Disclaimer: those are not hickeys, they are bruises. I can’t draw bruise marks to save. my. life.
 

 
Rarity was just about to open the shop door when it suddenly swung out into her face, barely grazing her muzzle. Before she had time to process what just happened, Sonata came trotting out, nearly running over her mother.
 
“Ooff- oh…sorry Mom, I didn’t see you there.” Sonata apologized, quickly backing away from Rarity.
 
“Oh, it’s quite alright, deary. Just watch where you’re going next time,” she said, getting up and brushing her self off. Rarity looked up just in time to see Sonata start to prance off wearing a fusha purple scarf.
 
“Uh, wait for just a minute Sonata. Why are you wearing a scarf out? It’s the middle of summer?” she called out.
 
Sonata stopped hesitantly and replied casually, “Oh, well, I just happen to overhear today that it might get a little chilly. Better safe than sorry, right?”
 
“Right…” Rarity trailed off. Something at the back of her mind nagged at her.
 
Sonata turned to leave, saying, “Well, I best be off. See ya.”
 
Then it clicked. “Sonata, wait! Since when did you own a scarf? That’s not one of my ‘Go Bold’ Fashion line scarfs, is it?”
 
Before Sonata could react, she felt her mothers wrap around the scarf and unwrap it from around her neck. Rarity expected to see the tag, but instead, found something much worse.
 
“SONATA GLAZED!!!” Rarity let out an unholy shriek.
 
Sonata looked from her screaming mom to the tattle-tale bruises and knew the jig was up. “Um, I can explain?” she tried in vain.
 
Rarity wiped the look of horror on her face with one of righteous indignation. “There’s no need to. There’s only one place you could have gotten these scars, and that’s fighting with those…those….hooligans!”
 
“Mom….there’s ponies watching us,” Sonata said under her breath, looking around nervously. She hoped to appeal to her mother’s reputation as a way of escape from this. Once again, her trick backfired.
 
“Great! Maybe it will give you a sense of the shame you’ve brought on this family! Now take a good, long look at them, because you won’t be leaving this house anytime soon.” So saying, she pulled on Sonata’s ear with her magic as she began trotting back inside the building.
 
“Mom, you can’t ground me forever, you know,” Sonata mumbled, walking ahead of her mother, now that he ear was free.
 
“No, but maybe long enough to talk some sense into you! Now get upstairs and soak those bruises in Witch Hazel- and don’t come down until you’re ready to have a reasonable talk about this,” Rarity shouted, as she watched her daughter slowly climb the stairway, resentment reeking off of her.
 
Once Sonata was well out of sight, Rarity hung her head and let out a long, heavy sigh. She felt old and croney. Maybe that’s all she was to Sonata. Just a fussy, strict, old crone. Either way, it did nothing to help understand Sonata’s behavior. Perhaps…….perhaps, she had failed as a mother? The thought was like a stake through her heart, and Rarity quickly pushed the thought from her mind.
 
She looked at the stairs again, half-hoping to hear the sound of her sweet little filly calling her mother to come look at her latest ‘masterpiece’, or to help her get her dress on.  
Instead, all was quiet. Like a ghost town.
 
Rarity sighed again, muttering under her breath pathetically, “Oh….what am I supposed to do?”
 
 

 
You’re supposed to give your daughter martial arts lessons, that’s what.
 
This is an idea that I’ve mauled over for quite a while and even considered going with as I was creating Sonata. At the time, I felt it was a little extreme for Sonata’s character and I thought, with all the tension these two already have, that adding this angsty-ness would be an over-kill. However, it’s always been a ‘what if’ in the back of my mind, and when tpalacios17 brought up the idea, I couldn’t resist giving it a poke.
 
You should know, before reading on, that this scenario remains uncanon at this time. That being said, please enjoy this canon-free angst:
 
 
When Sonata became interested into wrestling and fighting sports, Rarity, instead of giving her daughter a more healthy outlet like a self-defense, martial arts class, decide to suppress her daughter’s urges with strict lecturing and condemnation should Sonata do any of these things. This did not stop Sonata, however, from pursuing her desires. So it was that during high school that Sonata went through a ‘back-street’ fighting phase. Even a high society place like Canterlot is bound to have a couple of scumbags willing to start a fight for money. No one knows how Sonata got wrapped up in this pretty risky game, all they know is that one day she was getting fit as a bodybuilder, leaving the house at 2 a.m., and coming back with all sorts of cuts and bruises.
 
Doughnut Joe wasn’t too pleased to see her daughter getting injured and begged her to stop before it got too far. But when Sonata said she wouldn’t, Joe resigned himself to helping his daughter her train her self to be stronger. If she was going to fight, win or lose, he might as well help her to win and decrease her chances of death. Rarity on the other hoof was appalled and didn’t quite know how to react. She went from being consumed with flames of furry to begging and wailing on her knees for Sonata to stop. This worked for a little while, but as soon Rarity would think she was done for good, Sonata was sneaking out again. As a result, Rarity became estranged from her daughter and their already strained relationship is now hanging by a thread.
 
The whole situation is a bomb just waiting to blow up in their faces, only Celestia knows when. It’s just a matter of time.