Dreamwalker's Tale: An Anthology

“You already look so much better, dear. It fills me with a bit of envy, to be perfectly honest.” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes and her warm smile made me return one of my own.

I had to admit, I felt better already as well and we had barely started our spa treatment. I was not as much a fan of hooficures as she was, but I appreciated the feeling of cleanliness afterwards nonetheless and the massage, including a face mask, was just… oh, how would she put it? Simply divine.

Despite her not expecting such, I knew that she would very much appreciate a compliment in return. Because we shared the odd similarity. One of them being that we tended to give without asking for something in return. “Thank you. You look pretty good yourself. Though to be fair, it’s considerably harder to raise the bar when it comes to you. You always look good.”

Her ladylike smile turned into a giddy grin for a fraction of a second before she recomposed herself. “Why thank you, dear! Although I have to say…” She stopped walking for a moment and craned her neck to look at her own back and side. A sigh escaped her throat before she turned her head back. She shot me a wry smile before we moved on. “… I do feel unshapely.”

I considered my next steps carefully. I knew that she had her peculiarities and Rarity was strict when it came to manners. Nevertheless, she looked like she could use it, so I sidestepped a little and walked close enough that our coats almost brushed. She did seem to appreciate the gesture. “Well, little Pristine needs her space. But don’t worry. I understand that it might irk you a little to lose the shape you were so well-accustomed to, it was a nice shape after all.” And I got her grinning for a second again. “But once she’s here, you’ll probably return to it quickly. Plus, if I may be so bold: You still look gosh-darn attractive. Honestly, even more so than before.”

Now it was my turn to grin as she blushed a little and averted her eyes. “Thank you.” We reached our destination, entered and closed the door behind us. Aloe was already waiting patiently for us and said nothing as we put the towels on a nearby bench and eased ourselves into the mud baths. She wordlessly asked us if we needed anything, and Rarity made clear that we were fine. So she left us to our devices. “And how is Luna doing these days?” Rarity inquired.

Now it was my turn to grin and sigh. “Is it mean if I say ‘she looks like a balloon with legs’?” Despite her good manners, I got her. Even Rarity giggled a little for the briefest moment. Before she could decide to reprimand me for my choice of language, I continued. “Honestly, she’s the most attractive she’s ever been. Goddess, she’s hot. And round. Very, very round. Doc says Stardust could be here any day now. So if I suddenly vanish in a flash of light, you know what’s happening. Other than that, she’s obviously complaining a lot. I don’t mind. It’s just… every time I think about it, my heart starts to race. We’re going to have a little colt running around soon.”

She was happy for me. I could see that glint in her eyes that said as much. And indeed, my heart fluttered a little, and my mind was on fire, and I was so excited. Our conversation fell into a bit of a lull as we further relaxed into the warm mud and for a couple of minutes, we just stayed silent in our comfortable companionship.

Our little spa day was a rather spontaneous idea. We had originally planned to meet at her house, make some tea, read a little bit, maybe act out a scene or two. That was always fun. But she felt awful after a rough night and complained about Pristine kicking again, which might or might not have been her imagination, and I was not that much better off with Luna being this close to giving birth. My mind had been all over the place for the last few weeks and it showed.

So this was both a heaven-sent opportunity, and a necessity. For both of us.

It was only a matter of time until Rarity spoke up again, of course. We only had so much time with each other until our crammed schedules would tear us apart again. Life was busy. “Have you noticed my darling Fluttershy calling Pinkie ‘sugar cube’, by any chance?”

Her voice was quiet. Not quite a whisper, but barely above it. And it had this almost predatory quality that immediately told me everything I needed to know even before I cracked my eyes open again to glance in her direction. Her eyes were full of playfulness. Rarity the Gossip had awakened. I considered that for a moment, listened into my own mess of thoughts and found that I did not mind much. Rare was the opportunity that I indulged in gossip, but I had found over the years that, on these rare occasions, it could actually be quite fun.

So I shifted my posture a little bit so as to cross my hooves on the edge of the mud bath and placed my head on top of them. It gave me a good position to look at her. “Haven’t,” I replied with a shrug. “But honestly… ‘sugar cube’? That’s an AJ-thing. Can’t imagine that will stick.”

Rarity giggled. Both in joy over my participation as well as due to my assessment. And she agreed with a nod. “I hope as much. She did seem to test it out like an oddly flavored candy and her face told me that she was not certain she liked it. I have to say, I find it strangely endearing that even after all these years, she still occasionally tries to find a decent pet name for Pinkie.”

I chuckled and agreed. “Yeah. Some ponies just don’t… work like that? Like. Pinkie calls her buttercup, right? And she started that in the second or third week they were dating. And it’s not about creativity either. It just… it has to feel right.”

“Buttercup, yes,” Rarity confirmed, although she seemed a little zoned out. After blinking once, she returned to me and furrowed her brow. “Do you have any idea why? Why buttercup, that is?”

I tried to remember if I knew. If Pinkie had ever told me, if I had even ever asked. But I came up empty-hooved. “Nah, not really. Based on the color, maybe? Would be my best guess. And the flower looks very delicate, so that would fit as well.”

She mulled the input over and nodded in agreement. “That does seem about right, yes. And while I have to agree that it might not be about creativity per se, it is rather telling that our lovely Pinkie is the one coming up with quite a lot of pet names, is she not? What is it again she calls Rainbow?”

I smirked. She knew perfectly well, but she did not like using that specific name. “Dashie,” I lifted that burden from her. “And I don’t like using that one either.”

Rarity blushed faintly in reaction to my ‘I see what you’re doing’-grin. “You don’t?” she quickly asked to distract from further investigation.

“No. I mean, you could probably make an argument that it is ‘just’ an abbreviation, but there’s a whole lot of differences between pet names and abbreviations. It mostly comes down to intention, I feel. The way Pinkie says ‘Dashie’ is so full of… love. Admiration. Trust. There’s a lot that gets said whenever she uses it, and even what explicitly is said varies depending on intonation. It’s just so… hm. It’s intimate. Now don’t get me wrong, I like Rainbow. She’s fun to hang out with and her energy is just infectious. But I’m self-aware enough to realize that I’m not as close with her as Pinkie is, and I will most likely never be. They simply share a lot more common ground with each other. And that’s perfectly fine, but it also means that using ‘Dashie’ just feels like I’m stepping over a line.”

Rarity stifled a dainty giggle with a hoof held to her muzzle. “I agree whole-heartedly. And I must say, I find it amusing to once again notice common ground shared between us, of all ponies.”

I chimed in with a chuckle and slightly shook my head. “Yeah. Didn’t see that one coming either. But hey, I’m not complaining. It’s nice to get closer to you.”

She did one of her slow, conscious winks and I had to chuckle a little bit harder. “Just out of idle curiosity and because I cannot seem to remember: Have we ever had… you know?”

I smirked and let the silence linger for just a few seconds more. Until she inevitably started to blush a little again. The contrast with her pristine white coat was pretty. “I can’t remember us ever marrying. So no fancy wedding, no opulent reception, no dancing. I deem that last one a blessing for ponykind.” She giggled again and it was a nice sound to hear. Plus I really liked the fact that I could help her relax a little and take her mind off of things. That I distracted myself was a nice bonus. “That said, I remember us being, let’s call it ‘entangled’, a few times. And in at least two instances, there were little, adorable consequences to these entanglements.”

She watched me with mild astonishment. “Really now? Interesting.”

Interesting. Yes, that is what I would have called it as well. I grinned and shook my head. I could tell her about those times. About our relationships. The few times we had danced together had always ended up as overly dramatic, wild roller coasters. They were exhausting, exhilarating and a spectacle to behold. Even these fractured memories of them that remained in my mind like splinters were fun to reminisce about. But I knew that Rarity was too curious for her own good sometimes and with her being months into her own pregnancy, her mood swings had become a little bit more apparent. I did not wish to risk ruining her day with an imprudent comment. So I put us back on track as gently as I could manage. “Since we were on the topic of pet names,” I restarted with a lopsided smile. Because that had totally been what we talked about. “Rainbow calls Applejack ‘Jackie’. And funnily enough, it’s the same thing as with Pinkie calling her ‘Dashie’. It’s not an abbreviation as much as a pet name. She usually tries to let nopony hear it, but goodness gracious me, you should try to coax it out of her sometime. You can hear just how devoted to her she is.”

Rarity giggled again and nodded. “I know! It is so charming to see these two finally get along like that. Well, the occasional minor hurdle aside.” And just like that, her muzzle wrinkled and she grimaced as she remembered. “I just wish Applejack would show a little more of her devotion as well. They seem to be fine with how things are, but I cannot for the life of me imagine being called ‘featherbrain’ as a nice thing to hear.”

I cracked up. I had to put a hoof before my mouth just to reduce the volume of my own unexpected laughter a little bit. A pleasant shiver ran down my spine as a minor flash rippled through my memories. So, so, so many instances of Applejack calling her featherbrain. And so many more of her getting very, very defensive if somepony else dared to use that insult. Once I calmed down again, I shook my head with that splitting grin plastered on my face. “Couple-dynamics are weird. Have you ever tried calling Rainbow a featherbrain when Applejack is nearby?”

“I do not believe I have, but I know what you mean. I have seen you do it, actually. She gets very… lively about it. Very upset.” While I briefly chuckled again, Rarity mulled something over. She watched me meanwhile and her gaze took on a new intensity that made said chuckle die down a little faster. “Come to speak of ‘couple-dynamics’, what is it you call Luna gain?”

I almost immediately felt the heat shoot into my face and up my ears. I was still grinning like a madpony and I honestly had a hard time to explain why exactly I was flustered now. I constantly used that pet name to make Luna blush, with little regard as to who witnessed it. I just loved to see her cheeks flushed. “Kitten,” I quietly answered.

She knew that already, obviously. And she sported the same satisfied grin Opalescence had after something went according to her plans. “Right. That. How did that come to be, I wonder.”

It was a question. No matter how she intoned it, how she phrased it, it was very much a question. I could once again not remember with certainty if we ever had discussed this before, but then again – she wanted to play? So we would play. “It’s part contradiction, part description. Luna is a very dominant lover, and hoo boy, do I love that about her. It’s hard to challenge her, to get the upper hoof, but whenever I do, she’s really into it. And she purrs like a kitten.” I chuckled again as I saw Rarity’s face flush. Don’t pick fights you can’t win, Rares. And to top it all off, I returned the favor. “What about your special someponies? Any pet names?” I was not even asking for those she wished to share, oh no. She wanted to play. I was asking if there were any to begin with.

And as was to be expected, she regained her composure eventually and with a dangerous glint in her eyes, rose to the challenge. That blush did not recede, however. “I call Fancy Pants ‘hunk’,” she shot back with a smug grin.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Hunk?” I echoed. It sounded… too simple for Rarity. Somehow I had expected something more flowery. Something more poetic. But I had a sneaking suspicion that this specific one was rarely heard outside of the bedroom.

“Well,” she started to elaborate with the utmost care for her self-control as to refrain from blushing even harder, “He is quite a charming sight, is he not?” My eyebrow rose a tiny bit higher and she grimaced a little bit. She was not up to par yet. I knew that. She knew that. Of course she could just forfeit. But she was not willing to do that either. We locked eyes and in a wordless exchange of promises, I assured her that whatever would be spoken in this room would not leave it. Only then did she sigh silently and managed to put a bold smile back on her game face. “Charming indeed. And I might add, oh so well-endowed. Honestly, have you seen that thing?”

She got me again. I broke out into uproarious laughter, much to her delight, and almost violently shook my head. “Can’t say I have!”

She nodded. Very ladylike. “Well let me tell you, it is intimidating.” The relaxed mood obviously helped her tongue loosen up a little as well. “It was honestly a little bit of an uncomfortable experience the first time around. But he is such a patient and lavish lover. And one gets used to it eventually.” I was still beyond my capacity for words. My cheeks were burning. Even the tips of my ears were burning. I had very vivid images in my head to deal with, of Rarity getting her brains rutted out by Fancy Pants who was sporting the equivalent of a fifth leg. I was not entirely sure if I was appalled, amused, aroused, or all of it. And Rarity saw an easy opening. She went straight for the kill. “Now Fleur, on the other hoof, given the involvement of certain, widespread spells, is a lot less generously endowed, for which I am honestly very grateful. It has the perfect size for a ménage-à-trois and fits so much better for—“

I was laughing harder again, any and all hope of ever recomposing myself lost to the wind when she suddenly cut herself short. It still took me a good minute or so to calm down enough to speak again, and I had to carefully brush away the tears. Carefully because I did not wish to smear mud into my eyes. But once I was good, I turned my attention to Rarity and noticed with no small amount of amusement how she was burning. Her entire coat – everything I could see above the mud – was flushed. Oh I had my suspicions what Fleurs smaller size was perfect for, especially paired with her generally larger frame and longer legs. However, it appeared that Rarity had managed to shoot herself in her own hoof. Her supposed kill strike had backfired and now she was not any better off than I had been a few seconds prior.

I grinned deviously. “Cat got your tongue?” I teased her. She wanted to go straight for the kill? Fine. I could do that too. “You know, I can only imagine what those shapely, long legs would be good for,” I further teased her and implied quite clearly that I did imagine exactly that. “Can’t help but think about how you would fit perfectly right under her, though. If it’s any consolation for your poor heart, Luna and I fooled around with those spells as well. I’m still not exactly a fan of taking her on when she’s the one subjected to it, even though I find certain aspects of it quite enjoyable, but goodness gracious me, I could have her rut me all night if we’re both switching. Actually, I think we had done it all night on a couple of occasions, now that I think about it.”

Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. I had not thought it possible, but the red in her coat intensified even further. She stared at me with her mouth hanging open and I could see her chest moving due to her heavier breathing. Well someone’s enjoying her imagination. It once again took me a minute, maybe even two, to calm down again. Enough so that I could concentrate enough to whisk a little tendril of magic across the mud baths and close her jaws for her. “Please, darling, no need to stare like that! We’re all well-behaved ladies here, are we not?” My best Rarity-impression seemed to both snap her out of it as well as further fluster her. She grimaced only slightly in indignation about the display, but at the same time she was still utterly incapable of using regular old speech to express as much.

V for victory, I cheered internally. And indeed, a few minutes later, Rarity conceded the victory. She did not say it, obviously. Her pride did not quite allow for that. But with a wide smile and an approving nod, she made it clear.

To say Aloe was utterly confused when she returned to retrieve us from our mud baths was an understatement. Rarity was still flushed red like a very bad Big Macintosh-impersonator. Aloe even checked the temperature of Rarity’s mud bath with a hoof while simultaneously apologizing for the apparent mistake, only to be even more confused once she noticed the mud bath being warm, yes, but far from hot or even scalding.

I deflected any and all inquiries to her state of being by gently nudging Aloe along the hallway, both verbally and in two instances with my muzzle. She was genuinely concerned for Rarity’s well-being of course. Not just because the seamstress was one of their best customers. Best-paying as well as most frequently visiting. No, she was a genuine friend of theirs. As was I. But no matter how much I insisted that Rarity was fine, Aloe was still worried and constantly looked back to check if the seamstress had not just keeled over in the middle of the hallway.

We were led to our final station of the day. The sauna. A few ladles of water onto the hot stones and steam quickly filled up the room. I insisted that Rarity was fine for the umpteenth time and actually had to nudge Aloe a step back to close the sauna door. When I turned and sat down on one of the benches, Rarity had apparently finally managed to get her composure back.

“Goodness me, I think I have never in my entire life been this utterly obliterated.” She still sounded shocked.

I chuckled briefly and shrugged. “What can I say? I’m shameless. Well actually, I’m not, I’m constantly struggling with inhibitions and fears and whatnot, but you know… gossiping with you is fun and I trust you enough to not share such details.”

“You have my word, of course!” she quickly confirmed in all seriousness.

Now, as much fun as it had been to utterly embarrass her, I knew that there was a not so small risk that she would want to either start a new round, giving in to her pride demanding a rematch immediately, or to further discuss my exploits with Luna. She now knew that I was willing to get the big guns out, which meant that a rematch would be longer and probably less fun. For me. And on the other hoof, I was already dealing with a minor case of bad conscience because I had told her what Luna and I got up to behind closed doors. Even though I knew perfectly well that Luna did not quite care about it. In fact, she would probably have approved of me freely discussing such matters with my friends just in case it might strengthen my spine enough to challenge her more often or it might spark some new ideas for things we could try out. We did experiment a lot, after all.

So neither option was all that appealing. It was time to get back on track once more. “Sunny and I mostly stick to the classic,” I restarted the conversation. And as soon as I had to think about her, I found myself smiling fondly. “She’s my love, and I am hers.”

Now Rarity was a lady. She was above such statements as ‘d’awww’ing. Even though I could see the urge plainly written in her warm smile. “You do call her ‘Sunny’ though, do you not? Is that not a pet name in its own right?”

I mulled it over briefly and ultimately shook my head. “I don’t think it is. ‘Sunny’ is merely the name she introduced herself with. It’s the name of her persona when she puts her disguise on. Not exactly subtle, I know. I actually asked her about that at one point and she merely stated that it had been good enough so far. I’m not sure what that says about ponies these days.”

We both shared a bit of brief giggling. “I would have expected you to go for something like ‘ray of sunshine’ or ‘my sun’, something more… on theme?”

I smiled lopsided. “I know. It’s what everypony expects. And that’s just it. It’s too obvious. And quite frankly, a bit boring. It sounds cliché.”

Rarity snorted. And she somehow made even that sound ladylike. “And calling each other ‘love’ is not cliché at all?”

“Well… I mean… okay, fair point, but! As I said, it’s a classic. Adding to that… it’s not that I don’t have confidence in my ability to come up with something else. I said it earlier. It’s not about creativity. Calling her ‘my love’ just feels right. When I say it, I mean it. I love her. And in that moment, I let a good deal of that love flow into a single word. And her eyes light up and she smiles at me. My heart flutters and I get all these warm and fuzzy feelings. Just like in those first days of our relationship. It’s a powerful word for us.” I felt my face heat up a little again as I noticed her faint giggle. I supposed she found my dreamy smile to be quite endearing. After all, I often felt just as smitten with my Sunny as I had in those turbulent first weeks. “Also,” I tried to deflect onto another point, “’ray of sunshine’ is such a mouthful. It’s cute, yeah, sure. But there’s a reason most pet names are short. Pinks, Flutters, Rares, Dashie, Jackie, hunk, love, kitten. All short. Because when dealing with a pet name, you don’t want it to be overly flowery and lengthy. You want to express your desire and your admiration, your devotion and trust, your love, with a single phrase, a single word. The shorter, the better.”

Rarity averted her eyes and looked at her hooves in front of her. Or maybe at the wooden bench. And her smile spoke once again of such deeply heart-felt fondness that I wondered what exactly she was thinking about. Or maybe it was a ‘who she was thinking about’. “I have to agree,” she said quietly. “In the early days of our relationship, I tried many different pet names for Fleur. Oh you should have seen me! I was such a love-drunk little filly again. Sitting hunched over a notebook in the dead of night, pouring over ideas and flowery prose. I wanted it to be perfect.”

I chuckled quietly. “Of course. You are Rarity, after all.”

She smiled and accepted it as a compliment. And I was glad for that. “Indeed. I loathe to admit, but it took me years to come to the simple realization that there is no perfection to be found with such names. A pony is so much more. All the physical traits. All the character traits. All the little rough edges. There is simply no way to condense something so complex and wonderful down into something so imperfect as a spoken word. But! It is very much possible to find a single word or short phrase that encapsulates not the person you address it with, but what you feel for this person. Just as you said. For that very reason, I call Fleur my little dove. Or dove, for short. She has such grace and elegance that rivals even my dear Fluttershy’s. And I do not mean her physical appearance alone. Grace of mind is so much harder to achieve. When I call her dove, I express my deepest admiration. And for some reason, despite me being prone to envy at times, I never envied her.”

I smiled warmly. She spoke with such love that it was hard not to be happy for her. “Well, why would you envy her when she lets you bask in her grace so freely? Honestly, when I nudged you towards those two, I never expected it to work out this good. But I had little to go by at the time and these few memories, broken as they were, indicated that it would work out. I’m just incredibly happy for you.” In the privacy of my head, I heard my inner Rainbow Dash gag repeatedly. The level of sappiness was excruciating for her. So to ease her pain somewhat, I allowed myself a little jab. “Aren’t doves, like, pigeons?”

It worked like a charm. My inner Rainbow hollered in laughter and Rarity wrinkled her muzzle as she grimaced and shot me a ‘how dare you’-glare. “No, dear. Doves are decidedly not pigeons. Doves are elegant, beautiful winged creatures that soar in the sky and remind us of peace and serenity. Pigeons are vile trash-rats that sprouted wings to harass good ponies even further!”

Her quite lively reaction surprised me for a moment. “Oh wow. Sore spot?”

She huffed and shook her head slightly before putting another ladle of water onto the rocks. “I have been spending a lot more time in Canterlot due to my involvement with Fancy and Fleur. It never occurred to me as much of a problem in any previous visits, but those were admittedly considerably shorter and my mind was usually focused solely on my business at hoof. Ponyville has doves, dear. Canterlot has pigeons. Flocks of pigeons.”

On the matter of winged creatures. I was far from being a hobby ornithologist. My main categories to differentiate between birds were ‘small’ and ‘large’. However, for what little I knew about the many different species of birds, I knew a few pieces that were sufficient to work with. “I sometimes call Luna ‘my little nightingale’. I use it rarely and it didn’t quite stick like ‘kitten’ did, because it’s a mouthful. But I still like it.”

“She sings?” Rarity asked curiously.

I nodded and felt myself smile dreamily again. “You better believe it! She does it rarely these days for many different reasons, but every once in a while, I can manage to convince her. Her voice is incredible.”

After she had vented her outrage and I was drifting off into pleasant memories of Luna singing a lullaby for me, we fell silent for a while. We relaxed. Whatever tension was left slowly melted away. We both sighed deeply at the same time and barely cracked an eye open to look at the other. We smiled and closed our eyes again. This, right now, was bliss.

“You know,” I quietly chirped up after a while, “Luna sometimes calls me ‘doe’.” With my eyes still closed, it was easy to imagine her face. How she looked at me and said it. So full of tender love. Luna was a little… rougher than Celestia or Twilight. The Mistress of the Night was very much all about passion. Our relationship placed more emphasis on the physical aspect as well as a direct result of that. But whenever she called me by that name, she was just as sensitive, loving and tender as Celestia or Twilight. I loved her quieter moments. Then again, that was hardly a surprise. I loved almost everything. About any of them.

“Doe?” Rarity echoed. “That seems like an odd choice to me. Do you know why?”

I felt myself blush again. And my smile gained in strength. “Because I’m brown, and soft, and innocent, and skittish.” I heard Rarity stifle another giggle and found it hard not to chime in. “Her words, not mine,” I belatedly clarified.

Rarity calmed down a few seconds later. “She does have a point, I must admit. I guess I just did not expect her to pick something so… hm…”

“Cute?” I offered.

I cracked a single eye open so I could see her smile widely. “Indeed,” she whispered.

With my eyes closed again, I sighed. “Well, she calls me cute as well, so there’s that. With her, I don’t mind, actually. But she usually refers to me as her ‘firecracker’.”

Rarity snorted again. “Really now? I have my suspicion as to where that might come from. Do tell.”

I chuckled quietly. Were we really about to start that again? “Well. I’m not entirely sure how, or why. But she drives me crazy. She has such an easy time making my blood boil, it’s really unfair. A single flick of her tail. A certain way she flips her mane. A look, a wink. How she walks. It’s ridiculous. From what I gleaned from Twilight, she doesn’t quite feel the same way. She very much desires Luna as well of course, but she doesn’t lose any and all self-control at the drop of a hat. I don’t know why she has that effect on me.” I shook my head a little to end the musing. It would lead nowhere anyway. I had trotted down that path enough times to know. “Anyway. First time we used those gender modification spells, we quickly found out that, when applied to me, it only heightens the effect. And hoo boy, did it do that. We actually tried a couple nights later again. Was the first time I didn’t stop. At all. We went about it for hours and in the end, we had to stop because she got exhausted. Rarity, I kid you not, I exhausted an alicorn.” I chuckled about the ridiculousness of the memory. “I couldn’t really feel anything anymore by the end of it. Everything was sore or ached or was numb, but I just… I didn’t want to stop. I had these images in my head that just kept me going. Once she could speak again, she commented on how she could not believe that I gave such a needy whine begging her for more as she stopped. I couldn’t lift a single hoof the entire next day. Like… I’m not even exaggerating. I slept through most of it, luckily. And I felt sore and worn out for two weeks after that. But goddess, was it worth it. One of my fondest memories.”

I dared open my eyes again, just because she had been silent for so long. And I was not too surprised to find her flushed once more, her breathing heavy and her eyes firmly closed. I considered offering her a hoof for a moment. Just to tease her even further, of course. But I quickly deemed it unnecessarily cruel and I was well aware of a potential risk that she might want to take me up on that offer. Just out of a spur of the moment. And I would not allow either of us to fall that easily. So I instead closed my eyes again, sporting the fattest grin I had all day. “You know me. I’m usually very… mild,” I picked up again, “I don’t really get drunk. I don’t smoke. I don’t party hard like you gals do sometimes. Heck, I gave Pinkie such a hard time to get me to dance at all. I’m boring, some might say. There’s just walls behind walls behind walls of inhibitions. I think that’s what confuses me about Luna's effect on me. She breaks through them like they were sheets of wet paper. And thus, after that first night with the spell, she coined ‘firecracker’ as her new favorite pet name for me. She rarely uses it in public and it never fails to make me blush horrendously. But I like it.”

Both Fancy Pants and Fleur were still in Canterlot. Which really was a shame, I felt. And I suspected highly, judging by her soft panting, that Rarity agreed whole-heartedly. But I knew she had a little box of toys beneath her bed and I suspected to know what her afternoon would look like. Either that or a long, cold shower. But the latter was less fun, was it now?

I was surprised when she spoke up not that long after I had fallen silent again. “May I ask something, dear?”

Ohhh, dangerous question. Given the context, her question could be about just about anything. And I still had to tread carefully. I had riled her up a lot, only partially unintentionally. If she was now going to ask for ‘help’, that would pose an issue. But Rarity was a lady, I reminded myself. I was pretty sure that any ladylike behavior was abandoned as soon as she was alone with her paramours, but we were not in her bedroom and I was not one of them. So I risked it. “Sure.”

And Rarity did not disappoint me. She kept us on track. “I have noticed on several occasions over the years that you sometimes call Twilight ‘peanut’.” Despite the question looming on the horizon, I still sighed in relief. This I could deal with. “And her reaction to it is usually quite telling. About the intimacy of it. However, while I had managed to fabricate an explanation for ‘firecracker’ that was not that far off from the truth in the end, I come up short concerning this one.”

I chuckled briefly and nodded. “Yeah, I can see why.”

She clearly waited for a story. For more. For a hint, a riddle, anything. But realizing that nothing would come, she simply asked. “But you are not going to tell me, are you?”

I hummed to myself, tangled up in a very pleasant memory. Luna did not mind me talking to others about our escapades. Twilight however was a lot more restrained in that regard. “Nope,” I replied. “I’m not allowed to.”

“You… you are not allowed?” she asked incredulously.

“That’s what I said,” I confirmed. “I had to make a Pinkie Promise to take that story to the grave with me.”

“What a shame,” she whispered in reply and sighed.

We fell silent again. Only a few minutes later, Aloe came by to tell us that our time was up. There was a little bit of post processing, but eventually we exited the spa into another beautiful, sunny day. I felt clean. I felt relaxed. My spirits were high. And from the looks of it, Rarity felt the same.

“Well, that was great,” I announced and stretched a little. “Seeing as we originally intended for the entire day to be ours, I would offer to read with you, buuut… I have a feeling you might want to head home and have a nice afternoon all for yourself? Should I maybe come by later this evening? We could still spend some time then.”

Rarity had enough self-control to keep herself from blushing yet again, but she averted her eyes and tried to keep that smile from spreading into a full-blown grin. “How very considerate of you. However…” She kept quiet for a few seconds. And I could see her struggle for words. She was chewing her bottom lip, that was always a good indicator that she was conflicted about something.

“Just tell me,” I nudged her quietly, both verbally and with a little bump to her shoulder.

She looked up and smiled a little shakily. “May I be so bold as to ask a favor of you then?”

“Sure, shoot.”

“Can I… c-could I maybe… use the teleportation stone?”

It quickly dawned on me what her intention was. Get to Canterlot, exit the castle, walk, like, three blocks or something and buck down the doors to Fancy Pants’ and Fleur's house. I grinned. “No problem.” I gestured with a nod to follow me and we walked towards the castle. I did notice that even after all the postprocessing, she kept her tail low. “That bad, huh?” I quietly dared to ask.

“You have no idea. I might feel a little bit like a firecracker myself right now,” she almost inaudibly whispered back.

I smirked. “Alright. Let’s get you set up with something bigger than what your box has to offer.” Even though the faintest tint once again colored her cheeks, I did notice with satisfaction the slight spring in her step as we quickly closed in on the castle.

She would totally feel that tomorrow…