Sometimes - only sometimes - Rarity missed Ponyville.

Not because it was far away or anything. She could watch the sun rise over the humble little town every morning, bathing every spire and cobblestone with its warmth, and set again across the horizon every night as the moon took its turn to illuminate the town with a cool, soft glow. Really, her view was incredible. If her home weren’t completely uninhabitable under normal circumstances it would probably be prime real estate based on that view alone. In the million-bits range, easily.

But sometimes she really did miss living right down there in the middle of it all. It wasn’t as though she couldn’t trot down there any time she pleased and go about her day, of course, in fact she often did just that; but there was nothing quite like being the center of attention, so to speak. Years ago she never would have dreamed of giving up the excitement and the hustle and bustle of life at the Carousel Boutique, with ponies coming in and out at all hours of the day, and working her hooves raw to ensure each and every pony walked away with something chic, unique and magnifique in an effort to get noticed by Equestria at large.

Those days were gone now, though. Carousel Boutique was still going strong, yes, it was her most profitable store in the country, but it was no longer ‘home.’ There was hardly a single pony across all four corners of the map that hadn’t heard of her designs, which practically sold themselves nowadays, and so Rarity had stepped aside to let her work speak for her, and opted for a bit quieter a locale than the boutique. She no longer needed to put herself out there and draw in every customer she could and personally serve them. Now ponies came to her.

Metaphorically speaking, that is; they came to her shops, all across Equestria. Not her personally. Traversing a mountain trail was a bit too much of a hassle for that to be practical, and even if it weren’t, she doubted most of her clientele would want to come and get a fitting done inside a mountaintop cave, no matter how nicely Rarity dressed up the place. There was really nothing she could do about that, though. Her personal life came with some complications that limited her options as far as her place of residence, and this spacious cave way up the mountainside that overlooked Ponyville just so happened to be the most viable spot that was still close to home. The tabloids certainly raised a few eyebrows over that move, and even Rarity herself had to admit it made her feel a bit like a crazy old hermit sometimes, living up here in a cave that once housed a dragon years ago, and did again today.

But only sometimes.

Most days she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Spikey, dear!” Rarity announced, turning away from her view of the town to call back toward cave entrance. “I’m ready to go!”

“Nnggh… y-yeah, just… one sec, Rarity…” a low, gravelly voice called back.

The sound always sent pleasant shivers down Rarity’s spine; Spike’s voice had dropped some time ago, and though she could still easily recognize his old youthful drawl, it was much deeper now, rugged and mature and undeniably sexy. At the moment though, it sounded less like pure sex appeal and more distracted and in the midst of a struggle. And a second later the reason became apparent, as Spike himself came crawling out of the cave and stood up to his full height.

In a few ways the dragon hadn’t changed a bit over the years. His color scheme remained the same, lavender scales accented with green spines and an off-yellow belly, and his eyes the same old brilliant emerald green. But his actual body size was decidedly not the same. He was impressively tall now, easily three or four times Rarity’s height even if she stood up on her hind legs, and the broad, leathery wings that had sprouted from his back just last year made him seem even larger still. He was slimmer and sleeker now too, the pudgy stomach and stubby limbs of his youth giving way to the fit, proportional body of a young adult. By dragon standards, anyway; in pony years he’d been an adult for a long time now. Around that slimmer, fit belly, however, was the thing that was the source of his struggle: a pair of massive buckles that he was apparently having trouble securing, attached to long, thick straps cinched tight around his body that held a large, leathery brown harness securely in place on his back.

Rarity couldn’t help but smile, sigh, and shake her head. “Honestly, Spike, you’d think after forty or fifty times you’d have gotten the hang of that by now. And with fingers, no less!”

Spike blushed a bit, still struggling with the buckles. “I’m sorry, it’s just… nnggh… I can never get it… tight enough…”

Rarity rolled her eyes, though she never stopped smiling. “Oh, come here, you big oaf,” she said as endearingly as possible, her horn lighting up as she moved beside him. Spike obediently turned to face her and moved his claws out of the way, and like she’d done dozens of times before, Rarity grasped the buckles in her magic aura one at a time, cinching them just that little bit tighter that Spike couldn’t quite manage, and securing them so they would not fall slack even an inch. “There,” she said. “Really, Spike, sometimes I wonder if you intentionally struggle with those just so you can get me to do it.”

“Eh-heh,” Spike chuckled. “Well, I always do like the way your magic kinda tickles my belly.”

Rarity hid a grin behind one hoof. “I know, darling, but let’s save the foreplay for tonight, hm? We have a busy day ahead of us.”

“Shoot, yeah, you’re right, I gotta get to work,” Spike agreed. “Come on up.”

Spike brought his claws down to the ground, cupped securely together. Rarity hopped into his hands with practiced ease, and didn’t even flinch as he lifted her ten feet off the ground in a matter of seconds. She smiled ear to ear when he paused, as he always did, once they were at eye level with one another, and she pressed her lips to the tip of his snout with a soft smack, leaving a trace of lipstick and a dragon’s goofy grin behind. Then his hands moved again, stretching around toward his back, and Rarity hopped down right into the harness that she’d just secured there. It was designed for three ponies to sit comfortably in, each with their own seat-belt and hoof-hold straps, but for now it was just Rarity, settling into the front-most ‘seat’ and securing herself in place.

“Ready?” Spike asked, looking back to make sure she was buckled in.

“Ready, darling,” Rarity agreed.

Spike nodded and looked forward again as he stepped up to the edge of the mountain trail, careful not grip the edge too tight with his clawed feet and destroy a part of the solid ground Rarity often depended upon. He spread his wings out to full extension, and then stood still for a moment and waited, ready to catch a nice breeze.

“Now no aerial stunts on the way down today,” Rarity said. “I have lunch plans with Twilight and I’d like for her to be able to tell the difference between my mane and Rainbow Dash’s.”

“Gotcha,” Spike agreed. “Only three stunts today.”

“No stunts.”

“Read you loud and clear. Two stunts.”

“No stunts.”

Spike whimpered a little, looking back to give her a sad puppy dog face. “One stunt?”

Rarity frowned at him.

“For the kids?” he begged.

Rarity sighed. “…Oh, very well, one stunt. But just a small one!”

“Alright!” Spike grinned, pumping a fist victoriously, and a second later his wings launched them into the air, and sent them soaring on their way down toward Ponyville.

---

He chose a loop-the-loop, as it happened, which was fine by Rarity. It did minimal damage to her mane-style, nothing a quick combing couldn’t straighten out, and she hadn’t had her lunch yet, so she didn’t get sick or anything. She did hang on for dear life for a few seconds as she went completely upside-down, but that was merely reflex. She knew without a doubt that Spike would drop everything and catch her if she somehow fell. And the trick really was a hit with the foals. Cheerilee had suggested he start things off with a bang, and he wasn’t one to disappoint.

“Thank you so much for coming today, Spike!” Cheerilee greeted him as he made his landing in the empty plains on the outskirts of Ponyville.

“No problem at all, Miss Cheerilee,” Spike greeted the schoolteacher in turn. “Er, whoops, heh, I guess it’s Mrs. Cheerilee now, huh? Congratulations again, by the way.”

“Oh, it’s alright, Spike,” Cheerilee said, glowing a tad bit brighter pink than her coat. “And thank you so much for the ruby cufflinks, Macintosh just loved them.”

“Aw, it was nothing, I figured he’d love anything as long as it was apple-shaped,” Spike chuckled. “I’m just glad you guys didn’t mind getting your presents before the wedding.”

“Ahehe, no, not at all, they were a bit vital to the whole thing, after all,” Cheerilee insisted, turning her gaze to Rarity, who was just now hopping to the ground. “And speaking of which, thank you, too, Rarity, that was the finest wedding dress I could have ever hoped for.”

Rarity beamed back. “Oh, think nothing of it! It’s not every day I get to design for a wedding! I’m thrilled you liked it though.”

“So is this your class?” Spike asked, glancing behind Cheerilee at the cluster of foals huddled behind her, staring in awe up at Spike and oblivious to the adults’ conversation.

“Ah, yes, silly me, I almost forgot I’m working,” Cheerilee giggled, turning to face the foals. “Class, for our special lessons this week, we’re going to learn all about dragons! And as you may know, we have a wonderful young dragon living right here with us in Ponyville. Everypony say hello to Mister Spike.”

“Hello Mister Spike!” The class droned in unison.

“Hey everypony!” Spike smiled and waved. “Soooo… who wants to go flying?”

Every foal not born with wings bolted forward with their hooves in the air, begging to be called upon for the first ride. Rarity had to giggle at the sight; as much as having children was not currently among Rarity’s desires (or even among her possibilities, as far as she was aware), it was nice to know that Spike was so good with kids, if she ever did change her mind.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, then,” she said, giggling again as she watched the small army of foals clambering all over his body to reach his saddle. “I’ll see you after class, alright darling?”

“Sure thing, Rarity. Tell Twilight ‘hi’ for me,” Spike replied, dipping his head low to the ground so Rarity could kiss the tip of his snout again, much to the teasing cries of the class of foals around them.

“Ooooooooooh, Spike and Rarity sittin’ in a tree--!”

“Ewwwww, kissing’s gross!”

“Is she your girlfriend?!”

Rarity couldn’t help but grin. “I most certainly am not!” She tossed her mane back a bit, and turned her head just so, until the morning sun glinted off a dazzling diamond ring around her horn. “I’m his wife.”

“Oooooooooohhhh!!!”

“Does that mean you kiss like my parents? Gross!”

“First comes love, then comes marriage--!”

“Wait, ponies can get married to dragons?”

“I wanna marry a dragon now!”

“I bet a dragon-pony baby would be so cute!”

“More like totally wicked!”

The class of foals bombarded the poor dragon with a million youthfully-curious questions, and Spike could only laugh awkwardly as he tried to address them all and Cheerilee attempted to get her lesson plan back on track. Rarity left them to it, waving goodbye one last time and trotting along her way into Ponyville proper.

---

“Reservations for two, please. Rarity and Twilight Sparkle.”

“Ah, of course, Mrs. Rarity!” the wait-staff stallion at the front counter replied immediately. “Miss Sparkle just arrived a moment ago, I’ll take you to your table.”

“Thank you so much, sir,” Rarity said, her magic slipping a sleek prism of sapphire into his breast pocket. The stallion immediately beamed and picked up his pace, and a moment later they were at the private booth Rarity had requested, where her friend and (former) fellow unicorn sat waiting.

“Rarity! So good to see you!” Twilight Sparkle greeted her, hopping up with a slight flutter of her wings and reaching out to give her longtime friend a firm, one-hoofed hug.

“A pleasure to see you as well, Twilight,” Rarity answered, returning the hug. “I say, it’s been far too long. A month, at least.”

“Closer to two.” Twilight chuckled. “It’s been a busy time in Canterlot. Sit down!”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Rarity agreed, taking a seat on the cushion across from her.

“Can I get you anything, ladies?” the waiter asked.

“Just a daisy sandwich and water for me,” Twilight said.

“An iced tea, a rose petal salad, and some privacy would be lovely, thank you,” Rarity answered.

“Of course.” The waiter bowed and hurried off to bring their order to the kitchen.

“Gosh, Rarity, you look incredible!” Twilight gushed, looking over her friend.

Rarity beamed at the praise. “Why thank you, Twilight. You know how much effort I put into good appearances.”

“Still, you look like you haven’t aged a day in… ten years. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Oh, you’re just saying that,” Rarity giggled.

“I’m not the only one,” Twilight said. “Have you seen your cover issue in Fashion Magazine?”

Twilight drew a rolled-up magazine from a saddlebag she’d brought that was sitting on the cushion beside her, and held it out to Rarity in a glow of purple magic. “I thought maybe the photographer was giving you some airbrushing or something, but you look just like your picture.”

It was true. The picture on the magazine’s cover wasn’t doctored in the slightest. It matched her current appearance perfectly. The sleek, pure color of her snow-white coat, the dazzling shine of her violet mane… despite technically being ‘middle-aged’ (goddess above that term made her shudder), she still looked like the hottest young thing in Equestria. At a glance, nopony would guess she looked any older than thirty. Rarity knew otherwise, of course, but still, she was quite proud of how well she’d managed to maintain a youthful appearance. If anything, she looked better than ever. Even at her very best, when she was actually that young, her coat and mane hadn’t had such a radiant, healthy shimmer to it.

“They say you’ve got some kind of extra edge on the rest of the fashion industry,” Twilight said, summarizing the article within that Rarity was now glancing over. “Everypony’s dying to know what your secret is.”

“Mm, yes, well, they can go right on wondering,” Rarity chuckled mischievously. “It’s a secret for a reason.”

“Are you sure? Rarity, you could sell whatever it is for millions. It doesn’t look fake at all, I’ve never seen such an amazingly natural shine to a pony’s coat before. No coat conditioner or mane shampoo in Equestria can even come close to--”

“I have quite enough bits from my fashion franchise to last me five lifetimes,” Rarity stopped her. “I practically put Spike’s hoard to shame. I understand what you’re saying, Twilight dear, but this one stays my little secret.”

“Heh… okay, okay, I understand…” Twilight chuckled quietly. “…Just saying, I’d buy it from you in a heartbeat!”

“Oh, Twilight, don’t be ridiculous, you don’t need some miracle product to look good. Why, you’re a princess of Equestria!”

“Still, heh,” Twilight forced another nervous chuckle, “I wouldn’t mind a trying a bottle… maybe for my birthday or something… just, you know, as a thought…”

Rarity allowed a coy smile to cross her lips. “…Why Twilight Sparkle, you sly young thing. You really want to try my beauty secrets that badly?”

“Heh, sorry, was it really that obvious…?”

“Subtlety isn’t your strong suit, darling.” Rarity giggled quietly. “Well… for you, Twilight, I’ll think about it. Ask me again later sometime.”

“Hehehe… thank you, Rarity,” Twilight said, nodding her head in agreement and letting the matter drop for the moment.

“So, how was Canterlot? As lovely as ever I presume?”

“I wouldn’t know, I hardly got to enjoy it,” Twilight sighed. “Princess Celestia came down with feather flu while I was there, and apparently she thought that was a fantastic opportunity to turn over Royal High Court duties to me for a while. To ‘teach me the ropes’ of full rulership.”

“Oh my!” Rarity gasped. “Royal High Court? How prestigious!”

“More like stressful,” Twilight countered, her wings fluttering again in agitation. “I know we kind of save the world more often than most ponies, but there’s something different about High Court. My decisions have a direct effect on the lives of the ponies I’m judging. I mean, sure, they were usually simple matters of the law, or really minor disputes with obvious solutions, or silly misunderstandings that blew out of proportion, but… erm…”

“So you loved it, then?” Rarity said with a smirk.

Twilight grumbled and scowled. “…Oh alright, yes, it was incredible. Still stressful, and I think I drank more coffee in two months than I’ve had in the whole rest of my life, which is really saying something, but…” Twilight’s scowl faded into a smile. “It was an amazing experience. Just seeing a fraction of the life Celestia lives on a daily basis, and knowing that she’d trust me with managing it in her absence… it was an enormous honor.”

“That’s what I thought,” Rarity smiled knowingly. “So, you spent your days hearing disputes from around Equestria?”

“At least a few a day,” Twilight confirmed. “Like I said, most of them were pretty simple disputes, really… follow a paper trail of ownership here, a request for a new tax there…”

“Were there any particularly… interesting cases?”

“Interesting?” Twilight thought for a moment. “Well, there was this one petition to organize a life-size chess league… seemed kind of silly, but I didn’t really see any reason why not, and Princess Luna was one of the petition-signers, so…”

Rarity raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Chess? Really? In your whole trip, that was the most interesting case you heard?”

“Life-size chess. With actual ponies as the pieces. I don’t know, I thought it was pretty interesting. It certainly stood out, at least.”

“Well, yes, it is a bit of a unique request, but still, surely you heard at least one or two stories that were a little juicier?”

Twilight blushed right away, a clear tell that Rarity was onto something. “Rarity, I’m not going to share the private details of somepony’s personal life. That would be unethical.”

“You don’t have to name any names, Twilight, I’m merely curious!” Rarity insisted. “Come now, I’m sure you of all ponies knows what it feels like to be curious about the saucy and the risqué.”

Twilight’s blush tripled in strength. “You’re never gonna let me forget about that, are you?”

Rarity only smiled. “Even if I did, would you really want to?”

Twilight blushed deeper, glancing around nervously for a moment before cracking a slight smile. “No, I guess I wouldn’t.”

Rarity shot another coy smile right back. “Nor I, darling,” she said.

She really meant it, too. She had been with Spike for years now, and loved him with all her heart, and had shared many an earth-shattering climax with him, but that day right after they first got together, when Twilight had joined them in a fit of aroused curiosity, still ranked as one of the top three sexual experiences in her entire life. And despite Twilight nearly dying of embarrassment in the aftermath and being unable to look either of them in the eye without blushing for weeks afterward, Rarity knew she felt the same way. It was spontaneous, new, exciting, and creative all at once, and an experience none of them would forget, though it had remained a one-time occurrence; the stars had aligned perfectly the first time around to bring them together like that, and the feat had yet to repeat itself. But that was alright with Rarity. In a way, that made it all the more special of a memory.

“Now come, just one story!” she pressed, bringing both mares’ thoughts back to the present.

“Mmhh…” Twilight huffed for a moment, and Rarity could tell she was already conceding. “Well… there was this one case…”

“Yeeeessss?” Rarity gently pressed.

Twilight shifted her gaze warily around the restaurant once more, leaning forward and dropping her voice to just above a whisper. “There was a certain stallion from Manehattan, an earth pony, whom we’ll refer to as… erm… Stallion A.”

“Creative as ever, my dear,” Rarity said, cocking her eyebrow and leaning forward too. Stallion A, hm? The fun side of her hoped that meant there would be at least Stallions B and C; this was the royal court, after all.

“So Stallion A drags his hooves into the courtroom, his head hanging particularly low, with two mares at either side. B and C, naturally.”

“Oh, I imagine you couldn’t refrain from sneaking in a royal eye-roll, this story has practically told itself already,” Rarity mused, coaxing a delightful smirk out of Twilight.

“You’d think so; and I’ll admit, at first I thought so too. But the moment Mister A opens his mouth, I can tell he’s exactly the sort of stallion that would’ve swept you off your hooves at our first Gala. He’s madly in love with B and C and can’t bear to choose, and neither of them could steal his heart away from the other.”

Rarity’s eyebrow sharpened to an angrier slant. “Darling, you can’t really mean I’d pine after such an oaf! Having full-hearted intentions is more than fantastic, certainly, but without sensibility you might as well fall in love with a Windigo!”

“Mmhmm.” Twilight’s coy smile only grew. “You say that now, but if Blueblood hadn’t been so lacking in both categories, I’m sure you’d have found a way to convince yourself he was just a fixer-upper.”

Rarity faux-gasped and pulled away, fanning her forehead overdramatically with a hoof. “Oh, where has my friend gone?! Swallowed up by the indignation of princesshood, and after months of being apart, here she sits teasing me!”

Twilight responded only with a slowly-raising eyebrow of her own to accent her grin.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oh, fine, continue already.”

“Right… anyway, I was all ready to give him the lecture about how sometimes you have to make hard choices in life, and it wasn’t a decision I could make for him. …Except then it turned out it wasn’t just that this one stallion was in love with two mares. The mares were in love with each other too, and they couldn’t stand to choose any more than the stallion could.”

“Oh my!” Rarity practically squealed, clearly enjoying the story far too much. “This is juicy!”

“Oh, it gets better,” Twilight insisted. “So A, B, and C are all bemoaning the royalty and the lawmakers, complaining that their love must go unrequited… and I’m just sitting there clueless as to why they’re even here at this point. I open my mouth to speak up, but then the doors slam open and Stallion D runs in, and he breaks down and confesses his love to them all and that he couldn’t bear to see them united without him, and they all start practically crying and throwing their hooves in the air… you’d think they stepped right out of some trashy romance novel with dramatics like that.”

“What scandal!” Rarity said betwixt an excited gasp. “Certainly a love triangle is more than enough for most ponies, but a love square? Although, truth be told, it's not the most complex I've ever seen. There's a series of ‘modern’ romance novels that focus on having an ever-increasing love… love, erm… what's the word for a shape with some sides, but the ‘some’ keeps changing?”

“N-gon is a common one. A love n-gon, or love n-drangle.”

“Yes, well, the ‘n’ is equal to the number of sequels in the series. They're on the sixteenth book by now, so you can guess what that is like… this is relative simplicity by comparison! Honestly, you’d think they’d just marry in pairs and live together or something. I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to… well, you know.” A smirk danced across Rarity’s lips as she betrayed her own words and chanced to wonder exactly what two Spikes (and maybe a Twilight) would be like. “In any case, I suppose the only thing you could do was send them to Cadance, correct?”

Twilight cocked her head. “Why would I send them to Cadance?”

“Well, darling, she’s the Princess of Love! If anypony’s going to be breaking the law to wed four ponies together, surely it would be her?”

“Breaking the law?” Twilight crinkled her snout and gave her friend a pensive glance that swiftly turned annoyed. “Oh, for Celestia’s sake, not you too… doesn’t anypony read the actual laws in Equestria?”

Rarity blinked twice in confusion. “You mean to tell me polyamory became legal in just the short time I’ve been living up on the mountain? You’d think I’d have heard of such a thing…”

“You’d think everypony would had heard of it by now, it’s been legal for over six hundred years,” Twilight drolly corrected her. “Love triangles, love squares, love dodecahedrons, love n-drangles, it really doesn’t matter, it’s perfectly legal. So I finally cut them off and told them, ‘Look, I… I really don’t understand what the problem here is, if you’re all so in love with each other, why can’t you just all be together? I could perform a marriage right now.’ And obviously they’d never read a history book either because they just sat there, stunned. Well, they were stunned, for a minute, until they started praising Equestria and falling into each other’s hooves… sheesh, you’d think ponies would have the sense to at least make the trip to an Inn first.”

“You don’t mean they…?” Rarity wondered, awed. “Right there on the throne room floor?”

“No, thank Celestia… but not for lack of trying. I had to call the Royal Guard to escort them out before anypony got mounted.”

“Goodness… well I can certainly sympathize with their passion, love makes us do crazy things, after all. But still, right in the throne room…”

“It wasn’t too bad, the guards and I laughed it off afterward… they actually came back to court a couple of days later all dressed up and apologized for their behavior, and their new ‘dispute’ was to ask me to make good on my word, so I performed their marriage and that was the end of that.”

Rarity couldn’t help but coo appreciatively and clop her front hooves together. “Aww, wasn’t that nice of you. And good for them, too! I’m glad they got their happy ending.”

“Hehe, yeah, it was pretty heartwarming in the end,” Twilight agreed. “…So, was that juicy enough for you?”

“Oh, quite!” Rarity praised. “And educational too. Polyamorous marriage… well! You learn something new every day.”

“Mm… speaking of which,” Twilight changed the subject, “how’s married life been treating you, Rarity?”

The glowing grin that filled her face the instant she heard the question was probably answer enough, Rarity figured, but she couldn’t resist gushing anyway. “Oh, Twilight, it’s just wonderful. Spike is an absolute treasure. I’ve never felt so loved in all my life.”

“He’s really something special alright,” Twilight agreed. “I have to confess, when he told me he was moving in with you, I was pretty jealous. I’d gotten so used to having him around, it felt kind of lonely at home for a while when he was gone. Heh, and so many more chores to do!”

“Hehe, yes, he certainly has a helpful spirit, doesn’t he?” Rarity admitted. “He very nearly cleaned up my whole workroom one day early on before I came home and stopped him.”

Twilight smirked behind a hoof. “I can see why he tried, that place was always a mess.”

“I preferred to think of it as ‘organized chaos,’” Rarity countered coolly.

Twilight smiled wider, and seemed to sit up straighter, as though a weight was being lifted from her shoulders. “So then, you two are… happy?”

“Quite happy indeed,” Rarity affirmed, raising a curious eyebrow now. “Whyever do you ask?”

“Oh, n-no reason, really,” Twilight quickly deflected. “I was just, you know, curious. I mean, I know it doesn’t actually matter that you’re a dragon and a pony, as long as you love each other, but it is a pretty rare thing… at most it’s probably only happened once or twice in the last thousand years, and that’s only if you believe some rather unsubstantiated rumors about Princess Celestia that I would never ever in a million years ask her about.”

Twilight’s blush filled her muzzle, but Rarity was a bit too preoccupied now to notice, surprise filling her own expression. “Goodness, I… well, I knew it was probably rare, but not that rare. Why is it so unheard of?”

“Dragons and ponies don’t get along too well, historically speaking. Dragons can live perfectly fine on a diet of gems like Spike does, but most of them wouldn’t hesitate to eat a pony.”

Rarity couldn’t resist, a smirk breaking across her face. “Well, Spike does say I taste quite delicious when he’s licking my--”

“Yes, yes, I know, I walked right into that one,” Twilight swiftly cut her off, rolling her eyes a bit.

“Oh, I’m just teasing, dear. Dirty jokes aside, if you’re seriously wondering if I’ve ever been afraid of Spike actually eating me--”

“N-no, no, nothing like that!” Twilight quickly amended. “I know he wouldn’t, that’s just it. My point is that Spike proves it’s not a completely insurmountable hurdle between rational, intelligent species, but despite that, dragons and ponies still don’t have much contact, and looking strictly at romantic connections, they barely interact at all. And I couldn’t help but wonder if there were maybe more reasons for that than just, well, the usual tendency for predator and prey species to not be too friendly toward each other.” Another blush crossed her muzzle.

Rarity’s eyebrow crept upward yet again. “More reasons? Like what?”

“N-nothing really, I’m sure it’s fine,” Twilight insisted, hastening to leave the subject behind, whatever it was. “I mean, you’ve been married for years, if it was a problem it certainly would have come up by now, but if you say you’re happy then obviously it’s not a problem so I’m just spinning my wheels over nothing--”

“Twilight, what are you babbling about?” Rarity cut her off, not dissuaded in the least. “I’m not an idiot, you know, and I hardly think we need to be shy around one another, all things considered. If you want to ask me something then just ask.”

Twilight wilted instantly, and her blush grew stronger than ever. “Okay, okay, you’re right, sorry… I just couldn’t help but wonder whether… that is, if the two of you…”

“Yeeeeesss?” Rarity pressed.

“If you still… do it, now.”

Rarity blinked twice, very slowly. “…Pardon?”

Twilight cast her front hoof in a circle as she tried to better articulate herself. “I mean… I hate to point out the obvious, but Spike is pretty enormous these days. In more ways than one, assuming everything stays… proportional. He’s probably three or four times as tall as a pony, and that’s upright. And you’re still…well, a normal pony size…”

A slow smile crept onto Rarity’s face. Oh, so it’s like THAT, is it? she thought, an amused and not-unpleasant shiver running through her.

“And it’s just, well, unless I’m missing something, there’s no way that… erm… that traditional… physical intimacy is possible with such an extreme size difference between--”

“You’re asking if we still have sex,” Rarity said without hesitation, cutting Twilight’s roundabout rambling straight to the point.

Twilight, predictably, became beet red and snapped her mouth shut, responding with only a nod.

“Well, you’re right, Twilight darling, traditional intercourse went out the window some time ago. But I was not lying about being happy. Trust me, Spike makes me very happy,” she said, putting just the right emphasis on the word. “And you were also right to guess that it would surely have come up before now if it were an issue. But if you’ll allow me a deduction of my own, I’d say as smart as you are, you knew all that already before you even asked me the question in the first place. So why bring it up at all?”

Rarity leaned a bit closer before Twilight could reply, smiling over the table at her with her elbows on the table and her chin in her hooves. “Because, darling,” Rarity answered her own question, “what you’re really asking me is, how do we still have sex?”

Twilight’s mouth worked wordlessly like a fish out of water, and her wings were twitching with that excitable energy that said they were dangerously close to snapping open without being told to. Rarity allowed herself a victorious smirk at the sight.

Bulls-eye.

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t mean to… gossip,” Twilight stammered at last. “I’ve just been really curious lately about it… a strictly academic curiosity, of course… and I hoped you wouldn’t mind if I asked…”

“Well, I certainly don’t mind telling you…” Rarity assured her, smiling wider and leaning closer. “The bigger question is, do you really want to know?”

“Eh-heh…” Twilight let out a nervous chuckle. “…w-well, if you’re okay sharing, I wouldn’t mind listening--”

“Do you really want to know?” Rarity pressed. “Be honest, now.”

Twilight outright gulped this time. “…Yes. I really… really want to know.”

Rarity grinned. “Good. I’ve been dying to tell you about last night anyway.”