A Pie by any Other Name

Thoughts on Divorce. When opportunity knocks. Be the pony you always wanted to be. Devils: practical uses thereof. Don't keep a mare waiting.

Twilight stretched as she left her bed. For the first night in the past week, she had actually taken the opportunity to take the entire night to rest and recover. The long time of fruitless study had been frustrating, and now with a refreshed mind she stood a chance against the problem.

The issue, of course, was what the problem indeed was and how she intended to fix it.

A day before she would've said the issue was the spell she had whammed Pinkie with on accident, but now she wasn't so sure. Her chat with Rarity still tickled the back of her mind slightly. She wanted to argue that Rarity was wrong about how Twilight felt about Cheese Sandwich - and to an extent she was wrong.

Twilight didn't particularly hate Cheese Sandwich. She closely examined all thoughts and feelings related to the oft times distant stallion and found all the emotion she could precisely pinpoint towards him was a mixture of sadness, disappointment, and perhaps a vague coloring of... well, well-wishes. She loved Pinkie, and by extension, she couldn't truly hate what was ostensibly her other half.

It hurt her to no end that the only way she and Pinkie could be together would include making both her and Lil' Cheese's lives that much worse. Sure, it wasn't as if Cheese Sandwich was around all that terribly often, but he was loving when he was around. Then again, if the comments that Rarity had been making were founded in more than malice towards a pony who otherwise - as far as Twilight was concerned - did not technically deserve it, then possibly Twilight might be persuaded to see a divorce as necessary.

Twilight's view on divorce had roughly been the same as her views about whether or not the rules of hoofball ought be changed: nonexistent, precluding the arrival of an incident that sparked her into caring about the topic.

Up until yesterday she hadn't particularly cared about divorce as it had never touched her. Her parents had never been divorced, and she honestly couldn't see Shining and Cadence getting a divorce. She had known that statistically divorce was a net loss for all parties involved. It caused emotional stress, financial woes, and overall negatively affected children.

That of course wasn't true if the one spouse was abusive, at which point it was a net gain to sever the union. Twilight could also see this exception working for those who had been cheated on - the breach of trust was significant enough that Twilight could see it as a good reason. There were some others, of course, but listing all exceptions wasn't what she wanted to do.

In sum total, Twilight found now that she actually had to formulate an opinion on divorce she was of a mind that divorce was a last resort to severe issues. There'd likely be more thoughts on this in times to come - Twilight did like to think in waves, pushing deeply into a subject only to retreat and reapproach hours later - but now was time to think about if she actually wanted to take care of the little magical problem Pinkie had because of her.

Before she could get a thought in edgewise though, a knocking at the door brought her attention crashing to a halt. Setting the comb down on the sink, she trotted her way through the castle until she came to the door, her mind a blizzard of the different possibilities of who might show up at a time like this - that time being a few minutes after noon.

Opening the door, she froze, seeing Rarity and Pinkie on the other side of the door. A myriad thoughts crossed through her mind, the one in place of prominence being that Rarity had told Pinkie what Twilight had said yesterday, and was now here to ensure that something would happen.

A more horrified one asked what Twilight's plan might be if Pinkie said she loved Twilight too.

"Hiya, Twilight!" Pinkie cried, despite being a step away. "Rarity and I were in the neighborhood and got to talking and we decided to come over and ask if you were available for some fun!" She hopped at that last word - it was one of those things about Pinkie that Twilight smiled at and relied upon to tell her that Pinkie was Pinkie and hadn't been replaced by something in her skin. Of course, something in her brain would be able to avoid that suspicion, and therefore had different criteria to be spotted by.

Now totally unnecessary since she very well knew the truth on that matter.

"Uh..." Twilight said lamely, eyes darting between the two mares, "Yes! Come on in." She answered finally, a smile a tad too large and too forced across her face. Rarity, of course, would notice it while Pinkie either was oblivious or decided to let it pass, but Twilight had few options available to her in such social interactions.

Pinkie happily hopped her way inside, springing comically with each landing as she made her way inside the castle. Rarity, however, walked with the extreme poise that all had come to expect from her, and stopped next to Twilight - delivering a look that carried a meaning, though which one Twilight wasn't entirely certain. Rarity, catching Twilight's perplexed look, rolled her eyes in a most unladylike way and closed the door behind her while stepping closer to Twilight to whisper in her ear.

"I don't have a silver platter, but I suggest you make good use of this opportunity that was so kindly delivered to you." Rarity said with but a breath. Twilight locked up, unsure how to reply - or if she even should. Rarity again sighed with all the dramatics she could muster.

"Darling, anypony who has a horn, the wherewithal, and the knowledge that Pinkie isn't one for cosmetic magic would be able to tell that something is a tad amiss with our Pinkie." Rarity said, sending a chill down Twilight's spine.

"Hey, is this milk still good?" Pinkie's voice called from the other room - one where Twilight was sure there ought not be any milk. The sounds of theatrical gulping filled the air before a sigh of satisfaction followed by a burp disturbed the castle air. "Nope!"

"More so than usual." Rarity conceded. Twilight gulped, still very unsure where this might be going. "Look, Twilight dear, you told me the truth so I'll tell you the truth. Are you ready to hear it?" Twilight nodded slowly. "Either you're going to activate the spell or I am. Now, we're all friends here, but I can be a tad naughty, so you probably don't want me behind the wheel. Just a thought, Darling, you understand."

Twilight was terrified that she might just understand. "You... you haven't... h-have you?" Twilight stammered, her brain fighting desperately to catch up even as her intuition connected so rather bleak dots together. Rarity blinked a few times before giggling in a coquettish way while waving off the suspicion like a bad stench.

"No, Darling, I have not taken advantage of Pinkie yet, though such can be changed if you don't start doing what I tell you. Excuse me, I mean if you don't start doing what I suggest." Rarity said, laughing in an airy way that seemed more in place with Chrysalis or the old Starlight. It was disconcerting to say the least.

Rarity however didn't seem to appreciate Twilight's hesitance as she stopped laughing and simply glowered at Twilight. "Now would be good, Darling." She said with steel in her voice, losing all humor that it had had but a moment before. Twilight gulped, looking over to the doorway in which Pinkie had appeared, a ring of curdled milk still on the mare's lips.

The treacherous algebra of survival resolved itself quite quickly in Twilight's mind. The situation was complicated, but eliminating the variables and cancelling like terms made the equation quite simple. If Twilight didn't take control of Pinkie, Rarity would - to what ends was not entirely clear. If Twilight did take control, Rarity could only do so much. She might, by some means beyond Twilight at the moment, wrest control away from her. That was one option.

The other was that Rarity had plans that were beyond Twilight at the moment.

Resolving to take the more controlled route that offered up slightly less fear from the unknown, Twilight lit her horn and activated the switch in Pinkie's mind that made the mare little more that a glorified puppet. It made Twilight's heart flutter to see the mare like this, but there were other things in the room that were a little bit more concerning at the moment.

"Very good, Twilight, now I'm going to help you be the pony you always wanted to be but never dared to act like. Won't that just be nice?" Rarity trilled, circling about Twilight in a seductive curl - that is, if Twilight had any idea what seductive was. As far as she was concerned, Rarity was just brushing against her rather closely.

"W-what do you mean?" Twilight asked, barely able to keep herself from shaking in her nerves.

"Well, Twilight dear, let us simply say for now that we ought to move to the study." Rarity said on a whisper into Twilight's ear. Twilight shivered lightly, unsure what she ought to expect - but desperately hoping the thin whisper of a suspicion she had was right.

A short jaunt later, they entered the study - the halls of the castle being easy enough to navigate for the mare who had a memory that resembled a well sorted filling cabinet than what might be considered a 'normal' mind. Rarity hummed as she looked about the room, obviously working something out in her head as she looked about. Twilight didn't like this, and the fact that Pinkie was functionally reduced to a doll in all of this didn't help.

"That reminds me, Dear." Rarity said with a smile. "Send Pinkie to wash her mouth. She apparently found some milk that ought not to have been imbibed by any pony that was after milk and not a failed shot at cottage cheese."

"Actually, curdled milk isn't good for making cheese, it-" Twilight began, the impulse to share knowledge only beaten off by Rarity's icy stare that communicated far faster than any words that she indeed did not care about the particulars of cheesemongery. "I'll... just have her go to the bathroom and gargle some mouth wash then?" She supplied with a weak grin. Rarity nodded to this like a governess pleased by the foal who decided that perhaps making the 'choo choo' noises wasn't precisely necessary for the act of playing.

While waiting for Pinkie to get back, Twilight inwardly kicked herself for not thinking of flicking a few levers towards the purpose of having Pinkie search for an escape from the situation - though Twilight was also, surprisingly, of two minds about that topic. Pinkie's escape would mean an end of the fun - which certainly would not do. There had to be a sweet middle ground on which Twilight could find refuge.

When Pinkie returned to the room with a mouth that looked substantially fresher for the water that now dripped off her muzzle, Twilight looked with terrified expectation towards Rarity. Rarity, for her part, simply circled about Pinkie for a short moment before sashaying her graceful way over to Twilight's side.

"Isn't she gorgeous like this?" Rarity asked, nearly nibbling on Twilight's ear as she spoke. "So still, it almost makes her look... regal, perhaps." Twilight, despite herself, found herself agreeing. In this state Pinkie had a sort of glow about her that made her somehow far more regal and beautiful than Twilight could appreciate than when the mare was bouncing about the place - though the bouncing brought out other features that Twilight enjoyed in the mare.

"Touch her, Twilight." Rarity whispered again, pressing against Twilight in an encouraging way. Twilight hesitated, simply staring at the object of her love - and now, to an extent, her rising lust - her heart yearning to do what her mind rebelled against. "Go ahead, she won't mind. Just reach out at touch her cheek." Rarity coaxed.

Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat and then slowly lifted her hoof to touch the other pony.

The next moment seemed to last forever. The heat from the other mare, the sensation of her soft fur, the electric feeling of the forbidden becoming reality, and the occasional brushes of air as it past out the nostrils all played together in Twilight's overcrowded mind. It was so much - too much - all at once. The world felt as if it had transitioned into a sort of crisper form of reality.

“You can feel it, can't you?” Rarity purred in her ear, though to Twilight's mind it was almost an afterthought - a series of words that slipped into her reality without source. “I know you can, Dear. You can feel her, sense her - on a level beyond the physical you're used to. You can feel HER.”

To Twilight's surprise, she couldn't help but find herself not only understanding Rarity's words but have more words filter from her own consciousness. The contact she had had with Pinkie before - even the more intimate version she had enjoyed those two times - had somehow paled in comparison to this moment. Somehow they seemed hollow and fake in comparison to what Twilight was going through at this most intimate of moments.

“Kiss her, Darling. Press your lips against hers.” Rarity's voice sprung out from some place. Twilight couldn't think of anything better than doing just that, and so leaned forward, closing her eyes as she pressed her lips against Pinkie's.

The kiss, though more one sided than the one she had experienced those short days before, was somehow more... profound. The unyielding, unreacting form of Pinkie's features lent an air to the act that Twilight couldn't truly understand.

She had kissed things that had been as wooden in their reactions - having been a hormonal teen too at one point. It just... somehow knowing that Pinkie very well could react but wasn't because of something Twilight had done gave Twilight such a thrill that was beyond her to truly express in all its wonderful aspects.

“Feel her,” a voice echoed in past her reality consuming kiss, “taste her, know her, dominate her!” A voice encouraged, and something in Twilight rang out a harmonious cord to the insisting tones she barely heard.

Wrestling with herself, she pulled away from the kiss, panting heavily as she stared at the still statuesque Pinkie. Many ponies, Twilight reflected, may have tried to lay the moves on her. Doubtlessly several princes and noble stallions had thought themselves smooth operators plying the trade of seducers in attempts to land the biggest catch of the world. Each of them had, in their own way, thought themselves masters of their trade and doubtlessly had found success elsewhere.

But none of them - none of them - could ever compare to the simple, effortless elegance and beauty before her at that moment. Without trying - and perhaps that was indeed why it worked so much - Pinkie could simply stand completely still and seduce Twilight more effectively than any stallion or any other mare Twilight could imagine. It made a part of Twilight beg for more.

The other part, however, demanded more.

With a ravenous hunger that Twilight had never recognized in herself, the alicorn dove forward and pressed her muzzle deeply into Pinkie's neck, drawing in her scent before planting a series of kisses across her friend's neck. It was maddening, and worse still, only served to stoke Twilight's internal fire. It was as effective at quenching Twilight's growing lust as oil was at quenching a flame.

A voice clambered to get something in edgewise, but it was silenced as Twilight's consuming lust filled her mind with nothing but frenzy and desire. It consumed reason and rationale and left Twilight, for the first time in her recollection, completely at the whim of her base animal desires.

And how good it felt.

With nary a thought, Twilight tackled Pinkie to the floor, seizing one of the mare's ears in her mouth, gently grinding it between her teeth with instant but gentle pressure while her hooves found themselves roaming across every inch of the other mare without hesitation. It filled her with such a wonderful, all consuming desire that Twilight simply couldn't deny – even if she were so inclined to do so.

Moaning to herself, she released the ear and lay a long lick across Pinkie's face before drawing another draft of the mare's sweet scent. The world, though askew from what Twilight would regularly consider 'normal', felt so incredibly right as Twilight forced her will upon the unresisting mare that simply lay there to take everything Twilight gave.

Kissing Pinkie again and again, Twilight's world spiraled further and further in on itself as she found her mind a haze, her actions not her own, and her body screaming in a pleasure she couldn't understand. It was beyond anything she had ever known, and it only built higher and higher.

All at once, as she gave a fierce experimental suck at one of Pinkie's teats, Twilight's mind broke into a field of white hot ecstasy that sent her tumbling into an oblivion from which she would know nothing. Her heart pounded in her chest, her nostrils flared, and a scream she hadn't anticipated burst forth from her lungs with a ferocity unlike any.

She quaked on the floor, straddling Pinkie like a lion over a kill as she felt the world leave her. Her senses on fire with burning desire finally resolving itself in a blaze of passion. It was amazing, beyond anything Twilight could've imagine.

As the lifetime in another plain departed her, leaving her to coast back down to the world of the living and breathing, Twilight found herself in a haze of fatigue as she lay there, unable to do anything but beg the universe to send her back to that place she had been transported to.

Reality, harsh as it always is, crashed in on her and brought her to her sense as her ears reported that sound of a hoof striking against the hard floor in applause.

It sent life into her limbs and made her heart hammer wildly as she rushed to her hooves, only to find her legs treacherous members of the rebel alliance that delivered her swiftly back to the floor. Now returned to her senses, Twilight realized her position and became far more flushed than she already had been.

“Well done, Darling.” Rarity said with an encouraging voice - much to Twilight's chagrin. “I especially enjoyed the free style approach. I usually use a more targeted approach myself, but since this really constitutes your first go around, I do suppose you did a bit more than admirably.”

“W-what... what did you do to me‽” Twilight accused, unsteadily getting to her hooves. “What did you do to Rarity‽” Rarity took a step back before shaking her head as if at a stubborn foal before flipping her hair back.

“Twilight, Darling, I understand that you must be confused, but do allow me to explain before you jump to conclusions.” Rarity began, sitting down on her haunches to appear less threatening. “I am the same Rarity you have known since you first arrived at Ponyville - though with the exception that I have grown and learned many lessons along the way.

“I am the same Rarity who struggled to keep to your wishes for your dress, the same Rarity that outwitted Diamond Dogs when they captured me, and the same Rarity who stood beside you and the others when evil knocked on our doors time and again.

“I will admit that this side of me is not one that I let out for a good airing too incredibly often - especially not around you girls... Rainbow and Applejack being a possible exception, but we have an understanding.

“No, I did not do anything to you, Darling - unless, of course, you count prodding you in the direction you ought to go or perhaps being perceptive enough to help magnify your own desires.”

“The direction I ought to go‽ My own desires‽” Twilight snapped, taking a step closer to the plainly confident Rarity. “You made me take advantage of Pinkie! Of a friend!” She blustered, barely able to hold herself back from any number of offensive measure she could take at the moment.

“You were the one who did the ear nibbling and teat licking, Darling.” Rarity pointed out. “I encouraged you to enjoy yourself in a way that wasn't a problem for anypony. Honestly, Darling, this whole situation is a mess of your own contrivance - not because you caused it, but because you're the only one who considers it such.”

“You made me violate her!”

“Wrong again, Darling, wrong again.” Rarity tittered. “I encouraged you, acted as a sort of magnifying glass or shoulder devil - a space for which I note you have a distinct opening. I pushed you and pressed buttons but I did not move a single one of your hooves. I did not seize your tongue to make you lick her, I did not press you to kiss her, I did not work your lungs to draw in her scent, and I did not move your jaw to nibble on her ear.

“Twilight, that was you. I prodded and goaded, but in the end you were the one who went forward and pressed a hoof against her face and then kissed her lips deeply. This is you. You have denied it for some time, I would wager, but it is still you.” Rarity said, her voice and posture the very model of calm confidence. “You are repressed, Darling, and I merely offer you a chance to release.”

“I... I'm not a bad pony!” Twilight ventured, the exact opposite level of calm and confidence.

“I never said otherwise. I think you'll find my opinion of you is quite high, all things considered.” Rarity continued. “Darling, Pinkie deserves the world, does she not?” Rarity began, taking another route to the destination she had in mind.

Twilight, not pausing for breath or thought, nodded. “Of course. She's a wonderful, caring friend who has done so much for each of us.” She said with more confidence that any other phrase she had said since she woke up that morning.

“I heartily agree.” Rarity said with a smile. “She is such a wonderful mare. Beauty may be skin deep, but I feel she is among the number of those who's exterior beauty is a mere fraction of her internal beauty. It is a reflection of what is inside her, and a pale reflection at that.” Twilight again nodded.

Pinkie, throughout the years, had never once been nasty. She had never shown anger when it wasn't needed without apologizing instantly. She was full of a boundless love that was so indiscriminate that it touched lives of those she barely could be said to know. She was, in Twilight opinion, the best of them without whom they'd be well and truly lost.

“Twilight, dear,” Rarity said, breaking into Twilight's thoughts, “what would you call a stallion that spends more time away from home than at home?” Twilight knew instantly where this was going and reacted accordingly.

“Hardworking.” Twilight replied instantly. Rarity nodded slowly, seeming to consider this answer carefully.

“What do you call a stallion who can't hold a stable relationship with one mare and instead bounces from one to another?” Rarity pressed.

“A philanderer.” Twilight answered, her knowledge of the dictionary shining through. Rarity nodded.

“A stallion that pretends to have a solid relationship but really is bouncing from mare to mare?” Rarity asked, causing Twilight a moment of pause – warning bells ringing out in her mind.

“A cheater.” Twilight answered. “Unless he goes through the process of divorce and remarriage with each, in which case a serial monogamist.” Rarity nodded to this as with the other answers.

“Twilight,” She began.

“You have no proof, Rarity.” Twilight said simply. “You have rumors, but I'm sure there are rumors about you that you laugh at when they coincidentally bounce your direction.”

“Fair enough.” Rarity said with a bow of the head. “But sometimes rumors have bones. I fear this is one of those. I have heard far too many stories and far too much corroborating tales to think otherwise - and I recommend to retu-... rethink your position.”

“I won't judge a pony on what others have said they've done.” Twilight said, remaining steadfast in her conviction. Rarity sighed, resigning herself to her friend's wishes.

“As you will, Twilight.” Rarity conceded. “I do, however, propose that that which you have just had the pleasure to experience ought not be a 'once and done' sort of experience.” Rarity continued, a sly smirk crossing her features. Twilight flushed once more, her heart beating in her throat as she struggled to answer.

“After all, Darling,” Rarity said, rising up from her haunches, “it isn't as if you're violating her. It takes a bit more than a bit of nibbling, sniffing, and licking to violate a mare. Think it over.” She said, turning about with a gentle swish of her luscious tail. She sashayed her way across the floor to the far door with such grace and elegance and Twilight couldn't help but be distracted.

With a final turn, Rarity fixed Twilight with a knowing grin while standing just in the threshold. “Don't keep a mare waiting, Darling.” She said coyly, kissing the air at Twilight before leaving the room fully, leaving only the memory of her behind - and what a memory it was. It left the usually sexually unaware Twilight in a mild trance as she look towards where Rarity had gone in a sort of want that she wasn't used to feeling.

The world was strange and new and she had little in the way of coping mechanisms to help her handle it at all.

With a wistful sigh, Twilight turned, only to freeze. There on the ground lay Pinkie, having remained still the entire time beyond her breathing and occasional blinks. Her fur was matted here and there with the moisture that Twilight had left behind, and in general the mare had a mussed up appearance that played a riff on Twilight's soul.

It was as if every time she looked on Pinkie the mare found a new way to look absolutely stunning.

Looking over the mare, Rarity's words echoed back in her mind. “Don't keep a mare waiting, Darling.” She had thought it referred to Rarity herself, but now... now it had taken a new meaning. One far more delicious and enticing.

Perhaps one more taste of the forbidden fruit wouldn't condemn her?