A She-devil in Plain Sight

Rarity was walking down her town’s main street, headed towards the ice cream shop where she and her friends had agreed to meet that afternoon, allegedly to relax after an intense week at school.

“Let’s go over our plan once more,” Rarity muttered to herself, pulling her deep red coin purse out of her purple bag with zig-zagging lines of sewn-on light blue rhinestones on the sides and one large bronze diamond-shaped clasp as closure. She poured the coin pursue’s contents onto her left hand and mentally counted them all, realizing she had enough money for get seven medium-sized ice cream cones.

“First, I shall declare my intention to offer the ice cream. Then I will try to find a table in a corner of the shop, so that no-one else can hear me, then I will engage in the chatting, which will not be difficult considered that I have the topic ready, I shall then try to steer the conversation towards our secrets,” Rarity muttered as she poured the coins back into the pursue. “Then mention that I shall share my biggest secret, beg them to keep secrecy and, finally…. Say it.”

She let out a deep sight at the last part, just before raising her head and speeding up her pace in order to not be late to the appointment she had organized herself and, thus, the chance to get some of her anxiety off her chest.

“Thanks again Rarity!” Sunset Shimmer said as she sat down on a red metal chair, resting one arm on the green table before her -- a cone topped by the red of the strawberry, the yellow of cream and sprinkled with white-and-black chocolate chunks in her right hand.

“It is no problem at all, Sunset,” Rarity said, slowly picking up small licks of her vanilla ice cream with small pieces of candied fruit of many colours cream from the cup with the provided plastic green spoon. “I just felt it was due for today.”

As she licked away part of of melting ice cream, Sunset looked with her head a little tilted and a small frown at Rarity, which caused the latter to shake her head and force a grin on her face.

“Oh, nevermind that.” Rarity said. “I just wanted to make a nice gesture for you all.”

Sunset nodded and turned away from Rarity to face Twilight and Rainbow Dash -- who were still at the counter, arguing between each other -- just as Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Fluttershy took their seats as well.

“What’s the problem Dash?”

Rainbow Dash turned around annoyed.

“Nothing major, Twilight’s trying to pay the exact amount in dimes and she’s taking forever!”

Twilight turned around glaring at Dash as she set a handful of small copper coins onto the counter, where the cashier could get them. “Well, sorry if I am trying to be precise.”

The cashier let out a growl, rolling his eyes skywards as he rapidly grabbed the dimes and put them inside the cash register below the white stone counter.

“Look, it’s fine even if I miss five cents, alright? Now take your ice cream before it fully melts.” He said, handing the receipt with one hand and -- after taking them off the nearby cone-holders -- the two cones, held with mastery in-between his index and middle finger and his anular and small finger.

Twilight took her cone -- one filled with pine nut and mint cream -- and went forward to sit down as well, while Dash -- after almost violently grabbing her own ice cream away -- stood upright besides the table, one hand on the table and the other firmly gripping on her chocolate and strawberry-filled cone.

Rarity took another spoonful of ice cream, slowly savouring its taste, before clenching her free hand into a fist and took quick and steady breaths, whispering a few words in preparation, carefully listening in order to find an opening.

“I seriously do not understand why he had to be so rude towards me,” Twilight muttered dejectedly as she quickly licked all around her cone’s circumference. “I just wanted to make sure he was getting the exact amount!”

“You were holding up the line Twi,” Rainbow Dash said, taking a big lick off her cone “Anyone would’ve gotten antsy after a while.”

“Still, they could have tried to be nicer,” Twilight said. “But, oh well. Guess that it happens when you are used to being extremely precise.”

“Yer honesty is lovely, but not needed, really.” Applejack dryly stated, taking big spoonfuls from her vanilla and pistachio mixture. “Peeps don’t really care most of times, so don’t cha worry. ‘Sides, better than freeloading.”

“Like somebody here who hardly has money for stuff,” Rainbow Dash shifted her gaze onto Pinkie Pie, who was busy taking rather large spoonfuls of her chocolate and sultana ice cream,topped with aztec cocoa, cookies and caramelfrom her small cup. She stopped eating looked up, her upper lip and cheeks stained by the aforementioned flavours’ traces.

“I just keep spending lots of money ‘cuz I see lots of stuff I want for me and one of my friends, like sometimes I tell myself ‘No you do not need that Pinkie’ but then I think ‘I have enough money so why not?’ and then buy it and then I find moths flying outta my wallet and…

“We get it, Pinks, you’re bad with cash because you spend it like water for gifts,” Rainbow Dash said while setting her left hand over Pinkie’s mouth -- staining her hand in the process -- and glaring at her a little. “It’s no secret at all.”

Rarity perked up, as she rose up her left arm, setting its elbow onto the table and holding up her index finger up.

“Just like it’s no secret to us six that you nurture interests for a man competing in the football team,” Rarity said rapidly, tension building up in her chest. Rainbow Dash glared at Rarity, while the others proceeded to look at her confused. “Or, well… pretty much anything else we have said between ourselves while invoking confidentiality.”

“Uhm? And so?” Applejack asked.

Rarity’s cheeks reddened and she let out a small whimper, her courage dwindling as seconds passed by while being stared like that by her own friends. She had to act and speak fast.

“I have a matter that I desperately need to lay out for you, for it is of utmost importance and gravity,” Rarity said, her eyes shifting around the room to find a way to escape. “For a while, I have been harbouring…. Shall we say, desires that are causing me quite a lot of distress. Due to their nature, I am going to need your collaboration in keeping this from spreading outside our little circle, as such, I want you to say…”

“Ya want us to promise we won’t tell a soul ‘bout something botherin’ you?” Applejack asked as she cleaned her face with her forearm. Rarity nodded in affirmation. “Well, then, ya have mah word on that.”

“Mine too.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Um… yes, I guess…” Fluttershy whispered.

“Sure thing Rara!” Pinkie said, whipping her empty cup up and sprinkling droplets of melted ice cream all over her shirt.

“But of course Rarity!” Sunset Shimmer said with a small bow of her head.

“What goes into my head will not leak!” Twilight stated with a hint of pride.

Rarity took a deep breath, trying to convince herself of her friends’ sincerity and their ability to tolerate her situation. She rejected her reservations as hard she could, gulping loudly.

“It is good to see you are willing to do this for me.” Rarity said, lowering her head, before rising it again, looking at the table’s center. She gulped one last time, before speaking. “I-I have urges towards b-boys... young ones, really young, like… Grade School-age young. I had never quite realized what it meant, nor I knew what… this really was. But I know what is it now: it is paedophilia, it is mental illness, and there is no cure.”

Rarity glanced at her friends and she saw them with mouths agape and eyes fixated on her. Reluctantly, she went forward in her talk.

“I-I h-have the luck to have friends whom I can fully trust and can help me in finding ways to limit this, before I do something stupid.” Rarity paused to take a deep breath, her right hand held high as she did so. “An acquaintance of mine and one of your enemies, has made clear to me that not many people in my same situation can claim to have such a luxury… and…. and some of them will never attain it ever again. So, please, please, help me: there is my soul and a little boy’s childhood and sanity at stake, none of them has to be sacrificed!”

Sepulchral silence followed Rarity’s words in that remote corner of the ice cream place. She started to quiver and shake a little, lightly biting her lip as she prepared herself for a verbally violent reaction.

“Of all situations I thought I could find myself in…” Twilight said, adjusting her glasses and forcefully grinning while averting eye contact. “I… didn’t consider this to be among the most likely outcomes.”

“Oh my…” Fluttershy quietly said while averting her gaze.

“Whaaa?!” Applejack interjected, her mouth still agape and her eyes fixed onto Rarity as if they were replacements of the real optic muscle made out of glass.

“Rares, who’s the guy that put that in your head?!” Rainbow Dash violently and rapidly snarled once she snapped out of her stupefied trance, her hands mimicking the action she was suggesting. “I need to rip off his head and spit down their neck!”

Rarity felt droplets of cold sweat running down her neck and forehead.

“Rainbow Dash, I would really like to say otherwise,” Rarity said with her head bowed. “But many, many other clues lead me to say that it is not just me being overdramatic from my part and/or manipulation by my helper, Lemon Turner.”

Rainbow Dash -- along with Fluttershy and Applejack -- recoiled, nearly clashing the back of her head against the wall, her face showing a fugacious expression of surprise and horror, which was soon replaced by one of pure wrath.

“Y-you…” she shook her head, her teeth gritted, slamming her open palm against her forehead. “This is…. Gah! I can’t believe it! All this time and…y-you come out and stuff and…”

“Whadda ya mean?! Ya have seen Lemon Fucker’s collection of child porn and ya got it off it while ya were at it?!” Applejack shouted as she rolled up her sleeves. “If ya did it…”

“Calm down Applejack,” Sunset said as she grasped as hard as she could Applejack’s forearms and bent her bust over in order to shield Rarity. “There’s no need to resort to violence here, I’m sure our good friend Rarity wouldn’t go as low as committing such a heinous crime for such little gain. She may need to get her tubes tied , but she doesn’t deserve to be beaten up for something she cannot control.”

“Why the hell not?! Are ya tellin’ me Ah should leave her alone why she’s prancin’ ‘round, touchin’ kids as if they were ripe melons?” Applejack shouted, slapping Sunset Shimmer’s hands away. “Ah ain’t goin’ to take that layin’ down!”

“AJ, look, I despise paedos as the next guy and I think they should be massacred ‘n all,” Rainbow Dash said while gesturing. “But I can’t believe one of my friends could be that horrible! It’s not her fault, it’s just that bastard of Lemon Turner that has brainwashed her!”

Rainbow Dash grabbed Rarity’s left arm -- causing a nervous Rarity to be caught off-guard and causing her to gasp -- forcefully lifting it up while jauntily pointing at it with her free arm.

“J-just look at these hands! Look at them!” Rainbow Dash said. “Do they look like a kiddy fiddler’s? Does her face look like a paedo’s? Does she even looks like she could molest a little kid?”

“What does that even mean? Just because she’s all shiny and good-lookin’ outside doesn’t mean she ain’t rotten inside!” Applejack said, pointing her finger towards Rarity. “Ya should’ve seen how many good lookin’ jackals Ah have stopped from gettin’ my sister in their clutches and mah brother can tell ya how many times he didn’t let me go meeting older people!”

“I understand your concern from your point of view of an older sister, but don’t you forget that Rarity is one as well,” Sunset said, making waving gestures going from Applejack towards Rarity. “I’m sure she does understand your concern and she’s likely suffering distress due to this contrast.”

“That is true Sunset.” Rarity said with an uneasy grin and a nod, sinking in her chair and wishing she could melt and fully join her support. “I-I did think about that part of myself…”

“Are y’all outta yer minds?!” Applejack put her hands into her blonde hair, grasping big tufts and lightly pulling them. “We’re talkin’ about… do Ah have really to explain this? It’s as clear as dawn!”

“It is not Applejack.” Twilight said, her voice an unsteady resoluteness and her hands up held up, index pointing at the ceiling. “She has a chemical imbalance, one that causes her to be…”

“‘Chemical imbalance’?” Rainbow Dash said, now looking at Twilight, confusion in her eyes. “This isn’t any of that fancy sciency bookworm stuff, this is just some guy manipulating my friend with fancy ‘rhe-tory’ and stuff!”

"Ain't that wonderful!” Applejack interjected, getting up from her seat and turning her back away from the table while almost slamming her stetson hat onto her head.. "When Ah try to be affectionate with my brother, y'all are crackin’ all sorts of incest jokes. But when one of ya turns out to be a paedo, everybody's jumping up, trying to cover her ass with all sorts of reasons!"

“That’s because we know you aren’t really in an incestous relationship with your brother. Rarity here, however, has a real problem and we must help her in every way we can.” Sunset said. “Also, where are you going?”

“Away!” Applejack said, accelerating her steps. “Ah’ll come back once y’all get back into yer senses and stop tryin’ to get child porn for her!”

When she arrived at the threshold of the shop’s door, she turned around, spat on the ground and stormed off out of the shop for good.

“What’s going on there? Why are you all shouting like that?!” The cashier said irritated.

“We are having some… trouble. Nothing to worry about,” Sunset said, bowing her head. “We’ll try to be more silent.”

Rarity’s head was now buried into her hands, strands of her hair torn away in nervousness forming small piles close to her cup. She was letting the pressure and offence built up while experiencing her friends’ reactions out by letting her tears carry away -- along with part of her make-up -- part of her breast-bound burden and by whispering wordless monotonous tune.

Almost like a benign thunder in a clear day, Rarity felt a pat on her shoulders. She slowly rotated her head and saw Sunset Shimmer warmly smiling at her.

“Uh-hu? What was this all about?” Pinkie Pie suddenly said, nonplussed by the situation and the previous events. “I mean, what was the big deal?”

As soon as those words were spoken, Rarity slowly turned her head around, Sunset Shimmer glared at her, Twilight looked at her sideways, and Rainbow Dash groaned and visibly facepalmed.

“You can’t be serious.” Rainbow Dash said, her tone revealing clear exasperation. “We didn’t talk about anything else for minutes on end, you were right there in the conversation, and yet you can’t remember what we were talking about.”

“No, it’s not that, Dashie.” She said. “It’s that I don’t get why is she having a problem in her head is such a bad thing. Or convinced that she has one. Or convinced that she does not have one even if she has one, or she really has one but not the one she thinks she has.”

“This is only confusing,” Twilight said while quickly adjusting her glasses by the bridge. “Please, just tell us where you want to get with your talking.”

“What I mean is, does it really matter if she’s attracted to children, to guys or to other girls?” Pinkie Pie said with a small shrug, staring down her cup -- which was now full of half-melted ice cream. “When people, most like her, treat kids that way it’s not fun and not nice at all, but otherwise… why treat them the same as those ones? Why being mean to them if they can’t help it? In the end, if they don’t act, does it matter if they happen to like children in ways they shouldn’t?”

Silence ensued, as Sunset set her right hand under her chin and stared at the door, Twilight scratched her chin and looked at the ceiling, Rainbow Dash frowned and squinted her eyes while focusing her gaze on the wall in front of her, Fluttershy closed her eyes and massaged her forehead,and Pinkie remained in her previous pose - arms spread out and bust slightly turned leftwards - as she waited for an answer.

“Actually, yes, it matters somewhat,” Sunset said after a handful minutes of sustained silence. “But not enough to defeat your point, Pinkie. Push away the people with this condition begging for help and understanding will only make them more likely to meet with people with less or no qualms on the matter, for then join their faction fully, not caring for what the others will think or do to them anymore.”

“Makes perfect sense.” Twilight said. “I would know it… even if, admittedly, the circumstances were rather different.”

“Whatever you say Sunset,” Rainbow Dash said while rolling her eyes and groaning, while Fluttershy limited herself to quiet nodding.

Sunset glared at Rainbow Dash, just before turning around towards Rarity again.

“So, don’t worry Rarity, we’ll try our best to help you out,” Sunset said, embracing Rarity’s soft neck in her arms. “You won’t have to worry about a thing.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie chirped, hopping up from her seat and reaching Sunset, giving her a tight hug, one that squeezed Rarity’s fear and tension out of her chest and caused Rarity try to embrace both her and Sunset. Shortly after, Twilight joined as well, who opted to put her minute lavender arms around Pinkie and sunset’s necks and applying as much strength as she could allows herself to, burying her head in-between the two’s shoulder and Rarity’s soft albine mountains.

Rarity, for her part, stood still there, frozen by the warmth brought by the gesture, with only her icy blue eyes thawing out slowly and drop by drop.

“T-thank you all… thank you all so much…”