True to her word, Rarity was trying her best to stay home for the day, letting the paranoia from the news cloud her thoughts. She attempted to take her mind off the whole ordeal by doing things that interested her: sewing, drawing up some new dress designs for her boutique, perusing all the gems in her collection, anything to keep her occupied. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake the reality of the situation from her mind, and the worst-case scenario kept creeping back up.

Surely, whoever's after them can't be after me, too...right? she thought as she made herself some tea. Oh, buck up, Rarity. You can't just stay holed up in the house forever.

She sat down at the kitchen table sipping her tea with her cat Opalescence curled up beneath her, considering the consequences, the warmth of the tea going down her throat helping her to calm down a little. Soon, she came to the conclusion that she couldn't think of anypony who would have any reason to go after her. She hadn't wronged anypony, so there wasn't that much reason to worry so much.

Oh, I'm just being a fool. Rarity thought, chuckling to herself. I'll just have to be a little more careful from now on, that's all.

Looking outside, she noted the beautiful weather for the day and decided that a little afternoon stroll would clear her mind. With one last sip of her tea, she headed out, making sure to lock the door and put the key under the mat. Once Rarity began her walk, she took a deep, soothing breath of the fresh spring air, filling her lungs with a pleasant sensation. Rainbow Dash must have really outdone herself today along with all the other weather pegasi.

After a few minutes, Rarity saw Twilight sprinting in her direction, and greeted her with a smile.

"Good afternoon, Twilight. How are y-"

"HiRaritycan'ttalkgottagobye!" Twilight said quickly, speeding past Rarity with barely a glance at her. Rarity was left looking back at the unicorn with a confused expression. Spike began running past her as well, and Rarity stopped him.

"Spike? What's going on?" she asked.

Spike turned around and, knowing who was speaking to him, blushed and looked bashful, as always whenever he interacts with his longtime crush. "Oh, uh, h-hey, Rarity." he said. "Twilight just figured something out, so I'm trying to help her. I don't know anymore than that. Uh, see ya!" Then he turned around quickly and sprinted towards Twilight.

Though bewildered, Rarity shrugged this off, jotting it down as Twilight suddenly having a burst of inspiration to do some research, and so continued her walk. It was just when she was getting Twilight out of her mind when she saw Sugarcube Corner, noticing that it was completely dark.

Huh? Sugarcube Corner shouldn't be closed already. she thought, raising an eyebrow in confusion and going towards the building to investigate. Upon reaching the front door, she saw that a sign had been placed on it, saying "Closed due to unexpected fires. Super-duper sorry!" Feeling a tinge of fear go up her spine, Rarity knocked on the door.

"Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie, darling! Are you all right?" she called out. She was greeted with nothing but silence and a gust of wind. Her frightened state only got worse once the news story passed through her mind again, and once again, the worst-case scenario came to her. She knocked even harder. "Pinkie! Please say something!"

Still no answer.

Well, if she's not answering, I can at least see if she's doing okay.

With the front door being locked, however, she had to come up with another entry point to utilize. Figuring that a window would do just as well, she wandered around the building and tried to look inside. Heading around the right side, she eventually reached the basement window.

What she saw left her utterly speechless.

She saw Pinkie, but she had changed in appearance. Rather than her signature poofy mane, it was now limp and straight, and her coat had a slightly darker shade to it. When Pinkie noticed Rarity and looked towards her, the unicorn could see that all the happiness and light in her eyes seem to have left her, feeling more cold and empty.

But this wasn't what left her speechless. It was everything inside the basement that drew a shocked pause.

A medical table lay in the center, with red stains here and there. The table had gears and a lever as if it was made to be tilted up and down. Next to it was a tray of surgical tools, many of which had similar stains on the sharp edges. And somewhere in the corner, just in her line of sight, was a dead body, mutilated and cut open. Worst of all, she recognized who the body was. It was Gilda, her face frozen in a terrified expression and her eyes left soulless and unseeing.

Putting the pieces together, Rarity slowly turned her head back towards Pinkie, her pupils dilating in horror with every passing second. "P-...Pinkie...?" she squeaked out.

Pinkie went toward her with an angry expression and put her face as close to Rarity's as she possibly could with the window being closed.

"You. Saw. Nothing." she growled, and closed the curtain.

Rarity felt as if her whole worldview was being twisted and warped more and more as she processed what she just saw. The idea of Pinkie being responsible for Gilda going missing and her subsequent murder was too much for her, and she ran back home as quickly as possible, only letting out whimpers as she did so.

--

Once she saw Rarity leave, Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief, then felt a surge of fury. "Do you mean to tell me that you forgot to close the curtain?!" she shouted.

I-I'm sorry! I could have sworn I did, but I...I guess I did forget...

Frustration coursing through her brain, Pinkie began rubbing her head with her hooves, trying to think of a solution. "Clearly, you're out of practice. Well, you know what they say: If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." she said.

Okay...but what about Rarity?

Pinkie smirked. "What about her?"

Well, she saw everything! What if she tells somepony and we end up in jail, or worse?! Going to prison doesn't sound like fun at all...

"Oh, please. She won't tell anypony." she replied, chuckling. "I know her type. She'll just cower in her home and be too afraid to say anything. She's worried that I might do something to her."

You...You wouldn't, right?

"No promises." Pinkie stated. "In the meantime, I've got to clean up the mess and take extra precaution. I don't trust you to not make mistakes after what just happened."

Though the voice didn't say anything now, Pinkie could sense that she was feeling guilty over the whole thing, as she should. When it comes to business, it's best to leave it to the professionals.

--

Rarity burst through the front door of the boutique and quickly shut and locked the door. She put her back to it and slowly dropped down, her heart racing and her body shaking all over. Now that she felt slightly safer than she did before, she took the time to process everything.

Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. Pinkie's a murderer, she killed Gilda, she might come after me next, and maybe even Sweetie Belle, and... These thoughts all sped through her brain in rapid-fire succession, and it didn't make the situation any better. She felt a few tears leak out of her eyes and nearly broke down into full-on sobbing when the door handle was being turned. Rarity let out a shriek before the door opened.

"Rarity? What's wrong?" Sweetie Belle asked, coming through the door and gazing at her sister with an uneasy expression.

Rarity took some deep breaths before speaking. "Oh, Sweetie Belle, you startled me..."

"It sounded like you were in danger. Is somepony out to get you?" the filly questioned.

Rarity opened her mouth to respond, but reconsidered her response. She thought of telling Sweetie Belle outright what was going on, but there were two things preventing her from doing so. Pinkie would most certainly be after her now, so telling anyone anything, let alone Sweetie Belle, would mean more danger and more death to follow. On top of that, Sweetie Belle was just a little filly with a whole life ahead of her and full of innocence. The last thing she would need to hear about at her age was one of her sister's friends being a murderer.

"Oh, no, don't be ridiculous." Rarity said, laughing and waving a hoof dismissively. "It's just your big sister being paranoid again, that's all."

Though bewildered at first, Sweetie Belle shrugged. "I guess that makes sense." she said, heading upstairs to her room.

Rarity let out a sigh, hoping that Sweetie wouldn't have to know about what Pinkie was up to.

--

A few days later, the boutique was still closed and a storm was raging outside. Deciding that she wouldn't have the emotional capacity to handle working for a while, Rarity had closed the boutique down ever since her discovery, putting a sign on the front door that read "Closed for an indeterminate amount of time". Her business was important, of course, but there was no way she was going to be able to help it run when she was this distressed.

For the last few days, Rarity had kept herself secluded in her house, her anxiety overtaking her entire being. There were times when one or more of her friends had come by to ask what was going on, but Rarity had remained dismissive and vague, making excuses like her being sick and needing to find inspiration, and shutting the door on them. She couldn't risk Pinkie coming after her.

She was in her bedroom, laying on the bed and looking out the window at the evening storm. Rain was pouring down in all directions, splashing the glass and obscuring the outside view. Lightning flashed and thunder crashed at nearly regular intervals, making the mare glad that she had decided to stay inside. One of the things she hated most was having a wet mane from standing out in the rain, especially after having to do so on a dare from Applejack one time at a sleepover.

Rarity took this as a chance to contemplate Pinkie's secret in a fitting atmosphere. Above all else, she felt trepidation and fear encompass her, but by this point, she was getting used to it. Because of this, she became aware of something else that lurked beneath and that she had unconsciously been keeping buried inside her.

Desire.

She couldn't explain it, but Pinkie's actions helped awaken a certain...excitement that she had never known before, as if a sneaky beast had found its way into her and was now lightly growling to be let out. But what could be causing it? she wondered. There's nothing to be excited about. Pinkie's killing ponies and doing Celestia knows what with them!

And yet...

"Meow..."

Snapping back to reality, Rarity turned to the source of the noise and saw Opal lying on the floor in her cat bed. In her reverie, Rarity had forgotten that Opal was in the room. From the way her meow sounded, the cat was scared and unsettled by the storm. Rarity could see that Opal was shaking, and couldn't help but see herself from just a few days ago in front of her. Getting out of bed, she walked slowly toward the cat, trying not to startle her.

"Oh, Opal, it's okay. It's just a storm, it'll blow over." Rarity said soothingly. Opal, however, didn't appear to listen and kept herself curled up, mewing distressingly all the while. "Opal..." Rarity said again, reaching toward the cat. At that moment, Opal began growling lightly. "Opal?"

With a loud howl, Opal opened her eyes, stood up, and scratched at Rarity, leaving three claw marks over her left eyelid.

"Ow! Why, you little..." In a fit of blind fury, Rarity smacked at Opal, sending her flying towards the wall and smacking against it with a loud, sickening crunch. Opal fell and landed limply on the floor, not moving a muscle. Rarity felt her anger ebb away over a few seconds, and her rage was replaced with extreme concern.

"O-Opal...?" she squeaked. The cat didn't move, not even a motion of breathing indicating that she was alive.

Rarity took a few steps back instinctively, putting a hoof to her mouth in shock.

I...I killed her...

At that point, several questions came to her, each of which was even more unsettling than the last.

How could I do such a thing? What do I do with the body? Do I tell the police? What if Sweetie Belle finds out? What if my friends find out? What do I do about my cut? And...

Why do I feel wet below my haunches?

This last question caused her to look down towards her private area, and that's when she knew her suspicion to be true.

She was aroused.

For a few seconds, Rarity couldn't put her hoof on exactly what could be causing her to become aroused now of all times. It couldn't have been killing Opal because she would never cause harm to any creature unless they absolutely deserved it. Opal was just acting on instinct.

But then she remembered the scratch Opal had given her, and she put a hoof to her left eye. Bringing it back out to see it, the wound was still letting out blood. The only positive is that the eye itself wasn't cut, so she could still see out of it. But once she focused on the wound itself, a tingle went through her haunches, and her arousal increased.

It was then that Rarity realized that her getting cut open was making her hornier than she had ever been in her life.

Disbelief and horror taking over, she took the blanket from her bed, threw it over Opal's body, and ran to the bathroom, locking herself inside. She looked at herself in the mirror, inspecting the wound on her eye.

What is wrong with me...? she asked herself, feeling her arousal go down her back legs.

--

Discord's statue cracked a little more.

Author's Note

From this point on, the story's heavier topics will be getting more of a focus than before. And for the Mane Six, things will only get worst from here...