Bon Bon had only ever known Lyra to wake up before her less than a few times in their relationship. Her general rule was that those days tended to turn out to be very good, or terribly chaotic. Due to the fact that what had woken her had been the energized tapping of a jittery hoof on her shoulder, she had a feeling that today it was going to be the latter.

Sitting up with a yawn, she opened her eyes to see her marefriend standing next to their bed with a large smile and a coffee cup in her telekinetic grip. Bon Bon looked at the cup with trepidation.

“Please tell me that’s hot chocolate?” Lyra shook her head. “Decaf?” Bon Bon squeaked. Another shake.

She sighed. “Does this possibly have anything to do with what happened yesterday?”

Lyra nodded her head vigorously and leaned forward to whisper in her marefriend’s ear. “I have a plan.”

Bon Bon had a feeling she was going to require coffee as well before the day was over.

Rarity yawned as she trotted down the stairs. She’d barely slept a wink mulling over everything that had happened yesterday. Even now, she still didn’t know what quite to make of it.

Never the matter, it was nothing a good cup of coffee wouldn’t fix. She smiled lightly at the thought of the hot, steaming drink, and with her magic she flicked the switch on the electric drip coffeemaker sitting on the bench in the corner of her shop. Rarity had a manual filter in her kitchen, but she found on harrowing business days, where she often was suffering from a lack of sleep, a ready-to-go machine was much easier, when all it involved was flicking a switch and watching the stream of dark liquid pour into the waiting mug.

Turning away from the whirring coffeemaker, she looked to the mirror on the wall to brush a few loose strands of her mane off her face, and then walked to the display window and flipped her closed sign to open.

She’d barely started her usual rounds to tidy up her clothing racks when she heard the tinkle of the bell at the door. Grimacing at the idea of having to deal with a client before the comforting embrace of caffeine, Rarity forced a smile onto her face and turned to greet her customer.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique! Where everything is—” She froze. “Oh… It’s you two.”

Bon Bon offered her a tired smile. “Yea…it’s us.” Rarity noted the bags under the mare’s eyes that were none too similar to her own, and more noticeably…the very worrying grin on Lyra’s face.

“Ohmygosh, Rarity!” she sang. “Your shop is so pretty, and, oh wow, these dresses are so cool! I can’t believe I’ve never come in here before! I suppose it’s because I’m not really a fancy dress-up pony. Bon Bon kinda is. Right, Bon-“

Luckily, Bon Bon had taken the opportunity to stick her hoof in Lyra’s mouth right that second.

“Lyra? Why don’t you go look at some of the nice dresses?” she said firmly in a stop-talking tone. Lyra nodded her head before spitting out her marefriend’s hoof and prancing off into the showroom.

Rarity turned to Bon Bon with a rather confused and slightly frazzled expression. “……What?”

Bon Bon sighed. “Lyra…has a thing for coffee.”

From the back of the room came Lyra’s excited shouts followed by the sound of something large and probably relatively fragile clattering to the ground. Rarity’s eye twitched. “I can see that.”

“No.” Bon Bon shook her head. “You have no idea. She and caffeine just don’t mix at all, it totally just throws her completely off balance. It’s the reason she sticks to hot chocolate most of the time.” She winced as another crash resounded through the room. “Basically coffee does to her what alcohol can do to most ponies, unfortunately that also means that she drinks coffee at times when most ponies turn to the bottle.” She shrugged. “Honestly…I sometimes think I’d rather deal with a drunk Lyra than a caffeinated Lyra.”

Rarity struggled for words for a few seconds, before finally settling on:
“Pinkie has similar issues with caffeine.”

Bon Bon gave her a grateful smile.

Lyra’s voice rang out. “Hey, is this coffee!?”

Rarity promptly facehoofed as she realized Lyra had no doubt just found her coffeemaker. “Ahem…so, why did you two choose to come visit me at such an early hour in the morning?” She said it not with annoyance, merely curiosity.

Bon Bon shrugged. “Lyra….has a plan…apparently.”

“A great plan!”

“A great plan.” Bon Bon deadpanned. “I don’t know how in Equestria you’re involved, but she seemed to be convinced she needed to tell you about it.”

Rarity wrinkled her muzzle. “So, what is it?”

“Lyra wants to form a protest group.” Silence. “Host rallies, conferences, etc. You know….” She sighed. “I told her that it wouldn’t do any good. That there have been hundreds of those before, and none of them did any good. A few mares in Ponyville yelling about how the council is wrong isn’t going to change their minds.”

“It’s an ambitious idea, true.” said Rarity quietly. “But you’re right, it wouldn’t do much good, I’m afraid.”

“This time it will!” cried Lyra, suddenly appearing next to them, mug of coffee in hoof. “Because…we will have an Element of Harmony on our side!” she pointed a foreleg at Rarity dramatically, spilling coffee onto the floor in the process. “No newspaper is gonna be able to ignore that! It’ll be big! Huge! An inter-city coalition! We will make ourselves heard!”

Both mares simply stared at Lyra in surprise. Rarity couldn’t help but feel a bubble of excitement as she began to understand what Lyra was saying. She was right. Nopony could ignore an Element of Harmony making such a public statement about such a controversial thing. Lyra was right...it could work...They might seriously have a chance.

It was Bon Bon who brought her back to reality. “Lyra! You can’t honestly expect Rarity to do that! She barely knows us! Besides, in case you forgot, Rarity has a reputation to maintain among the Canterlot elite, supporting something so many of them are so against could seriously damage her reputation! Do you really want that?”

Lyra looked back and forth between Rarity and Bon Bon, before letting out a defeated sigh, momentarily coming off her caffeine high. “You’re right. It was a dumb idea, and it was wrong of me to demand your help like that, Rarity. I’m sorry.” She glanced down at the coffee cup in her hoof. “Um…and I’m sorry I drank your coffee. Even if it is…so…good…” Her eyes glazed over and she went to take another sip, only to be thwarted by Bon Bon snatching the mug from her with a scowl.

“You’ve already had more than enough, I think.” she turned to Rarity. “I…thank you, for helping us… yesterday…That in itself was more generosity than we could expect. We’ll just…get out of your hair, I suppose.” She turned to leave.

“No…” said Rarity numbly. “I just…Could you give me a minute?” The two mares nodded, and not knowing quite where else to go, Rarity turned and dashed into the boutique dressing room, locking the door behind her.

Collapsing onto the little pillow-topped bench in the corner of the room, she urged herself to take several deep, slow breaths in an attempt to clear her mind. It didn’t work. The minute Lyra had suggested she run their protest alarm bells and little arguing voices had started up in her head, and they were only growing louder.

‘Why should I care?’ came a tiny, guilty whisper. ‘It’s their problem, not mine. Why should I ruin my reputation helping two mares I don’t know get married?’ It doesn’t affect me.’

‘Because it’s the right thing to do!’ muttered what she would guess to be the voice of her generous nature.

‘No! Because their like me!’ screamed a slightly louder voice. ‘They’re in love, and nothing should stand between that! I, of all ponies should understand that!

Rarity whimpered, burying her head in her forelegs. What was she, a coward? She felt a few stray tears drift down her cheeks and she sniffled. Yes…she...she was. She’d never had the courage to find love that would make herself happy, to take the chance and to believe that her friends and family wouldn’t judge her. Even now, she wanted to compromise her own generous nature to avoid the risk of ruining her reputation among a few distant friends! Well…one friend.

She looked up into the large dressing mirror on the opposite wall, at her messy mane and tear-streaked eyes. Just like her face the night after that party…where she’d stood and watched the mare she had lost her heart to shake her head in disgust at the newspaper article about two mares not so unlike Lyra and Bon Bon themselves.

“But this isn’t just about them.” she whispered. Yes, she wanted to help them, of course…but….”It’s also about me.” She drew a shaky breath and forced herself to sit up, still gazing at her reflection. “I….I don’t have to tell all of them….at first…about myself. But I can’t…just walk away from this.” she nodded to herself.

‘You can.’ whispered her reflection. ‘Run your business, spend time with your friends, but don’t get involved in this. Just keep your head down.’

She shook her head. “What less could Equestria expect from the Element of Generosity? I could make a difference….for them…for me. It’s more than just…giving my support. They need somepony who can handle the Canterlot Elite. I can more than just survive the social rules of that level of society, I thrive in it.”

Rarity sighed, pausing to call to memory how wonderful it had felt when she had been around Fleur, she wanted to find that again…one day, with somepony that would love her back. She got up and turned to leave. “….I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”

‘Fleur won’t like it.’

She stopped and smiled. “I know.” With that, she opened the door and stepped out, closing it on the indecisive personalities of her mind.

Walking back towards the front of the shop, she saw Bon Bon whisper something in Lyra’s ear, and they both stepped toward the door with pitiful expressions on their faces.

“Wait.” she called. They froze and turned back to her as she trotted up to them. “I’ll do it.”

Bon Bon’s eyes went wide. “What?”

“I-I’ll do it.” She took a deep, slightly dramatic breath. “I’ll help you to campaign against the Equestrian Counsel and the Canterlot Elite. I offer my services not only as a supporter, but as a spokespony.” she smiled solemnly. “I want to help…I want to beat them.”