Author's Note

Chapter contains: Human/Humanized, Incest, Unrealistic Anatomy, Exhibitionism

Romance

I had just finished pulling my pajamas over my freshly showered body when I heard a knock at my bedroom door. I straightened up and double-checked that I was in a presentable state before turning towards the door. “Come in,” I said. The door slowly opened, and a thick, pale leg slipped inside, followed shortly afterwards by wide hips, a toned stomach, two large breasts, and a head with long, yellow hair and two big green eyes. Applejack closed the door behind her and looked over at me. She had a gentle smile on her face, but her eyes had a trace of sadness in them.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Hey, yourself,” I said, smiling back at her.

I slowly walked over to where she stood. When I reached her, I gently wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her up against me. I leaned my head in and pressed my lips against hers, giving her a slow, but passionate kiss. She returned the kiss, but she was noticeably hesitant, her lips much more meek and feeble than they had been in the past. She tentatively put her hands on my shoulders, caressing them slightly. “Anon...” she whispered during a break in the kiss. I dove back in before she could finish, but she soon tried again. “Anon, hold your horses,” she said, pushing me just lightly enough to get my attention.

“What is it?” I whispered, struggling to hold myself back from the kiss.

“There’s...somethin’ we need to talk about,” she said, averting her gaze.

“Oh? Did you decide where you wanna go on our next date?” I said, smiling and slowly leaning back in.

“There isn’t gonna be another date,” she said an instant before my lips made contact with hers. I froze, my brain slowly processing her words.

I pulled back and gave her a worried look. “What do you mean?” I said.

Applejack slowly walked over to my bed, taking my hand and gently pulling me along. She sat down on the edge and patted the spot beside her. I sat down on the spot she had indicated and looked at her closely. She smiled at me, only this time, her smile did not seem nearly as happy as it had before. “Do you remember what you promised me?” she said softly.

“Yes,” I said hesitantly.

“I know what I asked you to do,” she said. “I asked you to stop feelin’ the things you were feelin’. I realize now that...that was way too much to ask of you. That was way too much to ask of anyone. I don’t mind if you can’t stop yourself. I don’t mind if you have to keep feelin’ what you do...but I do care what you do about it.”

She took a deep breath before continuing. “I didn’t have you make that promise to punish you,” she said, “I did it for your own good. I wanted to help you move on, so that you could be happy and not have to spend your whole life obsessin’ over me. I still want to help you, I really do, but like I said before, I can’t. I can’t give you what you need, so I’m gonna waste your time tryin’.”

My mind was jumping to conclusions as she spoke, none of which were comforting. “I don’t get it,” I said. “Did I do somethin’ wrong?”

“No! No, no, no, Anon, that’s not it at all!” she said, placing her hands on my leg. “You didn’t do anythin’ wrong; I did! I was too stubborn to admit that I was in over my head with all of this. I shoulda known I wasn’t good enough; I shoulda known you’d need...someone else to help you.”

“Someone else?” I said. “Like who?”

Applejack averted her gaze again, hanging her head slightly. “I went into town today,” she said somberly. “I went and had a talk with Rarity. That girl’s got more romance in her little finger than I got in my whole body. If there’s anyone who can help you find a nice woman, it’s her. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind goin’ on a practice date with you to help you get more comfortable around women, like I was supposed to be doin’. She said she’d be happy to go out with you, so we went ahead and arranged a date for you in a few days.”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearin’,” I said, shaking my head. A moment of silence passed, Applejack apparently not knowing what to say next. “What does this mean for us?”

“Well...it means that...we’re not goin’ any further, you and I,” she said, looking back at me. “We can still have our...private time together; I won’t leave you hangin’ on that front. But as for everythin’ else, all the lovey-dovey stuff, that has to stop. We can’t keep pretendin’ we’re somethin’ we’re not. You’re my brother, and I’m your sister, and that’s all we can ever be.” Her tone was soft and comforting, but her words still felt like daggers being thrust through my heart.

“So that’s it then?” I said weakly.

“It is,” she said. “I’m sorry, Anon.”

My mind was a clouded haze of emotions. I was confused about why this turn of events had come to pass, even after all we had been through. I was angry, although I didn’t know whether I was angry with her, or myself, or with the universe for orchestrating all this. I was sad, having had the faint glimmer of hope that she and I could be together snuffed out in an instant. I looked over at her, and I saw in her eyes the same pain I was feeling. I needed comfort in that moment; I think we both did. I leaned in towards her, placing a hand on her face and gently guiding it towards mine.

“Anon...” she said, clearly about to stop me.

“Just one more time, AJ,” I whispered. “Please.”

Her face showed the internal struggle she must have been going through. We sat still, our faces only a few inches apart, looking into each other’s eyes. I waited, wanting to see what she would do. Finally, she raised a hand to my cheek and leaned in, letting her eyes flutter closed. I moved in to meet her, and we shared a long, deep kiss. Our lips and tongues moved slowly, but purposefully, savoring every minute sensation. As we kissed, I gently wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer; she did the same around my neck.

I lost track of time as we sat there, but I didn’t care; I would have stayed like that for the rest of my life if I had been able to. But, of course, Applejack had to be the reasonable one of the two of us. After planting one last deep smooch on my lips, she pulled back, leaving me with only the memory of her soft, warm lips on mine. I opened my eyes and looked at her; her eyes seemed both happy and sad at the same time. After a moment, she leaned in and gave me a chaste kiss on my cheek, before retreating again.

“You’re still my brother, Anon,” she said, smiling at me. “I still love you.”

“I still love you too, AJ,” I said, smiling back at her.

“And remember your ‘please’ and ‘thank you’s,” said Applejack.

“I will,” I said in a lackluster tone.

“And don’t chew with your mouth open!” she said.

“Applejack, I’m not five,” I said, frustrated. She had been going on like this throughout the entire walk to Carousel Boutique. It had been somewhat endearing at first, back when she had been giving me actually useful advice. Of course, she had soon veered into more demeaning words of wisdom, which was starting to get on my nerves.

“I know,” she said, seemingly recognizing the awkwardness of her comments. “I’m sorry, I just...really want this to go well for you. I know you’ll probably do fine, but I can’t help but worry at least a little bit.”

I sighed. “It’s alright, AJ,” I said. “I know you’re just lookin’ out for me, just like always.”

In the distance, I could see the tall pointed roof of the boutique getting closer. The building looked the same as I could remember it looking the few times I had been there before. The swooping, purplish roof looked as bright and friendly as always. The large front windows were sparkling clean, giving an excellent view of the window displays arranged inside. The decorative horses that adorned the building looked freshly polished. Altogether, the building looked warm and inviting, and yet I still felt hesitant to step within its walls.

Applejack and I eventually made it to the front door, where we paused for a moment. She gently turned me in her direction and started fussing with my clothes and hair. Before we left, she had forced me to put on the best shirt and pants I owned, which I normally only wore on special occasions. I had also cleaned my boots as well as I could at her insistence. To add insult to injury, she had then spent a significant amount of time combing my messy hair into a more presentable state, as if I was incapable of doing so myself. Apparently, she still wasn’t completely satisfied, as she licked her fingers and smoothed down my hair even more.

“C’mon!” I said.

“Alright, alright,” she said. “I’m done.” She stepped back and looked me up and down one more time. She looked at me and smiled when she finished. “You’re as handsome as a prize-winnin’ steer on Sunday.”

Despite my sour mood, I couldn’t help but smile at her compliment. “Thanks, AJ,” I said.

“You ready?” she said.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said.

“You’ll be fine,” she said. “I know you will.”

Applejack grabbed the door handle and pushed the door open, leading the way inside. The interior of the store looked as well-maintained as the exterior had. Arranged around the room were mannequins wearing beautiful dresses of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. A large red couch with a lopsided back sat in the middle of the room. As we walked further in, I looked around to see if I could spot the proprietress of the establishment, but Rarity was nowhere to be seen.

“Rarity!” Applejack called out. “We’re here!”

I heard Rarity’s voice come from the direction of the stairs in the back of the store. “Be ready in a minute,” she said in a singsong voice.

“I’ve heard that one before,” said Applejack quietly.

She and I sat down on Rarity’s couch to wait for her. Neither of us said anything for a while; I sat there twiddling my thumbs, wondering how my afternoon would go. “Hey,” said Applejack. I turned my head and looked over at her, who was looking back at me with a supportive smile on her face. “I know you might not be too excited about doin’ this, but Rarity’s my friend. She’s doin’ me a big favor by agreein’ to this; she’s doin’ both of us a favor, actually. So...try to have a good attitude about this. Be good to her. Treat her like...like she were me.”

Applejack was right, of course; Rarity was just trying to help us. She had no way of knowing the larger context of our date, and she had not been responsible for what had led up to it. It would have been unfair of me to make her suffer just because I was still upset about my non-relationship with Applejack. “Alright, AJ,” I said, smiling back at her, “I will. I promise.” She nodded in acknowledgement, and we went back to waiting in silence. After a length of time that was most definitely longer than a minute, we heard a door open upstairs and the sound of footsteps coming down the long, curving staircase. Applejack and I stood and walked over to the base of the stairs.

A few seconds later, a pair of long, slender legs clad in purple high-heeled shoes appeared from around the corner. The legs led up to wide hips, a tiny waist, and a pair of average-sized breasts, all squeezed into a sleeveless purple thigh-high dress that somehow managed to look casual and elegant at the same time. Each of her thin, pale arms ended in a set of long fingernails, painted purple to match her perfectly coiffed hair. The makeup she wore on her face was expertly applied, accentuating her features without being distracting. An ivory-white horn protruded upwards from her forehead, making the already-tall woman appear even taller than she was.

She stopped several steps above the ground floor, looking down at us and smiling. “Hello, Applejack,” she said cheerfully. “Hello, Anon.” My greeting was delivered with a noticeably slower, almost sensual tone, with her batting her long eyelashes at me as she spoke.

“Howdy, Rarity,” said Applejack, smiling back at her.

“Hey, Rarity,” I said, trying to look happier than I felt.

For a short while, Rarity merely stood there smiling, neither speaking nor continuing her trip down the stairs. After a moment, she shifted position and struck a subtle pose, placing one hand on her hip while lightly stroking her signature swirly hair with the other. When the moment was beginning to get awkward, her friendly expression faded slightly, and she shifted back into a normal position, clearing her throat in a ladylike manner. “Anon, darling,” she said in a disappointed, but compassionate tone, “I know this is just practice, but when you greet your date, you should always be sure to compliment her for all the hard work she did making herself look presentable.”

“Oh, right! Sorry,” I said, facepalming internally. “You, uh...you look beautiful, Rarity.” My comment wasn’t a complete fabrication. She might not have been my dream girl, but even I had to admit that she was a very attractive woman. With her feminine, hourglass figure and her finely sculpted features, she could easily have been a model, that is, if she didn’t prefer working on the other side of the fashion industry. I had heard no shortage of comments from the men of town about their feelings towards the lovely bachelorette. For a moment, I wondered if she would have become the target of my affection too, if I had never developed feelings for Applejack.

“Oh, Anon! You flatterer,” said Rarity, playfully swatting her hand at me and speaking as if she hadn’t requested the compliment in the first place. “You’re looking rather spiffy yourself.” Rarity descended the last remaining steps and stood before Applejack and I. While she normally stood slightly shorter than Applejack, her heeled shoes put her at eye level with me.

“Thanks, but I did have help,” I said, giving Applejack a sidelong glance.

“Well, you certainly did a lovely job tidying him up,” said Rarity to Applejack. “Why, if I didn’t know him, I would never guess that he spends his days picking apples.”

Applejack chuckled. “Well, speakin’ of apples, I gotta get back to the farm soon,” she said. “I still got a lot of chores to get done today. But don’t you worry, Anon, I’ll make sure to save some work for you for when you get back.” She grinned playfully at me as she spoke.

“Gee, thanks, sis,” I said, giving her a similar grin. “What would I do without you?”

“Alright, you two, enough work talk,” said Rarity. “That’s lesson number two, Anon: don’t talk about work while you’re on a date.”

“Sorry. Lesson learned,” I said.

“Good! Now, let’s get going, shall we?” said Rarity. “Our movie starts in fifteen minutes, and movies are not the sort of thing one can be ‘fashionably’ late to.”

Rarity grabbed her purse from where it had been sitting nearby and the three of us made our way out of the boutique, Rarity locking the door behind us. “There! Now then, come along, Anon,” she said. “We have quite a day ahead of us.” Rarity approached me and wrapped her arm around mine, pulling me close. As she did so, I thought I saw Applejack’s cheery expression falter out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked back at her, it had returned again. “See you later, Applejack.”

“Bye, Applejack,” I said as Rarity began to pull me in the opposite direction.

“Bye, you guys,” said Applejack. “Have...have fun.”

“Oh, don’t worry! We will,” said Rarity, looking over her shoulder and winking at Applejack.

“So...we’re going to see a movie?” I asked, having not been made privy to Rarity’s plans ahead of time.

“Oh, yes! Movie night is such a dating mainstay after all, so you need some experience with it,” said Rarity. “Granted, this would technically be a ‘movie afternoon’, but it’s the same principle.”

“And have you already decided which movie we’re seeing?” I said.

“An excellent question, and the answer is yes!” she said. “We shall be seeing Shadow Spade and the Purloined Pocketbook! I’ve been wanting to see it for a while, so I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity. Oh, and for future reference, you should always let your date decide which movie you see.”

“Okay,” I said acceptingly.

As Rarity started gushing about Shadow Spade movies and giving her opinion on the relative quality of each one, I glanced back over my shoulder for a moment. I saw Applejack still standing by the door of the boutique, watching us walking away. When she saw me looking back at her, she raised a hand and weakly waved at me, giving me a supportive smile as she did. I smiled back at her and nodded slightly, before tearing my gaze away and looking ahead again.

I was quickly reminded that Rarity was definitely not the “strong, silent type” like Applejack was. She talked pretty much the entire way to the movie theater about the movie we would be seeing, miscellaneous dating advice, and other, more irrelevant topics. I really tried to be polite and pay attention to what she was saying, but when the conversation turned to the latest fashion trends, my eyes started to glaze over. I nodded and let out an exclamation of agreement every once in a while to make it seem like I was listening, even when my mind started to wander.

We eventually made it to the small, one-screen movie theater near the center of town. Rarity reminded me that it was my responsibility to pay for both of our tickets, even though I would have done so unprompted. I payed for our tickets at the booth and we entered the building, the cool air feeling wonderful after walking under the warm afternoon sun. Rarity said that she wasn’t very hungry, but that I should buy us a large popcorn just for the sake of “practice”. We approached the concession stand and I purchased the snack, which Rarity would not allow me to put more than a light smattering of butter and salt on.

We made our way into the theater itself to take our seats. The room was largely empty, due to it being matinee hours, so I attempted to lead us to some center-middle seats for an optimal viewing experience.

“No, no, no, Anon,” said Rarity, lightly pulling me towards the rows further back, “back here.”

“Uh...why are we going to the back?” I said. “It’ll be harder to see the movie.”

“Perhaps,” said Rarity casually, “but sitting back here will be much more...private.” She shot me an oddly mischievous look, which confused me somewhat.

In any case, I decided not to argue, and allowed her to lead me to the center of the very back row. I realized she was right about the privacy; where we sat, several rows behind the nearest person, we probably could have gotten up to anything without being noticed in the dark theater. The armrests between the seats were the sort that could be pulled back for convenience; we ended up pulling back the one between our seats and placing our popcorn in the middle so that we could share it.

Before too long, the lights went off and the movie began. Shadow Spade and the Purloined Pocketbook was a noir crime drama about a young, intelligent, and beautiful detective, the titular Shadow Spade, who investigated the theft of a very valuable jeweled purse. I wasn’t a big fan of those sorts of movies, so I found the experience somewhat boring, especially where the romantic subplot was concerned. Shadow Spade had a handsome, but one-dimensional love interest in the movie, whom she ended up having a brief fling with before tragically having to part ways with at the end. In my opinion, the romance felt gratuitous and unrealistically simple, serving only to get the characters to the saucier moments as quickly as possible.

While I might not have enjoyed myself that much, Rarity certainly seemed to, as her eyes were glued to the screen the entire time. I could tell by her body language that she was really into it; I saw her tense during the more perilous moments and visibly relax during the slower ones. Despite her previous claims, Rarity did end up partaking in the popcorn. While she only took a few pieces every once in a while at first, her rate of consumption quickly increased as she became more engrossed in the movie. Eventually, she pulled the container up onto her lap and began shoving the buttery corn into her mouth at an impressive speed.

With the popcorn container having been emptied and shoved aside before the movie was even halfway over, Rarity was able to move about in her seat as much as she wished, something which she took full advantage of. During one of the more suspenseful parts of the movie, Rarity subtly scooted closer to me and lightly leaned up against me. I didn’t notice right away, due to actually being absorbed in that particular scene. After a moment, she gently nudged me with her shoulder, but I still didn’t notice her.

“Anon,” she whispered. “Darling.” Her voice snapped me out of my concentration and I looked over at her. “When a lady leans up against you like this during a movie, it means she wants you to put your arm around her.”

“Oh, sorry,” I whispered, remembering that I was technically watching the movie with a date, not just a friend. I lifted up the arm she was leaning against and gently placed it over her shoulders. Rarity shifted slightly to make way, before moving back in once my arm was in place. She nuzzled up against me, pressing her leg against mine and resting her head on my shoulder. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy holding her like that, but the physical contact also filled me with some very bittersweet memories of a certain other woman I had held in my arms recently.

We stayed like that for the rest of the showing, with no further interruptions until the movie came to a particularly intimate scene between Shadow Spade and her love interest towards the end. I wasn’t particularly engrossed at that point, so I immediately noticed when Rarity rested one of her hands on my knee and lightly caressed it. I found the gesture to be a bit forward, but not enough to be worth confronting her about. It wasn’t until a moment later, when her hand started slowly moving up my thigh, that I finally spoke up.

“Um...Rarity?” I whispered, looking down at her.

“Yes, Anon?” she whispered, looking up at me and giving me a devilish grin.

“What are you doin’?” I said.

“Why, what ever do you mean?” she said. “I’m not doing a thing.”

“But your hand is—” I began, before she raised her other hand and gently placed a finger on my lips.

“I think you’re just imagining things,” she said, batting her eyelashes at me. “Why don’t you just relax and...enjoy the movie?”

Rarity removed her finger from my lips and turned back to the screen, but did not remove her hand from my leg. I was shocked and confused by her actions, but I was unsure of how to react. I watched her closely for a while to see what she would do next, but thankfully, her hand did not travel any higher than my mid-thigh. I gave up on trying to pay attention to the movie, focusing on her like a deer listening for a wolf.

Luckily, the movie ended just a few minutes later, and the audience members began rising from their seats and leaving. Rarity shrugged off my arm and stood, stretching her cramped muscles. “Oh, wasn’t that just delightful, Anon?” she said, looking down at me and smiling.

“Uh, yeah. That, um...that sure was somethin’,” I said, still a bit on edge.

I stood and we quickly exited the theater, walking arm-in-arm again. Rarity talked my ear off about what she thought of the movie, which she considered to be the best one in the series. I tried to pay attention as I had before, but part of my mind was still preoccupied with Rarity’s strange behavior.

“So, uh...where are we goin’ now?” I said during a break in the conversation.

“Well, after all that salty popcorn, I’m in the mood for something sweet,” she said. “Why don’t you and I stop and get ourselves some ice cream on the way home?”

“That...sounds nice,” I said. A nice, normal date activity in a well-lit public area, I thought to myself.

“I know just the place too!” she said. “Come along, Anon.” She held my arm closely, pressing her soft breasts up against it.

As she led me off to get ice cream, I found myself wondering what Applejack was up to at that moment.

Applejack held a piece of wood up against the old fence post, positioning a nail where the two met. With one hand, she held the wood and the nail in place, while she grabbed her hammer with the other and moved it into position. She lightly tapped the nail a few times to get it into the wood, then switched to stronger strikes to drive it home. When she finished with the first nail, she grabbed another one, pounding it into the wood slightly below the first. A few seconds later, the wood had been securely attached to the post, leaving that section of fence fully repaired.

She stood and wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, breathing a heavy sigh. She looked over at the few remaining sections of fence she still had to repair, then looked at all the many sections she already had. The task had taken her much longer than she had anticipated it would when she had begun. She realized afterward that that had been because she had counted on having Anon there to help her. While she would have liked having him there to help her, she knew that it was more important that he be out on his practice date with Rarity.

She started wondering how the two of them were doing as she moved to the next section of fence; she wondered if the two of them were getting along well. While she had only asked Rarity to help him practice, she wondered if either of them would end up wanting to try it again for real later on. She knew Rarity well enough to know that she would make a terrific woman for any man, and she didn’t think Anon would turn Rarity down if she wanted to be with him. And while she couldn’t speak for Rarity, she couldn’t imagine her turning down a good man like Anon either.

As she positioned another piece of wood and began hammering a nail into it, she imagined what their lives would be like as a couple. Images came to her mind of Anon and Rarity walking through the park, holding hands. She saw them cuddling by a fireplace together on a cold winter’s night. She saw them laying in bed together, exchanging passionate kisses with each other. As her mind wandered further, she imagined them in increasingly more intimate scenarios, doing the sort of things that she and Anon had been doing together over the past few weeks.

Applejack was jolted out of her reverie by an intense pain in her thumb. She reflexively jerked her hand back and let out a loud yelp. She dropped her hammer and looked down at her bruised thumb, letting out a string of curse words. She sat down on the ground, cradling her hand while the pain slowly subsided. While she was primarily angry at herself for hammering her own finger, she was also angry that she had, once again, allowed herself to become distracted and cause an accident.

For some reason, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Anon and Rarity since she had gotten back to the farm, which had caused her no shortage of grief. Earlier, she had dropped a large basket of apples, spilling dozens of them onto the ground, which she had then had to pick up again. Later, she had slipped while collecting eggs from the chicken coop, falling onto an egg and getting egg white all over her butt. After each incident, she had tried to refocus herself and stop thinking about whatever romantic things Anon and Rarity were up to on their date, but she had been unsuccessful each time.

Just the thought of the two of them together filled her head with a strange mixture of emotions. While part of her felt happy at the thought of two of the people she cared dearly about finding love, a much larger part felt upset by it. If she didn’t know any better, she would have said she felt mad or even sad, but the idea that she was either of those seemed impossible to her. She had no reason to be upset; if Anon found someone other than her to love, then that could only be a good thing, she thought. So then why, she wondered, did the thought of him with another woman feel so wrong in her heart?

Applejack stood up on her feet and shook out her sore hand. She looked over at the sections of fence she still needed to fix, then thought about all the other chores she needed to get done that day. She wanted to just power through her work and hope that the troublesome thoughts would go away on their own, but she realized that that was unlikely to happen. Perhaps, she reasoned, if she were to go and check in on them and see for herself that all was well, then she would stop feeling so bad about having to let Anon go. Making up her mind, she quickly set her tools aside and set off for town at a brisk pace.

Rarity and I sat down on opposite sides of a booth in the back of the ice cream shop to eat our ice creams. I had gotten a scoop of mint chocolate chip; Rarity had gotten a vanilla soft serve cone. Rarity set her purse down on the seat beside her, leaning up against the wall.

“So, Anon,” she said as we settled in, “now that we have a chance to sit and talk, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”

“Go right ahead,” I said.

“Well, Applejack told me you’re trying to find a girlfriend, and while I’m certainly willing to help you in that endeavor, there’s only so much I can do as far as general-purpose advice goes,” she said. “If you want the best assistance I can give, then you’re going to have to tell me a little bit more.”

“Like what?” I said, taking a lick of my ice cream.

“What I mean is, you need to tell me what sort of woman you’re looking for,” said Rarity, smiling at me. “Women are like dresses after all: every one of them is beautiful in her own special way. Some women are flashy and vibrant, lighting up the room whenever they make an appearance. Others are quiet and mysterious, their true beauty only visible to those with they eye to see it. So...what sort are you looking for? What is your dream girl like?”

While I couldn’t exactly tell her about my actual dream girl, I still understood what she meant. It was a question that I had asked myself many times over the previous weeks. If fate decreed that Applejack and I were never to be together, what then? What sort of woman would I direct my affection toward instead? I had longed for her for so long that I had had a hard time imagining myself being with any woman unlike her. To me, the perfect woman would be someone as close to Applejack as possible.

“Well,” I said, clearing my throat, “I think I sorta know what kind of woman I’d like. I’d love to be with a woman who’s strong, but gentle; a woman who knows how to have fun, but also knows how to get the job done. I want a woman who’s brave, honest, dependable, and above all, carin’. I want a woman who’s smart, but in her own, down-to-earth sorta way. I want a woman who’ll stick by me through thick and thin, no matter what. I want a woman who’ll love me for all my faults, and will let me love her for hers.”

“Hmm...” said Rarity, looking at me with her perceptive eyes. “You know, Anon, I think I know someone like that.” She took a short lick of her ice cream then grinned at me. “As a matter of fact...I think we both do.”

I tried not to let my nervousness show, but I couldn’t do much to stop my cheeks from reddening. “Really?” I said, trying to sound casual.

“Oh, yes,” she said, taking another lick. “It’s not uncommon for men to pursue women who remind them of their mothers. Although, I suppose that could also extend to older sisters as well.”

The look she gave me as she said the words “older sisters” made my heart skip a beat. Despite the coolness of the air inside the shop, I could feel myself start to sweat. “I...don’t know what you mean,” I said, doing a poor job of hiding my emotional state.

Rarity chuckled softly. “Oh, never mind, Anon,” she said sweetly, continuing to lick her ice cream. “From what I can tell, you seem to have very mature sensibilities when it comes to women.”

“Uh...thanks,” I said.

“That being said, I wonder if you couldn’t be persuaded to change your mind a bit,” she said.

“In what way?” I said.

“Well...down-to-earth women are all well and good, don’t get me wrong,” she said, “but have you ever thought about being with a more...sophisticated woman?”

“Sophisticated?” I said. “What do you mean by...?” I fell silent as I felt something soft gently touch my inner thigh under the table. I couldn’t see what it was, but I could feel it slowly caressing my leg

“I mean sophisticated, refined, elegant,” she said slowly, “a woman who appreciates the finer things in life. A woman who’s bold, not boring. A woman who’s not afraid to be...adventurous.”

As she spoke, the thing touching me slowly moved up my leg. Tentatively, I leaned back in my seat and allowed my gaze to wander downwards, somewhat fearful of what I might see there. To my shock, resting on my thigh about halfway up was a petite, pale foot, with five delicate purple-painted toes on its end. The foot rubbed my leg in small circles, the toes lightly digging into my skin.

“Uh...” I said, my brain struggling to comprehend what was going on.

“Wouldn’t you like a woman who could make your life exciting?” she said in a sensual tone, slowly moving what I realized was her foot further up my thigh. “A woman who’s not afraid to try new things with new people?”

“Rarity, what are you...?” I began, but stopped when I looked back up at her.

She was staring at me with her brilliant blue eyes, giving me a look that could not possibly be described as chaste. As I watched, she opened her mouth, placed her tongue on her ice cream cone, and took a long, slow lick from its base to its tip. When she finished, she rotated the cone slightly, and gave it another lick identical to the first. She repeated this process several times, working her way around the exterior of her ice cream. By the time she got all the way around, the ice cream had been transformed from its original swirled shape into a smooth, white pillar that tapered off into a rounded tip. I watched silently the entire time, paralyzed by her intense gaze.

When she finished, she opened her mouth once again, lightly placing her tongue near the tip. She slowly moved her tongue, drawing circles around the tip at the same speed that her foot drew circles on my leg. She stopped when she had created a small, but noticeable ridge about an inch and a half beneath the tip, pausing and allowing me to see it. She gave me a devilish grin, then opened her mouth wide. Ever so slowly, she pointed the tip towards her hot, wet mouth and moved it inside, wrapping her plump purple lips around it when she had gotten it at least a couple of inches in.

Never taking her eyes off of mine, she slowly pulled it out of her mouth, stopping when it had almost completely exited the orifice. Pausing only an instant, she pushed it back in, taking even more of it into her mouth than she had before. She repeated this cycle for quite a while, slowly pulling it out before plunging it right back in, taking slightly more into her every time. She maintained a slow, sensual pace the entire time, clearly in no rush to finish. As I watched her do this, her foot got dangerously close to my precious cargo, close enough that she could have stuck out her big toe and touched it if she had wanted to.

I had many different feelings rushing around in my mind at that time. I was confused as to why Rarity was doing something so bold in what was supposed to be such a casual situation. I was afraid, both of the thought of someone else seeing us, and of what Rarity might try to do next. Admittedly, a small part of me was very much enjoying was what going on as well. Anon Jr. had much less mixed feelings on the issue, and the blood he was siphoning from my brain only made it harder for me to think straight.

I don’t know how long she went on like that, but luckily, or unluckily, depending on how one looked at it, she did not go on forever. As I had sat there, mesmerized by the suggestive display, the ice cream I held in my hand had been warming up and had begun to melt. Right around the time Rarity was putting almost the entirety of her ice cream into her mouth, a large drop of mint green liquid fell off of my cone, traveling downward and landing squarely in the middle of her foot. She froze when the drop impacted against her skin, her foot ceasing its movement. Slowly, Rarity pulled her ice cream all the way out of her mouth, holding it upright yet again. Her ice cream was also melting from the warmth of her mouth, a drops of white liquid trailing their way down its length from the tip, falling onto her dainty hands.

“You really should eat your ice cream, Anon,” she said sensually. “It’s starting to melt.”

Rarity slowly withdrew her foot from my leg and pulled it back under the table. One of her hands moved under the table, returning a moment later with a drop of bright green liquid on its fingers. Giving me a wink, she raised the hand to her lips and licked her messy fingers clean. Her lips, which had once been as purple as her hair, were completely covered in sticky white liquid. She placed her tongue on her lips and slowly dragged it around the perimeter of her mouth, collecting every drop it could reach. When she finished, she pulled her tongue back into her mouth, rolling the liquid around before swallowing it in a single, dramatic gulp.

“Well?” she said, motioning towards my melty ice cream cone.

“Uh...yeah,” I said, quickly recovering my mental faculties. “I’ll...get right on that.”

I tentatively returned back to my ice cream, and our date quickly went back to normal, or as normal as it had been before we had sat down. Rarity, thankfully, did not try to engage me in any more intimate topics of conversation. She returned to gabbing about her work, her social life, local gossip, and other benign things, which was a welcome reprieve after what I had just been through. I tried to chip in here and there, but overall, she did most of the talking while we worked on finishing our ice creams, Rarity eating hers in a much more normal, ladylike manner than she had before.

“Well, I think it’s about time for us to be moving on, don’t you think?” she said when both of us had finished the last bite of our cones.

“Looks like it,” I said.

“Let me just grab my purse and we can be on our...” she said, reaching for her purse beside her, but pushing it forward off of the seat and onto the floor beneath the table. “Oh, dear! I seem to have dropped it onto the floor!” She spoke in a tone that made it clear she was not genuinely surprised by the turn of events. “Anon, could you be a dear and get it for me?” She batted her eyes at me and gave me a sweet smile.

“Uh, sure,” I said, somewhat confused. “Gimme a second.” I scooted towards the edge of the seat, allowing me to lean down on it and peer under the table.

I had planned on locating her purse, grabbing it, and leaning back up as quickly as possible, but fate would decree that my job be a little more complicated than that. As I looked under the table, I was met with the sight of Rarity’s long, shapely legs spread wide, the bottom of her dress pulled high up her thigh, and her underwear on full display. Her panties were black and lacy, standing out clearly against the backdrop of pale flesh that surrounded them. I froze as I laid my eyes on the sight, my mind wiped clean of any complex thoughts. Under normal circumstances, I would never have tried to ogle her, but posed like she was, it was almost impossible not to see what she had on display.

“Well, Anon, do you see it down there?” she said in a sensual tone that made me question what the “it” was that she was referring to. Her remark brought me back to reality, and I realized that I had been looking under the table for an awkwardly large amount of time.

“Uh...” I said, tearing my gaze away from her and rapidly scanning the area. I looked over every inch of floor, but for the life of me, I could not see her purse anywhere. “I, uh...I can’t see it.”

“Are you sure?” she said. “Take a good, long look.”

I looked in every nook and cranny, every corner it could possibly have fallen, Rarity’s lower half never leaving my peripheral vision the entire time. I looked the small space over multiple times, but still saw nothing. The awkwardness of the situation soon became unbearable, and I sat back up in my seat before my cheeks became any warmer than they already were.

“Rarity, I really don’t see...” I said as I pulled my head out from under the table and saw what was hovering in the air next to Rarity’s head. Her purse was surrounded in a shimmering blue aura, the same color as the aura surrounding the horn on her forehead. I might not have been the smartest man in Equestria, but even I could recognize unicorn magic when I saw it. I stared at the purse, my mind struggling to comprehend what was going on.

Rarity seemingly noticed me staring at it, and turned her head to the side. “Oh! There it is!” she said in mock-surprise. “I swear, I’d lose track of my horn if it wasn’t attached to my head.” She reached out and took hold of her purse, the aura surrounding it and her horn vanishing. She slid along the seat to the edge, stealthily readjusting her dress as she stood. “Well, Anon? Let’s get going!”

“Uh...okay,” I said, quickly rising from the booth as well. Rarity stepped up to me and wrapped her arm around mine once again, leading me out of the ice cream shop.

“Well, as much as I’ve enjoyed myself today, I think it’s about time we wrap up our little outing,” she said. “You’ll be happy to know that you have performed admirably; I’ll be sure to give Applejack a glowing report.”

“Thanks, Rarity,” I said. “I, um...I had a lot of fun today too.” I was mostly being polite, as “fun” had not been my primary state of mind throughout most of the day’s bizarre events.

“Hmm...I’ll bet you did,” said Rarity quietly.

Rarity and I made our way back to Carousel Boutique without further incident. We stopped at her front door, where Rarity retrieved her keys from her purse and unlocked the door, before turning to face me. “I really did have a nice time,” she said, smiling sweetly. “Thank you for spending the afternoon with me.” Her gaze dropped for a moment, and a hint of guilt crept into her otherwise happy expression. “I do hope you weren’t...too uncomfortable with...anything that happened today.”

“Aw, don’t mention it,” I said, smiling back at her. “In fact, I’m the one who should be thankin’ you. You did all this just to help me, after all.” While she had talked my ear off a bit, she had also imparted a few nuggets of feminine wisdom upon me as well.

“And, um...as far as that other stuff is concerned...” I said, averting my gaze as well, “d-don’t sweat it, Rarity. I know you; I know you...didn’t mean any harm by it.” While her forward behavior had made me a bit uncomfortable, I knew that she would never have done what she had done if I had told her not to. Besides, I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me that had enjoyed being on the receiving end of such attention from such a gorgeous woman.

Rarity looked back up at me and smiled. “You’re too sweet for your own good, Anon,” she said. “Why don’t I give you one last piece of advice before you go?” She stepped forward, placing her hands on my shoulders and leaning in her head close to mine. “When the date is over, and the woman you’re with thinks you did a good job, she’ll probably want to give you a kiss.” She spoke slowly and softly, looking at me with half-closed eyes.

“Oh?” I said nervously.

“Yes. And if she really likes you, she might want to give you even more,” she whispered, moving her face in so close that our noses almost touched. She paused for a moment, biting her lip and looking like she was thinking something over. “Tell me, Anon, before you head back home, would you like to come inside and...have a cup of coffee with me?”

“Um, no thanks. I, uh...don’t drink coffee,” I said, confused by why she would want to have coffee in the middle of such a warm day.

Rarity chuckled softly. “I don’t either,” she whispered.

It was probably due to me being distracted by the beautiful woman pressed up against me that I wasn’t able to react quickly to what happened next. In my peripheral vision, I saw Rarity’s horn light up with its signature glow, the front door of the boutique soon following suit. The door quickly swung open, loudly slamming against the inside wall. Rarity grabbed hold of my shirt firmly, and with a surprising amount of strength, pushed me through the open door. I stumbled several feet backwards, but was able to regain my balance before I fell.

Rarity quickly followed me through the door, slamming it shut again behind her. She turned around, quickly securing a series of door chains, deadbolts, and other locks on the door that I somehow hadn’t noticed before. When the last lock had been secured, she slowly turned around to face me. She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling visibly, accentuating her shapely breasts. Only one word came to my mind to describe the intense expression on her face at that moment: predatory. Her legs slowly began to move, carrying the sultry woman towards me.