Music for the Masses

Rarity hummed to herself quietly as continued to sew. She was backed up on requests after so much neglect of her actual job. However, nopony knew this except her. There was something wrong, and she couldn't exactly put her hoof on it.

Then, it hit her. There was no music playing!

Rarity changed that immediately. She quickly put on a record that appealed to her, one with a sandy cover and a picture of red speakers. She loved this record quite a lot, and played it frequently. She started it up quietly, nodding along to the rhythm and sewing onward.

Sweetie Belle entered the boutique in a huff, sighing and slamming the door behind her. She looked extremely frustrated, and she quickly ran and sat down next to Rarity. The purple-maned mare looked up from her machine and quickly paused her music.

"Whatever is the matter, Sweetie Belle?" she asked, genuinely concerned.

"Rarity, I'm really upset!" Sweetie sighed. She looked absolutely downtrodden.

"Why are you upset?" Rarity asked, turning off her sewing machine and taking a seat next to her sister.

"I still don't have my cutie mark," Sweetie explained, "and everybody else does. I just don't see why they're so special!"

Rarity was taken aback, absolutely startled. Cutie marks were extremely important! At least...weren't they? Rarity suddenly realized that she wasn't truly enjoying her career anymore, the one her cutie mark guaranteed she would go into. She was instead enjoying a night-time career of being a disc jockey, and it gave her a severe sense of fulfillment. She stared into the distance, flabbergasted.

"What does a cutie mark mean, Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked, looking at Rarity's flank. The diamonds there had always been a source of pride for Rarity, but now she wasn't sure they really meant anything.

"I..." Rarity stuttered, "Well, you see Sweetie Belle, a cutie mark is kind of...sacred."

"Sacred?" Sweetie asked.

"Holy," Rarity explained.

"How?"

"Well, it represents your special talent. If you follow what your cutie mark tells you, you can't ever really be led astray. For me, I know that my jewel-finding magic and the ability to add gems to clothing is truly what I want to do."

Rarity was lying.

***

"Rarity, oh my Celestia, she is hot!" Rainbow Dash bragged up Vinyl Scratch to Rarity, who pretended not to be too terribly interested.

"That's quite nice, Rainbow Dash," she said, "but I must say hearing about your sexual escapades can make me rather uncomfortable."

Dash laughed, her wings flapping away happily. Rarity took another sip of her coffee gingerly, trying to act as little like Vinyl as possible.

The two friends were sitting in a local coffee shop, definitely not the kind of place Vinyl would hang out. In fact, Rarity was surprised that she had roped Rainbow Dash into coming with her at all. Rainbow Dash had started hanging out with her more, and compromising more. Since Dash had become impressed with Rarity's loyal behavior, she was willing to act less and less like herself.

"So, what is it you wanted to tell me?" Rainbow Dash asked, slurping loudly at her vanilla frappucino. It was a sweet, not-caffeinated drink. Dash couldn't handle anything that tasted bitter, which was something Rarity had learned to observe.

"So... here is my confession," Rarity began, sighing. Dash grinned eagerly at the words. "It's an obsession; I'm a firm believer-"

"Ugh, cut to the chase," Dash sighed, waving her hoof in the air impatiently. She didn't really understand Rarity when she talked this way.

"Well...I'm not happy with my cutie mark. I don't think I really want to sew anymore," Rarity admitted, feeling ashamed. Dash's jaw dropped, and she flew a foot or two off her chair; dragged by her wings, of course.

"What?!" Dash almost shouted.

"Shh!" Rarity shushed her, looking around. She didn't want to draw any attention to herself. Dash slowly drifted down into her chair again.

"Well, what do you want to do instead?" Dash asked immediately.

"I... I don't know... music?"

"Music?" Rainbow Dash looked absolutely stunned and confused. "I didn't even know that you liked music!"

"Well, I do," Rarity explained quite indignantly, sipping once more at her coffee.

"Explain!" Dash demanded, extremely curious.

"Well, I can't really explain very well. I'd have to put it in words, write it down," Rarity was extremely embarrassed. Rainbow Dash casually reached into her hair and pulled out a pencil. She passed it to Rarity calmly, and Rarity was astounded.

"Hey, I'm a writer now!" Dash defended herself, "I gotta keep a pencil on me at all times. I have ideas to write down. By the way, the novel is just awesome."

Rarity laughed, enjoying her friend's confidence, and wrote down her feels on a napkin.

I feel like music is my duty. I'm a missionary. And I've made my decision, this is religion! There's no doubt.

She passed it to Dash inconspicuously. Dash read it, smiled with understanding.

So your one of the devout, are ya?

Dash wrote. Rarity looked at it, and smirked at Dash's grammatical error. She cut her multicolored friend some slack, however since she was still learning.

Yes. Music is just so...sacred.