Rarity's Secret Shame

by Alabenson

Searching for Evidence

“Ah just can’t believe it,” Applejack said as Twilight finished relaying what she had heard. “Of all the ponies Ah know to have done somethin’ like that…y’ think y’ know somepony.”

“I just wanna know who the hay this ‘Hidden Desire’ pony is and why Rarity went to talk to her and not us?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, fer one thing, this seems like a mighty touchy subject fer Rarity, and y’all ain’t exactly the most mature pony there is when it comes to this sort of thing,” Applejack said.

“Hey, I can be plenty mature about this stuff when its important,” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“Says the pony who spent ten minutes laughin’ her behind off when Twilight mentioned the wall of peckers,” Applejack said. For the next several seconds, Rainbow Dash desperately strained to keep a straight face at this, only to inevitably fail and collapse into a fit of helpless giggling.

“Look, I realize that what Twilight overheard sounds really, really bad, but maybe we’re all jumping to conclusions just a little bit quickly?” Starlight Glimmer said. “I mean, we don’t really know the details as to what Rarity was actually talking about. Maybe it really was something that was just embarrassing and not, you know, actual porn.”

“Starlight, Rarity said she prostituted herself in something called High Class Harlots, there aren’t too many ways to interpret that!” Twilight said.

“One, I once knew an artist pony who said she ‘prostituted herself’ by painting some really cheesy portrait on commission for some rich noblepony, so maybe Rarity was talking about something like that and not…the other thing,” Starlight countered. “Two, how do you know for sure that High Class Harlots is actually a porn and not, I don’t know, a play with a really off-color title?”

“Some off-Bridleway shows really do have titles like that,” Fluttershy added, eager to leap upon any theory that didn’t involve her friend secretly being a pornstar.

“Okay, I can see your point that there may be an alternate explanation and that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. But, if that’s the case then how do we figure out the truth of the matter, it’s not like we can just go up to Rarity and ask her,” Twilight said before turning to look meaningfully at Appejack. “Can we?”

Applejack thought for a moment before letting out a deep sigh. “Ah get that normally Ah’d be the one suggestin’ we just talk to Rarity straight off, but in this case even Ah don’t think it’d do any good. There just ain’t no way in Tartarus that Rarity’d ever admit to…doin’ what we think she might’ve been doin’, even if it meant lyin’ to our faces about it. And heck, Ah couldn’t even blame her if she did, Ah don’t even think Ah’d admit to somethin’ like that if Ah thought Ah could avoid it.”

“Well, I think our first step would be to confirm what exactly High Class Harlots is,” Starlight said. “Once we’ve done that we can go from there to figure out just how Rarity was involved with it, and after that…well, I guess we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Twilight, you should focus on the play idea, look up independent plays that were running around the time Rarity opened her boutique.”

“Right, and what about you?” Twilight asked.

“I’m going to try and look into whether it really was a porn. I’m really hoping that isn’t the case, but we can’t ignore the possibility either,” Starlight said.

“Ah don’t mean to pry or nothin’, but just how the hay do y’all plan on figurin’ that out, anyway?” Applejack asked.

Starlight grimaced at the question. “I think I might know somecreature who could help.”

*********

“You wanted to see me, Counselor Starlight?” Gallus said as he poked his head into Starlight’s office.

“Gallus, great, come in. There’s something that I need to talk to you about,” Starlight said trying to keep her voice as cheerful and nonthreatening at possible as she magically closed the door behind Gallus.

“Look, if this is about the goo powder in the fountain, I already told Headmare Twilight that I turned in all of that stuff to Professor Pinkie Pie after the Hearth’s Warming Eve thing,” Gallus quickly said.

“What? No, this doesn’t have anything to do with that,” Starlight replied. “Though this may involve certain disciplinary measures. You see, somepony, or somecreature, has been smuggling pornography into the school and selling it to the students for some time now,” Starlight said as she levitated a folder several inches thick onto her desk. “And not just run-of-the-mill smut either, some of the confiscated publications have been rather…exotic. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as yak porn.”

“Neither did I, but Sandbar’s a friend of mine, so I’m not gonna judge him,” Gallus said reflexively before a look of panic flashed across his face. “I mean –”

“Gallus, I already knew it was you, several of the students who had material confiscated from them confessed to buying it from you. And for what it’s worth, I didn’t call you in here for punishment,” Starlight added.

“You didn’t?” Gallus asked with a mixture of relief and confusion.

“No, honestly I don’t really think this sort of thing by itself is really worth getting into discipline over. You’re at the age where this sort of interest is natural, and to be frank we’ve been talking about adding sexual education classes to the curriculum for a while now.” Granted, part of the reason such classes had yet to be instituted was that none of the current faculty members were willing to teach them, but Starlight elected to leave that detail out. “The reason I called you in today is that I’ve recently encountered a somewhat unusual friendship problem and I think your expertise might be helpful in solving it.”

“Wait, are you saying that there are friendship problems that you can solve with porn?” Gallus asked incredulously. “Why the heck don’t they ever teach the really interesting stuff in class?”

“Like I said, it’s a rather unusual problem. In any event, before we begin, I need you to promise me that nothing that we discuss will leave this office,” Starlight said. “It’s absolutely crucial that this is kept strictly confidential.”

“Yeah, I promise. I’ll even do the think Professor Pinkie does,” Gallus said before clearing his throat. “Let’s see, I think it goes ‘cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye’. There, satisfied?”

“I am, though I’d be careful about making too many Pinkie Promises,” Starlight cautioned. “Pinkie Pie takes those things really seriously, and she can tell if somecreature’s broken one. We have no idea how she knows, but somehow she just does.”

“Do you guys really have any idea how Professor Pinkie does anything?” Gallus asked.

“Fair point. Anyway, back to the matter at hoof, I’m trying to look into something and I’m not even entirely sure if its porn or not, right now I just have a title to go by. Have you ever heard of something called High Class Harlots?”

Gallus raised an eyebrow at his counselor’s question. “Sorry, but that’s not one that I’ve ever heard of, but then again I don’t really get involved with stag reels. You know, movies,” Gallus clarified, seeing Starlight’s confused expression. “There isn’t any demand for them around here, since you’d need to get a projector and find someplace private to watch it.”

“I understand that, but if you’ve never heard of it then how do you know that it’s a movie and not something else?” Starlight asked.

“The name’s a dead giveaway,” Gallus replied. “With a title like that it would either be a movie or a magazine, and if it were a magazine then I’d have definitely heard of it. I can think of at least a half-dozen guys who’d be all over something like that.”

“That’s really more than I needed to know,” Starlight said. “So, do you have any idea how I’d find out more about it then?”

“Yeah, actually I do. What you’re gonna want to do is talk to my supplier,

Comments

[Mpony1]

Luv it, more please

[Iron Comet]

The best part? I hope the supplier is a Pony no one would expect to be doing this. Some pony no one would be doing this on the side.

[zx29b]

For all this scheming to discover something that Rarity has plainly said that she does not want them to know about, it is a wonder that none of them has said, "hey, do you think maybe this is none of our damn business?" Also, Spike is the only person in town that we know of who has a reel-to-reel. No doubt that will be a plot point later.

[Shrinky Frod]

10250826
Considering that it sounds like she's being blackmailed on some level... It kind of goes outside of her wishes, since quite frankly, there's a huge amount of other stuff that gets involved there.

Though I suspect it is porn, but she just did costumes or such, something that would seem less serious but ties directly into her business.