Sweeter Sense

Sweetie Belle’s eyes shot wide open as a smile appeared on her face when she recognized the sweet voice of her loving sister. Her coat was smeared with dirt from the hole she had dug, and, unknown to her, her ears had gotten pointier and ridged skin formed inside them. Her eyes glowed a dark green as she woken up from unconsciousness.

“Sweetie Belle, dinner was ready minutes ago! Come in here and eat or else I’ll  come back there and drag you in here, myself!”

She positioned her two, small hooves on the edges of the hole and with a hard push, She heaved herself out and landed on the soft green grass. “Rarity, how glad am I to see--”  She stared, open-mouthed, at the sight of… nothing. The hole she had labored over was completely empty.

Swarms of different noises attacked her ears. She tried to block the sound out by covering her ears with her hooves.The sound of beating of hoofsteps, the smashing of dropped glass, and a door being slammed shut somewhere still brought unbearable pain to the young filly.

“Aaaaah!” Sweetie Belle shrieked.

“Breathe.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. She sucked in a sharp breath, the sounds seemed to have calmed down. “Gaaah!” Sweetie Belle shook her head, her breathing became faster and more shallow; the sounds she had heard were not pleasant, “What was that!?”

“That was your senses at their full potential.”

“That’s what happen to Scootaloo on her birthday...” She ran a hoof over her ears, she noticed that they felt pointier and fluffier. “What happened to my ears!?”

“They’ve grown. That’s how a Thestral’s ears feel.”

“Sweetie Belle, I’ll count to three and when I reach three. I’m coming back there!” Rarity called.

“One.”

“Where are you? I need your help here!” The white filly pleaded to the strange, disembodied voice.

“Two.” Her sister’s voice sounded closer; more threatening.

“Show me a sign that you’re here!” Sweetie Belle pleaded, “Please!”

“Three!”

A stallion appeared in front of Sweetie Belle. There was black armor covering his coat dark blue, which was the same color as Nightmare Moon; his eyes glowed a yellow color and as he smirked, his teeth, sharp fangs.

“Gladly.” He wrapped his forelegs around Sweetie Belle, his purple webbed wings flared out in the air as they began to flap, gaining the pair altitude.

Sweetie Belle’s entire body quivered as she spoke, “Wh-wh-who are you?” she asked, trying to push herself away from the strange stallion.

“I am your maker,”  He said, then took off into the air, along with Sweetie Belle clinging onto his waist for dear life.

“THIS ISN’T FUNNY!” She shouted, through the rushing wind as it stroke her face, “PUT ME DOWN!”

“I cannot do that.”

“Why!?”

“I’m not the one flying, now am I?”

Sweetie Belle no longer felt the stallion’s hooves wrapped around her. She looked behind her and saw he had disappeared and purple, webbed wings grown onto her back. “Wh-what the hay is happening to me!”

“I’ve granted you the life of a Thestral. Is that not what you accepted to?”

As Sweetie Belle turned her head, her eyes widened at the sight of a cottage a couple hundred feet away heading towards her. “How do I control theses wings!?”

“You do not control them. They control you.”

The cryptic ‘advice’ confused Sweetie; it didn’t help that her mind was slightly preoccupied with avoiding a painful-looking crash. “That doesn’t make any sense at all!” Sweetie Belle tried to pivot herself to the right, to avoid smashing into the cottage, but she swerved sharply up and to the left, instead, and smashed through a cloud. “Gah! I don’t understand these things!”

She tried countless times to avoid the clouds that lay ahead of her, but she kept slamming into them and almost falling out the sky. “I hate clouds!”  she looked behind to see if something was following her.

“LOOK OUT!” Shouted a pony.

Sweetie Belle turned her attention to the front. “Ohhhhh shhh--!” her choice of words was fortunately cut of as she smashed into a food stand positioned in the middle of the street. She laid there in the broken pieces of wood and produce, not even bothering to move.

“Looks like you need some help,”

She lifted her head to see who was talking to her. Her vision was blurry, and she couldn’t quite determine how the figure looked, so she just smirked and giggled. “That was fun,” her voice sounding loopy after the crash.

“Are you okay?” asked, the stallion, “You crashed into that stand pretty hard.”

Sweetie Belle waved a hoof. “Pfff, that was nothing!” she claimed, a painful sensation shot through her sides, making her regret her words,  “Okay, nevermind, it was something,” she winced.

“My name’s Stargazer, and I am the leader of the lost children of the legendary Thanatos.” Stargazer, a Thestral who looked older than the two others behind him, had wrinkles under his eyes. He also had some grey hairs mixed into his black mane and light blue coat.

 He trotted up to Sweetie Belle. He knelt down to her wings and ran a hoof over them, staring in wonder. “I see you’re a Thestral.”

“A what now?” She looked at the wing the stallion was touching and let out a bubbly giggle, “Oh yeah, that, yeah, I just turned into one today!”

“Did you just say you turned into one?” Stargazer asked incredulously, “May I ask how you did it?”

“I found a funny glowing moon-thing in my backyard,” She giggled, her concussion making her eyes droop down more and more, “It came with a weird stallion talking to me. Then I turned into a Thestral.”

Star gazer rubbed his chin and nodded. “I see. Well, all you need to worry about right now is staying awake. Do you hear me?”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yup!” She exclaimed, then swayed dangerously on her tiny hooves as her eyes closed and she collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Two more stallions came down from the sky and landed next to the graying stallion. They wore the same, black armor and had purple, webbed wings like her, one had a brown coat with a black mane, the other had a grey coat and red mane.

He turned to the new arrivals. “Take her. I have plans for her,” he ordered. They nodded and trotted to Sweetie Belle, one of them placed her onto his back and took off into the sky.

The Thestral trotted to Stargazer then saluted. “Sir, permission to ask a question?”

“Granted.”

“Why are we taking her to our headquarters?” He asked. “Shouldn’t we take her to the hospital?  She looked pretty bad.”

Stargazer watched Sweetie Belle flew away into the skies until she was out of sight. “Because she said something about finding the moon, as well as need of medical attention.”

“Sir, you can’t mean--” The stallion began before being interrupted by Stargazer.

“She found what we were looking for all those years.” He turned to the stallion, his face void of emotion, save sheer determination. “She found Thanatos.”