Diamond in the Flames

"Well, this is really, really bad."

Rarity winced at Twilight's bluntness. "For what little it may be worth, I do apologize for deceiving you."

Twilight sighed as she took her seat on the Council table. After taking over from Celestia and Luna, Twilight had entered another growth spurt, and Rarity noted that it was time for her to have yet another, larger chair made for herself.

Now was probably not the best time to bring that up, however.

"As much as I'm hurt about the lying, I feel like that's the least of our concerns here," Twilight glared at Rarity, disgust clear in her eyes. "How could you, Rarity? She's your little sister!"

"Right, yes." Rarity let out an awkward cough. "I suppose that is rather frowned upon in polite society." It was odd, if she had to be honest with herself. Rarity had spent so long keeping this secret that somewhere along the way she had forgotten why her relationship with Sweetie had been doomed to remain in the shadows.

It seemed that now she was about to have a very rude reminder of what she had forgotten.

Twilight snorted. "Yes, and for very good reasons. I can't believe you'd take advantage of Sweetie like that." Stars, but she had only become more skilled in sounding every inch the disappointed ruler as time had passed.

Still, Rarity remembered when Princess Twilight Sparkle had been nothing more than an extraordinary, introverted bookworm who only wanted to hole herself up in her library for the rest of her life. She stood up straight and looked Twilight in the eyes, putting every ounce of her own conviction in her voice. "I love Sweetie Belle with all my heart," she declared, every word enunciated clearly and deliberately. "And I would die first before I forced her to do anything she didn't wish to. In fact, it was she who propositioned me first."

"And you're the one who said yes, despite knowing better," Twilight retorted. "Sweetie might legally be an adult, but she's still young, and you're still the one with the power in the relationship."

"I'll thank you not to make assumptions about my relationship," Rarity said coolly. "Sweetie and I respect one another, and I only want what is best for her."

"Like sleeping with a mare who's more than a decade and a half older than her?" Immediately, Twilight put a hoof over her muzzle. "Sorry, that wasn't productive of me."

"It's fine," Rarity said through clenched teeth. "I understand that passions are running quite high at the moment. But, if I may repeat myself, I truly care for Sweetie Belle. Moreso than any of her past flames, and moreso than anypony else in her life. I would never take advantage of her."

There was a pause, and then Twilight's expressions softened to one of... pity? "You really believe that, huh?" she said softly, shaking her head.

"With every fibre of my being." It had been true before their romance, and Rarity's conviction in this fact had only grown since then.

"I..." Twilight trailed off, and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "I need you to promise something." She spoke slowly, an implied threat in every word. Rarity had never seen Twilight this intense before, and truth be told, it scared her. "I need you to promise me that you never tried to groom Sweetie into this relationship, that you never even hinted at the possibility of romance with her until after she made the first move."

Rarity didn't even think that Twilight was aware of the fact that her wings had flared out, and there was such energy roiling off her that Rarity wanted to scream and run, to hide until this living storm of a mare dissipated.

But she loved Sweetie, and she knew Twilight, so Rarity stood her ground and looked the alicorn right in the eyes as she spoke. "I swear that I did not breathe a word of it, nor did I imply with my actions that we should be a couple. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." She made the motions to go with it, knowing full well the price of deception.

That seemed to satisfy Twilight, as her wings returned to her sides and she slouched back into the chair, letting out a defeated sigh. Once again, she was just Twilight. "Fine," she said, and Rarity would have laughed at how tired and exasperated she sounded, had the situation not been so dire. "There's no law against what you're doing, and if you weren't grooming her then there's really nothing I can do about this, so I guess it has to be fine."

"I suppose I shall take that," Rarity replied.

Twilight let out a hysterical laugh. "Honestly, even if what you were doing was illegal, I couldn't just throw you in the dungeons. You've done too much for Equestria and you'd probably be able to talk yourself out of there in a week."

Rarity shifted uncomfortably on her hooves. That was a little too similar to what Sweetie had said a few days ago. "Our positions do grant us some advantages, it's true."

"It also comes with responsibilities." Having calmed herself down, Twilight conjured up a quill and scroll. "And right now, we need to figure out what to do going forward. The girls will be here soon, and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are already in Manehattan trying to contact Sweetie Belle."

"With luck, they shall be able to talk her down from doing anything more rash than what she's already done." News travelled fast, and in the days since Sweetie had fled Canterlot for her apartment, she had already made several statements to the press declaring her intention to write a new album that would "show everypony how it was really done," whatever that meant.

More worrisome were the reports that Sweetie had aired some dirty laundry in exactly all of the wrong places. As a result, if the tabloids were to be believed, Arpeggio had broken up with Perfect Pitch over the latter's infidelity, Starsong had been assaulted by a crazed fan after it was revealed that she used magic to alter her voice while singing, and Song Strut had quit the music industry entirely over some mysterious incident that had occurred after a meeting with Sweetie Belle.

As for Rarity, she'd laid low, dodging the press and dealing with matters internally at Carousel. Her employees had managed to hide their disgust with varying levels of professionalism, but Rarity still had enough of a presence to keep anypony from speaking out directly against her.

And now, she'd finally managed to get a meeting with her old friend after Twilight had returned from a visit to Baltimare to discuss how to handle their friends, as well as any inquiries that might be made at the Palace about the conduct of one of the members of the Council of Friendship.

"And then what?" Twilight asked. "Since you haven't broken any laws, there's no reason for the Crown to make any kind of statement regarding this incident, but ponies are still going to talk about it if you and Sweetie keep being a couple. Assuming you still are. It kind of looks like Sweetie was saying you weren't anymore?"

"I'm not entirely sure." It hurt to think about, but Sweetie had essentially broken up with her when she'd stormed out of her house. "I dearly wish to be with her once again, but I would never dream of forcing myself on her, and at the moment, it seems she's finished with us."

"So you'd just let her go?" Twilight asked.

"I thought I could make her happy, but if I cannot stop her from walking this path into darkness, then perhaps I was wrong." Rarity sighed. "I did try, you know. I gave Sweetie everything I thought she needed, watched over her and gave her a refuge from her life."

"That didn't stop her from acting out before," Twilight pointed out. "I've seen the newspaper articles, but I didn't think it was my place to comment on them."

"That was only because we were apart," Rarity argued. "Once I stopped leaving Sweetie alone, she was in a much better place. She was miserable without me, which is why I fear for her well-being at this moment."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. "Wait, you're telling me that Sweetie is only happy when she's with you? That didn't raise any red flags?"

"I... oh." There was an awkward pause as Rarity processed this revelation. "Oh dear."

Twilight let out a most unregal snort. "I guess that's one of the problems when you can't talk about your relationship with anyone."

"I suppose so." Glancing around, Rarity found an appropriate couch for her to lower herself onto. "I've really made a mess of things, haven't I?" she said quietly, idly noting the softness of the satin cushion beneath her.

To her credit, there was more pity than judgement in Twilight's eyes. "In your defence, Sweetie also hasn't been handling things very well."

"She's my responsibility, still," Rarity replied.

"Because she's your marefriend, or because she's your little sister?" The question hung pointedly in the air between them as Twilight stared at Rarity expectantly.

Eventually, the tense silence was broken not by Rarity's answer, but by a flash of magical fire that appeared before Twilight and resolved itself into a scroll. Rarity recognized the seal as one from the School of Friendship, and waited as Twilight unrolled the document.

"It's from Scootaloo and Apple Bloom," Twilight said as she read through it. "They finally got to Sweetie and..." she trailed, her eyes widening in shock.

Rarity's heart dropped into her stomach. "What is it, Twilight?"

Twilight looked up gravely at her. "You need to get over to Manehattan now, Rarity. Sweetie's in trouble."