Starsifter

When Rarity had been alive, there was always something keeping her from saying it out loud. Maybe both of them had been waiting for the other to confess. Maybe the idea that Twilight would have to go on without her kept Rarity from confessing. Maybe she was too generous for her own good.

What was keeping her now, though?

Keeping her nervous, like a filly with a schoolgirl crush. 

Rarity had been so important to her. Too important to confess to. Because Rarity had one life, and Twilight had found herself blessed with many lifespans. It felt selfish, to ask Rarity to spend her one life, to waste it on her. Somepony who couldn’t give her everything she wanted in life.

Every time she went to confess there was another excuse. Another stallion Rarity was obsessing over, or dating, or a mare that Rarity was absolutely head over heels for. She couldn’t say something that would change things between them. 

She couldn’t ruin their friendship.

When Rarity had married that stallion that Twilight could hardly remember the name of, she’d had 3 foals. And she seemed so happy. Too happy. Twilight wouldn’t have ruined it all for her. Twilight was perfectly content with the discontent that came with being Auntie Twi. 

Even in the later years of Rarity’s life, when her husband had died, something kept her from saying it. First it was that Rarity was mourning. And then it was that Rarity was sick.

And now? What was keeping her now?

Rarity was already dead.

“I love you Rarity.” She said aloud, finally. But the weight on her chest did not lessen, so she said it again and again. Long into the night. 

- Rarity and Twilight have been together for a while before they decide to add Fluttershy into the mix.

- They're both dropping hints, Fluttershy is oblivious.

- They eventually confess.

- Fluttershy had to have a thorough consultation with Discord before deciding to join their relationship.

- Discord's never understood monogamy. So he's not of much help. But he lets Fluttershy think out loud while they both drink copious amounts of tea.

The unicorn mare was both incredibly careless when it came to clothes, and constantly found herself out in bad weather without a poncho, or umbrella, or any form of protection that could guard her precious, paint-stakingly, and lovingly stitched clothes.

Of course, that was to be expected, Twilight was a meteorologist, who, at times, reported on the weather, and at other times was a reckless storm-chaser who threw caution to the wind. Literally. In pursuit of greater scientific understanding of weather events.

Personally, while Rarity adored the mare's passion, she'd never understood why a unicorn would take such an interest in the weather. Leave that up to the pegasi. They controlled most of it.

But then again, that stubborn, inquisitive, mad-scientist-esc personality was what drew Rarity to her in the first place. Twilight was intriguing, and wild. And, ever since they'd become friends, Twilight had kept her supplied with beautiful pictures of various weather events that she'd taken. Rainbows, double rainbows, thunderstorms and lightning, clouds of all shapes and sizes.

As she glanced around at the various sketches dotting her walls, the clothes still pinned to mannequins, even the fabrics she'd chosen to buy lately, she couldn't help but notice that it'd gotten rather, well, pastel in here as of late. Because all of her collections had been inspired by those photographs.

So, as frustrating as fixing this latest tear may have been, she would do it. Because Celestia help her, she was hopelessly in love with that unicorn.

Thunder rolled outside, a gentle sound considering the violent thunderstorms that had been plaguing Ponyville as of late. Several tornadoes had hit outside of town, at Applejack's farm, though thankfully neither the mare nor her family were harmed. In the Everfree forest, and on the road leading outside of town.

But those storms had been much bigger, this one? Well, this one was quieter. The world outside seemed calm, though it was raining quite a bit.

It was looking to be a very peaceful night.

That was… well… until a certain unicorn came barrelling into Rarity's boutique, tracking mud on her way to the other mare's workshop.

“RARITY!”

“Twilight?” Rarity's glasses had fallen off of her face in her hurry to stand up and meet the eyes of whomever had just burst into her home.

“We need to go! Now!” Twilight didn't bother to elaborate, dashing over to Rarity and wrapping her hooves around the mare, lighting her horn.

And with a poof, they were suddenly in the basement beneath Twilight's home.

“Twilight!” Rarity shrieked. “What's going on? You can't just grab a mare like that and teleport her to Celestia knows where without warning-“

“I did give you a warning,” Twilight replied, exasperated, “I said we needed to go.”

“Well, yes, but I didn't think you meant teleportation,” Rarity argued. “You'd better have a good reason for whisking me away from my work. You gave me such a fright, bursting in like that.”

“There's a tornado! Or- erm- well I saw rotation on the radar- so basically- there's a tornado forming over Ponyville right now!” Twilight trotted in place. Meanwhile, Spike was sound asleep in the corner, somehow not waking despite the very loud argument occurring right next to him.

“Oh.” Rarity blinked, “Yes well, that does seem like a rather good reason. Thank you darling. But even so, you're lucky Sweetie Belle was with our parents for the weekend.”

“I knew that.” Twilight brushed one hoof against another. She had not, in fact, remembered that. And she was incredibly lucky.

“Alright, well. I suppose we'll be here a while then?”

“We should shelter in place until the warning has passed.” Twilight nodded, settling down on a cushion on the floor while Rarity did the same opposite of her.

“Did you, perhaps, bring any games down or…”

“Oh, I brought some meteorology textbooks down with me for some light reading. And, I brought some of your favorite romance novels, since I had some ahem- spare copies.”

“Right, spare copies.” Rarity rolled her eyes, teasing.

“I only bought them for you!” Twilight playfully averted her gaze.

“Right, right,” Rarity repeated, enveloping one of the books with her magic and reading alongside Twilight as the once-quiet storm now raged overhead.

Fairytales dictated that a kiss from a princess would generally solve this kind of problem. And Twilight was eagerly puckering her little frog lips, which Celestia help her, Rarity did love Twilight, but they were utterly disgusting. 

Entirely too much slime for her liking. Which was any amount of slime. 

"Darling, I'm not exactly a princess. Maybe we should ask Princess Luna or erm- well she seems the only one appropriate for this situation." It'd been a few hours since Froglight had hopped her way to Rarity's boutique, and croaked outside until she finally caught Rarity's attention. It was nearly midnight, Rarity was still in a mud mask after a late night of sewing, curlers in her hair.

She trotted outside to shoo the thing away. But the blue coloring, with pink and purple stripes, had made it evident that this was no ordinary frog. And the general exasperated attitude had screamed Twilight.

Like right now, the small frog in her hoof was croaking and hopping back and forth as if she thought Rarity would understand her.

"You know I love you darling, but I really don't see how a kiss is going to help matters. I'm not a princess." Another croak of annoyance. "If I could understand you, I'm sure I'd be very offended."

A few more croaks, which were clearly attempts to explain, later and Rarity gently placed her hoof over the frogs mouth.

“I'm going to call Fluttershy, she can interpret for us.” Rarity set Froglight down, lifting her phone with her magic and dialing Fluttershy's number.

-

“Oh, um... well, she says you should just kiss her.”

“Tell her to elaborate.”

”Twilight, could you elaborate.” Fluttershy asked quietly, as if she were speaking to one of her animals and not to Twilight, her friend.

More croaking.

“She says that it will work.” Fluttershy blinked, “She’s um… pretty sure.”

"Pretty sure? You’re going to make me kiss a frog-” An offended croak, “And you’re not absolutely sure it’s going to fix this… situation… you’ve gotten yourself into?”

Several croaks later. “She says please.” Fluttershy interprets, nodding along as Froglight continues to croak. “She’s really sure.”

“Alright. It’s not like I’m unwilling to help, you understand? I’m just worried about, well, what would happen if this backfires. If this doesn’t work out the way you think it’s going to, Fluttershy and I are getting Princess Luna. We'll use Spike if we have to." She closed her eyes, and pressed a small peck on the little frogs lips.

Poof.

Twilight materialized in front of her in it's place, stamping her hooves excitedly.

"Finally! Thank you-" Twilight pressed a few thankful kisses to Rarity's cheeks. "It was True Love's Kiss. Not a kiss from a princess. But that would certainly make more sense." She rambled on, pacing back and forth. "I was trying out a spell from one of the forbidden archives books, I took it home, with Celestia's permission of course. Though, I am a princess so I guess I'm allowed to do that anyways. I didn't realize just saying the spell's name would cast it. But now I know. I'll include a warning in the margins."