A Love as Rare as Dragonfire

“So…you and Spike? This is actually a thing that’s happening,” Twilight said as she, Moonwhisper, Spike and Rarity sat at one of the most awkward dinners any of them had ever experienced. Discord had mercifully figured out a way to undo his alterations to the dimensional geometry of the castle, but not before Twilight had caught wind of the incident. Twilight’s resulting demands for an explanation as to why Discord had felt the need to shunt the ballroom into another dimension had revealed Spike and Rarity’s new relationship. Amid the congratulations from Moonwhisper and Thorax, Twilight had taken the sudden news rather well.

Once she had regained the ability to speak in coherent sentences, anyway.

“Honestly, darling,” Rarity chided. “Is it really so shocking that Spikey-wikey and I are-”

“Yes, having one of my best friends dating my younger brother is exactly that shocking,” Twilight said. “It’s been weird enough dealing with the idea that Spike’s old enough to start dating and…other stuff, without having one of my friends involved.”

“I really think you’re making a bigger deal out of this than you need to, and I’m saying this as an older sister myself. Why, Sweetie Belle’s been at the age where colts are becoming a part of her life for some time now, and I’ve never let that bother me.” Rarity let out a slight giggle. “Actually, if I’m being completely honest, it’s made our conversations during our ‘Sister Spa Days’ much more interesting.”

“In fairness, Twilight hasn’t threatened anypony with bodily harm yet, so she’s at least dealing with the situation better than Shining Armor usually did,” Moonwhisper said mildly.

“Wait, did Shining Armor ever actually threaten you?” Twilight asked incredulously.

“Not exactly. Shining Armor did have an established habit of vehemently discouraging stallions he didn’t approve of, that is to say all of them, from pursuing you in a romantic sense. In my case, however, he acknowledged that doing so would have been less than conducive to his continued health and wellbeing.”

“In other words, you’d be able to beat him up if he actually started a fight,” Twilight said sardonically.

“That was one potential scenario. Alternatively, you might have expressed significant displeasure at him, and as I recall he was also somewhat concerned that Cadance might not have particularly approved of his behavior either,” Moonwhisper said. “That all said, I feel we may be drifting away from the topic at hoof, namely…” Moonwhisper gestured towards Spike and Rarity. “Putting the awkwardness of the situation aside for a moment, have you given any thought to how you’re going to handle things going forward. For example, I presume you’re going to be spending quite a bit more time in Canterlot going forward?”

“Oh my, yes. That’s actually something I’ve given quite a bit of thought to. I’m going to be moving here to Canterlot,” Rarity said matter of factly.

“Wait, you’re talking about moving to Canterlot already? Don’t you think you’re moving just a little fast?” Twilight asked in alarm.

“I can understand why you’d think that, but to be honest this is something I’ve been planning to do regardless,” Rarity explained. “You see, Canterlot Boutique has been taking up more and more of my time compared to my other stores, and with Yona moving to Ponyville my plan was to give her the job of running Carousel Boutique while I moved here to manage my Canterlot location full time. The fact that doing so is going to put me closer to my Spikey-wikey is just an added benefit.”

“Oh, I guess that makes – wait, Yona’s moving to Ponyville too?” Twilight asked.

“I can’t say I’m all that surprised. According to Galus, Yona’s relationship with Sandbar has been progressing fairly significantly. If anything, I’m a little more surprised Yona would be interested in managing a boutique. Admittedly I haven’t had the widest sample size, but my general impression is that pony fashion wouldn’t be something that would interest most yaks,” Moonwhisper said.

“Yona is hardly ‘most yaks’,” Rarity sniffed. “Though, in fairness, you’re not exactly wrong, either. As far as pony-style fashion goes, Yona is more of an exception than the standard in that respect. That isn’t to say yaks don’t have their own sense of fabulousness, of course, just that typical dress styles don’t have the same appeal for them. Adapting my designs to the Yakyakistan market has been one of the most invigorating challenges I’ve had in years.”

Twilight, meanwhile, let out a melancholy sigh. “It’s not that I’m not happy Yon’s able to do something she enjoys, but this means that all of the Friendship School’s first group of foreign students are staying in Equestria.”

“Well, you can hardly blame Gallus for not wanting to return to Griffonstone,” Moonwhisper interjected defensively.

“Where is Gallus, anyway?” Rarity asked. “I was under the impression he was living here in the castle, but I haven’t seen him in some time.”

“That’s because Gallus enlisted in the Guard,” Moonwhisper said as he puffed up with pride. “He still has a few more weeks of bootcamp, and then he’ll be attending the officer’s academy. I wrote his letter of recommendation myself.”

“I’m not saying I blame Gallus for wanting to stay in Equestria, or that any of the students wanted to,” Twilight said. “It’s just…I had hoped that after the students learned about friendship, they’d take what they learned back to their homes and then teach what they learned to the other creatures there. The way things are, we’re not really spreading friendship to new lands so much as concentrating it in Equestria.” Twilight let out another sigh before suddenly looking up as a realization struck her. “Wait, did you say something about Yona and Sandbar being in a relationship? When did that happen?”

“Darling, those two have been courting each other for almost their entire time at that school,” Rarity replied. “They really do make an absolutely adorable couple. You know, now that I think about it, perhaps I should talk to Yona about her relationship with Sandbar. After all, there aren’t that many creatures with experience dating outside their species, she might have some useful insights. Well, things to think about for later. In the meantime, I think I do have a few more pressing concerns.”

“Like what?” Spike asked.

“Well, for starters, I think we may to want to arrange some way of making our relationship public knowledge,” Rarity said. “Perhaps we could stage a nice photo of us locked in a passionate embrace for the local tabloids. A romance between the Royal Advisor and one of Equestria’s premier fashion designers? We’d be guaranteed to make the front page!”

“I don’t know, Rarity, are you sure about that? I mean, part of me does kind of want to shout about us from the rooftops, but I’m just thinking about how our other friends might feel about finding out about this from a tabloid.”

“Well of course we’ll talk to the ponies we care about personally, darling, but there’s so many ponies that we won’t be able to talk to that really should be informed about this. A certain population of crystal mares, for example,” Rarity practically growled under her breath.

“What was that?” Spike asked.

“Oh, I was just thinking out loud how the next ponies we should probably talk to are –” Rarity paused as a shudder ran down her spine. “My family. We’ll probably want to arrange a dinner with my parents in the next day or two. At least I should be able to count on Sweetie Belle being supportive.”

“I’d say so, especially considering she’s won about forty or so bits off your having stared a relationship,” Moonwhisper said, before realizing that everycreature present was suddenly staring at him intensely.

“And just what, precisely, do you mean by that?” Rarity asked with a distinct edge in his voice.

“There’s been a betting pool going on for some time as to whether or not the tow of you would start a relationship, and from what I understand Sweetie Belle put a fair number of bits on ‘yes’. Which would appear to have been the winning bet,” Moonwhisper added.

“I can’t believe my friends would do something like that,” Rarity wailed before thinking about it for a moment. “Well, maybe I can believe Rainbow Dash might, that mare has never been particularly bothered by propriety. And if Rainbow Dash got involved than Applejack would likely let herself get dragged into it as well. And once the two of them got started, Pinkie Pie would join in too…alright, I stand corrected. I can absolutely believe my friends would do something like that. Wait, if this was a wager, then wouldn’t that mean that somepony was betting against Spikey-wikey and I?”

“Presumably, though you’d have to talk to Pinkie Pie if you wanted the details, she was responsible for keeping track of everything. That said, given how Pinkie can be about keeping secrets…”

“I’d probably be happier not knowing the details there, anyway,” Rarity quickly concluded. “Besides, I think even I have enough drama to deal with at the moment as is.”

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