Via Prisma

   She blinked. "Are you serious?"

   "Of course I am, silly, I use it myself." She pointed at the page with authority. "Splitting your portfolio equally among risks and industries equalizes gains and losses."

   With a blank stare, she quickly re-examined what she knew about reality and decided to roll with it for the time being. "... So, what do you mean by diversifying risks?" At this, she glanced over and Pinkie was sitting next to her, leaning in with reading glasses on. "That chair was across the room. When - when have you ever needed glasses?"

   "I don't," she replied cheerily, and put a finger through the frame, poking herself in the eye. "Ow!"

   She laughed despite herself, and was relieved when Pinkie joined in, hers high and giggly and melodic. She continued for a moment after Rarity had stopped, and Rarity waited patiently, raising an eyebrow in amusement until she wore herself out. "... Sorry," she finished, adjusting her false glasses and clearing her throat. A long wave of curly pink hair fell over her face as she leaned back in. "Ugh, every time." She drew her hair back, reached into her purse for a bright pink hairband edged with rhinestones, and slipped it carefully over her head.

   With that, the thick bubblegum curls that had always sprouted like wildfire around her ears and across her forehead were tamed, and for whatever reason Rarity's heart gently sunk to her stomach. "... Here," she interjected after a second, interrupting the beginning of Pinkie's lecture. She reached over and worked a single strand loose, letting it fall with a bubbly little bounce just to the side of her face.

   Pinkie reached up to put it back, and hesitated. "What was that for?"

   "That's a good look for you."

   She giggled again, and put her head in her hand. "Do you think?"

   Her laughter bled seamlessly into her speech, and Rarity's heart returned to its place. It brought with it a velveteen tickle that ran through her spine, and just for a moment, she couldn't bring herself to look into her eyes. In a moment, though, the feeling passed. "Trust me on this one, darling."

   "Alrighty." She played with the loose strand for a moment and smiled before pointing again at the stack of paperwork.

   "Actually," Rarity began, picking the papers up and tapping them against the desktop, "it's getting a bit late. How about coffee tomorrow around two and we can discuss this more?"

   Pinkie stared up at her. "... Alrighty," she agreed, and stood. "Well, I'll see you then. I'm gonna bounce. Literally. Bye!"

   Without even allowing her to say good night, Pinkie had skipped out the front door, and left Rarity alone in the semidarkness of the office. She stood to replace the paperwork in the filing cabinet and paused to stare vacantly at the desk. The memory of letting that strand of hair loose - smoothly letting it fall to her cheek, watching it bounce as it caught the candlelight just so, seeing her face light up as she realized what was happening - it barraged into her mind without warning, knocking a locked door off its hinges in the process. And for that split second, as the memory faded away again, she felt herself held by soft, firm arms, enveloped in her gentle sky-blue gaze, and felt herself drawn in for... no.

   The sentiment was strong enough that she said it out loud, softly. "No." She inhaled, leaving the papers where they were and turning to look out the window, folding her arms. "Oh... this isn't good. This is not good."

   She paused again, thoughts flying through her head, hailing on her corpus callosum. "... I think."

   The thoughts still roiled around her at two o'clock the next day, as she sat outside of the Ponyville Café, though they had lessened. The sun was hidden behind a screen of cirrus clouds, dappling the cobblestone main street in soft variations of its original saturation. Rarity took no notice of this. She had decided to order early, and now stared into a half-full latte and tried to take her mind off it by counting bubbles.

   "Hiya!" came the energetic greeting she had been expecting. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to ask her out for coffee, considering... it was Pinkie. She sat directly next to Rarity, who returned her greeting with a smile and a quiet "hello, darling". At this, she pulled a pair of fake glasses - at least twice as large as the ones from the night before - from apparently nowhere. As Pinkie was wont to do. "Let's see those forms," she began, putting on a comically serious tone.

   For a moment, she felt pushed to put them off again. They weren't important in the long run. She felt pushed to get up and walk away, or to just banter for a while to move this strange, dangerous new thought from her head. But neither came to her quickly enough, and she reluctantly produced the paperwork again.

   As Pinkie shuffled through the papers and went off on a little tangent about whatever company she had put half her stocks into, she studied her. While reading some of the jargon to herself, she stuck her tongue out just a little. It was almost cartoonish. She knew the large glasses were for effect, for humor, but she wondered whether the tongue was too. Or, perhaps, that was just one of her many quirks.

   "You know," she began, "I'm glad you're helping me out with this."

   "No problem," Pinkie replied, not paying too much attention. "This system is super-hard, but I bet anyone can do it if they put their mind to it."

   "I suppose," she replied, her voice bordering a whisper. That little surge of electricity was back with a vengeance, and she looked away to dull it.

   Pinkie looked up. "You alright?"

   "What?" She snapped to attention. "Of course. I - I didn't sleep well."

   "Oh. Sorry to hear that," she said, and returned to the papers. As if on cue, her hair fell again over her face, and she groaned and pushed it back. "I need to do something about that permanently."

   "Well, don't cut your hair, darling. It looks nice the way it is," Rarity said as Pinkie pulled a hairband from her pocket, the same one as yesterday, and slipped it on. "One moment," she murmured, and without thinking, reached out and gently looped her finger around a strand of hair - and lingered.

   It was quiet for a long moment as Rarity hesitated. She tore her eyes away from that lock of bright bubblegum hair and was immediately caught in her eyes - cut topaz reflecting the midmorning sun. Behind the façade of confusion, below the raised eyebrow, there was a glimmer of... something. Something imperative.

   Finally, she let the lock of hair fall to rest on her forehead. But her hand... despite herself, her hand fell to rest on her cheek. The pulse of electricity soared. For a moment, Pinkie looked away, and then back up, her mouth open as if to speak, as if to ask why. But she didn't. She never had the chance to.