Behind the Bleeding Veil

Rarity Jeanette Geisel was born June 1, 1998 and died in the early morning hours of February 18, 2018. It was a car crash. A most unremarkable car crash. The kind that happens everyday where cars are being driven. Rarity had been going back to her London flat after a party, tired but awake, and fully sober. The person who hit her head on was neither of those things. Death was instantaneous for both.

Rarity was the elder child born to a Jewish father and Christian mother in Wisconsin. By Jewish law, that meant Rarity was considered Christian as the religion of the mother takes precedents over the fathers. Unfortunately to the racists she was forced to go to school with, this bit of religious legalese didn't mater; to them she was a Jew and abused as much. It wasn't just her perceived Jewishness that brought the ire of her classmates upon her; it was also her poverty.

The Geisels were the proverbial "dirt poor". Having been disowned by both sides of their family and dealing with the prejudices of their neighbors; they lived an extremely harsh life. The house they rented was literally falling down around them. Sometimes they had running water, sometimes they didn't. Sometimes there was food in the house, sometimes there wasn't. Their clothes were second hand and worn threadbare. From that, some of Rarity's classmates called her "Rag girl". Things got even more desperate when Rarity's little sister, Sweetie Belle, was born. All that changed when Rarity's father won the Lottery when she was in the fourth grade.

He bought the card on whim while getting coffee before work one day. His wife scolded him for wasting money but as the numbers were announced that night and she suddenly realized that all their money concerns were going to be a thing of the past; she hugged him and praised him with tears in her eyes. As soon as they had collected the money; Mr. Geisel moved the family to California to start a new life.

It was their that Rarity reinvented herself. She replaced her thick, Midwestern accent with a north eastern, upper class one. She made sure all her clothes were the most fashionable there was. She was never going to be "Rag girl" again. She also made a vow to treat others with respect. Having experienced the worst bullying you could imagine; she would never allow herself to treat others or allow others to be treated like that in presence ever.

Fifth grade was when she first started in her new school. It was also when she met a fellow new transplant by the name of Apple Jack. Apple's family were farmers and had moved to California from South Carolina. At first Rarity thought Apple was a boy. A pretty boy, but a boy none the less. Apple had short, blonde hair, a strong, defined jaw. Apple's clothes were extremely boyish - lose flannel shirt, baggy, faded, blue jeans. Rarity thought Apple was rather cute in a rustic, country way and made it a point to introduce herself to this other new student. It was then she realized that Apple Jack wasn't a boy but a girl.

Rarity had been shocked but decided it didn't really matter. People looked how they wanted to look. She would just accept this girl as she was and the two became fast friends. Inseparable in fact. Each was like a mirror of the other. Identical yet opposite. Rarity got rid of her accent while Apple Jack played hers' up. Rarity went to great lengths to look as wealthy as she was while Apple Jack went to equal lengths to down any money her family had. Rarity reveled in her femininity while Apple Jack did all she could to hide hers'. They complimented and completed one another in a way that seemed almost mystical; each bringing out the best in the other. Rarity even ended up developing a crush on Apple Jack (at least until Apple grew her hair out and actually looked like the beautiful girl she actually was).

The next year they met two new students - Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Much like Rarity and Apple Jack, the two appeared like polar opposites. Rainbow was loud, brash, over the top African-American girl who dyed her hair to look like a rainbow; while Fluttershy was a quiet, unsure of herself white girl with strawberry blonde hair. Rarity thought that if it were possible; Fluttershy would quite gladly hide in her own shadow. But, like Rarity and Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy seemed to complete each other in a way that was impossible to explain but immediately understood. And just as Rarity and Apple had immediately bonded, so too did they with Rainbow and Fluttershy. Apple Jack found a tom boy bestie in Rainbow and Rarity found a fellow girlie-girl in Fluttershy.

It was through Rainbow Dash that they met the final member of their group - a pink haired girl with a personality that was the living embodiment of a sugar rush named Pinkie Pie. Pinkie was sweet, naïve, yet had an almost super natural intuitiveness about people that allowed her to instantly bond with anyone and figure out even the most intimate details of their lives. When Pinkie was around, everyone felt happy and most importantly - accepted. The five were inseparable. At least they were until Sunset Shimmer showed up.

Sunset came in to their school and their lives in seventh grade. Sunset was an impossible beautiful girl with fiery, red hair. At first she was kind and sweet. Slowly though, she began to manipulate people, split up friendships and romances until no one trusted each other and she reigned as queen bee. At first the Rarity and her friends ignored it and then succumbed to it. The five of them might have been at each others' throats for the rest of their lives if it hadn't been for Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight was a pretty Japanese girl who hid her pet dog Spike in her back pack. She had black hair with a purple stripe going through it, and Betty Page bangs. It was Twilight who got the girls to reconcile and eventually revealed that she and Sunset were beings from another dimension. Her Twilight's dimension she was a princess and a pastel purple pony. Sunset had came back through a magical portal and stolen Twilight's crown for some evil purpose. The six of them decided to team up and take Sunset out.

At The Fall Formal ( a dance held by the school near the start of each year), the six of them engaged Sunset in a magical battle where Sunset turned the school into zombies and planed to use them to invade and conquer Equestria. Twilight, Rarity, and all were able to defeat Sunset who repented afterward. Sunset was made to stay in the human realm until she learned how to truly be a better person. Sunset, with the help of Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Apple Jack, slowly redeemed herself; at least enough to take on the next big challenge - The Sirens.

The Sirens were a group of three former ponies (Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk), who had been transformed into monsters by some magical gems they had found. They used to their power to sow discord across Equestria and were banished by Star Swirl the Bearded a thousand years previous. For all those years they plotted their revenge and looked for a way to get back home. As they were sitting in a diner, they saw the battle between Sunset and the other girls. Their leader, Adagio, recognized the Equestrian magic and sought to use it to regain full strength and get back home. Another battle ensued and with the help of Sunset, the Sirens were defeated. And this is where the split in the time line occurs.

In the first one, Adagio and Aria leave and convince Trixie into going with them to Equestria. Sonata stays behind, becomes friends with Sunset and crew, falls in love with Pinkie Pie, and gets adopted by Vice Principle Luna. Twilight comes back to see her boyfriend, Flash Sentry, and gets locked in the human world when Adagio, Aria, And Trixie discover the portal and go through it. Normal life happens on Earth. The girls have their ups and downs, they date, Fluttershy gets killed (as mentioned in the previous chapter), and so on. In Equestria, Trixie meets her pony self, fuses with her, Kills Adagio and Aria, comes back to the human world where she is defeated by Twilight and Sunset who merge with their human selves. After this, they and Princess Celestia reset the time and that's where time line two picks up.

In this one, all three Sirens leave, Twilight goes back home, the girls go with their lives, and Fluttershy remains alive, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Apple Jack find boyfriends, and then come The Friendship Games. Cantorlot High faces it's arch rival; Crystal Prep Academy. It's that school that human Twilight attends. She had been tracking the strange energies coming from Cantorlot High and builds a device to trap it. Under pressure from her principle and classmates, she unleashes the magic and is transformed into a winged demon who punctures holes in the fabric of reality between the human dimension and Equestria. Human Twilight is eventually defeated by Sunset and redeemed but during the battle an evil entity known as Queen Chrysalis escapes from Equestria into the human realm.

While here, Chrysalis learns about Morgorith and The First Ones and tries to free them. To help her, she enlists The Sirens to help. Adagio and Sonata end up turning and siding with the other girls. Then girls, all of them including human and pony Sunset and Twilight, Adagio, and Sonata fight and ultimately defeat her but not before Apple Jack's grandmother, little sister, boyfriend, Rainbow's boyfriend, Fluttershy's boyfriend, Princess Luna, and Vice Principle all get killed. After the battle, human Twilight and Sunset decide to go back to Equestria while Pony Twilight and Sunset decide to remain on Earth and live as normal humans.

The girls graduated high school in 2016. Rarity moved to London to study fashion design and kick start her career as famous designer. Instead it lead to her death, the second death, the one that started Fluttershy down her journey into nightmares and madness. But all that comes later. First, let's rewind to one year previous, 2017; the last time all the girls would see each other alive.