//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 - Greed 
// Story: Solar Eclipse 
// by hattafan2593 
//------------------------------//

Scootaloo gripped Rarity's hand as tight as she could as they ran down the hall. It didn't matter where they hid. Sunset would eventually find them, and do to them what she was surely doing to Apple Bloom right now.

Her ankle twisted and she went down.

Sweetie's eyes widened as Scootaloo slipped out of Rarity's grasp, but she couldn't stop to help because Rarity was still running, dragging her along with her.

Scootaloo winced in pain as she tried to get up, then gasped as she felt herself being dragged to the side. 

Manacles appeared around her wrists and she realized she was chained to the handle of one of the doors.

Sunset was grinning down at her like a cat about to eat a bird.

"Let's consider you 'handled' for now, shall we?" She quipped, patting Scootaloo on the head. 

She was gone moments later, and Scootaloo was trembling.





"Rarity, stop! Scootaloo's in trouble!"

"There's no time!"

"We have to help her!"

"If we stop, she'll catch us! We're no good to anyone dead!"

"Dead? Oh no, my friend."

Something grabbed Rarity's arm and flung her to the floor. Sweetie Belle was let go of and landed opposite her sister.

Sunset loomed over them like a vulture.

"What I have in mind is much worse."

Rarity stood up and dusted herself off, and tried - in vain - to look like she wasn't about to wet herself. "Sunset! How....good to see you! It's nice to see you're doing well....considering what those brutes did to you. Um....I like your dress! Black is definitely your color-"

Sunset slapped her. Sweetie Belle gasped in horror. Rarity stumbled back but fortunately didn't fall. She felt her face and knew her cheek was already swelling.

"Don't patronize me, bitch." Sunset said coldly. "You know what you did. What you both did."

Rarity straightened, looking braver than she felt. "Sunset, please be reasonable. You don't have to -"

"You're right. I don't have to." Sunset snarled. She reached back and yanked Sweetie Belle up by her hair. "Just like she didn't have to make that damned profile. Just like you didn't have to leave me bawling my eyes out on the floor in the middle of the hallway, without even giving me the benefit of the doubt."

Rarity's eyes widened at the sight of her baby sister struggling and crying in Sunset's grasp. She willed herself to be calm, lest Sunset be angered further and take it out on Sweetie Belle. "You're right. You're absolutely right, Sunset. It was inexcusable, unladylike, and simply wrong. And you have my deepest, most sincerest apologies."

"How generous of you." Sunset sneered. Sweetie gasped as Sunset tightened her grip on her hair.

"And what Sweetie Belle did was wrong, too!" Rarity shouted, desperate. "And she will be punished for what's she's done! So please! There's no need to harm her! You're better than this!"

"A pity you didn't realize it sooner." Sunset growled. She paused, then relented. "Fine. I'm more pissed at you anyway."

She let the poor girl go, and Sweetie immediately ran for the comfort of her big sister's arms. "Big sis!"

"Oh, Sweetie!" Rarity cried with relief. She hugged Sweetie Belle with all her might.

She opened her eyes in alarm when she realized Sweetie felt cold. Almost....metallic.

She loosened her hold and straightened to get a good look at her sister......and instead found herself looking at a golden statue.

Sweetie Belle's look of terror was frozen on her face. 

"No.....No! Sweetie Belle!" Rarity shook her head, felt her sister's face to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She found to her horror that she wasn't. 

Tears in her eyes, she turned to Sunset in despair. "What have you done?!"

Sunset merely shrugged, her expression bored. "Don't look at me. You're the one with the golden touch."

A sharp pain ran up her arm, and Rarity looked down at the word burned into her flesh.

Greed

Rarity gasped in shock and backed up until she hit the wall. Gold sprouted where her hand touched and spread until the entire wall was transformed. 

Rarity back away in horror, her hands shaking.

Sunset merely stared, unmoved. "You and your sister made your choice. Now you both have to live with it."

She vanished in a flash of red. Rarity fell to her knees and sobbed at the base of Sweetie Belle's frozen form. She paid no heed as the floor around her turned to gold.




Four down, one to go.

Ready or not, Rainbow Dash. I'm coming for you.