Costume Caress

Barb had been away from Ponyville for a long time, ever since she had blossomed from a young, petite and cute dragon girl into a beautiful, mature and responsible dragon woman, her duties as friendship ambassador to the dragon lands, as "Barb the Brave and Glorious" in the Crystal Empire and as royal adviser to Princess Twilight in Canterlot had intensified to a point where she barely saw anyone back in her home town, let alone spend any actual time there. What made things worse however was that, although she had grown up quite a lot, she still held a candle for the one pony that, to her at least, was the most beautiful pony in the world, Rarity. No matter what she did, she just couldn't shake Rarity from her mind and every time she thought about Rarity, her heart still ached the same way it did all those years ago when she first laid eyes on her.

What Barb didn't realize was that although Rarity knew Barb was in love with her and had tried to resist her advances over the years, the first week that Barb was suddenly not around fawning all over her like a school girl, she missed her deeply. Rarity had pondered for hours why she was so emotional about Barb not being around, especially when she never reciprocated the affection and borderline rejected it at times almost to where she was accidentally cruel to the poor dragon. Rarity couldn't deny it, she had also developed an attraction to Barb and now she had missed her chance...... or had she? Nightmare Night in Ponyville was coming up, even Twilight with all her royal duties made time to make appearances at festivals with Barb in tow...... Rarity immediately started writing a letter to Barb.