Rarity brushed Coco Pommel’s short, silky hair as the young lady sat in a chair with her queen standing behind her. Obviously Rarity was still a mite disappointed that Coco had let the soul slip through her grasp, but that didn’t do anything to diminish the woman’s beauty, which was radiant enough for even a queen to take notice.

In fact, her beauty was such that Rarity couldn’t let herself be limited to merely touching her hair, and the queen put her hands on Coco’s chest, the young lady gasping as Rarity slid her hands up the mare’s shirt, Coco biting her lip and moaning as Rarity kissed her neck.

Oh the things she wanted to do to Coco… which would need to wait until there wasn’t pressing business at hand.

Rarity backed away lest she get completely enveloped by her desire to ravish Coco’s body, and Coco let out a pitiable whine.

“Lady Rarity,” she turned to look at Rarity over her shoulder, “I’m sorry that I—”

Rarity silenced Coco with a kiss to her lips, Coco melting into Rarity’s embrace as the queen took her in her arms, helping her stand on wobbly legs and squeezing her ass for good measure.

“No apologies, my darling,” Rarity whispered and brushed Coco’s bangs. “What’s done is done, and we can wait for them to come to us instead.”

Rarity felt like she sounded pretty confident, but the truth was she was… anxious. She could practically feel the Flim Flam Brothers and the Nightmare breathing down her neck, and now she had lost one of her major ways of swinging the momentum in her favor. Two, if one were to count Applejack, though how reliable she could actually be was still up in the air.

At least she still had Twilight.

“Coco,” Rarity purred and graced Coco with a kiss on her neck, “why don’t you go wait for me in my bedchambers? I’ll be with you in a moment.”

“Yes, lady Rarity,” Coco smiled and nodded her head, trying in vain to hide her excitement. Truth be told, Rarity was quite excited as well at the prospect of having Coco, Coloratura, and Twilight all to herself. A fun night was in store for her.

And yet, as Coco left and Rarity felt herself pulled not to her bedchambers, but to her vip box, she felt an emptiness in her heart.

She was stressed.

She was ready to tear her damn hair out.

She still had Twilight, that much she could count on, but with no soul, no Applejack, and the werewolf along with Sunset Shimmer on the loose and fully aware of Rarity’s antagonism toward them… Rarity was steadily losing control of this situation and she did not like that.

Rarity had thought herself to be in control of this situation, and yet every moment it felt like it was slipping further and further away from her. And perhaps she was worried over nothing. Sunset and Applejack were still no match for her, right? They were mere First Circle monsters, and Rarity hailed from the Fifth Circle! The gap in power was immense!

…right?

Truth be told, Rarity had felt her power steadily weakening since being banished from the Fifth Circle. Her skill and abilities were one thing, but without access to the Fifth Circle’s bountiful amounts of magic, stuck instead to try and scrape the bottom of the barrel of the First Circle’s meager supply, there was only so much Rarity could flex her power.

There was a good reason Rarity relied now on so many hexes, to the point of covering nearly every inch of her theater with them. If she was caught off-guard, she might—

No. No sense in thinking such things right now. Rarity was simply over worrying.

She needed to figure out what to do about Sunset Shimmer and Applejack, and frankly what she would do about Twilight Sparkle as well, along with Coloratura and Coco and oh fuck Autumn Blaze was still a consideration as well, not to mention she needed to rid herself of the damn Flim Flam Brothers, and—

Okay, now she was panicking a little.

She put a hand over her chest and took slow, deep breaths.

Calm down, Rarity. Calm down. Panic isn’t befitting of a queen.

Okay.

Okay…

The solutions would come to her in time. For now, there were three beautiful women eagerly awaiting her arrival in her bedchambers, and thinking about it now Rarity realized what a fool she was to keep them waiting. Any plans or schemes could wait until after Rarity had enjoyed herself.

Rarity took a few more minutes to compose herself and make sure she was in top form for her ladies, before exiting the vip box and strutting down the stairs into the stage room, where her mood immediately soured upon being met by two gangly werewolves.

“Flim. Flam. To what do I owe the displeasure?” Rarity said coldly, cocking her weight to one side and putting a hand on her hip.

“Honestly, so rude,” Flim clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Isn’t that rude, brother?”

“Why it certainly is, brother!” Flam scoffed and crossed his arms. “And here we were coming to congratulate our dear lady Rarity!”

“Congratulate…?” Rarity scowled and narrowed her eyes.

“Why of course!” Flim cheered and clasped his hands.

“On your successful acquisition of a brand new pony soul!” Flam grinned ear to ear, Rarity gritting her teeth behind a scowl that grew more resentful every second that she was forced to listen to the venom in this pair’s words.

“Oh but wait!” Flim said in a faux revelatory tone, holding up a single finger.

“Oh that’s right!” Flam snapped his fingers, before the two glared daggers at Rarity and spoke in eerie unison.

“You don’t have the soul, do you?”

“I will have it,” Rarity said defensively. “And it’s not as though I’m indebted to you two. I made you a deal but there was no timeline for it. I’ll have my soul, you both will have your Applejack, so I don’t see why you’re bothering me now.”

“The nature of business is ever changing, dear Rarity,” Flim said, slime practically oozing off his greasy tongue.

“And between your recent failure,” Flam pondered, tapping his mustachioed lip, “and a couple of recent acquisitions of our own, we see fit to alter the deal, as it were.”

“I’m still in control of this situation!” Rarity balked, feeling as if that statement was becoming less true even as she spoke. “That demon with the soul will have to come to me, because I have Twilight—”

“Oh, she doesn’t know,” Flim gasped mockingly, hand over his heart.

“She doesn’t know,” Flam echoed, hanging and shaking his head in parodic sadness.

“What,” Rarity barked through gritted teeth.

“Your little Twilight Sparkle has already escaped your grasp, dear Rarity,” Flam said, his teeth like razors as he grinned ear to ear.

“Your little Coloratura freed her, in fact!” Flim added, choking back a laugh as the light drained from Rarity’s face. “Which means yet another resource you’ve lost, it seems.”

“How much does that leave her with, brother?” Flam hummed, looking at Flim.

“Not much, I’m afraid,” Flim shook his head and clicked his tongue.

“Very little indeed,” Flam sighed.

“No! Shut up!” Rarity screamed. “I don’t believe this! Coloratura wouldn’t just betray me! She wouldn’t just—I—you two are lying! Why should I believe anything you idiots say!?”

“Ooh, such harsh language,” Flim said.

“Quite uncalled for, I think,” Flam huffed.

“Anyway, you can ask her for yourself if you’re so certain, dear Rarity,” Flim said, wagging his finger at Rarity.

“But first! We need to have a little chat!” Flam added, stepping in front of his brother.

“Quite right!” Flim chimed in, stepping even closer, with Rarity taking a step back out of instinct.

“If you have something to say,” Rarity growled, “then spit it out or get the hell out of my way.”

“Again with the language,” Flim shook his head.

“Rude!” Flam huffed, and Rarity’s eye twitched as these two slowly but surely were driving her to madness.

“Anyhow,” Flim cleared his throat, and the glint in his eye warned Rarity that he was about to become serious. “Rarity, with your rapidly dwindling resources and recent string of failures—”

“Humiliating failures!” Flam chimed in.

“Humiliating failures,” Flim corrected, a bright red heat stinging Rarity’s cheeks. “My brother and I have come to the conclusion that the only real resource you have left is control over the Circle itself.”

“And before you lose that too,” Flam added, “in another of your trademark embarrassing failures—”

“Humiliating failures!” Flim corrected.

“Humiliating failures,” Flam nodded. “My brother and I have seen fit to unburden you with your position of command.”

“So,” Rarity choked out a single laugh, “you’re mutinying, basically.”

“We prefer to think of it as…” Flam hummed and tapped his chin.

“Resource redistribution!” Flim happily chirped, raising his finger.

“If you think I’m going to just hand control of the Circle over to you,” Rarity let out a bitter laugh, “if you think I’m going to let the Nightmare take everything from me again,” Rarity summoned three mannequins bequeathed in beautiful garments that she designed, “you’ll find yourselves quite fatally mistaken.”

“Oh dear Rarity, please,” Flim scoffed and Flam laughed, the pair’s horns lighting up as they summoned several armed and armored machines before them. “We came prepared.”

lmao flim and flam are so much fun holy shit