Sweetie Belle notices that Rarity has been acting a bit strange lately. She seems distant, melancholy, and preoccupied. Sweetie Belle finally finds a convenient moment to ask one of Rarity's grown-up friends, Applejack, to see if she can find out what has her acting so bizarrely. Given no other outlet, Rarity reveals to Applejack that she has recently received some life-altering news. Applejack tries to help her friend work through the strange, forlorn sense of shame and confusion that haunts her life in the wake of a discovery over which she had no power, and which leaves her wondering who she really is, and what she really wanted, all along.

This is the last in a series of one-shots focusing on the versions of the Mane Six depicted in my novel, "The Sun Eater." You do not have to have read that work to understand this piece. It is a stand-alone work meant to stand on its own merit. If you do read -- or especially have already read -- that work, I deeply appreciate it, and thank you. If you want to read it, and have not, you will have to turn your "mature" filter off due to some graphic violence that I felt warranted the rating. For those unfamiliar with this universe, be forewarned, these are not Hasbro ponies. They drink, they smoke, they cuss, and they... Well, you get the idea. That said, this is NOT a clopfic. There is no explicit sexual material in this or any other of my works. If that's your thing, no judgment here, -- love and tolerate, after all -- but you'll have to look elsewhere to find it.

Cover Art by SirPayne, deviantart

Thanks, Mannulus