Rarity's Boutique

by Minalkra

Rating: mature
Tags: Alternate Universe, Romance
Length: 5839

Bruce(OC)xRarity) This never happened ... but if it did, this is what it would read like.

This never happened. But if it did, this is how it would read … FOALCON, uh, kinda? Body of a foal, mind of an adult child. Teenager, maybe? Anyway, this here be yer warning!

Bruce has now gone to live with Miss Rarity Belle - proprietress of Carousel Boutique and Element of Generosity - after having driven a recovering alcoholic Mrs. Cake to drink again. This story is told in 'Oh to be Old Again' but what happened if things turned out a bit differently? What generous gift will Rarity give to Bruce to help him adjust and recover?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-31 18:21:12 UTC

The Only One

Rarity hummed to herself as she placed another roll of fabric on her cutting table.  It had been a few days since Bruce had entered her care and she couldn't imagine why the Cakes couldn't handle him.  He wasn't a 'proper' colt but he was hardly as bad as they had made him seem.  In fact, he was just sitting there watching her work.

"Bruce, are you sure you're satisfied just watching me work?  Colts of your age should be outside playing or exploring the world.  Finding your cutie mark and all that."  She turned to regard him with a smile and a small wave of her hoof, sitting as he was next to her work area on a pile of discarded cloth scraps.

"Eh, not too worried about the whole 'cutie mark' thing, Miss Rarity.  And outside is, well, dull as fu-er, rocks."  Ah, yes.  There were slip-ups on occasion but that was to be expected from his unfortunate upbringing.  She couldn't get upset at those - though she had made it clear they were not to be tolerated the first time one had occurred.  Besides, he was cute, sitting on that pile of discards ... like some pampered prince-ling in her fortress.  Rarity bit her tongue to remind herself to keep in control as she turned back to her fabric shelves.  Her face was a most unladylike pink now and she hated it.  She had never once looked at a colt before - she preferred proper stallions with station - and yet here she was, entertaining such thoughts.  His voice brought her back to the here-and-now.  "Besides, it's still kinda amazing watching you shift all that around with, eh, 'magic' and whatnot."

"Ah, you like magic then?"  This was new.  From speaking with Twilight and Spring, Rarity had always assumed that Bruce had been suffering from 'magic phobia.'  It was such a rare condition, being afraid of something that made life itself possible, but it was not unheard of from an earth pony.  Again, his upbringing must have had something to do with it.  Bruce nodded and Rarity could see a slight smile out of the corner of her eye as he watched the various articles bathed in her light blue aura spin around the room.  With a wisp of will, she brought a ribbon up from behind him and swiftly wrapped it around one of his hooves, much to his surprise.  "It's so useful, dearie.  I'm glad you're not afraid of it."

"Well, it's a weapon as all things are but so long as it's not being used as one ..."  He let that sentence die as he shook his hind leg with a frown in an attempt to dislodge the offending scrap.  Rarity joined him in his facial expression.  Magic as a weapon?  To be respected, to be loved, to be admired; these were the feelings Rarity had always tried to inspire in those around her.  To be feared, however, was never her intent.  With a flick of her horn, she untangled Bruce's leg and trotted over to him, nuzzling him as soon as he was near enough.  She felt him stiffen under her.

"Oh Bruce, magic isn't a weapon.  True, uncouth monsters can use it as such - but magic is not meant to be a weapon.  It's a tool."  He did not pull away, which surprised her.  He was usually very touch-shy.  She felt that blush return - this time more fierce than before - but did not want to make him think something was wrong by pulling herself away.  He needed this.  He needed support and affection.

"Tools can be weapons."  His voice was very quiet and Rarity found herself straining to listen.  "Scissors can be knives, hammers maces, and even a stone can be a hurled weapon."

"I suppose so.  But magic relies on concentration and inner strength.  Few could even hope to use it as a weapon."  To her surprise, he returned her nuzzle with one of his own.  It was halting, nervous.  But it was there.

"I wouldn't know, I'm just an earth pony."  Bruce said those last two words with a sneer as he relaxed slightly.  There it is, the heart of his issue.  He hated himself, hated who he was and what he was.  Rarity bit her lip in worry.  If she said the wrong word, did the wrong thing his own self-hatred would be amplified a thousand fold.

"Bruce, it doesn't matter what you look like or who you are.  I love you for those things.  I lo-"  He pushed away and Rarity cursed herself in her head.  She had said just the wrong thing.

"Easy for you to say, you've got magic."  He looked up at her with his golden eyes, his face pulled into such a sad frown that it almost broke her heart to look at him.

For years afterwards, Rarity would rack her brain for the reason she did what she did next.  Her own lack of self control?  The almost pitiful sound of his voice?  Or perhaps it was the way he looked at her, with such hurt eyes.  With such heartfelt sadness.  With an aching need to be loved.  Regardless of the reason, her next motion was one not of logic but of emotion.  Of passion.

Their lips locked and Bruce's eyes shot open fully.  Rarity could feel him tense once more but she did not stop.  She closed her own eyes - maybe it was to save herself the disgust she knew he would look at her with - and tilted her head into his, her tongue dancing across his lips.  For a moment, there was nothing but the sounds of his deep breathing and her own heart thundering through her ears.

Then, he did something she could never have expected.  His lips parted.  Her tongue, having knocked, entered the warm and damp fortress of his mouth.  He tasted almost of stallion.  Almost.  Like the hint of cinnamon in a well-brewed cup of tea, not strong but there.  The sweetness of his youth mixing and almost overpowering his other flavor.  With one foreleg, she drew him closer.  He was so small compared to her, so young.  So hurt, so confused.  A small part of her mind ranted at her, yelled that what she was doing was wrong but she paid it no mind.

His body met hers, his head tilted up to catch every ounce of her love.  Of her desire.  And she found herself drinking of his.  His strangely adult need meeting hers, fanning both the embers into a raging inferno.

After a few moments, Rarity parted from his lips.  Her breath was coming in ragged pants and she could feel the unclean moisture of her marehood creating a damp spot on her (expensive) carpet.  He had resorted to leaning against her chest in their kiss and after it was broken, his head lowered to rest in the crook of her neck.  His own breath had become labored as well, she could feel his small body shivering against her own.

She wanted to close her eyes, hold him now as a mare should hold a young colt.  Perhaps make some excuse for her unladylike behavior.  But her eyes now wandered.  His soft foalish pelt.  The pudgy foalfat that made his flanks so shapely and yet so soft.  The way he clung to her as a drowning sailor would cling to the last spar of her ship.  He needed more and while his voice said nothing, his body told her of his need.

"Bruce."  Her voice came out with a crack and she cleared her throat before continuing.  She was going to be exiled and there was nothing she could do to stop that.  She needed to protect him from herself.  She would give anything to protect him from harm.  "This is not right.  What I did is not right.  We need to stop."

He nodded but did not let go.  In fact, he tightened his grip on her after she said that and Rarity found herself tightening her own in response.  It was wrong, it was wrong, it was wrong ... why did it feel so right?  She almost snorted as the words came unbidden to her mind.  Trashy romance novels - one of her few vices - had filled her head with that tripe and she had always laughed hardest when some writer had fallen back on such a stand-by.  But there was nothing else that she could compare it to.  It was wrong but it didn't feel that way.  She wanted it.

"Bruce.  I - I don't want to stop and I don't feel like I can if we continue this."  He nodded once more, still holding her tightly.  "Bruce.  You need to let go and run before I do something bad."

"And if I want you to do it?"  Rarity blinked at his almost blatant confession.  Her heart, already pounding in her chest, began to flutter slightly and the moisture in her hindquarters doubled.

"It, it's wro-"  Without looking up, Bruce's foreleg jumped to her muzzle, stopping her from continuing.

"No.  No, this isn't wrong.  This isn't wrong."  His leg fell and they sat in silence while they both struggled with this new found desire.

"Dear, if this is going to continue, perhaps we should retire to a more appropriate environment."  Rarity's voice had lowered, become almost husky with her need.  She loved that; when silly authors would stoop to using the words 'husky' or 'dripping with desire.'  It always made the stories so laughable.  And here she was, living one of the trashy novels that had seemed like such fluff just moments before.  It was almost ironic.  Had her tail not gained a mind of it's own - thrashing about like some school-filly's in her first heat - she would not have been able to stop herself from laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.  Her tail reminded her of the reality of this.

"I'd like that."  Bruce's voice had also become a cliche.  Soft and pliant.  But there were more pressing matters to attend to.  Finally managing to stand, Rarity gripped Bruce's hoof once more before dropping it and leading his lithe young body to the stairs, flicking the 'Open' sign to 'Closed' with the faintest of magic.

They shared another kiss at the top of the stairs and yet another one in her bedroom.  He had a depth of knowledge that was startling for his age, though he was always so hesitant to be more aggressive.  He always allowed her tongue into his mouth but only gently caressed her lips with his.  Despite the nervousness, his hooves had become a bit more exploratory than she would have thought, rubbing her legs, chest and even gently stroking her face as they embraced.

"My my, you are such a loving little colt."  Rarity stroked his cheek as she looked into his eyes.  They were so nervous.  Full of fear and apprehension but filled with a need as well.  She knew that look.  "And so full of knowledge too, at such a tender age.  Bruce, is it true what they say?  That you have already ... been broken in?"  She winced internally at the phrase.  So uncouth, so aggressive.  Almost disdainful of the stallions that had to go through the unfortunately common heartbreak of a first time.  Had it not been the common parlance, she would have never uttered it.

"Broken - OH.  Oh, have I lost my v-virginity?"  Rarity sighed at his words and smiled.  A more clinical way of saying what had been on her mind.  She wasn't surprised he knew the technical terms for it, though to hear him stutter it out was absolutely adorable.  She nodded, confirming his question.

"Yes, Bruce."

"Well, yes Miss Rarity.  Though not by a mare."  He looked away uncomfortably at the admission as if he was ashamed.  She bit her lip in thought.  Perhaps some of the worst of Spring's fears were true.  She desperately did not want that to be the case.  Gently pulling his head back up to face her, she planted a gentle kiss on the tip of his nose.

"You don't have to be ashamed of what happened to you, Bruce.  Be it by force or choice, I am not upset."  Kissing his lips as he parted them to protest, she ran her hoof down the side of his face and across his chest.  She broke the kiss with a question.  "Do you want me to help you, Bruce?"

"Y-yes Miss Rarity."  She found each syllable that he stuttered heating her marehood until it ached a throbbing desire that clouded all thought.  That small voice in the back of her mind had fallen silent in the sea of need she now swam in.

"Than I shall."  Lifting his light form gently with her magic, she levitated him towards the bed - an almost baroque four-post thing she had picked up in Manehatten at a whim.  At first, he had stiffened at her magic's touch but he relaxed as he found it had not hurt.  She had long thought that gentle covers and soft sheets would entice the stallions to her side and perhaps it had, for a time.  But it had never kept them there.  "Don't worry, Bruce.  I'm not going to drain you dry."

"Drain me?"  Rarity held back a sigh.  So knowledgeable in things and yet lacking so many details.

"Yes.  When a female drains a male of his ... seed."  His confused look as she lowered him to her velvet bedsheets actually brought forth the sigh she had been trying to force down.  "It's painful for a male to be drained."

"Oh, ok.  Uhm, pl-please don't do that."  Rarity almost - almost - giggled at how much he reminded her of her friend Fluttershy.   Giggling at a stallion - or colt, in this case - would be sure to ruin the magic.

"I won't."  With a grace born of years of practice, Rarity joined her young lover on her bed.  The plush red contrasted ever-so-much with his blue pelt and hair but he would look so delightful against the pure white of her covers.  She suppressed a shiver but kept her eyes wandering up and down his now furiously blushing body.  His lithe colt form, his gentle foal curves that would harden into the angles of a stallion, his oh-so-delectable blush.  She looked lower still and smiled.  His stallionhood had already began to harden, slipping free from his sheathe just enough to tempt but not enough to be vulgar.  Not that it would be vulgar at this particular juncture.  She lowered herself next to his still slightly shivering body, stroking his chest lightly with a hoof.  A frown creased Rarity's otherwise perfect muzzle at his tension.  "Bruce, if I ever make you uncomfortable, we can stop."

"Thank you, Miss Rarity.  I-I don't want to disappoint you."  Those words shocked her out of her haze of lust and need.  As ice filled her belly, Rarity nervously swallowed as the weight of what she was doing managed to barrel through her mind.  He was, regardless of his own thoughts, still a foal.  She was about to 'break in' a foal.  The small voice that had been silent for far too long suddenly began to shout through her mind just how wrong what she was doing truly was.

"Oh, Bruce.  You don't have to do this.  Oh Celestia, what am I -"  He cut her off with both hoof and word, his voice a small thing compared to her own.

"I want to, I'm just a bit nervous."  Bruce fidgeted slightly as he lowered his arm slowly, as if embarrassed at the his next admission.  "I've, uhm, only had two others."

"I see."  Still too many for such a young colt.  And his knowledge showed that it was not some idle schoolyard experimentation.  Rarity took a deep breath, her hoof straying upwards to his face.  She turned him towards her, noting how he avoided looking her in the eyes.  Wrong, the little voice inside her reminded.  Wrong.  "Do you want me to stop?"

"No, Miss Rarity."  His eyes finally met hers, though she was ashamed at how the fact they had the barest of tears in them made the heat between her legs increase.  Despite that, his voice was very set and filled with a conviction she found hard to believe came from such a young thing.  "Uhm, can we start slowly though?"

"Of course."  With that, she banished the last of that voice into the depths of her mind.  She was committed now to this course.  Her hoof began to wander lower, brushing past his chest to rest on his now fully extended stallionhood.  As she lowered her head and began to follow her hoof's trail with light kisses, she added, "and please, you can call me Rarity here."

"I'd like to keep calling you 'Miss Rarity' though.  It, uhm, feels ri~ight," he managed to gasp as she planted a kiss on the tip of his cock, its pulsing jerk telling her how good that must have felt to the colt.

"If that is what you want."  Rarity smiled at the pleasure that title brought, however.  Letting go of such thoughts, she turned her attention to his stallionhood.  With a critical eye, she noted how smooth and unworn he was.  How tender, how so delectable.  His brown and white splotched member was so much smaller than a fully grown stallion but that did not cause her concern.  In fact, it made her desire it even more.  Rarity scooted herself lower, stroking Bruce's chest and member with her hooves and kissing it between each slight adjustment.  Each kiss caused her young lover to gasp in shocked pleasure and by the time she had settled her head in a comfortable position she manage, he had begun thrashing his hooves in desperate need.

"Please, please, please Miss Rarity, oh please ..."  She chuckled at his pleading, a throaty sound instead of her normal tittering laugh.

"Since you asked so nicely ..."  Turning her attention back to the throbbing and jerking member in front of her, she noted with some satisfaction that it already had a generous drop of pre-cum seeping out of its tip.  With a smirk of pleasure, Rarity flicked out her tongue and tasted his gift.  His almost pained gasp kept her desire strong despite there being no physical sensation to accompany it.  "Salty."

Salty, yes.  Salty, musky and oddly sweet - so unlike the older stallions she had been with before.  She flicked her tongue across his tip once more, eliciting a high-pitched moan.  His hips bucked slightly as he subconsciously tried to enter her mouth.  Rarity pulled away, smiling up at him though his eyes were clenched closed in wonderful agony.

"Not yet, Bruce.  You asked for slow."  His whine of dismay at his own mistake almost made Rarity take him fully into her mouth right then and there to ease his need but she knew he would be up for more than just a single turn if she planned things properly.  "Ah-ah!  It will be marvelous once it happens Bruce but we shouldn't rush.  Let Miss Rarity take care of things."

Again, she turned her attention to his twitching cock, planting kisses and licks alternately up and down his fully-exposed shaft.  Each touch, each flick, each breath sent his hooves dancing in the air in ecstasy.  Rarity herself felt her tail thrashing behind her as her own musky scent of need filled the air and mixed with his.  Her checks flushed at the smell - so unladylike to fill a room with one's scent.  For a stallion to do so was of no great import but for some mare to let her smells out into the air, why, it was an unseemly barbaric thing!

That did not stop her from letting one of her hooves slip past her own belly.  She gasped as her fetlock lightly touched her soaking 'lower-mouth,' a jolt of pleasure shooting up her spine.  The moisture had dripped to wet that most intimate of places and Rarity found herself so sensitive that even trying to rub herself was almost painful.  She instead settled on rubbing nearby, letting the pushing and pulling of her own flesh stimulate her clit.  She moaned into Bruce's belly once before hungrily - and roughly - taking the entire length of his stallionhood into her mouth.

"Oh god!"  Bruce's voice cracked as he almost screamed out to his people's 'god' being.  Rarity gave him a moment to recover, leaving him fully in her mouth and letting his taste fill her mouth as her free hoof cupped his balls gently.  So much smaller but oh so much better.  His cock jerked in the confines of her wet and warm cage, the taste of his cum filling it - though only the taste.  He was so hot she realized.  So hot and ready.  Gently and slowly, Rarity began to bob her head, keeping a suction on him as she pulled her head back and flicking the base of his shaft with her tongue.  His moans rose in intensity as she allowed him to retreat until only the tip of his member remained in her mouth.  With a sigh of contentment, she closed her eyes.  The other times she had indulged in such activities, she would imagine scenes to help her become ready to accept her chosen mate.  Scenes of knights rescuing Princes or of rough mouths gripping her mane in sweet release.  This time, she needed only to hear his groans.  Breaking the suction slightly, Rarity lowered her head again enveloping him once more in her cage and increasing the power of her suction as she went until it once more was as tight as she could manage.  Again, she raised her head, letting her tongue dance a chaotic dance across his entire length.

"M-miss Rarity!  Ah, oh god, I-I can't, I can't..."  He was close now, she could taste it.  With one final suck and flick a flick of her tongue, he burst in her mouth with a scream.  His stallionhood jerked wildly as he began to empty himself inside her, each pulsing spurt causing his voice to cry out once more.  She kept the suction up for a few jerks before stopping, his orgasm having reached its peak.  Even after she stopped, however, a few jerks were left and three streaks of his pearly white essence spread out against his beautiful blue coat.  His hooves began to wander down, trying to prolong the sensation but Rarity - knowing that way led to more pain than pleasure - fended off his feeble attempts despite his groan of disappointment.  Looking at his spilled seed, Rairty - never one to turn down a treat - greedily licked up what was spent, much to the moaning joy of the young colt beneath her.  With a smile Rarity laid her head on his stomach.

"Mmmm, that was delightful, darling.  Now, it's my turn."  Bruce lolled his head towards her, his tongue hanging out as he panted in a way only a completely unselfconscious foal could.  His eyes were duller than they had been, half lidded and staring.  He was no longer tense, that was certain.  Biting her lip in anticipation, Rarity rose from her comfortable position and began to maneuver herself atop him, her sensitive marehood rubbing down his body as she lined herself up with his still-hard member.

"O-ok Miss Rari-what?"  Bruce tensed once more as her hot sex met his, her lips parting as she rubbed herself down the length of his shaft with a slow and easy pace.  She looked down at him and cocked an eyebrow, his small form dwarfed by her own.  He seemed so delicate.  So delectable.  So very ready for a proper mating.  "What are you doing?"

"Oh, well, I know that it's not exactly the most common of positions but I'm not going to ask you to try to mount me.  Not after that orgasm."  Rarity reached under herself, cupping his length and guiding him up against herself.  "It's called the 'dolphin' position because of how dolphins mate in the water.  I've heard it can be done with either gender on top but I so much more prefer the mare."

"Uhm, I meant ... I just, uh, came.  I, I can't again ... can I?"  Gone was the rambunctious and often coarse little foal who tried so hard to be a rough stallion of the world.  Here, then, was the true Bruce.  The real Bruce.  Slightly scared and nervous, hiding his pain and fear behind his toughened exterior.  Hiding his shame behind foul words and unthoughtful speech.  Rarity's heart almost burst out of her chest as she saw - as if the first time - the young and frightened foal under her.  His eyes were confused and pleading but filled with trust.  For her.  She may have been the Element of Generosity but this gift he gave her now was the greatest gift she had ever received.  He gave her of himself despite his nervous fear.  He trusted her.

"Oh Bruce, yes."  Rarity's voice almost broke, hitching as the words came to her.  "Yes, of course you can!  It'd be rather silly to have access to so many mares and yet be wasted after a single shot.  That's what I meant when I told you about 'draining.'  If I pulled all of you into myself and left you dry, as i' t'were.  If I made you cum again and again without rest or too many times."  Leaning down, his stallionhood resting against her soaking entrance, Rarity kissed him.  Not one of those nearly practice kisses of before, a real kiss.  A kiss of thanks.  A kiss of trust and joy.  A kiss of love.  And he returned it, his tongue dancing finally in her mouth as hers danced in his.  She felt a pulse from under her as his member found even greater vigor in that kiss.  "Do you trust me, Bruce?"

"With every part of myself, Miss Rarity."

With that admission, she pushed backwards.  His cock spread her almost painfully sensitive lips apart as he was once-more surrounded by warmth and wet.  This time, however, his moan of pleasure was joined by a hiss of the same from her lips.  She fought the urge to arch herself on top of him.  She did not want to separate their bodies by an inch if she could help it.  Slowly - inch by precious inch - she enveloped him until her clit touched down on the still sparse hairs resting at the base of his cock.  She had had larger, she had had wider, she had even had stallions that were more skilled.  But this first time between her and this colt - this young foal - she would treasure for all time.  She rested her head atop one of her pillows, looking down at his own resting against her now heaving chest and feeling more full than any other time with a stallion.  They lay like that for longer than either had thought possible, joined in the most intimate of ways.

"Bruce, if you ever feel a pain in yourself in your most intimate place, I want you to tell me - alright?"  Her voice lowered to a whisper as she spoke, tinged with concern.  Rarity silently thanked and cursed whoever had introduced him to these acts.  They had never drained him - which was good - but they had also never taught him things every stallion needed to know.  "If you feel pain, that means I've drained you and I do not want that to happen.  Continuing on after that can be agonizing."

"O-ok Miss Rarity."  His own voice was so soft, she almost hadn't heard him.  He was shivering beneath her, frightened yet trusting.  She would never break that trust if she had her way.  She would fight tooth and nail for this colt.  Her colt.  Instead of answering vocally, Rarity lifted herself off his small stomach and rolled her hips slowly forward.  His length slid out of her with a groan, leaving an aching feeling of emptiness behind.  Just before his tip exited her cage however, she pushed roughly backwards once more.  "Ah~h!"

"Ye~es."  Roll-push, roll-push.  He filled her despite his size.  Each gasp and moan, each thrust and push was heaven.  His hooves, once unsure of what to do, settled on her flanks and she felt him begin to push back.  Her breasts, small as they were with no foals of her own to care for, rubbed in time with her motions.  Each hair that touched her nipples shot a small sting of pleasure through her core.  "Mmmmm, ye~es."

Rarity lost herself to the sensations.  Her slow pace quickened as she began to feel that one pressure that no hoof or toy could release.  With Bruce wildly trying to drive himself into her core from below and her own experienced movements stimulating her clit perfectly, there was no gradual building.  It was as if somepony had lit a fire in her loins and only his life-giving seed could quench it.  With a hiss, she found release mere moments before he found his second.  Her back arched as she forced every inch of her young lover into herself.  His seed filled her, quenched her thirst and her fires.  For agonizing seconds, they sat - joined in body, soul and deed.  Joined as one as wave after wave of pure joy crashed against their minds.  They did not scream nor moan nor groan.  There was no sound that could express this, no words to describe it.  The gasping breaths of two ponies becoming one for just a brief moment were all that filled Rarity's room.  And all that were needed.  As soon as she stopped her spams, she collapsed on top of him - panting in the afterglow.

"Wow."  He was the first to break the silence.  "Wo-wow."  Rarity giggled at his child-like wonderment.  Gently, she lifted herself off of his cock and slid down next to him, cradling his head against her still heaving chest.  At her movement he tensed, his member still very much alive with desire.  She reached to stop his hooves from wandering down there - knowing well that he was almost to his limit - but he made no move to extend the joy.  Smiling gladly, she kissed his forehead instead and began to stroke his sweaty mane.  She was filthy as well.  Sweat intermingled with other less pleasant fluids on both of them and she could feel her still-spasming marehood leaking his gift.  She was more filthy than she had ever been before and yet she had never felt so wonderfully alive.

"Really, darling, do you say that to every mare or just me?"  A new voice popped into her head, reminding her that despite how close she may feel to him now, she was at least fifteen years his senior.  Her satisfied smile disappeared, to be replaced with a worried frown and a furrow of her brow.  He was forever out of her reach.  One need was satisfied but her heart was still as empty as it had been that morning.

"Only you, Miss Rarity.  Only ever you."  Bruce snuggled deeply into her chest with a sigh.  If Rarity didn't know better, she would swear he was sniffing her.  The very thought reignited the smile that had flagged at the thought of how empty her home truly was.

"Oh Bruce, that's very sweet.  But you'll find a proper young thing soon enough.  Leave this old nag to her pasture."  There it was, Rarity.  The admission that neither of you had wanted to face.  He was young and you, well, you were not.  Rarity began to rise - intent on removing at least some trace of her wickedness - when Bruce grabbed her face and forcibly turned it towards him, a look of anger where once there had been concentration and contentment.

"Rarity Belle, if you ever call yourself a nag again, I will personally slap you."  Coming from such a young colt, Rarity would have found the very idea laughable just yesterday but his angry eyes and set jaw told her of his complete sincerity.

"What?"

"Rarity, you are the most generous and wonderful mare that has ever walked the face of this world.  You are poised, genteel, refined and you give of yourself in the most intimate of ways."  As he spoke, his eyes softened.  "You are everything a mare could ever hope to aspire to.  You are beautiful."

"Ooh Bruce, don't say things like that."  For some reason, she found her eyes tearing up.  Why was she upset?  The need that had been driving her mad for the past five years was satisfied - and by such a cute little colt as well - and nothing else had changed.  She should be happy that she had found some time with him.  Not sad because she could not have as much as she wanted.  She should not be so selfish.  "You're young, you're beyond handsome, you're - well, a bit rough sometimes but that is such a breath of fresh air compared to all these stuffy stallions.  You're honest.  And I'm old.  Far too old to be playing at herd with you."

"Stuff and nonsense."  Reaching up, Bruce brought her face towards his own.  Rarity blinked in shock as their lips met for what felt like the first time.  Then, she closed her eyes.  His tongue danced with hers once more.  Soon - too soon for her - he broke the bond they had.  "You are far from old, Miss Rarity.  And you ... you go after what you want.  You are not afraid of being seen as selfish because you know that you aren't.  You're confident.  You're ... you're you, Miss Rarity.  And I would love to be yours if you would have me."

"Bruce-"  She wanted to tell him how very wrong he was.  How she struggled with herself, with her selfish desires and her need to be seen, how she felt so unworthy of her Element.  How she didn't deserve him.  His hoof touched her muzzle, cutting off any and all words.

"It can be secret.  At least until I am old enough to be yours in the public eye.  We can be 'Miss Rarity and her charge, Bruce' until then.  Please, Miss Rarity."  He looked into her eyes, his twin pools of desire and fear.  Desire to be with her.  With her.  Fear that she would reject him.  "Please."

Rarity was silent for a time as she thought.  If ever her actions here became known, she would be banished to the farthest reaches of the world, far outside the Light of Celestia's sun.  He would be taken from him - that, strangely, sent the worst pain into her heart - and she would forever be alone.  Unknown.  Outcast.  But looking into those eyes, those two golden eyes that screamed their need to her, that echoed her own need ...

"How can I say no, Bruce?"

I SAID THE ONLY ONE!

Rarity was elated.  Well, elated was perhaps not quite the word she'd use.  Overjoyed?  Ecstatic?  Regardless of the verb, she was feeling better than she had in months and she gave her tail a slight swish as she worked, humming a wordless tune in time to her own internal beat.  Her mind wandered a bit as the fabrics circled around her.

Bruce.

She giggled at the name.  Such a silly name for a pony but it fit him altogether too well.  He was brash, coarse and could often be disagreeable.  But there was another side to him, another side that poor confused colt hid with all his brutish mannerisms.  Soft.  Sad.  Lonely.  So many words for 'damaged goods.'  Rarity's mouth pursed as the thought entered her head.  He was that, she supposed.  She levitated the fabric she was working on up to the light, trying to determine if it was of heavy enough material to work as a proper cloak.  She floated it aside and placed the pattern on top of it - satisfied with the thread count - and began to snip away at it.

Bruce's history was still quite unknown.  He was confused, that much was certain.  Deluded perhaps.  Unknown parentage, unknown history, unknown everything.  Schooling seemed a bit hit-and-miss - in math he was ahead of almost everypony his age but history and civics were so lacking as to be laughable.  And his penmareship was atrocious.  Yet his other skills were so advanced for his age.  Rarity floated the now cut pieces over to a rather small ponnyequin, adjusting the fit and position with pins until the three pieces flowed naturally over the flanks.

"So sad to see such a thing," Rarity whispered aloud.  Abuse was uncommon but not unheard of among ponies.  While fillies outnumbered the colts almost three to one, colts unfortunately took the brunt of the abuse.  It was said once that not a single colt went through to adulthood without some sexual advances made on them.  "Such a shame."

"What's a shame?"  Rarity almost dropped her scissors in startlement as the soft voice of a colt interrupted her concentration.  A glance backwards showed Bruce - his newly made saddlebag hanging at an angle - blinking at her from the now opened door of her inspiration room.