V. The Heist
Rarity usually enjoyed the night air. She found it serene and calming, the perfect combination to relax from the day and tire down until the following morning. Sometimes, she would enjoy the company of one of her friends, spending the night hanging out as friends do.
Tonight was not one of those nights.
The air was filled with suspense and dread, cobbled together by lingering suspicions. She just knew that something was not alright. The words of the latest text from Fluttershy still lingered in her mind, and the choice words were just not in character with her…well, character. And since when did she take a direct interest in her diamond jewelry?
She had brought them along for better safe than sorry. And yet she couldn’t help herself but place a protective palm over her diamond-jeweled silver necklace.
The words of Fluttershy’s most recent text ran through her train of thought at high speeds, anchoring her stomach into much deeper and sickening pits. One thing was for sure: her friend was having troubles, or in trouble, one of the two. Her head was spinning with so much worrying confusion she couldn’t think straight.
Hearing her every step echo throughout the night, and praying that it wasn’t an omen, Rarity walked up to the front doors of the Animal Shelter, noting how darkened the inside appeared to be. At least the moon from up above and behind provided adequate enough light, not that it helped matters whatsoever.
She cautiously knocked on the glass panes, nervously fiddling in her hair and any creases on her clothing. Soon enough, a silhouette began approaching the doors, growing ever so larger with each ominous silent step, causing Rarity’s chest to tighten with anxiety.
She shrieked when the doors opened, revealing her animal-loving friend, who also shrieked.
“Oh my goodness, Fluttershy, I am so sorry,” she breathed.
“I-I’m s-sorry. I-I didn’t m-mean to scare y-you o-or anything,” Fluttershy replied.
“No, no, the fault is on me. Uh, may I come in?”
“Huh? O-oh, sure, sure. Y-Yes you may.”
Once Rarity was led in, she took notice at how eerily dark and quiet the place felt, and not in the ironic sense of the situation. Everything outright screamed ominous danger and every slight gesture and shadow seemed to creak and bend into shapes that shouldn’t be physically possible; then again, most horror movies always managed to forgo physics at every turn.
“So…um, Fluttershy, darling,” Rarity said, swallowing then breathing. “I know you wanted to show me something, but…why are you staying late?”
Fluttershy hesitated in her response, tilting her head, stammering for words. “W-Well, uh, i-it was just me today, and…and I was about to leave w-when you arrived.”
Rarity was even more confused. “So you haven’t got anything to show me?”
“N-No, I don’t. I’m sorry.”
“That is strange. I received a message from you a few hours ago telling me to come here, with every piece of diamond-encrusted jewelry I own, because you had something to show me.” She paused for a moment. Everything wasn’t adding up. “Is it perhaps because you just wanted me to show off my diamond collection to you in a private location?”
Fluttershy flushed immensely. “N-N-No, I-I-I d-d-don’t want t-that! I-I mean, I-I s-sure you have lovely diamonds, and t-that—”
Rarity held up a hand. “Say no more, darling. I get what you are saying.”
“O-Oh.”
“And besides, if you really wanted me to show off my diamonds to you, we could have done so at my house.”
“Oh, y-yeah. Right.”
“Which begs the question: who or what wants us to be together here of all places at this time of the day.”
Fluttershy began to nervously squirm. “I-I hope who, o-or whatever it is, d-doesn’t…doesn’t…y-you know…”
Rarity was going to respond, until she froze, catching her words right on her tongue before the slipped back into her brain, not daring to resurface. The atmosphere seemed to seep with dread at every crack and crevice, threatening to crush her spirits with every trick in the book about creepy and altogether unsettling settings. Being a lady, it took a lot for her to admit when something wasn’t right with herself, and sometimes it took too little, but only after there had been too much preceding it.
She suddenly slipped, catching herself by the locks of some overhead animal pens. She took a moment to catch herself, then stole her eyes in the direction of her shoes. Caught in the tips of them was a large cloth potato sack, complete with a set of rope resting comfortably untangled.
“Fluttershy, when did you get a sack and set of rope for the Shelter?” Rarity asked.
“What?” Fluttershy replied, perplexed. “What sack and what rope?”
“These ones right here.”
Fluttershy knelt down to look, growing more confused. “I don’t remember buying those.”
“They appear to be relatively new. Freshly purchased, you might say.”
“I had to go out for most of the afternoon. I was buying more petfood after the first batch was ruined.”
“How so?”
“Angel crashed into the dispenser for the food, scattering them all across the floor and leaving the other animals hungry.”
“They don’t appear hungry to me. They appear to be sleeping.”
“That’s what I don’t get either. Their bowls are about full and yet unfinished.”
Since when do pets leave their food bowls unfinished, and around the time Fluttershy went out it would have been their second meal time. Rarity pondered about it all, scanning for any possible missing links to the case. The events appeared to be unrelated, but they also seemed to be in relation to another in a way that was alluding to her.
Fluttershy went out to buy more food after Angel Bunny destroyed the dispenser scattering the food across the floor, and yet the floor was cleaned, the bowls filled, and in that time a sack and rope were procured and brought to the Shelter…
…the floor was cleaned and the bowls were filled.
“Fluttershy,” Rarity said.
“Y-Yeah? Something on your mind?”
“In a sense. Have you noticed the coincidence that the food bowls were filled following the destruction of the despenser, and didn’t you say that the food had been scattered across the floor?”
Fluttershy seemed to catch on. “I did, didn’t I?”
“So someone must have cleaned up the food and filled up the bowls regardless.”
“But that’s not good for the animals!” Fluttershy suddenly spoke out. “They can’t eat food that was lying around on the ground for even a few minutes!”
“Darling, I have seen Opal eat some of her leftover food from the ground.”
“…oh. Right, sorry.”
“So this someone scooped up the food and gave it to the animals, and they fell asleep after only a few bites?”
“Are you saying that…?”
“Yes, I’m sorry to say, the animals have been drugged.”
“But who would do such a thing?!”
An ominous click from the dark abyss silenced whatever comfort their voices brought to their moods. The two girls anxiously peered ahead to see a figure emerging from the darkness, on top of the front desk. He was black all over with a white belly, orange feet and beak, two beady eyes on an expressionless face, a red glove over his head…
…and in his right flipper was a loaded pistol, aimed right in their direction.
The girls gasped with fright, shooting their arms straight into the sky, or at least the furthest point of their arm lengths. Their breathing froze in their throats, as if close to the choking point.
Rarity remained stagnated at the mercy of the shockingly miniscule criminal; he was about the height of a computer monitor, or knee-height for her. She looked to Fluttershy, who shared the same emotional response, until she peered her eyes at the actual features of the armed intruder.
She suddenly glared. “You!!”
“Fluttershy, you know this criminal?” Rarity asked, feeling more disturbed by the second.
Fluttershy didn’t reply, instead dropping her pose and advancing like a scowling elementary teacher. Rarity recognized her stance, and paled into white powder. “I took you in! I gave you a home! And how do you repay me?! By drugging all of the animals and holding us hostage!”
“Darling, stop this now,” Rarity hissed through her frozen teeth. “He’s got a gun. An actual, real life, honest to god…gun!”
“I hope you feel proud of yourself, mister! What would mother think of you—!”
The armed criminal fired a single bullet, sending it whizzing right through both hairdos of the girls, before passing into a cage containing a single orange tabby cat. It struck the top-half of the back, leaving a hole large enough for a family of flies to make residence. The tabby cat mewed and rolled over in his sleep, dreaming about all the most luscious Italian cuisines in existence.
Rarity pulled Fluttershy back from her shocked perspective, while the criminal arched his pistol back and pulled the hammer, aiming it this time directly to their foreheads.
Poor Fluttershy was quivering and shaking in Rarity’s grip. She buried herself deeply into her only support, very much showing how terrified she was.
Rarity saw that the pistol was aiming right down the barrel. “Wait! Please, we’ll do anything, just don’t hurt us,” she pleaded.
Her friend’s infamous staredown that she was known for, only to her close friends and family, was ineffective against this small stout armed intruder who…kind of looked like a penguin now that she thought about it.
The criminal pointed his gun right to her chest. She tilted her head in confusion until he did it again. This time she felt her hand across her upper torso, watching how the gun barrel followed every flinching motion. As much as the thought horrified Rarity’s psyche, it occurred to her that whoever this criminal was had the means to kill them both and then loot their bodies for valuables.
Another thought struck her: the text message two hours ago. No wonder it didn’t sound like Fluttershy. The criminal must have sent it through her phone as a means to coax Rarity into coming to the Animal Shelter of her own volition. If it had been a straight up ransom note, there would have been the risk of alerting the police.
Evil, but clever.
And…oh, of course.
“You want my diamonds, don’t you?” Rarity sounded as brave as she could, but when someone like her is being confronted by an armed burglar, there’s only so much you can do to keep assurance about your life.
The penguin slowly nodded, pointing his gun to the empty but open sack on the ground beside them.
Rarity nodded, confirming the understanding. She also understood that he either didn’t or couldn’t talk. Breathing in and exhaling, she stared down the criminal, collecting whatever coolness was left in her will, and still having Fluttershy hold onto her for support, now risking having her face exposed to the pistol’s firepower.
“What do we do?” she whispered, shaking.
“We give him what he wants,” Rarity replied, cracking through the coolness. She took both hands, hesitating around the chain of her necklace, and the criminal nodded the gun. She removed her prized jewel.
“Rarity, no!”
“We must be strong, darling. My life and yours are worth more than all of the diamonds in South Africa.”
She dropped it through the opening in the sack, catching how the gun was still fixated on her person. She obliged without question, removing her diamond ring, earrings, even her most favorite bracket, each dropping with an almost painful sounding clink, like she had betrayed the trust and care she gave them, as if they were actual pets.
And then everything stopped; more accurately everything paused. Rarity felt like she did everything that was required of her, so she returned to cowering before the threat of the pointed barrel. She also felt the need to place an arm around Fluttershy, out of instinct or an emotional reaction…probably both.
When the gun barrel didn’t drop, she became more worried.
“What?” she simply asked, bordering on demanding. “I have given you all the diamonds I have. What more do you want from me?”
The criminal shook his head.
Rarity fumed, swiping her hand up and around her body. “Are you saying I have not given you all that you want? Look at me! That was all the diamonds that I own, now let us go, please! We have done nothing to you!”
He took three smooth and precise steps across the desk, aiming his pistol in the exact direction he meant. His aiming was top notch; he never missed where he meant to hit. He cocked his head in Rarity’s direction, flicking the barrel right in the direction of Fluttershy’s terrified eyes. Immediately, she embraced her without thought.
“No! I won’t let you kill her!”
To her surprise, the criminal slapped a flipper over his face while shaking his head. He shifted his body as if he was laughing at some inside joke.
“What? I-I don’t understand.”
He pointed his empty flipper at Fluttershy, who was intently listening, then downwards to the sack sprawled across the floor. Fluttershy gasped as she went pale white, trying to hide her whimper in her hands.
Rarity caught her friend’s distressed state, and went glaring red. “You…you brute! You monster! I will not allow you to take my friend away to violate her against her will—!”
A second deafening crack sounded out with a second bullet whizzing through the violet ironed curls, leaving an open wound that would bleed if it were possible. Rarity screamed at the sudden interruption of the silence, eyes front and center at the smoking barrel, believing that it looked more angry than before.
It was as if it was saying: do what I want you to do, because you are not going to leave with your life if you don’t hand over what I want. The expressionless blank and beady-eyed face of the criminal conveyed no sense of anything…at all. It didn’t shift any facial features to betray any hidden thoughts of emotions, and by god was it scary.
Rarity was scared, not just for herself. “Please, we’ve done nothing to you. Take me instead, but let Fluttershy go.”
The criminal calmly and slowly shook his head. He cocked his gun in her direction.
“And I don’t care if you have to kill me, as long as she goes free.”
He lightly pulled on the trigger, his flipper shaking with anticipation.
“No!”
And then he let go, feeling satisfied with the answer of the other voice.
Rarity went pale. “F-F-Fluttershy?”
“I-I-I d-do it,” she sobbed, whimpering while pleading. “I-I’ll l-l-let you t-t-t-take me, just don’t…don’t hurt Rarity, o-or any o-of the a-animals. Please.”
The criminal nodded once. He then turned to Rarity, instructing her through body gestures to the pile of rope and sack on the ground.
She shakily stood frozen, weighing the options. She would be killed if she didn’t comply with the criminal’s demands, but it was either that or allow her friend to be mercilessly kidnapped and taken away to…who knows where to do who knows what to her. Her soul was racking itself with conflicting sensory reports from the brain and heart. Fluttershy’s life was in her hands, the kindest person she had ever known would be sentenced by her very decision, and there was only so much she could do when being held at gunpoint.
“What is it that you want with Fluttershy?” she choked.
The criminal simply shrugged.
“H-He s-s-said h-he wants the d-diamonds i-in my eyes,” Fluttershy replied, translating.
“W-What?”
The gun fired right at her shoes, throwing them both onto their backsides. This time, the criminal hopped down from the desk and onto the floor, holding the smoking barrel right towards his victims. He took precarious steps towards them, reveling in how much they squirmed at his presence.
“R-Rarity,” Fluttershy pleaded. “Please, he will k-k-kill you i-if you don’t d-d-do as he s-says.”
“I don’t care if he kills me, I won’t let him have you,” Rarity argued through tears.
She felt Fluttershy’s hands firmly grip her own, which caused her to look into her pleading eyes. She choked, unable to speak, unable to think. Fluttershy was a humble girl, shy all around, and yet despite everything being put against her at almost every angle she still maintained her stark kindness for that world. It was enough to break her soul, a soul that had spent a lifetime growing and learning from the glim and glamor of those above her, who she aspired to be…
…and it took a close friend, whose kindness was perpetual and knew no bounds, to shatter what she thought was a diamond, when it was just glass.
“I promise you, as a friend, that I will not allow myself to be violated against my will. I’ll be alright, okay? I’ll be alright.”
Rarity, with a heavy heart, full of tragedy, relented.
If the criminal could, he would be smirking and clapping his flippers together. Instead he waved his gun to instruct Fluttershy to position herself inside the sack. She sat in a position she was familiar with: sitting down with her knees hugging her chest. Rarity then took the length of rope and wrapped it around her arms behind her back then around her legs, making sure not to purposefully hurt her with rope-burn, and that the criminal saw that the rope work was satisfactory enough.
Once he felt like his prize was tightly secured in her ropes, he passed a white cloth over to Rarity. She paled at the recognized intention of the cloth, but one look at poor and defenseless Fluttershy convinced her to do so, wrapping it around her mouth and tightly securing it in a knot. To top it all off, Rarity was forced to make direct eye-contact with her friend as she slowly wrapped the sack’s mouth over her head, enveloping Fluttershy in complete darkness. It was the kind of darkness that was no less than scary, and looked to eat her alive.
Rarity fought the urge to cry her eyes out, dreading that the criminal would take the advantage of her defenseless state of affairs. She kept her concentration on the moving sack before her while listening to the steady flaps of the feet approaching them. The criminal caressed the outside with his free flipper, much to the outrage of Rarity, but one look from his stone-cold face changed her mood from irate to scared. She didn’t care that her mascara was completely smeared from her bout of crying; any other situation perhaps, but not this one. She had failed her friend because Fluttershy, bless her pure soul, was scared not for her life, but for the life of her friend.
Why did she have to be so damn selfless and unequivocally...kind? It broke poor Rarity's heart.
The criminal pocketed his gun before clambering up the sack to the area where the mouth was closed off, over the head of the prize inside. He tapped the barrel over Rarity’s hands, shooting them up like a whizzing propeller.
God she looked ugly without the makeup. What a phony. “Please, I’ve done all you asked of me. Just…don’t hurt my friend. Please, I’m begging you.“
The criminal could only shake his head in disappointment. This kind of girl was like most other girls he robbed from: they put on a mask to hide their insecurities behind their wealth, and when the chips are down they become sniveling cowards. True beauty was effortless, not forced.
He waved the barrel at her, instructing her to stand up. He then backed up behind the tie of the sack and pointed at it.
“Y…You want me to…to carry Fluttershy…for you?”
He nodded, taking note of how much paler her skin tone could get. As an act of persuasion, he cocked the hammer, aiming for her chest.
“A-Alright,” she relented.
Rarity was by no means a heavy lifter. That was more Applejack or Rainbow’s field of expertise. As such she struggled to lift poor Fluttershy the kidnapping victim, and the smug criminal, who had the gall to clamber on top of her head and act as a driver, nearly losing her balance on multiple occasions. She exited the Shelter just fine, yelping when the criminal tugged on her hair directing her around the front entrance, then across the street to where Wallace’s road machine from a few days ago was sitting, quiet and stationary, a long way from wherever its owners were.
He stopped her right at the foot of the cab. He then opened up the door and hopped into the driving seat, keeping his gun aimed at the head of Rarity. He waved the barrel to his position, and she understood what that meant for her. With great care for her friend’s condition, she placed the sack at the foot of the seat.
“I’m so sorry, Fluttershy,” she whimpered. “So, so, sorry.”
The criminal rolled his eyes, eyeing Rarity as she tenderly stroked the sack with a face full of weakness and emotion. Sickening.
He waved the barrel back to her, and thankfully she understood that she had to close the cab door for him. The moment she did so, she stumbled back into the street, getting her boots stuck in the melted tarmac. It felt like clay, as the tarmac looked like it was about to harden. Just then, she noticed the caterpillar track hanging over the curb, pointed right in her direction. She tugged on her legs, hoping beyond hope that she could make it out alive, but the tarmac held her in place.
Suddenly, the machine roared to life.
She saw as the lights shot on, and the tank treads accelerating in her direction, causing her to scream bloody murder.
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I detect a chase with vaudevillian piano music in the future.
Yikes! Really good mix of dialogue, characterizations, action and climax set-up in all the right places. Yeah, I appreciated Rarity's reflection on the night sky before she and Fluttershy got robbed by Feathers. Of course, Rarity could have just used her gem construct power, which she has had since "Legend of Everfree" onward, to create a shield to deflect the bullets from Feathers's gun (i.e. something Green Lanterns and others with similar abilities have done how many dozens of times), but that would have just made Feathers think of something else and give him more information to work with later. But, yeah, really emotional scene with the girls being taken along with the diamonds. REALLY looking forward to seeing Feathers get his in a major way.
But, anyway, really looking forward to the finale.
I assume the finale's running late due to real life getting in the way? That's understandable (I know the feeling), but a quick update would be nice!
11391209
Read my blog on the matter; it explains enough