The door to Golden Oak library swung open, revealing a rather confused Twilight. Rarity, who had until recently been knocking rapidly and in a most dignified manner, sheepishly put her hoof down.
“Rarity, what are you doing here?”
“Well, funny you ask, darling. See, I was just out and about when I happened to run into Pinkie Pie! She told me that you’d rushed past her earlier, muttering something about some important event you’d just been invited to!”
Twilight cocked her head in confusion. “And this means you came to visit me… why?”
Rarity raised her eyebrows, scoffing. “Well, I…” she trailed off.
Twilight nodded encouragingly.
“I assumed…” the unicorn scuffed her front hoof in the dirt, drawing small stars idly as she looked for anywhere else to direct her eyes. A deep breath, then: “I assumed you’d need help preparing and you’d be too caught up to actually ask anyone until the last possible moment!”
Twilight’s wings ruffled. “Well, now that you mention it, I could use some pointers.”
“Of course, dear! Whatever you need!”
“Great! Do you think you can teach me to dance?”
An expertly arranged, deep purple mane bobbed in time with the sounds of a mare swallowing down her trepidation. “Of course, Twilight! That’ll be no problem at all!”
The impact against the sword in her telekinetic grip jolted Rarity’s every bone. The rasping, scraping sound of blade striking blade rang throughout the halls of Canterlot Castle.
‘Ah, yes. Let’s escort our dear Princess to her formal event, just in case. Marvellous idea!’
She looked back up, staring into the eyes of that hateful stallion, looking as smug as could be, his hefty, curved sword’s handle aglow in golden magic. In an uncharacteristic show of maturity, he wasn’t gloating or belittling anypony.
‘Though that might just cancel out with the fact that he’s currently doing his utmost to cleave my head in half.’
Willing away her impending headache, Rarity took a deep breath and focused again on Blueblood’s stance. The way he positioned his blade wasn’t sloppy, by any means, but it certainly lacked all subtlety.
Spotting an opening, Rarity decided to make a move. Using her much lighter straight sword, she thrust forwards, stepping into the attack. As expected, the prince swiveled his own sword to match.
Her perfect moment had been created. Rarity didn’t even give herself the time to smirk, as much as she wanted to. As skilled as the prince may have been, he clearly lacked Rarity’s attention to detail.
What he’d failed to account for was Rarity’s step. With her body neatly out of the way of the easiest available counterattack, she gently nudged her blade to pivot right around the wider weapon, inside Blueblood’s guard.
‘Just so.’
Hearing the sharp snap of the tip of her sword lashing at his cheek, Rarity disengaged, shoving the larger unicorn’s sword back towards its owner with her own.
Thoroughly dissatisfied with the lack of dialogue to break up the monotonous ringing and horn-shaking impacts, Rarity drew herself up. “I must say, I’m terribly offended that you haven’t even deemed it worth telling me exactly what has earned me my attempted execution,” she pouted, “and here I thought that we had something special!”
“Well, it isn’t so much about you, I should say,” Prince Blueblood pulled his weapon back to his side, projecting his haughty tones to the room. “Your chaperone for the night has committed a rather grave misstep, is all. I’m currently working on correcting it.”
“My chape-- Twilight!” Rarity growled. “Whatever do you mean, Prince? Are you insinuating that one of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony needs a chaperone to attend a royal function?” She prodded at his defences again, her sword’s tassel weaving captivating figures in the air as she forced the prince’s blade to join hers in its dance.
Truthfully, her mind was only partly on the situation in front of her. Rarity was also frantically scanning the hall, wondering which door would take her back to her waiting princess.
“Are you sure the best way to start learning is to try it out?” Twilight’s voice shook as she stood on her hind legs, eyeing Rarity as she bustled about setting up the library’s gramophone. “I get that you, specifically you, I mean, wouldn’t teach me how to dance with a book, but maybe a lecture?” She grinned sheepishly. Falsely. “Even a little one? Please?”
The pale unicorn chuckled. “Of course I’ll be telling you what to do, dearest. I’d be a rather poor instructor if I just threw you into the thick of things.”
Stretching, she joined Twilight on her hind legs, subtly nudging at the alicorn’s stance. Once Twilight looked suitably uncomfortable with her position and Rarity was satisfied, she took up the position that would begin most traditional Canterlot dances. Studiously ignoring the rising blush on her friend’s face, Rarity launched into the lecture that she absolutely hadn’t had ready for months just in case she got the chance to help Twilight prepare for some sort of high society event or another.
“Firstly, I want to assure you, Twilight, that I won’t hold any mistakes you make while we dance against you. Alright?”
Seeing the furious nod that she received in response, Rarity continued gleefully. “Now, I know you’re already familiar with the basic steps, so I suppose the problem must lie in actually dancing with somepony else.” Another nod. “Very well then, I am going to start the music. I’ll be leading this time, but the idea is to get you to do that yourself. You are a princess, after all.”
“You just said there was going to be a lecture!” Twilight squawked indignantly as the speaker crackled and popped to life.
“Indeed, but I suppose I forgot to mention the interactive component. Silly me!” Rarity quickly squeezed her hooves around her friend in a hug before returning to position. “And here we go! Let’s start by just warming up, hmm?”
The two mares simply danced for the next few minutes. Rarity occasionally whispered a word or two when she needed to remind Twilight of some movement or another, and once just to remind her to pay attention to the beat.
“Excellent, Twilight! You’re getting into the groove, as it were!” Rarity exclaimed, releasing her partner to execute an impassioned spin. “Of course, that just means we can get into the fun part of the lesson.”
Seeing Prince Blueblood hesitate for a second under her assault, Rarity immediately broke for the nearest side door. She haphazardly guarded her rear as she ran, but it wasn’t enough to stop her flank from feeling the impact of the flat of Blueblood’s blade. She could tell that her dress held, but she knew that the understated soft pink tartan would need to be replaced.
‘At least I didn’t add those ruffles like I originally wanted to,’ she thought, shaking her head at the memory of Twilight’s insistence on her plus-one wearing a simple dress, since the princess would herself be wearing no dress for the evening.
Her hooves struck the polished palace floors in time with her enemy as he gave chase. Ducking through a familiar archway, Rarity finally saw the party she’d abandoned not twenty minutes prior. Of course, she’d left thinking that she would receive a formal apology from Prince Blueblood on account of his crude attempts at blackmail and intimidation against her image in the eyes of Canterlot. It followed, logically, that she would have returned in a few minutes, ready to accompany her princess for the rest of the night.
The faint melodies of the Canterlot Symphony drifted in from the window nearest to the exterior door just beyond yet another impossibly long hallway. The very same Canterlot Symphony that would soon be playing the songs that she had promised Twilight they would dance to.
Her hesitation cost her precious moments, and all too soon the longer-limbed Blueblood had caught up to her. Ears drooping at the prospect of abandoning her promise to a friend, Rarity whirled back around to face him.
“I have pressing matters to attend to, dear Prince. Please reconsider your actions,” she tried. It hadn’t worked fifteen minutes prior, when he had only just pulled a gleaming sword with a savage point from behind a wall sconce. It hadn’t worked another thirty seconds after that, when Rarity herself had managed to run to a set of simple, elegant weaponry and pull out a light, straight-edged blade with little in the way of a handle guard.
‘It seems like the third time isn’t the charm, either.’
As the two engaged their weapons again, Rarity noticed that Blueblood’s attacks were tinged with frustration. Smiling brightly, she kept her blade pressed against his, stepping back slightly. She had to get back to Twilight. Her own impatience betrayed her, and she swung low, aiming to put one of her opponent’s legs out of order.
The heavier sword in Blueblood’s horn-grip easily knocked hers aside, and Rarity leapt back with a yelp as her dress was torn down the right side.
“That was absolutely unnecessary! I thought you were royalty!” Rarity yelled as she retreated from the suddenly imposing figure of Prince Blueblood.
The prince chuckled. “Precisely. You aren’t, though. And your dear Twilight Sparkle isn’t either, at least if we judge by her behavior.” He shook his head. “Traditionally, you see, a new member of the true nobility would be accompanied by an established personality.”
He swiped again with his sword, and Rarity parried overhead. Undeterred, Blueblood continued to talk. “That ensures that they are vouched for, and can be taught to properly navigate our complex society,” he said. “Instead, she brought you!” Another pass with the blade, another sharp, sudden burst of noise. “This would have been my best chance to truly earn my way back into Auntie’s good graces, you know?”
Rarity gritted her teeth. This selfish bore of a born noble was even more out of line than she’d expected. Another few exchanges went by, and Rarity growled in frustration. Neither of them was gaining ground, and judging by the way the prince kept glancing past her, they both had places they’d rather be.
“Let’s move this along, shall we?” Rarity forced her most plastic smile onto her face even as she sidestepped and attempted to relieve Blueblood of his left ear.
“Of course. I suppose I underestimated you, Rarity,” Blueblood finally acknowledged her ability and grace. “My actions at the Gala were clearly not enough to teach you your place!” He crowed.
Well, perhaps some ponies just weren’t ready for her level of sophistication.
“If you’re concerned I can’t hack it at these kinds of functions, darling, I suppose it’s up to me to prove you wrong.” Rarity never took her eye off her opponent, punctuating her words with quick, aggressive thrusts.
Blueblood clearly wasn’t concerned. He batted the advances away with the back of his blade, using the curve to give Rarity trouble bringing her sword to bear again. Instead of continuing the duel, Rarity rapidly backed off as her eyes lit up.
“Here we go, then!” She yelled, letting Blueblood’s weapon hook hers out of the air. He stumbled, confused by the sudden lack of magical resistance, and in that moment the “pony everypony should know” enacted her plan.
In a bright, focused flash of magic, her dress was off. Looking at it from behind even for a second she knew she couldn’t possibly have worn it in public without being politely ordered to submit a statement to the Royal Guard.
Another burst of magic and it was covering Blueblood’s face and sword. She quickly cast a spell that fixed any fabric in its present shape for up to five minutes. It was a wonder when she needed to conduct a fitting, but her clients rarely struggled like Blueblood was at the moment. Wasting no more time than it took her to formulate that thought, she reached out to her sword using her magic and ran away, back to her promise and her princess.
“Fun part? There’s a fun part?” Twilight eased herself back down to all fours.
Rarity just stared blankly at her. “Of course there’s a fun part. I sincerely hope that you didn’t allow me to help you while expecting I’d be boring,” she said.
Twilight’s eyes widened and her wings shrank against her sides. “N-no! Never! You’re incredibly captivating!” the alicorn winced. “I mean, interesting! Just like the rest of the girls.”
“Right.”
An awkward pause followed Rarity’s tactful acknowledgement, amplified by the softly hissing speaker in the background.
Twilight Sparkle looked around for a few seconds, then cleared her throat, looking pointedly at her friend. “Uhh… what’s the fun part, then?”
At this, the unicorn brightened up considerably. “Oh, yes! I assumed that you would need to know a little more about how to properly read your dance partners, actually.”
“I… I was with you through ‘read’, but then the sentence sort of got away from me,” Twilight smiled sheepishly.
“Oh, please,” Rarity said, “I know you only recently became the Princess of Friendship, but you really should already know a little bit about reading ponies.” She stood up on her hind legs again and started moving rhythmically.
“See, Twilight, while one can read the emotions of ponies by looking at their faces and body language, it’s rather hard to predict their movements by sight alone. I want to help you get a feel for what it takes to do just that.
“Once I start the music again, I want you to let me plug your ears using my magic. Stand up with me, and close your eyes. We’ll start off slow, but I’m sure that as you grow used to it, we’ll be dancing beautifully in no time!”
Despite her hesitation, Twilight went along with Rarity’s plan. She stood up, staring into Rarity’s eyes the whole time. It would have been even more breathtaking, but the only message that she could see in the alicorn’s gaze was one of trepidation and confusion.
She’d just have to set a good example, then.
As the two got up to dance, Rarity focused on Twilight’s grip, adjusting it where she needed to so that she could pick up on the fashionista’s movements more easily.
The music started, and Rarity gently lowered her magic field over her friend’s ears. She moved slowly, tuning out the music and focusing only on communicating exactly where she was about to move through touch alone.
It wasn’t that Rarity wasn’t nervous. Rather the opposite, since one of her closest comrades was currently holding her close and feeling all the intricacies of her actions. She started moving a little faster, and to her delight Twilight responded in kind. Rarity distracted herself with Twilight’s little second-guesses. She stuttered a bit when she was nervous, and it was amusing to no end that those habits translated to physical motion when the alicorn found herself too focused to talk.
Once she’d gotten them up to tempo with the song, Rarity lifted her enchantment. To her surprise, Twilight’s eyes remained shut. Not firmly, as if screwed up in focus and anticipation, but… serenely. Twilight was almost at ease, and it truly warmed Rarity’s heart to see.
Judging that she’d admired for long enough, Rarity bit her lip. Preparing her body, she gently moved one forehoof back and shifted her body to lift the other above Twilight's head. Amazingly, Twilight seemed to catch on. At least, she moved in tandem, executing a passable, if slightly awkward, spin.
Rarity’s giggles cut through the music. “That was splendid, dear!” She resumed their basic pattern. “I knew you’d be a quick study.”
“Well, I’ve known you for a while, Rarity. It’d be surprising if I couldn’t read you at least a little.”
‘Wait, what?’
Rarity blinked at the insinuation. It didn’t help that Twilight had said it in such a low, teasing tone, but she recovered in time. “Are you saying that you need me to accompany you to your event, then?”
Twilight let out a sigh of relief that would have gone unnoticed if she hadn’t been so close to her friend. “It would be a shame if the newest princess made a fool of herself at an important party, wouldn’t it?” she asked.
The white unicorn nodded. “Certainly. Luckily, it’s exactly within my power to prevent such a thing!”
Twilight beamed, and Rarity just had to smile back.
Slowing to an agitated trot as she neared the main body of the party, Rarity quickly glanced around the open space. Thanking whatever power fueled alicorn ascension, she made her way to the only purple head poking out from the crowd. Nopony questioned her sword, now attached to her body with a thin tendril of magic, or her apparent change of heart in regards to the dress code.
“Twilight!” She called as soon as she was close enough to the mare.
The princess turned around nervously. Smiling in recognition, she gestured Rarity closer with her wing. “You’re just in time! The orchestra’s just about to start the dancing part of the evening. Did you miss the overture from a few minutes ago?”
“Oh, not at all! I got back just in time to catch the second half of it. Really lovely work those ponies do, isn’t it?” Rarity breezed, anxiously scanning the path to the palace for angry and possibly equicidal noblestallions.
Twilight frowned. “You seem nervous, Rarity. Is something wrong? Did your talk with Blueblood go poorly? Where’s your dress?”
Rarity chuckled. “Please, darling, always so many questions with you!” She shrugged, stretching herself in preparation for their dance. “If you must know, I discarded my dress because it would have felt wrong to be wearing one while you were magnificently unadorned. My talk with Blueblood was a little sharp, but nothing that I couldn’t handle.”
The alicorn nodded thoughtfully, pulling herself into a dancing position as the orchestra stood, ready to play. “Well, I see you couldn’t go without some clever accessory, after all,” she said.
“What is that supposed to mean, Twilight?” Rarity blew her hair out of her face and joined her partner.
“A dancer’s blade? Really?” Twilight smirked. “That’s pretty dramatic, as far as statements go.”
“No, seriously, dear, what are you talking about?”
The orchestra began to play, and the two mares quickly fell into their practiced pattern. As Rarity continued to scan the crowd, Twilight took the lead. Once they’d truly settled into the rhythm, Twilight started talking again.
“The sword you’re wearing is usually referred to as the “dancer’s blade”, Rarity. They aren’t really used in the Guard very much, because they’re pretty light and take a whole other type of training to use properly. The blade’s guard is also really small, so you’d have to be pretty confident and focused in order to actually defend with it.
“I think we have a few of them on display in the palace, actually. Princess Celestia once mentioned something about how they were best in one-on-one duels because of how well they flowed around an opponent’s sword. The hoofwork is impressive, too. You really have to commit your whole body and move around to properly leverage your blade, even with magic! Then again, I only saw the princess demonstrate once, when I got a little too curious about the Royal Armory as a filly. Heh…”
Rarity barely contained her snort at the odd twist of fate that had led her to the sword. “I’m afraid I didn’t really know any of that, actually. I just found myself rather enamored with its simple elegance,” she said. “Well, that and the tassel.”
“Of course you’d like the tassel.” Twilight smirked as she kept dancing. Soon enough, the melody led her to have her back facing the palace gates, giving Rarity an uninterrupted view of Prince Blueblood marching angrily towards her, both sword and face free of her dress.
She swallowed and turned her gaze back to Twilight. “You trust me, don’t you?”
“Of course!”
“Then let me lead. Please?”
“Alright… though I hope you’ll tell me what’s going on. You’ve been nervous and jumpy this whole time!”
“Yes, yes, dear. I hope it’ll make sense soon enough. I’m dreadfully sorry about the noise, though.” Blueblood had spotted her, and was on his way over. His larger frame made his progress through the crowd much more direct. “This might get rather chaotic.”
Twilight stopped for a second, mystified. “Noise? What are you- AAAH!”
Rarity tried her best to smile again as she held Blueblood’s sword back directly over Twilight’s head. “Don’t look now, it’d be terribly impolite. Our good friend Prince Blueblood seems to have it out for me. Just keep dancing, darling, and we won’t truly cause a scene.”
The incredulous look on Twilight’s face was almost enough to cow Rarity into explaining, but she had far more important matters to worry about. Blueblood had found his own dance partner, a small earth pony with a pale green coat. The perfect height to keep his eyes on Rarity and lead his partner around the floor without much resistance. As the band played, he swayed and stepped ever closer, until they were dancing right next to each other.
Rarity chuckled wearily and spun away with Twilight, using her sword to push the ongoing conflict into the sky, just above her line of sight. There was a moment of perverse delight when the purple mare gritted her teeth upon seeing Prince Blueblood, but it didn’t last.
Blueblood had managed to disentangle the swords, and once more swung downwards. Rarity intercepted the blow, stepping into it with Twilight following along. The alicorn winced at the second jarring noise of the night, fixing Rarity with a glare.
“Explain. Now.”
Instead of saying anything, Rarity pulled Twilight away from herself and executed a much better spin than they had practiced. In doing so, she gave her friend a lovely view of the prince’s focused, twisted expression, not to mention the swords so furiously crossed not another meter behind the spinning mare.
When she’d returned to Rarity’s grip, the Princess of Friendship was very nearly mauve. “What in Celestia’s name is going on? Why is Blueblood trying to kill y-mmph!” Rarity silenced her friend with a quick burst of magic even as she moved farther back to keep them out of Blueblood’s range.
“Not sure I get it myself, to be quite honest. Something about me not being regal enough to accompany you to this event?” Rarity scoffed. “Then again, I was a little more preoccupied with his physical advances during the conversation. They were far more cutting than his remarks.”
Rewarded with the sight of Twilight rolling her eyes, Rarity continued. “Anyways, I’m rather honor-bound to defend you at this point, my dear princess, so please play along?”
“My faithful knight, I’m so grateful,” Twilight deadpanned. “Seriously? I’ll go through with this. Just give me a signal and I’ll blast him off the mountain and apologize later, though,” she said.
“No reason to turn down a perfectly good plan B,” Rarity nodded. “Very well then, let’s dance.”
Her opponent was already attacking, and Rarity turned so that the dancer’s blade was between her back and the strike. Pulling Twilight with her, she stepped backwards. Now Blueblood was in a tight spot. Moving forward to a manageable distance wouldn’t be easy with the frightened mare in his hooves, and he was far too close for a good cut against Rarity. He huffed in frustration and spun, putting his partner between himself and the two mares. As he receded, he felt a tug at his tail.
Rarity smirked. Her parry had placed her blade in just the right spot. Having moved closer, she’d managed to get the prince to cut his own tail halfway down its length. Pressing her advantage, she guided Twilight into another spin, this time with her wings flared. The gust and the sudden burst of movement blinded Blueblood to her actions momentarily, which was just what she needed.
‘I do so love it when a plan comes together with friendship.’
Her sword quickly darted to the other side of the confused stallion, threading its way around the curve of his weapon to strike his horn. It would have worked, too, had he not looked up and hooked the thing out of the sky.
Luckily, Twilight was ready, and even as she gently stepped back towards Rarity she held the weapon in her wing. Said wing was slightly nicked, courtesy of the undirected flailing Blueblood had reverted to upon losing sight of Rarity’s sword.
‘I’m afraid it has to end here. He’s hurt her, technically, which means I have far more leeway.’
A slash across the barrel was blocked easily, and Rarity rotated again to face the prince. He stepped forward menacingly, swinging at an odd angle to try and catch her by surprise.
It didn’t work, of course. Rarity had already placed herself to intercept the slash, gritting her teeth at the increased pressure on her horn. She shifted her weight and dipped Twilight low, turning her parry into a circular movement. Her sword flashed in the starlight before dipping low to the ground. Blueblood fumbled the transition, nearly cutting his own mane on the way to halt the attack, but Rarity’s attack now shifted sideways.
The flat of her blade struck Blueblood’s leg perfectly. He buckled, falling on top of his date, dropping his sword. Twilight immediately picked it up in her own magic and sent up a flare from her horn.
“Looks like I can navigate this rhythm just fine, my prince,” Rarity sniffed, adopting the snobbiest tone that she could. Seeing that the orchestra had stopped playing in all the commotion, she dropped down from her dancing position with Twilight and bowed, planting her sword in front of her.
The silence was broken only by giggling. “That really was more fun than I expected, Rarity. I’ll need to keep asking you to these events if this is the kind of treatment I’ll be getting,” Twilight was smiling kindly down at her, a hoof outstretched to help her up. “Why don’t we get out of here before Princess Luna hears about it all from somepony else?”
“As you command, my princess!” Rarity called out, teasingly saluting. The two walked back into the castle, leaving many confused nobles gathered around Prince Blueblood. “I may not really want to be a guard, but I believe I’ll hang onto this sword. If I’ll be by your side for more royal functions, I might as well be your first line of defense. Every princess needs one, do they not?”
Twilight laughed. “Sure, Rarity. Why not? But I was thinking maybe our next Royal Event could be going to Donut Joe’s? Just the two of us?”
“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do. Princess Luna can wait, after all. Lead the way, my darling!”
Author's Note
This story is part of the First and Only Raritwi Bomb! A week's worth of stories and art all centered around Rarity and Twilight. If you liked it, the previous story posted is Your Name Like Oil Poured Out by Cynewulf, and you can find a master list of all Raritwi Bomb content on Monochromatic's blogpost, here.
Feedback is appreciated! Please let me know what you thought, and if you find any typos drop me a PM so I can fix them. Thanks for your time!
