//------------------------------// // 6 Part 1: When the veil comes off... // Story: Friendship is Deception // by Your Antagonist //------------------------------// Friendship is Deception By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03) Edited By: TheWattsMan Act 2: Wait, There's a Plot? Chapter 6 - Part 1: When the Veil Comes Off... Once you get one it's very hard to keep. If you put it in your mouth it'll burrow out when your tongue slips. It's very hard to take care of one that belongs to someone else. Sometimes you can come to terms with one and reveal it to those you trust, but nothing is more mortifying than having one exposed to the world. What is it?   Having dealt with her first target; Twilight proceeded back to Central Ponyville accompanied by a dismal sense of accomplishment, and a freshly filled memory scroll that she was presently levitating and scanning for any new leads on the other 6 targets as she traveled. The text on the green document was constantly cycling and readjusting itself, and it occasionally showed a couple of images at random intervals. Thanks to the erratic nature of the document, Twilight now had a fuzzy understanding about the organization the stallion had been working for, an intimate knowledge of the his most embarrassing secrets and childhood memories, and the unsettling knowledge that he was strangely aroused in the moments leading up to his demise (something she wished she could unread). Still, with the randomizing nature of the document, she hadn't obtained any information that would prove conducive to her search for leads. ‘Maybe I should just give it up for now and deal with this when I return to the library; I can find a spell to fix thi--- Wait, what's this?’ At that moment, some rather eye catching information had manifested on the document; Twilight found herself looking at a building remarkably akin to Carousel Boutique, and just under that image, a single word: 'Arachne'. Shortly after the image of Carousel Boutique had disappeared into a void of shifting letters, a blue blur resembling a pegasus with a faint rainbow trail replacing it, accompanied with a new caption overhead that read 'Blink'. Twilight ceased moving at this point, trying to make sense of the new information she had just digested, her mouth hanging quite open. ‘No, no, no, this has to be some misunderstanding; I mean that blur, there are lots of blue pegasi... with.... rainbow trails... But that building... There have to be lots with that.... Carousel motif... My friends couldn't... They wouldn't....’ She sighed and glanced at the document which presently displayed a movie theater and an ebony mare, and proceeded to roll it back up and stuff it in her saddlebags. She pulled the hood of the cloak back over her head as she entered Central Ponyville. As much as she wanted to deny what she had just seen, she needed closure. Celestia's sun was setting by the time Twilight had reached the Boutique. ‘Fitting Atmosphere,’ She thought to herself sarcastically as she raised a hoof to knock on the door. Thump thump thump As Twilight waited on the doorstep, a feeling of dread began to take root in her gut and she shifted her legs uncomfortably; hoping that Rarity had nothing to do with this case. Every second that door remained unopened, Twilight's blood temperature dropped. She had been staring holes in that door for 2 minutes, and her fur began to stand on end as she heard the sound of.... nothing. ‘Maybe she's not home at the moment,’ Twilight sighed and resigned herself from waiting at the door step, opting to come back later. As she proceeded to make her way down to the road, she heard the sound of a door closing from the direction of Carousel Boutique; this warranted her immediate attention, and she whipped around just in time to see a cloaked figure emerge from the side entrance of the Boutique. The figure glanced in Twilight's direction as it moved towards the backstreets, but alas she couldn't discern any recognizable features due to the shadow caused by the figure's hood. Twilight proceeded to follow, maintaining a decent distance from her target provided the cloaked figure decided to break into a full-on gallop; she couldn't chance losing a potential lead. She trailed the figure through the bustling streets and opted to blend into a crowd to track her target without drawing attention to herself, in the event that the figure chanced a glance over its shoulder. Her precautions were in vain, however as the cloaked figure turned down a nearby alleyway to which Twilight followed suit. ‘A dead end... Whoever this is knew I was following them,’ Twilight remarked to herself as her horn glowed, preparing to make the telekinetic connection to her dagger just in case the figure tried anything. She used her left forehoof to pull down her hood further and proceeded to approach the the figure, who was staring adamantly at the wall before them. A slight gust of wind blew through the alley, and it was enough to blow a small section of the cloak revealing a white hind leg. Twilight noticed this and bit her lip; her suspicions were all but confirmed at this point, but there was no doubt in her mind that the figure in front of her was Rarity. As much as she lamented the task at hand, she had a job to do, and hopefully Rarity would make it easy for herself and just surrender. "Don't move! I'm Violet Page of the Royal Canterlot Interceptor Agency, and I need to ask you some questions involving your potential involvement in some illegal activity. Please put your fore-hooves on the wall, and lower your head until you can see your hind legs," Twilight announced as she advanced towards the suspect cautiously. The figure showed no sign of compliance or acknowledgement. ‘Rarity, please don't make this harder for me than it already is,’ Twilight pleaded internally as she unsheathed her dagger. "I said forehooves on the wall, now. You only get one warning, and if you fail to abide I will use lethal force," she stated sternly. The figure stood fast, still unmoving, and now there was little distance between Twilight and the cloaked mare. Twilight extended a hoof to pull down the hood, and was immediately taken aback by a combination of shock, confusion, and some light embarrassment brought on by the identity of the cloaked figure, that could only be summed up in one phrase: "What the hay!?" Before Twilight stood a wooden mannequin. She would have questioned the physical impossibility of something inanimate moving on its own, but at that very moment something had wrapped around her throat whilst something else swept her off her hooves, forcing her to the floor. The thing around her neck became tighter and sharper, cutting off the flow of oxygen and blood, making her breathing shallow and her vision go slowly dark. She attempted find purchase on the thing around her neck, but it was to thin to grab, and she couldn't focus her magic as she was having a hard enough time trying to alleviate her current predicament. ‘Need...to...focus...’ Her horn began to glow, faintly at first, but then she released a beam of intense light, resulting in an irritated "Gahh!" from behind her, but the thing around her neck still held taut. She focused all of her remaining energy on her dagger and whipped it behind her in a sweeping arc. Her blade found purchase on something, resulting in a scream from her assailant and the pressure around her neck vanished. Twilight rose to her hooves and immediately followed up with a rear leg buck that found its mark as well, and sent the attacker skidding. Shaking the dizziness from her head and coughing slightly, a recovering Twilight turned to face her attacker and hesitated to believe her own eyes: A bleeding Rarity lay on her right side, attempting to dress the knife wound on her left flank with a white cloth. Twilight began to approach, and Rarity took a slightly more defensive stance. Rarity "I w-warn you n-now, you ruffian, if you take another step forward I'll....I'll..." Rarity searched the ground frantically, and finally she found something to brandish menacingly at the cloaked figure: the piano-wire garrote* she was previously choking the cloaked mare with. She used garrotes primarily because she hated getting blood anywhere on her white coat, as she believed it would stain, and she had no fighting ability otherwise. Needless to say she found it immediately worthless as a self defense weapon, and dropped it helplessly to the ground as she watched what she had deemed her impending death stalk closer. The figure stopped a few feet from the shaking mare; out of fear or instinct Rarity assumed a fetal position covering her eyes with her hooves. She could feel the malicious intent radiating from the other mare with every second that passed, and eventually the time she'd spent cowering on the ground broke her: she felt hot tears escape her eyes and stream down the side of her face. The tears hadn't manifested out of fear for her life, but rather from regrets about what she would leave behind and the decisions that had led her to this very instant. Out of all the regrets that plagued her mind, there were two in particular that would burden her even in the afterlife: her sister's fate would remain forever in the mercy of the organization, and she had never exacted her revenge on that conniving, manipulative mule of a mare that blackmailed her and forced blood on her hooves. Rarity's grieving period was cut short as she heard the clopping of the other mare's hoof beats on the ground, closing the exceedingly finite distance between them. She prepared for the worst and braced herself for the embrace of death, but found only an embrace. The other mare had draped her cloak around Rarity and wrapped her forelegs tightly around the sobbing mare. "It's okay Rarity, it's okay." Through eyes clouded with tears, Rarity could only make out the lavender color of the mare's coat and a pink streak in her mane. "Twil- Twi--" Rarity attempted to choke the name out through the sobs. "Shh.... just let it all out Rarity, we'll talk after," Twilight cooed to her sobbing friend as she stroked the back of Rarity's mane in an attempt to comfort her. Rarity cried her heart out into Twilight's coat for ten minutes before she finally broke the embrace, sat on her haunches, and looked into the concerned eyes of one of her closest friends. She had just tried to choke this mare to death, and here she was staring into the face of understanding and forgiveness. She might have started bawling again if Twilight hadn't spoke up at that moment: "Rarity, I'm willing to forget what happened just now, but I need your complete and total cooperation; if you fail to comply, I have orders from the Royal Canterlot Interception Agency to terminate you, do you understand me?" Twilight's voice had adopted an all business tone for the moment. Rarity wordlessly nodded her head in compliance. Twilight levitated a blank scroll and a pencil out of the the shoulder holster she wore, and she began her interrogation: "Alright, I have some questions I've been needing to ask you about your involvement with the Crossheart crime syndicate, is there anything you'd care to divulge before we begin?" Rarity hesitated to answer, unsure of the consequences that befell anyone who betrayed the organization, but she didn't have much choice at the moment.  "Yes, but you misunderstand: I do not work for the Crosshearts. The Crosshearts are a puppet organization working under a Shadow group. I've only associated with a few of the Crossheart assassins on rare occasions." Twilight proceeded to scribble in her note pad, and the looked back up to continue pressing Rarity for info "Would you care to tell me anything about this shadow group?" Rarity took a deep breath and thought for a moment, and decided maybe she could use this to her advantage "I'll tell you Twilight, but only under the condition that you put Sweetie Belle in the protective custody of the RCIA." "Your sister? But why?" "I'm sorry Twilight, I can't tell you anything unless you give me your word" "Alright, I'll requisition a unit to take Sweetie Belle into protective custody, but I need to know why. They won't simply take her in because I ask them to." Rarity gave a sigh of half-relief and began to let out everything she knew: Mayor Mare's involvement with The Shadow Group "Black Anarchy", how Black Anarchy forced Rarity to commit murders by threatening Sweetie Belle, a list of all of her targets throughout the years, and so on. Twilight finished writing in her notepad, and glanced at Rarity who was sporting an expression of relief and nervousness. "Rarity, thank you for admitting all of this; I know it couldn't have been easy for you to re-live any of this, but you're still guilty of multiple counts of first degree equestricide as an accessory of Shadow Anarchy, and capital punishment is still in order..." With that some of the spark in Rarity's eyes died, and the white unicorn opened her mouth to protest. Twilight took note of this and held her right fore-hoof up to silence Rarity before continuing "However, you performed these acts against your will, and have chosen to atone for them by aiding the RCIA in their investigation of the Crossheart organization, but this does not excuse you from your punishment. Let it be known that by the authority granted to myself 'RCIA Agent Twilight Sparkle' by the Crown, you are hereby sentenced to..." Twilight grinned "Assist my investigation as a traitor to Black Anarchy, and ally of the RCIA, sound good?" Twilight winked at Rarity whose mouth just hung open in shock. "But Darling, are you sure?" "Well Rarity, would you rather be executed?" Twilight inquired with a smug grin. "Err... No, I suppose not..." "Well that settles that now, doesn't it?" Twilight asked as her horn lit up; she aimed it at Rarity's wounded flank and initiated a healing spell. She'd need her newest asset to be fully functional. "Quite; so what now?" Rarity asked, rising to a stand. "I suggest we find Spike so I can send off the request for your sister to be placed in RCIA protection and my findings on the case up ‘til now. Then we should head down to Sweet Apple Acres; I've got a feeling Rainbow will be there, and I have some questions for her as well." With that, Twilight took her cloak from Rarity and donned it yet again, as Rarity levitated her own cloak off the mannequin that now lay on its side and proceeded to sport it with the hood up. The two began to trot out of the alleyway and towards the library. Chapter 6 Part 1 end       *A garrote is a  simple stealth assassination weapon composed of 2 sticks connected to the ends of some form of thread, wire, or rope. The method of engagement with said weapon is from behind, where the assailant wraps the thread around the victims neck and attempts to either choke the victim, break the victims neck, or decapitate them provided the garrote has been constructed with piano wire.