Rarity rapped on the door to the spa again. “Girls! I know it’s late.”

The moon drifted behind a cloud.

“I’ll pay double—no!—triple the normal rate.”

The latch juddered as the cloud drifted away, and the door cracked open.

“Rarity?” Aloe poked her head out, blinking clear eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, you have no idea how much I need your help.” She stepped up closer to the door. “I know it’s past business hours, but I simply could not survive another hour. I didn’t wake you?”

“No…” Aloe stepped back, brushing a hoof against her muzzle, and ducked her head. “But it’s so late, I'm sorry, I—we can't.” She glanced inside, jerked her eyes forward, and started to close the door. “It’s very late.”

“Did I say triple? As much as you want.” Rarity took a quick step forward and put her hoof in the door. “I really do need your help.”

Aloe scurried back into the spa, covering her muzzle.

Rarity followed after, smiling. “Oh, thank you dear.” The smell flowed over her, weaker than the usual incense, musky, heady, sensual. She smiled and winked. “Oh my. Having some midnight fun on your own?”

“Oh…” Aloe dropped her foreleg and twisted about to look at the door back to the apartments. “Heh. Yes. Alone.”

“I shan’t keep you from your—” Rarity nudged Aloe’s shoulder lightly. “—entertainments long. I know how much that can relax a mare.”

“Er… yes.”

“Are you alright?” Rarity stepped past, into the spa proper, and closed the door with a thump. “You seem—”

A door creaked in the back. 

“Aloe?” That voice… so familiar.

Aloe winced, darted backwards, and snapped her tail. “Please, Rarity. I promise we’ll give you a full spa day tomorrow. Free. Just, please—”

“Aloe? Who was it?”

Aloe closed her eyes and sat down heavily, head lowered.

Lotus stepped out of the back, a rag on one hoof. She froze, widening eyes locked on Rarity.

Rarity stared at Lotus. She took another deep breath through her nose. The musk, stronger, filled her nose.

“Oh…”

Aloe’s damp muzzle, her rumpled mane, her pampered hooves, and Lotus, a mirror of her sister. Their guilty looks.

“Oh my.”



[i]Their home really is very lovely[/i], Rarity thought. Warmth flowed from every angle of the room, every golden-hued wall hanging. 

A cup of tea steamed quietly in front of her. Her favorite blend, perfectly brewed, as always, by Lotus.

The two sisters sat across from her, heads down, throwing looks at each other and Rarity.

She picked up the cup, bent to sniff at it, and frowned. The teacup trembled in midair.

She set it back down again.

“Why?”

Aloe glanced at Lotus, who nodded, then at Rarity. “We were raised apart.”

“We never knew each other, growing up. We only knew… later.”

Rarity’s eye twitched. “Why. Not how.” She picked up the tea again and took a sip, savoring the familiar, clean taste. The cup wobbled.

“We love each other,” they said in perfect synchronicity, sharing another lingering look.

The teacup jerked, tea splashed, and she set it down firmly. “And I love Sweetie Belle! But I don’t want to—to screw her!” Rarity shuddered. “How could you?”

Silence fell between them, palpable as the wisp of incense drifting by. Even through the jasmine and thyme, Rarity fancied she could still smell the aftermath.

“We’re not sisters, in our hearts.” Lotus leaned over to nuzzle Aloe’s cheek. “We never were.”

“Have you ever tried to stop wanting something?” Aloe tucked Lotus’s muzzle under her chin. “We have.”

“In our heads, it's wrong,” Lotus murmured. “In my heart…”

“And mine.”

“We can't stop loving each other.”

“Because you couldn’t stop [i]wanting[/i] each other, you’ve just decided it’s okay?”

“Stop loving your sister," Aloe snapped. "Right now. Do it.”

"I can't. I do love her—” Rarity's stomach roiled.

“Yes, but not like us," Lotus said.

"And like you, we don't want to change.”

Rarity sighed. "And I didn’t see it... How?”

“We didn’t want you to. We didn’t want anypony to know,” Lotus said.

Aloe pulled her sister closer. “Can you keep our secret?”

“I don’t know.”

“Please, as a friend.” Lotus lifted her head. “At least let us tell it our way.”

“You would tell others?”

“So they hear it from us, from the source. Not from rumor. Please.”

Rarity watched the two sisters holding each other close. Her friends.

In love.

“No.” Rarity turned away, softening her tone. “You won’t have to tell anypony.”