A She-devil in Plain Sight

Once she was back home from the park, Rarity proceeded to run into her room and jump onto her bed. Her heart was racing inside her chest, a maelstrom -- one mixing her lust's opinion on the apparently wasted opportunity that was escorting Hummingbird to the bathroom with her morality's reprimands on the mere consideration of the aforementioned possibility and one that showed her a little-variated loop of her fate, should she had caved in the unspeakable in that moment -- ravaged her mind and her eyes produced salty teardrops of angst.

"Why did I have to be like this?" Rarity whispered to herself, crashing down onto her bed with a thump, creating a crater shaped like her onto the eburnean silky sheets, her tears flowing out in creeks down her cheeks. "I don't think my parents have ever touched me there, unless it was necessary, nor I think they would have caused so much grief to somebody to deserve to have a daughter that has seen the light with such a grave flaw. Then what did I do, if I wasn't born like this? What should I do to make this stop?"

A soft knock at the door was heard, derailing Rarity's already-botched train of thought and prompting her to turn her head to the door as quick as a musket's flash.

"Is something the matter sis?" Sweetie Belle spoke -- her tone apprehensive -- from behind the closed door. "Do you anything? A cup of tea, a coffee, something else?"

Opening her mouth, she was going to speak up about the issue that was disturbing her peace and causing her marked distress. Alas, as much as she wanted to talk, her words died on her tongue, her lips and jaw moving but producing no sounds but extremely low hisses and a handful of clicks. Her heart sunk and clenched, her instincts telling her to not speak up about the topic and carry on as normal, while her head pulsed and nearly burnt, as her intellect was ordering her to do the exact opposite and let the truth illuminate Sweetie Belle and the rest of her family. The thunder rang in one of her ears and in the other a harpsichord played. Her right trembled and her left stood still. Her left eyes went foggy in its vision, the other eye captured every minute detail of everything visible from there at relatively great distance.

In this whirlwind, words attacked and stomped onto each other like in a chaotic melee of the eldest times of human history, and different tones of voice tried to lead their subordinate verbs to victory and, thus, vocalization.

"No I do not need anything thanks!" Rarity said in her attempt to escape the torment, which worked because she felt the violent plurality previous sensation rapidly waning and begin replaced by one, single, solitary feeling of averted danger and suffering, that caused Rarity to limply let down her limp and deeply sigh.

“Oh, alrighty then, it’s just that you looked very upset or worried about something,” Sweetie Belle said. Her voice was then replaced by the muffled and waning sounds of her shoes hitting the wooden floor.

Rarity then slowly sat up and turned her head around to take a look at her small personal library on her left side. Scanning from top to bottom, she looked for some delightful readings to get all of her negative thoughts off her chest, until she noticed a book with an ancient white cover showing a few stains of unknown origin, which however did nothing to hide the title, written in black and orange letters.

“Lolita? I like the name,” Rarity said as she got up and stood on her toes in order to reach and grab the book. “This should be a fine read…”

She hopped back onto her bed and laid on her back, opened the book, read a few pages, then proceeded to slam the book shut, an uneasy grin on her face.

“Okay, maybe not…”

A week passed by, but Rarity was still shaken debaclè she had in the park. Not only the memory of Hoopoe haunted her but she herself kept nagging her about the possible ramifications of that day, her conscience calling up the moral law inside her in order to prove how wrong the mere thought was and ordering Rarity to go through an unknown purification process, and her lust dejectedly lamenting the wasted opportunity offered by a child that utterly trusted her for his safety and that had done half of the work for her while urinating.

In fact, it regretted the averted act and longed for another occasion to exploit a child so much, that when lust called Rarity behind its closed doors, it offered this illusion to her senses, repulsing Rarity but not enough to break its spell and stop, and prompting Rarity to feel powerful malaise deep down her shortly after the high. As result of this, she -- not without doubts on its effectiveness and unwillingness to go through it -- decided to lock down Lust’s palace door, the effect of which joined the long list of factors of distress put onto her mind.

Applejack -- wearing a red checkered shirt and jeans -- rapidly walked inside Canterlot High’s music room holding a transparent envelope containing a few sheets of paper in her right hand.

“Hey girls, Ah think got somethin’ nice to practice on today for Pinkie’s party next week, instead of ‘Johnny’.”she said while placing the envelope onto the larger drum of the drum set. This action made attracted everyone's attention; Rainbow Dash stopped idly strumming away on an untuned electric guitar while sitting atop of a low loudspeaker; Fluttershy put her hair comber down onto the stage on which border she was sitting on; Sunset Shimmer closed and folded the newspaper she was reading; and, finally, Rarity was shaken out of her thoughtful silence, the subject of which begin the day ahead of her and the risks involved in talking about her sinister feelings to her friends, if it that was going to bring more benefits than troubles or the -- scary but likely -- vice versa.

Rainbow Dash set her fist under her chin, her head a little tilted. “Ah, really? What’s that? A country song or is it bluegrass?” she said with a little smirk.

“Ah’d like that,” Applejack groaned and glared towards Dash. “but no, Ah know ya don’t like ‘em too much, so Ah chose something y’all might like. It’s a little somethin’ called ‘End of All Hope’ and…”

“Pardon my question and my interruption,” Rarity said, raising her left palm like a schoolgirl in class. “but is not this the song our dear friend Rainbow Dash refused to listen on principle because, sic, ‘that song’s for whiny emos’? Or am I mistaken?”

Rainbow Dash immediately pointer her hand nails in Rarity’s direction, but still looking at Applejack.

“Rares is right about that,” she said. “I mean, the beat’s okay, the singer is good, but the lyrics? They couldn’t get any more edgy and ‘dark’ even if you tried to resurrect Poe to them force him to write this song’s lyrics.”

“Is that really a problem?” Applejack said while climbing onto the stage. “Can’t we just not sing it?”

“And then what will Sunset do, then?” Rainbow deadpanned with both her legs and arms crossed. “Not to mention, how does it sound even remotely close to party music?”

Sunset shrugged

“I don’t mind, really, I can just help out with other stuff or sing something else.” Sunset Shimmer said, putting the newspaper down onto the chair she was sitting on and then walking towards Fluttershy’s loudspeaker, prompting Fluttershy to jump off the loudspeaker and walk close to both Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “Like connecting this to the rest, before you start to strum silence.”

“Oh.” Rainbow Dash said, facepalming for a moment before moving her hand away. “Anyways, I don’t wanna leave Sunset out. So try it again, AJ.”

Applejack sighed as she walked -- her heads down -- towards the instruments’ metal and green plastic locker behind the stage, which was open ajar.

“Ah am never gonna avoid that song, am I?” She muttered, while grabbing the bass. “Wait… where is Pinkie?”

“She’s a bit ill, poor girl caught a nasty stomach bug,” Sunset said, while pointing towards Fluttershy. “But I’m sure Fluttershy wouldn’t mind replacing her.”

Fluttershy let out a light sigh, walking to the locker as well, this time taking two drumsticks out of it. “Oh well, if you want me to I’ll do it,”

“You just reminded me of something,” Rarity said, pulling the music sheets out of her bag before getting up.

“What is it Rarity?” Sunset asked while she stretched her arms. Rarity placed the lyrics sheets onto the main plates of the drum set.

“How is the rest of the party planning going?” Rarity asked while she mentally numbered and reorganized the papers in the correct order. “Have all the invitations been sent out already?”

“Pretty much.” Sunset Shimmer said, while she was bent close to a low speaker, attaching the microphone to it. “My printer ran out of ink at the last few, so I’ll have to redo them. However I’m pretty sure we’ve already sent the ones I managed to make.”

Rainbow Dash nodded with a small smile, briefly placing her closed right hand on her inflated chest.

“True that!” Rainbow Dash said with a hint of glee. “And I did that in two hours flat!”

Applejack’s eyes widened as she also strengthened her grip onto her bass’s black handle.

“Everyone on Pinkie’s list?!” She said alarmed “Even Sunny Flare and that sick bucko Lemon Turner? Are ya mad?”

“I was this close to not deliver them anything,” Rainbow Dash gestured with her fingers to illustrate her point. “but Pinks just insisted to invite them. She said to put aside such differences and let them enjoy our company.”

“As if they deserved it!” Applejack scoffed and snarled. “If either of them comes to the party...”

Applejack hit her own hard with one of her own fists. Rarity felt her heart sinking at the sight.

“Especially if Lemon Turner briefly stops to look for child porn and touch kids, to instead come to this party,” Rainbow Dash said. “he does not deserve anything but to be beaten to a pulp and his remains burnt!”

“Ah agree!” Applejack shouted, shaking her fist in the air, a gesture that -- coupled with Applejack’s violent words -- caused Rarity to nearly panic at the mere thought of what could happen to her if she were to be discovered by her peers, the only bastions of hope eft begin Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer and her own oratory capabilities.

“That’s a bit much, isn’t it? I mean, in hindsight and considered the tight surveillance he’s undergoing, it’s extremely likely he never acted upon his desires,” Sunset Shimmer said with a shrug, catching the glares of both Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “but I can’t say for sure if he owns child porn, sadly. But, even if he didn’t offend in any way, he needs to be sterilized for the sake of himself and the community as whole, maybe get a sentence if the volume was really big, but surely not descend into mob justice.”

Applejack flipped an invisible table over in Sunset’s direction.

“Oh, yeah, sure, ya can get child porn just about everywhere and any hour.” she said, shaking her front limbs wildly. “Of course only now sick sub-humans like him cry that they can’t help it and whine for acceptance while they keep touching little kids!”

“Applejack, please,” Sunset Shimmer said after rolling her eyes, her voice expressing annoyance and her forehead’s skin morphing its form in a terraced hill’s. “Physicians back at my homeworld figured ponies attracted to foals didn’t necessarily violated or molested them, and this was way back then, and I mean ‘bronze age’ times. Even if there are major biological differences, psychologically ponies and people are extremely similar.”

“Well, maybe that’s how it works for y’all ponies,” Applejack drooped her shoulders and leaned forward towards Sunset Shimmer. “but here it ain’t so. I mean, where did you ever heard of a pedo that doesn’t molest children here?!”

Sunset bit her lip just like the onlooking disturbed Rarity bit her own. She shook her fists and hissed, before taking a deep breath.

“This is one of these times I would like to find a way to squeeze stubbornness out of you,” she said, turning around towards Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, who do you agree with? What is your position?”

“I-I… I dunno." Fluttershy -- who had been standing by the drums for all that time -- said unsurely, dropping her drumsticks onto the floor and following them with her head. “I don’t think that it’s an illness, but, at the same time… I cannot believe anyone, knowing the risks and its consequences and having a good life, would ever consciously choose to make love to children or see kids go through horrible things. There must be a trigger that makes some people try to molest children. But what kind of despair could that possibly be?”

“Weaksauce creeps that can’t get a date nor a life?” Rainbow Dash snarked with her arms crossed, while sitting on the stage’s edge. “Out-of-control pervs that have run out of things to hump?”

Sunset Shimmer groaned and Fluttershy recoiled a little, while Rarity gripped onto the closest object available in order to not disorderly flee right during that rather heated moment.

“I’m right with ya Dash!” Applejack said while punching the air and whipping her hair. “Ah am sorry to say that Flutters, but ya aren’t making any sense at all.”

Rainbow Dash nodded towards Applejack, while Sunset Shimmer let out a deep sigh.

“Now, ‘Cause we’re already there,” Rainbow Dash said, turning towards Rarity. “I’m curious about whatcha think about this, Rares.”

All of the sudden Rarity felt the tension that had been building up to that moment fall and bury her like an avalanche on the high mountain peaks . She bent over with a whimper, feeling her heart speeding up in terror. Her friends’ stances on her condition and the ones affected by it did not prospect anything but angst and desolation -- if not outright violence in a couple of cases -- and, now she was being questioned about it.

She fidgeted her fingers and looked around her, cold sweat running down her face and soaking up her clothes, her hands cupped in the middle of her chest, her eyes darting and shifting focus at lighting speed and her thighs trembling. She was nervous, but she had to stay calm in order to escape that situation.

“I have no idea, really.” Rarity said, forcing herself to sound calm. “I… don’t really think about it.”

Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy and Applejack promptly turned around with their heads tilted, staring at Rarity as if she had entered in the room by crawling out of the ceiling.

“What’ca mean?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said. “I don’t think about it all the time either, but I do have an opinion about it.”

Rarity felt her own tongue fall wither and die in her mouth.

She couldn’t do it.

She had to run, and fast!

“Excuse me, I have… to empty myself.” Rarity said, getting up and running away like an hare from a bloodhound, her destination begin her own house.

“I cannot keep this up!” Rarity said to herself, rapidly running down the school’s halls leading to the exit. “No one will stand by me and help. Not my family, not my friends, not society, not the law… no one! If my life is just going an agony because I am an unwanted beast, why should I care about my future? No, I must go forth and remove myself!”

Then, as she arrived in the schoolyard, she started to think about the method she was going to use to remove herself from the world of the living and, thus, shake hands with her illustrious ancestors.