A She-devil in Plain Sight

Sitting on her bed, Rarity contemplated her next move while looking down at her bedroom’s floor and her bare feet.

“Applejack has finally accepted me, although begrudgingly, and my friends are aware and willing to accept me.” She muttered to herself, her left hand massaging her chin. “I have gained the stability needed to resist this for a while. Now I have to tell my parents in order to get the full support I need in order to completely dominate this illness of mine.”

She got up and walked in circles in her room, her eyes still firmly fixed on the floor.

“But it is not going to be easy, considered the entity and gravity of this. They may seriously entertain the idea to disown me, if faced with a full frontal impact.” Rarity said to herself. “So outright stating my attraction to children is not going to benefit me by any stretch of imagination. Perhaps… I could try to start a campaign hinting them about it?”

Rarity stopped to look up at the landscape outside her window, staring at it silently, before shaking it and lowering it to face the floor once more.

“No, that would only lead them to think I have done worse deeds than I actually did.” She said, going back to walk around her room. “Otherwise… could I try to find a study supporting people of my cloth and go from there?”

Rarity sat down on her bed again, massaging her forehead.

“Well, of course that would require some major research efforts in places I may get in trouble for merely looking at…” She said to herself as now squinted her eyes close in order to concentrate.”Come on, you have done this before, there is nothing new here. Introduce them, calmly but still rapidly and see where it goes.”

She looked up, staring almost blankly at the wall in front of her.

“Yeah… but how exactly?”

Before she could elaborate her plan any further, she heard her father’s voice piercing the door’s wood and resonating inside Rarity’s room.

“Move up everyone, it’s lunch time!”

At those words, Rarity fixed up her light blue shirt inside past her belt into her purple skirt, before setting off to walk through the corridors, down the stairs and into the dining room, where she was greeted by the sight of the table decked with a white and red tablecloth; a blue ceramic bowls full of salad; a water pitcher made of transparent glass and decorated with two red stripes; and a white plate oval on which several lemon-coated escalopes rested piled upon each other.

“Where’s Sweetie Belle?” Cookie Crumbles asked as she sat down onto her chair and then serving herself with some salad. “Is she out for lunch?”

“She told and father me she was going to a kebab shop or somesuch with her friends,” Rarity said, as she also sat down, before helping herself with a generous portion of salad using her knife and her fork. “I presume that, even if she were to return soon, she is not going to be famished.”

“That’s true, yeah.” Hondo Flanks said as he took up some salad with his hands and dropped it into his plate, before gripping upon the fork like a hoe and using it to skewer two escalopes, which he then brought to his plate, dripping all the way onto the tablecloth.

“Hondo!” Cookie Crumbles said, shooting daggers at him and tapping her feet.

“What?” he asked as he cut the meat.

“How times did I tell you to bring either plate close to each other before helping yourself with it?” She said, doing just as she said to grab her escalope. “Oil stains take forever to clean, y’know?”

He rolled his eyes and sighed deeply, as he put the escalopes’ plate close to Rarity’s one. Soon after, silence befell the table, the only sounds being the soft munching and crunching that came from the eating, and the occasional sound of water flowing into the glasses.

As Rarity savored the savory taste of meat and the faint acrid flavour of lemon, she went back to her considerations about how to tell her parents about her need to the final piece needed to fully assist her and stop worrying about the risks the paedophilic disorder entinced. She slowly realized what it needed to be done...

“Is something the matter, Rarity?” Cookie Crumbles asked as sudden as a thunder in the clear sky. “You’ve been so quiet of late…”

Rarity -- resisting all her instincts to jolt up and flee like a hen chased by a hungry fox -- gathered her courage and, forcing a tiny grin on her face and a confident composure, she spoke up,

“That is because I have realized that some… mechanism of my mind, shall we say, do not seem to work perfectly well.” Rarity held her right hand onto her chest, her heart increasing its speed to match the level of alert her mind projected. “I tend to look at boys much younger than me, wishing strongly to do lewd stuff with them, up and including sexual congress, and this has, of course, worried me to nearly no end.”

Cookie Crumbles titled her head and frowned, while Hondo Hooves slowly turned his head around, furrowing his left eyebrow. Rarity bit her lip to carry on.

“I am however not quite sure about whether this is actual paedophilia, or an hormonal phase I have magnified to the excess,” She said, holding her right arm forward with her palm open. “I would like to understand its nature and, in case of need, deal with it properly.”

“Rarity, I seriously hope this isn’t a joke from your part.” Cookie Crumbles. “You know that…”

“I am very well aware, mother. Do you think I would be so somber otherwise?” Rarity said with a small groan, for then look up right into her mother’s eyes.

At first, there was hostility and tension, but -- as Rarity used all her might to keep her gaze unwavering and steady -- hostility pulled back slowly and, soon, tension followed, unil Cookie Crumbles’ eyes were framed inside two wrinkly eyelids.

“You’re being honest I see.” Cookie Crumbles said with an od, before getting up to grab the salad bowl. “I’ll look out for a psychologist and a psychiatrist and pray it’ll be over, in a way or another.”

“Ah, is that all?” Hondo Hooves said while holding onto his last bite of salad, before looking sideways at his wife. “What’s the big deal? She said she wanted to get help in the first place, of course it’ll be okay!”

“I’d rather avoid spending a fortune in psychiatrist visits that turn out to be pointless.” She said.

“Do not fret, mother, for I plan to make the most out of each solitary visit.” Rarity declared. “To make so that I will not fall into despair ever again, or into depravity once and for all.”

“Yeah, yeah, now help me in clearing the table.” cookie Crumbles said as she took away her dish and brought in the kitchen. Rarity sighed, as she proceeded to take up her and her father’s dish.

“Well, this went rather smoothly.” Rarity muttered to herself, now depositing the dishes in the kitchen sink. “Pity that I will have to have the obvious stated to me, though.”

Laying on her back onto her bed’s silky sheets and enjoying the cool breeze coming from the outside, Rarity -- wearing a white hip-length nightgown and a pair of pink somewhat lacy panties -- was reading a novel from a book -- the one that Applejack had gifted her to mend the schism between her and Rarity, accompanied by a letter of apologizes -- she had set onto her bent knees.

“‘Indeed, Father Gonzalez,’ he said, as smoothly as he could manage, mentally adding the words ‘you pious prick’ as he did to everything he said to the man.” She muttered to herself as she read in the relative silence of that early summer’s night, one following the late spring’s mental struggles Rarity had faced in order to understand and reconstruct her own identity.

Before she could progress any further in her reading, the compressed sound of a bell tolling victory came from Rarity’s bedside table, prompting her to make a dogear on the page and set the book down onto the floor to instead get a grip onto her still-glowing phone and check who was contacting her and for what purpose. Rapidly going into the message folder, Rarity noticed Pinkie Pie’s name highlighted, and a fragment of her entire message displayed, revealing itself fully only when she tapped a couple of times onto it.

“Hey there Rarity!” It read. “Are you still up? ‘Cuz we’ve played music that fits you well and is also fun to play and also let Twilight have chance to play and that’ll put you and your fears asleep! ‘T all in the link below!”

Looking just below the short message, Rarity saw a string of letters highlighted in blue, which she immediately tapped onto it, in turn causing the screen to go black for a few seconds, only to reveal the music player’s blank screen as the musical piece was downloaded onto her phone. After around a minute of waiting, Rarity’s ears were hit by the sounds of a bassoon being sporadically played for a few briefs seconds, just before being replaced by the sound of hands clapping at a slow rhythm and, then, Sunset’s voice singing.

“I am Beastiality,
I carry the grim rod with me
I am the lady that lords
over you and your kin.
I am so flimsy,
Yet so powerful
And compelling
That your qualms shan't stop me.”

Then, tambourines added themselves to the bassoon’s beat, as a solitary violin playing Fa minor joined, before the other instruments faded, leaving only Sunset's singing voice and the violin.

“I am bestiality,
I carry the grim rod
I am the lady that lords.
over you and your kin.
You shall bow your head
To my wild charm,
And dance at lust's barbaric rhythm.”

Then -- after a brief lyric-less part in which all the instruments came back -- slowly but surely, the bassoon and the violin disappeared as the clapping hands faded, replaced by the sound of a carillon and by Pinkie’s voice.

“You're the guest of honor
of the dance that we're dancing for you.
Here's the dress we made for you!
Lay down your rod and dance around!
And round the turns of a volta
And then another one, and now
you aren't her lady anymore!”

And, just as this was said, the bassoon, the violin and the tambourines joined their sounds together and started to play -- in low key -- an excerpt from a danza, only interrupted by the occasional intervention of the carillon’s chimes.

All of the sudden, the other instruments dropped, only leaving a tambourine being furiously played, accompanied by a couple of whip cracks. Then, a few seconds later, a voice Rarity recognized as Roseluck putting a ‘despicable old lady singing’ impression started to chant.

“I am Fear,
I bear the crown,
I am the people’s lady..
I am so blind and pitiless,
So powerful and loved,
That your innocence shan't stop me!

I am Fear,
I bear the crown,
You shall bow your head
To my bullwhip,
And dance to Terror’s hateful rhythm.”

An instrumental.-only briefly followed, only to answered by the chimes and Pinkie’s voice.

“You're the guest of honor
of the dance that we're dancing for you.
Here's the knot we made for you!
Lay down your whip and dance around!
And round the turns of a volta
And then another one, and now
you aren't our lady anymore!

You're the guest of honor
of the dance that we're dancing for you.
Here's the knot we made for you!
Lay down your whip and dance around!
And round the turns of a volta
And then another one, and now
you aren't our lady anymore”

The violins and the bassoon played the volta another time, this time faster and almost more aggressively. The piece faded once more and all of the instruments started to being played slowly, almost solemnly. Then, finally, after the long and drawn-out piece, much to Rarity’s surprise, Lemon Turner started to sing with the most growling voice she had ever heard him use.

“I am Death,
I bear the crown,
I am everyone’'s lord
I am so cruel,
I am so strong and harsh,
That your walls shan't stop me!

I am Death,
I bear the crown,
You shall bow your head
To my scythe,
And dance to Death's grim rhythm!”

The music kept on going, as solemn and heavy as it had started, droning inside Rarity’s ears like a gloomy march. This was soon interrupted, as Pinkie and her chimes spoke up once more, this time as loudly as possible.

“You're the guest of honor
Of the majestic dance
We are dancing just for you.
Lay down your scythe
And dance round and round.
A turn of a volta
And then another one
And now you aren't time’s lord anymore.

You're the guest of honor
Of the majestic dance
We are dancing just for you.

You're the guest of honor
Of the majestic dance
We are dancing just for you.
You're the guest of honor
Of the majestic dance
We are dancing just for you.
A turn of a volta
And then another one
And now you aren't time’s lord anymore!”

Now, only the carillion's chimes remained, playing a slow, soothing piece.

Rarity sniffled, a sense of warmth radiating from her chest as she slowly but surely processed what her friends had just done for her. Two tears slid down her cheeks, for the first time in weeks wetting her cheeks due to a positive feeling, rather than anguish.

She fell down and sighed deeply, closing her eyes and letting the chimes carry her to a peaceful and untroubled sleep, sure that her greatest worry was not going to chase her the next dawn, nor in the in any of the ones that were going to follow afterwards forevermore.

"Tragoedia Praetexta fabula est, plaudite!" She muttered to herself, before fully falling asleep.