Once again Daring was in the buff on the pedestal in Carousel Boutique, this time she more comfortable with her figure. Rarity was somewhere between annoyed and impressed as she took Daring’s new measurements. After taking all Daring's measurements down, while muttering about dramatic body shifts being only something only changelings should be capable of, Rarity asked her usual question about what her customer wanted concerning aesthetics, Daring’s answer gave her more than a little pause.

“I’m going to need three different sets of attire,” said Daring, already making the fashionista uneasy and excited at the same time, “casual, formal, and ceremonial. Since it would be too much of a hassle to for the attire to be concealing the Formal and Casual attire will have to be strategically revealing, with the formal attire being more appropriate for high society functions.”
“Very reasonable,” said Rarity, “and the casual attire will be a bit more free in what is revealing, seeing as you want to show off as much of figure as possible.”

“A correct association,” said Daring, “feel free to put my mark on the casual attire anywhere you deem appropriate, but the formal and ceremonial attire will require Zelshirska’s mark to be placed on them, I am technically the new face of the faith.”

“Also understandable,” said Rarity, “what about the ceremonial attire?” It was at this point her daughter had returned home and entered the workroom to see how she could assist her mother, which meant there was no way for her little angel to unhear what Daring said next.

“It’s going to need to be extra revealing, likely bordering on a fetishwear motif.”

“I don’t know what kind of ceremonies you’re going to be doing, but they’ll definitely draw a crowd,” said Rarity’s daughter, “I might even consider joining up.”

“You’re definitely not old enough for even seeing those sorts of ceremonies, let alone participating in any,” said Rarity in chastising tone to her daughter. “Ms. Do made an agreement with an ancient dragon deity, and I think her agreement opened her up for being a bit more scandalous than anticipated.”

“Well,” said Daring, “considering she is a fertility deity, ceremonial attire that shows off the female figure while enticing males is well within the purview of her clergy.”

“But to shamelessly objectify your own body,” said Rarity, “willingly, is going a bit too far.”

“Well,” said Daring, “that’s not quite accurate, it only seems that way because of the cultural expectations and norms you’ve been raised with. The ceremonial attire follows different sort of societal expectations; it also has more to do with the fact many of the more notable ceremonies could potentially involve sexual orgies, clothing is just an accessory at that point. The less likely the ceremonial garb is to be ruined during that time the better. Although, I anticipate very few will be wearing anything at all by that time.”

Rarity and her daughter both went scarlet at the thought, “You would shamelessly do that sort of thing in the middle of town?” Rarity said with indignation.

“Well, not any of the currently established communities,” said Daring, “it would be more reasonable, practical, and convenient to have an entire town built around the faith. I’m sure Spike is laying out the groundwork and hammering out the starting details with the princesses now.”

“I’m not sure they would go for a town where public indecency is the norm.”

“It’s all a matter of what you believe is socially acceptable,” said Daring, “I found myself in the buff quite often on my adventures.”

“Yes,” said Rarity, “most of which time was spent away from an established populace.”

“Details,” said Daring, “minor details. I say that because I did find some communities out in the wilds where clothes really were considered barely more than an accessory, in fact, the ponies I got directions to the temple from the first time were a bit like that. Establishing a community around such things would allow for a means of observation for those interested in study and chance at experience for those interested in practicing. We’re going to have to find a good place for it though, hence why Spike is likely starting the discussion.”

“I can’t believe somepony asked mom to effectively make them a large order of fetish attire,” said Aubretia, “I’m not going to let her live it down anytime soon.”

Rarity just groaned, in a less than ladylike fashion, and just went to work on the designs, the sooner she got this out of the way the sooner she could make a go at putting it behind her. She then remembered a part of their conversation, “Just what is Zelshirka’s mark?”

Daring didn’t even have to think about it, mostly because it was practically stamped into her mind the moment she became a priestess, “A pair of intertwined dragon tails that have their spaces between make a heart formation and what looks like a rolled up scroll at the point where their tips part ways. The tails are coming in an upward direction.”

“Oh, thank you,” said Rarity, “we can do a lot with this sigil,” after making a legible sketch of the mark in question she passed off to her daughter, who showed great delight in being given the responsibility of handling something so important. “But seriously, you want your ceremonial attire to look like fetishwear? That seems a bit,” Rarity paused for a few seconds, looking for the right tactful word, “ostentatious.”

“It’s actually more of a template for the ceremonial attire. The ceremonial attire is meant to display the female figure in a way that is open and empowering while fully displaying the glory of physical form itself. So yes, having my bosom hanging free for all to see is probably a bit more risque than one might expect but it’s mostly for sermons, ceremonies, and religious events. Those religious events and ceremonies are mostly lost to time, so we’ll be doing our best to create new ones in the spirit of the faith if we can’t find any that we can somehow recreate.”

“I’m just worried about the kinds of ponies you’ll have running around in a place like that, given your admission that the attire will usually lean towards revealing.”

“There might even be cases where attire is omitted entirely by some residents. As I said, one of the tenants that is to be expressed is comfort in one’s own body.” Daring tactically decide to omit that she was going to have a rule that only those who were of the priestesses would be the only ones permitted to wear attire, and remarkably revealing at that, during sermons and religious events. In other words, churchgoers would be required to attend services without any clothes.

Author's Notes:

I thought this would be a good idea to help things up a bit while also showing how cultural expectations can influence our decisions. Daring and Rarity play off each other quite well. Daring had to develop a more pragmatic approach to clothing, so her nearly casual disregard for cultural norms and expectations is fun to write. Rarity’s fashion based ideology just works well as a juxtaposition, especially since she’s used to Applejack’s brand of pragmatism.