Twilight Sparkle did not believe in fairytales.
"And when the princess saw the jeweller, she recognized her cutie mark as the one carved into the stone that had fallen from the sky and into her garden, and she knew that they were fated to be madly in love with one another for the rest of their lives."
Rarity, on the other hoof, seemed to have quite the passion for them, if the past hour had been anything to go by.
Still, Twilight treasured every minute of hearing the seamstress ramble on passionately about the subject while she carefully folded and cut the sheet of paper laid out on the table in front of her. Still, that didn't mean she couldn't make her opinion on these stories quite clear.
"That's ridiculous." A spark of magic lit the small bundle of kindling she placed in the center of her creation, causing it to burn merrily within its paper confines.
"It's only ridiculous because you have no flair for romance," Rarity retorted. "When Golden Wish sent out that lantern, she believed with all her heart that it would lead to her true love, and so it landed in Princess Amethyst's garden and they ended up living happily ever after with each other."
"If you send out a paper lantern during a period of relatively normal wind patterns," Twilight said, running the calculations in her mind, "and you aim it towards some kind of population center, then statistically speaking it's going to land on the property of someone that you'll meet some time in your life, especially back in the times these stories came from, given the limited amount of travel undertaken by ponies. And since the nobility tended to own more land, the landing point will be skewed towards that demographic."
"Or," Rarity argued, floating over a stone towards Twilight. "Because Golden wanted to find true love more than anything, the winds carried her lantern towards the love of her life so that they could be together forever."
"There's no magical phenomenon that could facilitate some kind of transfer like that, no matter how strong her intent was." Twilight's lips quirked up in a smile. She did enjoy these debates, even if she knew Rarity wasn't being totally serious most of the time. It was an interesting intellectual exercise, and Rarity was a fun mare to engage in such with. "Cadance spent years debunking these sorts of superstitions and exposing charlatans trying to prey on desperate souls."
"Still, there's no reason not to try, is there?" Rarity dropped the stone in front of Twilight. "I already went through the trouble of carving your cutie mark on it, and you need to test that lantern anyways for when you teach Cheerilee's class how to make them."
It should have been simple to indulge Rarity. Just tie the stone to the lantern and let it float off. Even if someone found it that didn't mean anything anyways. And yet...
Twilight already knew who she was in love with. She didn't need some silly story to tell her. And having this stone land on somepony else's doorstep made her feel uncomfortable in a completely irrational manner.
"Even if it does land at my true love's hooves," she tried to argue instead. "How will I be able to find them?" She put on a casual smile that she didn't feel. "Maybe I should add a tracking spell to it."
Rarity rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you take all the romance out of it. Why don't you have a little faith, hmm?"
"I prefer science over faith," Twilight replied. Still, if it made Rarity happy... "Fine." She picked up the stone, taking a moment to note how good a job Rarity had done recreating her cutie mark on it, and tied it to the paper lantern that was now hovering in the air under her magic.
"Remember to think about how much you want to find love!" Rarity called out as she stepped back, a smile on her expression that lit up Twilight's soul.
"No need to worry about that," Twilight muttered under her breath. Some days, she was surprised she could think about anything else. She let the lantern go and watched as it floated up, up, and away, a glowing star flying higher and higher until...
A stray gust suddenly jerked it violently to the side. The string attaching the stone to the lantern snapped off, and the symbol plummeted downwards while the light continued to rise. Twilight's attention immediately shifted as she watched the stone fall to the ground.
Right in front of Rarity. Whose horn was glowing with what Twilight recognized as the remnants of an atmospheric manipulation spell.
"Then again, sometimes Fate needs a helping hoof, wouldn't you agree?" And this time, when Rarity smiled, the whole world faded away.
"Y-You—" Twilight barely managed to stammer, her heart pounding away as she processed what had just happened. The various gears in her brain aligned themselves haphazardly, causing her to spit out the first coherent thought she could muster. "You're my soulmate?"
A giggle escaped from Rarity's lips. "Oh, I don't know," she said with a smirk. "I thought you didn't put much stock in such tales." She trotted closer, her eyes burning with that same passion that Twilight so loved about her. "But as a scientist, don't you have a duty to verify your hypotheses?"
Twilight gulped. "That would be the responsible thing to do, yes." She stepped closed as well, her mind swimming with uncertainty. Still, Rarity had made the first move in her own dramatic way, and Twilight could do no less than to take the second step. "Would you like to get dinner with me after this? Like, on a date." The last words set her anxiety into overdrive, and she waited for Rarity to tell her that she'd been mistaken, that it had only been a joke, that...
"Why, I'd love nothing more, dear." And when Rarity reached out a hoof to cup her chin, that anxiety melted away, replaced by an altogether different set of butterflies in her stomach. "But first, what do you think about the concept of true love's kiss?"
They leaned in, and afterwards, Twilight Sparkle believed.
