The Cost of a Stone is its Rarity

“Okay, Rarity, enough is enough!” Twilight Sparkle stood in the door to the Carousel Boutique while rain poured outside and lightning flashed behind her dramatically. “We need to talk.”

Rarity almost gaped at the scene Twilight made, but then her sense of taste filed the entire affair into her ‘trite/cliché’ mental assessment folder system and all she could do was notice how soggy Twilight’s wings and mane looked, certainly not befitting a formerly-kindred-unicorn of Twilight’s currently alicorn-princess standing.

 “Twilight, darling, what in Celestia’s name could be worth coming out in such horrific weather at this forsaken hour of the night?” she chided gently.

She used her magic to send a thick cloth over to Twilight, then paused shy of letting it touch to rummage through the rest of her stock for a slightly less expensive fabric to use in drying her off, “and please do mind where you drip,” she added, “I’m in the middle of a rather important project.”

Twilight snatched the fabric away from her with her own magic and shook herself like a dog, sending a spray of water in all directions. Before Rarity could begin her shriek of horror, Twilight caught all of the droplets in the bubble of magic she formed around herself, and tossed them all out the door before swatting the door closed with a snap of the cloth.

“All your projects are important for you, Rarity. But do you want to know what’s REEEALLY important? To me? How about Spike turning down a proposal from the Princess of the Draconian Empire? The one I’m supposed to be forming an alliance to our nation with as part of my princess/ambassadorial duties for Celestia?”

Rarity winced; in Twilight’s agitated state she was twisting the fabric around itself while she paced about the main floor room. Rarity made a few delicate attempts to grab it away from Twilight before she could further stretch it out of true.

“Yes, that’s all quite upsetting, dear, perhaps you should put the sheet down and have a nice cup of-“ Rarity lost the magical grip she had finally managed to get on the corner of her precious cloth as Twilight’s words finally sank in.

“My Spikey-wikey did what?”

A short tidying up and room change brought them both to the kitchen, where Rarity put on a kettle of water to boil and began sorting through her stock of teas to find the one that properly suited the situation. Rarity had pulled out a seat for Twilight, but her friend continued to pace about her kitchen.

“You mean to tell me our little Jade proposed?” Rarity asked, pulling out the Earl Grey; a respectable classic for regal diplomatic meetings. “Aren’t they both rather young to already be discussing marriage? For dragons, I mean.”

Twilight snorted indignantly, “Little? Rarity, they’re both almost the size of full grown stallions now.”

Rarity sighed and put back the Earl Grey; Twilight had always had trouble maintaining her royal composure under stress, the last thing Twilight needed was a stimulating tea that might encourage further undignified outbursts.

“It’s just that it doesn’t seem that long ago,” Rarity ammended placatingly as she pulled out a nice, calming green tea for Twilight, “that Spike was barely eye level with a foal when he stood up straight.”

“You should see him when he stands up now. He makes the royal guard nervous anytime he smiles. Well, the rookies anyway.”

“Oh posh. How could anyone be nervous around Spike? He’s so thoughtful and charming. Why, he’s the most reliable man I know, aside from maybe Fancypants. I always feel at ease with him around. No, I certainly can’t fault Jade’s taste,” Rarity opened her canister of Chai Tea and breathed in the fragrance. “Oh, and let’s not forget how he heroically rescued her when she ran away from home.”

“Or how he convinced her not to abandon her kingdom and become a wild dragon,” Twilight finally sat down at the table, setting the cloth over the back of her chair.

“Oh, he was so dashing! A girl never forgets the first time a knight comes to save her,” Rarity leaned on the table and sighed wistfully, gazing dreamily over Twilight’s head.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “That sounds like experience speaking. When have you been saved by a knight?”

That broke Rarity out of her reverie; “Me? Why w-whatever do you mean? Oh my, is that the water I hear boiling?”

Rarity got up to check the stovetop, but there wasn’t even the vaguest hint of steam coming from the spout.

“Come on, boil, you stupid pot,” she muttered. She could feel Twilight’s glare burning holes in the back of her neck. She found herself longing to have the innocently oblivious unicorn Twilight back. Then again it may have been more her time as a princess that had sharpened her perceptions.

“Why are you changing the subject?” Twilight asked before pausing, her glare softening to a pleading look. “Did this happen while I was attending a royal function? We’re still friends, aren’t we? Why don’t you want to share this with me? You weren't hurt, were you?”

Rarity grimaced as she looked into Twilight’s big shimmering puppy eyes. Oh goodness, to think she had taught Twilight how to do that on cue. The student had surpassed the master it seemed. She rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat.

“You WERE there when it happened. For all the times that it happened; He got me the hoof in the door I needed to fast track my fashion career, and while I certainly had things under control, it doesn't mean the gesture went unappreciated when he came riding to the rescue with the rest of you during that whole brutish diamond dog fiasco. I still can’t figure out how he managed to twist Toity’s ear into accepting that do-over though.”

“Spike,” Twilight confirmed.

Rarity nodded, hanging her head. Twilight started to say more, but the pot chose just that moment to finally begin boiling. They both glared at the pot until Rarity picked it up and poured it into the diffusers of tea that she had put together in each cup. They both sat in awkward silence for a few minutes while they waited for their tea to steep. Twilight coughed politely and took a sip of her tea.

“Why are they suddenly so interested in my- in Spike?” Rarity blurted out, causing Twilight to pause mid-sip. “The last time the rest of the dragon council laughed him out of their court for being a ‘pony-servant.’ It was all Jade could do just to get them to accept him on his deeds as her rescuer, and now they’re making wedding plans around him? What did Jade do? Have them all assassinated?”

Rarity sank back down in her seat and took a long swig of her tea, to Tartarus with being ladylike.

Twilight chewed on her lip, “It might have something to do with them finding out that he’s the true sleeping prince of their original lost clan.”

Rarity spat out her entire cup of tea, she wasn’t quite sure how so much tea managed to fit into such a tiny cup, but fortunately Twilight had raised a shield of magic in time to keep from taking the entire blast to her face. Rarity coughed and spluttered a bit longer before she managed to speak.

“A prince!? Of what? How!?”

“Well, apparently that whole egg hatching entrance exam I was given was never meant to be completed successfully. All the proctors were looking for is what angle you tried to approach the problem from,” Twilight stared into her tea before taking a sip. Then she used her magic to manipulate the rising steam into a lightly animated illustration; “Apparently the Noble Dragons had some sort of conflict with Discord; he wanted them to indulge in their emotions to get larger and grow wings. All the better to terrorize ponies, I guess. When the royal family refused to turn wild, he cursed the queen to go barren, and the only egg she had already laid to never hatch. The reason why Celestia took me under her wing was because I had broken that curse.”

Twilight waved away the images in the steam, “Spike was wondering about his own parentage, and the Royal Draconic Archivist confirmed it just last week by analyzing the patterns on the inside and outside of Spike’s eggshell. It’s apparently a highly accurate visual method of determining lineage in dragons. Once they realized his history, they were even pushing Jade towards the engagement.”

“Of course nobody actually discussed anything with Spike first, or me, so when they sprung the news on him, along with the proposal, he froze, refused, then ran, which left me with a really big diplomatic mess to clean up and a highly upset, heartbroken dragon princess I need to return to, before she wakes back up, to finish consoling,” Twilight groaned in exasperation. “Oh, it’s going to be so fun trying to tap-dance between needing to agree with her how my favorite assistant is a horrible jerk, and totally isn’t worthy of her, while not actually insulting their beloved legendary sleeping prince.”

Rarity stared at Twilight numbly until she finally noticed that her mouth was hanging open. She looked at the table, where her tea had spilled after hitting Twilight’s energy shield and grabbed for the closest towel to mop up the mess while she started putting the pieces of her shattered reality back together. Spike was a prince? Well, he was certainly more of a prince than that pretentious Blueblood nitwit, but he was always so ready to serve. Then again that quality is perhaps most often what makes the best leaders.

“A prince…” Rarity mused, rolling the idea around in her mouth.

“Rarity, please take this seriously. I was fine with you indulging him when it was just a silly crush, it wasn’t hurting anything, but this could have massive repercussions now. Not just for my hopes of forming a stable treatise, but for Spike personally.”

Twilight caught Rarity’s gaze as she looked up from cleaning, “You owe him an honest answer. He can’t move on if he thinks you have feelings for him. You can’t keep leading him on.”

Rarity stared at Twilight, appalled, “You… you think I’m leading him on? Twilight, how could you? Spike is incredibly precious to me!”

“Rarity! If he isn’t actively working as my assistant, he’s using his time to help you at your shop or any other excuse he can get to visit you,” Twilight brought her hooves down on the table dramatically. “He’s been after you for years! If you actually cared for him, shouldn’t you have said something by now?”

Rarity cringed back in her seat, the young princess’s words hitting her like a slap in the face. Twilight took a few heavy breaths before remembering herself. She closed her eyes and held a hoof to her chest, then pushed it outward as she exhaled, before quietly settling back into her seat to sip demurely at her tea, “He’s my family. I don’t want him getting hurt.”

“It’s not that simple,” Rarity spoke softly. “There are so many things to consider…”

“Either you love him or you don’t. What more is there than that?”

Rarity laughed bitterly, “Twilight, are you even listening to yourself now? He is a dragon. I am a pony. Though he is one of the most mature men I know, he is still a child among his own species. I cannot deny that I am now moving past the prime of my life, will I even still be alive when he reaches maturity? And even if I am, just think how big he’ll have grown; there’s a certain amount of physical compatibility that needs to be considered, but then again I've seen what he can do with that tongue...”

Rarity trailed off and closed her eyes as a shiver ran up her back.

Twilight cocked her head to one side, “physical..?”

Rarity held her hooves to her cheeks, suddenly painfully aware of what she had just said out loud. “For the love of Luna, Twilight, don’t make me say it!”

A small light of comprehension dawned on Twilight, and the purple fur along her face and neck grew visibly pinker from the blush that came to her skin beneath. Rarity covered her face to hide her own blush and nodded in confirmation.

“But what about love?” Twilight asked, hastily redirecting the discussion to safer topics, “Isn’t love more important than all that?”

“That’s just it!” Rarity whined, “Yes, he’s been absolutely devoted to me all these years, but he’s a dragon! He’ll live for centuries! Millennia! How long does a passing fancy last in those terms? What if this really is just a fleeting whim? Or for that matter, what if I’m just appealing to his stomach?”

Rarity raised her flank and turned it towards Twilight, displaying her cutie mark of three diamonds as a reminder of what her talent was. Twilight could only shrug, at a loss for how to, or even if she should, offer her friend reassurance on this point. Somehow the phrase about a man's heart and stomach seemed inappropriate for the mood.

“And now I’m to understand he’s a lost prince? It's nice to dream, but he doesn’t currently hold any power or standing. Marrying me would do nothing for him politically. These are his people, not like those thuggish wild dragons from before, but he’d still only lose what little respect the rest of the dragon court has been willing to give him already.”

“You know that wouldn’t matter to him. He’d-”

 “Yes, I know it wouldn’t matter to him,” Rarity snapped, cutting her off. “He’d be perfectly happy to live a simple life supporting me, but what would that do for me? Twilight, my business lives and dies on public opinion. The rest of the fashion community barely realizes that a dragon court even exists; his lineage doesn't mean two bits to them. I could be laughed out of the fashion community entirely. I suppose I might have a chance of being viewed as an eccentric genius IF I’m lucky, but oh boy is that a long shot.”

“But… that makes no sense; it doesn’t change how good your dresses are. That’s so… superficial,” Twilight shook her head in frustration.

“That’s not MY opinion, dear, but it is an opinion I have to recognize as existing. I… If my business failed…” Rarity’s voice shook, “I might blame him, maybe not immediately, but eventually, I could resent him for it. He- he doesn’t deserve that. I can’t bear to do that to him. Twilight, what if Spike would have to live on after I died still resenting him? Just the thought- I can't-”

Rarity put her hooves over her mouth and stared hard at the tabletop. Twilight stared into her tea, feeling absolutely terrible. Here she had thought that her friend was just enjoying her assistant’s flattery and attention, but Rarity had obviously been deliberating thoroughly on the subject for some time now. Twilight had never considered the idea that Love could be something so complicated, and so uncertain. So difficult.

“Rarity. Forget about the Dragon Court for now. I’m the princess; it’s my duty to handle negotiations with them. You and Spike shouldn’t be dragged into that, but just… please treat him right. I want him to be happy, or at least able to search for his own happiness,” Twilight finished off her tea and got up to leave. “Whatever your answer is, I’ll support you both, but you need to give him an answer.”

Rarity didn’t respond, only resuming her efforts to mop up the last of her spilled tea. Twilight hesitated at the door, but then showed herself out so Rarity could think in peace.

Rarity waited until she heard the chime of the door bell signal that Twilight had completely vacated the building to assess the situation she had been left with. She picked up the utterly ruined piece of expensive fabric she had absentmindedly used as a towel, now twisted until it was stretched out of shape beyond repair and completely, probably even permanently, stained with an entire cup of tea. Perhaps it was for the best that Spike had turned down that proposal, as there was no way she’d be able to finish the wedding dress with the fabric in this state. At least now she had a better idea why Jade had failed to mention who the groom was to be when she commissioned it.