//------------------------------//
// Mom & Dad 
// Story: She Kills Monsters 
// by chiko 
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Rarity woke up to the smell of cooking bacon. It filled her with a profound sense of dread. She buried herself beneath her lush covers, hoping it was just the brain playing tricks on her. Perhaps she was just hungry.

Her fears proved to be all too real as a patronizingly sweet voice called her awake. 

"Honestly, Rarity, it's no wonder why you're so mopey," her mother scolded, heading towards the bedroom window and forcing open a heavy set of blackout curtains. "The sun's good for you."

Rarity groaned. "Mother, please."

"And just look at the state of your bedroom!" She put her hands to her hips and scanned the cluttered floors. "I knew I should have done something about it when you were younger. Now it's a bad habit that's followed you into adulthood."

Sighing, Rarity lazily sat up and peeled off her sleep mask. "I keep my boutique presentable. Let me be untidy in private."

Her mother clicked her tongue. "What happens when you bring a nice boy back home, and they see this pigsty? It reflects poorly on your character."

"You're not implying what I think?" Rarity tightened her robe. "Besides, I'm off the market. I'm married to my marketplace."

"The marketplace won't give me grandbabies," she shot back. She forced a pile of clothes into an already stuffed hamper. "The older you get the slimmer the chances are."

"It was always pretty slim," Rarity grumbled under her breath. "Considering Sweetie was a closet lesbian."

"A what?"





Rarity glanced down at her breakfast and felt conflicting feelings of nostalgia and anxiety. On her plate sat two of the thickest cuts of bacon she'd seen in years nestled into a mountain of scrambled eggs, cooked in a rich base of bacon fat.

She nibbled her toast and wondered how she had maintained her figure with what her parents offered every morning of her adolescence.

"Is something wrong, Rare?" Her father asked.

"I'm not that hungry." She delicately picked at her breakfast.

He tore into the bacon with his hands. "You sure? You look thin."

Rarity smiled politely and cut a small sliver of eggs. Although, her appetite suddenly returned the moment her mother entered the kitchen. She stuffed a forkful in her mouth and gagged at the overtly rich taste.

"Hon, a li'l birdie told me something interesting about our daughter," her mother said, leaning against the countertop.

Her father smiled. "You're getting engaged?"

"Our other daughter."

"What do you mean?"

Rarity swallowed the lump. She didn't expect to be spending her morning coming out the closet for her sister. "Sweetie Belle was gay. I found it in her diary. I don't know if she was planning on telling us before she passed, but here we are."

"Our baby girl? Surely it was just a phase."

"You have no baby girls!" Rarity slammed her palms on the table. "You had two young women coming into their own." She shrunk back in her seat. "Now you just have me."