Her quest to speak with Applejack thwarted, Rarity went to go huff on the theater stage. It felt ironic in a way, that she would spend so much time being dramatic on the stage, but with no audience to benefit. The theater seats were empty, no one having any interest in a theater with no productions.

It was one of many ways in which Rarity felt she could relate to the old building, and she utterly hated it.

Rarity heard hoofsteps coming her way and she sighed bitterly as she forced herself to stand. It was time to turn on the charm yet again, which felt like little more than a chore. Though her tune changed when she saw the source of the hoofsteps walking into the stage room, and saw that it was one Twilight Sparkle, who Rarity was actually quite eager to talk to.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Rarity clapped her hands, getting Twilight’s attention because of course she did; no one could ignore Rarity. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Um, I was just looking around,” Twilight said sheepishly, fiddling with her glasses, “if that’s alright.”

“Of course, of course,” Rarity nodded and hopped off the stage in front of Twilight, but not too close as she could tell Twilight was— perhaps justifiably— uneasy around her. “You may explore my little kingdom to your heart’s content. Please, make yourself at home.” Rarity then did a little curtsy with the edges of her cape for good measure.

“Thank you,” Twilight said flatly. This wouldn’t do.

“So, Twilight Sparkle,” Rarity said, hoping that using the mare’s full name in such a cumbersome manner would prompt Twilight to say ‘oh please, just call me Twilight’ or something similar, but no such luck. She needed an ‘in’, and to Rarity’s good fortune, she believed she had one. “How did you end up working with our dear miss Sunset Shimmer?”

“Sunset Shimmer?” Twilight asked skeptically, a bitter frown marring her otherwise pretty face as she held her arms across her chest defensively. “Why do you want to know about her?”

“Umm,” did Rarity actually care about Sunset Shimmer? Hmm, a little, perhaps. She was vastly more interested in Twilight, but Sunset was an intriguing curiosity. Demons often were, and especially the pretty ones. “It’s less that I want to know about her, though I am interested in her as well, and more that I was trying to simply break the ice with you.

“I’m interested in you, and I mean in you, not simply in your soul, and I would like to understand you better, but I can tell that you still don’t entirely trust me, and I can understand why.”

Now Rarity needed to decide if she wanted to lay it on thick, to passive-aggressively say that if Twilight didn’t want to get to know Rarity, there was nothing she could do. She elected not to say any such thing however, as Rarity didn’t know Twilight well enough to guarantee it would work, and in fact she suspected that this seemingly very sincere pony would see right through a trick like that.

“Those are a lot of nice words,” Twilight said guardedly, “but of course you understand why I can’t take you at just your word.”

“Of course,” Rarity bowed her head. “Though I fear if we continue to speak to one another each worried the other is holding a knife behind their back, our productive dialogue that I had planned won’t really be getting us anywhere.”

“You may be right,” Twilight let her arm fall to her side; a good sign, though Rarity could still see the tension in the mare’s body. “I honestly do want to trust you, but… I mean…”

“A stunningly beautiful vampire goddess running a squalid kingdom doesn’t exactly inspire blind faith where you’re from?” Rarity said playfully, putting her hands on her hips and swaying them back and forth so that Twilight could really drink in every detail of her body, if only for just a moment.

“R-right, something like that,” Twilight said, her eyes glued to Rarity’s hips. Now she was getting somewhere.

“Hey,” Sunset barked as she walked into the stage room, Twilight’s eyes lighting up and Rarity’s practically doing the opposite, “don’t just go talking to my Twilight.”

“Your Twilight?” Rarity asked cheekily, crossing her arms and cocking her head.

“Y-y’know what I mean,” Sunset replied shortly.

“No, do go on, Sunset,” Twilight chuckled. “I wasn’t aware I was your Twilight now. Shouldn’t you at least get me a collar? Write your initials on me someplace?”

“I can get you a collar,” Sunset and Rarity said at the same time, the two women immediately glaring each other in the eyes as Twilight chuckled into her fist.

“Geez, maybe you two should get to know each other,” Twilight said drolly. “You already have so much in common.”

“Alright, we’re leaving,” Sunset grabbed Twilight by the wrist and started to drag her away, though Twilight dug her hooves in and stopped Sunset, whispering something to her. Sunset looked displeased but she rolled her eyes and loosened her grip on the unicorn, though she didn’t entirely let go.

“We should talk, Rarity,” Twilight said, and Rarity nodded at the obviousness of her statement, Twilight taking the hint and awkwardly pushing up her glasses and looking away as she searched for a continuation of that sentence. “Uh, I mean, I would like to talk to you about the soul. You, and me and Sunset, and Applejack too. Tonight, if that’s possible.”

“How about over food and drinks?” Rarity asked with a gleam in her eye. “You must miss them terribly, being away from the surface.”

“Ohhh, that does sound good…” Twilight mused, clearly already salivating.

“C’mon, Twilight,” Sunset griped. “Don’t just agree to drinks with a stranger.”

“Uh, right,” Twilight cleared her throat. “But you’ll be there to protect me, so there’s no problem.”

“Er, well,” Sunset blushed and itched her cheek.

“Rarity, I would like that very much,” Twilight bowed her head, and Rarity returned the gesture instinctively.

“I’ll send some fresh clothes up to your room for you,” Rarity said. “You’ll be able to look a mite more presentable, and if you would like, we also have showers available.”

“Yeah, we’ll pa—”

“Thank you, Rarity,” Twilight interrupted Sunset, who look none too pleased by it. “We’ll see you at dinner.”

“Looking forward to it,” Rarity said pleasantly as she watched Twilight leave, and then licked her lips, “darling.”

gettin back to my roots with some good ol' fashioned raritwi
only, y'know... Eviler