Rarity's Puzzling Robbery

Rarity's Puzzling Robbery

Some weeks later, near the end of May, a strange robbery occurred at the shop of Rarity, the fashionist. Shortly before dawn one morning, Rarity was having something she called, 'beauty sleep' when she was awakened by the sound of bare hoofs trotting softly outside her bedroom door and down her staircase. That night, Rarity had been watching her sister Sweetybell, a younger, but just a beautiful unicorn as Rarity.

         When Rarity heard the steps, she assumed it was just Sweetybell getting a glass of water. However, she was shaken awake by her sister who seemed to be a bit frightened. "Wake up, Rarity," Sweetybell whispered to her sleeping sister. "Somepony's here in the shop!" Rarity groaned as lady-like as possible as she stepped out of her bed and slid on all four of her slippers. Placing her bath robes around herself, she was still impaired in the sense that she was doing things quite slowly. That is, until a loud crash down the stairs startled her.

         "Robbers, in my shop? I'll destroy them!" Rarity exclaimed, now fully awake. She had finally noticed the seriousness of the situation. Arming herself with a certain rod in the corner of the room, Sweetybell and herself crept to their bedroom door and listened for a sound. They heard noises coming from Rarity's sowing room downstairs, followed by a loud sneeze. With Sweetybell closely behind Rarity, they made their way down the stairs. These were dark because it was still dark outside.

         The silence was broken only by the faint creaking of the stairs and some odd sniffles and the rustling of some papers in the sowing room. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, everything was quiet again. They stood at the half open door and peered inside. The room that had been left in darkness the night before was now lit up by a candle on the desk.

Its light revealed an open chest in the corner of the room, but there was no sign of a robber. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the clinking of coins and jewelry.

"He's found our supplies drawer," whispered Sweetybell. "Isn't that where you keep your jewels?"

This news sent Rarity into action. Clenching the rod firmly between her teeth she rushed into the room, shouting fiercely, "It. Is. On!" However, Rarity stopped so suddenly that Sweetybell, following closely behind Rarity, crashed into her. "Why, the room is empty!" Rarity cried, looking around in astonishment.

"But I heard somepony in here," insisted Sweetybell. "I'm certain of it."

         They stood gasping for a minute, then they began to search the shop. They probed under the desk, behind the curtains, outside the windows, up the chimney, and even in the wastepaper basket and coal scuttle. "How can this be?" cried the bewildered Rarity. "There's nopony here, yet somepony had to have lit this candle!"

"And the chest!" cried Sweetybell. "it's open and your jewels are gone!"

         "AH-CHOO!" came a violent sneeze from the hallway. The sisters rushed out of the sowing room, only to be stopped by the loud slamming of the kitchen door. As soon as they had caught their breath, they hurried towards the kitchen and flung open the door. Dawn was just beginning to break, and its faint light showed only an empty garden outside. "The cellar!" cried Rarity. "Bring the candle darling, and follow me."

A thorough search of the cellar and every cabinet and pantry in the kitchen revealed nothing. The sisters then went on to inspect every room in the shop. By the time the candle had burned down in Sweetybells lamp, the sisters were just as confused as when they had first seen it start to burn on the study sowing desk. They had been robbed. Mysteriously.