Are Criminals Interesting?
Why was she invited into such a lackluster room? The lack of attractive features to it, as well as the lack of anypony inside, was grating her nerves. She was supposed to meet with that one fancy stallion here of all places, but he hadn't showed up at all. How insulting. It wouldn't have been as bad if the place had an ounce of class to it, but staying inside for minutes on end with no eye-candy was unbearable,
At the very least, there were red curtains covering the whole of the east wall, behind which there should be the door she came in from. Appealing to some degree, though it might do much better for clothing, as the fabric had no opacity at all while still being fair as silk. Without it, however, the room would probably be just a depressing mess of gray, with unkept walls and floor, and two wooden stools as the only comforts it provided. If you could call a flat, hard surface "comfort". It wasn't the best sit for a pony, by any means.
For whatever reason, the sound of magic seemed to ring in her ears. Being an unicorn herself, she was quite used to it, though it could not be originating from her, as she was making no effort to do any magic. Probably just a ghost sound. She had been working a lot before heading to Canterlot for her latest adventure, after all, and imagining hearing what was constantly in the air the past days was perfectly possible. She was just bored.
With a grunt of impatience, and a tough time restricting herself from complaining about it all alone, the mare slid out of her seat and headed for where she remembered the door to be, raising her hoof and sliding part of the curtain to her side.
She was met with a door alright. But not the one she remembered.
The wall was a grid of metal bars. Shining new ones, even. The vertical bars were the most robust and large, while the others just seemed to be a complement. Their gaps might let a hoof pass through, but not more. There was a strange door in the middle, framed by itself but still being made out of bars, with the difference being a comically large keyhole to its left, and no handle to be found.
The mare let out a gasp of surprise, and retreated a few steps. "W-Why, I... This is... Where am I?"
This was definitely not there before. And nor was the environment beyond those bars. She thought she had been waiting inside a chamber in a very low-class Canterlot hotel (not of her own volition, of course). But the outside seemed dark, barren, and lonely. Not at all like any place on that pompous city she knew. It seemed more like a huge basement.
A door opened several yards in front of her. The room she had been at was lit, so this didn't blind her, yet she couldn't make out the figure that entered. It was a slender pony, definitely much bigger than her. She saw the small lumps to the sides hinting wings, yet the door had been opened with... magic?
"P-Princess Celestia!?" She squeaked.
Sure enough, it was the sun princess herself, and as she stepped forward and into a closer radius of the cell, it was clear she was just as surprised as the other mare to see who was inside.
"You're... Rarity?" A small silence ensued. "Hmm. There must have been some mistake, then..."
She had been keeping a piece of paper right under the right wing, but now released it and picked it up with her magic, bringing it to eye level.
"Why, it is a pleasure to meet you at any instance, Princess..." Rarity began in a submissive tone, bowing slightly in the case she looked her way, so as to not look disrespectful. "But I'd certainly be happy to know why it appears now that I'm suddenly your... prisoner?"
"I received a report." Celestia bluntly replied. She was more serious than usual. "It claimed that somepony with a criminal history was attempting to get some attention here in Canterlot for reasons unknown. That would be quite serious." She lowered the letter in front of her, in order to observe Rarity. "You don't happen to know anything about it, do you?"
Rarity's face stiffened, and not long after the sun princess explained herself, the unicorn was sweating. Which was bad both because she now just showed she was very nervous AND she'd need a bath post-haste after this.
"I... Well, most certainly not... I mean... Perhaps a little bit..."
It probably hadn't been a good idea, then. She knew about that. All too well. I mean, the person in question would know better than anyone, right?
A foolish whim. She had been so upset about not being recognized as anything worthwhile in Canterlot. She could mingle with them, to be sure, but her position as a fashionista would have to come up sooner or later. And then the reveal that her boutique was outside, in Ponyville. And then cue losing a lot of credit for that one remark. She had to resort to other means in making herself interesting, or at least divert the subject from ever reaching that reveal until the people or person could be fully trusted. And that wasn't easy. Canterlot was awfully selective about what ranked as "interesting".
But what wouldn't call the attention like claiming to have a criminal record?
She thought it could be innocent enough, at first. Her talent with finding precious gems occasionally led her to occupied land, and her extracting jewels from there could, at a stretch, be considered stealing, right? Most of the time that happened, Rarity actually warned the people living there and gave a share of the jewels to them, but she could omit that fact.
It caused a nice sensation. A unicorn who stole the best jewels for her dresses. Then the dresses must be awesome. They asked for details. How could no one catch her stealing? What method she used? Did she have to supress someone until she was done with her heists? She had to answer all that. Eventually the lie got bigger than she ever intended. It never got quite past "foalnapping", but close.
She thought it had worked! She was the talk of the circle which knew her, for the entire day, and people looked very interested. Looks like a life of following strict rules and being watched by the strongest force of guards in Equestria made them love this sort of thing with a passion. Dreams of breaking the rules. Rarity felt bad about it, but she had gone so far, and there wasn't much turning back. A particularly wealthy pony from the Cornerstone family had asked to meet her, for a huge request, and asked the white mare to keep it as low-key as possible. They arranged, then, to meet up at a pretty uninteresting hotel.
And that was where Rarity thought she had been waiting so far. Apparently she had been wrong.
"Well?" Celestia's voice broke into her flashback. Rarity gulped. She was stuck. Talking her way out from a being so often thought to be omniscient was probably not going to end well. She had no choice but to tell her exactly what had happened and receive the appropriate punishment. And so she did.
Thankfully, by the end of the story, Celestia was... laughing. Well, more like chuckling, but still.
"Is that so?" She spoke afterwards. "Well, it all comes around, then. When Mr. Cornerstone wrote to me, I was surprised by him saying that he knew about a criminal mare was staying in a certain room of an hotel at that very moment. It was a big deal. We want to supress most criminals here as quickly as possible, see, but there aren't many running about. I used my magic to transport the room itself here, so that the mare in question had no chance of escaping."
"But where is 'here', if I may ask?"
"It's a hollow part of the mountain over which Canterlot stays. It was supposed to be a bunker may anything dangerous happen in the city. We made it after Queen Chrysalis last attack."
A pause ensued. Celestia only seemed to have stopped for lack of things to go on explaining, so Rarity began again with the question that was worrying her the most up until now.
"P-Princess, I apologize deeply for the trouble I have caused... I never meant for it to get out of hand, but nevertheless, I accept my fate and am awaiting my sentence. Unless I won't... get punished? Maybe?" It wasn't quite her plan to add the last bits. They were just what she hoped.
Celestia had that cryptic smile in her face again, so there was no telling what she was thinking. At least that meant her mood must have improved, since she was so serious before. "That depends. Did you learn something out of all this?"
Rarity meekly nodded. Celestia's horn glew, and the iron bars door flew open.
"Then it is fine. I expect to hear a report from you out of it, however. As we agreed." She chuckled. With a sigh of relief, Rarity stepped out of the cell. Celestia continued. "I'll take you to the palace. You're free to stay there until you return to Ponyville... Unless you still want to arrange some work here?"
"No no no no no." Rarity shuddered. "I'm afraid I had quite enough of Canterlot for now. I'll be returning to Ponyville by the next train."
Celestia held another laugh, and nodded knowingly. "I understand."