Demons

Rainbow Dash took another long look at Twilight, and the unicorn had taken a step back from her. Twilight Sparkle was looking at Rainbow Dash like she would look at an angry bear, while covered in honey. “I’m... part... demon,” Twilight repeated deliberately, stiff legged. “I was t-touched by demonic magic, too. And there’s nothing wrong with that, or me,” she said in a quavering voice.

“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with you,” Rainbow Dash said suspiciously, “But how? When? I haven’t ever seen a demon around here before. Did Baphomet do it to you? Don’t tell me that thing messed you up, too!”

“When I was—” Twilight said, then cut off and turned her head. But before Dash could apologize, Twilight faced Rainbow Dash and said evenly, “When I was a very young filly, I wanted to attend the university in Canterlot, because of the private library they had. Not even to practice magic, but just to use their library. It wasn’t a very mature decision. Nevertheless, I knew you had to be very good at magic to attend that school. I used to have very weak magic, for unicorns my age at least. But I wasn’t daunted. I studied really hard, barely achieved 2.5 horn power, and never was admitted. I’ve been living the rest of my life as some nopony in Canterlot ever since, and never amounted to anything.”

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof.

A frustrated glimmer entered Twilight’s eyes then, as she stated, “Or maybe I found a book that shouldn’t have been in the public library, written by an ancient dragon who tried to use demonic magic to aid his people’s slow reproduction, so fully corrupted by it that he was ruining his own race for his ambitions, by the time they cast him out of this world, and banished him forever to the Abyss.”

“Uhh...” Rainbow Dash said uneasily, not really liking where this was going.

But Twilight continued, pacing back and forth as her tone grew more animated. “And maybe that filly ended up summoning his remnant, and asked to be good at magic, and in exchange she would bring a new dragon to life.” The unicorn faced Dash, stalking up to her saying urgently, angrily, “Maybe she didn’t learn his unethical practices involved using demonic magic to convert other species into hosts, until long after everypony had completely panicked and she was absolutely traumatized by what was happening to her, and maybe she didn’t expect that she’d be laying an egg when she was 9!”

“Twilight, you’re scaring me,” Rainbow Dash said once Twilight had gotten right up into her face.

“It was the size of my freaking torso!” Twilight shouted heedlessly. She jerked back then, and went pacing off toward the recently righted bookshelves, shouting at the open ceiling, “Bahumat, you utter bastard!”

Twilight went quiet then, facing away from Rainbow Dash and staring at her books. Not... taking any out of the shelves. Just staring at them.

“S-so...” Rainbow said, not wanting to provoke her or anything, but... damn!

Twilight slumped in defeat at that, saying, “Yes, I am technically a registered... demon.” She turned and strode back to Rainbow Dash, saying, “I’m sorry I never told you before. I never thought you’d hate me for it. It’s just a really sore subject with me, and I really just want to put it behind me. Honestly, I’m surprised you never suspected anything. You didn’t suspect anything, right?”

“How was I supposed to tell?” Rainbow countered, feeling a bit snubbed by that. “You look just like a normal unicorn to me.”

“Well, my... unusual nature occasionally manifests when I’m really out of sorts,” Twilight said uncertainly. “Don’t tell me you never saw my hair turn into fire.”

Rainbow blinked at that, saying, “Oh. I thought that was just metaphorical.”

“What?”

“What?”

“...never mind,” Twilight said uneasily. “The point is that I know what you’re going through, and that’s... that’s why I know. I’m sorry for hiding it from you.”

“So, is that why you’re all... angry and stuff?” Rainbow asked cringing at having to actually say it. “I mean, I still think you’re awesome and all, but...”

“...I know,” Twilight said evenly. “I do have... problems sometimes. But my temper is more related to what he did to me specifically. See, he used demonic magic to temporarily mix me with a malleable sort of demon, who absorbs sexual energy from others to derive its shape. Then he... gave me his sexual energy, and made me more like a... dragon, so that I could bear an egg. Without telling me what he was doing, of course.”

Twilight sighed, looking at her hoof anxiously for some reason, saying, “I used to be... a lot worse than I look now. But with dedicated effort and the support of my family, the scales have receded, the extra horns haven’t come back, I’m not growing claws, and I h-hardly ever breathe fire anymore. But some things, I haven’t been able to shake, like my temper, and fire in general, and my... well, I sort of... have a—a hoard.”

“A hoard?” Rainbow asked dumbfoundedly. “You have a big pile of—”

“This library,” Twilight stated tightly. “It’s mostly stocked from my personal... collection. I have a very large personal collection of books. Sorry, it’s... really hard to let ponies know about it. I was a lot worse before. When it started hitting me at my first estrus, they found me in the basement, trying to keep them from finding the giant pile of stolen books I was sleeping on. That’s how much demonic magic changed me, and... you can see I’m getting better. I want to be a librarian so badly, because it’s the perfect chance for me to—to give away my books, in a secure and controlled manner. So, I can get better, and you can get better... if you really want to.”

“Heck if I care at this point,” Rainbow Dash said worriedly. “I feel fine, not like... that. I never knew you went through something like that. It sounds awful.”

“It’s a mixed blessing, honestly,” Twilight said twirling a lock of mane anxiously in her magic. “I’ve lived with it most of my life, and it’s more frustrating than anything. I just have some mild draconic and/or demonic tendancies, that other ponies don’t have to deal with. I am still a perfectly good pony, just like any other pony. I can still live a mostly normal life. And without it, I wouldn’t have been ready to take on the Element of Magic. Also, Spike would never have been born, and that would be just terrible.”

“Why wouldn’t Spike have—wait,” Rainbow Dash’s brain kind of jittered to a halt. “You mean Spike is the dragon you...?”

Twilight cringed, redfaced, saying, “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t spread it around. It’s for his sake, really. Imagine if your dragon buddies found out that your mother was a little pony?”

...

Above the sound of Rainbow Dash’s completely reasonable and called-for reaction, Twilight said irritably, “See, Rainbow? This is what I’m talking about. If ponies would laugh, then dragons would laugh harder, and his fragile little ego would be so crushed. Rainbow, stop laughing. Rainbow I swear to—” she grabbed Rainbow Dash (still laughing) in her magic and jerked her up, glaring at her furiously and saying, “I swear Rainbow, if you use this knowledge to hurt Spike, I swear I am going to—!”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t laughing anymore. In the face of the unicorn’s death glare and sudden silence, she could only squeak ineffectually.

“...be very disappointed in you,” Twilight said calmly, turning around and striding away, releasing Rainbow Dash to flutter out of her magic into the relative safety of the empty air.

Scootaloo woke feeling stiff and sore, but better. The cream had helped his hooves, and his rib was a little creaky, but felt like it’d knitted up just fine. Though it was kind of awkward when they applied that cream. The nurse had been carefully rubbing it into his stinging hooves with him trussed up belly up on the hospital bed, and of course that meant she... saw it.

“You’re a colt?” the white and pink earth pony asked incredulously.

“Uhh... y-yeah, but could you not tell anypony?” he asked. “I kind of wanted to make it through this big estrus without um... mares jumping on me everywhere. I know I look kind of girly.”

“Oh, your secret’s safe with me,” she said all innocently, and began rubbing his hooves again. But now when she switched hooves she came to start brushing his sheath, making Scootaloo bite his lip anxiously. Her sneaky soft stroking started to draw his colthood out of hiding, and she even—got some cream on it. He was trying not to become erect, but it was just sliding like clockwork into that steady state of erection right before he was ready to penetrate a filly.

“Oh, look at this,” the nurse said in exaggerated shock, “Looks like you have a bit of a stiffy! I don’t suppose you could help me with my heat a little?”

“I don’t really think that’s a good idea,” Scootaloo said nervously. He didn’t know if she had an IUD or anything! She backed her rear up to him though and he couldn’t move out of the way because of his hooves being held up. A hoof wrapped around his member and angled it up, as the mare said,

“Oh don’t worry it’ll just be for a little while. I just need a little h—help to... ahh,” she sighed relieved as Scootaloo’s member was once again engulfed in a hot, wet tunnel. She was facing away from the hospital bed and just about sitting on his crotch, and for all that her ass was huge, she still squeezed tightly on him in there, like it was hard to push in!

She started rocking on him then, and it was actually kind of painful with his hurt leg and rib. But his shaft was thick and throbbing and feeling powerfully fulfilled by its place inside her. Just one squirt and she’d be having his foals. He just had to leave it in there and let her ride him, and it’d happen. That made him outright throb with the need to ejaculate, but it also made him scared. “I—I don’t wanna make you pregnant!” he told her anxiously. “I can’t stop it when it happens!”

“Oh I don’t care anymore,” she growled, her hips rolling as she slid him out, out, out, and always pushing back in again. “Just fill me up with foals and make this estrus end already.”

“I-it’ll be over soon, please!” Scootaloo begged. “Just another week. I can’t—” Something familiar pooled within him, and he tried not to squirt it. He tried not to—he bit his lip to try not to—a little squirt escaped him. He did it, oh no! Was that enough? He wanted to finish in her so bad. He wanted to squirt and squirt and

“Nurse Joy, are you raping your patients again?” came a stern stallion’s voice from the hallway.

“D-doctor!” she squeaked, jumping up off of Scootaloo’s lap so fast that she stumbled forward. “I didn’t—I wasn’t....”

“How you’re not pregnant yet is a miracle,” the doctor grumbled, trotting into the room and grabbing her around the arm. “Come on, you’re not even supposed to be in here. I thought we assigned you to mares only.”

“No, you did! He is my patient!” she squealed in protest. “I just wanted a little—please doctor just this once!”

“Just this seventh, more like,” he grumbled, pulling her through to the hallway and shutting the door behind him.

And of course, now Scootaloo couldn’t take care of his erection, and just had to wait for it to subside on its own. It always felt terrible when that happened. He missed Sweetie Belle. How close he had come to cum became apparant, with the whitish fluid already drooling out his member, more so the more it shrunk. One thing Scootaloo was absolutely sure of, estrus was hard!

In years later, Scootaloo would learn that estrus isn’t that hard. That this one was special, and in later ones it was bad decisions that resulted in pregnancy rather than sheer desperation. It was easier that way, but more subtle. A mare or a stallion might not even realize their thinking was clouded, until they consummated their love and did something they didn’t want to do. And then, the only ponies they would have to blame were themselves.

Scootaloo didn’t blame them though. He and everypony else who went through estrus this year learned just how much lust could affect a pony. Even after this estrus, if he didn’t have Sweetie Belle, he might have ended up like... like Rumble. The poor colt had two pregnant mares before he even hit his growth spurt, two pegasi who took such a liking to him that they didn’t even care he was making them pregnant. Well, one either aborted, or miscarriaged, nopony would say, but the other was... really looking like she was going to keep it. They were legally obliged by town custom to adopt Rumble, if they wanted to raise a child with him, so he got that much at least. But still...

Thankfully, outside of them, there weren’t really any colt/mare incidents that resulted in unplanned pregnancies. After that demon attack, there were a lot of changes to Ponyville, most of them for the better, and most of them about keeping mares from being forced to get pregnant. Really, it’s questionable whether Cloudchaser’s pregnancy counted as unplanned. It admittedly was pretty cute seeing Cloudchaser teasing Rumble about his “new sister” in her belly when she came to pick him up after school. Scootaloo would not have wanted to be in his horseshoes though.

It’s not like Scootaloo’s life was easy either. There were the troubles of being stuck in an orphanage, and he still struggled with school work, way more than Apple Bloom and Sweetie at least. He could kick their tail at the skate park, but still no cutie mark from it. Scootaloo was honestly starting to wonder if you could be really good at something, even if it wasn’t your special talent. At least Sweetie Belle’s was really obvious, singing and all. She seemed more interested in getting him to sing though, and kept thinking up really cool songs too, so Scootaloo didn’t think she would get her singing cutie mark until she got over that... whatever it was.

He certainly had his work cut out for him. But at least Sweetie, and sometimes Apple Bloom were there to keep him good and safe from any estrus related problems. They helped each other out, like the true friends that they were, whether it was searching for your special talent, or searching for the marble you lost in there. With friends like that by his side, it was pretty clear things were going to work out alright, however they did.

Plus the latest Pony Jesus was out, and in this issue Jesus was finally going to battle the aliens on planet Namek. Scootaloo couldn’t wait to read it.

Rainbow Dash on the other hoof was bored to tears by what she had to read, and especially write. Paperwork. Having Scootaloo’s kid would have been easier than this! She had to learn more about... about wing care, all over again. She had to have Twilight lecture her for hours on the similarities between dragons and demons, how demons were originally like... alien dragons, before they screwed themselves up so bad. And supposedly that meant Rainbow Dash had dragon wings, not “bat” wings. It didn’t stop her from feeling like she was some kind of freak flying around like this.

Though it really did help thinking of them like dragon wings.

She didn’t lose her job, which was great. She did have to re-apply for the Wonderbolts Academy though, to make sure her record was... corrected. Rainbow Dash hoped that they wouldn’t reject her this time, just because she screwed up so badly. But there was nothing to be done about it. She had to fill out the forms again, and could only wait for their response.

Rainbow Dash had to read more about these “succubi” things, and Twilight had connections, so Dash certainly was never hurting for information about them. It just made her feel really trashy. They were like, the garbage dump of the demon world, which was supposedly good for Rainbow, since it meant she wouldn’t be corrupted easily or something. But Rainbow Dash wanted to be the star athlete who could fly faster than the best of them, not the dirty mare in the alleyway who derives her power from getting raped, basically. It’s not like Rainbow Dash minded being raped; she just didn’t want it to define her so much.

Rainbow Dash was (sort of) with a stallion again, after she got sick of Blossomforth’s creepy obsession with her new wings. It was a stallion from her Ponyville flying league named Lucky, who was okay with her wing thing, without being too okay with it. They weren’t kissing or anything, but they worked together. It was just one day the two of them were trading jokes at practice, and Dash was sort of not with Blossomforth anymore so she thought why the heck not, and it ended up being pretty fun. Okay, really fun, but Rainbow Dash confidently blamed her estrus for that, not anything the demon did to her maybe mostly kind of.

So she and Lucky kept doing it, and that was pretty much the extent of their relationship. Dash didn’t know what you were supposed to call that. But she did know that she did start getting this crazy rush every time her partner climaxed. Nothing like her experience with the idol, but it was still pretty thrilling, and it just sort of hit her out of the blue when he started cumming. That made it a lot easier to time her climax with his, so Rainbow Dash stopped having to crouch there alone, clutching on emptiness and wishing his dick was inside, or that he’d at least have the decency to shove a dildo in there.

There was another very important reason Dash was (sort of) with a stallion again, and not staying as far the hay away from them as she could. Reading through the material, one part caught Dash’s eye in particular:

Despite being solely receptive of sex, succubi do not directly get pregnant. Instead, they transfer their collected seed via a thus far unknown mechanism to demons called incubi, who use it to infect other demons, and carry on their brood. The succubi touched ponies will therefore be for the most part infertile. This facilitates their blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

“Holy cheesenips, I can’t get pregnant?!” Dash exclaimed in surprise, dropping the text. Snapping out her wings by her side, she went charging out her house and glided right off the edge of the cloud. “Twilight!” she shouted a bit later, finding her friend standing beside the library, eager to talk with Twilight again. “Twilight I need to ask you something!”

“Sure thing, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight asked amiably in the pleasantly sunny day. “What can I help you with?”

Landing smoothly in front of her, Rainbow asked the curious unicorn, “Can demons get pregnant?”

“Y...yes?” Twilight offered, drawing back uncertainly a little. “Many demons derive their power from being pregnant,” she explained, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Well, no like the kind of demon we are,” Rainbow Dash persisted.

“We’re different kinds of demon, Dash,” Twilight whispered harshly to her. “And I don’t like you referring to us as ‘demons,’ especially not in public. We’re demon touched, not demons.”

“Well—” Rainbow said, looking around at the—oh actually there were a few ponies hanging around outside the library. How about that.

“Sorry,” she said quieter, getting closer to Twilight to speak with her in low tones. “I was just reading that treatise on the succubified—”

“Treatise on the succubi touched,” Twilight corrected.

“And it said succubi touched can’t get pregnant,” Dash continued. “And that meant I couldn’t. Are they serious about that?”

“Well, I’d have to read it to be sure. Could you bring it by, and I’ll look over it more carefully?” Twilight asked amiably.

“Sure, be right back!” Rainbow Dash said with eager excitement.

Twilight managed to get out “Wai—” before Rainbow Dash was gone, hurtling towards her cloud house. She grabbed the papers on her desk, and zoomed out again, swooping in front of the library and landing, spitting the papers out into Twilight’s hoof, saying,

“Here you go!”

“You... sure know how to take care of your books,” Twilight said, flinching at the mess of papers in her hoof, and when Rainbow Dash returned, there were a lot of other loose books and papers caught in Twilight’s magic too, like they’d suddenly been flung around at high speeds. Weird.

“It’s only a copy of the book,” Rainbow said, in regard to the sheaf of papers. “I wanted a thing I could keep, instead of having to check it out every time.”

“Oh, I see,” Twilight said, flipping through it. “Well, I can bind it up a bit better for you perhaps. But let’s see... aha. Yes, it says here that succubi touched are infertile. This facilitates their—”

“Is that awesome, or what!” Rainbow cheered pumping a hoof in the air. “I don’t even need an IUD thing or anything?”

“You should still be careful,” Twilight told her. “You probably want to have sex with someone you connect with on an emotional level, whether they’re a stallion or not.”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll totally do that,” Rainbow responded to whatever Twilight was talking about. “But I’m not gonna end up knocked up during estrus?”

“Seems like it, yep,” Twilight said, flipping through it again. “I’ll read it more carefully to be sure. You sure seem cheerful about this!”

“Well why wouldn’t I be?” Dash said happily. “I have had to worry every summer since I was like, 12, that I’d mess up my racing career by having a kid. And now I don’t even have to worry about it. Heck, you should be happy too, because I’m not gonna go do anything dumb like trust strange penis statues.”

“Thank goodness for small favors,” Twilight agreed wryly.

So, that’s why Rainbow Dash was getting together with Lucky Clover, and thoroughly enjoying his stallionhood, even if he could only use it for a little while before getting tired. Really, she sort of preferred mares for that reason. There wasn’t any rule saying that a stallion couldn’t ride you through multiple orgasms with his tongue, but it was impossible for you to ride him through multiple orgasms, and it was kind of nice when your partner was flipping out as much as you do. When you both could be into it. Even when she found a stallion who would do it, when it was just him calmly servicing her, it made Rainbow Dash feel a little too embarassed and vulnerable.

Not that she ever complained when Lucky agreed to eat her out, just... he didn’t understand what she was feeling when she was laying there quivering and writhing, and having trouble getting her eyes to go straight it felt so good. So she just had to lay there feeling that, while he could watch her, or judge her, or... do whatever. And he never complained either, but Rainbow Dash just really sort of missed the thrill of being able to hug your partner’s hips and mutually moan, both of you zonked out of it as you send each other over peak after peak.

She got herself registered as a demon thingy, for what that was worth, besides more paperwork. The wings made it pretty baldly obvious, though Rainbow Dash still held out hope she’d be able to get them looking... normal again. She wrote a letter to the princess about what she’d learned. No idea if the princess even reads those letters. And she filled out a mail-in form for a support group that Twilight told her about, that supposedly had other pegasi with... wings like hers.

Folding her wings as she passed the mirror on her way to the mailbox, Rainbow Dash paused and took a look at herself. With her wings folded, she didn’t even really look all that different. The fuzzy fur on her wings was a slight shade darker than the rest of her, but she was still blue as a bright sky, with a shock of rainbow hair on her head and tail. She still had her awesome cutie mark behind those wings. Really there were a lot more differences beneath her cutie mark, than on the outside of her. Up in her hips, where Rainbow Dash didn’t have the stuff you needed to make a foal anymore. She couldn’t—

She couldn’t get pregnant. Her hips had nothing in them to make a foal anymore.

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Rainbow Dash looked away from the mirror, trotting hastily out to her mailbox. She stood there a while, wiping off her eyes, and looking around to where her home had drifted this time. At least out here, surrounded by the wide open sky, she didn’t have to... think about it. Rainbow Dash deposited her outgoing mail and put the flag up, then went to go on an afternoon flight, soaring swiftly into the endless blue sky.

Meanwhile on the ground, a pegasus named Evergreen was busy staring above himself, while having a heart attack, an anyeurism and a stroke all at the same time.

“So... can you fix it?” Twilight asked the tree surgeon. His lengthy silence, she suspected, did not bode well.

“Sweetie Belle, do you... love your sister, Rarity?” Twilight asked the soft white filly cautiously. After the other foals had left from Twilight Time, Twilight had asked Sweetie Belle to stay back a few minutes, because she had something to say to her.

“Of course!” Sweetie responded instantly, “She’s the bestest big sister I could ever have!”

The purple unicorn winced, asking, “It’s not just because she’s your sister, is it?”

“N...no? What do you mean?” Sweetie said, tilting her head in confusion.

“Well, what if she wasn’t your sister? What would you think of her?” Twilight asked. Sweetie looked like she was thinking about it, but struggling to even picture it. Twilight gently prompted, “Just pretend there’s a pony who is just like your sister called... Charity, who isn’t your sister.”

“Charity doesn’t take care of me though,” Sweetie Belle pointed out, “Rarity does. Do I even know Charity?”

“Suppose she did though? Just as much as Rarity does,” Twilight corrected herself nervously. She was treading a thin line here, and she really didn’t want to risk crossing it too far. But it had been a month, and no communication between these two. Rarity was doing it again, and Twilight realized that something had to be done. “And Charity also has a boutique, where she makes the most beautiful dresses,” Twilight added for good measure.

“Well, Rarity is such an amazing pony. So many ponies love her dresses already, and she keeps working hard to make them better and better!” Sweetie Belle said, “She’s so good at everything. It’s... kind of intimidating sometimes. She’s just so incredible that I wish I could be like her.”

“Let’s go back to Charity though,” Twilight said persistently. “What if she’s every bit as incredible as Rarity? Could you love her, even though she’s not your sister?”

Sweetie looked up at Twilight through her bouncy curls, an unreadable expression resting in her soft, celadon eyes.

“...does she love me?” Sweetie asked tentatively.

“More than she knows, Sweetie,” Twilight said with a sad smile. “Charity turned down all the fanciest ponies in Canterlot, just so she could spend more time with you. She... covered herself in mud just so she could run with you in the Sisterhooves Social.”

Sweetie frowned, saying, “So... pretty much like Rarity?”

“Yes, pretty much like Rarity,” Twilight said, ears tilting down a bit.

Sweetie seemed puzzled by that, asking suspiciously, “Is this Charity somepony I should know about?”

“Nnno, it’s just a little thought experiment,” Twilight said innocently, “I just want to know if you could love somepony like Rarity, even if she isn’t your sister.”

“I suppose I could?” Sweetie answered honestly as could be expected from such a question. “I don’t know for sure, until I meet her.”

“That’s a very wise attitude, Sweetie Belle,” Twilight Sparkle admitted, “But yes, you do know her. What I wanted to know was... if Rarity wasn’t your sister, would you still love her?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head incredulously. “Are you joking, miss Twilight? Of c҉ourse I would!” she squeaked insistently. “I would love Rarity no matter what, even if she’s a donkey! She loves me so much, and she’s always there for me, and... she’s just... she’s special to me. It’s not just because she’s my sister. It’s because she’s so important to me!”

Twilight was the struck silent one now, not sure how to get this to Rarity’s ears. Twilight couldn’t tell Rarity herself, she’d never believe it.

“I think you need to tell Rarity that, Sweetie Belle,” Twilight said to the filly solemnly. “It’s something she really needs to know, I’m afraid.”

“What do you mean?” Sweetie asked in a worried tone. “Is something wrong?”

“Just... tell her that you would still love her, even if she wasn’t your sister,” Twilight instructed, looking out the window of the library, in the vague direction of Rarity’s boutique, “Tell her you love her because she’s so important to you, and it doesn’t matter if she’s your sister or not. I’ve been trying to convince her of that myself, but I just can’t get through to her. She needs to hear it from you.”

Twilight turned to Sweetie Belle, looking at her directly with those fiery violet eyes and saying, “Rarity, she thinks you only love her because she’s your sister, and I’m worried about her. So could you please just... tell her that? Even if it seems obvious, she just needs you to tell her.”

Sweetie was silent for a few seconds, before asking, “What is this about, miss Twilight?”

“I... I don’t want to say,” Twilight said, breaking her gaze and shrinking back from the filly. “It’s not my place to say. I just want you to know that Rarity’s hurting and afraid, and she needs her... sister to reassure her, that you would still love Rarity, even if Rarity weren’t your sister. That’s all I ask. And um... keep a box of tissues handy.”

“Well, okay Miss Twilight, but you’re kind of scaring me,” Sweetie Belle said nervously, standing up from where she’d been sitting on the library floor. “She is my sister, right?”

“Would it matter if she wasn’t?” Twilight countered, with a piercing gaze.

“...I’ll go tell her,” Sweetie conceded reluctantly.

“Rarity, am I adopted???” a young unicorn filly asked in distress, running into her sister’s kitchen.

“What? Don’t be silly!” Rarity said, immediately stepping away from the counter to greet Sweetie Belle. “Who put such a ridiculous notion in your head?”

“Um... nopony really,” Sweetie lied nervously, “I was just wondering, that’s all. Are you sure?”

“I’m very sure, darling,” Rarity said serenely, turning back to the counter to levitate her chopping knife. “Now, run along and play with your friends, while I fix you three a nice afternoon snack.”

“...you know I love you, right?” Sweetie asked, after just watching her sister chop vegetables.

“Oh Sweetie, you are a wonderful filly for saying such things to others,” Rarity said with a smile at her, “I want you too to know that I love you so much. But you don’t have to worry. I wouldn’t be so dense as to ignore affections from such a sweet little filly like yourself again.”

“T-thanks...” Sweetie said bashfully, looking at the ground and twirling a hoof on the linoleum. “I really do love you though. You’re my favoritest sister in the whole world.”

“Y-yes, well I’m quite honored that you would think so highly of me,” Rarity said, hardly missing a beat. But still missing a beat. “Is something the matter, Sweetie?” she asked with concern.

“If I wasn’t—” Sweetie couldn’t say it. It was a stupid idea. Why would Rarity need to hear that? She knew Sweetie Belle would love her no matter what, right? Or she didn’t? Or what was Twilight saying?

“...yes, Sweetie?” Rarity said relatively patiently, turned from the cutting board again to regard her sister with a worried sincerity.

“I just... wanted to let you know that you’re important to me,” Sweetie said, trying to work herself up to saying it without it sounding stupid. “And an amazing pony, and that’s why I love you. Because you care about me, and... stuff. It’s not just because you’re my sister, even though I love being sisters with you.”

“Sweetie...?” Rarity said, a tinge of fear in the back of her icy blue eyes.

“I’m just saying I would still love you just as much, even if you weren’t my sister,” Sweetie blurted out, squeezing her eyes shut.

When Rarity didn’t answer, or move, or... anything, Sweetie Belle opened one eye, and looked up at her sister. Rarity was looking at her with a most unamused, and disapproving expression on her face.

“...Twilight set you up to this, didn’t she,” Rarity said dryly.

“Nnnno?” Sweetie blushed. “...yes.”

“I’ll be right back, Sweetie,” the older unicorn said, trotting quickly out of the kitchen, and the boutique.

Extremely worried at this point, Sweetie decided to head to the library, because she was pretty sure that was exactly where Rarity was headed. What she found was... an interesting experience, at least.

“Come down from that bookshelf, and fight me like a mare!” Rarity bellowed up at the purple unicorn perched up there.

“You said one week!” Twilight shouted back down at the angry unicorn, “It’s been one month! I had to do something!”

“Rarity, please! Leave her alone!” Sweetie Belle begged, tugging on her sister’s leg ineffectually. “She didn’t say anything bad!

“I suppose our friendship means nothing to you!” Rarity shouted up completely unresponsive even to Sweetie’s presence. “To expose my darkest secrets for all to see?”

Twilight deflected another book Rarity hurled at her, and shouted, “I didn’t tell her! I just told her to talk with you, because you needed somepony to talk with you!”

“She didn’t tell me!” Sweetie pleaded, “She just said to talk with—oh, right, what she said.”

“And I suppose she came up all on her own, with that little notion that I’m not her sister?” Rarity said dangerously, glaring cooly up at Twilight’s precarious position.

Twilight gulped, and said, “I just—”

“I don’t care if you’re my sister!” Sweetie shrieked, “Rarity, why do you think I would stop loving you? You’re the best sister to me in the whole world! You’re an amazing pony! I r-really look up to you.” She stopped pounding on her sister’s side with all the fury of cotton balls, and just leaned against her, saying fearfully, “You take care of me, and you help me when I need it, and you—and you don’t help me when I don’t need it. Even if you were a donkey, you would still be Rarity, the best sister I ever had! And the only sister, but still a really, really special pony!”

Rarity looked down at Sweetie at last, as if seeing her for the first time. “Even if I was your...” she said, but her voice trailed off to a wet sigh before she finished. And now Rarity was crying!

“I love you, Rarity,” Sweetie Belle said urgently, “Please, stop being so sad. I don’t even know what’s wrong. If you’d just tell me...!”

“I...” Rarity faced the now tearful Sweetie Belle, the older unicorn absolutely trembling with trepidation. “Sweetie, I...” she said softly, “I’m so sorry.” Then she fled the library, running out of her sister’s life and Ponyville forever, to live on the streets of Manehattan doing terrible things to earn her place in life, becoming an infamous queen of the city’s underworld.

Except for one little problem.

“UNLOCK THE DOOR THIS INSTANT, TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Rarity shouted at the library’s entrance, absolutely beside herself with rage.

“No!” Twilight shouted defiantly from her bookshelf fortification, “You need to tell her! Right now!”

“I will eat your eyeballs for breakfast!” Rarity seethed.

“Why do you think it matters anymore?” Twilight countered angrily. “There’s no reason for you to keep it a secret!”

“Not after you destroyed any hope of me keeping everything nice and ...pleasant!” Rarity snapped, blinking at her own words, but furrowing her brow and glaring furiously.

“What is the issue here?” Sweetie moaned, completely lost at this point why these two mares were fighting. “I said I don’t care, so what’s the problem?” She couldn’t take it any more. She just wanted Rarity to stop—Sweetie had to fight a low wail building in her chest, saying, “What is wrong? I love you Rarity I really I—I—”

Rarity turned away from Twilight, to rush over to Sweetie Belle, saying, “Oh Sweetie, I’m so sorry. I truly don’t mean to... I’m sorry, Sweetie Belle, please don’t think I don’t know you love me, please...”

They huddled together in a warm, sisterly hug, with Sweetie Belle’s head nestled in the small of Rarity’s neck so comfortingly, until Sweetie wasn’t so... shaken inside, from the strange and powerful response such a seemingly innocent question had evoked in her sister. And once Sweetie had calmed down and settled, Rarity spoke.

“Oh, Sweetie. I’m afraid, I’m... okay I will tell you. It’s just... it’s not easy for me, alright?” Rarity pulled back from Sweetie Belle, sitting on her belly before the guilty filly, guilty for making her sister feel bad by crying, and said to Sweetie Belle, “But I will tell you, because I do care about you and... you have every right to know.”

Sweetie wanted to ask, but she was kind of afraid to say anything at this point. Anything she said might scare Rarity even more, because Sweetie Belle just didn’t know what was hurting her.

“When I was a filly, not much older than you in fact, I had the... a device installed in myself that... I believe I have called it a erm... ‘murder coil?’” Rarity said hesitantly to Sweetie Belle. And that was pretty clear, at least.

“You what?!” Sweetie squeaked in shock. “Then why did you get so mad at me?! You—”

“Sweetie Belle, let her finish,” Twilight commanded from above.

Rarity glanced up at the purple unicorn, saying, “Thank—fine.” Probably as close to gratitude as Twilight was going to get now. She turned back to Sweetie Belle and said, “I had a... a young love, let’s say. He was a Canterlot unicorn, who was so sophisticated and worldly, and I was sure he... loved me. At any rate, we... he convinced me to try an... IUD, so that we could consummate our relationship.”

“What does consummate mean?” Sweetie asked insecurely.

“It means sex,” Twilight prompted from her hiding place up there.

“Oh,” Sweetie said to the librarian, and then turned to her sister with wider eyes saying, “Oh.”

“I wasn’t so foolish to think that it would be a good idea to get pregnant at that age, even by one such as him,” Rarity assured Sweetie Belle, “But, with it... installed, I did have a good half a month of... bliss, before my—before Mother found out what I was doing.”

Rarity sighed, saying, “You don’t know what Mother’s been through. She... she brought our family into the church in a time when she was really hurting from suffering in sin. So she and I—disagreed on whether I and ...he should have been together.”

Sweetie Belle could hardly imagine her nice, kindly mother doing something like suffering in sin. But maybe she’d been different back then? That would have been before Sweetie Belle was even born.

“We fought it out, and she... found out I had a murder coil,” Rarity said in something of a haunted tone. “I found out I had a murder coil. I didn’t even know it was the same thing as an IUD, but our pastor was adamantly clear that it was. You wouldn’t know him, the predecessor to Reverend Tightbottom.”

“But why did she believe him?” Sweetie asked in distress. “If he called it that, why did she believe him?”

“It’s... complicated, Sweetie,” Rarity said frankly. “And this is not something you should speak to her about. I assure you she will not react well. This is purely between her and me, and I just... need to tell you about what happened.”

Sweetie nodded silently. She wasn’t sure she could keep a secret like this from her mother, but if Rarity said it was important, then Sweetie Belle would try her best.

“So, to save my life, my... parents thought,” Rarity continued in an affection of artificial casuality, “The device was removed from my... womb, and I was free to... live my life.”

Rarity shook her head regretfully though, her lovely mane laying limp around her neck with the weariness she felt as she spoke. “I’d spent half my estrus in wanton lust,” she said, “Without any consequences, and it was—it was really hard. We met, he and I. I... I just wanted him so badly. I wanted to show her she was wrong. I wasn’t thinking, I—”

“I’m sorry Sweetie,” Rarity said sadly, “But I was a fallen mare. I had... sex out of wedlock, and felt no regret or shame, only embarassment. I tried to see things as the grownups did, but I simply couldn’t ignore that siren call. You know what I speak of.”

“Well, I guess,” Sweetie Belle said tentatively, “But I don’t know if it’s always as bad as this year.”

Rarity pursed her lips, and said frankly, “No, it’s... not.”

She looked over her shoulder, saying softly, “I had no excuse, really. But I continued to meet with him, even after the device was removed, and well... at a very young age, I... I ended up with child.”

Sweetie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Rarity ended up with a child?

“I’m sorry Sweetie, I’ve wanted to tell you so badly, but I was just... I’ve just been so afraid,” Rarity sighed, “I’m not the good mare you know and love. I’m... flawed, broken. I’ve done things that I’m not proud of, and if anypony found out...”

“You mean...” Sweetie gasped wide-eyed, “I’m an aunt? I didn’t know you had a foal! Is she a colt or a filly? Did you have to give her up for adoption? Did you—”

“No, no. Sweetie. I’m giving you the wrong impression here,” Rarity said snippily. “I certainly did not give the foal up for adoption. You are not an aunt. You are the...

“...the foal,” she concluded, flat-eared and refusing to look at Sweetie Belle.

“I’m the...?” Sweetie said, and it was funny because it was like Rarity was trying to say that Sweetie Belle was the foal that Rarity had, and not Rarity’s... sister.

“We managed to keep it a family secret, so to speak,” Rarity continued, “So ponies think that we’re just s-sisters. I just couldn’t burden you with that secret. You were such a sweet young filly, I just couldn’t bear to see you—know. They... my parents promised to raise you, but it wasn’t their responsibility, and once I started giving milk, I knew I was... stuck.”

She closed her eyes and stated calmly, “So, I took responsibility, and... did what I had to do.” Opening her eyes and looking at the shocked, confused filly, Rarity said tenderly, “I’m sorry Sweetie Belle. I’m not your sister. I meant to tell you, as you went into your first estrus, but it’s just been so hard. With the miscarriage, I felt like... like it could have been you who was lost. I was so afraid you could have felt what I felt, when... when I thought about ending my pregnancy. And when I found out you had the device that... I wasn’t allowed to have, I just got...

“...jealous,” Rarity huffed. “Yes, I was being the jealous older sister, just like I always wanted, and I almost hurt you as badly as I’ve been hurt before.”

“So Mom and Dad...?” Sweetie asked faintly.

“Are your grandparents, yes,” Rarity said sincerely.

“But... but I’m way too old to be your f-filly!” Sweetie said in distress.

“With all due respect Sweetie, you are not as old as you may think you are,” Rarity grumbled, “I am still twice your age, and that makes me quite old enough to be your... mother.”

Multiplying her age by two, it... did seem to Sweetie that Rarity was a year or so older than that. That meant that Rarity would have gotten pregnant when she was as old as Sweetie Belle was going to be, next year! And since Sweetie Belle got pregnant this year, it meant Rarity could be her... her mother. But instead they were... sisters.

A laugh escaped Sweetie Belle, and with Rarity looking at her in confusion, Sweetie said, “It’s funny because when I was thinking about... keeping the foal, I wished she could be my age, so that I could be her sister, and I wouldn’t have to be her mother.”

“I’m sorry?” Rarity said uncertainly. “You were thinking about keeping the foal?”

“The point is!” Sweetie said hastily, “You really did do what I wanted to do. I know how you feel, and you don’t have to be my um... mother, if you don’t want. I like being sisters with you just fine.”

Sweetie Belle hugged Rarity around the chest and said, “I just don’t want you to feel so sad about me. I don’t care if you’re my mother, or if mom is, or even if you’re my sister. We’ll always be the bestest sisters two sisters could ever have!”

“Oh, Sweetie,” Rarity said in a choked voice, hugging her too, head over her shoulder, as hot salty drops of water hit Sweetie Belle’s back. For once, Sweetie Belle didn’t feel bad about making Rarity cry.

“So... what was it like?”

“What was what like, Sweetie?”

“You know, making me? What was it like?”

“You were... hm... em... heavy.”

“Heavy?”

“Yes, heavy.”