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    This ficlet was written as part of the Omega tier reward in my Ko-fi where I write stories based on prompts from supporters! c:

    PROMPT SPOILER BELOW

    BGAU, Rarity gets serious about studying some princessy thing and wears glasses to focus, and Twilight is like “holy shit I’m actually really into this look”


    Twilight Sparkle stared at the princess across the room, completely gobsmacked. 

    “What do you mean you ‘guess’ you should wear your spectacles?” 

    Princess Rarity looked up from her desk, furrowing her brow. “…Yes? Father told me I need to be prepared for my meeting with the dignitaries, so I suppose I should take my reading seriously.” 

    Twilight blinked at her, struggling to piece words together for almost a full half-minute before she finally settled on blurting out: “You need spectacles?” 

    Because until that very moment, Twilight Sparkle, who thought she knew everything about Princess Rarity, apparently did not know that the princesses needed glasses. 

    “Why didn’t I know this?” she asked next. What else didn’t she know? 

    “Because I never wear them, obviously. And the doctor gave them to me when I was a filly, so you’d have no reason to know.”  

    “Oh.” Twilight relaxed slightly at this. Well, that was reassuring, at least. They were probably just to avoid minor eye strain. “So you don’t even really need them?” 

    “Oh no, I do,” Rarity said, looking back to her book on the desk. “The doctor said I was well on my way to being practically blind. I used only to have a hard time looking at faraway things, but now I can’t see up close, either.” 

    What?!” Twilight gasped. “Princess!” 

    “What, Twilight?” Princess Rarity shot back, annoyed. “It’s perfectly fine! I’ve managed for years! Plenty of ponyfolk can’t even afford to wear spectacles, so it’s only fair I share their burden as their princess!” 

    Twilight frowned. “Please tell me you’re not serious.” 

    “Okay, fine!” Rarity exclaimed. “If you must know, I dislike how I look wearing spectacles, alright?! I look like my foalhood tutor, Madame Bluebloom!” 

    “So you’d rather be blind?!” 

    Rarity rolled her eyes and looked back to her book. “I don’t know why this is such a big deal to you.” She then looked up and pointed an accusing hoof at her guard. “In fact, I don’t even know why this entire thing is a surprise! I thought you already knew I was blind, considering how much I have to squint to be able to see during those stupid weekly meetings with all of father’s friends in the war room.” 

    Twilight paused, going through her recollection of said events. 

    “Wait. That was you squinting? I thought you just hated being there and were glaring at everypony!” 

    The princess resumed her reading. “Oh, I do. Having to squint solves two problems at once: my sight and voicing my displeasure.” 

    To Princess Rarity’s credit, that was pretty funny. Not that Twilight could let her know, so she swallowed down a smile and instead stamped her hoof on the floor. 

    “Princess! Do you even realize how dangerous that is? You can’t afford not to see properly. What if you put yourself in a dangerous situation because you can’t see?”

    Rarity cocked her head to the side, confused. “That wouldn’t happen. You’d be there and see it for me.” When Twilight slapped her hoof against her face, Rarity whined loudly. “Twilight, you’re making a fuss out of nothing! I’ll have you know I’ve become very adept at distinguishing between colored blobs!”

    “Princess!”

    “What?!”

    “Please, Princess,” Twilight said, rubbing a hoof against her eyes. “Just put them on.”

    “That’s what I was going to do!” Rarity protested. “Before you twisted your chain mail into a knot for no reason!” Begrudgingly, she levitated over a purple case and retrieved a dusty pair of thin, red spectacles. She cleaned them off with a nearby tissue, put them on, and then looked at Twilight expectantly. “There! Happy?” 

    Twilight Sparkle said nothing. She wanted to, mind, but staring at the aggravated princess who’d suddenly become exponentially cuter with the new addition of glasses, well…

    Well. Uhm. 

    “What?” Princess Rarity asked, her eyes seeming slightly larger due to the lenses and making her pout very cute. “What’s wrong?”

    “Nothing! Sorry,” Twilight replied, immediately looking away and mentally scolding herself. Finally, she cleared her throat and gestured to the book as she carefully examined the wall over there. “Go back to your studying.”

    “But what’s wrong?” the princess insisted. 

    Nothing, Your Highness,” Twilight stressed, forcing herself to look back at Rarity, who was now squinting at her through the glasses, which was stupid because she could see now, but she looked really cute. “Do they work alright?”

    If the princess was suspicious, she did not follow through on the feeling. 

    “They do, yes,” she replied, relaxing her posture. “They’re a little small, though.”

    As if to demonstrate the fact, the glasses slid down the bridge of her nose, forcing her to push them back with the cutest little ‘hmph!’ which succeeded in making Twilight Sparkle vividly remember she could, in fact, sometimes be a silly little mare with an embarrassingly unprofessional crush on the princess. 

    “See!” said the princess, pushing them back when they slid down yet again. “They’re so annoying! I’m taking them off.”

    No!” Twilight blurted out, wishing she could immediately jump into the castle moat. 

    To make matters worse, all her hopes of somehow saving the situation were assassinated when Princess Rarity blinked. “No?” she asked, the innocence of the question dying the second she rested her chin on her hoof and continued with a hay-eating grin, “Whatever do you mean ‘no’, dearest Twilight?”

    Oh, Goddesses, damn me.

    “B-Because your eyesight is important,” Twilight stammered, feeling as red hot as the princess’ glasses. “As I-I said, you could be in danger if you can’t see properly.”

    The princess fluttered her eyelashes. “Oh my, really? I don’t know about that, Twilight. I don’t think they’re working properly, honestly.” She took them off and idly wiped them as she spoke. “They’ve given you the strangest shade of red, and you’ve been acting odd since I put them on! Why, you are my personal guard. Wouldn’t want you to be—” She put them back on and the malicious grin returned: “—Distracted.”

    Poof!

    “You know what?” Twilight Sparkle said, her horn’s magic fading out as she pointedly avoided looking at the suddenly glasses-less princess. “You’re right. You don’t need them.”

    “But, da-a-a-arling—”

    “Nope.”


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    15 Comments

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    1. Gearcrow
      Apr 26, '23 at 1:22 am

      Still catching up on stuff, and this is just wildly adorable. Much needed bedtime reading.

    2. A Deer
      Jan 21, '23 at 10:34 am

      Can’t blame Twilight. Rarity does make glasses very stylish – as shown in the nice artwork up top. But Twilight needs to keep from getting distracted while on duty. Maybe a pair of horse blinders?

      This story was fun. Like a bite sized Raritwilight cookie. Tastes like purple! A truly delicious color. Loved the whole interaction in this story.

    3. Anonymous Guest
      Dec 26, '22 at 6:13 pm

      GOOD!!!

    4. Naduran
      Dec 14, '22 at 8:07 am

      Well. Uhm. 

      Twilight.exe have encountered an unexpected cuteness and have stop working.

    5. ShadowLDrago
      Dec 14, '22 at 2:02 am

      Twilight: exists

      Rarity: Darling intensifies

    6. SigmasonicX
      Dec 13, '22 at 10:32 pm

      I love how this came out, and how you incorporated the bad eyesight headcanon for why Rarity uses half-lidded eyes so often. Regarding how this fits into canon, we can assume Rarity’s eyesight isn’t quite as bad as she’s making it seem. It works well enough for her cute mare detector to go off accurately.

      Oh, and that cover art is great. I can definitely see why Twilight reacted the way she did.

      Last edited on Dec 13, '22 at 10:33 pm.
    7. moe
      Dec 13, '22 at 8:15 pm

      this is adorable and i loved it. kudos!

    8. Lrom
      Dec 13, '22 at 7:11 pm

      And interestingly enough, after this day rarity couldn’t be caught without her glasses.

      Also I remember that old headcanon that rarity squints as if she’s being flirty and mysterious but in actuality it’s because shes half blind and thus refers to everyone as darling to avoid misidentifying others. Idk if this is a call back to that but it’s nice to see a fleshed out version.

      1. @LromDec 13, '22 at 7:13 pm

        Honestly when I saw that prompt, one of my first immediate thoughts was “THIS IS THE STORY WHERE I CAN ADD THE RARITY SQUINTING HEADCANON LMAO” ahahahaha

        Very pleased by the happy coincidence

        1. Common
          @MonochromaticDec 13, '22 at 8:28 pm

          I remember this from the Tumblr days! I loved the idea that the reason she did the chin thing was so she could clearly see Twilight 😍

    9. Dimbulb
      Dec 13, '22 at 6:58 pm

      Aww, that was nice. How DID Rares find Twi attractive at first if she couldn’t see her that well? Or am I misremembering things. I need to reread the BG!au stuff again.

      1. @DimbulbDec 13, '22 at 7:00 pm

        She just knew.

        ((You’re not misremembering, I just made this up for the ficlet shhhhhhhhh))

        1. Dimbulb
          @MonochromaticDec 13, '22 at 7:29 pm

          She just went like, “Gasp, that purple blob looks really hot”

    10. Anonymous Guest
      Dec 13, '22 at 6:55 pm

      Ponies always make passes at mares who wear glasses!