WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?

THREE DAYS LATER

In the small town of Ponyville, there was a renowned shop called, "Carousel Boutique". As the name suggested, it had a resemblance to a carousel—or merry-go-round—from the outside, having a largely cylindrical building shape with decorative pillars and pony sculptures lining the lower and upper exterior. It served as the home and workplace of a ladylike fashionista named, Rarity, who made a living designing and crafting glamorous dresses for her customers and friends.

The reason why her designs were acclaimed by many was because her incredible attention to detail. She always knew just the right type of color and accessory to put to each dress, and made sure to add tiny alterations to them so that each dress could be unique in their own way. While this kind of work would often feel tedious for other ponies, but for Rarity, seeing her customers and friends be astounded by her products was always worth the effort.

She did much of her designing in her workroom, which was located at the first floor of her boutique. The room was stocked with materials and supplies such as mirrors, dress form mannequins, movable screens, and a small display stage. She spent most of her work days there and only came out of the room to either interact with the customers or sleep in her bedroom upstairs (which also served as her inspiration room). On one particular morning, while she was just finishing up the dresses ordered by Sapphire Shores (the second greatest pop star in Equestria and Rarity's most important client yet), she heard the sound of the bell attached to her doorstep and quickly exited the room to greet the customer while saying, "Coming! Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique."

However, the moment she took a good look at the "customer", her happiness turned to utter shock and she could not help but let out an extremely loud gasp.

It was a unicorn mare with a broken horn, azure coat, bottle green hair, marigold waistcoat, green patterned dress shirt, brown pants that covered up her cutie mark, and a face that resembled that of a clown. It was painted white with tear-like blue markings around the eyes and a bright red smile on the mouth. She was holding a wooden walking cane with her left hoof while leaning against the door with her right shoulder and she devilishly grinned at Rarity upon seeing her.

Rarity, meanwhile, was still gobsmacked from looking at the unicorn before her. Thankfully, she managed to get a hold of her senses after shaking her head a few times and asked, "Um... I-Is there anything I can help you with, darling?"

The unicorn then snickered a bit before replying, "Why, yes, I believe there is, 'darling'. I am in desperate need of a suit for tonight. Now, before you say anything, no, I'm not looking for a regular black tuxedo and pants. Instead, I want something with a little more color in it. Perhaps, something with red, purple, or blue. What do you think?"

Even though, Rarity found this request to be all kinds of odd, she nevertheless managed to say, "Well... I-I'm not sure I have a suit that matches your description, but you're welcome to look at the ones that I do have. This way, please."

As she pointed towards a corner of the shop that contained various types of suits, the unicorn promptly headed towards that direction while also exclaiming, "Oh, thank you so much, dearie! I don't know what I ever could've done without you!"

Rarity responded by giving her a nervous smile and then followed after her. While she inspected the products, the anxious fashionista stood beside her and could not help but ask, "You know, your voice does sound a bit familiar. Have we met before, by any chance?"

Without looking at her, the unicorn replied, "Maybe we did. Maybe we didn't. Memory is such a fickle thing. You never know when you'll forget something important. Like how great and powerful I once was."

As soon as Rarity heard that last sentence, Rarity let out another loud gasp and shouted, "TRIXIE?! Is that really you?! What's happened to you?!"

"Ah, there it is!", Trixie then declared still without looking at Rarity and took one of the items from the shelf in front of her. She held in her right hoof a crimson slim fit suit and merrily announced, "This is absolutely perfect! How much is it?"

Though she stammered a bit, Rarity eventually composed herself and furiously said, "That doesn't matter right now! What really matters is you telling me what are you really doing in my shop, why are you dressed like that, and why in the name of Celestia do you have that make-up on your face."

"Ugh, fine! I suppose I can kill some time with a little chit-chat", said Trixie before finally looking at Rarity. She then announced, "Like I said, I'm here to buy a suit for a big event tonight. I have this make-up on me, because I'm part of a circus now and we'll soon be setting up our tent just outside Ponyville. As for the clothes I'm wearing, they were the only ones I could afford with the money I gained from selling my wagon and all of my props. Why these clothes in particular? I dunno. I thought they'd look cool when I bought them. Anything else you wanna know or will you finally tell me how much the bloody suit costs?"

Even though Rarity took some time to process everything Trixie had told her, she eventually took a deep breath and said, "That would be fifteen bits. I didn't even know a circus was coming to town."

"There's a circus in town?!", a high-pitched voice suddenly asked with great excitement and when the two unicorns turned towards the direction it had come from, they saw that it belonged to a unicorn filly who had the same coat color as Rarity. Moreover, she had pale, light grayish harlequin eyes, and a grayish mulberry mane with pale, light grayish rose streaks.

Upon noticing her, a wide smile appeared on Trixie's face and she happily said, "Well, hello there, young lady! You must be Rarity's little sister. You know, I had a little brother about your age. I'm positively sure the two of you would've been the best of pals if he was here with me today."

Before her sister could give a reply, Rarity interjected, "Wait, did you just say you 'had' a brother? What hap-"

SHLUK!!!

SHLUK!!!

Without giving her a chance to finish her sentence, Trixie used the pointy edge of her cane to stab Rarity in both eyes. As she loudly screamed in very intense pain while covering her eyes with her front hooves and trying to stand on her hind legs, her sister also screamed in pure terror. Trixie, however, only let out a hysterical laughter and tossed the cane to Rarity's head, causing her to lose her balance and fall down. Then, after laying on the ground for a few seconds, she felt the cane a couple inches from her face, grabbed it with both hooves, stood back up on her hind legs, and began to wildly swing the cane in the air, trying to hit Trixie with it.

In response, Trixie casually removed her waistcoat and shirt, threw both them and the suit to the ground, grabbed the frantically struggling filly, covered her mouth, and waited for Rarity to come closer to them. A short while later she did so and the moment she was about to hit Trixie, the psychotic unicorn blocked her strike with her own sister's body and made a pained sound to trick Rarity.

Rarity then swung the cane five more times and Trixie once again deflected each of those attacks by holding the filly's body at their trajectory while also letting out noises that made it sound like she had been hit. Right after the fifth swing, she dropped to the door, placed the filly's blood-soaked and nearly lifeless body right next to her, and begged, "STOP! I can't take it anymore! You win! You've beaten me!"

Rarity did not listen and continued to attack her with the cane, with each of those attacks hitting her sister's body and Trixie still making painful noises. Right after the sixth strike, she made a sound that gave the impression that she was finally dead, when in reality, it was the filly who was finally dead. As Rarity started to breathe very heavily, Trixie quietly got up, picked up her clothes, and made her way to the workroom. Once inside, she wiped away the blood on her body with a large piece of fabric she found there before putting on the clothes and admiring her new look in the mirror.

Then, she headed towards the exit and just as she was about to head out of the door, she announced, "Well, Rarity, it's been fun catching up, but I gotta go now. I need to stop by a couple more places before the big show tonight. I wish you could be there to see it, but fate is really cruel sometimes, isn't it? Anyway, I sadly don't have fifteen bits on me at the moment, but the cane you're holding also costs fifteen bits. So, I guess that's a fair trade. See ya!"

Shortly after waving good-bye and walking away from the boutique, she laughed once again upon hearing a scream loud enough to shatter every single window.