Corruption is Magic: Art of the Mannequin

by Volcash

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Twilight guiltily entered Rarity’s back room and sighed. “Alright, lets get this over with. Who is it this time?” Sweetie Belle stared up at Twilight from the floor with her beady, sad puppy dog eyes, tied up with bright red ribbons. On either side of the sobbing white filly were Applebloom and Scootaloo, bound and gagged like their friend. The three little fillies squirmed desperately, even though their chances of escape were slim to none.

“Oh my Celestia!” Twilight shouted. “How could you?!?”

“Her friends found out," Rarity stated matter-of-factly, "And I lost control of Sweetie Belle. I had no choice.”

“They’re just fillies! And one of them is your sister for Celestia’s sake!” Twilight and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were all weeping uncontrollably.

“Think of it this way, darling. After Sweetie Belle and her friends are turned into mannequins, that will make an even two dozen, and I will no longer require your services.”

“I’m sorry, Rarity. I’ve been nothing if not cooperative these past few weeks, but murdering fillies is where I draw the line.”

“Twilight, you agreed…”

Twilight stared sternly into Rarity’s eyes, trying her best to keep her voice level under the extreme emotional pressure. “I am aware of the agreement, Rarity, but I refuse to murder your sister.”

Rarity looked disappointed in Twilight. “Well… I guess I can let you out of your contract early.”

Twilight’s ears perked up as she gave a slightly disbelieving smile. “Really? You’ll give me back Spike?”

“I never said that.”

Rarity’s horn lit up white, a magic inhibitor clamped over Twilight’s horn, and a spool of ribbon snaked around the purple mare’s legs, sending her falling to the floor. “I’ll just have to dispose of the four of you the old fashioned way.”

“Rarity, please! Don’t do this!” Twilight wailed. “I’m your best friend!”

Rarity gave a condescending glance down at Twilight. “Oh please, Twilight. This was going to happen eventually. You didn’t honestly expect me to trust that you would keep quiet about this operation when I was done with you, did you?”

Twilight’s cheeks turned a shade of pink similar to Fluttershy’s mane. “Well…kind of?” Her answer came out as a barely audible whimper.

“Wow, for somepony so intelligent, you can be really foalish sometimes.”

Twilight’s horn sparked, but the inhibitor immediately shocked her, faltering her focus. She gritted her teeth, and tried again. She collected her immense magic reserves into a single spell, and her horn glowed blindingly bright, lighting up the room as if it were the middle of the day. The inhibitor beeped harshly as a rain of sparks connected with the top of Twilight’s head, but she held fast to her spell.

Several sparks flew out of the top of the inhibitor and shot randomly around the room. It stopped beeping, and a wisp of smoke curled up into the air as its circuits overloaded. The black metal box glowed purple and exploded, freeing Twilight’s horn, which immediately began another spell.

The ribbons unraveled from Twilight’s legs, and Rarity’s backup inhibitor flew off of a nearby shelf, clamping onto Rarity’s horn. Rarity was smothered in Twilight’s purple magic aura, and she was lifted off of the ground. She flipped over, slammed down onto the floor of the room, and was pinned down by Twilight’s magic. The angry white unicorn’s back was flat against the floor, and her front hooves were lifted above her head.

Rarity attempted to repeat Twilight’s success with overloading the inhibitor, but she couldn’t even hope to match Twilight’s level of magical strength. The inhibitor absorbed Rarity’s magic effortlessly, converting every last bit of magic into a powerful jolt of electricity, surging directly into Rarity’s head.

Twilight directed a portion of her magic to Rarity’s sledgehammer, drifting it in Rarity’s direction.

The detained white unicorn squinted. “You don’t have the guts.”

“Don’t be so sure about that, Rarity. For almost a month I’ve done nothing but watch you kill ponies, and I think it’s time I tried my hoof at it.”

“Go ahead… I bucking dare you!”

Twilight brought the heavy iron hammer over Rarity’s body, and it hovered there motionless for several moments.

Come on, Twilight, the purple unicorn thought to herself. This has to stop. Killing her is the only way to bring all of this hurt to an end. Twilight closed her eyes. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Rarity. But at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to drop the hammer. It loomed several feet above Rarity’s body, and refused to move any closer.

“I knew it,” Rarity said. “You would never kill me. You’re too nice. You wouldn’t harm a parasprite!”

Twilight’s eyes drifted around the room, and all of the memories of the past month of pain and suffering flashed before her eyes. She saw twenty-one terrified pony faces in every single mannequin around the room.

She looked up, and noticed a new edition to the room. Rarity had taken Lyra’s disembodied head and mounted it on a wooden plaque, which now hung from the wall. Twilight looked deep into the green mare’s empty eyes, and flashed back to that horrible night. Bonbon’s shrill, mortified screams as Lyra was bludgeoned to death echoed through Twilight’s head, just as they had done every waking moment for the past forty-eight hours.

Twilight’s eyes fell down upon the three trembling fillies, still bound and helpless on the floor. Twilight locked eyes with Sweetie Belle, and then returned her attention to the other white unicorn struggling on the floor.

“You’re right,” Twilight said, “I wouldn’t harm a parasprite. But you’re lower than a parasprite.” Twilight raised the hammer higher, and finally brought it crashing down on Rarity’s chest.

Rarity screamed as every one of her ribs simultaneously shattered. Her cries of pain were cut short by a vicious coughing fit. She hacked up ounce after ounce of crimson blood until she was finally met by the sweet mercy of death. She shut her eyes one final time, and blacked out.

Twilight removed the magic aura from around Rarity, and untied the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Applebloom and Scootaloo immediately galloped over to Twilight and clung to her legs like newborn foals to their mother. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” The two fillies praised. They would have broken down crying out of sheer joy, but their eyes had run dry thinking about what Rarity had planned to do to them.

While Applebloom and Scootaloo groveled at Twilight’s hooves, Sweetie Belle remained completely silent, still staring at Rarity’s pulverized ribcage. She looked down at the floor around Rarity, and saw her sister’s blood splattered all over it. She turned away and closed her eyes. She couldn’t bear to look at her sister; especially after all she’d been through these past few days.

Twilight draped a foreleg over Sweetie Belle’s shoulder, shaking the trembling orange filly off of her leg in the process.

“It’ll be alright,” Twilight assured, only half believing herself. “It’s all over now.”

Sweetie Belle waited a moment before finding the courage to speak. “But…Rarity was…And…You j-j-just…” Sweetie Belle was too traumatized to finish a single sentence.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but I did what I had to do. You and I both know there was no other way to stop her from killing innocent ponies.”

“But where am I going to live? My parents won’t be back from their vacation for another three days.”

“It’s okay. You can stay with me and Spike at the…Spike! I almost forgot about him. Do you know where Rarity took him?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I wasn’t even aware that Rarity had him.”

Twilight trotted out into the main room of the boutique. “SPIKE! Where are you?” She heard a faint, muffled voice, and put an ear to the ground.

“Twilight! I’m down here! In the basement!”

Twilight galloped down to the basement, and found her purple dragon friend jumping for joy.

“Twilight!” Spike yelled in elation. “Thank Celestia you found me! Where’s Rarity?”

“She…She’s dead.” Twilight broke the lock on Spike’s cage with her magic, and Spike ran up to the purple unicorn, clutching her leg with all of his might.

“It’s okay now Spike. I’m here, Rarity is dead, and everything is going to go back to normal.” Twilight and her faithful assistant shed tears of joy from their long awaited reunion.

Twilight, Spike and Sweetie Belle filed into the Ponyville Library, and Twilight tucked the little filly into her ad interim bed. Twilight came back downstairs and called out to Spike. “Spike, take a letter.”

“Wait a minute,” Spike said. “You’re not actually going to tell Celestia all of this, are you?”

“Well… yes and no.”

Spike grabbed a quill and parchment, and transcribed Twilight’s every word:

Dear Princess Celestia,

I apologize for not being able to write you for the past month. Spike has been rather tied up lately. But I assure you; I have learned something very important over these past few weeks. Friendship requires a give and take, and that means doing favors for your friends. But the generosity of a friend has its limits. A true friend should know what request is too much, and should do what is best for them, even if it may break their heart.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Comments

[Pwner1]

that was pretty cool

[lordofmyth]

................and of course neither celestia, luna the dream walker, or anytone else is gonna notice rarity is gone............. flawed narrativ is often a failed narrative.

[Volcash]

3747044 It's not that no one would notice that she went missing, but with proper disposal of the body, no one would know what happened. And the only ones who would know what Rarity and Twilight had been doing would either be dead, or would owe Twilight big.

[lordofmyth]

3747244 that only works in a realm without magic and dreamwalkers. Luna would easily notice the loss of pony dreamers and would be able to figure out the fate of rarity and so many innoccent ponies through these dreams. Sweetie belle will ahve nightmares about this. hell twilight would ahve had nightmares during this time.

also i do not think transmogrification would have killed those ponies to begin with. i mean a bird can be turned into half orange and half bird and sitll function and i am pretty sure that twlight's parents had no ill effects from becoming plants fully. basically it would be like discord turnign to stone. they would be alive so long as someone did not take a sledgehammer to them and break them. they would be trapped in an unmoving ngihtmare but alive.

............. why didn't twilight simply send a message to celestia? if she learned rarity was murdering ponies and tiwligth was in danger, she would have teleported right into the boutique and rarity would ahve to deal with a veyr pissed regent of sun and day.

[SkyStream]

3747320

you seem to have forgot a detail about sending a message... Spike was TRAPPED. Twilight doesn't have D-mail installed in her and upon mailing the letter the conventional way, it would have taken a few days (as I don't believe there's priority mail in Equestria due to D-mail) where Twilight would have potentially busted herself by seeming to have a weight off her chest. But dream-walking and the complete erasure of ponies from the minds of other ponies IS an efficient argument.

[lordofmyth]

3747591 ............ how do you rease the memory of everyone in a damn town at once? even discord had to take things pesonal touch, literally, with ponies.
and all she would need to do is get a letter right to spike, him breathe fire, and seconds later we have Celestia pissed out of her mind.

[SkyStream]

3747609

first of all... let's get rid of the Spike argument, she didn't know Spike was in the basement until after killing Rarity and had she tried looking for him at night, Rarity would have probably terminated their contract. Anyways, Twi seemed too traumatized to go to Carousel Boutique other than when she was called there. As for memory erasure... you know Cinnamon Buns? no. No one seemed to remember her so my guess is Twilight knows a Field-type Forget spell but it takes some time to finish burning and erase all memories.

I also had time to think up a theory as to why being turned into Plaster killed the ponies (from suffocation). Your argument was that a bird turned into an orange could still breathe well.... the episode showed it as a single-shot spell of the Transmogrification category. Now plaster.... To me it seemed more like a CHANNELING spell of the SEALING category which would definitely block he Pony's airway. Now your argument also had Discord stuck in stone which was another sealing spell... but who said that Discord needs to breathe? Checkmate

[lordofmyth]

3749810 considering the frog that was chagned was alive and functioning HOURS after the transformation, i am pretty sure ti was alive.

also twilight parents were turned into potted plants. potted plants do not respirate the same way animals do. and they survived.

more than likely any transformation done by magic can be reversed, though with varying amounts of success. being transformed into a living, inanimate object, rather than mixed with something else like futtrshy did, probably would mean you are dormant and can be changed back.

also even if twilight had such a memory spell it would not work. people would find triggers all over the place and begin to remember. wheather them wondering why this house was vacant, or even havning pictures of the missing ponies. so that part of the plot does not work.
and as said, Luna. not only would that memory field unlikely affect canterlot, but would likely not affect an alicorn. and luna would notice that there are ponies disappearing. and with rarity's disapperance, she will investigate. and she will learn.

and you can't suffocate when you are turned into somethign else. by that logic tiwlight should have been dead as dead by the cockatrice. unless a unicorn can hold breath for hours.

[SkyStream]

3749837
but that's just it, what you are referencing are TRANSFORMATION spells and sure, I had forgot the Cockatrice.... but there's a possible reason for it. That this particular stone-turning is another transformation magic, I read another fic yesterday where the Cockatrice stare works by petrifying every little magic particle in the subject's body, this could explain body conservation. And anyways.... even if the Plaster was indeed a transformation.... it ONLY transformed the skin, the organs weren't transformed as well thus meaning they still had the same requirements to keep working as if it was a normal pony.

[ScarletandLunaRcool]

I love it

'Nother alternate: Twilight doesn't kill Rarity, but brings her to all mighty Tia, justice is served, yadda yadda yadda

[Brody Deitrick]

u had to kill lyra didn't u?!Didn't u?!