The waitress returned to Lero’s booth with his water, but Lero was no longer there. She was as used to the sight of Lero as any other Ponyville pony. So when she turned to see him at the booth across, she sniffed and moved on, annoyed to have lost a tip to whoever was serving the white unicorn and the cyan pegasus.

Really, it was just as well. At this precise moment in time, the human was all but guaranteed to choke on anything he might’ve tried to swallow. His throat clenched and unclenched inside him like a fist.

Several times, he tried to flit looks at Rarity and catch her eye. On any other morning, the white unicorn would’ve been delighted by the attention. Today, though, Rarity’s eyes were quite uncatchable. She focused straight ahead on Rainbow Dash.

“Well... that’s my whole story, Rarity,” Dash said. “After I realized what I had to do, I came to you and, well, here we all are.”

“Yes. Here we all are,” Rarity repeated.

Her deadpan gaze, her refusal to look his way... all of it rattled Lero far worse than any amount of shrieking or growling could. Was this the calm before the storm? Memories of Mr. 7 spilled through the human’s brain.

Part of him would’ve liked to scream at Rainbow Dash. You blabbermouth! he could have yelled. I'm dead. I am so, so dead. Dammit, Rainbow Dash, why couldn't you have been Fluttershy and been patient? I could've smoothed things out with Rarity when the time was right. Why couldn't you trust me to deal with this? Now Rarity's going to hate me, if she doesn't snap out of the Bewitchment entirely. My entire family might be ruined, OUR family might be ruined, all because you couldn't wait!

Rarity took a cool sip of her own water. “I think it would help to know when it was that both of you began feeling this... infatuation for each other.”

Lero’s mother and father had always been so inseparably devoted to one another; he’d always been proud of them for that. Conversely, he’d always disdained husbands and wives who had extramarital affairs, and pitied their poor families. Since the moment Lero knew that Rainbow Dash was The One for him, he’d done everything he could to stay true to her always. Even given the complications that polygamy threw in. It’d taken him a long while to get comfortable with the concept, even with her explicit approval. Now here he was, cheating on Rainbow Dash with... herself.

“Well, let me say this,” Rainbow Dash said, “For all the time Lero came to my house to help me with my animals, he was an absolute perfect gentlestallion, from beginning to end. He was always very sweet to me, but he never hit on me or made passes at me, unlike all those mares and stallions who practically threw themselves at me back when I was a model, just because I was pretty and famous. He hugged me, but only when things got difficult, and I needed the emotional support. I could ALWAYS count on Lero for emotional support.”

The pegasus took her cap off, squeezing it nervously between her hooves. “I think… the moment I fell in love was when I invited him over to show off how obedient my animals now are. I insulted him and made him feel worthless without meaning to. Those sad eyes of his, the pain in his voice when he told me how wonderful and awesome I was… they wouldn’t leave my head. He was even trying to tell me how great I was, when I hurt him… I couldn’t stop thinking about him; how perfectly he’d treated me, how sweet and selfless he’d been from the moment you guys brought him back from the Bramblewood Forest. No colt had ever cared about me so much before. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was when. Losing him in that way was what made me realize I’d fallen in love with him.”

Lero felt like he was on trial in a courtroom. No, bigger than even that. It felt like he’d just died and his soul was being assessed: Heaven or Hell? With Hollandaise’s in the role of the Pearly Gates, Rarity as St. Peter, holding the keys to Heaven… and Dash as the guardian angel who’d been assigned to him since birth, delivering a full report on all the deeds he’d done in his life; good and bad.

Everything was on the line. Absolutely everything.

“And what about you, Lero?” Rarity asked, turning to face him finally. Her gaze was cool, without any signs of hatred, or forgiveness either. Neutral, impassive, calculating; the perfect vision of an incorruptible, unbending judge. “Did you kiss her in the spa?”

“Yes,” he admitted. How could he pretend otherwise?

“What led to that moment, pray tell?”

There was a pause where they all had to stop and smile at the waitress who came to deliver garden salads to the two mares and refill their waters. She also asked if Lero would be having anything; he politely declined. It gave Lero time to think carefully about how he’d answer.

“Back at the very beginning, when I first came here, Rainbow Dash found me, and helped me out a lot during the first few tough weeks. She and I were close friends back then,” he started. “But then… between one thing and another… we grew distant. We each had our own lives, without a lot of overlap. And yet, I’ve always felt in my heart that if not for Dash simply being there for me at the very beginning of it all… my life would be so much poorer now. If not for Dash, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even have your love, Rarity. Hell, maybe I’d not even be alive right now. I even said to Twilight, not long ago, how stupid I felt not keeping up our friendship.”

Dash was listening to him with such emotion plain in her eyes. From Rarity, he only caught a flicker of… something... before the unicorn’s stoicism reasserted itself. Had it been sympathy? Or disgust? Neither mare was touching her salad.

“So when I first started going to Dash’s cottage, the last thing on my mind was romance,” he told her. “I knew that Dash wasn’t even remotely interested in that, and really, neither was I… at least, not at the time. After I'd gotten back from Bramblewood, all I could think about was how Dash was looking worse and worse every time I saw her. I was afraid that at the rate she was going, she’d die. And everypony else was so wrapped up in their own crisis, they didn’t have time to help her. So I made time.”

“He begged me to let him help me,” Rainbow Dash sniffed, not even shedding a tear. “On his knees. He was crying when he begged me.”

“I remember you telling me,” Rarity replied.

“Every day I visited her, I had one goal in mind: help Dash get control of her life. Be as helpful as I possibly could. And then that day finally came when she told me she didn’t need me any more. It was an emotional moment for both of us... I’d gotten really fond of her, and now we didn’t have a reason to be around each other anymore. I left, feeling sure that that would be that, basically.”

Now he wished he had a glass of water in front of him.

“But then when I began helping Fluttershy, Dash started hanging around me, and kept taking me places. I honestly wasn’t sure whether she was just trying to be friendly or whether she wanted something more, but I went. I missed spending time with her, and wanted that again, regardless of pretext. Until yesterday. I just got swept up in the emotion of the moment, and then Applejack talked some sense into us both, and…”

He clasped his hands contritely before the unicorn mare. “Rarity, I’m sorry. Part of me wasn’t sure if it was anything that big, I didn’t know until the end whether Dash's feelings were that serious, but it was wrong not to tell you what was going on.”

“Please forgive him!” Dash beseeched. “He’s a human, there’s so much he probably still doesn’t know about proper pony dating etiquette! If anything, blame me. I should’ve come to you, Rarity. You’re the lead mare. I guess… I just had to see whether or not Lero cared for me the way I’ve come to care about him, before approaching the rest of you guys.”

“Do you love Rainbow Dash, Lero?” Rarity asked.

And here it was. The moment of truth.

Lying to Rarity had become second nature to Lero at this point. Mostly out of being a necessary evil, of course. He could find a way out of this. Yes, he could! Some magic string of words that would pull him back from this teetering cliffside, restore the balance in his life, bring back equilibrium.

He was so afraid, so deathly afraid of losing everything. His family unravelling. Losing the love of Rainbow Dash… the side of her he’d seen in Rarity! That was the Rainbow Dash that mattered most, right? Her emotions! Her heart! Their memories of being together! Priceless treasures he could never afford to lose! The part that had stayed with him!

But wasn’t Rainbow Dash... also Rainbow Dash? Just as much Rainbow Dash, even in a different way? Didn’t the pegasus retain as many ‘Dash’ idiosyncrasies as Rarity had now gotten? If he broke her heart, would it be Fluttershy or Dash whose heart broke? Or both?

And what was it that had driven him to quit his job and run off to help her in the first place? He couldn’t bear to turn his back on any side of her. Not her heart and memories, nor her mind and body. He had fallen back in love with Rainbow Dash, because Rainbow Dash had fallen back in love with him. Missing memories and all, she loved him again. Wasn’t that a treasure too?

But was the body just a shell? Did the mind just amount to a computer, an operating system that executed the commands given from the heart?

Tick, tick, tick… the girls were waiting for an answer. Worst thing to do would be to delay too long, be just as bad as jumping up from his seat and sprinting out the door!

What could he say? What could he say? Surely it didn’t matter THIS much; once Twilight found the Cure, he’d have everything back in the same one girl!

Say something clever! It had to be clever! He couldn’t afford to lose! Not here at the moment of truth!

Moment...

Moment of…

Moment of Truth...

Lero’s mind conjured an image for his heart to reflect upon. Not of Rarity or of Rainbow Dash, but of Applejack. Specifically, her eyes. Those hard, piercing, cut-the-bullshit eyes. The eyes that’d gotten him to back away from Rainbow Dash at the spa... because having a relationship behind Rarity’s back, having these feelings for the pegasus behind Rarity’s back was wrong.

Wrong to Rarity, wrong to Rainbow Dash, and ultimately the biggest wrong was to himself.

...Shouldn’t a guy be truthful at the moment of truth?

“Yes,” he told the unicorn. “I love Rainbow Dash.”

He thought of Lyra, and tried to establish inner oneness with the universe: it was Rarity’s move now. Just face the music with dignity. Rainbow Dash was the one who spoke up, sounding delighted.

“So, yeah,” the pegasus said to Rarity, flashing a very glad smile towards the human who loved her. “Basically, well, I guess what I was trying to tell you is... is... I see what you see in him now. Lero’s come to mean the world to me. And with your permission, as his lead mare… I’d like to start dating Herd Bellerophon."

The emotionless brick wall that’d been Rarity’s face lifted into a beaming grin. “That’d be wonderful, Dash!” she said, spearing a lettuce leaf and levitating it to her mouth. “Speaking for me and all the rest of the girls, we’d be thrilled to date you.”

HUH?! Lero silently felt at his chin to see that it hadn’t dropped.

And his loving white unicorn laughed and threw her arms around the human in a fond hug. “Perhaps all this tension is my fault. After all, I brought in Twilight, and it was Lyra that approached us... so I never taught you the proper way for a stallion to bring in a mare! Oh, Lero, this takes me back. Remember when we were still dating Twilight?” Leaning forward towards Rainbow Dash, she confided in a soft stage whisper, “He was so nervous about having a third member enter our happy herd. I’ll never forget the first time he made love with her.”

“Him? Nervous? With Twilight?” Rainbow asked.

“The Human World is a monogamous society,” Rarity explained, in a lower hush. “So that first night, I was right beside Lero, nuzzling and kissing him as he and Twilight made love, helping him work past that adorable notion of his that he couldn’t love Twilight without betraying me.”

“Rarity!” Lero hissed, blushing. “We’re in a restaurant!”

As Rarity giggled and nuzzled him, Rainbow Dash wore a downright mawkish smile, as though Rarity had told her that, as a child, Lero been hugging her legs in separation anxiety the very first day she’d driven him to the daycare center.

“Now look at you!” she boasted, tapping his chest lightly with a hoof. “Going out and getting girls all on your very own! You’re becoming more and more a proper Equestrian stallion each day. Just imagine; in two years’ time, I daresay we’ll both be sharing the same salt lick!”

A memory of Lero’s resurfaced. Back when Lyra Heartstrings had first began courting him, Rainbow Dash had told him: ‘Dude, you know if you wanted to bring another unicorn home you only had to say so. I mean, I may not be into mares myself but just look at those haunches.’ And she’d said those words with the same easygoing mellowness that a human woman might’ve told her husband, ‘Oh, go right ahead and buy that extra puppy in the window, darling. We can afford it!'

It had frankly boggled his mind back then, almost as much as this situation boggled his mind now. The tables had turned, and Rainbow Dash, herself, was now the outsider coming in, benefitting from her own welcoming heart.

“Well, who knows?” he laughed, in as much real relief as pretend offhandedness. “But I’m definitely drawing the line at walking on all fours.”

“Oh, heavens, yes, I agree,” said Rarity. “Quadrupedal walking doesn’t suit you at all, my love. Those lovely, delicate hands of yours simply aren't suited to bearing your weight, after all, and your spine isn't even the right shape for it."

Polygamy. The institution of polygamy had saved him.

How differently would this whole scenario have played out, if this Cutie Swap madness had afflicted human women instead of ponies?

* * *

It had been the most delicious meal he’d ever eaten at Hollandaise’s, though he suspected that sheer joy at this wonderful turn of events had helped flavor the food. Even after their lunch was done, and they had paid the bill, the three of them chatted for a couple more hours about all sorts of things in that little booth. At one point, Lero had commented that this practically felt like a date in and of itself. To which Rarity replied that it didn’t ‘really count’ as a herd date, unless Twilight and Lyra were there as well.

But Lero was keeping a close eye on the clock, and before he knew it, 2:45 was rolling by.

“Rarity, Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry, but I’m going to need to cut this short. Much as I’d love to continue on, three-fifteen is coming on soon, and Fluttershy needs her comedy lessons.”

“Oh! Oh, yes, I need to be there, too!” said Rainbow Dash, placing her cap back on.

“Of course,” said Rarity. She already knew about how Lero was helping Fluttershy; they’d discussed it over dinner days ago.

“Why don’t you come with us, Rarity?” Rainbow invited, as they were stepping out of the restaurant. “It’s fun learning comedy with Fluttershy, and she loves an audience!”

“Not today, I’m afraid,” Rarity said gently. “I have a teaching appointment of my own, with Scootaloo. Perhaps next time, though.”

“Well, we’d love to see you when you do have time, Rarity,” Lero told her.

She didn’t answer back at first, just gazed mistily into his eyes. Then, before he could even ask ‘what?’ she said, “I’m sorry, it’s just… you’ve helped Pinkie Pie, you’ve helped Rainbow, you’ve been so supportive of me, Applejack’s been asking about you every time I see her, and she always says the nicest things about you! And now you’re helping Fluttershy… and even Rainbow’s fallen for you…”

“No one gets left behind,” he told her reflexively, without even really thinking about what he was saying.

The words surprised her for a second. But then she stood on her hind legs and treated him to one of the most heartfelt hugs she’d ever given him.

“The day I finally marry you,” she told him, “will be one of the proudest in all my life.”

She spoke with such tenderness, that his heart swelled with love for her. The kiss she gave him was one of her best, always something Lero delighted in these days. Dropping back down to the ground, she turned to Rainbow Dash.

“I almost forgot to ask; when would be a good time for our herd date?” she asked the pegasus.

“Would this Thursday work for you? Say… seven o’clock at night?”

“Seven works wonderfully,” said Rarity, after looking back to Lero and seeing him nod. “At our house, how does that sound?”

“Awesome.”

And then Rarity gave Rainbow Dash a foxy seductress’ smile. “Well, Dash… I look forward to it.”

Rarity closed her eyes steamily, and suddenly Dash’s ears flattened back in alarm. The unicorn stretched her neck closer, and the pegasus broke into a cold, nervous sweat. Rarity’s lips puckered…

“W-wait!” she shouted out. “I-it’s too early for that, Rarity! We haven’t even had our first date yet!”

Rarity drew back. But then she smiled. “Of course, of course. Proper etiquette must be observed. Forgive me, Rainbow, I forgot myself. We’ll just have to save that for... when we get to know one another better.”

As Rarity strode off with a showy flick of her tail, Lero could see both sets of the pegasus’ knees knocking together. The look in her eyes was like that of a person who’d been excited about her first bungee jump… and then got a good, long look down the chasm she’d be leaping from.

Had the original Fluttershy been a straight girl? Lero had always suspected so, beneath all her shyness, but it no longer mattered. For all this had been a fresh reminder that Rainbow Dash the Caretaker was every bit as bent a mare as Rainbow Dash the Weathermare had been. The thoughts running through her head might as well be written over her face:

It’s not just Lero… it’s the whole herd! I’ll need to be a lover to all of them! I’ll have to make love... to three other girls!

The poor rainbow-maned pegasus was skittish and nervous all throughout their next lesson with Fluttershy, where they reviewed satire. Twilight Sparkle and Lyra were there, but Rainbow was suddenly uncomfortable being around the unicorns, and all but hid from them behind Lero, with a troubled, guilty smile.

* * *

“We’re dating her?!” Lyra exclaimed to Lero, as she, he, and Twilight headed home from the village green.

Fluttershy’s lesson was done for today. While it turned out satire was far from her forte, the yellow pegasus had still grasped the concept of it fairly well, and Lero planned to continue covering more of it tomorrow. They had agreed to start meeting at Golden Oaks Library instead of the village green from here on out.

“Yeah,” Lero confirmed. “This Thursday at seven at our house.”

“And Rarity’s okay with it?” Lyra asked, even more excitedly.

“Absolutely! Ask her yourself, next chance you get.”

Lyra skipped around her herdmates in a circle of glee. “This is amazing! You know, I thought it was weird that Rainbow was suddenly such a shrinking violet with me and Twilight today. Especially since she was completely cool being around us yesterday.” Then she performed a midair somersault. “It’s because she was imagining us all being marefriends together, wasn’t it?”

“You’re going to want to be careful, though!” Lero warned. “Never count your chickens before they hatch, not with the Swap! Always remember: Rainbow is being influenced by Fluttershy’s personality. Like you say, she is going to be a shrinking violet with us. Take it from the guy who’s been dating her one-on-one. We’ll want to be welcoming, but NOT come onto her too strongly.”

“Right, right,” said Lyra who slowed down to a walk. “I am tranquility,” chanted the Still Way grandmaster. “I am serenity. I am levelheadedness. I am quiescence. I am ataraxia. Rainbow Dash, DATING us! Ooooh, I wanna hug her and kiss her on her cheek again, like she always used to let me!”

Lero couldn’t help but laugh. “Lyra, I haven’t seen you this excited in ages!”

Lyra grinned. “Because I am! And I don’t have any reason to hold back!”

They entered their house.

“But speaking of… You’ve been rather quiet,” Lyra commented to Twilight, shutting the door. “Aren’t you happy about all this?”

“Don’t I look happy?” asked the purple unicorn.

The other two considered her face.

“No, I can’t say you do,” Lyra told her. “If anything, I’d say you look more lost-in-thought than anything else.”

“Well, there’s a reason for that.”

Twilight suddenly stopped walking, planting her hooves firmly on the floor. She lowered her head and a bright light gleamed from her horn, as she gave a tremendously large smile.

“I’m ecstatic,” Twilight said, in a very well-controlled tone of voice. “Between being able to help Fluttershy and learning that Rainbow Dash is interested in being part of our herd again, I’m absolutely over the moon. In fact, I’m so ecstatic, I’ve been struck by a burst of great inspiration.”

Her horn glowed continuously. Soon, objects began floating in from other rooms; a quill, an inkwell, a stack of blank pages, and a rhyming dictionary.

And then came… THE book. Starswirl The Bearded’s big black spell book. Lero flinched away from it and Lyra glared as it hovered towards the purple unicorn, who observed it evenly.

“It’s time to enter the Experimentation Phase,” Twilight announced, trotting into the next room. The objects all floated around Twilight’s head like nighttime fireflies around a lamppost.

With confused looks, Lyra and Lero followed after her.

“Experimentation Phase?” Lero asked, as Twilight set the items down on a table and sat.”

“Yes,” said Twilight, turning Starswirl’s book to its final page. “Remember earlier on, when I was reading through all those books? That was my Research Phase. Then all those time I was talking with Lyra and sorting out all the information I’d learned, that was my Discussion Phase.”

Dipping her quill in ink, The lavender unicorn copied the Swap Incantation onto a blank sheet of paper -- from one to another, another to one, a mark of one’s destiny, singled out alone, fulfilled -- then drew a line underneath it.

“Now I feel ready for the final phase. The Experimentation Phase. The one where I roll up my proverbial sleeves...” she nodded at Lero, “and get hooves-on with Starswirl’s unfinished spell, and experiment to find the words and the magic to FINISH it, and thus cure my friends!”

“Whoa,” said Lero, who was starting to feel a touch of nerves. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“Safe?” asked Twilight, with a downright cynical smirk. “Who said anything about safe?”

Then she opened the rhyming dictionary, copying down every word that rhymed with ‘fulfilled’ -- billed, build, chilled, distilled, drilled...

“Let me tell you what I’m planning,” she continued. “From here on out, I have three priorities. Priority One is helping you with your equilibrium, Lero.”

The human blinked. “Twilight, I…”

“Every time you’re busying yourself with equilibrium matters, I want to be right next to you at all times,” the mare insisted.

Twilight turned to a different part of the rhyming dictionary. She wrote another note for herself: ‘Destiny’ has no direct rhymes. May need to use phrasal rhymes instead. ‘Best tin knee?’ ‘Zest in me?’ ‘Got to be?’ Frowning, she scratched that last one out.

“Priority Two is socializing with my friends and family,” she continued. “And Priority Three is experimenting with the Cure. Ideally, I’d like to devote a portion of each day to all three priorities.”

“Shouldn’t Priority Three be Priority One?” Lyra asked.

Twilight shook her head. “I’m sick of being distant from my friends, especially the ones who need help the most. I want to pull them out of their ruts. I can always cure them afterwards.” Then she sighed. “This won’t be quick, after all. I have a LOT of trial and error ahead of me!”

“I’ll bet!” said Lero. The human recalled an unforgettable passage he’d read in a biography of Thomas Alva Edison: 'I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work.'

“The first thing I’ll need is a laboratory to conduct my experiments,” Twilight mused.

Lyra sat next to her. “But you already have a lab, down in the basement.”

Twilight set her quill down. “Not happening. I need a different laboratory altogether. Someplace far away. Remember; this library is where we’re keeping the Elements of Harmony! Reciting that spell while standing next to the Elements was what triggered the Swap in the first place. So this time, I wanna be far away from them! At least for the preliminary set of experiments.”

“Also, Golden Oaks Library is a public library,” Lero pointed out. “Imagine some pony coming in to borrow a book while she’s dabbling with identity-altering magic down in the basement!”

“Maybe you can use that barn of Pinkie’s?” Lyra suggested. “The one in the cornfield?”

"I hate to suggest this." Lero said hesitantly, "But there's always the abandoned lab at the edge of town."

"No." Twilight said firmly. "I'm not going to disturb that place, out of respect of the de..." She cut herself off. "...harmonized."

Lero thought about it a bit more. “How’s this for an idea…”

* * *

Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash, of all possible ponies.

If somepony had told Rarity yesterday that her sweet Lero had grown besmitten of a fourth mare, she’d have suspected Vinyl Scratch or Lemon Hearts or Sea Swirl. Maybe even Twinkleshine, that one friend of Lyra's who'd also been a bridesmaid at Princess Cadence's wedding.

But Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have even been the last pony on her list of guesses. And here, Rarity thought she had her prince’s taste in mares down to a science!

For starters; between Twilight, Lyra, and herself, Rarity had honestly come to believe that Lero only had eyes for unicorns. Some ponies were selective like that! But also: she, Twilight, and Lyra were all very ladylike girls. Strong and assertive; mares not to be trifled with. But Rainbow Dash? The only way she could be more tomboyish would be getting a competitive streak! It was amazing how old Photo Finish had been able to dress her so daintily (not to mention Applejack, back at the Grand Galloping Gala).

Equally amazing was the fact that Rainbow had fallen for Lero! Long before Rarity, herself, had come to love him, Lero and Rainbow had fallen out of touch with one another. Since then, they’d remained friendly acquaintances for years, neither showing any interest in the other, not until VERY recently. Not that Rainbow had shown interest in ANY pony. Part of Rarity had thought that Dash simply was too intimidated by romance to ever try it.

Simply an astonishing turn of events!

Yet she’d seen the earnest love in her pegasus friend’s eyes. Rainbow Dash had to have really cared deeply for Lero to overcome her natural shyness and ask to date Herd Bellerophon. And their whole story was soooo romantic. Love blossoming from gratitude and the ironclad desire to shield the other from pain! Rainbow was so naturally timid. Rarity knew she’d never so much as dated before, and might not ever again, if Lero didn’t work out. One chance for romance was all the poor girl might ever give herself. How could Rarity say no to a herd date?

A girl who broke the mould, a girl who flipped all Rarity’s expectations on their head… she’d be looking forward to seeing her this Thursday!

So it was with a gladdened heart that Rarity returned to her home. Twilight was there to greet her at the front door.

“Have I got news for you!” Rarity announced, after exchanging sweet welcome-home kisses with her Sparkle-kitten.

“Does it have something to do with a certain animal-loving pegasus coming to date us?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, drat it all,” Rarity pouted, “Lero’s already told you everything about it, hasn’t he?”

Spoilsport!

“Mmm-hmm, and I want you to know that Lyra and I are both really excited about it!” said Twilight, nuzzling her side as they both walked further into the house. “We all got a really nice feeling that Rainbow will make a wonderful addition to our home!”

“I hope so, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Rarity cautioned her. “We’ll see how well she fits with us with this date!”

“‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,’ huh?” Her sweet herdmate let out a sigh. “I suppose you’re right.”

“All the same, I intend to make this a most splendid occasion,” Rarity assured her. “I’m planning on enlisting Applejack and Fluttershy’s help with the decorations and the food.”

While Herd Bellerophon went out and had fun times together, Rarity had honestly thought she’d never again go out on a date! And Rainbow Dash wasn’t just anypony, she was a dear friend, so she deserved splendidness more than most!

“Hey, Rarity?” Twilight suddenly asked, after a pause. “I have a special favor to ask. A favor that’s a bit bigger than most.”

“Sure! What is it? You know you can ask me anything!”

Twilight Sparkle sat down at a table that had a black book on it, and Rarity sat beside her.

“You know that cloud home of yours, Rarity?” she asked. “The one you used to live in before we became a herd?”

“Yes, of course, what about it?” Was Twilight thinking of hosting the date there? If so, it would complicate all the party arrangements...

“I want to use it as a laboratory.”

“A laboratory?” She hadn’t expected this swerve at all; it was like she’d opened her bathroom door and stepped onto a tennis court. Then Rarity caught sight of the black book on the table, and realized she knew it. “Twilight, this wouldn’t have anything to do with that spell Princess Celestia gave you a while ago?”

The purple mare set her hoof atop Starswirl’s book. “It has everything to do with that spell.”

Rarity licked her lips nervously. “Twilight, you… please don’t take this the wrong way, my sweet Sparkle-kitten, but sometimes I worry about you and that spell.”

“And I’ve given you every reason TO worry about me,” Twilight admitted up-front. “I’ve been obsessive. I’ve been secretive. I’ve isolated myself and gone through long periods of depression, and you’ve always done your best to cheer me up. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not. But I’ve never given you a good explanation of WHY. You’ve probably been afraid for my sanity.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far…” Rarity said, but she couldn’t quite meet her herdmate’s eye. At times, the weathermare had come within inches of trying to talk Twilight into seeing a therapist. Thank goodness Lyra had finally come home!

But then her lovely lavender mare fixed her with her gravest stare. “Rarity, what I’m about to tell you… you must NEVER tell anyone else. I’m putting so much at risk just by letting you in on this secret.”

After a worried laugh, Rarity said, “You’re making it sound so… cataclysmic!” But Twilight wasn’t laughing along.

“This ancient, defective, unfinished spell of Starswirl The Bearded’s… is what caused Princess Luna to turn into Nightmare Moon, long, long ago.”

“Nightmare Moon?!”

“Sssh!”

Sheer shock left Rarity numb. It was all coming back to her: the cold slit-eyes, the horribly fanged teeth, the swirls of dark magic, her vindictive cackling as the sun was banished, the dreadful fear that the dawn would never again return…

“Sweet Celestia… you… by all the Alicorns…”

Twilight hung her head. “For the longest time, I’ve been too terrified to even BEGIN working on that spell. What if it backfired on me? What if I caused some innocent pony to undergo that kind of transformation? So I stalled and buried myself in books, searching for an easy answer. The sheer immensity of it all left me feeling powerless!”

All Twilight’s sadness, all her high-strung worry, all that literature she’d drowned herself in! “So many things make sense, now…” Rarity whispered.

Twilight got out of her chair, nuzzling her cheek against Rarity’s. “I wanted to be able to tell you, really I did! But a secret like this threatens the stability of our whole world.”

“Of course it does!” Rarity exclaimed. “If word reached the ears of some genocidal madmare that there was a spell that could turn her into another Nightmare Moon…!”

Both mares let that horrifying possibility hang in the air between them.

“But the thing is… I’ve found my courage, Rarity,” And there was, indeed, resolve in Twilight’s voice. “I’ve delayed long enough. The Princess gave me this task, and I absolutely must not fail her. Just like with Discord and King Sombra and the original Nightmare Moon. As long as this spell remains unfixed, it represents a clear and present danger to everypony. But I need a place that’s spacious and private to conduct experiments and I think a place like the cloud house would fit the bill! Will you help me?”

Rarity got up and left while Twilight remained at the table. There was a key rack in the laundry room wall. Rarity selected a greyish-white key that wasn’t made of any metal, but rather permanently solidified cirrus cloud. She returned to Twilight’s table, but before actually giving it over to her, Rarity said, “Promise me you won’t shut yourself away from us all in that cloud house.”

“I promise,” the other mare said solemnly. “When I conduct these experiments, I want my mind to be fully alert at all times; so I can’t afford to spend too long there and run my nerves ragged. But in return, I need you to promise me you won’t tell this to anypony.”

Rarity sat on her haunches. “Cross my wings, hope to cry, pluck my feathers if I lie.”

“You don’t have any wings,” Twilight said with an amused smile, for Rarity had spoken the vow while crossing her front hoof over a set of imaginary wings on her back.

To this, Rarity could only shake her head, almost admonishingly. “Oh, my sweet enchantress, how could you have forgotten? You are my wings. You, Lero, Lyra, and Spike.”

Twilight’s darling eyes went so moist and dewy, one would think Rarity had never spoken these words to her before! Then she drew closer, and they began kissing each other softly, again and again. Her poor, brave, overwrought darling kitten.

Meanwhile, from the upstairs hallway, Lyra and Lero had been eavesdropping on this entire exchange like children snooping on their parents. Lyra extended her left foreleg towards the human at her side while Lero formed his right hand into a fist and the two ‘hoof-bumped.’

Author's Note

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