Rarity's eyes snapped open. It had all been a dream. Sweetie Belle had not found out about her secret life. She was still an innocent filly, blissfully unaware of who her sister really was...so why was she still screaming?

She looked at her surroundings. She was still standing on the basement stairs, Sweetie Belle was still looking into her basement in horror at what she was seeing. She was still screaming. WHY WOULDN'T SHE STOP SCREAMING!? Rarity wondered whether or not she would ever get the sounds of the screams out of her brain. Rarity closed her eyes, wishing it would all be over.

Rarity's eyes snapped open. It really had all been a dream! Sweetie Belle had not found out about her secret life. She was still just an innocent filly, blissfully unaware of who her sister really was. Then, who was screaming? Sweetie Belle, Sweetie Belle was screaming. No, no it was no dream, this was really happening!

Rarity snapped out of her shock and scooped up her screaming sister. She placed Sweetie Bell on her back and ran up the stairs, slamming the basement door behind her. Thankfully, Sweetie Belle had stopped her screaming when they had gotten out of the basement and was now merely hyperventilating. Rarity ran Sweetie Belle up to her room and placed her into her bed. Sweetie Belle was growing calmer in the safe confines of her bed, away from the nasty world she had just entered.

Rarity kissed Sweetie Belle's shaking head and went back downstairs. Questions plagued her, tormenting her every step. Could she have done more to stop Sweetie Belle from going in that basement? Did she want to stop her? How could things have gone so wrong!? Sweetie Belle was having such a wonderful day. She had just made two new friends who right away meant the world to her. Now mere hours after that, she had seen who Rarity really was. She found out her sister was a...no, they don't have a name for what she is.

Rarity didn't know what else to do aside from get back to work on her latest dress. She liked having something to focus on, something that distracted her from what had just happened.

A few hours went by before anything happened. Rarity was sewing a pattern on her dress when she heard quiet steps coming down the stairs. She snapped out of 'the zone' as she called it in time to hear Sweetie Belle's voice behind her. "Hi sis," she said quietly. Rarity turned around and looked at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and her mane was unkempt. She looked like she hadn't slept in years.

"Oh...hello Sweetie Belle, how...how are you?" The question sounded foolish in her mind, but what else was she going to say?

"I...I don't know," she said. The room was silent before Sweetie Belle spoke up again. "What did I see down there?" she asked.

"Well, I don't know. What did you see down there? Tell me and I'll do my best to explain."

"Well, I saw a table, a lot of what I think was dried blood...uh, pony skins and manes on the wall, something with feathers and uh, hooves maybe?"

"That's about the extent of it really," said Rarity.

"What does it mean?" she asked. "I get the blood, but what was with the skins?"

"Well...if a pony that I...uh, you know, has a hide or a mane that I particularly like then I put them on my wall."

"Oh," said Sweetie Belle.

"What are you thinking right now?" asked Rarity. Sweetie Belle merely shrugged. "That's all, you don't know?"

"Well, I guess I want to see the basement again now that I know what's down there," she said.

"Oh Sweetie Belle, I don't think that is a very good-"

"I practically live here when Mom and Dad are gone, I know how to get in anyway, I'll do it whether you want me to or not!" said Sweetie belle angrily.

"Sweetie Belle, that's not a world that I want you to be a part of! I don't want you seeing that part of me! Please don't go down there!" pleaded Rarity.

"I've already seen it!" said Sweetie Belle. "I just...I don't know, I think I'll feel less scared if I can see it already knowing what's down there."

"Sweetie Belle, that doesn't-"

"I'd rather go down with you," she said. This surprised Rarity.

"Even though you know I caused all of it?" she asked. Sweetie Belle nodded.

"It's just torturing me, not understanding what I saw down there. I need to know," she said. Rarity sighed and nodded. She knew that Sweetie Belle was going to go down there whether she wanted her to or not. She was a smart filly, and she would get down no matter what Rarity did.

"Follow me," she said.

The trip down to the basement was far less eventful than their previous one. Sweetie Belle seemed nervous as they walked down the stairs, but she still had the determination to understand that she had when she had come down here last time. As they walked in to the main room, Sweetie Belle's eyes widened with fear as she got a good look at the carnage inside. "We can leave whenever you want to Sweetie Belle," said Rarity. Sweetie Belle merely nodded.

The next few minutes seemed like an eternity to Rarity as she watched Sweetie Belle explore her dark world. She read her poster, examined the skins and manes on the wall, and she even managed to find her large collection of knives. "Anypony I know here?" she asked blankly.

"That one is Trixie, the boastful unicorn who came to town a while ago. The one with feathers is Gilda, Rainbow Dash's friends." Sweetie Belle nodded. She examined the wall for a few more moments and ran her hoof over a blank spot on the wall.

"Can we put Diamond Tiara's skin here?" she asked. Rarity's eyes widened and she moved Sweetie Belle away from the wall got in between it and her sister.

"NO! I don't kill foals!" she said. Sweetie Belle glared at her.

"But you killed those bullies when you were a filly!" she said sternly.

"Yes I did Sweetie Belle, but I was a filly myself back then. I haven't killed a filly since I was 11 years old and I promised myself I wouldn't do it again!" Sweetie Belle glared at her. Rarity sighed in frustration. "Look Sweetie Belle, I cannot escape my actions. I've killed seventy-three ponies and a griffin, and I can never take those deaths back! You don't have to be like me!" Sweetie Belle's ears flattened.

"But...but I've always wanted to be like you," she said sadly. "I was always proud to have you as my big sister."

"Something I never deserved, then or now," said Rarity.

"What do you want me to do now?" she asked.

"I want you to go back upstairs and do your best to...to forget that this ever happened. Push the angry feelings out of your mind and don't be like me," said Rarity bluntly. Sweetie Belle looked up at Rarity angrily, tears forming in her eyes.

"You know I can't ever forget this! Let me help you once or I'll tell!" Now it was Rarity's turn to be angry.

"You Pinkie Promised Sweetie Belle! Do you know what happens to ponies that break Pinkie Promises?" she said angrily.

"What? What do you do?" asked Sweetie Belle, her anger rising with Rarity's. Without thinking, Rarity pointed at one of the hides on the wall. Sweetie Belle's anger faded away and she shrank back.

"If I tell, you'll do that to me?" she asked quietly. Rarity immediately regretted her action.

"No! Sweetie Belle, if you told the entire kingdom of Equestria what I do down here, I still wouldn't hurt you at all! I made a promise to never hurt you and that promise remains!" she said. This seemed to mollify Sweetie Belle slightly and she seemed to relax a bit more.

"Well, then what now? I'm not forgetting that this happened. That's impossible for me to do. I can never look at you the same way now!" she said. "I have angry feelings too you know! I've imagined myself standing over Diamond Tiara with her ripped out heart in my hooves! I can help you do this!" she said desperately.

"There is a huge difference between imagining it and actually doing it Sweetie Belle," said Rarity. "Everypony has imagined what it would be like to hurt another pony, but the actual action is something far different. You would never be the same."

"You seem to do okay for yourself!" said Sweetie Belle. "Do you ever regret what you do?" No, she most certainly did not.

"Yes, I most certainly do!" she said. "I wish that I could go back to the day when I first killed those bullies and stop myself from ever killing them, even the one I killed on accident and in self-defense." Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow.

"On accident and in self-defense?" she said.

"Yes, they were coming towards me to beat me up and I hit the leader on the head with a rock," she said, walking over to her workbench. "This rock as a matter of fact." Sweetie Belle took the rock from Rarity's hooves. She examined it for a few seconds before handing it back to Rarity.

"Can I watch the next time you do it at least?" she asked.

"No. I don't want you to be part of this," she said. "Please trust me on this. Please never hurt anypony. Take solace in the fact that you have good friends. I didn't have friends like you do now back when I was your age. I was too busy with...this." Sweetie Belle nodded. She began walking back towards the stairs.

"I understand sis." she said. She walked up a few more steps before she turned back to Rarity. "I don't hate you for this. I don't blame you and I am not disgusted by it."

"That's more than I deserve Sweetie Belle. I deserve death for this." Sweetie Belle merely shrugged and walked back up the stairs.

Rarity put the rock back in its proper spot and closed the top of her workbench. She then sat down, put her face in her forelegs and cried.