Rainbow sits up against the door with a frown, tapping her hoof on the floor.
“Rainbow Dash, it is really, REALLY, not going to open. Please do not perform an eleventh flying kick on the door to my shoppe slash home.” says Rarity, watching from her couch.
“But I look so hot doing it.” Rainbow transitioned her tapping smoothly into a little kick as she responds.
“Yes darling, that’s why I let you do it for the first ten.”
Rarity had, in fact, subtly turned the couch toward the show with her magic after the third attempt. Rainbow twitches a smirk at the ground and looks up, still a little frustrated.
“I woulda been happy if the door had just moved even a LITTLE bit…” She bangs the back of her head against the door softly. “I’m a weather pony.. I control the snow, the snow does not control me…”
“You’ll be unhappier still if you break your legs on the snow Rainbow dear.” She shakes her head and the stairs catch her eye. “Sweetie Belle, what are you doing up? Oh, forgive me, I’m sure the whole neighborhood is awake after all that noise...”
Sweetie Belle nods and hops down the stairwell with a smile. “I counted three seconds between the third and fourth bangs, and then five seconds between the fourth and fifth, it was like she was getting farther away!”
“We’re snowed in and the power is out Sweetie, you should probably get back to sleep soon so it’ll be over faster, alright?” Rarity tells the girl in a soothing voice as she waves her to a nearby chair. “I’ll get the fireplace going for now.”
Rarity walks to the kitchen and pulls out some newspapers from a drawer. She floats them and a few logs of wood that sat near the fireplace into the opening, everything moving through the air so precisely it was like she’d done it every day of her life, though she couldn’t really remember the last time she did. She was so graceful in her every movement but with power and purpose behind the motion that made her experience clear, the years of using her magic to control her boutique influencing her technique without her noticing. Rainbow notices, and then stays quiet for longer than Rainbow usually does. Rainbow watches her closely as Rarity lights a match more efficiently than Rainbow has ever seen a match be lit. She almost laughs at how *Rarity* everything Rarity does is, but the laugh doesn’t come. Rarity catches the newspapers on fire and the room is slowly eaten by the glow peeking out from under the firewood. Rainbow doesn’t watch the flame grow but watches the light, her eyes tracing it as it swallows more and more of the carpet, running over a table and making the purple room a little redder. Rarity seems satisfied with her work and Rainbow thinks to herself that she doesn’t get to see Rarity in this lighting very often. Rainbow looks at Sweetie Belle and Sweetie Belle looks back at her, smiling.
Sweetie Belle looks at Rarity again and considers for a second. “I think it's a good thing we all got trapped here tonight, we never make a fire anymore! And I get to hang out with Rainbow Dash while all our food goes bad!”
Rarity clicks her tongue and furrows her brow as she realizes, “Oh dear… I didn’t think about that... We’ll have to go shopping tomorrow morning if the snow chooses to free us by then.”
Rainbow Dash looks at the ceiling and rubs the back of her head, still laying against the door. “Can I come too?
Rarity blinks and is blank for a second, then she laughs. “I don’t… see why not? Well, you are an adult and my friend and I will not stop you from going to the grocery store at the same time as me and talking to me while I shop. Of… course you can?”
Rainbow doesn’t think hard enough about it to be embarrassed, and she gives Rarity a triumphant grin. “Hell yes. I mean. Fuck yes. Shit. Shoot. Sorry Sweetie Belle. Sorry Rarity.”
Sweetie Belle is getting tired again but her face twists into a gremlin’s smile and cackles to herself while Rarity sighs through her teeth. Rarity looks at Rainbows face and then looks away even though she doesn’t want to. Rarity sighs a few more times, every time for a different reason. “Please just, do not use that language while we’re in town for groceries.”
Rainbow would protest if Sweetie wasn’t there, saying something like, ‘everypony in town has heard me say cunt before I think it will be alright,’ but some feeling softens her and she just smiles and laughs. She gets up off of the floor and flutters off the ground to perch herself on top of the frame of the couch that Rarity has returned herself to, instead of just sitting in it. Sweetie is visibly excited.
“Oh my gosh I can’t WAIT to hang out with y’all tomorrow sis! You haven’t hung out with me in forever!”
Rarity frowns and notes to herself. “’Y’all’… I’ll need to have a chat with Applejack later about her sister so my Sweetie doesn’t get any worse…” Sweetie looks confused as she tries to make out what Rarity just mumbled, but Rarity cuts her off before she can. “Yes I do suppose I’ve been stuck working most days this Winter Sweetie Belle. The Holiday orders are really staggering this year, so many people want to buy my work as gifts.”
Sweetie approves but adds, “Yeah you keep working! And you keep hanging out with Rainbow Dash too when you’re not!”
Rarity stops and thinks for a minute. She really hadn’t realized how much more time they were spending together lately, it just seemed so natural. She thought carefully about the times she had reached out to Rainbow in lieu of her other friends when she needed to talk or to complain. She thought about Rainbow, and how she seemed so inconsiderate and rowdy but sat attentively while Rarity was talking. She thought about Rainbow Dash’s eyes and how Rarity would sometimes trail off or lose her thoughts while speaking after noticing how Rainbow was studying her, like Rainbow was examining the ways her face moved as she said certain words and the way Rarity’s lips pursed when she was stressed. She thought about how Rainbow’s eyes have been trained to study the ground and the clouds as she flew ever since Rainbow was a child. She wondered if Rainbow studied everyone the way she studied Rarity, and she tried not to wonder why that idea made her a little upset. She wondered if Rainbow was looking at her right now, and she felt like if she looked up and met Rainbow’s eyes there, that Rainbow would be able to read her every thought. She kept staring ahead and stopped thinking.
Rainbow stops staring at Rarity’s mane and talks to break the short silence before it has a chance to become awkward. “Yeah, I don’t blame her, I’m just so awesome ya see.”
She puffs out her chest and puts a hoof under her own chin. She’s smiling a genuine smile as she talks to Sweetie Belle, she feels proud. “And I, uh, never turn down a chance to hang with someone who can appreciate how awesome I am.” She ends with a sharp grin.
Sweetie Belle giggles and rolls her eyes, never losing her smile. “Well if I think you’re awesome, will you let me hang out with you and Rarity sometimes!” She bounces up and down on her chair, waiting for a response to her proposal.
“Sure thing kid, I think you’re juuuuuussttt cool enough to be able to kick it with me.” Rainbow’s smile gets bigger and she can’t help but rock up and down on her hooves in joy. “Maybe you can even expect a lil’ somethin from ol’ Rainbow Dash for the Holidays this year, coolkid!”
Sweetie Belle can’t believe what she’s hearing and jumps in the air, flapping her legs in excitement. She looks at Rarity to beg for the approval of more presents, knowing Rarity calls her ‘spoiled’ a lot.
Rarity raises her eyebrows, “Well! If Rainbow Dash is feeling so generous I suppose it would be a crime for me to disapprove.” Rarity is a little surprised, but relaxes into a smile and shakes her head.
She does look up at Rainbow now, as Rainbow is too concentrated on laughing and basking in the affections to look into Rarity’s mind. She tries to study Rainbow the way Rainbow studies her. She sees the pride very clearly all through Rainbow’s figure. She thinks about loyalty, and what that might mean to Rainbow. She thinks about all the time she’s known Rainbow and the way Rainbow has treated the people she loved in that time. She thought about how she’s never really seen how Rainbow acts when she’s in love, and she imagines what that could look like. She imagines the commitment, the split second decision-making, the completely blind following of the heart. She imagines the loyalty, a trust and an almost innocence in the kind of love she imagines Rainbow Dash might own. She wonders if it’s wishful thinking, imagining it’s something like how Rainbow’s acting now. She tells Rainbow to sit beside her instead of perching on the frame where she can’t see her.
Rainbow takes a half second longer to move than she would have if she wasn’t in love with Rarity. Rainbow notices this half second anomaly and ignores it, not sure if she’s ready for what it means. She does sit, though. And they all sit there for a while. The darkness slowly tries to reclaim what room the fire’s glow stole in a way that the darkness thinks is clever, like nobody sees it. It wouldn’t usually be right, but Rainbow isn’t looking at the room now. It's been a few hours and Sweetie Belle has fallen asleep on her little chair, and Rarity’s eyes are closed though Rainbow can tell by her breathing that she's still awake. Rainbow lets Rarity pretend to roll over and hold onto Rainbow in her sleep, as Rainbow tentatively puts a hoof to Rarity’s mane, waiting for signs of protest and finding none. Rainbow runs her hoof through the hair of the woman she’s in love with and she looks at Sweetie Belle sleeping soundly across the room and gets a warm feeling she doesn’t yet understand is the warmth and comfort of family, and that Sweetie Belle is already as much family to her as she is to Rarity.
She sleeps there, surrounded by her family, and the snow melts.
