"Rarity!"
"Sweetie Belle!"
"Get her downstairs," said one of the guards arresting Rarity. Rarity was dragged away, still reaching for Sweetie Belle.
"Get away from her!" said Sweetie Belle as she jumped out of bed. "She didn't do anything wrong!"
A guard shot a shield spell at Sweetie Belle, trapping her in a light blue bubble. She desperately pounded on it, trying to protect her sister.
Rarity was dragged downstairs and placed on the ground in front of Shining Armor who was looking at the whole scene grimly. Rarity saw that Sweetie Belle was taken downstairs too, still encased in the shield. Rarity looked up at Shining Armor with fear in her eyes.
"Don't hurt my sister," she said desperately.
"We won't hurt her, but I can't promise you that we won't take her with us. How much does she know?" said Shining Armor. Rarity looked around frantically as guards continued to search her house.
"Nothing!" said Rarity. "She doesn't know anything about today!"
"Rarity, what's going on?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Your sister just attacked a Minotaur named Iron Will. She fatally stabbed him in the chest with a large knife," said Shining Armor.
The thought briefly crossed Rarity's mind to deny the charge but she knew that it was no use.
"Rarity," said Sweetie Belle. "Did you really?" Tears began falling from Rarity's eyes as she slowly nodded. Sweetie Belle gave a small whimper.
"Don't kill her," she said pathetically.
"Well we don't have all of the details of the case yet," said Shining Armor who wanted to be doing this just as much as Rarity and Sweetie Belle did. "We-"
"Sir we think we've found something," said a guard. Shining Armor turned around and saw that two guards were inside Rarity's storage closet, looking at what was theoretically a blank wall.
"What is it?" asked Shining Armor.
"We knocked on it and it's hollow. There's something on the other side." said the other guard. Shining Armor nodded at them and one of them fired up his horn and disintegrated the wall. Rarity's eyes widened. It was definitely all over now. The two guards tentatively walked down the stairs.
The whole room was silent as everypony listened to the two guards walking down the stairs, each hoofstep getting quieter. Rarity's heart was skipping beats right and left and she didn't even know if she was breathing anymore. She looked over at Sweetie Belle who was looking at Shining Armor fearfully.
Suddenly, everypony heard a loud shriek and the two ran up the stairs quickly.
"What? What's down there?" asked Shining Armor. One of the guards was actually crying at what he had seen. He was sitting down and looking at the ground, tears of horror falling from his eyes. The other guard was rubbing his shoulder, trying to get him to calm down. "Would somepony please tell me what's going on!?" said Shining Armor. The second guard took a deep breath before responding.
"I...I've never seen anything like it. I think she's a serial killer!"
Shining Armor's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
"WHAT!?"
"There were pony skins hanging on the wall as well as manes, hooves, and we even saw to cut off faces hanging on the wall," said the first guard. Shining Armor looked at the basement and resolutely trotted down the stairs, followed by three other guards. Rarity didn't know what to do! The brother of her best friend, the captain of the royal guard, was mere seconds away from seeing for himself what Rarity was. She looked at the two who had seen it first. The first one seemed to be calming down a bit more while the second still tried to calm him down, but he was obviously extremely shaken himself.
After a few minutes, Rarity heard Shining Armor come upstairs. He walked back into the main room with a look of sheer terror on his face.
"Sir...are you okay?" said one of the guards.
"No," he said. "I'm pretty bucking far from okay."
"Is it that bad down there?" another asked.
"Worse," responded one of the guards who had gone down with him. Shining Armor nodded before turning back to Rarity.
"You are both under arrest for this," he said shakily. Rarity's eyes widened as Sweetie Belle began crying again.
"No!" said Rarity desperately. "She didn't do anything! She's innocent!" Shining Armor looked contemptuously at Rarity.
"I can't know that for sure," he said. "Twilight has told me that she lives here and if you've been doing that, I can't know that she doesn't know anything." Rarity looked desperately at Sweetie Belle who had been taken out of the shield and was now having hoofcuffs put on her.
"Please don't!" she said. "Are those really needed!?"
"Rarity," said Shining Armor, causing Rarity to turn her head back to him. "Does Twilight know about this?" Rarity paused for a second before shaking her head profusely. Unfortunately, Shining Armor picked up on the pause and Rarity saw tears forming in his eyes. He turned to his second-in-command and opened his mouth to say something before he shut it again.
"Sir?" said the guard uneasily. Shining Armor began blinking very fast but he regained his composure.
"I want," he said before his voice cracked. "I want you to place my sister...and her friend under arrest under suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder."
"All five of them?" asked the guard incredulously. Shining Armor nodded.
"Please!" said Rarity hysterically. "They didn't have anything to do with this!"
"I. Can't. Know. That!" said Shining Armor angrily. "Do you think that this doesn't tear me apart inside, murderer!?" Rarity tried to stutter out an answer but she was cut off by the furious unicorn. "My duties come before even my family and if I have good reason to believe that Twilight is mixed up in all of this then it is my duty to arrest her!"
"But she didn't-"
"I have to arrest the other four too because of how close you all are! If Twilight knew then I can't guarantee that the other four didn't know anything!"
"But they don't!" said Rarity. Shining Armor shook his head in disgust.
"Get her out of my sight," he said bitterly. "And get a team down here to go over the basement."
Four guards led Rarity and Sweetie Belle outside the boutique. A small crowd had gathered when they heard the commotion and they all gasped when they saw Sweetie Belle and Rarity being led away and placed in a police wagon. Rarity heard the crowd chattering amongst themselves. She scanned the crowd, hoping to pick up on some familiar faces so she could see them one last time.
She and Sweetie Belle were shoved inside the wagon and the door was slammed shut behind them. Rarity heard the guards talking to each other.
"We gotta go pick up the other five before we go back," said one.
"Are they all gonna fit in there?" asked another.
"I think so," said the first one. "But if not, who cares?"
"But one of them is the captain's sister!" said a third as the wagon pulled away.
"Well, my hooves are tied," said the first one. "If they go quietly then we'll have no problems."
Rarity stopped listening and turned her attention to her sister who was huddled in a corner, shaking violently.
"Sweetie Belle," said Rarity quietly. "Sweetie Belle can you hear me?" Sweetie Belle nodded slightly.
"Why did you keep that stuff down there?" she asked. "Why didn't you get rid of it?"
"Sweetie Belle," said Rarity quietly. "Remember when I said that my friends cleansed me with the Elements?" Sweetie Belle nodded. "Well, it didn't work."
Sweetie Belle looked up at Rarity.
"You mean...you've still been killing all this time?" Rarity nodded. Sweetie Belle gave a small whimper and tried to shrink down as small as she could. Rarity placed a hoof on her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry Sweetie Belle," said Rarity. "I'm so sorry."
Rarity looked up and noticed that the carriage had stopped. She looked through the bars and saw Sugar Cube Corner in front of the wagon. Rarity's eyes filled with tears once more.
"Not Pinkie Pie," she said pathetically.
She saw four guards knock on the door of the confectionery which prompted a very tired looking Mr. Cake to open the door. his eyes widened when he saw both the guards and the police wagon outside. Rarity strained her ears and found that they were close enough to hear everything.
"Uh, good evening officers, what can I do for you?" he asked nervously.
"We have an arrest warrant for one 'Pinkie Pie', we've come to arrest her on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. Mr. Cake gasped and Rarity vaguely heard Mrs. Cake ask what the problem was. She saw Mr. Cake motion for his wife to stand back before turning towards the guards again.
"Look officers, there must be some kind of mistake!" he said. "Pinkie Pie wouldn't harm a fly!"
"Is she here?" asked one of the guards.
"Well-"
"What's going on?" said a distinct high-pitched voice that undoubtedly came from Pinkie Pie. "The twins are trying to get their rest and all of this banging is...oh..." Rarity's heart sank when she heard Pinkie Pie abruptly stop talking.
"Are you Pinkie Pie?" asked one of the guards.
"Y...yeah," said Pinkie nervously. The guards nodded and shoved Mr. Cake aside.
"Pinkie Pie, you are under arrest under suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder," said one of the guards.
"I'm telling you, there has to be a mistake!"
Rarity's heart broke as she heard Pinkie Pie whimper in fear as hoofcuffs were placed on her forelegs. In a few seconds, Rarity saw Pinkie Pie being led out of Sugar Cube Corner with a look of utter confusion and terror on her face. The Cakes looked on fearfully as Pinkie Pie was placed into the police wagon.
When Pinkie Pie saw that Rarity and Sweetie Belle were in the wagon too, she completely lost all control. She wrapped her forelegs, as best as she could, around Rarity and began violently sobbing into her shoulder.
"Rarity," said Pinkie Pie. "What's going on!? Why are they doing this? They said that I might be a murderer, I've never hurt anypony in my entire life!" Rarity didn't know how to calm down her sad pink friend so instead, she just opted for stroking her mane as the wagon moved on to its next destination.
Pinkie continued crying throughout the entire ride before the wagon stopped once again. Rarity's heart skipped a beat when she realized that they were in front of the library. The guards knocked on the door once more.
Rarity saw a sleepy Twilight open it and once again Rarity had to watch as one of her friends was arrested and put into the wagon.
When Twilight was put into the wagon, she saw a sobbing Pinkie Pie holding a frightened Rarity with Sweetie Belle silent in the corner.
"Rarity," said Twilight worriedly as she tried to move closer to the two, something made more difficult by the hoofcuffs. "What is going on!? Why are we all being arrested?"
"They know about me Twilight," said Rarity simply. Twilight's eyes widened and she shook her head.
"No, no this isn't happening! We cleansed you with the Elements; there is no way that they could have found out!"
"And yet, here we are," said Sweetie Belle bitterly. It hurt Rarity to the very core to hear Sweetie Belle talk like that but she also knew full well that she deserved every hateful word that would be slung at her for the remainder of her short life.
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The wagon moved slowly towards Canterlot in the dead of night, its occupants as silent as the night itself.
The seven ponies all sat silently in the carriage, pondering what was going to happen next. Each of the ponies had hoofcuffs on, something that Rarity found inexcusable but she was not in a position to argue it, and was looking contemplative.
Applejack's arrest had been as simple as Twilight's. The guards had knocked and they arrested her as soon as she answered. She looked confused when she saw Sweetie Belle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight had been arrested too.
Fluttershy's tears hadn't stopped since her arrest, which came directly after Applejack's and even the efforts of Angel and some of the other woodland creatures hadn't deterred the guards from arresting Fluttershy.
Since Rainbow Dash lived in the sky, Rarity and the others hadn't seen her arrest, they only saw Rainbow flying towards the wagon, flanked by two guards. Immediately after that they had all been sent to Canterlot.
At the moment, Sweetie Belle was still curled up in the corner while Twilight did her best to comfort her. Pinkie Pie was still holding on to Rarity but her tears had stopped for now. Rainbow Dash was trying to comfort a sobbing Fluttershy while Applejack simply stared out the window, waiting for their arrival.
Rarity wondered if she should say something, but what would she say? She had just gotten her best friends and her sister arrested for crimes that she herself had committed. They were all innocent in this!
All of them except Sweetie Belle.
Rarity's eyes widened as she remembered that fateful day in the basement with Scarlet Tomato. Rarity hadn't been the one to kill Scarlet Tomato that day. No, it was Sweetie Belle who had done that. if the guards found out then Sweetie Belle would be executed just as surely as Rarity was about to be! Even though Twilight has erased the memory of her actually committing the deed, she still remembered being down in the basement while Rarity mutilated Scarlet Tomato.
That meant life in prison if the guards ever found out.
Rarity reached over and poked Twilight. Twilight looked up, worry etched across every line in her face. Rarity leaned in and she was glad to see that Sweetie Belle had actually fallen asleep.
"Twilight," said Rarity in a voice barely above a whisper. "What did you do in terms of a memory spell with Sweetie Belle?" Twilight took a deep breath before answering.
"I...I cleared her memory of her doing anything. She just remembers being down there, that's all."
"So she'll only get life in prison if they find out about that," said Rarity. A tear rolled down Twilight's face and she nodded.
"I promise to make sure that they don't," she said quietly.
Rarity leaned back and looked down at Pinkie Pie who had also thankfully fallen asleep. She sighed and decided to try to get some sleep herself...somehow.
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She awoke after what she surmised was a few hours to discover that they had arrived in Canterlot. She saw through her window that a bunch of Canterlot ponies were looking confusedly at the police wagon that was being pulled towards the royal guard headquarters.
She looked around to see that the others had fallen asleep as well. Good, they would need their rest if they were to deal with what was to come.
After 20 more minutes, the wagon screeched to a halt in front of the headquarters. The sudden movement woke the other six ponies up and they groggily sat up.
The door opened to reveal a dozen guards motioning for them to exit the wagon.
One by one, the seven ponies filed out of the wagon and were led inside the headquarters.
They were directed towards a room that turned out to be an interrogation room of some sort. There were nine chairs and a large table in the room, meaning that it was kind of cramped, and each of the ponies sat down at one. The guards left them alone in the room.
The group sat in silence for only a moment before Rainbow Dash spoke up.
"Okay, does anypony here know what is going on? Why are we all being charged with conspiracy to murder!? Who are we supposed to have supposedly murdered again!?" Rarity wanted to respond with the truth but she just didn't know how to at the moment. It didn't matter, she could find out soon enough anyway.
"I don't know!" said Fluttershy. "I can't see how they would think that any of us would be capable of something so horrid!"
"I've never hurt anypony," said Pinkie Pie sadly. "What did I do to deserve this?"
"Pinkie Pie," said Rarity softly. "You didn't do anything. I know for a fact that you will be released and that it'll just turn out to be a big misunderstanding. Pinkie Pie nodded.
"I know you're right," she said. "But this is really scary!"
"I know this must be hard for you all," said a powerful, yet serene, voice that could only have come from one pony in all of Equestria.
The seven ponies looked up to see none other than Princess Celestia walk into the room, followed by a trio of ponies in suits.
"Princess Celestia!" said Twilight. "What's going on?" Celestia stared silently at the group for a moment before she turned to the ponies in suits.
"Based on their actions thus far, I am confident that Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash know absolutely nothing about what is going on. I order you to release them."
Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow all breathed a huge sigh of relief as the ponies took off their cuffs and led them out of the room. They stopped briefly to look at the other four ponies.
"Why aren't they being freed?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Because I believe that the four of them know exactly why they are here," said Celestia.
"Applejack didn't do anything either," said Twilight.
"But she does know why you are all here, yes?" said Celestia.
"I...I think I do know what's goin' on," said Applejack quietly.
"But she didn't do anything wrong!" said Twilight desperately. "She only found out after the fact, when she was too late to do anything about it!"
"Nevertheless, she should have told me once she found out. She should have-"
"What would you have done in her position!?" said Twilight angrily. Princess Celestia looked angrily at Twilight before she gave a frustrated sigh.
"Release Applejack too. The other three are going to stay here."
Applejack rushed over to join her friends as the four ponies were led out of the room.
Princess Celestia used her magic to remove a few of the chairs before her and the three ponies she was with each took a seat across from Twilight, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle. She focused her attention on Rarity first.
"So, you're a serial killer," she said. Rarity nodded quietly. "Why?"
Rarity looked up at Celestia and met her gaze.
"What do you want me to say?" she asked. "Does it really matter why? We all know that I'm guilty and we all know what that means."
Celestia looked contemplatively at Rarity before turning to Twilight.
"I take it this is the reason that you needed the Elements of Harmony that night?" said Celestia. Twilight nodded.
"Princess Luna thought that it might work if we used the Elements to cleanse her of her need to kill." Celestia looked angry now.
"So you thought that if she was cleansed then it wouldn't matter that she had been a serial killer!?" she said angrily. "Why in Equestria did you think that it would even work!?"
"It did work for a time!" said Rarity. Celestia turned her gaze to her.
"It did?" she said.
"Yes," said Rarity with a nod. "I went almost two years without...well...you know."
"But who wielded your Element?" asked Celestia.
"Luna did," said Twilight. Celestia sighed and looked at Twilight sadly.
"Even then Luna did not have the control over the Elements that she thought she did. Her hold on them was so weak that I'm surprised that they worked at all."
"But it did work!" said Rarity. "I immediately felt like I didn't have to kill anymore!"
"It was the Placebo Effect," said Celestia simply. "Nothing more. You believed that you had been cured and so you were for a short while."
"Please don't blame Luna, blame me!" said Twilight. "She was just trying to return the favor of freeing her from Nightmare Moon!"
"I don't see that as an excuse," said Celestia. "I see that as a betrayal. She should have told me!"
"What would you have done in our position!?" said Twilight angrily. "Rarity is like my sister, would you have willingly let your sister be killed for her crimes!?"
"I did have to make that choice," said Celestia.
"And you couldn't bring yourself to kill her!" said Twilight. "You merely banished her to the moon. Well, we didn't want to kill her either so we tried to cleanse her with the Elements!" Celestia looked sadly at Twilight. "In our own way, we did exactly what you did for exactly the same reason: we couldn't just let her be killed so we put all of our cards on the Elements of Harmony."
Celestia sighed and Rarity was surprised to see a tear fall from her eyes. Celestia used her magic to take off Twilight's hoofcuffs before she looked at Sweetie Belle.
"What is her role in all of this?" she asked.
"For all intents and purposes, the same as mine. She found out about it but she couldn't bear to let Rarity die so she let us hit her with the Elements." Rarity tensed up, hoping that Celestia would believe the lie. Celestia nodded and removed Sweetie Belle's hoofcuffs as well. She turned back to one of the ponies in suits.
"They are free to go," she said. The pony nodded and he led Sweetie Belle and Twilight out the door.
Now it was just Rarity alone in the room with two other ponies and Princess Celestia herself. it was all Rarity could do to meet Celestia's gaze.
"Before we begin," she said. "Just know that this hurts me more than anything I have had to do in centuries. You...you wielded and Element of Harmony and brought my sister back to me as well as defeated Discord so I feel that you could have been more, Rarity."
"I've always been this way," said Rarity simply.
"What do you mean?" asked Celestia.
"I want to hear you guess, how long do you think I've been doing this?" asked Rarity.
"I don't know," said Celestia. "And I refuse to play any games so you might as well just tell me." Rarity sighed and nodded.
"I first killed three foals when I was eight years old." Celestia's jaw dropped.
"W...what!?" she said in shock.
"They were schoolyard bullies that had cornered me in a creek that was very sacred to me. They were going to beat me up and I defended myself with a rock. I didn't mean to kill the first one but the blow to the head was fatal. I killed the other two soon after with the rock."
Celestia had to pause for a moment to regain her composure before she returned to the conversation.
"So you killed in self-defense the first time," she said. "Why didn't you simply tell somepony about what had happened? Why did you have to kill the other two as well?"
"I suppose that I panicked," said Rarity. It was a lie of course, she had done it to cleanse her creek but Celestia didn't need that many details.
"So why did you keep on killing!?" asked Celestia.
"I think that I just got a taste for the power that I felt when their lives were in my hooves," said Rarity. "I didn't mean for it to happen that way, but it awoke a craving inside of me and I became addicted to that feeling."
Celestia sighed and nodded.
"Very well," she said.
The room was silent for a brief moment before Rarity spoke up.
"What...what now then?" she asked. Celestia paused for a moment before answering.
"Rarity, I have to be honest with you, this is for all intents and purposes your trial. This case is so open-and-shut that we don't need to go to official court with this. At this moment, I really just want to get the hard part out of the way."
"What do you mean 'hard part'?" asked Rarity worriedly. Celestia turned to one of the ponies and nodded. The pony opened up his briefcase and dumped what turned out to be a gigantic stack of photographs on the table. Rarity looked at them confusedly.
"These are the pictures of all of the ponies that have gone missing in Equestria for the past 20 years. I want you to tell us which of them you are responsible for."
"I suppose that I can try," she said. "I don't know if I remember all of them.
"Just do it," said Celestia. Rarity nodded and used her magic to pick up the first photo. She examined it to see that it was a photo of the solicitor that she had murdered that fateful night with Sweetie Belle. She nodded and gave it to Celestia.
"Him," she said. "I killed him."
The other pony took the picture and jotted something down on a notepad. Rarity picked up the second photo and examined it before shaking her head.
"I had nothing to do with this one."
The other pony took the picture and put it back in his briefcase.
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Over the next four hours, Rarity looked through each of the photos to find her victims.
Trixie, Scootaloo's parents, Gilda, Scarlet Tomato, Cherry Bomb, Sweet Tomato, Janice, Trixie's Parents, they were all in there as well as many more. Each conformation seemed to make Celestia sadder and she looked to be on the verge of tears.
However, eventually Rarity finished looking through the photos and the two ponies organized them and put them in their respective briefcases to fill out the reports.
Rarity looked up at Celestia and saw that despite herself, Celestia was crying. Not openly mind you, but there were unmistakably tears falling from her face.
She waited until her companions were ready before she stood up and began walking out the door. Before she reached it, she turned around and looked deep into Rarity's eyes.
"Rarity, I sentence you to be executed by lethal injection tomorrow at 10:00 for your crimes against ponydom. I wish there was another way," said Celestia sadly.
Celestia left the room and within a few minutes, a guard came in and escorted Rarity to a secure cell.
When she was inside, Rarity sat down on her bed, too scared to even cry.