Rarity's Colt

by Mocha Star


A Scolded Rarity

“Rarity, I don’t want to sound mean… but how you handled Snickers earlier was certainly uncalled for.”

Rarity sighed while walking to the stove. “Would you like some tea, darling?”

“Oh, no thank you. I only have a moment before I must go. But, a foal with his problems shouldn’t have to be subjected to what you’ve done to him already.”

“Is this because of that male stereotype from forever ago?”

Fluttershy scuffed a hoof on the linoleum. “No, it’s not only because he’s a colt. Any child shouldn’t have their mouths soaped to the extent you went to.”

“But Fluttershy, he was being positively crude and just… just dreadful! His choice of language is set to profane, and--”

“Rarity!” Fluttershy’s voice silenced Rarity. “I… don’t… care! You’re… I’m sorry, Rarity, but you’re just a bully to him! Ever since you met him you’ve been just a very… not nice pony, haven’t you?”

“W… you see, I believe I’ve been quite cordial with him, if I must say so,” she flipped her mane and looked at Fluttershy, meeting her eyes and wilting under her intense gaze. 

“Tell me if this is true, Rarity,” Fluttershy asked sternly, “you left him alone for hours when he first got here to work?”

“Yes, but I was behind on my--”

“You soaped him until he vomited?” Fluttershy asked with a sterner voice.

“Only because he said I was preparing to--”

“How did you introduce him to me?”

“He was going to mount my sister like a--”

“Be quiet! Rarity...” Fluttershy said in a deeper voice than she’d ever used around ponies, “you’re the biggest meanie that poor little colt has met since he got to this land from wherever he’s from, he told me when he was crying like I’ve never seen a pony his age cry. I have to put this in my report and… I just… can’t see you right now, Rarity. I’m sorry!” 

She turned and ran away from the stunned white mare fast enough to leave her hair flowing behind her. She opened the door and leapt into the air, flying away just in time to see the CMC and Snickers looking at a map. For a moment she forgot about all the pain he was holding in and hiding and only saw three friends starting a new adventure.

Rarity stood in the kitchen, tall and still for several seconds before she stomped a hoof on the floor. “Why that traitorous little… ugh! She has no idea what it’s like to manage a large number of clients, take care of their needs, and supply them at their demand while giving yourself completely to their needs! Why can’t she understand that taking care of my little sister is a full time job itself?

“With having to find her and her friends things to do, clean her from her unsupervised galavanting, giving her group bits so they can…” she trailed off as things fell into place in her mind. Fluttershy’s honesty finally filtered through her pride, washing away her charm and charisma to the point that if she were Pinkie her mane and tail would have fallen flat. 

“If a customer came in right now… I don’t even know,” she called a fainting couch to herself and lay on it. Next a bucket of ice cream left the freezer with a spoon from a nearby drawer joined her and she began eating loudly, nomming with each heaping spoonful. 

“…Ngyum, ngumm, omnong… oh, what shall I do?” she lay back and draped her foreleg across her forehead. “Motherhood, the one thing I haven’t prepared for in all my years of dress making. Whom shall I seek to find mentoring in this new venture I find myself in? Ngummm, nom, nom.”

She pondered between bites of ice cream for several minutes, thinking of who to talk with, nomming loudly and posing dramatically when she got ice cream headaches.

“Ha! Idea, the Cakes have foals. They have to know everything there is to know about rearing them, not to mention Pinkie Pie. No, wait. Sweetie and her friends are going there and I don’t know when. Who else? Hmm… Well, the pickings are indeed slim, but Granny Smith has more than enough experience.

“I’ll ask her once I’m done wallowing in shame for all the wrongs I’ve done today thus far. No more, ngyum-nom… shall I be a poor mother figure. From this moment on, I, Rarity, will be the best mother, ever! After this bucket...”

Rarity made her wait to the Apple’s farm, passing a disgusting scene that was clearly from a drunkard staggering around. She made a point to tell the town constable about a mare smelling of vomit that had defecated during her walk of shame. Refusing to have her magic sullied with the waste of another pony, she instead stood back a ways and used her magic to shove a whole portion of the path into the grass.

“There, now nopony has to worry about seeing such a nasty thing in the walkways. How can anypony just do that so seemingly casually? Bleh.”

Walking carefully for a while, checking ahead of her path to avoid stepping in something she’d regret for days, Rarity finally noticed the fence marking the Apple’s land. Fruit trees extended far beyond what she could see, so she ignored that and instead made the usual trek to the entrance of the acres. 

Seeing a more traditional farm to her left as she passed, Rarity wondered how the vegetables were coming along. It was only a couple months until the Harvest, followed by Nightmare Night. Something she knew she could do was dress Snickers in an outfit befitting his unique personality. 

“Oh, hello, Miss Smith. Do you have a moment to talk?”

“Eh, yeah. Ah guess so… once, when Ah was a young mare, there was a stallion what’d come by the farm every couple moons. He was sellin’ some fancy floor polish, ya see. Now, we didn’t have a need fer no sweet smellin’ floor cleaner when elbuh grease and water’d work just fine ‘n dandy.

“Pa, he went’n told’m ta take his snake oil ta somepony else. Never did see that feller again, but ta this day, Ah wonder if that stuff would’a worked and saved me hours on my knees. Now, that’s a story! When Ah was younger than you are now--”

“Yes, thank you for the riveting story, however I was hoping you could tell me how to be a great mother, just like you.”

A second passed, then another. “Ah must have a pea stuck in mah ear. What’d ya say?” she asked tilting her head and tapping her temples while working her jaw.

“I was hoping to speak with you about something important, about how to be a mother.”
Granny’s ears perked three quarters of the way up. “I recently adopted a colt and must parent him in a more effective way. How do you do it, and to keep it going once its started.”

“Uh, yer not makin’ much sense at all. Ya wanna be a mother to a foster ya just, what, found on the way home?”

“Oh, certainly not,” Rarity giggled, “he’s an orphan from some sort of accident, we presume. We’ve gone through the EFS, as is the right way to go. He was actually given to me, since many other adults are quite busy with their own tasks with foals of their own.”

“Oh, Ah get ya. So, ngyahh,” Granny groaned in thought, “what’s eaten yer ernges, exactly?”

“I’m inexpericend actually parenting and was wondering if you could tell me the secret on how you’ve done it so well.”

The old mare looked at Rarity, then laughed for at least eight seconds. “Well, if’n that ain’t the funniest dern thing Ah heard in a zap apple’s age. Filly, there ain’t no secret ta doin’ what a mother needs ta do. Ya just love’m, set gentle rules, and listen to ‘em. Now, don’t go takin’ that literally, ya hear,” she narrowed her eyes at Rarity. “The last thing a foal yer talkin’ about needs is a strict life er a mother hoverin’ over him like a storm cloud waitin’ and watchin’.

“What ya gotta do is this, ask yerself what you’d want done to ya if ya were in their place. And that don’t mean give’m cookies ‘n cream everytime they do somethin’, neither! Ya gotta ask yerself the question fer real. If Apple Bloom breaks a cup, ya think I’m gonna tan her hide with a switch or give her some jam?

“No! Ah ain’t doin’ a thing but askin’ her why and havin’ her clean it up. If she’s a party ta cuttin’ down a neighbor’s tree, what d’ya think I’d do?” she asked.

“Well, perhaps again sit her down and ask her why, then punish her accordingly.”

“What’s yer meanin’? What’d you do if that colt ‘a yers cuts down a tree?”

“Well,” she thought it over and tapped her chin. “I supposed I’d ask why, then ground him for the rest of the week without dessert.”

“Mare, that’s durn foolish. Ya think yer gonna stop a young’n from eatin’ sweets just cuz ya said so? Even if ya lock’m in his room he’s got friends by now that’d sneak him candy and cakes. If ya wanna play it soft, ya find a way ta bring it outside and then confront him, but don’t be yellin’ ta the town about what he did.

“Ya tell him why it’s wrong and the harm it does to the neighbors. Bein’ outside just makes it so he gets seen bein’ scolded, even if ponies don’t know why,” she rocked in her chair some, “the point is ta let them think other ponies are disappointed in them, not you. You just tell’m the facts that the tree won’t give shade on the hot days anymore. 

“The foals that go to visit won’t have a place ta rest if it was their favorite spot. The tree could’a been from their parents, somethin’ they planted when they was born. Ain’t no reason ta go tannin’ hides or makin’ them shout back when they don’t have a durn good reason, ya hear?”

Rarity nodded enthusiastically. “I do! Thank you, Granny. I appreciate what you’ve told me more than you can know.”

“Heh, just doin’ what a good parent would do, ya know.”

Rarity smiled at the grinning mare and took her leave with a basket of various Apple family treats forced upon her.

I do believe a new mare will greet that little colt and everything will turn for the better in no time.