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// You too, Rarity? 
// Story: The Cleansing 
// by BronyWriter 
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Twilight shook her head as she walked down the road towards her home, her saddlebags only a quarter of the way as full as she had expected. She had been turned down at the first three stalls she had gone to, as they were all run by earth ponies, so she had quickly learned to only go to stalls run by unicorns. 

It seemed that her and Spike would be going out to eat that night. Probably at one of the higher end restaurants owned and operated by unicorns. Twilight allowed herself a small smirk. Calling Applejack a mud pony was certainly a unique experience, as was being called a stick head in return, and she was unsure of if she wanted to keep going with this whole "Cleansing Day" thing. Having said that, if Applejack's rules were anything to go by, the fact that she had called her a worthless mud pony at all meant that she was fair game until sunset. 

Twilight was just about to turn down the street to her home when she heard a familiar voice behind her that stopped her in her tracks. 

"Twilight! It's so lovely to see another member of the master race out, darling." Twilight grimaced, and looked behind her to see Rarity trotting up to her, a large smile on her face. A few earth ponies behind her smirked and rolled their eyes. "I hope you have had a pleasant day, Twilight. You haven't had any er..." Rarity exchanged a fake glare with a passing pegasus. "Incidents with the undesirables, have you?"

"Just Applejack." Twilight's grimace softened as Rarity gave her a greeting hug. "She explained to me what was going on today."

Rarity broke away from the hug and fixed Twilight with a wide-eyed stare. "You mean, you didn't know about Cleansing Day?" Rarity clicked her tongue and shook her head. "I'm sorry, darling, I thought you would have known. She didn't say anything in too poor taste to you before you understood, did she?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed. "Just that I was a stick head and that I should go count my money and leave the worthless mud ponies alone."

Rarity flinched back and flattened her ears. "Oh dear. I am sorry for that, Twilight. Do let me make it up to you by inviting Spike and yourself over to my home for lunch, won't you?"

Twilight frowned and tilted her head. "Not that I don't love spending time with you, but why do you feel that you have to make it up to me?"

Rarity shrugged. "I suppose it's because I just assumed you knew about today." She waved her hoof. "Of course, I shouldn't really need an excuse to have you and Spikey-Wikey over for lunch other than that I enjoy your company, should I?"

Twilight snorted. "I dunno. Aren't dragons inferior today? They're not of the master race like we are." Rarity shot Twilight a bewildered look, and Twilight flinched back as she remembered Applejack's rules. "Wait... right. Can't say that about younger beings."

"It can be difficult for outsiders," Rarity conceded, "and I know that this is your first cleansing day, but don't worry..." Rarity smiled at Twilight and put a hoof on her shoulder. "We'll have you talking like an earth pony's parent's objecting to a bi-racial union in no time. I'll teach you some of my favorite Cleansing Day slurs during after lunch tea while Spike is playing with Sweetie Belle. How does that sound?"

"It sounds..." Twilight chuckled and rubbed one of her temples. "It sounds good, I guess." 


*  *  *  *


Three hours later, Twilight and Spike were sitting with Rarity and Sweetie Belle at Carousel Boutique, chatting about whatever topic struck their fancy. Of course, given that it was currently Cleansing Day, there was really only one thing to talk about. 

"You should have seen the look on Apple Bloom's face when I called her a mud pony, sis!" said Sweetie Belle, her voice squeaking at the end of the sentence. "She tried to say that I wasn't really part of the master race because my magic hasn't come in yet, but I told her that even if it never came in my horn meant that I was better than her." Sweetie Belle beamed as she took a bite of her sandwich. "Then Scootaloo and Apple Bloom started fighting about if pegasi were better than earth ponies, so I told them that they were both wrong!"

"And you are indeed correct, Sweetie Belle," said Rarity with a smile as she patted her sister's head. "Mud ponies don't have our magic, and anything those featherbrains can do we can replicate, and certainly do better, so why even try to talk otherwise?"

"Yeah. We would have kept going, but we were laughing too hard." Sweetie Belle giggled when Rarity playfully booped her on the nose.  

Twilight subtly shook her head and shot Spike a glance as she finished the last bite of her sandwich. He was staring blankly at the two ponies extolling the virtues of being a unicorn in front of him as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Twilight had, of course, filled him in on Cleansing Day and its purpose. He had initially laughed it off, assuming that she was coming up with a wild reason for why she had come back from the market with pretty much only condiments, rice, plastic cutlery, and grape juice, but his laughter had turned to disbelief when he found out that she was, in fact, completely serious. They had spent the next hour looking through the library to try to find anything about Cleansing Day that they could. To Twilight's great disappointment, all they found was a few pamphlets from the first ever Cleansing Day in the archive section of the library. 

Now here they were, watching Rarity encourage Sweetie Belle to tell her best friends that she was better than them because of her horn. Twilight suddenly had an acute sense that she had been transported back hundreds of years ago and nopony had told her. She would have believed it too if she didn't know better. 

Sweetie Belle and Rarity shared a brief laugh at something Sweetie Belle said, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. "Wonderful, Sweetie Belle." Rarity nuzzled her sister. "Now, if you wouldn't mind running along and playing with Spike, Twilight and I have some things to talk about."

Sweetie Belle frowned. "But I already know all of 'em sis. Even "ground basher."

Rarity snorted and waved her hoof. "I'm well aware of that, Sweetie Belle, but Twilight and I need some 'us' time. Go play with Spike."

Sweetie Belle groaned, but hopped off of her seat. "Come on, Spike. I'll show you my room." Sweetie Belle's smile returned, and her ears perked up as Spike fell in step behind her. "I can teach you some of the good offensive words about other ponies that are different than I am that I know so maybe you can use them if you wanna do Cleansing Day next year!"

Twilight sighed as she watched Spike and Sweetie Belle walk up the stairs of the boutique before turning her attention back to Rarity, who was smiling fondly at her. "I hope that wasn't too odd to see, darling. You know that Sweetie Belle isn't usually so vulgar."

"Yeah..." Twilight pushed her plate to the side and leaned her foreleg against the table, and her head on her hoof. "I suppose I can see why the stallions and mares around town want to join in and all that, but why exactly are the foals getting involved?"

Rarity shrugged and began stacking the dirty plates. "Pegasus see, pegasus do, I suppose. It's not as though we can hide it from them, Twilight." Rarity stood up and put the dishes in the sink before turning back to Twilight. "It's not as though Sweetie Belle isn't going to notice that Rainbow Dash calls me a stick head in front of her. You know how dense those ground bashers can be, Twilight."

"Right." Twilight closed her eyes and tried to massage the dull headache that was creeping up. "Remind me the origins of 'ground basher' again?"

"Pegasi are too stupid to stop themselves from crashing."

"Ah." Twilight opened an eye and looked over at Rarity. "Of course." 

Rarity trotted back over to the table and sat down across from Twilight. "Twilight? Is something the matter?"

"Well..." Twilight opened her other eye and sighed. "It's just... strange, waking up to find everypony is suddenly a complete racist. I mean, you're saying all of this so naturally!"

Rarity chuckled lightly and smirked at Twilight. "Well to be fair, Twilight, I have had a good fifteen or so Cleansing Days to really get my form down."

"That's just it!" Twilight motioned up to Sweetie Belle's room. "I think I was fine with it overall until I saw Sweetie Belle. Puzzled, maybe, but fine with it. If a bunch of grown ponies want to spend a day slinging racial slurs at each other because they all know it's good fun and nopony is getting hurt then... whatever." Twilight flattened her ears. "Foals, though? Rarity, can you honestly tell me that Sweetie Belle should be saying those things?"

Rarity shook her head. "Of course not, darling, and any other day I'd wash her mouth out with soap and make her write apology letters to everypony who heard her, on top of sending her to bed without supper, but..." Rarity shrugged. "It's Cleansing Day. Today, verbal racial taboos just sort of disappear for twelve hours, then go back like they never left."

"But why?!" Twilight stood up from her chair and began pacing around the room. "Why do you you even consider saying stuff like that? Just because you can doesn't mean that you should!"

"You're right, of course, but we do anyway." Rarity gave another shrug. "Think about it, Twilight. When Sweetie Belle talked about doing it, she didn't talk about doing it to her enemies, she talked about doing it to her friends."

"Why, though?!" Twilight stopped pacing and looked Rarity dead in the eye. "Are you really so dead set in being racist for a day that you'd get mad at Princess Celestia if she took it from you? I mean, are those thoughts that you actually have the other three sixty-four days of the year and you just keep them bottled up?"

"Of course not, dear!" Rarity insisted. She stood up from her seat, a hint of a frown tugging at her lips. "If I ever even thought of calling Applejack or Pinkie Pie a mud pony on any other day I would probably lock myself in my room and not bear to see them for a week I'd be so ashamed of myself. The same thing goes for if I called Rainbow or Fluttershy a sky head."

"But here it's okay."

"Yes." Rarity gave Twilight a single nod. "Here it is perfectly okay."

"But I don't understand why!" Twilight groaned and began pacing again. "I mean, why does it have to be this particular topic that you have to breach once a year?"

Rarity clicked her tongue and sat back down in her seat. "Twilight, as I said, Sweetie Belle only said that to friends; ponies who knew that she wasn't serious. Now, I know that she has had issues with bullies who are earth ponies, and if I found out that she said those things to them I would be quite cross with her. If she did that, she would be misusing the purpose of the day. She would actually have malicious intent, and that goes against what this day has evolved into for us." Rarity crossed her forelegs. "Now, you already called Applejack a mud pony, so you are fair game today, so if you don't want to be involved you can just stay home, but..." Rarity's smile suddenly turned mischievous, and she leaned forward. "When you called Applejack a worthless mud pony, didn't that feel a little... daring? Wasn't that exciting?"

"Well..." Twilight stopped pacing, and thought back to when she and Applejack had exchanged slurs. Truth be told, the rush she had felt when she said that was quite invigorating, and when Rarity put it like that, she could see her point. 

Rarity, for her part, caught on to Twilight's hesitation, and widened her smile. "I think you have it. Disagree with it if you must, but trust me when I say that it has been ninety-seven years since Ponyville's last racially motivated crime. It just doesn't happen around here." Rarity shrugged and stood up from the table. "If you take all of that into account, what's wrong with any of it? The negative power of those words is gone, isn't it?"