Twilight Sparkle was fiddling with the philosophy simulators in S.P.I.K.E.S. programming to try and figure out why the hell he seemed to be in love with Rarity, when she telekinetically opened the door before the above named pilot could knock. "Come in." She said telepathically. Rarity put her still raised fist down and sheepishly entered Twilight's quarters. She looked around at the surroundings and saw wall to wall hard drives. Each containing entire volumes of lore and knowledge that would take a normal human lifetimes to absorb. Rarity was shocked to see that Twilight's accommodations were rather spartan in nature, despite her being the prime protege of the Viceroy.
"Luxury has never been a big concern to me." Twilight thought.
Rarity ticked her tongue in annoyance. "I thought you said it was rude to read someone's mind without their permission."
Twilight finally turned to face her guest. "You're staring. You don't have to be psychic to see you're surprised at the furnishings." She gestured to a chair and Rarity finally sat down. "But you're right." Twilight resumed. "I shouldn't read your mind without permission. So how can I help you?" She sat across from her and Rarity heard the tea maker click on.
Rarity cleared her throat. "S.P.I.K.E. tells me, by the way S.P.I.K.E. is just the most adorable little A.I. I've ever seen darling! Though I will admit it is a bit odd that you still have a babysitter program at your age, but I digress. S.P.I.K.E.y wikey tells me that construction of our mech units has already begun."
Twilight's eye twitched and she held up a hand for Rarity to pause in her narrative. She summoned S.P.I.K.E. and glared at the hologram. She growled through clenched teeth. "S.P.I.K.E. remember our little talk about operational security?"
S.P.I.K.E. showed remarkable similarity to human emotions as he looked guilty as a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Well um I mean uhh. It's not breaking operational security since you know uh it's her robot anyway and uhh."
Rarity interrupted. "Oh but that's why I'm here darling. I have a request about the mech unit, if you wouldn't mind."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What did you have in mind?" This was a slippery slope. Celestia knows what Pinkie Pie would ask for if she found out she was taking requests.
Rarity gave a winning smile towards the little dragon. "S.P.I.K.E.y wikey? Could you excuse us please." Spike looked heart broken but after giving Rarity exaggerated puppy dog eyes he shimmered out of existence.
Twilight gave a thought and S.P.I.K.E. was blocked from seeing the security feeds from the room. "Alright we're alone. How can I help you?" Rarity seemed nervous. Twilight levitated over a glass of tea. She said "thank you" but didn't actually sip the tea.
She cleared her throat. "Twilight. I wanted to discuss the control system in my mech." She paused for a long moment and Twilight wondered how best to urge her along. Before she could make a move Rarity continued. "I should like to stick with analog controls, if that's perfectly okay with you. I'm not comfortable with the mental synchronization guidance systems for. . . " She paused for a long moment. "Personal reasons. That I'd rather not go in to"
Twilight sipped her tea, then leaned forward. "Rarity may I explain something to you?"
"Oh by all means darling!" She said and she meant, as she was delighted to have an excuse to change the subject. Twilight was delighted to see her actually sip her tea.
"Rarity, do you remember during orientation that little slip of the mind?" She said looking intensely into Rarity's eyes.
"Yes but darling." She touched Twilight's hand in a gesture of compassion. "Everyone makes mistakes."
Twilight gritted her teeth. "Yes well." She sipped her tea. "Most psychics can focus on another mind and hear what they're thinking. While I on the other hand have to focus on NOT hearing other minds." She rose and began to walk slowly about the room. "My parents' very favorite stories about me are from before I was born." She smiled ruefully. "Apparently I could speak with them telepathically before I was born." Rarity choked on her tea. Twilight waited a moment before she continued.
"Yes apparently one day she was at the supermarket chasing a pregnancy craving and she was reaching for a certain brand of chicken nuggets that were on sale. I told her not those. Not with words mind you, but with very clearly not her own voice but mine. I wanted the nuggets two boxes over." Twilight gave a light chuckle. "And when my father told my mother that the other nuggets were on sale I told him what I wanted as well." She resumed her seat. "Needless to say they were very concerned. All throughout my childhood I had to be isolated because of the collective thought noise of the other children made me cry."
"I had to be separated from the other children, and my parents had to hire psychics to teach me how to calm my mind. It never really worked, but it made crowds bearable." She levitated over the teapot and refreshed their cups. She got a far away nostalgic look in her eye.
"That's when I met the Viceroy." She rose again. "She was visiting the planet and my father managed to get us a permit to attend the ceremony. I practiced for months to isolate my mind enough to handle a crowd that size. I'll never forget how regal she looked as she descended from the stars, the glow of the noon sun taken shape in the form of woman. She descended into the stadium we were in but I was spending all my focus trying not be deafened by the people crowded all around me."
Twilight gave an odd smile. "That's when she saw me." She chuckled ."Or according to her when I blinded her. She says that she thought Luna had slipped into the crowd somewhere but instead it was me. She flew right up to me and took me right then and there to live with her on Terra. The people of my planet were furious that the function was cancelled, but my parents were so proud." Twilight summoned S.P.I.K.E. and whispered, "set a reminder to call the folks after I'm done here." Then she blocked him out again, much to his annoyance.
"Celestia taught me how to control my powers, and even after her direct tutelage I still have slip ups." She leaned forward again. "I tell you all this to illustrate the following." She looked Rarity dead in the eye. "Even at my most closed off I still see everything about someone." Rarity began to see several moments from her life in her mind's eye. She tensed visibly. Twilight gave Rarity a hard look. "I know why you don't want the mental synchronization guidance system. That's why I've had the motor pool reinvent the wheel to update the analog controls systems."
Rarity slumped in relief. "Oh thank you Twilight!" She rose and gave Twilight a hug around the neck. "You're a true friend." Twilight awkwardly patted Rarity on the back. Rarity disguised the motion of wiping a tear from her eye. "Well that's all I wanted, so thank you very much! I'll get out of your hair." She turned to leave but Twilight cleared her throat. Rarity cocked her head to the side in confusion.
"Rarity, do you have anything pressing right now?" Twilight asked, and Rarity was shocked to see a hint of bashfulness in her expression. She hesitantly answered. "No. Nothing terribly important. Why did you want something?"
Twilight once again motioned for her to sit down and Twilight refilled her tea. "I told you of my relationship with the Viceroy. You know what she means to me." Rarity politely sipped her rather good tea and nodded for Twilight to continue. Twilight sighed and rose. She went over to a painting of Celestia during the unification wars glassing a separatist battleship. "Rarity. You've just called me a true friend, but my love for my mentor and our sovereign compels me to impose on that friendship."
Rarity saw how much whatever was in Twilight's mind bothered her and she rose from her seat. She moved to Twilight and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Darling you're my commanding officer, and I do hope you believe my friend! Whatever you have to say you can say it."
Twilight smiled weakly and they both returned to their seats. Twilight once again refilled their glasses and built up her courage to say what needed to be said. "Viceroy Luna is the balance to Viceroy Celestia. Before she appeared Celestia always handled things." She waved a hand towards the painting on the wall. "Like that. But now because of Luna, Celestia willingly put herself under the rule of law. She, because of that, can't just glass people when they do something terrible. She has to have proof."
A cold terror began to dawn on Rarity as she had an idea of where this was going. "And the." She took a deep breath, knowing this was going to upset her friend. "Diamond group. Has never been found liable for the disaster that." She exhaled hard. "Claimed your sister." Rarity stared at a point to the side of Twilight's shoulder. "And they've never given a clear account of what actually happened that day. They always claim everything was destroyed." Twilight saw a tear already running down Rarity's cheek, but she'd already begun and she had to ask. "So it would please Celestia, if you would give an account of what happened that day. Even an affidavit might be enough to reopen the case." Twilight rose and put a hand on Rarity's shoulder. Rarity flinched as if stung, but did not push the hand away. "The Diamonds are deep in Imperial matters. Their tech is in every current generation Imperial mech suit. Celestia doesn't want someone who's done something so terrible not to face justice for what they've done."
Rarity silently sobbed now. She didn't move. She didn't sniffle. Her tears simply fell into her lap and into her tea. Twilight sat down and continued. "Now neither Celestia nor I are ordering you to speak against your will. Hell, Celestia hasn't even asked me to question you about it. But I've personally looked into the case and if I'm right in my assumptions then I'm disgusted at what they've done and should like to see them punished for what they did to you and to Swee.~"
Twilight was cut off by a deafening psychic shriek that would've incapacitated a normal human. Rarity's face was stained with tears, but she showed no sadness. The expression then on her face was one of murderous rage. Twilight was shocked at the outburst. A tense several seconds passed between them and Rarity's face softened back into silent tears. "Please Twilight. . . Please don't say her name."
Twilight calmed herself and refilled her tea cup. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
Rarity stared for a long moment before finally whispering. "It was me."
Twilight asked, "Excuse me?" More as "what do you mean?" Not as in "I couldn't hear."
Rarity raised her head and Twilight saw the single most miserable expression she'd ever seen on a human face. "It was me who killed Sweetie BELLE!" She burst out. Her silent sobs had turned into hysterical weeping. Twilight rose and, as by a previously unknown instinct, embraced the crying woman. Rarity wept bitterly for several minutes before calming down enough to continue. Twilight psychically summoned S.P.I.K.E. and ordered him to send down a bottle of brandy from one of the officer's lounges. When she got the drink she poured a bit into a glass of tea and offered it to Rarity. Rarity instead levitated the bottle into her hand and drained half of it in a breath.
Twilight looked in shock from her to the brandy in her hand and decided she'd sip the spiked tea instead. "I'm sorry I asked you to do this Rarity. Please forgive me. You should go lay down in your quarters.
Rarity held up a hand for silence. "No no. This is important. And I've already begun. So I may as well finish." She downed the rest of the brandy and sighed hard. "My father was owner and director of Diamond Research group Terra." Rarity paused as if gathering her thoughts.
Twilight took the pause to interject. "I believe he still is."
Rarity glared. "Yes but now he is no longer my father. He is dead to me."
Twilight blushed hard. "Ah. I see. Continue."
Rarity exhaled nasally. "He used my sister and I to test his company's machines. He studied the psychic link of telepathy and wanted to achieve it artificially. First it started just as communicating telepathically with an on board A.I. Then it got more and more complex. Through us he achieved the prototype of all modern synchronization technology. But A.I. was still a developing technology in those days, and the nature of psychics was poorly understood. Our father would keep us up for days at a time testing the synchronization rates of different A.I.s. He made us fight each other to see its effects in action. And at the time we silently accepted it. It was our father's work. We thought it was important."
"Well then he got the idea to." She paused for a moment and sadly shook the empty brandy bottle. She looked at Twilight's cup with the last of the brandy in it and levitated it to herself. She swallowed it and continued. "To have us synchronize with a more aggressive A.I. One that could learn. One that would seek out patterns and invent ways around them. That's why I'm so damned pattern oriented you know. That's why I'll wait for twelve bloody hours for a shot. Rainbow Dash will just run up and shoot them, and Applejack will just mow them down but me oh no, I've got to wait for the perfect shot. Every fucking time."
"Well we meshed with the A.I. I was older, so I handled it better, and it only scarred my mind instead of consuming it. But s. . ." The tears began again. "But Sweetie Belle was so young then. So innocent. She didn't know any better." Rarity took a minute to steady herself again. "Well when she meshed with it there was no contest. It consumed her mind and immediately laid waste to the facility so that they couldn't shut her down. She tore through the lab and destroyed everything. Everything . . ."
Rarity paused again. " Somehow HE survived." Venom dripped from her voice as she mentioned her father. "But then once it was done with them." She inhaled deeply. "It came for me. I tried to keep away but she was relentless. Eventually I couldn't run anymore so I tried to rip her out of the damned thing." She looked away as if in physical pain.
"I tried to disconnect her from the machine. But when I got her almost all the way out she stopped fighting. I could see in her eyes she had regained herself at least a little bit. And then she screamed for help Twilight. My baby sister. . . Asked me to kill her." Rarity sobbed deeply into her hands.
Twilight sighed. "Rarity. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
Rarity wiped the tears from her face. And seemed like she'd gotten past the highest hurdle. "Well after that I stole the suit, jumped on the first spaceworthy vessel I could find, and signed up. Now everywhere I go I see his logo. And no one knows Twilight. No one knows what he did to her."
"And to you." Twilight added. "And if you'd like. I can't send this information along to Celestia, and we can have his company shut down, his products removed from the military, and him executed. It's all up to you."
Rarity looked hard at Twilight. She then quickly got to her feet and stepped quickly around Twilight. She was confused about where she was going but before she could ask she turned and saw the bathroom door close. "Oh." Was all Twilight could think to say.
Rarity came out of the bathroom as if she hadn't shed a tear. She was right back to her normal self. "Sorry darling full of brandy and tea. But oh yes shut him down, replace his tech that's all very well and good but don't kill the old man. No. No, killing one member of my family won't bring back another. He must live with what he's done. I wish him a long miserable life."
Twilight shrugged her shoulders and answered. "Very well I'll make a note of it." She pulled up a screen and it instantly filled with all the information Rarity had just related. That done Twilight embraced Rarity again. "Thank you." Was all she said.
Rarity scoffed. " Think nothing of it darling, about time I got that old skeleton out of the closet. Well if you'll excuse me, I am thoroughly intoxicated. I think I'll have a bit of a lie down. " And with that, she turned and walked in a weaving path towards her quarters.