Twilight obsessed over the reflection in the mirror.
She reared herself up on the sink, staring at the myriad of imperfections apparent to her. She never felt most of them, but that didn’t make them any less real. The wider jaw, the broader shoulders. She pressed an ankle to her neck and chin, feeling the roughness of her fur from puberty slamming into her like a train.
It was a little much to hope that her becoming an alicorn would fix all those problems, she supposed. At the very least, the work she could put in, the solutions she could find all worked much the same.
Rather than staring at each little imperfection any longer, Twilight pushed herself back, and took in her entire self. Up close she could easily spot every tiny detail that might paint her as something other than a mare. Further out she could see a more complete picture, and the myriad of problems almost disappeared. She could still see them, of course. She knew where to look. If her face were a map, she could give coordinates to every hated geographic point from memory.
But further away, she didn’t see an atlas of disgust and shame. It had taken her years and plenty of love from friends, as well as learning to love herself again. She was a painting, with new coats of paint being applied over and over, altering and improving the original work but never replacing it. She’d grown her mane out in the years since she came to Ponyville. She had let Rarity do her makeup, to hide some of the things she disliked, and to emphasise what she did. Her eyes, for one, and the shape of her mouth.
Twilight grinned, and the feelings of comfort and surety in who she was intensified.
Rarity called from the other side of the door, gently knocking as she did. It startled Twilight out of her thoughts, but she quickly turned and unlocked it, opening up the door to the rest of the Boutique. To Rarity, standing there before her.
“You were in there for a while, darling,” said Rarity. “Is everything all right?” She tilted her head just a little, an eyebrow raised a fraction. Her voice took on a familiar tone as she asked the question, and Twilight knew what she was really asking.
She felt glad she didn’t have to lie for once in a long while. “Never better,” said Twilight. “Thanks for doing my makeup. You know I’m hopeless with this stuff.” She leaned in and down, pecking Rarity’s nose, and the seamstress flushed and chuckled.
“Oh it’s nothing, dear. Besides, you’re still getting used to this stuff. I had several decades to put it all together and become the professional I am.” Rarity made a small gesture with her head, and the two mares walked back down the stairs and toward the main floor of the Boutique. “Most of the others are about ready, by the by. Applejack’s just helping the little ones get some face paint done.” She pulled a face; a stuck out tongue and played up grimace. There was still a smile mixed into it. “Facepaint is always so tacky.”
“And makeup isn’t?” Twilight asked teasingly.
Rarity growled lightly, then tossed her mane back and held up her nose. “That’s different, you know that!”
Twilight giggled and nodded. “Yeah, I know. Still, they’re both about making yourself look different, and can be about hiding yourself and celebrating something. What sort of face paintings have they gone for?”
Rarity opened her mouth, then cringed as she heard a crash and a little orange filly fell out of a swinging door. The door smacked against the wall and Rarity frowned. “Scootaloo…”
The little pegasus blinked, then scrambled onto her hooves. She had two little squares of paint on her cheeks, one pink, blue and white and the other in shades of orange and purple. “Sorry Rarity! I hope I didn’t break anything—”
The door was pulled away from the wall, and Rarity ducked around it. There was a slight tensing in Rarity’s shoulders, and Scootaloo shuffled back against Twilight’s legs. A moment later, Rarity relaxed as she stepped back.
“...I broke something, didn’t I?” Scootaloo asked. Twilight placed a hoof onto the filly’s shoulder, and she tensed up for a moment.
Rarity shook her head. “Nothing Sweetie Belle hasn’t already done herself,” she said. “Think nothing of it, today is meant to be fun. That said…” Rarity’s expression turned a little more serious, though her grin remained. “Please try to keep the rambunctiousness out of my house for now, hmm?”
Scootaloo nodded and buzzed her wings. “I promise I’ll behave until we leave,” she said, and she went through the motions of a Pinkie Promise. She took a few steps back to the door, then paused before whirling around to look back at Twilight. “Hey, wanna get some flags painted too?”
“Like yours?” Twilight asked the pegasus. Rarity glanced up and down between Twilight and Scootaloo, and as the alicorn grinned and answered, “Yes!” the seamstress let out a small groan.
Ponyville was full of noise. Since Twilight’s castle had sprouted from the ground, making the once small and sleepy little town a centre of tourism and the home of friendship and harmony. Now it saw far more celebrations.
Twilight had seen parades like this in Canterlot once in a while. She never paid that much attention to them, having refused to accept who she was. Now she felt her heart swell up like a balloon and try to lift her off the ground. She understood a little of what it must have been like to be Pinkie on an average day.
The market was much busier than usual. On top of the usual food stalls there were booths for games and activities. The space that was usually reserved for just the Apple family’s little cart was now a marquee and several booths, selling apple flavoured treats and a few more rural styled activities that could be safely practiced in the town’s centre. Twilight recognised only a hoofful of the extended family, and only one by name.
Twilight insisted on paying Apple Fritter the bits for the pair of candied apples she picked, and then gave Rarity one of them.
“Apples, there’s something new,” Rarity said flatly, though she chuckled a moment later regardless and tried to delicately bite into it. It was, unfortunately, just a little too large and glossy for her to simply nibble, forcing her to take a larger bite and get some caramel stuck to her cheek. It left a silly orange streak right beneath the purple and pink heart painted below Rarity’s eye.
Twilight chuckled and took a braver bite herself. It didn’t help keep her face clean. She hadn’t even swallowed her first bite before she felt a napkin prodding at the side of her face and wiping the melted sugar off.
“Honestly, Twilight, you can be so messy sometimes.” She made sure Twilight’s face was clean, then tended to her own sticky fur. “A lady doesn’t take great big bites out of her food.”
“Well it’s a good thing I’m not a lady then,” said Twilight, taking on a slightly more serious tone.
Rarity paused, then frowned. “Twilight, don’t—”
“I’m not a lady. I’m a princess.” Twilight smirked and Rarity rolled her eyes before giving her marefriend a small shove.
“You are insufferable sometimes, you know that?”
Twilight shuffled back beside Rarity, their bodies touching, and she flicked her tail around to fall into Rarity’s tightly spun coil. “You love it, really.”
“No I do not!” Rarity protested, but Twilight kept smirking, using her height to loom down onto Rarity. “...Okay, maybe a little. A lot. Stop smirking at me like that!”
Twilight giggled and kissed Rarity on the forehead. “I can’t help it. You’re cute when you pout.”
Rarity pouted harder, opened her mouth to say something, then took a large, unladylike bite out of her candied apple. This just made Twilight laugh again and grin.
She watched Rarity eat as they walked, remembering to take a bite from her treat every once in a while. Somewhere ahead, Fluttershy was chaperoning the Crusaders, keeping them out of too much trouble though they did get a few stern words thrown at them from the odd stall owner, and even Rarity herself. The girls tossed back apologies, and frowns turned to smiles as they let off their energy elsewhere and slowly bankrupted Fluttershy as they collected balloons and trinkets and snacks aplenty.
Despite that, and despite the noise, the volume of ponies around them, Twilight couldn’t take her focus off of Rarity, and off of herself. She chewed on another mouthful of her apple, and reflected on what her life was like before. How dark and bleak it was, despite how good and capable she was. Maybe it was only such compared to the bright, gleaming hope and love she saw in Rarity—and her other friends—but it was definitely much better now.
Rarity caught Twilight’s stare, and another errant smear of caramel. She floated up another tissue. “What’s on your mind, Twilight?”
Twilight made a small noise.
“You’ve got that look about you, like you’re thinking too hard.” Rarity chuckled. “Reminds me of the times I caught myself snagged by my muse. Maybe not quite the same…” She ensured Twilight’s cheek was sparklingly clean once more. “Do you want to share?”
Twilight hummed, then shrugged. “I’m just thinking how much I love everything right now.” She gently bumped Rarity, making her drop her apple-less stick though Twilight caught it before it hit the floor. “You especially, of course, but just in general too. The girls, all the other friends we have. Everything seems so… Sunny.” She bit her lip. “That sounds sappy, doesn’t it?”
Rarity gently bumped her cheek against Twilight’s, and the little electric shock of love and acknowledgement made the hair on Twilight’s back stand up.
“Not at all, love.” Rarity stopped, and turned to face Twilight head on. Twilight did the same, and took another bite from the remains of her apple. “Loving being alive isn’t sappy, it’s wonderful and delightful. It reminds me that the mare I fell in love with is worth all my effort and attention.”
Twilight gently ran a hoof in circles on the floor. “You think so?”
“I know so. I know you have a unique experience with life.” She then leaned up, kissing Twilight’s lips. They held together for a few moments, and then the sticky sugar pulled apart as they separated. “It’s good to know that despite that, you’ve taken to life like you’ve taken to every dress I give you. It fits you perfectly and brings me an endless amount of joy to see.”
Twilight’s heart almost burst, and they kissed again.
