’s heart want to melt. “You’re not being fair about this!”

The party pony continued her puppy impression.

Rarity sighed heavily. “Your solemn vow then?”

Pinkie made a series of increasing complex gestures; at one point Rarity got the impression she was swinging on something, just before she ended the act by closing an imaginary door.

“What did all that mean?” Despite her best efforts at remaining suitably exasperated, Rarity couldn’t help but be amused by the elaborate pantomiming.

Pinkie looked affronted at having to explain the blatantly obvious, but somehow mustered the required patience and translated her crystal-clear sign language into plain ol’ boring Equestrian: “I locked my lips, took the key to a hidden temple deep in some forgotten jungle, filled the temple with traps, and set the key on a pedestal with a pressure plate that will make the whole temple explode if somepony takes it!”

Despite herself, Rarity laughed at the apparent lengths at which Pinkie seemed to be willing to go to assure somepony their secret was safe with her. “I see. I don’t know how I could have missed it. But, my dear, I think a simple Pinkie Promise will do.”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Pinkie dutifully recited. She began to bounce around Rarity’s chair. I’d better tell her quickly before she breaks into song.

Rarity nodded, satisfied. “Well then. Ahem. Yes. What happened was...” She was stalling, she realized. The soft smile that Pinkie had managed to conjure onto her muzzle faded swiftly at the prospect of sharing this embarrassing and painful memory. But some part of her insisted it might be cathartic to confide in somepony, and it might as well be Pinkie Pie - her capacity for keeping secrets was nothing short of legendary. Rarity took another deep breath, and forced herself to continue. ”I was a filly when I first attempted.. that. I had gotten curious about my... body. M-my mother walked in and... well the rest is not really important. It’s not a memory I care to relive.”

Pinkie stopped in mid bounce. She hung there for a moment as she processed that. “Oh!” She came down to the floor suddenly. “Uh yeah... that would be awkward. So you’ve never been able to-”

“No-” With a grimace that she tried to form into a smile, Rarity shook her head. “No, I never tried after that. It was far too embarrassing to even consider.”

“Huh...” They both sat at the table in silence. Pinkie seemed a bit concerned at the revelation. Rarity could not be certain, but it seemed as if her friend was struggling with something. Beneath that bubbly exterior she had unfathomable depths which only showed themselves when the surface stopped churning. Rarity saw them now. Finally she spoke up. “I could... help you, if you want.”

Rarity froze, the gears in her mind coming to a screeching halt while trying to process Pinkie's audacious sentence. “What?!... No! That’s not something you just do!”

“Why not? If you needed a party I would throw you one; if you needed a cake I would bake you one. How is this any different? You need something you can’t do for yourself - why wouldn’t I help?” Pinkie cocked her head to one side and smiled. “I really do think it would make you feel better. Like, loads better.”

“Because... because...” Rarity sputtered, feverishly trying to compile the full list of approximately one million reasons why that was utterly unthinkable. She found herself distracted by the pounding of her own heart, however, and the horde of butterflies that had been unleashed within her stomach while she hadn’t been looking, leading her to conclude, rather lamely, ”It’s just not done!”

Pinkie regarded her for moment, then leaned in and kissed her lightly. “How was that?”

Rarity initially pulled back, ready to rebuff her for her advances. But the protest died before it could even begin. The kiss had not felt wrong. It had, in fact, been everything she’d ever dreamed a first kiss could be. That was... she... She touched her lips softly, feeling the lingering warmth from her friend, then pulled back her hoof and stared at it, half-expecting, perhaps even hoping, to see some tangible trace of that shocking, wonderful violation of her pristine lips. My first kiss... was with Pinkie Pie? “You... you kissed me! How could you?”

“It seemed like the right thing to do - did I do it wrong? Here, let me try again!” She kissed her again, longer this time. Rarity could feel the heat from her lips, and smell the saccharine sweetness of her friend’s breath. For a brief, yet eternal moment, she lost everything else in her world. She was just a mare being kissed. Then Pinkie pulled back and gave Rarity’s heavily blushing face a fond lick on the cheek. Rarity opened her eyes to find herself leaning forward, hoping for more.

“Pinkie... please...” Rarity implored in a series of soft gasps, clutching a hoof to her chest, ”this is highly inappropriate! Somepony could come in! The Cakes would be horrified!” The rational part of Rarity was desperate to extricate herself from the situation she had found herself in, scrambling for convenient excuses, but another, long neglected, part had been roused, deeply and unexpectedly affected by her forward friend’s surprisingly gentle attentions. She felt confused - and a little afraid - but could not bring herself to leave, or even so much as pull away.

Pinkie shook her head. “Nuh-uh! They’re out of town with the twins, they’re visiting Mrs Cake’s family. And the whole bakery is closed for the afternoon; nopony wants cupcakes in the middle of a rainstorm.”

“But... you shouldn’t... it’s not right...” She was cut off by her friend kissing her again, this time slipping in just a little bit of tongue. Despite her words, she found her own tongue betraying her, writhing against Pinkie’s with wanton excitement. This ought to be anathema to her - it was lewd and dirty and, and... By Celestia, Rarity, that is somepony else’s tongue in your muzzle! The mere thought should be making her shudder in revulsion, but even when intentionally trying to gross herself out like this, the only trembling she experienced was of utter delight.

Rarity could feel the sensual, rough-but-slick texture of her friend’s tongue teasing along her parted lips, and the soothing warmth of her saliva as it replenished the missing moisture in her own, dry mouth. There was still not a trace of disgust, only further arousal, and when Pinkie drew back, Rarity found herself desperate not for air, but further kisses. “P-Pinkie...you should stop...”

Pinkie pulled away. “Okie dokie!”

Rarity caught her breath in deep, heaving gasps, staring at the smiling pony who had just stolen her first - and second, and third, and first French - kiss in utter bewilderment. Wait... she stopped? Why did she stop? This isn’t the way it’s supposed to go! At least not if the romantic novels she so often read were anything to go by. According to the formulaic scripts of those reliable sources, this was the part where Pinkie was supposed to insist! Maybe rip the chaste unicorn’s bodice - if she had been wearing one - or perhaps rescue her from being abducted and tied to the railroad tracks by some fiendish, mustache-twirling villain. Yet she hadn't even offered a single word of protest, which confused Rarity even more. Those dusty old novels were all she had to go by! “Why... why did you do that?” Please, please insist...

“Because you asked me to, silly!” Pinkie beamed at her, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Rarity’s breathlessness wasn’t just due to oxygen deprivation.

Rarity was thoroughly confused at this point. She’d just been kissed by a friend, a mare... and had enjoyed it. Immensely. If you had told her this an hour ago, she would have scoffed, and dismissed the mere notion as preposterous. “I didn’t mean, ‘why did you stop’ - well, okay, perhaps a bit. But what I really I meant was: why did you kiss me in the first place?”

Pinkie cocked her head to one side. “Why not? You looked like you could use a good smooching!”

“And... and if I asked you to do it again?” This question, born from pure, intensely hopeful curiosity, nevertheless came out of her muzzle reluctantly. Part of Rarity feared the answer. She had spent a lifetime dreaming of such a moment, though she had never considered the possibility that the seduction would come from such an unlikely source. If Pinkie pursued, she would be putty in those pink hooves.

The only thing that could possibly be worse than that outcome would be if the unthinkable happened, and Pinkie actually refused...

Pinkie leaned forward and pursed her lips. “Then I’d do thish.”

Rarity looked down at the floor, feeling concerned and relieved, hesitant and excited - unable to reconcile her many, many contradictory feelings. “Pinkie... I am extremely-“ She paused, trying to find a word that fit, “-confused? That’s as good as any word I suppose. I-I should be positively scandalized bu-”

Pinkie didn’t give her any time to finish her sentence, kissing her on the lips once more, which made the whole bewildering spectrum of feelings return full force.

“You sound like Twilight - can’t you just enjoy yourself sometimes?” Pinkie tilted her head again. “Maybe that’s a unicorn thing...”

“Oh, you insufferable, irrational thing, you!” Rarity clasped her hoof to her mouth and blushed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so harsh. I can so have fun. I just do not understand anything that is going on right now.”

Pinkie smiled that infuriating smile of hers. “Would you like to?”

“Yes! No? I don’t know!“ Rarity took several deep calming breaths, not able to come to a solid decision. “I think... I would like to understand. We can just try to have a good time?”

Pinkie nodded, looking pleased. “Trust me, it’ll be fun!”

Rarity only nodded slowly in response, trying not to think about the implications of what she’d just agreed to.

It wasn’t her brain that was doing most of the agreeing, anyway; she hadn’t felt this flustered since that time she’d accidentally spent fifteen minutes reading a Cosmarepolitan article entitled ‘Fifteen Fabulous Oral Sex Tips to Teach Your Stallion or Mare’ at the spa. (Fluttershy had been rather saddened when she had finally discovered - and unknowingly rescued - a frozen Rarity from the waiting room, convinced that the unicorn had gone into the sauna without her. There had been no use arguing otherwise either, for how else would she have explained the healthy, full-body blush and all the sweating?)

Nodding solemnly - or as solemnly as she could - Pinkie moved in and kissed Rarity’s chest softly. She reached down and began to touch her thighs, drawing slow little circles that spiraled ever closer to her the place she had resolved never to touch again.

“Wait... what are you doing with your hoof?!” Rarity was panicking; even the slightest touches on her thighs felt like those times when Opalescence would sneak up on her and brush that luxurious, ticklish fur along her legs when she least expected it, giving her goosebumps and making her coat stand on end. This time she actually saw every caress coming, but it didn’t help! It made her delicate skin tingle; it tickled in a way that made entirely different sets of muscles than the ones that make you laugh contract spasmodically...

When Pinkie finally responded, it was with a typical non sequitur. “I see the lights in your boutique on late into the night sometimes. I stay up way late myself, because I don’t need a lot of sleep. And that means I get to hear you singing to yourself a lot. You sing... really beautifully, did you know that, Rarity? I love-” Pinkie fell silent, her mouth moving without making a sound. After a few false starts, she continued, “I love it when you sing, because you do it when you’re happy. But there are nights when you don’t sing, and I miss it... You didn’t sing last night, or the night before... I didn’t sleep very well,” she finished, eyes tearing up at this admission. Rarity would have asked why, were it not for what her friend did next.

Pinkie slowly teased her hoof along the inside of Rarity’s thigh. “So if you’re sad, or upset, or grumbly, I want to help...

“It's true, some days are dark and lonely

And maybe you feel sad

But Pinkie will be there to show you

That it isn't that bad...”

She whispered the song as she continued her ministrations, bringing an unbidden smile to Rarity’s lips. She sang that same refrain the day we ended up crying on each other’s shoulders.

Rarity shuddered slightly as she felt the hoof draw ever closer to... that place. She couldn’t even refer to it more specifically, not even in her head; she had never experienced anything quite like this. Part of her demanded that this little ‘game’ end. Her shame made this feel so very filthy... yet she could not bring herself to make Pinkie stop what she was doing. Apparently, at least some part of her agreed with the other mare, though whether it was her heart or something far more base was up for debate. “I-I’m scared, Pinkie... I don’t know what’s happening to me. Or I do, but...”

Pinkie kissed her neck. “I don’t want you to be afraid or ashamed, Rarity. I want you to be happy!” She lightly touched one glistening white lip of Rarity’s labia.

Rarity’s eyes closed almost completely; her snowy thighs twitched apart a little more and so provided better access. Her tail seemed a little more indecisive, twitching first up and out of the way, then firmly down again in an attempt to cover herself. “Oh! You... you touched it. Please, don’t touch it...” she gasped feebly as the hoof lightly caressed her.

Pinkie drew her hoof up to her mouth and licked it. “Mmmm, not bad. You taste sweet.” She smacked her lips and beamed at the trembling pony she’d just tasted. ”I bet you bathe in rose water!” She returned the hoof to Rarity’s sex and continued to tease her labia.

“You... you licked...” Rarity’s eyes were very wide now; she had just witnessed the single most sensual and lewd thing she had ever encountered in her - admittedly, extremely sparse - sex-life. The scene replayed endlessly in her still-reeling mind, leaving her breathless. That look of taboo-shattering enjoyment on Pinkie’s face, after she had sampled the very wetness that was always such an utter embarrassment to Rarity whenever she was in heat or saw a particularly handsome stallion prancing by... ”That’s so very filthy, Pinkie... You mustn’t do such things...”

Pinkie stopped moving her hoof.

Rarity groaned when the sensations ended. I asked her to stop again... I’m such an idiot. Rarity gasped out. “It’s... fine!”

Pinkie smiled happily, and resumed her gentle touches. “I know it’s a little weird, Rarity, but I want you to know that I really like you-” her eyes widen slightly as she hurriedly continued, “J-just like I like all my friends! Not that I would do this for just any of my friends! Um... sorry, I got kinda muddled for a sec. Anyway, try to think happy thoughts! Stop thinking about why you shouldn’t be doing this...”

“Happy thoughts?” She felt the hoof touch her again, in a way that both enraptured and disgusted her, although the latter, knee-jerk sentiment was getting more and more feigned and meaningless by the second.

“Think about... sexy things! Maybe somepony you like, or couldn’t look away from. You know, like when you fantasized about ‘Him’? Okay, maybe not him. He was a jerk. Think about somepony that makes you really happy.”

Rarity was entirely focused on where Pinkie’s hoof was, and the amazing things it seemed to be doing to her. Without really thinking about it, she pictured herself kissing Pinkie again - far less passively this time - and a jolt of pleasure shook her. “Ha-happy thoughts...”

“I can feel you shuddering...” Pinkie noted, ”Are you okay?”

Rarity moaned a bit, but she somehow forced a word past her lips. “S-stop.”

“Rarity?” Pinkie immediately backed away again. “Did I do it wrong? I’m sorry!”

“No...” Rarity gasped for breath. “I-I-” She couldn’t make herself say it. She groaned in frustration. She motioned with a hoof, trying to convey what she meant.

Pinkie cocked her head in confusion, then caught on. “Guessing games! Whee, fun! Okay... um, do you want me to keep going?”

“Yes!”

The adorable desperation in Rarity’s voice made Pinkie smile. She drew closer again and began to touch her once more. “Okay, um... faster?”

“No...”

“Harder?”

Rarity nodded wordlessly, her eyes pleading.

Pinkie smiled and kissed her again. She bore down with just a bit more weight, pushing deeper into the unicorn’s folds. Rarity let out a soft moan of appreciation. She bent down slightly, her breath coming in great heaving gasps, and reached a hoof around Pinkie’s head and pulled her in for a kiss.

Pinkie let out a short squeal that was muffled by Rarity's lips pressing against hers. When they broke away from the kiss Pinkie smiled from ear to ear. “Oh, I’m so happy you like it Rarity! I’m sorry if I scared you before.”

Rarity just nodded again, unwilling to let her traitorous tongue ruin what was turning out to be the most glorious experience of her life thus far. She leaned back in the chair and felt another shudder go through her body, as she looked around the bakery wildly, trying to reassure herself that they were alone, that nopony was here to see her shame.

Feeling slightly better, if one can be said to feel better about such a thing, she closed her eyes tightly. She was desperately trying to stop thinking about... anything. The feelings and sensations coursing through her were wonderful, so she did her best to keep focused on those instead. The gentle hoof continued to touch her, not too hard, not too soft. She screwed up her courage enough to utter a single word. “F-faster...”

The hoof hesitated for only a moment, then gradually increased its speed. Pinkie kissed her lightly on the neck. “You're really pretty like this Rarity... you should leave your mane down more often.”

The haze of pleasure made it hard to really care about her appearance at this point. It was habit more than anything else that made her question: "M-my mane?"

Pinkie reached up and stroked her forelock. "Shhhh, don’t worry. It's beautiful.” She kissed Rarity hard on the lips, making her melt anew. “You're beautiful."

More kisses trailed down her chest. “And down here, such a pretty pink, you’re beautiful everywhere...”

Rarity felt a thrill of pleasure at the praise, trying not to let the state of her mane worry her. She kept her eyes tightly shut, entrusting her everything to her perpetually happy friend. Something was approaching, her whole body felt it. It was as if Pinkie was slowly guiding her up a steep mountain. She could feel the peak approaching, and every sense tingled in anticipation of some unknown event.

The closer she got, the more she felt she was in danger of falling, of losing control - yet she knew that were she to fall, Pinkie would catch her. Somehow, at that moment, she felt that Pinkie would always be there to catch her, just as Rarity would always be there to catch Pinkie. It was startling, but she felt it to be true.

Slowly, deliciously, her friend pushed her further. Finally, when she felt she could bear no more, she reached the summit, her whole body tensing as she rocked back in the chair. The hoof pressed firmly into her, and she plummeted into freefall. Every part of her convulsed as she felt a great heat wash over her, and her eyes flew open to stare into the lovely blue eyes of the smiling pink pony. Her breath caught as wave after wave of ecstasy thrummed through her body, and she was barely able to force a wail of bliss from her clenched throat.

The hoof continued its work, but now it sketched out slow, deep strokes. Every time it reached the most sensitive area, Rarity tensed again as a smaller but still potent bolt of extreme pleasure shot through her. Time seemed to slow, then stop, as her friend continued to push her gently, but firmly, over each peak. At last Pinkie let her hoof slide away from Rarity's body and she was able to relax with a huge sigh, still looking directly into Pinkie's eyes as her friend looked back at her with warm affection clear in her gaze.

Pinkie lowered her gaze and planted another kiss on her lips. “There! Do you feel better?”

Rarity continued to stare into the eyes of the pony who had just been upgraded from friend to lover. Aftershocks struck her with every movement of air going past her labia. “Oh... my... goddesses...”

“Rarity?”

Rarity began to weep softly. “Pinkie... I-”

“Rarity! You... I-I’m sorry! I never meant-! Please stop crying! Stupid, stupid Pinkie Pie! You made her cry!” Pinkie hugged her tightly, leaning in to kiss away each falling tear with frantic pecking motions of her lips.

She... she thinks I’m sad... Rarity weakly forced out a few reassuring words for her worried friend. “It’s a-all right. I just... I have never... Pinkie... Thank you...”

They held each other for a while, Rarity letting her shame pour from her body through her tears and Pinkie kissing each tear away from her face. Yet there seemed to be many more tears than Rarity herself was shedding.

And maybe you feel sad

After she had composed herself slightly, Rarity kissed her wonderful friend. “Pinkie, I am so sorry! I never should have...”

Pinkie shushed her. “I know, silly. It’s okay. Do you feel better?”

Rarity nodded, smiling weakly. “I-I do. You were right. I do feel rather wonderful right now.”

Pinkie nodded along happily. “And the best part is, now you can do it again whenever you want to! Like I said, it won’t fix everything, but it sure does make you super-happy for a while!”

Rarity blanched at the very idea. “D-do it again? I don’t know... You mean me, touching myself?”

“Sure! Just do what I did!”

Rarity looked down at the floor, tapping her hooves together in worry. “But, I don’t know what you did! It felt wonderful, but I wouldn’t have a clue about how to recreate it.” She looked up into Pinkie’s eyes, trying to not waver in her conviction. “Can you- could you perhaps- show me? I could watch you do what you did to me, while you do it on y-yourself?”

Pinkie’s hair deflated in a second. This worried the fashionista, as she had previously only seen that particular event happen in reverse. It had never been explained to her, but she found the look quite striking, and truth be told, attractive.

Pinkie drew back, her face twisted in horror. “You- want to watch me?” She whispered the question, as if unwilling to believe the words.

Rarity nodded. “If it’s not too much trouble?”

“B-but somepony could come in and see us!” Pinkie was visibly trembling now; Rarity had never seen her genuinely frightened of anything, but this particular situation really seemed to scare her.

“Somepony?” Rarity said, confused by Pinkie’s sudden change of heart. Her concerns about interlopers so closely mirrored Rarity’s own, initial protests that the unicorn experienced a sense of deja vu, only with a particularly bewildering role reversal. ”Darling, we went over this: there is nopony else here, and the door is locked, you said so yourself. In fact, you were the one who locked it.” She would almost think that the pink pony was joking, if it weren’t for the look on her face. ”Whatever is wrong?”

“N-nothing, it’s fine.” She leaned back in her seat, trying not to look at Rarity. “Just... watch what I do.” Hesitantly she reached down to touch herself, but her eyes were continuously darting around the room. At the very limit of her hearing, Rarity caught a small whimper coming from her friend.

“Darling?” Rarity cocked her head and frowned, already regretting her rather indecent request.It must have been too much.

Pinkie groaned, her hooves dropping to her sides. “Oh, I can’t do this!”

Rarity bowed her head. She still wasn’t certain what was troubling her friend, but nothing could ever really be worth the apparent discomfort Pinkie was experiencing and so she decided the best thing she could do was let it rest. Rarity stood up to leave. ”I’m sorry, Pinkie, I shouldn’t have asked. Thank you for your kind assistance. I am sorry for upsetting you.”

Pinkie looked up in alarm. “No, don’t go!”

Rarity paused in her ascent, struggling to comprehend Pinkie’s change of heart as she slowly sat back down. “Pinkie... I-I don’t understand.”

“It’s—" Pinkie squirmed under Rarity’s gaze, falling silent and staring at the floor sullenly, as if she were seated under hot lights and being asked to confess to a crime.

The fashionista leaned closer, torn with indecision. She badly wanted to embrace her friend but was uncertain if that would help or hinder the situation. If only she would tell me what’s troubling her. "Pinkie," she said softly “It's just us in here, you don't have to tell me a thing if you don't want to. I never meant to alarm or upset you. Just know that, if you wish to talk about it, I’ll make time." It wasn't much, but it was the least likely to upset Pinkie further.

Pinkie remained silent for a long while, and Rarity feared that, not only had she made a faux pas, she may very well have irrevocably damaged her relationship with her friend. She was just about to offer more apologies before Pinkie spoke up.

"I'm scared..."

Rarity paused, taken aback at the unexpected statement. “Why?” she nuzzled her friend gently. “Did you not just teach me that there’s nothing to be afraid of, or disgusted by?”

Pinkie kept her gaze on the floor and sniffed a few times, clearly on the verge of crying.

“Alright, dear. If you do not want to talk about it we’ll just leave it at this.”

The earth pony looked up in alarm at the mention of leaving again. “B-but I want to help you!”

“This is clearly causing you far too much distress. I’ll figure it out on my own.”

“I-I don’t care! You need help!”

“Pinkie, I can see what you meant now, I obviously have issues I need to work past. But, frankly I’m baffled. You seem to be acting as if I’ve asked something horrible of you. It was a bit lewd to be sure, but surely not anything to upset you? A-after what we just did... I mean, is what I asked so much worse than—"

Pinkie looked at Rarity, the tears seeping out from the edges of her eyes despite her attempts to hold them back. “Don’t think like that! Please...”

Rarity looked away from her friend, ashamed with herself for having made her friend cry. “I-I’ve upset you again. I’m sorry.”

“No! It’s not your fault!” The tears were flowing freely now.

The fashionista locked eyes with her friend, trying to understand the sudden change in her demeanor. “Then whose is it? Tell me, Pinkie.”

At first, there was silence. Then two words, then more poured forth, until they began to rush from Pinkie in a torrent. “My muh-mother... she... found me doing—" Pinkie scrubbed tears from her face. "Mother called me a horrible filly!" She stifled a sob. "And grou—" She sniffed, sucking a bit of snot that was hanging from her nose back before it reached the floor. "D-daddy grounded me... a-and h-he, he... told my sisters what I had done, and made me tell them how bad it was, so they wouldn’t try it too! I-I had to lie to them!”

Reliving the moment was obviously getting to be too much for Pinkie. Rarity froze for a moment, then quickly embraced her friend. “Shhhh, you don’t have to go on. I understand. It’s okay.”

Pinkie rested her head on Rarity’s shoulder for a long time, as she attempted to calm down. While she waited, Rarity stroked her mane and murmured soothing inanities into her ear.

Pinkie finally pulled back from the embrace to look Rarity in the eyes. “It’s okay... I think you should know. A-After I left the farm I figured stuff out a little, and now I’m pretty much okay. Sometimes I still feel guilty, but when that happens I tell myself: ‘Self, this feels good, and it’s not hurting anypony. Mom was wrong, this is fun.’ And then I’m okay again. When you were watching me though... It was like she’s still in the back of my head. But she was wrong! It’s not bad, and I hate that I still feel her judging me sometimes.” Pinkie fell silent then, stifling a sniffle.

“Darling, she had no right to do that, any more than my own mother had the right to make me uncomfortable.” Rarity leaned forward and kissed Pinkie lightly on the nose. “Stop thinking about her. Think about me instead.” Pinkie looked at her curiously, and she quickly grasped that her statement might be taken the wrong way. “I mean, about s-sexy things?” she offered with a weak grin. ”Or about s-somepony who makes you smile?” Idiot. Have you lost all capacity for forethought?

Pinkie smiled very slightly at Rarity’s badly-botched attempt to comfort her. “Okay, um... here, just look while I...” Pinkie’s body shook slightly while placed her hoof down between her hindlegs. Try as she might however, she could not seem to relax.

Rarity pursed her lips for a moment. She hated to see Pinkie so uncomfortable, after she had just gone to such lengths to make her feel so wonderful. Embracing Pinkie, she kissed her lightly on the nape of her neck. “I really don’t see what you have to be nervous about. You are a very lovely pony, you know!”

She hesitantly placed a hoof between Pinkie’s legs. “I understand that being watched is uncomfortable for you, but what if I were to take the, ah, hooves-on approach?”

Hearing no protests from the surprised mare, she pressed her hoof to Pinkie's inner thigh, at approximately the location she remembered being touched herself, but pulled it away quickly as Pinkie let out a pained little squeak.

"I- I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have—"

Pinkie wordlessly shook her head and, drawing resolve from Celestia-knows-where, she took Rarity's hoof in her own and guided it back to her smooth entrance. “It’s okay, you just hit the wrong spot. Try lower.”

Rarity resumed hesitantly, her gaze searching Pinkie's eyes for the reactions to her fumbling. True to form, Pinkie did not complain about her unskilled motions, she simply murmured encouragingly and cooed when Rarity did something right. The feel of Pinkie's folds was fascinating to Rarity: she was warm and quickly becoming slick with moisture. Rarity shuddered for just a moment when she realized what a mess she must be herself, after her friend’s skilled ministrations. Really now, darling, a quick bath will take care of that.

Her assertion about wishing to learn by doing was the truth, albeit only part of it. Just smile, darling. Be happy again, please? Seeing her friend so saddened hurt her in a way she’d never thought possible. They had never been the closest of friends, yet Pinkie had been there to comfort her during some of the darkest moments in her life. During her brief but horrible time spent with that monster Iron Will, Fluttershy had called them both petty and frivolous out of anger and spite. And it had been Pinkie who had consoled her, quietly whispering the same song she had sung just now. On the way home from Dodge Junction, while she had been annoyed by the energetic mare’s antics, that same energy had made Rarity continue to push onward. And had it not been for her joyous spirit, every single one of them could have fallen prey to fear, in the Everfree Forest, before ever even having a chance to obtain the Elements of Harmony.

Now she found her exuberant friend shared more with her than just a talent for ‘petty and frivolous’ things. They’d had similar experiences in their foalhood; they both sought ways to bring out the best in ponies, in their own fashion. And they both appreciated beauty in a very ephemeral form; Rarity in dresses often worn once and forgotten, and Pinkie in pastries that were meant to be consumed and forgotten just as quickly.

Pinkie had clearly suffered no small amount of trauma herself, but had somehow gotten over it, at least to an extent. The idea that her normally eternally joyful (and quite shameless) friend would be feeling self-disgust in any way felt... wrong. She loved Pinkie dearly, silliness and all.

Love? Getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we Rarity? And yet, no part of her objected to the word when she weighed it against her heart. Curiouser and curiouser... What are you doing to me, Pinkie? Prior to this experience, she didn’t even know that she was capable of feeling this way about a mare. We can examine that later. I certainly love her as a friend. That is enough. And it was; she felt a deep upwelling of affection for this kind-hearted mare, who somehow seemed to know exactly what she needed. I only hope I can help her in return...

Rarity moved her hoof gently, but no matter how she caressed, or where, nothing seemed to provoke the reaction that she herself had experienced. I must be doing something wrong; when she did this I melted!

She finally stopped, frustrated by her lack of success. “I-I’m sorry, Pinkie. It seemed to work so well on me, and I had hoped it might help you, too.” She flung her forelegs around Pinkie. “I’m clearly no good at this.”

Pinkie gave her a weak grin, stroking her hair gently. “It’s hard to feel sexy when you think your mom is breathing down your neck.” She leaned down and kissed Rarity’s nose, but in the moment that Pinkie’s lips hovered there Rarity raised her muzzle and turned it into a full kiss. They stayed like that for some time, going no further than letting their lips gently move against the other’s, until they both broke apart, feeling slightly breathless. “W-Wow...”

Rarity held Pinkie for a little while longer, trying to come to terms with the impulse that had momentarily seized her. I kissed her, without hesitation, without any confusion. It felt so natural. She realized that there was still a chance; Pinkie did not find being with her shameful, she just needed to calm down and get past her earlier episode. And what better place to relax than in a bath? “Pinkie, would it be too much trouble if I were to use your bathtub? I feel... icky.”

Pinkie did not respond right away. She seemed lost and confused, simply staring, unmoving, at the floor before finally looking up at Rarity’s words. “Um, sure.”

The poor dear. What were you thinking, Rarity? She just confessed something horrid to you and you try to fix things with the very act that traumatized her! This situation calls for pampering, and lots of it.

I wish it weren’t raining; I could have taken her to the spa... Argh, idiot! The spa is the last place you want to be in this situation!

We’ll just have to make do then. Rarity stopped arguing with herself, stood up, and looked at Pinkie questioningly, since she seemed quite content to remain where she was. “Darling, perhaps you could join me? If you don’t mind?”

Pinkie looked up again in surprise. “S-sure!”

Rarity waited until Pinkie had gathered herself and walked her upstairs to the bathroom. Pinkie turned on the water and they both waited while the tub slowly filled. Rarity watched quietly as the water swirled, but eventually broke the silence with a question that had been weighing heavily on her mind ever since Pinkie’s revelation: “How do you do it, Pinkie?”

Pinkie looked up; she was smiling brightly again, albeit not quite as widely as when she had first greeted Rarity. It was as if she’d merely stubbed her hoof and now the pain had subsided, leaving no trace of her earlier distress. “Do what?”

“H-how do you turn it on and off like that? How do you live your life trying to bring others joy when you’ve been treated so poorly yourself?” How can you possibly care so much for me when my problems are so miniscule compared to yours? What makes me special?

“Oh.” Pinkie’s ears flattened. “Well, I could be all mopey-dopey about it, but that wouldn’t make it better, now would it? Back when Pinkie was a itty bitty little widdle twinkie Pinkie, she had a hard life sometimes. But she had her sisters, and she loved her mom and dad, even though they did have some weird ideas. Then she left the rock farm and found out there was more to the world than just rocks and grey clouds, but she still misses her family sometimes, and still loves them.”

Rarity just stared for a while, rendered temporarily speechless as she processed what Pinkie had said. Was that all this was then? Just some attempt to help me because she knows a little of what I went through?

Pinkie quickly got bored watching the bathtub-equivalent of drying paint, however, and started nosing around the bathroom. When she finally returned it was in triumph, carrying a pair of rubber duckies in her mouth: one pink, one white, but both with strange, miniscule markings near their tail-ends.

Cutie marks? Ducks don’t have...

Pinkie grinned around the fake waterfowl, biting down to make them quack.

Rarity realized something in that moment, and it startled her so much that she uttered the thought aloud without really intending to do so. “You actually forgave them, didn’t you?”

The party pony looked at her in surprise and dropped the duckies into the bath, smiling at her companion’s accurate guess. “Yeppers! It wasn’t really their fault. After I left the farm, my Granny Pie took me in and taught me a thing or two. She never believed in all of that immorality junk, and told me it was okay to have a little ‘me time’.”

Rarity’s eyes teared up at that. I should talk to my own mother about this some day; perhaps I too need a sense of closure. She nodded solemnly. “She sounds like a wise mare. Thank you for passing on her wisdom.”

Pinkie scuffed a hoof nervously on the tiled floor. “Um... sure. Always glad to help a friend!”

When the water finally neared the top, Rarity eased herself into the tub. “Oh, this is lovely! You really must join me, Pinkie.” She looked around, but her friend seemed to have disappeared. “Pinkie?”

“CANNONBALL!”

Rarity looked up in alarm at the rapidly-approaching pink projectile. “Oh.”

A moment later a good half of the water in the tub had been splashed all over Rarity and the shower curtain around the bath, while Pinkie was trying and utterly failing to contain a fit of laughter. Rarity coughed and blew a soaking wet forelock from her face. “Oh, did that amuse you?”

Pinkie was blushing furiously, still giggling. “It looks good on you, honest!”

Rarity grinned herself, a little miffed but encouraged by her friend’s laughter. “Oh. It. Is. On.”

She swept both hooves through the water, drenching Pinkie in a wave of soapy carnage. Pinkie squealed and batted at the water surface with her hooves, sending erratic sprays back in Rarity’s direction. This epic battle raged on for several minutes, with neither side giving quarter.

The Dread Pirate Pinkbeard soon surprised Rear Admiral Rarity with a sudden wave created by thrusting both powerful forelegs forwards. “Face my watery doom!” came her war-cry.

Rarity countered with a magical shield of water, only to find that when water hits water it merely creates a bigger splash. Water-casualties amassed and their navies were soon depleted, leaving both of them thoroughly soaked and more water on the floor around them than in the bath with them.

Despite herself, Rarity found that she was having fun. That smile is back; that gorgeous, precious smile. Glancing in the mirror above the sink, she discovered its twin on her own face. Rarity finally waved a hoof, coughing loudly. “Enough, please!” She looked around the room and tutted. “Goodness, you are worse than Sweetie Belle!” She exclaimed as she fired up her horn and proceeded to collect all of the water from the floor into a single globule of undulating liquid.

“Ooooo.” Pinkie watched in fascination as it floated around the room. “What are you gonna do with—"

The bubble floated over Pinkie’s head, hovering ominously, then the shimmering magical field that held it together disappeared and the ball became a sudden torrent of water.

Pinkie said nothing for a moment; she merely dripped. Then she cracked an even wider grin. “Good one, Rare!”

Rarity snickered into a hoof. “I am sorry, but you did start this little conflict, so it’s only fair that I get to end it.”

Exhausted, they lay back in the refilled tub. Pinkie hummed happily along with some little tune only she could hear. After a while, she picked up a bottle of shampoo in her mouth.

Rarity raised her eyebrows. “Pinkie, would you like me to wash your mane?”

Her friend smiled around the bottle. “Sfure, ef yoo waunt!” She spat out the bottle and allowed Rarity to pick it up in her magic.

Rarity squirted a generous dollop of shampoo onto her hooves. “Turn around, darling.”

Pinkie did so, and soon Rarity was working her hooves through her mane. “Goodness, such luxurious curls, darling! I’m quite jealous you know; it’s not easy for me to get this kind of body, but for you it just comes naturally!” Just imagine what she could achievewith a bit of help from somepony with an eye for style and fashion!

Rarity patiently worked the mass of curls, massaging her friend’s scalp. “Pinkie, some of the things you said earlier... did you mean them?”

Pinkie tensed up slightly. “I’m sorry! Did I say something wrong? I-I just wanted to make you happy, honest!”

Is she nervous? “I didn’t mean to imply it was a bad thing,” Rarity said, continuing to wash her mane. ”You complimented my singing, and called me beautiful. I was very flattered, even if I was a bit distracted at the time.”

Her friend turned her head slightly to look back at her. “Well sure I did! You’re very pretty! Like, model pretty. And I do love it when you sing... you sing when you’re happy. I like it when you’re happy.”

Rarity smiled gently. There is that feeling again! Why do you confuse me so, you little pink ball of joy? “You have a lovely voice as well, Pinkie. It’s one of the many things I love about you.”

She stiffened. Rarity dear, you mustn’t throw such words about so casually, or she will get the wrong idea.

Pinkie giggled happily, though, and lay back against Rarity’s chest. Or perhaps you will get the wrong idea instead... but is it really so very wrong, I wonder?

She examined that thought very carefully, as she would a new bolt of cloth. I have never even really considered this possibility. The novels were clear on this point: it’s always a stallion seducing a mare. (Well, unless some sort of inheritance is involved, then it’s a young mare seducing an older stallion who suffers a mysterious ailment shortly afterward.) But then... Pinkie is rather tomcoltish; perhaps that’s why the idea of her in that role does not feel all that strange to me.

The refrain from Pinkie’s song kept repeating in her head, and Rarity found herself humming the tune. Pinkie grew increasingly relaxed as she lay against Rarity’s chest. The fashionista listened to her slow and rhythmic breathing, marveling at seeing Pinkie in a state of such quiet repose. She dresses up well, but Pinkie is not exactly a prim and proper lady. This, of course, led to visions of dressing her friend up in frills and lacey undergarments. Perhaps some ribbons. If I can only talk her out of streamers.

Wait! I was supposed to be thinking about.... something... Her heart didn’t seem to notice, or care about the turmoil the mind was going through. Pinkie was leaning up against her chest, happily snuggling against her, and all was right with the world. Sweet sisters! I think I may be in love. H-how? She’s a - well…. a she! This isn’thow it’s supposed to happen!

Okay, just think about this rationally. You have become infatuated with a friend. What do you do about it? Having posed the question, she discovered quite quickly she had no answer for it. Nothing in her life had prepared her for this; it was off any conceivable path she had envisioned for herself.

Her whole life she had been waiting for a prince to sweep her off her hooves. Now the day had come and she had been swept quite thoroughly, but it was all wrong! Her prince was a mare! And the worst part was, she wasn’t bothered by it. She was a little surprised, to be sure, but couldn’t truly bring herself to care. Having never considered it prior to now, she found that the concept of being in love with Pinkie not only did not seem wrong, it seemed very right. What does that say about me exactly?

Wait, wait, perhaps this is inconsequential? Does she even like mares in that way?The thought filled her with dread - how ironic would it be to find that she was inclined in that way and Pinkie was not? Surely life could not be so cruel!

Like getting a chance to meet the prince of your dreams and finding out that he is in fact nothing more than a boorish ruffian?

Will you please shut up, voice in my head? You’re not helping. I am trying to have a crisis here.

Oh, you think this is a crisis? How about when the tabloids find out you’re one of those... fillyfoolers? Oh the gossip that will fly!

I don’t care! They can think what they want, I need to know how she feels.

Pinkie wriggled her shoulders against Rarity’s chest and gave a happy little sigh of contentment. It brought her back to the here and now rather effectively, for which she was silently thankful to the pink mare. Hmmm, well, she is certainly happy to be around me.

Pinkie is happy around any of her friends. You know that.

Fine. You’re right, but it does at least argue that she is comfortable around me. And earlier, she showed no hesitation at the idea of having sexual relations with me, another mare.

Bisexual perhaps?

Possibly; she did call me pretty earlier, which suggests that she has given the matter some consideration, at least with respect to me.

So then, she is inclined. The real question then becomes: does she have feelings for me? How can I be sure? I hardly wish to pester her if this was just ‘helping’, as she put it. It would be awkward for us both. A very troubling thought occurred to her: bringing up something like this out of the blue was almost assuredly going to upset Pinkie again, and she didn’t want to be the cause of Pinkie's distress a second time. The first had been painful enough.

She quietly began to fret. Stupid heart, why did you pick her? Pinkie... especially after what she’s done for me... I can’t risk her feelings like that. Its not fair to her.

However, if she does care for me, I would be throwing away both of our chances at happiness! What to do... Rarity looked down at the pony lying against her in utter contentment. I could do with more moments like this. She made up her mind at last. I have to know if she feels the same! Oh please, let her feel the same! I want this. I know it’s selfish of me, but I want this.

She pondered her next course of action. Pinkie has calmed down now. Perhaps, if I start slow. She was banking on something she’d only ever read about. In the heat of passion, the participants in her romance novels had frequently uttered the name of the pony they truly loved, sometimes with disastrous consequences. She recognized the irony in trying to seduce her friend in order to determine her feelings, but she had few tools to work with. When all you have is a needle and thread, every problem looks like fabric.“Pinkie, I need you to sit up for a moment, we need to rinse you off.”

“Oh, okey dokey!” Pinkie looked back and shot her a guilty little grin. “Sorry, I got comfortable. Was I too heavy?”

“Never, love. You may get comfortable around me whenever you wish.” Oh Celestia, did I just say what I think I said?

Pinkie’s smile faltered, her face blanching for a moment. “L-love?”

Internally, Rarity cringed. Idiot! She quickly covered her slip-up. “Um, it’s merely an endearment; surely we are closer than friends now?” She smiled weakly, hoping Pinkie would accept that explanation. So she doesn’t... No, I can’t give up until I know for certain!

“Oh! That’s okay then. I-I like it!” Her smile returned to its accustomed place.

Rarity turned the water on with her magic. “Close your eyes, love,” she instructed, and Pinkie shivered in response.

That's a positive reaction, isn't it?

She could just be cold.

No. Well, perhaps, but still!

Hush.

“O-okey dokey,” Pinkie said, complying almost instantly. She tilted her head back a little, lifting her chin, probably to prevent the foam from running into her eyes.

It wasn’t until a few moments later that Rarity realized she had been staring, letting the water further fill the tub instead of gathering it up in her aura as she had planned. Having her eyes closed meant Pinkie couldn’t tell what the unicorn was doing, of course, giving her a chance to silently study the other mare’s face without it getting awkward; a chance she had seized without a moment’s hesitation.

She had seen plenty of the pink mare over time, of course, but this was the first time she had really looked at her. Pinkie looked so happy and angelic like this, sitting still for once, with a look of clear anticipation gracing her ever-expressive face. Rarity’s eyes took in so many details she had never paid attention to before: the dramatic curve in the adorable arches of her closed eyes; those cute, curly lashes; the infectious, genuine smile gracing those delicate and supremely kissable lips... I wonderwhat she looks like when she’s asleep. She blushed then, realizing that in order to find that out she would need to be sharing a bed with the other mare.

The stuttering had intrigued Rarity, too, although a part of her wanted to simply attribute this to chills as well. But then, why were those rosy cheeks glowing? It was hard to spot, what with Pinkie’s vibrant coat color—quite unlike her own—functioning as a natural blush-camouflage, but Rarity was convinced she wasn’t just imagining things.

She is such a lovely shade of pink...

“Um, Rarity?” Pinkie said, tilting her head and sounding slightly amused. “You aren’t secretly hiding right now, are you? Should I be counting to ten?”

“Don’t be silly, darling,” a flustered Rarity replied, before hastily directing the stream down onto Pinkie’s head, thoroughly rinsing the shampoo from her friend’s mane. She ran her hooves through the silken mass, making sure all of the suds were removed. Gorgeous, utterly gorgeous. Then she reached for the soap, lathering up her hooves. “Do you want me to wash your back?”

“S-sure!”

Rarity scrubbed her friend’s coat, although it was less scrubbing and more massage. She ran her hooves all over Pinkie’s back, eliciting soft coos of enjoyment. Here goes everything. Rarity wrapped her hooves around Pinkie, hugging her to her own chest even as she caressed Pinkie’s.

“R-Rarity?”

“I hope you don’t mind, love, but I have to get to your front now. We have to make sure you’re clean, after all.” She ran her hooves up and down Pinkie’s slightly pudgy form, the edge of her hoof brushing past a nipple as she grew a little more daring.

Pinkie squeaked in surprise and caught Rarity’s hooves in her own, gently pulling her into a tighter embrace. Both of them stopped moving for a time. Rarity panicked, worrying that she had overstepped her bounds... then Pinkie pulled one of Rarity’s hooves up to her mouth and kissed it. She relaxed her hold, lying back against Rarity again.

Rarity held her for several more moments. All thoughts of doing anything but relishing the feeling of Pinkie lying wrapped in her forelegs were gone for now. Not only is she happy to be with me, she’s very affectionate... She clucked her tongue in irritation. You’re supposed to be seducing her, not getting distracted by how adorable she is!

She resumed her caresses, but quickly hit another snag: she still had no idea what to do to make Pinkie feel how she herself had felt. She groaned softly. Seduction had never been this difficult in the novels she kept tucked away under her bed!

“Rarity? Are you sure I’m not too heavy?” Pinkie squirmed in her forelegs, trying to sit up.

“No darling, you’re fine. I’m the problem, I feel like an absolute fool.” Rarity gave up her efforts and simply held her mare for now.

She’s not your mare!

Oh, just let me pretend for a moment won’t you? I know very well you want this too.

You're only deceiving yourself.

“You're not foolish, you're just silly, silly. Why would you think that?”

Rarity sighed heavily. May as well come clean, better that than a poor attempt ending in disappointment for us both... again. “I suppose I am just regretting a lifetime spent regarding sex as something dirty. I was feeling very relaxed with you here, and felt... a little heated. So I had hoped that maybe we could try again?”

Pinkie snuggled up to her again. “You know, I’m beginning to feel like one of those stallions you rope into helping you all the time. You don’t have to convince me, Rarity, I want to help. Unless you were just trying to seduce me?” she whispered, giggling softly.

The fashionista tensed. “No! Definitely not. The merest thought had not even begun to cross my—" She broke off, feeling Pinkie laughing soundlessly against her. “You are teasing me! That’s not fair, I was simply hoping to learn a bit more from you.”

"Of course I'll teach you more! Then you... won't... need me... anymore..." Pinkie fell silent and watched her hooves.

Just as Rarity was about to ask if something was wrong Pinkie looked up again and smiled. "But you know, I really don't mind helping you! Whenever you need it! I would love to help you! But its okay if you don't want to, I'm going to teach you everything I know! Because you’re my friend, and I help my friends. I love... I love to help my friends—"

Rarity let her ramble for a time; once Pinkie got going it would take awhile for her to wind down again.

“- sing for me sometime, maybe we could have a duet at the karaoke bar? They have great nachos—"

After a few minutes of wild tangents and broken sentences Rarity decided it might be more efficient to derail the party mare’s train of thought.

“- love how springy your mane is, I can’t do anything with mine, its either all curls or straight down—"

With that in mind she took one of Pinkie’s ears between her teeth and gently nibbled on it.

“- make muffins with me and we could make a c - oh.” Rarity licked inside Pinkie’s ear along the velvety, sensitive hairs that lined the inside curve. The cascade of words dried up in an instant.

Rarity again marveled at the effect her actions were having on her new lover, feeling very pleased with herself. Well Rarity, you might not have gotten the actual lovemaking down, but at least you know how to stupefy a pony, and Pinkie Pie no less! She idly wondered if this was what Fluttershy felt while staring down a dragon. "Do I have your attention now?"

Pinkie whined softly as the nibbling ceased. “Oh! I’m sorry. I’m just really really really happy right now and I got all distracted—"

“Shhhhh,” Rarity whispered in a voice that could have made an Ursa Minor calm down for a nap. “Just tell me how to make you feel the way you made me feel, love.”

Pinkie shivered at the sound of the endearment. "That thing you did with my ears felt super nice!"

“I see, and then?”

“Welllll, you could do what I did, which is like eating ice cream... except when you eat ice cream too fast it makes your head hurt. Or you could do is more slowly-er. Kinda like mixing the batter then making all the decorations before yo—" A gentle nip to her ear brought Pinkie back yet again. "It takes longer, but it feels nice, or nicer, nicer-er?" Pinkie shrugged her shoulders helplessly, defeated by semantics.

Rarity considered her options carefully, but swiftly concluded that a thing worth doing was worth doing well. “I rather think that second one.”

“I’m kind of a fan of that one myself. It’s like making a cake out of giggles and squirms and happy noises!”

Rarity tried to picture such a cake, but instead got an image of Pinkie sitting on a table, covered in whipped cream; pleasant, but incredibly distracting and unproductive. “Um, yes, well... H-how do I do this?”

Pinkie shook her head, causing a few strands of her mane to tickle Rarity’s nose. “Don’t worry! Just do what you think will feel good and I’ll tell you if you’re doing it right. It’ll be like hot or cold, only with sexytimes!”

Rarity hesitantly moved her hooves, stroking Pinkie’s coat as she had previously before reaching lower and brushing her hoof against Pinkie’s nipple once again.

“Oh, cold!” Pinkie said with a start.

“Cold?” Rarity was baffled.

“Brrrr!” the quivering pink pony replied, miming being all huddled up in a frigid tundra, with icicles hanging from her chin.

“I see...” Rarity hastily retracted the offending hoof. Well then, that’s out. She reached lower still, slipping her hoof down to Pinkie’s thigh.

“Brrrr!” Pinkie even feigned chattering teeth this time, if she was indeed still pretending.

“I-I don’t understand,” Rarity said, her voice filled with doubt, ”this was where you touched me...”

Pinkie was genuinely shivering, now. “No! Y-you’re doing fine.”

“Then why are you shivering?”

“T-the water is g-getting cold!”

Oh... right. We have been in here awhile. She turned on the hot water again. “Better?”

Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief. “Better.”

“Good.” Rarity took a deep breath and continued where she had left off, caressing Pinkie’s inner thighs with her hoof.

“Hot!”

Glad to hear I am on the right track then. Let’s move a little closer -

“Really hot!”

“But I haven’t done anything else—" Rarity kept her hoof steady, trying to determine what the problem was before she did anything else.

“Lava hot!” Steam began to vent from the earth pony’s ears.

“Um... okay....” Rarity stammered, pulling back her hoof as if it were her getting burned.

But it was to no avail, apparently. “Owie!” Pinkie cried, gesticulating wildly.

Rarity moved away from Pinkie a little, uncertain what she could have done to hurt her so. “Pinkie? Whatever is wrong?”

“The water is getting too hot!” she finally blurted out, frantically pointing at the still-running faucet she was sitting closest to.

Rarity reacted quickly and turned the cold on to compensate. “Darling, I am so sorry!”

“Ahhhhhh...” the overheated mare sighed, recovering with a swiftness that frankly startled Rarity. ”Okay! It’s fine now.”

The fashionista turned off the water and hesitantly wrapped her forelegs around Pinkie. “Now, before I begin again: have we reached an acceptable water temperature?”

“Yeppers!” Pinkie sounded perfectly chipper, despite ostensibly being burned alive mere moments before.

“Good...” Rarity said with a laugh. It was hard not to, so relaxed and contented the other mare sounded, and so goofy was her grin.

Strangely, Rarity found her earlier nervousness somewhat abated thanks to their—in retrospect, rather comical—issues with freezing and/or scalding bath water. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she half-suspected that Pinkie Pie, who had clearly been exaggerating, might have purposely made a jest of things, to ease some of the tension...

And now the mare was again leaning back against her, as though nothing had happened. Rarity held her, cuddling gratefully, and gave in to an irresistible urge to nuzzle those dripping, heavy locks of raspberry pink. “Thank you, Pinkie...” she murmured into the other mare’s mane, the preceding inhale making her sensitive nose tingle with the soapy freshness of the shampoo, and a heady hint of what she believed was lavender—her favorite.

“For what?” Pinkie said, beaming. There wasn’t the slightest hint of confusion in her knowing grin, nor in her playfully twinkling eyes. Her subsequent smile could even be described as... seductive.

“Never mind,” Rarity replied, smiling softly in return.

There were those hidden depths again; the small hints that the supposedly scatterbrained and airheaded party pony was much more shrewd and intelligent than anypony gave her credit for. To her, it almost felt like she was only just getting to know the real Pinkie, with all of her quirks and wiles, secrets and subtleties, hidden beneath the willful obfuscation of her clownesque behavior. There was surprising maturity masked by child-like innocence, and breathtaking beauty - which Rarity could scarcely believe she’d never noticed before - just a shower away from Pinkie’s usual, Discord-may-care attitude towards her appearance.

She was like a rosy diamond-in-the-rough, brilliant and multi-faceted even without polish or fancy cuts, a jewel that outshone any in Rarity’s extensive collection, hiding in plain sight. If only her horn had led her hither sooner...

Amidst the turmoil her heart and mind were going through, another issue was quickly presenting itself for consideration. There was no denying it: Rarity felt a warmth welling up within her that had little to do with ambient temperature or the water they were in. She was grateful she was partially submerged, though, flushing when she became aware of the embarrassing fact that she was adding not a few droplets of essence de licorne to the already-fragrant bathwater. It was desire she was experiencing, Rarity realized with a shock. Unmitigated and undeniable, but also extremely frustrating, since all she had to express it with were these clumsy, inexperienced hooves...

She had trouble putting her hoof on it, but it was like... like getting one of her glorious ideas—simply bursting with inspiration for some new, fabulous creation—only to have her horn fail her, leaving her bereft of the magic she depended upon.

So that’s it! You want to rut her! You get a little heated and suddenly you’re in love? Fool, you’ll forget all about her once the deed is done.

She dismissed the thought irritably. She still wasn’t certain how Pinkie felt - the only thing she could say for certain was that the other mare seemed to be physically attracted to her. Rarity, on the other hoof, was growing very certain of her own feelings on the matter. She wanted to make love to Pinkie. She wanted to make her feel the love she had for her, if such a thing could be done through a mere physical act.

“Warm.” the object of Rarity’s continued fascination cooed, while she continued to absentmindedly nuzzle at that delectable mane despite how cold her poor nose was getting.

“Perhaps we should forego the guessing games for a bit,” Rarity suggested, trying to keep her tremulous voice steady, and surprised by her own boldness as she traced a hoof down Pinkie’s chest and tummy. “Amusing as it is, trial-and-error is a rather impractical way for me to make you feel good, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Oh, but this isn’t about me, silly-filly!” Pinkie protested with a giggle, “I’m just your test subject, remember? To help you figure out how you and your hoof can become the bestest buddies?”

“Ah, naturellement,” Rarity lied, trying to chuckle coquettishly but getting more of a frantic giggle instead. Even the French wasn’t helping; whereas normally it made her feel sophisticated and ladylike, now it just made her feel a bit silly. “I need you to help me help you show me how to feel good, then.”

Pinkie’s eyes glazed over while she tried to parse that sentence. “Help you... help me...?”

Nodding her head and laughing, Rarity put on her poutiest of purse-lipped pouty-faces. “Pretty please?”

“With ribbons and streamers?”

“Ribbons, of course! Tied in a big beautiful bow, but... streamers? Must we?”

“Awww, I like streamers!”

“... Very well, streamers.”

“What about the paper?”

“Pink, naturally, accented with a bit of red, and some white.”

“Cherries on top?”

“Um... well, if you wish, but wouldn’t that get the paper wet?”

“Wait... what were we talking about again?”

“Pinkie!”

“Oh right right! You wanted to be the Twilight to my Princess Celestia!”

Rarity giggled at that. “I rather hope we might be doing something that those two do not. Not that I would judge them, mind...”

“Well then, my faithful student,” Pinkie said benevolently, in a surprisingly convincing imitation of the Princess of the Sun, ”prepare yourself for a lesson!”

“By all means, ‘Professor’ Pie,” Rarity replied with not-entirely-feigned eagerness, adding a set of sarcastic hoof-quotes.

“Gimme your hoof for a second,” Pinkie prompted. She lifted and turned one of the unicorn’s forelegs with her own hoof, pointing out key features on the perfectly pedicured digit while Rarity peered along over her shoulder. “These are the walls, see? Those different layers? They’re pretty dull—even when you have them filed as often as you do!—but pretty hard, of course, so you kinda have to be careful when you use the edges, or you’re going to have some reeeally awkward explaining to do to Nurse Redheart...”

Flushing at this horrific possibility, Rarity nodded firmly, making a note in her brain and dutifully underlining it with a whole bunch of mental lines. “Surely you are not speaking from experience, are you, Pinkie de—"

“AND THIS!” Pinkie enthused loudly. “This squishy bit in the center over here...” She prodded at it a few times with the tip of her own hoof, making Rarity squirm with extreme efficiency, “is very, very ticklish.”

“I n-n-noticed,” Rarity, struggling to compose herself, gasped out between stifled giggles. “How does that help?”

“It totally doesn’t!” her tormentor replied happily, without a hint of irony, “But it is really nice and soft. You can use that to apply super-yummy pressure on the whole kit-and-kaboodle—"

Rarity frowned. “That is a horrible euphemism...”

Blinking at this interruption, Pinkie continued undeterred, “And it feels really nice on your honey pot, too!”

“H-honey pot?” It took a few moments for realization to slowly set in. ”So that’s what you meant?!”

“Shhhh, lesson’s not over yet,” Pinkie reprimanded gently but sternly, wagging a hoof-tip.

“B-But you...” Rarity said, her mind reeling; she feared she might never look at honey the same way again. ”Tch. Fine.”

Pinkie continued on, now delivering her lecture in a crisp, schoolmarm voice, making Rarity think passingly of Miss Cheerilee.

Let’s hope her lesson plan isn’t the same as Pinkie’s...

“Now then. It’s better to build yourself up slowly, like stoking a fire,” she said sagely. ”I mean sure, you can turn up the gas real quick and that works too but that can be dangerous and make your oven explode, and then you get batter literally everywhere and—" Pinkie stopped herself, blinked, and tapped a hoof to her lip. “Okay, maybe scratch that last part—but you get what I mean: you gotta tease yourself a little! Kinda keep touching, then back it off, making your body go all shivery and needy, and then you do just a little more, a l-little, uh...”

She stopped talking then, as Rarity happened to be diligently following her advice; the very tip of a white hoof was gingerly tracing meandering lines along Pinkie’s flinching tummy, sporadically dipping down to ‘accidentally’ graze a nipple—or even more sensitive areas—just below the surface of the water.

“Mmmmmm! J-just like t-that, yes... And then, um, you can change up your game a little. Shouldn’t tease yourself too much, after all!” Pinkie let out a very artificial, nervous laugh. ”N-no, that would be pretty mean... Maybe move a little lower? Y’know, between my—oh!"

“Here?” Rarity said softly. She pressed her body tightly against Pinkie’s back as she strained to reach low enough, the end of her foreleg dipping below the waterline. Despite resting her chin on the other mare’s shoulder, she could still barely see what she was doing, but the warmth and yielding softness she felt pressing against her hoof was unmistakable, and noticeable even in the steaming bathwater.

She knew exactly where she was touching, of course. She had been building up to this, before, without ever really mustering up the necessary courage. But now there were no distractions, no silly games... She was touching another mare in the most intimate way imaginable, and, contrary to her own expectations, now actually regretted being in a foam-filled, heavily scented bath a little, given how it distorted the feeling of Pinkie’s smooth slit against her hoof and masked all scents and sounds.

“Yes...” Pinkie confirmed in a husky sigh, her eyes fluttering closed and her already-faltering schoolteacher act now completely eroded. ”Right there, Rarity...”

Several blissful moments passed wherein nothing much happened save for some slight, erratic lower-body movements from Pinkie, whose breathing had begun to grow noticeably heavier.

“Pinkie?” Rarity said eventually.

“Hmm?” came the dreamy response.

“Erm, what should I do now?”

“Oh! R-Right, right. Remember that squishy’n’soft bit I mentioned? Just—just smoosh down a little with that! Gently, of course, because I’m—I mean, you might be pretty sensitive, so you have to be careful at first!”

“Like so?” Rarity said, hesitantly applying pressure with the flat of her hoof, which, dainty though it was, easily covered all of Pinkie’s vulva.

“Exactamundo,” Pinkie replied, after repeatedly stumbling over the many, many syllables of that ill-chosen word. “Now you can stroke up and down a little, n-nice and slow, or even try some ciiiir—ohyeslikethat.”

But Rarity was way ahead of her, growing more confident, spurred on by the strangely rewarding little noises Pinkie was producing, and aided by her eager shifting and light thrusting, guiding Rarity’s hoof subconsciously and letting her know she was doing something very, very right. She rubbed the entirety of the ecstatic, quietly panting mare’s soft, submerged mound, becoming harder and rougher in careful increments, stopping only when Pinkie’s trapped tail began twitching.

Pinkie offered little else in terms of instructions for a while, desperately attempting to catch her breath. The things the unicorn was doing to her were clearly proving to be more than a little distracting.

“Uh, yeah,” she rasped, ”that should feel double-plus-good, when you t-try it on yourself.” Her valiant attempt at sounding casual was adorable in its utter transparency. She swallowed hard before continuing. “And if you ever find yourself doing this with another pony someday, instead of flying solo, then this would be a really awesome time to do that ear-thing you did before... and maybe some more kisses? Because I think the pony you'd be with would probably like that, like, a whole bunch...”

Trembling, snowy lips pressed gently against Pinkie’s cheek, tenderly kissing the radiant blush, and then a soft, warm nose tentatively inched its way up to her ear over the course of several breathless seconds, promptly licking and nibbling the sensitive lobe. Rarity took the hints silently, too caught up in the moment to humor Pinkie’s indirect suggestions with some coyness of her own.

Pinkie giggled and flicked her ear helplessly. “Ah, no fair! That spot under my ear is ticklish!” The giggling swiftly acquired more moan-like qualities when the nipping turned to eager licks. “That one... that one...” Whatever was meant to come after that was lost, the words unraveling into more soft coos of delight.

Before long, the blissful mare’s lips just moved silently. Her hind legs parted a little further, twitching happily, which Rarity interpreted as a sign that she should keep going. So she lavished more affectionate licks on those pink ears, however much they tried to swivel away at times, and the gentle splish-splash of her forehoof and Pinkie moving together were the only sounds that filled the bakery’s bathroom for a while.

“—or trace each other’s lips with the tips of our tongues!” Pinkie blurted out suddenly, startling Rarity, whose tongue had grown tired, and who had therefore opted to start kissing down her neck instead. It was as if, in her head, Pinkie had been offering suggestions the entire time, without ever noticing that the only thing escaping her smiling lips had been a string of incoherent murmurs.

“Um...” Rarity said, clearing her throat and slowly coming to her senses a little, ”I think that last one might be a bit impractical, since you’re facing away from me.”

“Oh yeah...” Pinkie admitted with a goofy grin. “But, you know, if you and your awesome, future special pony ever—ah!”

Rarity kissed the side of Pinkie’s neck as, with her hoof, she felt a little nub just inside the hot folds of pink flesh. When Rarity touched it Pinkie tensed, then squeaked in an adorable fashion. Immediately the inexperienced unicorn halted, mistaking the intense reaction for one of pain.

“I’m dreadfully sorry, love,” she hastened to say, feeling clumsy and awkward again, just when things had been going so well. “Too much of the edges?” When Pinkie frantically shook her head and laughed, however, Rarity’s anxiety faded a little. She appropriated Pinkie’s own patented technique of inserting a little joke to lighten the mood. ”Shall I send for Nurse Redheart?” she suggested melodramatically. Upon hearing no response from her friend she giggled seductively. “Perhaps you just need a bit of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?”

Pinkie let out a noncommittal little nicker, shivering from her hind-hooves all the way up to the topmost tuft of her poofy mane. “O-okay, new subject, that thing you just brushed. It’s awesome; it’s like the bestest thing ever. When I first discovered that there’s a spot like that down there, well... that was actually the reason I had to sneak over to the nurse for some ice-packs, back in the day.” The usually unabashed and brazen party pony flashed one of her rare, embarrassed grins. ”Touching everywhere else is nice, but a single rub there can bring you really close really quickly. You don’t want to focus on just that though, because it gets more sensitive the longer you work on the rest of that area. Sometimes it gets too sensitive, and it can actually hurt. So you gotta be careful.”

Rarity smiled and gently rubbed along the cleft she felt underwater, pressing inside to spread Pinkie’s lower lips.

“Y-you’ve really gotten the hang of this. I think you’re about ready to be released into the wild again. You can s-stop now.”

“Au contraire, silly-filly. I could not bear to leave you like this...” Rarity stopped; it felt cruel somehow, to use Pinkie’s own terms against her. She dropped the pretense of teasing and simply said what was on her mind, though the words were proving difficult to actually say. “I wish to make you... make you...”

“C-cum?”

It was such a vulgar term, which, paradoxically, made her shiver in delight. “Yes. That. Please allow me to... a-as a way of saying ‘thank you’...”

Pinkie was silent, inscrutable, but not protesting. “Very, very warm,” she said eventually, inexplicably returning to the hot-and-cold game of before.

“How is this?”

Adorable moans and the occasional squeak were her only answer, so she altered her movements based on which ones made Pinkie squeak more often. A slow, circular motion with occasional flicks to the nub she’d touched seemed to be the one that made Pinkie squeak loudest, so she continued with that.

“Am I doing all right?”

“H-hot hot hot hot hot!”

“Are you going to—"

“Oh, oh Rarity, I... you—" she clapped her hooves to her muzzle. Eventually, “Oh, fffffffff—" she hissed through clenched teeth, “—iddlesticks...”

Pinkie was shuddering and shaking under Rarity's ministrations. Rarity would've been worried were it not for the little squeals and gasps the earth pony graced her with. She reached up with her hooves and pulled Rarity’s head down to her own upturned face, giving her an upside down kiss. In that moment Rarity froze, her hoof spasming and pushing deeper into Pinkie. The earth pony squealed happily and bucked her hips, causing waves of water to gush out of the tub onto the floor.

Rarity finally felt Pinkie break the kiss, the pink pony mewling joyfully as she shivered in Rarity’s hooves. She... she didn’t scream. Did I do it wrong?

Looking down on Pinkie, it was apparent very quickly that despite Rarity’s earlier plans of getting her to cry out during the moment of passion, that moment had come and gone. Blast. Despite the setback, she took a moment to admire what she had done. Pinkie was busy recovering, her eyes closed. Droplets of water and perspiration beaded her coat and mane, and steam was wafting from her reclining form, which seemed fitting given the body heat the freshly-pleased pony was radiating.

Rarity wrapped her forelegs back around her newfound lover, and rested her chin on that surprisingly comfortable pink shoulder again. She could smell a delicate mixture of steam, lavender, clean sweat, and something intangible, something tingly... She gave Pinkie’s neck a fond little lick, lapping up several droplets that had been trickling down the pink mare’s neck without even knowing whether they were condensing water or sweat. It had been a spontaneous display of affection, without Rarity really having given it much thought.

She felt strangely pensive, sensing that an important milestone in her life had suddenly been reached. She found herself gazing at her hoof, which she so often neglected to use in favor of the fine-grained control afforded by her magic. It had never occurred to her how seldom she actually physically interacted with the world—‘got her hooves dirty’, as Applejack would no doubt put it—the way earth ponies would. To think that, all this time, her neglected hoof had held such power; that it could grant her, or better yet, another pony, such pleasure, such rapture...

Another curious realization hit her: she had actually touched another mare intimately before she had ever even touched herself... A dubious distinction, to be sure, but perhaps fitting for the Element of Generosity?

“Rarity?” Pinkie piped up. ”You’re awfully quiet all of a sudden... You still okey-dokey?”

“Very okey, and reasonably dokey.” Though I am still a bit lost on what to do about you. “And what about you, love?”

“Oh, oh, I’m just—It was just the—the—" Pinkie spread her forelegs wide, her mouth hanging open, but then froze up completely. Rarity swore she could hear actual gears turning while the mare in her arms scanned her vast vocabulary of (mostly made-up) words for a fitting superlative. Finally, she seemed to give up, and let her limbs drop back to her sides. Glancing up at Rarity with an unexpectedly demure expression, she said softly, “I really, really loved it.”

Rarity smiled; she was very happy to have pleased the earth pony. Now that she had felt how wonderful it was first-hoof, the notion of giving Pinkie that same pleasure was deeply fulfilling - nearly more so than it had been to receive that same pleasure from her. Much like giving an exquisite, expensive gift to somepony, but more profound, and less materialistic.

She wanted more.

But she was still desperate to find a solution to the problem of discovering how Pinkie truly felt about her. This entire time, the other mare had carefully maintained a certain emotional distance between them, hiding behind abstractions. She had naively hoped, perhaps, that Rarity wouldn’t notice, but she had, and it felt a lot like hitting a wall. An obstacle she couldn’t hope to surmount without understanding it first...

Figuring out a mare’s body was one thing, but her heart?

Is this all just fun and games to her? An act of kindness, or perhaps one of pity?

Oh, Pinkie... Where do we go from here?

That it isn't that bad

“Why?”

It was a question Rarity had dreaded the answer to. They had been dating for two months now, and Rarity had yet to have the courage to ask her beloved this one simple question. What if she didn’t like the answer? What if it turned out to be so shallow and superficial that any relationship built upon it would never last?

She had tried to bring herself to ask every time they met for a date, or for tea, or when Pinkie showed up out of the blue for no better reason than simply wanting to see her. But finally, Rarity had blurted it out, and now the naked question hung suspended over their happy little snuggle-session like the proverbial Sword of Ippocles.

“What I mean is... Why did you... You’ve told me how you feel, but when did you begin to...” She looked worriedly into her lover’s eyes, despite seeing only amusement reflected in them. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot, but I’ve been wondering.”

Pinkie put a hoof up to Rarity’s chest and traced a line back and forth, causing Rarity to shudder slightly. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. But... I dunno. I just know. It makes me happy to be around you. It’s like... you don’t mind that I’m me. And I really like that.” Pinkie quickly snuck a kiss in and snuggled closer.

Rarity sighed happily, but still she was uncertain; it wasn’t like this in any of the books she’d read. There was endless poetry from the stallions involved in those: odes, ballads, limericks—the works. And lots of swooning. Was it really enough merely to be happy?

“More?” a muffled voice inquired from the muzzle buried in her luxurious pelt.

“Perhaps a bit, if you don’t mind...” Rarity blushed furiously. Was she so selfish that she was actually asking her lover to sing her praises?

Pinkie giggled. “You’re getting all tensed-uppity again. I’m gonna have to pounce on you if you don’t stop it.” She lifted her head and stole another kiss; it was a good thing they were in plentiful supply. “Okay, more: the trip back from Dodge Junction. At the oasis. I think that was when I was sure you were my favorite party guest.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “You don’t play favorites. And that was a horrid time for us both.”

Pinkie buried her face into Rarity’s pelt again. “Nah, it was fun! It was a long way back, but we did it together. Only then you got really quiet all of a sudden. And then you yelled.” There was a frown, then, and an almost imperceptible wanness creeping into her smile. ”I thought you hated me...”

The fashionista stroked Pinkie’s hair soothingly, restoring that lovely, infectious smile with a fond little freely-given kiss. “Never. I was a bit cross, maybe... but I could never hate you, love.”

“Chimicherry? Cherrychanga?”

On and on she went. Rarity had long since given up on worrying about it. Let her have her fun. They had to keep going, had to get back home. She could have a nice cup of iced everything when she got back to the Boutique at last.

“Chimicherry? Cherrychanga?”

Something inside Rarity broke free from her normally carefully-controlled demeanor, and she snapped out in irritation, “If I pick one, will you please, for the love of Celestia, shut up?!”

The happy banter was cut short and Pinkie’s ears folded back. “S-sorry.” The earth pony eyed her hesitantly. “Rarity, are you alright?”

Rarity cursed herself, seeing the reaction to her outburst.

Wonderful, now neither of you are happy. You selfish, cantankerous mare.

“I am very hot and quite miserable, but otherwise fine. Although, now that you ask, I do feel this odd sensation—” She seemed to be having the oddest trouble remaining on her hooves. She wondered at that as her forehooves lost contact with the hoofcar’s lever. There was the briefest moment of freefall. Her brain idly thrilled at the long-missed sensation of flight.

“Rarity!”

Gentle hooves caught her, and she murmured something she hoped was relevant.

“Hold on, water... Need water. Stay with me... I know, it’s hot. No, your mane looks nice. Water... There! Okay, just hold on...”

She was hefted onto a strong back, and clutched at it as the world went blurry around her.

Rarity remembered only very little between the moment she collapsed and the moment she coughed at that first mouthful of blessed water. But her first memory thereafter was a brilliant smile attached to a much-pinker-than-usual Pinkie.

“Pinkie... What happened?”

“Don’t scare me like that! If you needed to stop you should have said so!”

“S-sorry, darling.”

Rarity tried to rise, only to feel a wave of nausea and dizziness assailing her.

“Don’t move! You have heat exhaustion. You lost too much fluid and the sun heated you right up, like a pie that was left in the oven too long! Just lie down and let Auntie Pinkie Pie fix you up.”

Rarity lay still, watching the world spin around her merrily. When it had finished its little danceshe lifted her head enough to see her very concerned friend. “Thank you.”

The pink pony shook her head angrily. “No! Don’t thank me. I mean, it’s my fault we’re out here. Stupid Pinkie Pie; stupid Pinkie Promise...”

Rarity weakly attempted to sit up. She had robbed her friend of her fun and worried her unduly; the least she could do now was to offer some support. “It was the principle of the thing. Your friend betrayed your trust.”

This seemed to mollify her somewhat, Pinkie put her hoof up to her chin in thought. “Sort of. She actually kinda, uh, bent her promise? Still not right, since you shouldn’t make a Pinkie Promise you don’t intend to keep!”

The fashionista coughed up some sand that had blown into her mouth. “You needed to know that she still valued her friendship with you.”

“Yeah! That’s pretty close. Anyway, are you ready for some more water? It’s all wet and full of moisty goodness!”

“I could kiss you for the very idea.”

It was hard to tell if it was merely sunburn, but Rarity thought she caught a hint of a blush on her friend’s face. “T-that’s okay. It’s just water.” Pinkie got up and walked back to the pond. She turned back apologetically. “Um... Rarity? I don’t have a cup or anything, so don’t freak out.” Having said that, she dipped her muzzle into the water and came trotting back with her mouth closed.

Rarity looked at her curiously, wondering what she had meant by that.

Oh. Oh Celestia, she didn’t mean... Did she?

Her worst fears were realized when Pinkie came to stand over her, skittishly waiting for her to open her mouth.

Oh sweet Celestia she did! Okay Rarity: be very calm, open your mouth, and do not question your friend’s actions in trying to save your life.

And so she opened her mouth, and Pinkie carefully opened hers, allowing a stream of water to pour between them.

Pinkie smiled again once the water had been delivered, then quickly stepped back and repeated the process. During the third exchange, Rarity had to cough violently when some of the water went down her windpipe, which immediately brought Pinkie to her side, patting her on the back frantically (but with surprising gentleness).

“Sorry! I looked for a leaf, or a rock with an indentation, or something. I-I couldn’t find anything, so I had to improvise. I know we had that long talk a while ago about Gummy drinking from the bowl of punch and I was worried this was kinda like that time, but I didn’t want to just dunk your head in the water because then you might have drowned!”

Rarity shuddered very slightly. “Well, that’s true enough. I should think your dental hygiene is better than Gummy’s, at least.”

The pink pony giggled happily. “Silly! Gummy doesn’t have teeth. But Colgate does always say I’m some kinda freak of nature; not one cavity since I got to Ponyville.”

“Good to know...” Rarity said weakly. She looked around at their little spot of sanity amongst the wasteland. “Pinkie, where are we exactly?”

“Well, you needed water, so I went and found it.”

“Yes, and I appreciate that, but it doesn’t really answer the question. I don’t see the railroad tracks anywhere. I don’t see your hooftracks either.”

“Heh...”

Rarity stared at Pinkie as the latter rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “Darling, what did you do?”

“Well, I was running really fast, and it’s all dusty around here...”

Rarity nodded, seeing the way of it. “You covered your own trail. Well, this is bothersome. Do you remember how long I was out?”

The earth pony eyed the afternoon sun through squinted eyes. “About... two hours, twenty three minutes, and forty seconds.” She looked again, and shook her head sheepishly. “Sorry, forty one seconds.”

Rarity took in the environs, noting the relative position of the sun. “So then, mid-afternoon, and no doubt several hours walk back. No help for it, then.” She began to drag her hooves in the sand that edged the oasis pool.

When she was satisfied with the amount gathered, she aimed her horn at the pile and melted it down, shaping it carefully with her magic. In a few moments’ time, a gasping Rarity was looking over four crudely-made glass bottles.

“Hardly my best work. But they should serve.” She lifted each from the dirt and laid them down to cool. “We need to fill those, then we can go back to the cart come nightfall.”

Pinkie clapped her hooves together enthusiastically. “That was neato! Can you do more?”

“First things first: we need to get home. I’ll be happy to make you whatever you like when we get there. But in the meantime, we need to get out of the sun.”

“Oh, oh! Maybe you could make a huge glass hat and then we can hide under that!”

Rarity stared for a moment, wondering if she really was the only one here suffering from heat exhaustion. “I think something a bit more opaque for this occasion, Pinkie. A stand of trees or a nice empty cave?”

Pinkie looked around doubtfully. All around them was low vegetation and the occasional rock. “I don’t think we’ll find anything like that.”

The fashionista nodded sadly. “It can’t be helped then. Let’s just fill these and wait until the sun has set.”

“Okey-dokey.”

The work of a few moments saw the makeshift bottles filled with water. Rarity lay down near the cool sand of their little oasis, letting it leach the heat from her body.

Rarity perked her ears up and swiveled her head to see Pinkie lying down some space away. “Darling, come over here. At least the sand provides some relief.”

Pinkie came closer and lay down beside her, sighing happily.

“I’m sorry...”

“Now, no more of that. We have a long way home, and we must keep our spirits high.” Rarity lay her head down on her forelegs and watched the wind ripple the small pond.

“Thank you.”

Rarity scoffed at the idea. “Darling, you rushed me off to the middle of the desert to what must be the only source of water for miles. I think I should be thanking you.”

“No, for catching me.”

“Oh, well, of course.”

They sat together in silence, resting and cooling off.

“Darling, when you jumped...”

“Hmmm?”

“Well, you called for me. I’m hardly the best equipped to save somepony.”

“Oh! Well, Shy and Dashie were pulling the cart, and Twilight was driving.”

“Oh, so I was really the only choice then?” She couldn’t say why, but this revelation saddened her.

“Yeppers!”

“Well, in any case, it was nice of you to have faith in me to do that for you.”

Pinkie snuggled closer, saying nothing more.

Her tale done, Pinkie snuggled against her in the present as she had in the past, and Rarity wondered at what she had heard. How had she missed something now so obvious in hindsight? She supposed having one’s brain nearly baked in one’s skull must have helped. But she could think of many occasions now where the pink mare had seemed to favor her, how her pranks on Rarity always seemed to involve flowers or candies. It was as if Pinkie had been courting her, but too afraid to say that was what she was doing. “I-I am sorry I was so blind as to miss your feelings, love. How can I begin to make it up to you?”

Pinkie looked up in surprise. “Well... I was thinking we could invite all our friends over to watch me kiss you!”

Rarity laughed at that, certain Pinkie was kidding. “Whatever you’d like, love.”

It had been a few months now, and Rarity still marveled at the pink mare. She was such a joy in the fashionista’s life. Their friends all seemed happy for them, though Rarity suspected them to be of the opinion that she had gone mad. In a way, she supposed she had. They don’t call it going crazy over somepony for nothing now, do they?

Tonight was their... ‘quarterversary’? She was fairly certain Pinkie had just made that up, but it was better than the ‘Come watch me kiss Rarity’ party of some weeks ago. That one had been a bit awkward. Their friends, and Rarity as well, had all assumed the banners were joking, until Pinkie had jumped her and absolutely smothered her in kisses.

She had tried to protest, but that would have required breathing, and she had had scant breath for more than a single gasp in between Pinkie’s enthusiastic advances. The party had quietly ended and dispersed when it became abundantly clear that the couple had gotten rather caught up in the moment. And furthermore, if they were not given some privacy, their friends would in fact be getting a show. Applejack had later confided she’d had to drag Rainbow out by her tail. Given that Rainbow’s wings were at full extension, however, it had proven rather difficult to get her past the door.

But it was not all wildness; there were quieter moments as well. Pinkie would just know to come over whenever Rarity was particularly stressed over some silly little thing and then nuzzle her silently, or jump on her and kiss her. Regardless, it always seemed to be just what was needed at that moment.

Rarity, true to her word, had been learning to bake. Together, the two of them had created some amazing confectionaries, so amazing that it practically broke her heart when they were inevitably consumed.

Turning her mind back to matters of the present, Rarity eyed the party preparations. Pinkie was setting up the last of the decorations, unleashing a few more shots from the party cannon for good measure. She smiled at Rarity, who smiled back warmly. “Perhaps one more shot into that upper corner on the right, love. The streamers seem a bit sparse there.”

“Okey-dokey!” The cannon was fired once more, and all was in readiness. She looked around her showroom in satisfaction. For this occasion, she had elected to hold the party in her own home rather than Pinkie’s. This was because she needed a space to work in for a very specific creation. Rarity turned and went back into her kitchen, eyeing the cake that she herself had baked, checking for flaws in the icing. Everything needed to be just right.

She'd started planning this day the moment she and Pinkie became marefriends, and now the party decorations were in place, the cake looked to be splendid, and the secret it held inside was safe. All that was left was to wait for their friends to arrive, cut the cake into bite-sized pieces, and watch Pinkie's face light up when she found the surprise.

Unfortunately she had failed to account for the structural integrity of a hollow cake. This is what Pinkie would have called an 'Oopsie,' had she been consulted. She probably would have gone on to call it 'Lunch' and made another. The problem was, Pinkie could not be consulted. Furthermore, much as she would have adored their help, asking the Cakes would have taken some of the personal element out of it. She found occasion to regret these seemingly reasonable decisions as the various top layers of the massive confectionary collapsed inward upon the base layer.

Her throat tightened, almost as if she were swallowing a cake whole the way Pinkie was known to do. She had to fix this somehow, it had to be perfect! She tried holding the cake up with her magic; this failed when the cake simply started sagging in other places. She tried reinforcing it with hard candy; that did little more than break up the cake. Finally she tried covering it with more hardened frosting, which simply cracked under the pressure. Seeing her last hope dashed, she decided to follow its example and burst out in tears.

“Rarity?!”

Rarity looked quickly to the door of the kitchen, making certain Pinkie had not come in. “I-I’m fine, love. Just having a bit of... a complete disaster over here...”

“Do you need help?”

“You stay in the showroom for now, please. I can handle this!”

She looked dubiously at her leaning tower of cake. It had settled into a dreadful shape, but was at least no longer collapsing. She moved the table experimentally, finding that caused no further damage. Perhaps I should call it a stylistic choice then? Our friends would be unlikely to question it... She groaned. The cake was ruined.

"Were you trying to make a silly cake for a silly party?" A sugary voice came from somewhere off to her left.

Rarity started at the sudden intrusion; she might have known—should have known that Pinkie would disregard anything she said and bounce into the room anyway. Given her brief but explosive outburst, it wasn't surprising. Pinkie had seemingly developed an uncanny instinct when it came to Rarity's emotional state and today was no different. I do wish she could just turn it off at times, briefly, in my most selfish of moments.

“Pinkie, it’s going to be fine, just wait for our friends to arrive please, I will fix this.”

“But I have spa—”

“I have it under control! Off with you!”

She shooed Pinkie from the room, kissing her fondly on the cheek as she did so. Rarity had little doubt Pinkie could fix this, but that was hardly the point, was it? She had wanted this to be a surprise, and it was so very hard to keep a surprise from her.

She eyed her leaning creation again. Perhaps she had been on the right track with the frosting. If she could lift the top layers up and fill the caved-in section with frosting, that could solve the problem. Granted, that would mean the surprises inside would be covered with a gooey mess, but, well, that was a foregone conclusion now. She got the confectioner’s dispenser ready, carefully lifted the top layers in her magic, and squirted out enough frosting to level out the depression. Within a few moments she had a cake which no longer seemed lopsided in the slightest. Rarity, you’ve done it again!

And just in time, too! She heard their friends milling about in the other room. Poking her head out of the door, she saw them taking places around the chairs set up in the middle of the room. Applejack was of course sitting next to Rainbow Dash, the former surreptitiously giving a peck on the cheek to the latter. Twilight was all smiles, waiting patiently for the fun to begin. Oh, this will be fun, just wait.

Fluttershy was slightly apart from the rest, chatting quietly with Pinkie. Rarity frowned slightly at seeing Fluttershy by herself. In the months that had followed her seeing that salacious display of brazenness in centerfold form she had spent more than a little time talking with her shy friend during spa visits about how exactly that had come to pass. Try as she might she could not get the poor dear to divulge more than that it had been a mistake.

The poor thing. I suppose your first romance just seems all-consuming at the time. She tittered to herself; here she was making judgements about something she was deep in the throes of herself. It was unfortunate that, in Fluttershy and Rainbow’s case, when the fire had died they hadn’t had enough left to keep going.

Fluttershy had confessed that she still loved Dash very much, but it wasn’t the same love as before. When Dash had come to her, long after they had decided to end their physical relationship, Fluttershy had readily assured her it was okay that she’d found a new relationship with Applejack. Still, at times when she believed nopony was looking, Rarity had caught her friend looking at the pair wistfully. I really must do something for her. Being alone is not the end of the world, but to have loved and lost... She entertained a world in which Pinkie had fallen out of love with her, and her heart felt like it wanted to burst. No, Fluttershy deserves to be loved.

Setting that worry aside for the moment, she turned her attention to Pinkie. Her heart beat a tattoo in her chest. This was the moment. She had done it, the cake was perfect, the surprise inside safe, her proposal speech carefully rehearsed. All she had to do was wheel the cake in and—

Wait, what is that dreadful sound?

She turned to find her cake leaning dangerously in the other direction. “No! No, you don’t, you wicked thing!” She braced the tottering confection with her magic, holding it aloft by sheer force of will. Okay, just have to keep it from falling. No problem. She wheeled the cart into the room, smiling her best smile. “Thank you all for coming, darlings. Pinkie, would you be so kind as to cut into this? Quickly, if you don’t mind?”

“Rarity? Is it supposed to be leaning like that?” Pinkie inquired curiously as she got a knife ready.

“Quickly, love. Just cut, don’t worry about—” The lean became more pronounced as she cast about for any means to stabilize it, but alas, the bottom layer collapsed on one side and the whole lovely creation became a nice mess all over the cart.

“—it...” Rarity finished, tears in her eyes.

Pinkie bounded up next to her and nuzzled her cheek. “I’ll get it!” With a deft swipe of her tongue she swallowed the whole mass of broken cake.

“No! Don’t...” Rarity watched in silent horror as two months’ profit was swallowed whole along with the collapsed confection.

“Wha’s thif?” Pinkie said a moment later, sticking her tongue out. Upon unrolling the folded edges, two golden bands were displayed: a matched pair, with their cutie marks displayed side by side on each.

There was a collective gasp amongst their friends.

Rarity stammered, unable to cope with this series of events. Everything had gone wrong! The speech was gone from her memory, and this was the moment. “I... I had thought, that is... I’m sorry, everypony!”

She ran from the room in tears.

Pinkie was hot on her hooves, the rings clutched in her teeth. “Rarishee! Wais!”

Rarity turned and flung her hooves around her marefriend. “I should have asked for your help! Now it’s all ruined and it was supposed to be perfect!”

Pinkie set the bands on a nearby table. “Okay, calm down. I told the girls we needed to bake a new cake. Are those—”

“Engagement bands. I wanted to surprise you.” Rarity sniffled into Pinkie’s mane. “Surprise?”

“Oh, wow! Um... you had this all planned out, huh?”

Rarity nodded. “Hollow cake, you were supposed to find the rings when you cut it. I didn’t think about the weight of the top layers...”

“Okay, so we have a minor cake emergency. No problemo!” Pinkie pulled a fully-decorated layer cake from behind one of the ponnequins currently occupying the kitchen to make room in the showroom. “I never have a party without at least two spares in case of unexpected guests! Or if I just need a snack.” She snatched up the rings in her mouth, trotted to the cake, and tucked them into the middle so deftly there was scarcely a break in the frosting.

Rarity stared at Pinkie, uncertain how to process the emergency cake, or the fact that she seemed to sincerely think they could just redo the disaster this proposal had become. “You... you can’t just...” She looked into the other mare’s eyes, those eyes that wanted her to be happy more than anything. It was against all reason, but strangely, she did feel better. The fashionista had discovered a defense mechanism for these times: much as she had had to get Pinkie to slow down for her, in order to cope with Pinkie she occasionally just had to stop thinking so hard and feel instead.

Her feelings told her quite clearly what course of action to take right now. “You really are the most wonderful thing, do you know that?” She dropped down in a move she had been practicing for days now, one hind leg forward, balanced with the knee of the other on the ground, taking Pinkie’s forehooves in her own. “Pinkamena Diane Pie, will you do me the honor of joining me in my home and spending your life with me?”

“But we’re already here?”

Rarity’s eye twitched. They were going off-script again and she was getting flustered. “I mean I want you to live here, with me.”

“Silly! I already have a room with the Cakes!”

“Pinkie! Will you marry me or not?”

“Oh! Well, why didn’t you say so? Of course!”

The fashionista sagged in relief. “Good, good. Now be a dear and fetch me a glass of water and a towel, would you?”

“Sure! What’s the towel for?”

“That would be for after you throw the water at me,” Rarity replied. And with that, she fainted dead away.

She awoke with the water being splashed in her face. Pinkie smiled and offered up the towel. “Okay, so now what?”

“Well, this was as far as I’d planned, to be honest.” Rarity took the towel and proceeded to pat down her face. Her mane seemed to have been spared the worst of the water. She was fairly comfortable on her chaise longue for the moment, and decided to stay there while she thought things over. “Most of the stories I’ve read seem to end with a kiss or a proposal. I suppose we ought to plan our wedding now... Oh... Oh dear.” Rarity frowned, realizing a flaw in her plans. “I don’t think I’m technically allowed to wear white anymore... Or maybe I can?”

She looked up thoughtfully as Pinkie lay down behind her. The earth pony’s forehoof reached around her, stroking her pelt up and down. “I suppose some research is in order; Twilight should be able to help me with that. I’m not entirely clear on how tribal traditions apply when your mate is another mare. I mean, we’ve definitely had sex, but not in the way that my mother always seemed so concerned about... Maybe a slightly off-white gown would be an acceptable compromise? There was that one thing I always meant to do on the honeymoon itself. Since we haven’t done that yet... Hmmmf?” Her train of thought took a sudden stop as Pinkie nipped her ear.

When the sensation had passed Rarity’s eyes snapped open from their dreamy state. “Pinkie, your family!”

“What about them?”

“What do you think your family will say? Are there rituals for marrying a unicorn? Oh, they’d never consent...”

Pinkie giggled at her marefriend’s melodramatics. She continued to slowly trace a hoof across the unicorn’s chest. “They don’t tell me what to do anymore. Not since I left the farm to live with my Granny Pie. Oh! I could take you to see her! She’d like you.” She kissed Rarity, and the fashionista could feel her panic ebb away to nothingness.

Pinkie always seemed to be doing this to her; Rarity would get all worked up into a nice fret over something, getting some hysterical momentum going, and then Pinkie was there with a kiss or a hug again. For some reason, it was rather hard to keep a good panic attack going after that...

“Oh, I’d like that. She’s always sounded like such a nice, level-headed mare. Still, we should send invitations to your family at least, and your sisters in particular. And for that matter, I wonder what the unicorn tribe has to say about marrying an earth pony... My mother might know. No, not her...” She felt a sudden sense of distaste at the thought. She still loved her mother, but recent revelations had caused her to feel mild disappointment in the mare. “I suppose I’ll have to check that with Twilight as well.”

“Okey-dokey! So when do we cut the cake and surprise our friends?” Pinkie snuggled closer, not in any rush to move from that spot.

“Let’s give it a while. They think we are baking, so that should buy us some time to compose ourselves.” Rarity sighed wistfully. “It was supposed to be different. Not that I mind how it turned out, but I had this whole scene planned to the letter. Ah well.”

Pinkie squirmed, and Rarity shifted with her without thought. Soon enough Pinkie was embracing her side while Rarity lay staring at the ceiling. Pinkie kissed the tip of her nose. “Okay, so what was it supposed to be like?”

“Well," Rarity swallowed with some difficulty and cleared her throat, "I was to wheel out the cake. All of our friends would be duly impressed with its scale and grandeur, of course.”

Pinkie listened intently, nuzzling her to provide comfort. It helped a lot.

“Then I wanted you to cut the cake, and when you got to the bottom layer you would find my little surprise.”

Sometimes she was a bit of a drama queen, to be sure, but why did all her romantic endeavours turn out to be such complete and utter failures? It wasn’t fair!

“When you turned back around, I would be on bended knee behind you, ready to... 'pop the question', as they say. Our friends would all gasp in excitement, naturally, and cheer for us. It would be the most perfectly romantic and happiest moment of my life. And then you'd smile at me and say something that would completely ruin the mood,” Rarity admitted with a sound that halfway between a giggle and a sob.

She looked down, which proved to be a fatal mistake, as Pinkie's teeth now easily found that extra-sensitive spot on one of her ears. “L-love? What are you...”

Pinkie let go of the ear and moved down to her mouth, stealing her breath with a single, prolonged kiss. “Shhhh. Tell me what would happen next.”

"W-well..." Rarity gasped as she felt a hoof drawing stick-figures on her tummy, the very cusp just in the process of trailing a little circle around one of her nipples. “You would have likely said ‘yes’ after a few aborted attempts to make you understand. I never doubted that you would.”

Pinkie nodded into Rarity’s chest, which she was busy licking at the moment. “Uh-huh.”

“Then I would have presented you with your engagement band. You might recall I asked you to have your ears pierced last month; earrings seemed more practical than horn rings in this instance.”

“Aha! So you started planning this over a month ago?” Pinkie smiled up at Rarity, leaning forward for a kiss while her hoof slipped stealthily over to Rarity’s thigh.

“Love, I started planning this the day after our first date.” Rarity chuckled, then gasped and muffled herself by stuffing her hoof in her mouth as Pinkie casually rubbed her inner thigh. Her caresses were surprisingly slow and sensuous, but still undeniably made their way inwards.

“Go on, tell me how the wedding will go! What will the dresses look like?”

“Well, actually, I thought you’d look quite dashing in a suit. Something a bit like the one you wore to invite me to Gummy’s birthday party, only with a more flattering design, colors that compliment you more.” She gasped anew as Pinkie’s hoof began brushing feather-light touches across her vulva, exactly in that ticklish sort of way she knew drove Rarity mad. “I-I thought perhaps various shades of pink and blue...”

“Oh! That sounds neat! And what about yours?”

“Well, there I’m not quite sure. I wanted a white dress but I worry I can’t wear that anymore...”

“Do you want to wear white?” Pinkie asked curiously, teasing Rarity’s slit with the worn edge of a hoof and then gently applying pressure, so that the unicorn’s eagerly-parting lower lips nestled snugly against and around the smooth, hard keratin, which was swiftly rendered nice and slick with sheer arousal.

“Well... it’s traditional,” Rarity replied with admirable restraint, trying to maintain composure despite the fact that she was breathing hard and couldn’t quite seem to stop her hips from making grinding movements, rubbing herself up against that insufferably wonderful pink hoof. ”But h-honestly, I don’t think it would be best for my coat color. Too much of a single shade tends to get tiresome on the eyes.” Rarity leaned forward and kissed Pinkie, using that eager-to-reciprocate mouth to mute another of her own moans. “I think I may stick with shades of purple and red...”

“You’re going to look so pretty!” Pinkie grinned as she increased the pace of her movements to exceed Rarity’s own. “I’m marrying the prettiest unicorn in Ponyville!” Her enthusiasm very nearly managed to drown out the wet, repetitive slishing noises coming from below—ever a source of embarrassment for poor Rarity.

“Oh, oh my love...” Rarity laid her head back and stifled another moan with her foreleg. Pinkie peppered her neck and chest with kisses, but just at that magical moment when Rarity stood teetering on the brink of bliss, the hoof was pulled away. Rarity looked up in confusion to find her marefriend straddling one of her legs, and bringing one of Rarity’s knees up to rest on Pinkie’s hip. “Love? What are you—”

She felt it then, Pinkie’s knee pressed deep into her sex, while simultaneously feeling Pinkie’s own slick warmth sliding along the—swiftly quite damp—pelt of her hind leg. Pinkie thrust again, and Rarity squealed in excitement and surprise. “Not quite so rough, love!” The thrusts became less forceful, but did not slow down. Pinkie grinned at her from above, her breath labored and heavy with lust.

“T-tell me more about the wedding! What kind of cake do you want?”

Rarity was quite unable to respond, being rather busy just then. She was falling... deliciously, deliriously, uncontrollably.

When Pinkie heard her climax, she thrust once more into Rarity’s sex and squealed as she came herself. They looked into each other's eyes, panting and happy. Rarity was quite unable to do more than lie there for several moments. “Pinkie, we really need to be more careful, our friends are just in the other room.”

“No problemo! Next time we’ll sneak up to your room instead. But this was fun, right?”

Rarity blushed furiously. “Q-quite. Well, let’s get straightened out and put on a show, shall we?”

They cleaned the mess that had been left on the chaise longue, then helped each other clean up. Smiling brightly at one another, they wheeled the cake in.

Dash was sitting stiffly in a chair, her wings considerably ruffled. AJ was looking at her crossly. Twilight and Fluttershy were quietly drinking tea.

Rarity raised her voice. “Ahem, I’m terribly sorry to keep you waiting, darlings. We ran into a bit of difficulty with the cake.”

Dash’s eyebrows rose and she grinned mockingly. “With the cake, huh? And here I thought you were messing with a Pie back there.”

“Rainbow...” Applejack said warningly.

Rainbow snickered. “That was some recipe you were working on. Sounded like it took Pinkie a while to get it stirred up.”

Applejack took off her hat and smacked Rainbow with it. “Hush up now!”

Twilight rapped her hoof on the table. “Let’s just have some cake and stop talking about odd noises and squeals that clearly none of us were paying attention to and oh Celestia someone shut me up please—”

A yellow hoof attached to a heavily-blushing pegasus was helpfully shoved into Twilight’s muzzle.

Rarity’s face flushed furiously. Still, she was a lady. Perhaps she had been caught in a tryst, but she was compelled to ignore it. “Well, in any case, we made a new cake—”

Pinkie chose that moment to burst out happily, “We’re getting married!”

The fashionista’s eye twitched anew, and she sighed. “Quite.”

Their friends cheered, and cake was served, Rarity being careful to remove the earrings from their hiding spot before Pinkie could eat them again.

The party went on well into the night. Finally, it was time to bid their friends goodnight. Pinkie and Rarity took down the decorations, both occasionally smiling at the other as they worked. Somehow, despite everything having gone wrong, it felt as if the proposal could not have gone more perfectly.

Rarity watched the pink rump move in fascination—there was yet more to her plans for tonight. A surprise awaited in her room. It was wrapped in pink, naturally, accented with a bit of red and some white. Candles waited to be lit, and a bed, shared many a night by the two, waited to be officially broken in by the couple... for tonight, Rarity intended to break something else in. She grinned at the wiggling rump as Pinkie danced to some tune which would likely be lovely to hear.

“Love, I-I have another surprise upstairs, if you can—”

Pinkie stopped and turned, a huge grin on her face. “Another one?!”

“Yes, if you’ll follow me—”

She was swept up in strong forelegs and carried upstairs, laughing madly for Pinkie to please not kill them both.

As she was carried over the threshold, Rarity looked the meticulously-prepared environs over with a critical eye and found them to be good. The bed was covered in silken sheets and rose petals. Strategically placed candles were ready to be lit with a spark of magic, which Rarity immediately provided. The room lit up with gentle light, and the pleasant aroma of vanilla wafted through the air.

Rarity gave Pinkie a fond peck on the nose and carefully climbed down from her embrace.

“It’s over here.”

She levitated the box over to the earth pony, who tore into the paper with a happy cry.

When the box was opened, Pinkie eyed the contraption inside curiously. After a few pokes and prods her eyes lit up and she squealed happily. “You bought me a rolling pin? It’s pink and squishy! I love it! But what are the straps for? Are they for my hoofsies, so I don’t drop it?”

Rarity smiled good-naturedly. She supposed Pinkie had never had occasion to see one of these in her magazines. “Actually, those straps are for—”

“Oh, I get it! The pink thing goes in this hole... It’s a pink horn! Oh, I wanna put it on, then we can both be unicorns! Does it work?” She looked the ‘horn’ over eagerly, but finally shook her head. “Silly Pinkie, of course not... Oh, but we could definitely have a sword fight with them!” She grasped the pink cylinder in her teeth and waved it around dramatically. “Haf a ye, laty!”

“Um... no. Please give me that; it has another purpose.” Rarity stood on her hind legs, while her aura animated the straps and the mysterious pink cylinder. Within moments it was secure, the false member jutting out brazenly from her slender haunches. “You see, Pinkie, on our wedding night, I’ll be all yours. But tonight... tonight, my love, you are my mare. I am going to mount that pretty pink body of yours and rut you until one of us loses consciousness.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened and her smile lit up brilliantly. “Oh... That’s even more fun! But um... can we still—”

Rarity sighed in fond exasperation. “Yes love, I’ll sign us up for hoof-fencing classes. Can you please stay focused on the part where I ravish you for now?”

“Okey-dokey!” Pinkie trotted up and kissed Rarity happily. “So um... up on the bed?

Rarity nodded, her expression smoldering. “On your back, please. I want to see your face and kiss your lips while I take you.”

“O-okay.”

Pinkie crawled back onto the bed cautiously, giggling occasionally as the petals shifted and tickled her tummy. Rarity followed, stalking her like a timberwolf would its prey, eyeing every move the earth pony made. This moment was hers; she had fantasized about it roughly as often as she had the proposal, and nothing would be allowed to go wrong.

Which is exactly why it upset her so very much when Opalescence dashed past one of the candleholders and snuffed out the flame in her wake.

“Opal! Bad kitty! You get downstairs this instant!” Rarity’s eye twitched as she looked over the spilled wax.

“Uh... Rarity?”

Rarity looked up and smiled apologetically. “Just a moment, love. I need to clean this up before it hardens.”

“Sure... Uh, I’ll just be here then...”

The unicorn carefully lifted the spilled wax droplets from her carpet, cursing her lack of foresight. Idiot, you could have sent Opal off with Fluttershy for the night! And now look: the petals are already starting to wilt! Her ardor was beginning to cool the longer it took to clean up the mess. She was starting to realize how ridiculous she had to look with this thing bobbing in front of her.

The room was illuminated behind her, and she turned to find that Pinkie had righted the stand and relit the spilled candle. She grinned hopefully at Rarity. “Um... can we get to the sexy part now?”

Rarity stared uncomprehendingly at her marefriend, not quite certain what had possessed her to give cleaning up some stupid wax the highest priority, when she had a ready-and-willing Pinkie waiting for her in bed. “Y-yes. Sorry, love, I didn’t mean to get so wrapped up in trivial matters.”

Pinkie bounded across the room and kissed her on the nose. “It’s okay. Really. You’re here, I’m here; that’s what counts.” She fluttered her eyes, giving Rarity a ‘come hither’ stare. “Now, you gonna come over and rut me, ‘big boy?’”

Rarity blinked, then smiled mischievously. “Oh my, yes!” She took a moment to get into character. ”’Ahem... ‘I have a special delivery for a Ms. Pie?’”

Pinkie’s grin only got wider as she answered. “‘I’m sorry, I don’t have enough bits on me, mister! Is there any other way I can pay you?’”

Rarity advanced on the ‘poor and lonely housemare,’ following the formulaic script to a tee: “Oh, I’m sure we can work something out, lil’ missy...”

The earth pony giggled, humming “Bow-chika-bow-wow!” as she threw herself back on the bed, displacing many a rose petal in the process. She lay back and propped her head against a pillow, looking down her body with great interest, patiently awaiting whatever Rarity had planned next.

Rarity swiftly followed her up onto the bed, stopping only when her hind legs stood between Pinkie’s legs and her forelegs gently pinned the other mare down. She rained down affection on her lover’s body: a nuzzle at her sensitive ear, a nip on her neck, a kiss on her chest, and then a jolt of unexpected magic flicking a pink nipple below. Pinkie squirmed, making little gasping noises that only served to excite Rarity further.

Rarity continued to work her way down until at last she arrived at the earth pony’s flower, the petals spread wide, glistening-wet with dew. Much as she would have loved to bring Pinkie to a shuddering climax with her tongue, today was special, so her intent was merely to ensure that things went smoothly. A few licks later, and things were very smooth indeed; Pinkie’s sex had been lavished with warm and slick saliva, and lovingly stimulated into producing plenty of nectar of its own, leaving her trembling and about as ready for mating as a mare could possibly be.

“R-Rarity...? Puh—please...”

Rarity understood, and finished up with a final teasing flick of the tongue on Pinkie’s clitoris, prompting a shudder and another small whine from the quietly-pleading pink mare. Climbing back up, she then knelt down and poised her hips above Pinkie, lining up the tip of the faux member with Pinkie’s twitching little hole. She tried a few shallow strokes just inside those silky-smooth and slippery lips at first, lubricating her makeshift member. Using her magic to spread Pinkie’s wetness all along the head and shaft, she got ready to commit the act, but hesitated and drew back slightly.

“Pinkie...?”

“I know, Granny told me it stings the first time you do it. I’ll be okay.” Pinkie reached her hooves around Rarity’s neck and hugged her, kissing her passionately. “C’mon in, the water’s fine,” she whispered afterwards, although her disarming smile was tense and her eyes remained wide.

Rarity reached down with her magic and lined up the tip, easing it back into place between Pinkie’s lower lips, never breaking eye-contact with the quivering but eager mare beneath her. She was feeling strangely powerful but, simultaneously, as if a great responsibility had fallen upon her.

Pinkie broke the kiss and looked up at her worriedly. “Rarity, wait a second...”

“Shhhh, it’s going to be all right, love,” Rarity cooed, nuzzling just below the understandably-nervous mare’s chin. ”Let your ‘stallion’ handle this.”

The words made her giggle slightly; she’d never pictured herself on this end of this particular familiar scene. Still, she knew she would be seeing things from Pinkie’s current perspective come their wedding night.

Best to do this quickly.

She prodded the member forward gently, trying to find the entrance.

Pinkie yelped and scooted backwards.“Ouch! I don’t think that goes there!”

Rarity backed off hurriedly. “Love?”

The earth pony smiled back, albeit a bit pained. “It’s okay now. But aim a bit higher next time, or give a girl a little warning first!”

Warn...? Oh dear, did I end up...? She blushed a brilliant red, realizing that was probably exactly what she had done. “Sorry... Unsurprisingly, I’m new at this, too. Can we try again?”

“Yeah, just be careful,” Pinkie said as she scooted back into place under Rarity. “Take two!”

Rarity nodded, watching where she was aiming this time. She felt the tip ease inward, felt soft silky folds give way and suck her in, and smoothly followed through with the weight of her hips.

The kiss was broken as Pinkie hissed sharply. “Time out!”

The two lay together, locked in an embrace, each feeling the gentle rise and fall of the other’s chest.

Pinkie drew her hoof around to Rarity’s nose and tapped it. “Time in.”

Rarity withdrew gently, thrusting forward again. With a flick of her magic, she activated a crystal inside her new member, which provided a pleasant vibration for both parties. Every time the unicorn thrust forward the base of her strap-on pressed deliciously against her clitoris. However, far more stimulating was the look of joy on Pinkie’s face as her lover rode her for all she was worth.

Rarity felt Pinkie’s hind legs wrap around her waist, and with every thrust she was being pulled in further, forcing her member deeper and deeper into her eager little mare. Grinning madly, Rarity locked lips with Pinkie once again, feeling the growing heat and excitement as their movements became one. She laid her head on Pinkie’s shoulder and urgently increased the pace. As Pinkie’s whines became more pronounced, the unicorn gave a last deep thrust and held the toy in place.

Pinkie buried her face in Rarity’s mane and screamed “I love you!” as she came, her whole body bucking and convulsing in pleasure.

Rarity lay gasping for breath on top of Pinkie. The latter, amazingly, was motionless. Rarity tiredly reached up and pulled her mane from Pinkie’s face, kissing her cheek. “Pinkie promise me, on our wedding night, that you’ll keep going until my face matches the look on yours right now.”

Pinkie weakly nodded. “C-cross—” The rest was lost to incoherent mumbles as the earth pony began snoring.

Rarity blinked, smiling gently after seeing no further movement from Pinkie. She climbed off her lover, sweeping the crushed petals from the bed while removing her toy. When everything was ready, she lay down next to the slumbering mare, snuggling up to her. In short order, Rarity joined her marefriend in slumber.

As such, she missed it when the pink pony raised a hoof in her sleep, only to let it drop back down onto the mattress again with a softly mumbled, “Aaaand cut!” quickly followed by her rolling over and murmuring something that sounded like, ”Fade... to... black...”

“Wakey wakey!”

Rarity flailed her forelegs in the general direction of the noise, searching blindly for an alarm clock which had clearly been set incorrectly by several hours. Her hoof was caught in two others instead, and a slew of smooches were subsequently felt along her foreleg.

The fashionista blinked several times, trying to reconcile the fact that her alarm clock had apparently fallen in love with her. She finally opened her eyes to find Pinkie smiling down at her, a tray of pancakes balanced precariously atop her head, with the syrup decanter threatening to spill at any moment.

“Oh, good morning love,” Rarity said sleepily, expertly masking the fact that she had just momentarily mistaken the love of her life for an alarm clock. ”Sleep well?”

“Super well! I guess you were tired too, huh?”

“Just a little,” Rarity admitted. “I’m unused to such vigorous use of those particular muscles. It left me a bit sore in the thighs. How about you?”

The earth pony’s face swiftly took on a very rosy hue. “Sore. But it’s a good kind of sore. It was fun! Next time we should try doing it standing up. Or you could be on the bottom! There’s so many fun things you can do with one those things! I didn’t know they made them for mares. That’s just so neat!”

Rarity yawned, casually levitating the tray to safety before it could be upended by Pinkie’s enthusiastic gesturing. “There is an entire catalog. That was just one of their simpler models...”

Pinkie gasped, looking ready to spout off a plethora of words which, while certain to be adorable, were likely to be a bit much for anypony to process this soon after waking up.

The fashionista leaned forward and kissed Pinkie before she began, leaning back only once the look of mania had subsided. “Yes, love, you may absolutely peruse it and pick a few you might wish to try. I just wanted it to be a surprise this time, or I would have asked you to make a selection.”

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you!” Pinkie was grinning like it was Hearth's Warming Eve.

They sat back on the bed to eat breakfast. Rarity nodded appreciatively to Pinkie, grateful to her for having made it. When they finished, Rarity cleared the tray from her bed and lay back in contentment. “Well, that was lovely, thank you.”

“No problem!” Pinkie said as she snuggled into Rarity’s chest. “I need to go open the bakery today. Were you going to stop by for lunch?”

“I should be able to, yes. I only have my spa trip scheduled for this morning. Oh, I wanted to ask you: what do you think about trying to find somepony for Fluttershy to date?”

Pinkie’s ear perked up. “Who did you have in mind?”

“Well, nopony in particular; I just feel badly seeing her so alone. I thought we could set her up on some blind dates, see if we can find her somepony to make her happy.” Rarity considered for a moment. “For that matter, I wonder if Twilight—”

“Uh-uh.”

Rarity looked down at Pinkie in surprise. “Sorry?”

“Twi’s doing okay. She doesn’t need help.”

“Oh? She’s with somepony? Why haven’t we met them?”

Pinkie shook her head, suddenly incredibly sparse with words. “Twi’s business. I Pinkie-promised. But she’s fine.”

That explained it. “Oh, well that’s wonderful then. I hope we get to meet... whoever it is, at some point.”

Pinkie look up and smiled beatifically. “No hints. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

“Spoilsport...”

The earth pony reached up and pecked Rarity on the cheek. “No pouting.”

“But—”

“Nope!”

“Fine, fine... So, Twilight is taken care of. But Fluttershy is not!” Rarity paused, looking inquisitively at her lover. ”Unless you know something I don’t?”

“I can conclusively confirm the absence of any contracts—heretofore referred to as ‘Pinkie Promises’—concerning the non-divulgence of salient details surrounding any and all relationships Ms. Fluttershy may or may not be engaged in.”

“Right... Well then, something to work on. I’ll see you for lunch, love.”

“Lotus, I really need a good lower-body massage today. You would not believe how knotted-up I am feeling right now...” Rarity said conversationally as she lay down on the massage table. She had planned the proposal and subsequent activities to be the day before her weekly spa trip. In this way she had ensured that, if everything went well, she could count on the sisters’ aid to help her recover from what must surely have been a very tiring night. And if things went horribly wrong, she would at least still have the trip to look forward to. As it happened a bit of both had occurred, so she was very glad to be here this morning.

Lotus’s hooves tensed noticeably on Rarity’s back. “If mistress wishes... Shall I finish the rest of your body before we move on to that?”

“Oh, yes of course, darling! I never meant to rush you. I have just spent a most fabulous night with Pinkie; I popped the question and she said yes! Oh, I still have trouble believing just how happy she manages to make me...” She squirmed down into the towel as Lotus hit another particularly bad knot. “I ended up performing some... rather risque but nevertheless enjoyable activities with her. That’s why I would like to ask you to focus on there in particular.”

“Oh?” Lotus’s voice became hot and breathy as she bent down to speak into Rarity’s ear directly. “Did these ‘activities’ leave you with... unresolved tension?”

Rarity hissed as another knot was addressed with precision by the skilled earth pony. “A lady doesn’t—ah!—kiss and tell, dear.”

“Miss Rarity... are you certain? I would be more than glad to cater to your every need, but what you ask is normally reserved for clients who have nopony to provide such forms of relief for them. I certainly would not mind, but Pinkie may not approve of my services.”

“Lotus,” Rarity said, turning her head away from the towel to face the masseuse, “I didn’t ask you for anything untoward... at least not intentionally. Am I missing some context here?”

The hooves on her back tensed up again. “I am not certain if I am relieved or disappointed to hear this, Miss Rarity. Normally speaking, when a client requests a ‘lower body massage,’ their intent is... well, it’s usually a euphemistic request for a slightly more intimate act than a mere massage. My sister and I believe that anything that can offer a client the relief and relaxation they require is a worthy endeavour, but these forms of customer service are obviously not advertized, since some ponies may not understand. As such, a key phrase was chosen to be passed along amongst ponies in need.”

“Oh... oh!” Rarity was initially taken aback, but after her experience with Pinkie, it actually relieved her to know that such a service was being provided by the sisters. Plus, it gave her an idea. “Well, much as I appreciate the offer, I am already quite content in that department.”

“That is good to hear, miss.”

The rest of the massage was dispensed in relative silence, though Rarity’s thoughts were very nearly loud enough to hear. Perhaps her shy friend might benefit from one of these caring and discreet ‘lower body massages.’ It was certainly something to keep in mind...

Her massage done, Rarity had been led to the mudbath where Fluttershy was even now enjoying a good soak.

“Good morning, darling! I forgot to mention, I really want to thank you for coming last night.”

Rarity waited patiently as the twins wrapped her up in seaweed. Once she was securely enwrapped, she eased herself into the bath, cooing softly as the mud enveloped her form.

After the sisters had gone, she leaned in conspiratorially towards Fluttershy. “Also, I would like to apologize for any embarrassment my actions may have caused. Pinkie can be... unpredictable when it comes to displays of affection...”

Rarity smiled wearily. She suspected life with Pinkie would consist of an awful lot of apologies for faux pas. Still so very worth it. She shivered, remembering last night anew.

Fluttershy looked down, blushing slightly. “It’s okay. Back when we were still together, Dashie could be very spontaneous too. Which was fine, until my dad caught us... Things got very quiet for a while, after that.”

“Oh, oh dear! Had you ever even told him you were—” Rarity paused, uncertain what the term was, exactly. Marefriends? Fillyfriends? “—dating?”

“Um... no. He was very startled.”

“Yes, well, I would imagine so! Not that there is anything wrong with love in any form, but one would generally not expect to find one’s daughter making love to her female best friend...”

“Well, actually, he’d already figured out we were seeing each other. He just thought that Rainbow was, uh, a colt.” Fluttershy blushed again at this admission. “He was actually pretty relieved; he said he really wasn’t ready for grandfoals quite yet.”

"Grandfoals? Why would that—oh..." Rarity frowned pensively. "Speaking of which, I wonder if there's a way to... Bother! I suppose that's another thing to ask Twilight about." She flashed Fluttershy a bashful smile. "Not to say I want one this very instant, mind you. I just think Pinkie would make for a wonderful mother, given how much the Cake twins adore her."

They soaked in companionable silence for a time, neither of them feeling the need to say any more, until Rarity finally blurted out the question had been on her mind since she had seen the wistful look on Fluttershy’s face the previous evening. “Darling? Do you think Pinkie and I can make it, in the long run?”

Fluttershy looked up in alarm. “Of course! You love each other! I mean, you two always look so happy together...”

“Well, not to embarrass you, darling, but you looked incredibly happy in that centerfold. So much so that you barely even looked uncomfortable about being photographed.”

“That was different... When we were together, I just felt so brave and daring.”

“So... what changed?”

A long silence fell, stretching between them as a deep chasm would. All it would take was a short flight on Fluttershy’s part, but she seemed unwilling to cross the gap.

“I’m sorry, dear. I didn’t mean to pry... again.”

“I’ll tell you someday, I promise. Just... not now.” Fluttershy sighed. “I'm okay. Really, I am. Dashie and I, we laugh, we hug... I love having her as a friend. But when I see her nuzzle Applejack and think of how that could have been me—no, how that was me, once—it just... hurts. A little.”

The silence loomed again, and Rarity wished more than anything that she could embrace her friend and tell her all would be well. “Have you considered... finding another? It might help lessen the hurt.”

Fluttershy shook her head, pain etched on her face. “I’m just no good with romance. My animal friends love me, my friends love me, and that ought to be enough.”

Rarity looked at her friend sadly, but did not press the issue further. “Well, that’s good then; so long as you are happy.” Rarity waded forward and pulled Fluttershy into a silent hug, for which her friend seemed genuinely grateful. “Say, would you care to join me for lunch?”

The two friends chatted as they made their way to Sugarcube Corner. The subject of romance was pointedly omitted from their conversation, but between reports on the health and general status of her various animal friends and Rarity’s own tales of Pinkie’s antics, they had plenty to discuss regardless.

“—rose clenched in her teeth, dressed like some sort of Spanish bullfighter, and just whisks me off my hooves and dances me around the showroom! She’s just so incredibly...”

“Romantic?” Fluttershy supplied with a dreamy look on her face.

“Well, yes, very much so. But the way she goes about it is just...”

“Wonderful?”

Rarity paused, laughing after a moment. “Yes, I suppose it is. Surprising, romantic, and wonderful. That’s my Pinkie for you.”

“Rarity!”

Rarity looked up in alarm and, upon spotting the pink missile that was headed straight for her, frantically pushed Fluttershy away from her, bracing for impact. She was toppled head over plot, landing flat on her back whilst a breathless Pinkie smiled down at her.

“Now love, remember what we—oof—said about tackling Rarity?”

“‘Only in the bedroom, where she has a bed to land on—’” Pinkie recited dutifully, before looking around the patch of grass they happened to find themselves in, comprehension dawning. “Oopsie.”

“No harm done.” Rarity smiled and leaned up to place a fond peck on Pinkie’s cheek. “Now, could you perhaps help me up, please?”

In due order the two ponies were back on their hooves. Or rather, Pinkie was standing on her hind legs, with her forelegs wrapped around Rarity’s neck.

“Well then, let’s examine the damage. Pinkie! Mirror!”

Rummaging around in her mane, Pinkie promptly produced a pearl-inlaid silver vanity mirror. Rarity inspected her coiffure carefully, sighing to see grass blades tucked in her precious curls here and there. “Fashion emergency kit!”

“Aww, can’t it wait a little? It doesn’t look too bad.”

“What did we say?”

“‘If Pinkie is going to roughhouse with Rarity, she may do so only on the condition that she helps to return Rarity to the fabulous state she was in beforehoof.’ Okay, fine! But I need to do a rush job; I have cupcakes about to come out.”

“That’s fine, love. Just get the grass out, please.”

Rarity smiled apologetically at Fluttershy, who had been watching the proceedings in what seemed like a mild state of shock. “Sorry, dear. This won’t take much longer.” Pinkie had already produced two hoofbrushes and a bottle of hairgel from the aether, and was busily restyling Rarity’s mane while balanced on a single hoof. The work of a few frenzied moments found Rarity back in roughly the condition she had been in before she had been toppled with extreme prejudice.

“Oh my, I didn’t know Pinkie could style hair...”

“Aloe and Lotus say she is an amazing pupil. Isn’t that right, my love?”

“Mmmmhmmm! I want my Rarity to be happy, and she likes it when her mane looks nice. I really do need to remember that bedroom thing, though...” Pinkie nuzzled Rarity as she put the brushes and combs away. “Okay, gotta run, cupcakes are done. See you two inside!”

Rarity smiled as she watched Pinkie run off. “So much energy...”

“You must be very happy.”

“You would not believe how much! Why, the things that mare can do with a hoof—” Rarity stopped, blushing furiously. “You were referring to the hairstyling, weren’t you? Yes, she’s... very good at that, too.”

Fluttershy squeaked an unintelligible reply.

“Well, let’s go eat, shall we?”

Lunch was a fairly silent affair; Rarity was feeling a bit too embarassed by prior events to be her normal gregarious self, and Fluttershy just seemed lost in thought.

Pinkie came out from the kitchen and joined them when she had finished tending to her batch of cupcakes. “So, did you have a nice visit?”

Rarity smiled. “I did. I feel so much better now.”

“That’s good! So they took care of all those tight muscles in your legs? ‘Cause I was thinking we could have a little party again tonight.” Pinkie waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Rarity coughed violently as a crumb of cupcake went down her windpipe, prompting Pinkie to leap to her aid. But Fluttershy was already wrapping her forelegs around Rarity’s middle to deliver the Holsteiner maneuver. Two quick thrusts and the crumb was dislodged, allowing Rarity to breathe easily once more.

“T-thank you, Fluttershy.”

“You have to be more careful when you startle her, Pinkie,” Fluttershy scolded.

Pinkie’s ears folded back on themselves, “Um... sorry.”

When they had finished eating—without further incident—Fluttershy bid Rarity farewell. Just before she left, however, she approached Rarity and leaned in close to speak to her with some modicum of privacy. “Um... you don’t have anything to worry about. That’s my opinion. Just let her make you happy and you’ll be fine. Don’t overthink things... That’s part of what went wrong, in my case.” She embraced Rarity lightly, and then left for home.

Rarity watched her go, wondering at this news. “‘Don’t overthink things’... I suppose that’s exactly what I have been doing, isn’t it? It is enough that I am happy.” A slow smile spread across her face.

“There’s that smile!” A pair of pink legs were wrapping themselves around her, and a matching face soon followed, coming into her field of vision and peppering her face with kisses. “Don’t overthink what?”

“Hmmm? Oh, nothing important, love. Fluttershy was just reminding me that I need to stop worrying about whether I am going to be happy and just let it happen.”

“Well duh! If you’re still worried about that, I really need to teach you to be happy some more.” She squeezed a little harder with her hug and kissed Rarity on the cheek. “What am I going to do with you, Rarity?”

Rarity kissed Pinkie’s lips, her smile growing more heated. “Why, I don’t know, love. What are you going to do with me?”

Pinkie’s face flushed, and her smile grew ever larger. “Bedroom?”

“Bedroom.”

But Pinkie will be there to show you

Rarity lay back in the tub, Pinkie snuggling up against her, neither wanting to acknowledge that eventually they would have to get out of it. She could still feel the warmth of Pinkie’s lips on her own, and thought she could still hear echoes of Pinkie’s cries of ecstasy as Rarity made her ... Yes, well, that was exhilarating. However, I still don’t know what to do about you, you enigmatic little bundle of happiness. Her plan had failed; Pinkie had not cried out her name, and now she had no further options. Life would resume, Pinkie would have baking to do, Rarity would eventually have to finish her order. But here, and now, none of that mattered. The warm water and the warmer friend kept the world at bay.

It was all Rarity could do not to burst into tears. Certainly, she would find other moments to spend time with Pinkie, but rare was the occasion that neither would be interrupted by a friend, or a chore, or a relative. This private moment between them, simple as it was, was almost perfect; as far as Rarity was concerned they might as well have been the only two ponies in Equestria right at that point.

Finally, one of them said the dreaded words.

Pinkie sat up and pulled at the plug chain. “I’m really super-duper sorry, Rarity, but we have to get out now. The storm’s scheduled to end soon and I have to get the shop ready to reopen.” She turned back and smiled apologetically. “We can have another lesson some other time, if you’d like.”

Rarity stood up, letting the water slough off her coat in a cascade. “Yes, I suppose so. I really do need to fetch the fabric to complete my order.”

They dried off in relative silence, neither seeming to wish to say anything more for the moment. Pinkie kept looking at her sadly, but whatever was on her mind she did not give voice to it. Rarity’s mind raced, trying to come up with something, anything that would definitively tell her how Pinkie felt.

As she ran a brush through her mane, an idea popped into her head. “Pinkie, would it be too much trouble to help you in the kitchen?”

Pinkie looked up in surprise. She had been sitting on the edge of the tub, drying off her hind legs, and had to windmill her forelegs for a moment to avoid falling back in. Rarity caught her in her aura, tilting her back upright. The pink pony grabbed the edge of the tub and rebalanced herself, shooting Rarity a thankful look. “Are you sure? You said you had to get your order ready.”

Rarity nodded, putting a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder to steady her. As if I could concentrate on that, instead of thinking about you and how to resolve what we have here. Everything would end up pink and covered in streamers. “It will keep. Come now, did you not extend an invitation to me earlier? You wanted to make muffins as I recall. I’m not sure exactly, I think I was nibbling your ear at the time. Surely now is as good a time as any?”

The earth pony’s smile seemed ready to extend past the boundaries of her face. “I’d love that! Oh, thank you, Rarity! Everypony loves eating, but for some reason every time somepony helps me bake they freak out! Maybe it’s the musical numbers...”

Rarity chuckled knowingly. Her sister had relayed Apple Bloom’s tale of Pinkie seemingly appearing in multiple places simultaneously. She wasn’t certain whether it was just the imagination of a filly or another one of Pinkie’s many eccentricities. Ooooh. Imagine making love to two of her...

She shook the thought off; there would be other opportunities for that. Right now she needed more time alone with Pinkie, time to plan something else. Time to find out how she-

“Rarity...”

She turned to Pinkie with a smile. “Yes, love?”

Pinkie was tapping her forehooves together uneasily. “I really really really appreciate that you want to help me. You have no idea how special that is.” She sighed heavily. “But you can’t. Rarity has Rarity things to do. You’ll get upset if you miss your deadline. You can spend time with me later.”

“But, but... Rarity wanted... I mean I wanted to help you bake...”

Pinkie shook her head sadly. “No buts. I’m not going anywhere, but those dresses won’t make themselves. There will be time for games again, if you still want to play.”

Rarity stopped herself, barely, from shouting. Is that what this was, what I was, to you? Her whole posture stiffened. Of course, she had no reason to lie about how she felt. S-she doesn’t... It was just to make me happy. Buck up, Rarity, don’t let her down. You can have a nice cry on your bed later. “Of course, games. I would love to come visit you again. But for now, I must go.”

She walked to the mare and hugged her, trying her best not to appear clingy. “Thank you, you’ve helped me so much today.”

Pinkie stiffened slightly, then melted into the embrace. “N-No problemo! That’s what Pinkie does!”

Rarity nodded, and leaned in to kiss Pinkie on the lips. It was affectionate, but not passionate; not a promise of things to come, but a kiss of thanks... and of farewell. “Goodbye, love.”

Rarity strode out of the bakery door, stopping only briefly to look back at her friend. On her way through the streets of Ponyville she paused, looking at the fabric shop, then shook her head. It will keep. The very picture of poise, she made it all the way back to her bedroom, and even managed to close the door, before having a very, very long cry indeed.

The next few days passed largely without incident. Rarity was in full work mode, trying to ignore the way her heart wailed in her chest. At night, when she could sleep, she dreamed of what could have been - the two of them dressed to the nines, attending parties at Canterlot. Pinkie was the consummate gentlemare at these affairs, and in return Rarity let her hair down for her at night. Days spent at the opera, nights dancing wildly to heart-pounding rhythms next to that pink, whirling dervish of unbridled energy. But when she woke, save for her cat who seemed oddly loving of late, and her sister who frequently came to visit, she was always alone.

She commenced this particular morning as she had the last three: trying to find a smile that did not look fake. She owed that to her friend. Let her believe she had succeeded. And, in a way, Pinkie had succeeded. Rarity now knew the rapture she could give herself, and frequently had given herself since being taught how.

She could hardly be blamed for pretending the hooves touching her were pink, with just the slightest aroma of dough and frosting, could she? But while going through the motions did give her release, the whole thing just felt emotionally hollow. She could never bring herself to the sheer heights that Pinkie had shown her. More than once she had considered taking Pinkie up on her offer to ‘play’, but she decided against it each time. It had been easier to remain somewhat aloof while pleasuring Pinkie in the bath; were she to try now...

“Please, I want you, you fluffy bouncy bundle of happiness! Come with me to my home and spend my life with me. I love you! Please tell me you feel the same. Lie to me if you must, but tell me before I go mad!”

Hardly fair to Pinkie.

She briefly eyed her kitchen, in passing as it were. Every time she considered breakfast she thought of her time with Pinkie. Rarity felt her heart leap, only to have her head remind her that Pinkie might mistake it for her coming over to ‘play’ again. Would that be so horrible? I could be intimate with her without the need for her to return my feelings. Am I some lovesick foal, unable to have fun with my friend?

Yes, I will march over there, and I will... have casual sex... with the mare I love... She dropped down on her chaise longue in despair. I am just some lovesick foal! I simply cannot do it!

So what’s the alternative? Become a literal hermit? Avoid her long enough and she will come calling, wondering what she did wrong. The sad truth is she did everything right! But you, you selfish foal, you want more.

Rarity was about to argue further with the voice in her head, but her sanity was saved by a knock on the door. She pulled herself up off of the chaise longue, trying to make herself presentable. Wouldn’t do to let a customer see me crying. Taking a deep breath and plastering something resembling a smile on her face, she opened the door.

Pinkie was there, with a tray full of muffins and a thermos of coffee perched on her back. She shot Rarity a tired grin. "Good morning! I haven't seen you stop by for breakfast in the last few days, so I thought I would bring the bakery to you! But then Mrs. Cake gave me these and told me I had to stop trying to stuff the oven into my mane." She shrugged her shoulders. “So, um, here I am! C-can I come in?”

Rarity did not answer at first, being too busy holding herself back from lunging at Pinkie and covering her with kisses. The first genuine smile she had felt in three days lit up her face. She felt a sudden urge to sing. She could practically taste the rising tide of emotions flooding her mind with warm and fuzzy feelings. “Please! Come in lo—Pinkie.”

Pinkie’s smile faltered for half a second before reasserting itself firmly on her face. “Thanks...”

She led Pinkie to her kitchen, whisking the tray from her back and placing it on the table. Rarity began to pull out a chair, only to find that Pinkie had already done so for her. She nodded courteously and sat down.

“So... h-how have you been—"

“I brought some blueberry... some razzleberry, and some chocolate with chocolate chips.”

Rarity tried not to take offense at the interruption; she was just trying to make small talk to cover the silence descending over the room. “I-I really shouldn’t—"

“Chocolate it is!”

Rarity blushed furiously. Trust Pinkie to be aware of not only everypony’s birthday, but of her shameful addiction to dark chocolate as well. “Thank you.”

They ate in silence for a time, Rarity growing more and more concerned for her friend. The normal, energetic bounciness she exuded was strangely muted. Come to think of it, everything about her seemed muted. It wasn’t the ashen grey they had all experienced during Discord’s escape, but certainly similar. Her coat seemed less vibrantly pink and her mane was straight again.

How is that happening? How does one go from a mass of curls to flat and... luxuriously flowing? Does it always have to be one or the other? She fought a sudden urge to fetch her styling gel; though Pinkie’s mane seemed to reflect her mood, she doubted the reverse would apply. Rarity still wasn’t certain how somepony’s mane could be affected by their state of mind, but she was certain that something was wrong with Pinkie.

Her suspicions were confirmed moments later as her friend slumped forward, banging her head on the table. “Pinkie!” She got up from her seat to examine her friend, who was rubbing her forehead with a hoof.

Pinkie chuckled nervously. “Owie! Sorry, I’m a little tired.”

Rarity clucked her tongue in disapproval. “Darling, when did you get to bed?”

“Wednesday, no wait Tuesday... I know I went to bed on Monday, at least I think so... I dunno. It’s been kind of a blur. It’s not the bed so much, it’s the sleeping...”

Rarity worriedly held a hoof to her friend’s forehead. “Are you ill, love? Should I take you to the hospital?”

Pinkie smiled that same tired smile again, the words out of her mouth more than just a little slurred. "Ih'm not sick... Well, maybe a liddle shick, but I don—"

Her eyes had fallen shut. Before Rarity could blink once, she was snoring. Rarity stared down at her friend and frowned in worry. She picked the earth pony up in her aura and carried her upstairs to the bedroom. Upon reaching the bed she carefully slid her friend under the covers, taking care not to wrinkle the sheets as she did so, of course. Seeing Pinkie settled, she hesitated for a moment before stroking her forehead with a hoof, then walking quietly back downstairs. Mrs. Cake will need to be informed. I hope it’s nothing serious!

Mrs. Cake was not pleased to see her. “Please tell me you two made up... I don’t know what you fought about but she’s been a wreck!”

Rarity was quite confused. She hadn’t been sure of what to expect, but having Mrs. Cake upset with her hadn’t been one of the possibilities she’d considered. “Made up? I wasn’t aware of a need! She’s done nothing wrong...”

“Well, would you mind telling her that? She’s been like the trotting dead! Three nights straight, for Celestia’s sake. I’ve tried to get her to tell me what’s wrong but she won’t say.”

Rarity was growing more concerned by the moment. What have you done, you selfish thing? You couldn’t have talked to her? What must she think? “Wait... she hasn’t slept? In three days?”

Mrs. Cake nodded sadly. “We’re not sure what’s wrong with the poor dear. The twins are easier to get to sleep right now. I caught her snoring up a storm o’bubbles in the cake batter and told her she needed to take a break and get some rest.”

“Did she?”

Mrs. Cake shook her head. “She seemed intent on going to see you instead. The first thing she said when I woke her up was your name. I asked her why and she told me she'd done something bad and made you mad at her. After I made her put down the oven I whipped her up a tray of muffins and sent her to you to settle things.”

“She passed out at my kitchen table! We were eating muffins...”

A worried frown again clouded Mrs. Cake’s normally jovial features. “What did you do with her? Is she all right?”

“I put her to bed,and she was sleeping last I saw her.”

Mrs. Cake clopped her forehooves together. “Oh that’s wonderful! I hate to impose, but if she can sleep there, would you mind letting her? One more night and we were prepared to take her to the hospital to have her looked at. I-I know she’s not really my daughter, but she’s been working for us since she came to Ponyville, and I get worried about her you see...”

Rarity nodded distractedly. “Of course, I will take good care of her. Thank you for putting my mind at ease; if she’s just tired I will let her rest. I’m terribly sorry to have troubled you.”

Rarity spent her walk back to the Boutique fretting. She had done this. Pinkie had only meant to help her and had been repaid with avoidance. Idiot! Foal! You’ve seen how she reacts when she thinks her friends don’t like her! You could have at least thanked her for trying to help. But no, you were too busy feeling sorry for yourself!

When she got home she was rather nonplussed to find the majority of her furnishings overturned. A quick search of the Boutique revealed Pinkie peeking into the cupboard under her kitchen sink. “Pinkie Pie!”

Pinkie jerked up hurriedly, banging her head on the edge of the counter. “Owie!”

Rarity rushed to her, examining the bump. Upon ascertaining it was nothing serious, she helped her up and looked her over carefully. “Darling, why aren’t you asleep?”

Pinkie hugged her tightly, causing her body to stiffen slightly, before she melted into the embrace.

“I’m sorry! I fell asleep and I woke up and you were gone! I couldn’t find you anywhere!”

Rarity reached up and smoothed the flowing pink mane. “Shhhh, it’s all right, love. I went to Sugarcube Corner to inform Mrs. Cake you were napping here. You’re going to get some rest now, do you hear me?”

The only response she received was the feeling of something wet hitting her shoulder. Is she... crying? A loud snore came from behind her. She pulled her friend back in front of her with her hooves. Pinkie had been drooling on her shoulder. You poor dear, you really are exhausted. She gently lifted Pinkie in her magic and took her back to the bedroom. Getting ready to tuck her back in, she noted that the bed looked pristine, save for the perfectly Pinkie-shaped budge in the covers. How... right, she’s Pinkie Pie. She shook her head, pulled the covers back just as carefully, lay her friend down on the mattress and gently pulled the sheets back over Pinkie.

She briefly considered leaving to make breakfast, but decided against it, instead lying down next to Pinkie. Once again, she was struck by how as simple a thing as seeing her friend at rest enraptured her heart. It was like watching time stand still. Pinkie’s eyes fluttered for a moment, making Rarity yelp when her friend reached out and snatched her, wrapping pink hooves around her back and nuzzling into her fur like she was the world’s softest cuddly toy.

Rarity let herself be held for a time, until Pinkie finally rolled back over. She continued to lie there, watching her friend’s chest rise and fall, but soon became somewhat alarmed when she heard her friend’s voice. Pinkie was muttering something. “Pinkie?”

“Huzzahwha?”

Rarity clamped her mouth shut, not wanting to wake her friend. “Shhhh, sleep now, it’s all right.”

Pinkie giggled softly. “—kay marshmallow...”

Rarity looked at Pinkie incredulously. “Marshmallow?”

Pinkie smacked her lips. “Sorry, ate your sisters...”

“What?!”

“Shouldn’t have gone skinny-dipping in my cocoa...”

She’s talking in her sleep... Rarity’s mind raced; this might be her chance! Very carefully, she leaned in. “Pinkie, how do you feel about your friends?”

Pinkie frowned, but then cracked a smile. “Love my friends...”

Rarity’s heart leapt, first in excitement, then confusion. “Is there one you like a lot?”

The earth pony shifted a little restlessly. “Rocky is nice.”

Rocky? Who in Equestria is that? “What about your female friends?”

“Madame Le Flour? I like her a bunch.”

The fashionista was growing a bit frustrated. “What about Rarity?”

Pinkie cringed in response. “... hurt her feelings... hates me.”

Oh, I never meant—You are a real piece of work, aren’t you Rarity? Look at the state you’ve left her in! She leaned in closer and embraced Pinkie. “No! She doesn’t hate you, I promise you that.”

The earth pony relaxed. "...throw her a thank-you party..."

Rarity chuckled softly. "If you must dear..."

"Maybe we can sing..."

“Would you like that?”

“...sings when she’s happy...”

Rarity started at that, it reminded her of an odd thing her friend had said.

"But there are nights when you don’t sing, and I miss it... You didn’t sing last night, or the night before... I didn’t sleep very well..."

You poor dear. You’ve been up for three days waiting to hear me sing...

She snuggled closer to Pinkie, and sang her a lullaby, the same one she used to sing to Sweetie Belle when she was staying over at night.

Pinkie sighed happily and drifted into a deeper sleep.

When she was certain the pink pony was slumbering soundly, Rarity went about the normal business of her day. It gave her time to think, and to plan. While she was still uncertain whether or not Pinkie loved her, there definitely seemed to be a strong emotional attachment there. While that was not definitively love, it was a start. It was enough that Rarity was now prepared to take a risk: she was going to ask her friend on a date.

But first things first. Pinkie was under the impression that she had done something wrong—that had to be rectified.

Unfortunately, the later it became the more she wondered when Pinkie would wake up. She yawned quietly. Every time Rarity checked on her she was still sleeping soundly. Finally, as nighttime was well and firmly established, she climbed into bed next to her. The unconscious mare again reached out for Rarity, and this time she welcomed the embrace. Her last thought before falling asleep was to wonder what her friend would like for breakfast.

She woke the following morning to find her bed empty again. The oddness of yesterday’s events led her to briefly wonder if she had dreamed the whole thing, but the slight scent of vanilla and flour left on the sheets told another story. Of course, that could also be coming from her kitchen.... She’s baking? I don’t have the ingredients to make anything beyond casserole and salad right now, do I?

She made her way downstairs carefully; the last time she had rushed down them too quickly had been a painful experience. I can be at least reasonably certain that Pinkie will not set fire to anything.

Her friend was merrily juggling several carrots, a knife clutched in her mouth. Some quick head jerks sent diced carrots into a mixing bowl filled with pancake batter. Her tail was occupied flipping a skillet, and one hind leg was inexplicably operating a mixer.

Seeing her up, Pinkie smiled around the knife. “Goof nornin!”

“G-good morning, love. Maybe I could help you with some of that?” Rarity took the mixer from Pinkie, who nodded appreciatively. She briefly considered asking her how long she had been up, but realized it was somewhat pointless while the baker was dicing carrots. So, instead, she busied herself assisting in the making of breakfast.

In relatively no time they had a fine stack of carrot pancakes in front of them, with a side of toast and jam. Pinkie was essentially diving into her meal, while Rarity daintily picked at hers. She finally set her fork down and addressed the elephant in the room. “Pinkie,” she said suddenly. “I need to talk to you about what happened a few days ago.”

Pinkie stopped eating mid-bite, swallowing her food hastily. She stared at her plate, not looking Rarity in the eyes. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, don’t ha—”

Rarity reached across the table, putting a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. Pinkie looked up at the touch. “No, I am sorry. And I don’t hate you; I would never hate you!”

The earth pony looked at her, half in hope, half in disbelief. “Really?”

Rarity sighed heavily, ashamed at what she had done to her friend. “Really. It was rather selfish of me; all I can say is that I was confused. You made me feel things I’d never expected to feel. I needed some time to sort it out.”

Pinkie took a moment to process that. “You didn’t come back,” she said finally, with just a hint of confusion. “ I thought you might, the next morning. Then at night, I could hear you working... but, but you never... I thought I made you sad all over again. I couldn’t sleep.”

The fashionista nodded solemnly. “I know. Mrs. Cake told me. You do not have to feel the least bit guilty, love. I enjoyed every moment we spent together that day. I am sorry I was so confused afterwards. Even if I was upset, we would never stop being friends. So please, set your mind at ease.” She stroked Pinkie’s cheek affectionately. ”If you’ll allow me, I’d like to make it up to you. You mentioned... “carry okey”?”

Pinkie’s eyes began to tear up, but Rarity could tell these were tears of happiness. With a loud -pomf- Pinkie's mane resumed it's normal mass of bright pink curls. “Y-you want to sing with me?”

Rarity nodded. “I want to spend some time with you, if you don’t mind. Get to know you more. I realize this may not have been your intention, but I feel my time with you opened my eyes a bit. I’d like to explore those feelings with you. I won’t hold it against you if you don’t want—”

Seeing Pinkie’s eyes glaze over, she huffed in irritation. Just ask her, you silly mare. “Sorry, what I mean is, I’d like to go out with you. Is it a date?”

Pinkie’s eyes widened at first, then narrowed in confusion, before she brightened again. “Oh, that was a lot of words to ask me to go play with you!”

Rarity shook her head. “No love, no playing. Well, not the type we did anyway. I want to go out, take you somewhere and have some fun.”

Her friend looked confused again. She seemed to be having a conversation in her head, and for some reason looked down between her own legs in consternation. "Oh. Okay!"

Rarity clapped her forehooves together in excitement, squealing just a bit. “Oh, thank you, love! I can’t wait! Now, when do such places open? Is it a daytime or nighttime thing? Does the singing happen on a stage or a private room? How does one usually dress?”

Pinkie shrugged. "Where did you want to go? Some places have a stage, most have private rooms though. Oh, and if you could wear something funny, that would make everything better!"

"What about the one with... the nachos? You seemed fairly insistent on it."

"Nachos? I love nachos! Can we go to that one? Oh please, oh please, oh please!"

“Of course, darling! That’s the whole point, we’ll go someplace we both enjoy, and have a good time. Haven’t you ever dated before?”

“Well sure I have, every week!”

Rarity started, taken aback. “I had no idea you were so experienced. That will make this much easier.”

Pinkie nodded happily. “Yeppers! I’ll show you how things work, you’re gonna love it!”

Rarity smiled with her new marefriend. Yes, I think I will!

Rarity arrived at the establishment dressed in a slinky black evening dress. She had fretted all afternoon about her choice of attire, but finally decided that dating was dating, regardless of the sex of the pony who was being dated.

Pinkie galloped up to her, waving wildly while running on three hooves. “Heya!”

Rarity embraced her warmly. “How are you, love?”

"I'm so excited!" Pinkie gushed. "I always wanted to try a duet with you ever since I first heard you sing—" she bounced rapidly, becoming a blur until Rarity cleared her throat, "—but I didn't want to bother you since you're always sooo busy, and ponies always say that I'm a little over-energetic—" she stopped bouncing and fell into step beside Rarity, "—but to me it seems like they're all just standing still and— Do you still want nachos?"

Rarity breathed a sigh of relief; another moment of that and she would have been forced to nibble on Pinkie’s ears again. Bit awkward in public. “That would be lovely.”

Pinkie stood up, taking the door knob in her teeth, pulling it open. She gestured for Rarity to go inside. “Affa yoo milashy!”

Rarity nodded graciously. Entering the building, she was hit with a wall of sound. The atonal warbling of drunken lyrics being sung by those who never should have attempted them assaulted her, making her ears clamp down to her head in defense. Oh... who would commit such a crime against... She looked up to the stage, rather unsurprised to discover the culprit was Berry Shine. Or Berry Punch, as she was nicknamed after that infamous little scene she made at Sugarcube Corner. Well, who am I to judge somepony for getting a bit intoxicated at a bar? “Pinkie?” She had to raise her voice to make herself heard. “I think a private booth, please?”

Pinkie was already at the front counter, getting a set of keys for their booth. She swung them back and forth, making them rattle against each other. It was rather silly. It also led Rarity to mental images she could not act on in public.

Rarity was rather pleased at what she found when they entered their allotted booth. It was not a small room, quite generous in size frankly. To one side of the room was a large couch, and in the center on a small stage stood a cabinet, a song catalog and a keypad. Pinkie gestured to the machine. “There’s a big list of songs in here. You just pick the one you want, push the buttons, and the song is played with lyrics up on the screen!”

“I see...” Rarity nodded appreciatively at the explanation. “Why don’t you pick something to sing first, love? I want to see how it all works.”

Pinkie pored over the catalogue for moment. “Okey dokey!”

A familiar refrain began to play. Wait... that can’t be.

♫“My name is Pinkie Pie—" Pinkie waved.
“And I am here to say”♫

Of course it is. She comes here all the time.

♫“I'm gonna make you smile
And I will brighten up your day.
It doesn't matter now
If you are sad or blue
‘Cause cheering up my friend
Is just what Pinkie's here to do!”♫

Not quite following the lyrics on the screen... Still... I believe I can follow. She floated a microphone from the stage down to her, and joined in the for the chorus.

♫“‘Cause I love to see you smile, smile, smile!
Yes I do!
It fills my heart with sunshine all the while!
Yes it does!
‘Cause all I really need's a smile, smile, smile
From this special friend of mine!”♫

Pinkie smiled as Rarity joined in, letting her take the next verse.

♫“I love to see you grin,
I love to see you beam.
The corners of your mouth turned up
has always been my dream.♫

♫“But when you are quite worried,
And your mane falls to the floor,
I’ll come and kiss those tears away
To bring you back to me once more!”♫

♫“Because I love to make you grin, grin, grin!
Yes I do!
Let me see it light your face!
Let it begin!
Just give me a joyful grin, grin, grin!
And it brightens up my day!”♫

She gestured for Pinkie to take the next verse.

♫“It's true some days are dark and lonely,
And when you feel sad,
Your Pinkie will be there to
Show you that it isn't all bad!♫

♫“There’s one thing that makes me happy,
That makes my whole life worthwhile!
And that's when I talk to my friend and get her to smile!♫

♫“I really am so happy-”♫

Darling, why did that make you sniffle just now? What’s wrong?

♫“Your smile fills me with glee.
I give a smile, I get your smile
And it's so special to me.”♫

Rarity joined in for the final chorus.

♫“Cause I love to see youbeam, beam, beam!
Yes I do!
Tell me what more can I say to make you see,
That I do!?
It makes me happy when you beam, beam, beam!
Yes it always makes my day!”♫

They sang the final refrain to each other.

♫“Come on special pony,
Smile, smile, smile.
Fill my heart up with sunshine,
Sunshine!
All I really need's a smile, smile, smile
From this special friend of mine!
Come on special pony,
Smile, smile, smile.
Fill my heart up with sunshine,
Sunshine!
All I really need's a smile, smile, smile
From this special friend of mine!
Yes the perfect gift for me
Is a smile as wide as a mile
To make me happy as can be!
Smile, smile...
Smile, smile...
...Smile...
Come on and smile...
Come on and...”♫

Rarity couldn’t help but note that Pinkie’s enthusiasm had dropped as the song ended. Her voice barely registered on the last words. She turned to her in confusion, only to see that Pinkie was attempting to hold back tears... “Darling, why are you crying?”

Pinkie did not answer right away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“Was it the song choice? I took a bit of liberty with the lyrics...”

“No... it was great, you sang it really well. Thank you.”

“Would you care to sing another duet?”

“No, I don’t think I want to sing anymore.”

“But why? I thought you loved to sing?”

“Your singing... it was pretty. But it makes me... sorry. Nevermind.”

Rarity embraced her in concern. “Darling, enough of this. I meant what I said; if you are upset, I want to help you.”

Pinkie shook her head sadly. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Rarity looked at her in worry, but did not press her. “Would it trouble you to just sit with me for a time then?”

Pinkie shook her head, then nodded, then looked confused. “Um, no, it doesn’t bother me, but yes, I want to sit with you?”

The fashionista sat down and gestured for Pinkie to follow suit. When they were together on the bench she wrapped one of her hooves around Pinkie’s shoulder and closed in for a kiss. A few moment later they broke it, breathing heavily. “Aha, there’s a little hint of that smile I love.”

Pinkie’s face fell a little. “I-I don’t want to make you worry. Sorry...”

Rarity kissed her on the cheek. “You don’t have to share everything that is bothering you, love. I plan this to be the first of many dates. We’ll have more time to discuss our hopes and fears. What are marefriends for, if not to help each other through life’s troubles?”

Pinkie looked at her incredulously. “Um... you meant friend, right?”

Rarity blanched. Oh dear, did I use the wrong word? “Ah, of course, friends. I am sorry, I’m not certain of the terminology. When two mares are going out they are still friends then?”

“Going out?”

Rarity nodded patiently, even if she was a bit bemused. “Dating?”

Pinkie’s confusion was only growing more prominent.

“In a relationship,” Rarity said doubtfully, ”seeing each other?”

“Y-you mean—"

“Um... yes. This is a date. That is the activity we are currently engaged in, correct?”

Pinkie blinked several times. “Um...”

Rarity smiled in exasperation. “Darling, I don’t know how else to say it! Is there some special way of describing it when two mares spend time together? I’m completely new to this.”

Pinkie backed away slowly. “No, no no no... Don’t say that. You can’t mean that!”

“Darling?”

“Rarity likes stallions, not Pinkies!” Pinkie looked panicked. “Did I break you?”

“Pinkie!”

The earth pony froze.

Rarity closed the distance and embraced her. “Please, I don’t understand. Why are you upset? Can you please tell me what is bothering you?”

Pinkie’s eyes were wide open, her mouth agape. “...” She worked her mouth fruitlessly, trying to get the words out, but nothing would come. “I love—" She grunted in frustration. Taking several breaths, she tried again. “I love you!”

Rarity nodded patiently. “Yes, darling, I love you too.”

Pinkie’s eyes bugged out of her head. “B-but you’re not supposed to!”

Now it was Rarity’s turn to be confused. “I thought... Isn’t that the whole point? I love you, you love me, we date? Is it truly so different when two mares are involved?”

Pinkie, meanwhile, seemed to be busy trying to set some sort of record for lung inflation. She was trying to get something off her chest, but her brain seemed to be trying to force all of the words into her mouth at once.

Rarity looked her in the eyes, which were still darting wildly. “Darling, calm down. I’m not going anywhere. Just take a breath—” Pinkie began to re-inflate her lungs to maximum capacity. “—let’s try a smaller breath, love. There we go. Now, tell me what has you upset.”

Pinkie began slowly, but her words started spilling out faster and faster as she went. Still, for Pinkie, she was showing remarkable restraint. “Okay, imagine you are a Pinkie Pie. You have a friend that you like, actually you have lots of friends you like. But one you really, really, really like. But you’re just a Pinkie Pie, and she’s a Rarity. She likes stallions, that's all she ever talks about. It’s like Derpy with her muffins, all Rarity wants to talk about is stallions. So you keep that to yourself. But then, one day, she comes to you. She’s unhappy, and when you tell her how she might be able to feel better, she tells you she never does that. Not only that, she tells you she feels ashamed to even try. When she tells you why it makes you so sad, because you... well you had something like that happen too.”

Rarity nodded, “With you so far, darling.”

“Now you have a problem, because you’re still just a Pinkie Pie, and she’s still Rarity! So you take a risk, a big risk, like that-first-time-you-threw-a-party big: you offer to help her. You know this is going to be hard, because it means being close to the pony that you are trying not to upset with your little Pinkie Pie feelings. And you’re worried, because you like her, but you don’t want to bother her with that, you just want to help. But she agrees!“

Pinkie choked back a sob and blinked furiously, as if trying to make sure she wasn’t simply dreaming.

“That's like... like seeing all your friends laughing at the same time! She seems happy to do things with you, and then she wants to do more with you... Then she says words a Pinkie Pie only ever dreamed of hearing...no, not ‘Want to get some more muffins’, but something way, way, waaay more important than that... those words you'd never-ever in a million years thought she'd say... What should that Pinkie Pie do? I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m just dreaming but even my dreams didn’t act like this—”

Rarity moved more quickly than she thought she ever had in her life, practically tackling Pinkie to the floor and biting down on her ear until she squeaked.

When she finally did let go, she preemptively silenced Pinkie's barrage of questions by occupying her lips with other things, such as... say... a kiss.

"My love," she said after they finally separated, panting, "I think you should kiss and make love to your Rarity."

Rarity shed the dress slowly, feeling deliciously naked. It was flung over the couch rather carelessly. Pinkie watched in disbelief while she disrobed. The unicorn wiggled her haunches in what she hoped was a seductive manner and grinned saucily. "In fact, I'm going to have to insist on it. Nopony else can have you now."

Pinkie looked up into Rarity’s eyes. “It’s really okay?”

Rarity bent down and kissed away each tear on her lover’s pink face, which was becoming steadily more reddish in hue. “It’s ‘okey dokey’.”

Pinkie squealed happily and hugged Rarity tightly to herself, kissing her in every spot she could reach.

Rarity kissed her back enthusiastically, unable to stop the sheer joy she felt at that moment from making her laugh. “Wait, wait! I didn’t mean here! Unless... Are these walls soundproofed?”

Pinkie nodded violently. “Mmmmhmmm!”

Rarity felt a thrill at the idea of making love to her here, in a place that was both public and private. Oh Celestia, am I becoming a closet exibitionist? “Um... does it have, is there some way to, to lock—”

Pinkie scrambled up and locked the door, then lay back down on the floor beside Rarity. “Anything else?”

Rarity nodded. “Um... perhaps a little mood music?”

“I got just the thing, a little Marevyn Gaye!”

♫-I need sexual healing-♫

Oh, that is nice. She gave Pinkie her best ‘bedroom eyes’. “Come here, love!”

She lay back on the floor, and then her world was pink. Her bouncy lover seemed to be everywhere.

Rarity was shortly made aware of the reason why a nip on her ears always affected Pinkie so: it felt absolutely wonderful. “Oh, you were right, the ears are nice!” There was no feeling of shame now, no confusion, only love and bliss with the one she adored. She started in surprise a little when Pinkie gave her a fond lick on her nose. Rarity, feeling adventurous, leaned forward and bit Pinkie just hard enough to dent the skin on her neck, eliciting a gasp from the pink pony.

“Rarity, you...”

Rarity bit her again, on the chest—just a small nip. “I’m afraid you’ll have to lead at first, love. I know so very little about this.” She smiled sweetly. ”Teach me, won’t you? Surely there is more than what you have shown me so far?”

Pinkie looked down at her with what her romance novels would have called ‘burning passion.’ “I-know-something-else-fuuun,” she sing-songed coyly, and reached into her mane, pulling out a brown bottle. Then she poured it all over Rarity’s chest and thighs.

Rarity looked down in confusion, then scooped just a bit up with a hoof and brought it to her mouth to taste. Chocolate syrup? “Pinkie! This is so sticky; it’s going to be impossible to get—”

She got no further. Pinkie was now licking every surface the chocolate was covering, her long, firm, dexterous tongue painstakingly cleaning up every trace of it.

Ooooh... never mind.

Pinkie continued licking up and down her pelt enthusiastically, and though a whiny little voice in the back of Rarity’s mind was lamenting the fact that she was now covered in messy chocolate (and saliva), and should really get to a bath as quickly as possible, other parts were saying something decidedly different. The experience was quite different from when Pinkie had pleasured her with a hoof... A dozen times better; a million times more sensual.

I wonder where she learned all of this...

The thought was inevitably pushed out of her mind as Pinkie arrived at her inner thighs.

Her world quietly folded in on itself, all sensation centering on something entirely unexpected. Pinkie was licking her... down there. “Pinkie... that’s... Oh, Celestia that’s my...” Now she really felt dirty. However, she also felt... loved.

Oh Pinkie, my love...

“Mmmm, I was right!” Pinkie concluded with a grin, licking her lips as she came up for air for a moment. “Chocolate goes great with marshmallows!”

Rarity looked down in distress, wondering only why she had stopped. “Darling, p-please keep going.. l-lick my... my...” She was left stammering, daunted by the vulgarity of the only word that seemed appropriate. ”Oh, I caaan’t!” she whimpered.

Pinkie flashed her a wicked grin “... your honey pot, your happy place?” Her voice dropped to a sensuous whisper, making Rarity shiver. “Your pussy?”

Rarity blushed a brilliant red. “Y-yes. Don’t make me beg, please, oh please!”

“Kinda sounds like you’re already begging, silly!” Pinkie giggled, before diving back between her thighs.

Oh, sweet sisters! It was inside her, and it was wriggling! “Oh? Oh! Oooooh...”

This is even better! Part of Rarity’s sanity was actually starting to panic a little. How can this be better? How does better even exist?

Pinkie’s tongue was stretching her in ways she’d never before experienced. Where external stimulation had proven to be a nice, slow way to build up her sensitivity and receptiveness, the thrusting wet tongue was pushing the unicorn to the brink so quickly that it was all she could do to hold on to Pinkie’s luxurious curls for dear life.

This was no gentle ascent; she was being catapulted, soaring through the air. There was a moment of freefall, and then... Oh, then! Well, the only thing she could think of to compare it to was watching the sky explode in brilliant colors when she was a filly, except now the sky was her.

She bucked her hips helplessly, pushing Pinkie’s snout deeper between her thighs. The movement of that exquisite tongue was slower now, allowing her to ride the high and gently ease back down to earth. Rarity moaned and thrust her sex into Pinkie’s muzzle again and again, until finally she could do no more, collapsing into a heap.

Pinkie scrambled up to her side and lay down next to her. Her muzzle was completely covered in chocolate—as well as another sticky mess, which Rarity was trying very hard not to let herself be bothered by right now. She turned over slightly and embraced her lover instead, kissing her full on the lips.

Before long their tongues were intertwined again; Rarity could taste the remnants of sweet chocolate and... Oh sisters, that’s my, my... The part of her brain capable of rational thought was relieved that the taste wasn’t too terrible—merely a bit pungent, perhaps. I do taste sweet. It’s not just the chocolate... But really, she didn’t care. She was kissing Pinkie, showers and dental hygiene could go to the moon for all she cared right at that point.

Far from being sated, Rarity felt invigorated. She rolled on top of Pinkie, keeping her muzzle firmly pressed against her lover’s, their tongues dancing merrily until she at last broke the kiss. “Well then, let me apply this lesson. Are you ready for my presentation?”

Pinkie nodded silently, her wide grin saying far more than words ever could.

Rarity started by peppering Pinkie’s chest with kisses as she slid downwards. Pinkie shivered and giggled as particularly ticklish areas were licked or kissed. Rarity was taking her time, learning to explore this wonder that had come into her life with only a wish to see her happy.

One definite advantage to this position is being able to see the look on her face when she...

Ahem, yes.

It seemed rather silly to hesitate to give thought or voice to those words, but she supposed the first step was going to be burying her muzzle in her friend to make her happy. There would be time afterwards to accustom herself to such words as... those.

Still, no rush, is there? Rarity grinned salaciously. She wanted to do more than just seduce Pinkie now. She wanted to experience her. Certainly there would be time to learn every little thing about pleasing her pink pony paramour. But she had the opportunity to get started right here and it would be horrible to let that go to waste, wouldn't it?

She resumed kissing her way downwards, noting every squirm and squeal as she did so. When she came to Pinkie’s nipples she hesitated, remembering that Pinkie had reacted negatively to her touching them last time. Wait... no, she didn’t say she didn’t like it. She said my hoof was cold. She regarded the nipple with trepidation, then gave it an experimental lick.

“Ooh!” Pinkie’s body jerked slightly.

Encouraged by her reaction, Rarity took the nipple in her muzzle and suckled. It was warm, and tasted of the flavors she had come to associate with her friend: sugar, vanilla and flour. The baker seemed to ooze those scents and flavors from her very pores.

“Rarity... what...” Pinkie squirmed and moaned from above her.

Rarity looked down at her own chest, which was currently resting between Pinkie’s legs. She found that it was damp, and a smell of feminine arousal was emanating from the dampness. Fascinated, she let her gaze drift down further and further... then jerked her head up as she realized what she was staring at. Goddesses... Is that what it looks like?

“R-Rarity?”

She looked up into the blue eyes of her lover. “You—" Pinkie gasped for a bit of air, “—okay?”

Rarity nodded firmly. “Doing fine, love. Sorry for making you wait.” And with that, Rarity gave her a lick along the outer cleft of her lover's flower. She was surprised by the taste; it was still sweet, but there was an overtone of something more bitter. Again she was taken by surprise at the look of it. She wasn’t aware there was a color more pink than Pinkie herself, but this was it. She reached forward with a hoof and spread one of the folds aside to reveal glistening inner depths, releasing a fresh waft of the clean and musky scent which Rarity was coming to appreciate and enjoy.

A soft moan from Pinkie above. “Rarity, I...”

Rarity ran her tongue along the inner folds and was rewarded with a whine of pleasure from Pinkie. She slowly developed a rhythm, licking up and down Pinkie’s insides. The earth pony jumped as Rarity’s nose bumped into a hard little button of flesh. Oh, there you are you little thing! It was hard, and covered by a small hood of skin. She pushed the hood back a little with her nose and licked at the more sensitive flesh that this uncovered.

Pinkie writhed above her. “Careful! Oh please! Carefuuuuu—" The word lost all coherence as another moan escaped.

Oh goodness, she warned me about overstimulation. Rarity eyed the button a moment, giving it a little kiss that made Pinkie buck her hips again. She resumed her up and down licking motion, occasionally giving a little attention to the button but mostly lapping along every inch of Pinkie to collect all of her delectable moisture. When she felt she could handle it, she moved closer and thrust her tongue inside the hot folds.

“Ahhh!”

Rarity grinned. Oh goddesses this is—this is fun! She thrust harder, trying to push her tongue inside as deeply she could. What she couldn't have foreseen was how hard it would be to get her tongue back; Pinkie's muscles clamped down on it like a vice and refused to let go. She idly wondered how that was possible. Perhaps she has never ‘been with' a stallion before? Well, she said she had dated, but she didn’t tell me what the sexes of her dates were. Dating mares exclusively would explain why she seems to know what she does. The display Pinkie was putting on was leaving her very heated again; she could feel herself dripping, and wanted badly to reach back there with a hoof.

Pinkie’s breathing was becoming more labored, and Rarity felt hooves pressing her head down and forcing her muzzle deeper into Pinkie’s sex. Pinkie’s insides, which had previously been merely tight, now seemed to ripple in an effort to milk the unicorn’s tongue. Rarity had been thrusting in and out, but now she found there was no retreating—if anything, her lover was drawing her further in.

“S-so close! Rarity! Rarity!”

Oh, now you shout my name! Rarity rolled her eyes in exasperation. She couldn’t move, but fortunately she didn’t have to, now did she? Her horn lit up and, using a little touch of magic, she tweaked Pinkie’s button gently.

“Rrrrrrraaaarrrrriiiittttyyyy!”

Slick moisture gushed over her muzzle as Pinkie’s insides quivered and spasmed with her release. Rarity was now able to remove her tongue at last, using her newfound freedom to gently lick Pinkie clean.

“Oh, Rarity...”

Rarity finished cleaning Pinkie as best as she was able, then licked the moisture from her own muzzle. She decided it was a taste she could quickly grow to like, and intended to procure many more occasions to develop said taste in the future. She languidly crawled up Pinkie’s body, lying down beside her and throwing a foreleg over her lover as if to lay claim to her. She ran her tongue all over Pinkie’s adorable, gasping face, whispering to her, “Was that good, love?”

“That... was the most super wonderful fantastic thing I have ever... I mean wow! I thought clopping was fun but this is loads better!” Pinkie was grinning happily, still panting heavily.

Rarity traced a hoof slowly across Pinkie’s chest. “So, was I... better than the other lovers you’ve been with?”

“Other lovers?”

“Well, yes! You said you date weekly!”

“Uhuh! You know that, Rarity,” Pinkie giggled, “we all bring our pets!”

“Wait wait... pets? You mean the play dates?”

“Yep!”

Rarity’s face scrunched up in confusion. “So you’ve never been with a mare before, either?”

“Nope!”

“But how... you knew exactly what would feel good...”

“Well, yeah! You know those all those magazines? Some of them have pictures! Last month was Fleur de Lis! Hot!”

Rarity blushed heavily.

Pinkie pulled a magazine out from her mane. “This one is my favorite.” She opened up the centerfold to reveal two pegasi on display. They were head to flank, their muzzles clearly deep inside each other’s sex.

Rarity was so enamoured with the salacious scene that she did not notice an important detail at first. The coloration was strikingly familiar, even the cutie marks seemed to scream out that she should know these models. But surely no one she knew—“Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash?!”

Pinkie nodded. “I tried asking Shy about it once. Her voice went all squeaky and Angel kicked me out. Dashie won’t talk either. But they look happy in the pictures, so I guess they had fun!”

“Oh... my...” Rarity tried to look away, but her eyes were inevitably drawn back to the page. She was still very aroused from watching Pinkie reach her peak, and seeing this image of two of her best friends in flagrante with each other left her even more so. “Pinkie...”

Pinkie fluttered her eyes playfully, apparently sensing Rarity’s mood. “Yes, Rarity?”

“Um...” Rarity’s eyes would not leave the page, her hoof involuntarily trailing down to her thighs. “Do you think we could try that?”

“I was hoping you’d ask, ‘cause it looks like fun! I’ve seen so much of this stuff and it’s soooo hot but you can’t do it without somepony else and the only pony I really wanted to try it with was you and you never seemed to be that way I mean not that there is anything wrong with being attracted to stallions my mom liked stallions obviously otherwise I wouldn’t be here muh muuf uh boof—" Rarity's lips had found their way back to Pinkie's and the rest of the party mare's sentence got lost somewhere in between.

“Darling ... I have a better use for that wonderful tongue of yours right now, if you wouldn’t mind?” Rarity gave her another little peck on the cheek for good measure. She gave the centerfold one last look, puzzling out the mechanics of it. “I think I would prefer to be on top, if that’s all right?”

No sooner had the words left her lips than Rarity found herself being lifted bodily, spun around, and gently lowered muzzle to haunch on top of Pinkie Pie. It had happened so quickly that she barely had time to let out a squeak of surprise. Said squeak turned into a moan as Pinkie began to enthusiastically tongue-bathe her.

Oh! Well, that did the— Her mind blanked as Pinkie briefly suckled on her clitoris, forcing a gasp from her lips. At this rate she will have me finish long before I can make her —Another gasp, this one turning into a low throaty moan of pleasure. I won’t lose! She desperately put her muzzle down between Pinkie’s thighs, licking at her still parted and very sensitive labia. She smiled to herself as her actions were rewarded with a slight slowing in Pinkie’s licking, accompanied by a little squeak. Then the licking resumed with even more gusto.

Trying desperately to keep up with Pinkie, Rarity gently nibbled her lover’s most sensitive part, loving the way she shuddered and squirmed underneath her. The unicorn could feel her own orgasm approaching very quickly, her thighs clenching involuntarily around her lover’s head. Goddesses, she is good at this! She could feel herself getting ever more wet from Pinkie’s efforts, even as Rarity’s own ministrations caused the pink pony’s privates to positively pour moisture in little rivulets from inside her folds. Despite her best intentions, it did look like Rarity was going to be the first to cross the finish line in this undeclared race.

And then it was over. Pinkie shoved her tongue deep inside her and that was the end. Rarity buried her muzzle into one of Pinkie’s thighs and screamed into her moist fur. She could feel her juices running down her own thighs, no doubt covering her lover in the process.

Rarity lay limp for a moment, trying to catch her breath. Well played, Pinkie. But now it’s your turn. With a flash her horn lit with magic as she grasped the nearest thing to them with the proper shape—the microphone. Levitating it over to herself, she brought the tapered end up level with Pinkie’s folds and eased it just inside her.

“Ooooooo!” The licking along her haunches paused, then resumed. Rarity shuddered anew before focusing on Pinkie again.

She was very gentle at first, mindful of how tight Pinkie had been around her tongue. Rarity used slow and shallow strokes, enough to stimulate without causing discomfort—though the idea of deflowering her marefriend tempted her and released a fresh trickle of moisture for Pinkie to lick clean. I’ll save that for more special occasion, perhaps, in a bed. With the right lighting... yes, by candlelight. I shall have to see where I could procure a... false stallionhood. With plan that in mind, she set the microphone aside and dove back in with her muzzle.

The hot breath against her labia was growing more labored, pleasing Rarity greatly... Actually, quite a bit... Oh Celestia, am I going to... again? She could feel another peak approaching, not quite as intense as the first or second but very pleasurable nonetheless. Goddesses, you are good, you wonderful pink prodigy! She desperately looked at the microphone again, but decided against it. Wait... Pinkie said unicorns normally use magic...

She tried to visualize what she would need, her aura forming and extending into a thin rod of force. It would probably be enough to provide some internal stimulation without stretching muscles which were surely unused to such motions. She slipped it in and thrust deep into Pinkie, bottoming out inside her.

That was all it took. Pinkie’s hips bucked upwards as she squealed into Rarity’s flower, the vibrations and stimulation from her warm breath in turn causing Rarity to reach her third orgasm.

They both went limp in exhaustion, tiredly licking each other as they came down from their respective highs. Finally, Rarity slumped off Pinkie onto the floor beside her, Pinkie snuggling up against her and holding her tight. Pinkie was uncharacteristically silent, content to cuddle close to Rarity and merely kiss her on occasion.

There was a knock on the door, followed by the jingling of keys in the lock. The door opened slightly, and the stallion attendant did not appear to process what he was seeing at first. “Ladies, your session ended a while back, so if you need more time I’ll have to ask you to come up front and sign in again—"

The earth pony who had given Pinkie the keys blushed heavily as his brain finally caught up. Although, looking down, Rarity could see where the blood had all gone.

Oh my...

“Um... just come to the counter when you’re ready...”

Rarity was trying to work up the energy to be embarrassed, but it just would not come. “We need to pay him double... and compensate him for a carpet cleaning... and a microphone, I suppose.”

Pinkie giggled, sitting up and licking her muzzle clean. “I dunno, I think maybe the show might make him give us a little discount.” She stretched and hummed to herself. “Hey! Do you still want nachos?”

Rarity lay back on the carpet, laughing weakly. “Yes, love, do get some. I’ll be here, on the floor, attempting to not root myself to it.”

Pinkie got up and went foraging, leaving Rarity to stare after her in wonder. She may be the death of me, but by Celestia, I shall die a happy mare.

Epilogue: Tea

Rarity sighed, looking over her sketches with disappointment. They just weren't coming together today. Maybe they needed more accents? She laid down her pencil, stacking the sketches to one side. Fluttershy was due to be by soon, anyway. It wouldn't do to be an improper hostess.

She eyed the room critically, setting out teacups and coasters. The tea service tray was levitated in place, and she placed water on the stove to boil.

Seeing all was as it should be, she lifted one of the sketches from the pile, idly tapping her pencil to her lip in thought. What was it missing?

Her door opened, and instead of Fluttershy, in bounded her marefriend.

"Oh, hello, darling! What brings you by—" Rarity's mouth opened wordlessly. Pinkie was wearing a Prench maid's outfit, sans undergarments. Her mind idly noted that the sheer black night gown she was working on would be lovely with a pink trim along the bottom edge, then promptly shut down in favor of other thoughts. Lurid, sensual thoughts.

Pinkie giggled happily, seeing Rarity's reaction. "Do you like it?" She spun around, lifting her tail in the process. "I know you're having tea today, so I thought I would come by and serve you two!" She batted her eyelashes playfully. "Hello, mademoiselle! Would you prefer coffee, tea, or moi?"

Rarity licked her lips, stepping forward to embrace her marefriend, maintaining just enough presence of mind to lock the door. She'd need to apologize to Fluttershy the next day, but it rather looked like tea or coffee was not to be on the menu today.

Author's Note

What happens next? Oh look, here's a sequel!