Rarity Likes Metal

by RazortheAwesome

Rarity Likes Metal

Rarity Likes Metal
Written by RazortheAwesome
Edited by Kiro0613

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fanbased work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, and the reinvention of Lauren Faust. No copyright infringement is intended, please support the official release.

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It was a slow day in Ponyville's only music shop. With nothing to do, the store clerk just sat at the front counter reading an issue of Revolution Magazine, as was his want. He was in the middle of reading an interview with Arch Friend's new singer when the telltale sound of hooves against the floor hit his ears. Less than a moment later, a strange pony wearing a black robe that covered most of her body walked up to him and dropped three CDs on the counter.

"Ahem... Hello," the strange mare said to him in a mid-west sounding voice. "I'd um... I'd like to buy these please."

The store clerk just looked at the strange mare for a moment before he closed his magazine and looked at the three CDs she had just given him, then he looked back up at the strange mare, then back at the CDs, then back at the mare, then back at the CDs then back to the mare. She was definitely a mare, he was definitely certain of that, and while the cloak she was wearing covered up her face and most of her body, he could see two pairs of alabaster white hooves poking out from the bottom as well as the end of a curly purple mane trying to fight its way out of the hood.

"Oh, hey Rarity," the store clerk said to the strange mare in a chipper tone, only for her to suddenly leap a foot in the air and inhale quite a bit of air the moment those words left his mouth.

"Wha- wha-, I, I- I mean..." The strange mare frantically said with the hint of a Prench accent in her voice as she looked all around the store at anywhere but the store clerk before she held up an alabaster hoof to her mouth and coughed for a bit before returning to mid-west style voice. "I, I mean, I'm not Rarity. I'm um... I'm um..... NOPONY. Yes, that's it. NOPONY. And I'm here to buy those three death metal albums for a dear friend of mine who's.... ALSO nopony, and I'm buying them as a gift. Yes. That's it! A gift! And I am buying them for her because she likes them and I'm a very generous friend and they are most definitely not for me because they are, like I said, a gift, because that's what generous friends to do friends, they give them gifts." The store clerk though he could see the hint of a smile behind the shadow of the strange mare's hood.

"Oooooooooookay," the store clerk said after the strange mare had calmed down for a moment. With that, he took the three CDs she gave him and rang them up. "Okay so two Herbivore Corpse CDs and one Iron Barding CD. That'll be 36 bits." Without saying a word, the strange mare pulled out exactly 36 bits from somewhere within her cloak and dropped them on the counter before she took the three CDs and put them somewhere in her cloak as well.

"Thank you," the strange mare said in her usual mid-west style manner of speech before suddenly dashing out the door like she was late for the gala... or something like that. The store clerk couldn't help but stare at the front door, which was still swinging a bit.

"Huh..." was all he said to himself.

"What was that about?" Mehrunes Dagon Razor asked the store clerk as he walked up to the front desk, his best friend Daedalus next to him.

"I have absolutely no idea," the store clerk said as both he and Razor kept their eyes on the still swinging front door for a few more moments. Daedalus just stood there not giving any ****'s, as was his want. "So, what can I do for you?" The store clerk asked as he turned back to Razor.

"Wha, oh, right," Razor said as he suddenly remembered why he was there and dropped a single CD on the counter.

"Ah, Ciderstorm," the store clerk said as he eyed the CD. "Excellent choice."

"I know, right," Razor replied. "I still can't stop listening to their last album."

"Yeah, neither can I," the store clerk said as he rang up Razor's CD. "That'll be 12 bits."

Just outside of the Carousel Boutique, a strange pony in a black cloak calmly walked right up to the front door like there was absolutely nothing wrong. After quickly looking left, then right, then behind her, and then left again, the strange pony produced a single key from her cloak and unlocked the front door before walking in.

Once inside, the strange pony let out a rather long, rather loud, sigh.

"Whew, that was too close," Rarity said to herself as she removed her hood.

"What was too close?" a high pitched, bubblegummy voice suddenly asked Rarity less than a second after that last word left her mouth.

"GYYYAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Rarity shrieked as she leapt up into the air and failed her hooves like a madpony only turn completely around in mid air and look right into the smiling face of Pinkie Pie as she landed. "PINKIE!!!" Rarity shouted the moment her pinkness filled her vision. "When? How? What? ....... How did you get in here!?"

"Through the door," Pinkie Pie nonchalantly replied in her usually, chipper manner. At that, Rarity's eyes suddenly went as wide as Celestia's sun as she looked past her pink, bouncy friend to see that she had in fact, much to her dismay, left the front door open.

"Oh...." Rarity said as her eyes returned to their normal sizes. "Right... of course you did."

"Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo," Pinkie said to her dear friend. "What'cha doin?"

"Nothing," Rarity replied, trying to act natural despite the obviously fake smile she was putting on. "I was just... getting some shopping done."

"Shopping?" Pinkie Pie said, curious.

"Yes," Rarity replied. "I was out buying some threads for a new design I was trying out."

"Ooooooohhhhhhhhhh," Pinkie Pie said. "So is why are you wearing that cloak then?"

"Cloak, what cloak?" Rarity quickly asked, pretending to act confused. Pinkie Pie just responded by smiling. "Oh... oh you mean this." Rarity said once she realized that she was in fact, still wearing her cloak. "Umm..... Yes. I uh.... I'm wearing a prototype of my new design right now. I thought I'd wear it to both see how it feels and get a better understanding of what I needed, but I'm not quite ready to unveil it to the world yet so I thought I'd wear this cloak over it so that nopony would see, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't look either Pinkie. I um..... I don't want anypony seeing it just yet."

"Oki," Pinkie Pie responded, not really bothering to say the words 'doki' and 'loki' was well like she usually did.

At that Rarity couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief and let all of his muscles loosen up a bit. While she might have been a better liar than Applejack, she still didn't exactly feel comfortable not telling the truth. It never bothered her at first, but it always at her up inside later if she didn't set things straight. She knew that now would have to be an exception though, and at least Pinkie Pie was buying into-

"So what were you doing at the music store?" Pinkie Pie suddenly asked, which made all of Rarity's just loosened muscles immediately tense back up again.

"Wha.... what?" Rarity nervously asked.

"I was coming to see you anyway to see if you could help me come up with idea for Fluttershy's birthday party which is in...." At that Pinkie Pie suddenly raised her hoof and looked at her watch, which Rarity was certain that she wasn't wearing before. "Forty four days, ten hours, fifty seven minutes and twenty three seconds by the way, when I saw you coming out of the music store so I thought I'd just talk to you there, but you seemed like you were being all secretive like a ninja or a scary cult leader so I thought I'd just follow you home and talk when it was safe, then you left the front door open so I followed you in and now here I am." At that the protective little wall that Rarity had built around her comfortable little lie started to slowly crumble.

"You...... You followed me all the way home from the music store?" Rarity just had to ask.

"Yesi besti letsi," Pinkie Pie replied. Maybe it was just the moment, but Rarity wasn't exactly fond of her new catch phrase.

"I uhh......." Rarity tried to say, but absolutely no words came to mind.

"You know the music store doesn't sell threads silly," Pinkie Pie said with a giggle.

"Uhh......" Rarity continued. Her mind raced every which way but the way that was where she needed to be at the moment. There was still a chance to save herself, she just needed to say the right thing. She just needed another little white lie. "Yes..." Rarity finally said when she had words to speak. "Yes I was in the music store. I thought that maybe some music would give me the extra muse that I needed." There, that was it, that was perfect. Nothing that Pinkie Pie wouldn't question, and in a way, it was true. Now, all Rarity had to do was make sure not to say another- "Bach," she let out. "It was Applebach. I heard he came out with a new record earlier this month so I was picking it up." Neither of them said anything for a few moments after that.

The seemingly comfortable silence was broken after what seemed like a full minute by Pinkie Pie raising a hoof to her mouth and giggling for a little bit, which made Rarity a bit confused.

"Silly filly," Pinkie Pie said to her. "Applebach has been dead for two hundred and sixty four years." And at that, there was another brick out of Rarity's little protection wall. "Besides, Applebach doesn't sound anything like Herbivore Corpse." And at that the metaphorical wrecking ball came out and completely annihilated the wall that was Rarity's little white lie.

"What...." was all Rarity could reply, though her voice was so quiet it sounded more like she was whimpering.

"Oh, sorry," Pinkie Pie said with another giggle. "When I said I saw you walking out of the music store I actually meant I saw you walking IN to the music store so I followed you in. I didn't say anything cause like I said, I could tell you were being secretive so I didn't want to blow your cover."

At that, the rest of the world seemed to sink away from Rarity. Her boutique. Gone. The air around her. Gone. Pinkie Pie..... she was still there, but she might as well have not been. All that was left was Rarity, and the black void of her mind that she now found herself in. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to escape. She tried to speak, but no words came out. It was like her voice box had suddenly been robbed from her. Her mind struggled to come up even with the ability to struggle with any thoughts. Her eyes were no longer there, they were broken like window panes with no hope of recovery. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. She was done. Doomed. Forever to be mocked by-

The void around her was instantly broken however by Pinkie Pie suddenly wrapping her hooves around her neck and kissing her on the lips, and yes, she used her tongue. Instinctively, Rarity pushed her away and spit out any spare saliva that she was sure was Pinkie's, though she was sure she didn't get all of it.

"PINKIE!!!" She screamed.

"What?" Pinkie Pie replied. "That was how I got Twilight to come back after I broke her mind with a logical paradox. So I figured that it'd work on you too." Rarity wanted to say something, but before her mind could come up with any words to say, it immediately went back to what had shut it into the void of her mind in the first place.

At that she lost her will to even try to come up with anything else as her head fell towards the ground in defeat. Pinkie had seen her, that was that. If what she said was true, then she saw her buy the CDs and then she followed her all the way here. So there was no way to deny that it wasn't her. The floor of her boutique looked so interesting right now. She didn't want to look back up. Not at Pinkie Pie, not even at the door to see if anypony outside may have saw Pinkie Pie kissing her. She didn't care anymore. She'd been found out.

Strangely enough though, Pinkie Pie didn't say anything, she just let Rarity sulk for a few moments. Even after those few moments had passed, she still let her sulk. Still, Rarity knew she couldn't stay here forever, even if she wanted to. So, with the longest, deepest breath she'd taken.... probably ever. She lit up her horn and used her magic to close the front door, which was still open, as well as the windows of the boutique. She also made sure to put up the "Closed" sign on the door so that nopony would come in. Once that was done, she took another deep breath.

"Can we talk upstairs?" Rarity asked her still jubilant pink friend.

"Sure," said jubilant pink friend replied. At that, with her head still held low, Rarity slowly walked up the stairs of the boutique back up to her bedroom, and Pinkie Pie followed by hopping, as she was want to do.

It didn't take long for them to get to Rarity's bedroom, though for Rarity herself, it didn't take nearly long enough. Once they were there though, Rarity shut the door behind her with her magic, then she very carefully removed her cloak with her magic to show that she in fact WASN'T wearing a new, prototype dress underneath, which Pinkie didn't say anything to strangely enough. With her cloak removed she very neatly folded it up and set it on her bed. She then removed the saddlebags she was wearing and set them on her bed as well before turning back around to face Pinkie, though the floor just in front of Pinkie's hooves still seemed more interesting to her.

After what seemed like a FOREVER long moment, Rarity took in another deep breath.

"Pinkie," Rarity said to her, still looking at the very interesting floor. "I have......." The words choked in her throat. "I have a confession to make, but you have to promise not to tell anypony."

"Of course," Pinkie Pie said to her still staring at the floor friend. "You know me, I always keep a pony's secrets." That... did make Rarity feel a little bit better, since she knew that was true after all, but still.

"I know," Rarity said. "But still..." At that, Rarity lifted her head back up and looked back at Pinkie's face. "You have to promise not to tell anypony, and I do mean ANYPONY!" At that last word she threw her hooves up in the air for emphasis.

"Don't worry Rarity," Pinkie Pie said as she put Rarity's hooves back down. "I promise."

"Really..." Rarity said.

"Yes," Pinkie Pie said again.

"Really really..." Rarity said.

"Yes yes," Pinkie Pie said.

"Pinkie promise?" Rarity said.

"I'll do even better than that. I'll double Pinkie promise. Ahem. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Pinkie Pie said as she did the motions of the titular promise, then she did them again to emphasize that it was a double promise. Even though Rarity didn't really see how it was any different than a normal Pinkie promise, she could tell that her friend was just trying to get at.

"Okay...." Rarity said. She had to take another deep breath before she could say another word. Though the more she tried, the more they still ended up getting caught in her throat. "........................" was all she could let out.

"What was that?" Pinkie Pie said.

"......................" Rarity mumbled.

"I like metal," Rarity said quietly.

"Didn't quite ca-"

"I LIKE METAL!!!!" Rarity screamed at her pink friend so loud that it blew her hair back a little. "I LIKE METAL MUSIC PINKIE! ACTUALLY, no, scratch that, I don't just like metal. I LOVE METAL!" At that Rarity couldn't help but grab Pinkie by her neck and press her face against hers. "I love fast guitars! I love double bass drums! I love the tartarus like growl that the singers do! I love chugging, pounding, I love drop C and D tuning, and solos. Metal at home, outside, in mosh pits, when I'm working when I'm relaxing, when I'm dreaming, when I'm right here, right now, I love every act of metal that can occur on this wide world of Equestria. I love hearing the powerful chugging of low tuned instruments and drums so loud and epic that it's like thunder in your ears. My heart leaps with joy whenever the guitarist just starts shredding like a madpony and tearing it up so fast that the strings melt. And there is nothing like a singer screaming to you in that voice that makes you want to just do things! DO THINGS, and the feeling that comes when can't help but bang your head to every beat you hear, only to do it even more and just throw your head and hair around, is such an exquisite feeling. When whole bands brandishing their instruments rushing into the song to tear up your heart and your mind with their awesome sound! It moves me deep within my heart to listen to a new song that I've never heard before over and over until I don't even need the player to hear it again. The sight and images, and muses I get whenever I listen to those music, is an irresistible pleasure. And there is nothing more arousing, then the sounds made by the growling singers as they tell you just what they want to do with your insides. When the singer stops and the rest of the band stands on their own with nothing but their strings, drums, and their powerful, POWERFUL, blasts of thunder like bombshells, I'm in ecstasy. I love it when my eardrums are ravaged by such sounds. It's so sad to stop listening to it, because whenever it's over you want more, because it gets your blood pumping so. I love to be squashed under the might of such power, such ferocity, such intensity. Don't you get it Pinkie! I! LOVE! METAL!!!

After screaming those last few words, Rarity had to take a moment to catch her breath as she pushed her face even closer to Pinkie Pie's than she thought possible without realizing it. Pinkie on the other hoof, didn't really look any different. She was still just staring at Rarity's face with the same smile that was always on her face. The fact that Rarity's face was closer to her now than when Pinkie kissed her earlier didn't shake that up a bit. She didn't even mind that their eyes were touching.

After a minute or so of Rarity catching her breath and not saying anything else, Pinkie decided it was her turn to talk.

"So...... you like metal?" she asked for clarification. Rarity, at that, stopped breathing. In her head, she could hear the sound of breaking glass.

"Were you.... not paying attention?" Rarity asked her in a manner that suggested she was going to eat her eyes out.

"Yes," Pinkie replied, her expression and smile still unchanging.

"Then you know that I don't just like metal.... I LOVE-"

"So you like metal, what about it?" Pinkie Pie said before Rarity could finish. At that, the cracking glass that Rarity heard earlier suddenly shattered. She let go of Pinkie Pie and graciously stepped back a bit so that their eyeballs were no longer touching. Still, Rarity's face was completely still, and her eyes were about as small as the pins she used to make dresses.

"Pinkie..." she said. "Do you really not get it?"

"Not really," Pinkie Pie responded. Rarity had to take a moment there. The sheer fact that Pinkie Pie wasn't getting why this was such a big deal almost made her have an aneurysm.

"I'm... Rarity," Rarity said to her pink friend.

"Yes you are Rarity," Pinkie Pie said back to her. "And I know that you're Rarity because it turns out I have a Pinkie sense that lets me tell if somepony is a changeling, which is cool cause I totally didn't know I had that until recently, but I do, so I know it's you." Rarity decided to just ignore the rest of what she said and move on.

"And I like metal..." Rarity said.

"So?" Pinkie Pie said.

"SO!?" Rarity practically screamed as her eyes returned to normal. "I'M RARITY THE FASHIONISTA EXTRAORDINAIRE! COULD YOU IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF ANYPONY KNEW THAT I LIKED SUCH-"

"So," Pinkie said again before Rarity could finish. "Rainbow Dash likes reading, Applejack loves pears, Twilight writes erotic fanfiction and Fluttershy is a lesbian, how are you any different?"

"HOW AM I ANY DIFFERENT!?" Rarity screamed at her still not understanding pink friend. "I'M-" She wanted to go on, but that last thing Pinkie said kind of stuck with her. "Wait.... Fluttershy is a lesbian?"

"Yeah," Pinkie said as if were no bigger a secret than any of her surprise parties, which were never that secretive really. "You didn't know that?"

"No," was all Rarity replied.

"Oh....." Pinkie said as she looked away from Rarity for a moment, then back at her. "Well, Fluttershy is a lesbian. There, now you know." Rarity had to take another moment to take that in. Suddenly, all of the weekly trips she took to the spa with her seemed even more awkward now......... But she would deal with that another time.

"Right," Rarity said as she recomposed herself. "Anyway-"

"So you have a guilty pleasure, so what?" Pinkie Pie said again before Rarity could start talking again. Before Rarity could even answer that question, Pinkie Pie just giggled to herself again. "I mean, we all have guilty pleasures, so it's not it'll be the WORST POSSIBLE THING-" Pinkie Pie said doing her best imitation of Rarity. "If anypony found out about this. It's not like we're gonna shun you forever. We're just going to know and accept that you like a genre of music that normally we wouldn't associate with you and accept you for it because you're our friend." Rarity opened her mouth to speak again, but before she could Pinkie Pie lunged forward and pulled her into a big, Pinkie Pie hug. "Come on Rarity, we learned this lesson already. You got absolutely nothing to worry about." Rarity wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out.

The more she thought about Pinkie's words, the more it made sense to her. She had good friends, of course they wouldn't judge them forever if they knew this, and even if some of her clients knew this, then they'd probably understand. It didn't change anything about the way she made dresses. It was just something she did in her spare time, and she already knew that Sapphire Shores like nyangas, so it's not like this was any different.

"Besides," Pinkie Pie continued as she pulled out of the hug. "Rainbow Dash tried to keep her ginormous love of reading a secret from everyone and look where that got her. It made her break into a hospital and commit petty theft remember." At that, Rarity's head fell towards the floor again and she let out the breath that she had inhaled to yell at Pinkie again.

"I suppose you're right," Rarity said to her.

"Of course I'm right," Pinkie Pie said as she patted Rarity on the head with a hoof. "It's like my old great granny Pie used to say, I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong." At that, Rarity stepped forward and wrapped her hooves around Pinkie Pie this time. Pinkie Pie responded in kind by hugging Rarity back. Neither one of them said anything for about a minute, but they didn't need to.

After an amount of time appropriate to Rarity had passed, the two of them broke the hug.

"Thank you," Rarity said to Pinkie Pie with a smile of her own upon her face.

"No problem," Pinkie Pie replied with her smile still on her face. It hadn't left.

"Just... promise me one thing," Rarity then said to Pinkie. "Could you... still not tell anypony else about this. I'm... not quite sure I'm ready for them to know just yet." Pinkie Pie brought a hoof to her chin and thought about that for a moment, though she didn't need to think for very long. It wasn't that difficult of a request, and she understood it.

"Oki doki loki," Pinkie Pie replied. Rarity just smiled on the inside as she heard Pinkie's famous phrase in the way it's normally spoken again. "Sooooooooooooooooo...... Since we got that out of the way, if you don't mind, can I look at what you got?" Rarity had to stop for a moment and do a double take on what Pinkie just said. Ordinarily she would never let anypony even DREAM of seeing her metal albums, but that was mostly because she didn't want anypony knowing that she had them. However, since she just told Pinkie Pie everything, she really couldn't see a reason not to.

"Why not," Rarity said as she and Pinkie Pie walked over to her bed where she dropped her saddlebag. Without asking, Pinkie Pie started ruffling through it until she found the three albums that Rarity had bought.

"Ooh, Number of the Elements. Nice choice Rarity," Pinkie Pie said as she saw the Iron Barding CD. "Though if you like Iron Barding that much I'm surprised that you didn't have this one already." While she did that, Rarity went reached under her bed and pulled out a shoebox. She was just about to set it in front of Pinkie when what she said just registered in her brain.

"Wait. You.... know.... that album?" Rarity hesitantly asked.

"Of course," Pinkie Pie replied in her usual manner. "It's one of their best ones. Of course I've heard of it." While that did answer Rarity's question, something else about that statement stuck with her a bit more than that.

"Wait......" Rarity said as she set the shoebox in front of Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie herself didn't even waste any time opening it. "You.... listen to metal too?"

"Of course," Pinkie Pie said as she rummaged through Rarity's shoebox. "I listen to all kinds of music. I'm not gonna limit myself to just-" Pinkie Pie paused for a moment as she looked through the shoebox. She seemed confused. "Rarity, there's only like five other albums in here, and like four of them are Herbivore Corpse albums and the other one is Iron Barding's greatest hits."

"Oh...." Rarity said as she got what Pinkie Pie was getting that. "Well.... since I've been trying to keep it a secret from everypony, I haven't really had the chance to-"

"Wait!" Pinkie interrupted Rarity before she could finish. Before Pinkie leaned over the bed and looked Rarity right in the eye. "Do you even know about the other genres of metal?"

"Other.... genres?" Rarity responded, confused as all hell. At that, Pinkie's pupils suddenly shrank down to the size Rarity's had earlier and the sound of breaking glass could be heard somewhere. "Um.... Pinkie..."

"Rarity..." Pinkie asked. "Do you even know any other bands?" Rarity just responded by laughing nervously and looking away from her. As fun as Pinkie was, she did kind of scare her when she was like this.

"Unfortunately..... I don't," was all Rarity could say.

"GAAAAASSSSSSSPPPPP!!!!!!" Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed as she jumped off the bed. "Holy boily! We need to fix this right away!" Then suddenly, with a speed that even Fili Second would be jealous of, Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped off the bed while grabbing Rarity's saddlebag, then zipped around the bed behind Rarity and started pushing her out the door. Before Rarity could even say a single letter of a word in protest, they were already out the door.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie walked up the stairs of Sugarcube Corner up to Pinkie's apartment. Neither one of them really said anything on the way there, what with Pinkie Pie pushing Rarity half of the way there (thankfully her butt didn't get too dirty) and Rarity not really wanting to talk about her hobby outside of the privacy of her own home, or at least while out in public. Eventually, they reached Pinkie Pie's apartment and walked inside with Pinkie closing and locking the door behind them. Rarity couldn't help but exhale a little bit at that in relief.

"So," Pinkie Pie finally said after the silent trip. "If you don't mind me asking, how'd you get into metal in the first place Rarity?"

"Well," Rarity responded. "About a month or so ago I was out watching Rainbow Dash practicing, and she brought a boom box with her so that she could have some music while she practiced." While she talked, Pinkie Pie walked past her over towards her closet. Rarity followed. "Anyway, she put on a song by Iron Barding and while I didn't say anything I..... I enjoyed it.... very much..... more than any other type of music I've ever heard." Pinkie Pie just giggled at that.

"Yeah, that sounds like Dashie," she said as she put a hoof on her closet door. "So how'd you get into Herbivore Corpse then?"

"Well.... the next day I snuck over to the music store to see if I could buy the Iron Barding CD that Dash was listening too, but while I was there I..... I panicked and bought the first CD I saw.... and it was a Herbivore Corpse CD. While it was very different than what I heard Dash listening too I..... I still loved it. I loved every Celestia damned moment of it." Again, Pinkie Pie just giggled.

"Nice. Well, are you ready?" Pinkie Pie asked as she turned her head to face Rarity.

"Ready for what?" Rarity asked, confused. Then, at that, Pinkie Pie threw open the doors to her walk in closet, and inside, instead of clothes, Rarity saw more music CDs than she had ever seen in her life. It put even the music store to shame. As unladylike as it was of her, she couldn't stop her jaw from hitting the floor.

"You like it?" Pinkie Pie asked. "It's my own personal collection."

"Pinkie... Why...." Rarity said when she finally got her jaw working again. "Why do you have all of this?"

"Reference material," Pinkie Pie responded as the two of them walked into the walk in music closet.

"What?" Rarity asked, even more confused.

"What?" Pinkie Pie responded in kind. "Whenever I feel like breaking into song I need reference material to pull from obviously."

"Oh... right... of course," Rarity just said as she looked around the very, VERY expansive collection of music that was in Pinkie's closet. All kinds of music lined the walls, and each genre and type of music was neatly, and cutely labeled. She saw popular music, jazz, rock, alternative, hip hop, blues, classical, even various forms of world music. It was like Pinkie Pie had something for every genre of music imaginable. There was even music on the ceiling, though how it stayed up there was beyond Rarity.

"And here we are," Pinkie Pie said as she reached the back. "The metal section is right here." Rarity then turned her attention away from the music on the ceiling towards Pinkie Pie, who stood at the back left corner of the room with a hoof out showing off the section of the wall like a model pony showing off a carriage.

Slowly, Rarity walked over to where her friend was beckoning her, and when she saw it, her jaw dropped again. Even though it was just one section out of the whole room, from the floor to the ceiling was a collection of CDs labeled "Metal."

"Lets see," Pinkie Pie said before Rarity could even do anything. "You like Herbivore Corpse so lets see if I can find you anything similar." As she said that, she pulled Rarity's saddlebag out from wherever she pulls things out of nowhere from and started looking through her collection.

"Pinkie..." Rarity said once she got her jaw working again as she held out a hoof, but Pinkie stopped her before she could say anything else.

"It's okay," she said as she turned her head back to look at her. "Look around, feel free to borrow as many as you want."

"Borrow?" Rarity said, confused.

"Of course," Pinkie said with a giggle. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't share with you the wonders of something awesome every once in a while." Then with that, she turned back around and went back to browsing the metal section, leaving Rarity momentarily stunned for a moment. She was supposed to be the generous one. "Lets see.... Morbid Pegasus... yeah that'll work. Eight Meters Down, Cataclysm, ooh, Leviathan, that'll work." As she spoke she began throwing random CDs into Rarity's saddlebag.

While she did that. Rarity slowly inched closer to the shelf and looked around. There were SO MANY names that she didn't recognize. She saw a few of them at the music store, but she didn't so much as give them a passing glance there since she always just went in to get what she wanted and leave as quickly as possible.

"Lets see what else... OOH! Carrion," Pinkie continued to herself as she threw another CD into the bag. Rarity just looked around for a moment until something caught her eye. With her magic, she lifted it off the shelf and brought it down towards her. It was an album she had never seen before. On it was some kind of metal alicorn riding some kind of metal flaming chariot while throwing one of it's hooves into the air. The name of the album was Painstopper and the band that made it was called Nightmare Priest.

"Ooh, nice one Rarity," Pinkie suddenly said as she stuck her muzzle into Rarity's space, which made her freak out a back away a little. Pinkie however, didn't seem to notice that. "If you like Iron Barding then you'll love that one. Those guys are one of the oldies. I mean really one of the oldies. They're even older than Iron Barding I think." Rarity didn't say anything as she floated the CD down into her saddlebag. "If you like that one then you'll probably like this one too." At that, Pinkie pulled another CD off of the shelf and showed it to Rarity. The name of the band was Lavender Communion. "They're one of the oldies too, in fact I think they're one of the first. You'll like them." Then with that she threw the CD into the saddlebag. "Lets see what else. That one's good. So's this. And that. And this one. Ooh, can't forget Ciderstorm. There's nothing quite like them."

Rarity managed to drone out Pinkie's rambling as she looked around the shelf again. She picked one out randomly this time, and again, Pinkie noticed.

"Ooh, Iced Equestria. If you like Iron Barding you're going to LOVE them," Pinkie said to her. Rarity just took her word for it and dropped it in the bag. After that she looked around again. She perused the shelf for a few moments before something else caught her eye and she floated it back down again. "AHA! Here it is!" Pinkie exclaimed right as she pulled something off of the shelf at the same time as Rarity and showed it to her.

Rarity took a moment to look at the cover of the album that Pinkie held in front of her. It was different than all the others. For one it was predominately more blue, and the title was written in more fancy cursive than the more erratic and gory logos she was accustomed to seeing.

"Daywish?" Rarity said, confused.

"Yeah," Pinkie Pie responded. "You still like classical right? Well, these guys do something a little different with it. What they do is take metal, and combine it with classical music to create something AMAZING!!!" Rarity quite honestly did not know what to say to that. She didn't even think such a thing could be done. "It sounds weird I know, but give it a listen. You'll like it." Then at that, Pinkie tossed that one in the bag as well before leaning in close and looking over at what Rarity had. "What'chew'got? Ooh, Discord Factory, also a nice choice, though a lot of ponies compare them to these guys, though I don't know why." At that, Pinkie Pie reached up and pulled another CD off of one of the top shelves and handed it to Rarity, who took it with her magic.

"Strapping Young Stallion?" Rarity read. "What?"

"Eeyup," Pinkie replied, giggling. "They're really brutal, I think you'll like them." Then without waiting for any kind of response, she threw them both in the bag.

"Are they.... actually...." Rarity tried to ask, but Pinkie Pie, as if reading her mind, beat her to the punch.

"Nah, they're not actually fronted by a strapping young stallion," Pinkie said to her. "They're actually fronted by an older stallion who was a backing guitarist for someone else in his early years, but the he got mad at the record companies and the band he was with for some reason so he decided to vent all his anger into really angry music, which is better than doing other things with anger let me tell you." Rarity didn't say anything to that and just went back to looking, as did Pinkie Pie. "Okay, In Iblis, oh Celestia yes. That, that, that too. Candlechoir.... sure why not. Bladefall, eeyup, King Sapphire, VERY YES!!!"

"Thank you, Pinkie," Rarity said as she lifted the now kind of heavy saddlebag onto her and started walking of the of the walk in closet towards the door with Pinkie in tow. "Thank you so much for letting me borrow all of those CDs."

"Oh it's no biggie," Pinkie said, holding a hoof up. "And don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

"Thanks," Rarity said again as she headed towards the door. "Well, I must be heading home now, I still have lots to do."

"Okay," Pinkie said as she suddenly lurched forward and hugged her friend again. "I'll see you later then."

"You too," Rarity replied as she hugged her friend back. "And again, thanks." Pinkie Pie responded by giggling at that.

"No problem," she just said.

Then at that, Rarity walked towards the door and headed out. Right before she was about to open the door though, she stopped and turned back to Pinkie.

"Hey um... can I ask you something?" Rarity asked.

"Sure, what is it?" Pinkie asked in her usual, chipper way as if she had nothing to hide.

"Earlier you said that everyone has guilty pleasures. If you don't mind me asking, what's yours?" Rarity asked as she turned completely around again.

"Oh.... Uh hehehe...." Pinkie Pie responded as she innocently held a hoof up to her mouth and giggled a little bit. "You.... I don't think you'd believe me even if I told you." Rarity couldn't help but smile at that.

"Try me," she responded. Pinkie was silent for a few moments before she said anything.

"All right," she said as she took in a deep breath. "I.................................... I........................... I like healthy foods." The instant she finished that last word, she backed away a bit as a blush lit up her face. Rarity however, just seemed even more confused now than ever before.

"Wait, what?" was all she could say.

"Yeah...." Pinkie said as she rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "I know you all think I only eat candy and cupcakes all the time, and most of the time, yeah, I do, but more often than not, I like to sit down and just enjoy a nice salad." For whatever reason, Rarity couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I know I might not seem like it, but I'm actually kind of health conscious." At that, Pinkie's blush only increased in intensity.

Rarity, for the most part, had SO MANY things that she wanted to say to Pinkie. Things like how something like that shouldn't be a guilty pleasure, and how it was good that she was watching what she ate, and how they she and everypony else would judge her less for that than she was afraid they would her for liking metal, and of course that it was good that she was doing that in the first place. However, the more she thought those things through, the more the events of the day played out in her head again, and the more she though about it, the more she realized that it probably would be best if Pinkie just came out with it in her own time, just like Pinkie had taught her today.

So, Rarity did the only thing she could. She walked over and hugged Pinkie again. Pinkie responded by hugging her back, as she was want to do.

After a moment though, they broke the hug and Rarity headed out again.

"Well, I'll see you later Pinkie," Rarity said as she walked out.

"Bye Rarity!" Pinkie shouted in her usual way as she headed out.

In no time at all, Rarity made her way down the stairs and out of Sugarcube Corner. Despite the fact that she was out in public without her cloak carrying a stuffed as all tartarus bag of metal CDs, for whatever reason she didn't seem to mind. With a newly found smile of pride on her face and a spring in her step, she made her way home. She had a lot of new music to listen too after all.

"DO WHAT YOU WANT CAUSE A PIRATE IS FREE! YOU ARE A PIRATE!" Razor sang along to the new Ciderstorm album he bought earlier today.