Sweetie Belle dragged a chair from the kitchen and positioned it near the window sill, where she would often take a glance out the window for something to peak her interest, rather than waiting for her sister to come home.
Her eyes trailed off to the train that was leaving Ponyville with her two best friends onboard, abandoning her. She sadly shook her head, I wished they had asked me to come with them.
They haven’t been visiting me since Scootaloo’s change. Now they’re leaving me alone here. Sweetie Belle crossed her forelegs and huffed. This is all her fault.
Sweetie Belle's eyes suddenly widened in shock. It took moments to register what she had just thought and another to snap back into reality. I didn’t mean that! She hopped off her chair and trotted into the other room, where she saw Rarity just entering the house from the front door.
“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, galloping towards her. Once Sweetie Belle had gotten close enough, she wrapped her forelegs around Rarity and pulled her into a big bone-crushing hug. “I missed you!”
“Sweetie… I...need...to breathe!” Rarity winced, feeling the breath seeping from her lungs.
Sweetie Belle released her sister from the forceful embrace and giggled, “Sorry, Sis. It’s just that I’m so happy you came back!”
Rarity gingerly reached behind herself and rubbed her sore back with her two front hooves. “That’s good to hear, Sweetie Belle, but I can’t always be the only pony you want to see.”
Sweetie Belle arched her eyebrow and tilted her head, “What do you mean, Sis?”
“I mean, why haven’t you gone to see your friends? What about Apple Bloom and Dootaloo.”
“It’s Scootaloo,” she corrected, “and Apple Bloom is too busy helping Scootaloo to come see me.” She sighed, “It feels like they’ve forgotten me.”
Rarity felt her heart cringe at Sweetie Belle’s sadness, so she did what she had always done in situations like this. Rarity wrapped her hooves around Sweetie Belle and hugged her tightly. “It's okay. I’m sure they didn’t mean to leave without saying goodbye.”
Sweetie Belle sniffed and wiped the fresh tears that trailed from her eyes. “It’s like I don’t matter to her anymore. It’s always been about Scootaloo!”
Rarity blinked for a couple of seconds before she pulled Sweetie Belle away from the hug and looked into her eyes. “Sweetie, do you… do you have a crush on Apple Bloom?”
Sweetie Belle blushed and frantically shook her head. “No!” she lied, “No, it’s just she spends more time with Scootaloo now and not me!”
Rarity rolled her eyes and giggled. “It sounds like somepony is jealous!” she sang.
“I AM NOT!”
“It’s quite alright, darling. it’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Rarity winked at Sweetie Belle and smiled. “Your secret is safe with me.”
Sweetie Belle playfully shoved Rarity off of her. “Shut up!” she said between giggles, “I don’t have a crush on Apple Bloom.” She snorted like a pig, “That’s silly!”
“Whatever you say, darling!” Rarity called out as she trotted into the kitchen, “This mare reads enough romance novels to figure out a blushing filly!”
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes; luckily she had her sister around to make her feel better. When she turned her head to the window, she noticed a blue radiance that dazzled in the backyard.
Sweetie Belle began to trot towards the door that lead to the backyard.“Umm, Rarity!”
“Yes, Sweetie?” She called out from the kitchen, “Is there something wrong?”
“I’m going to go check out that glowing thing in the backyard!” Sweetie Belle said as she closed the door.
“Glowing thing?” Rarity galloped into the living room and noticed her sister had already left the room. She shook her head, “Teenagers...”
The cold air sent a chill down Sweetie Belle’s spine as she trotted closer and closer to the glowing object buried in the ground. What the hay? Who would have buried a glowing thing in Rarity’s backyard?
Curiosity taking the best of her, Sweetie Belle grabbed a shovel with her magic and levitated it near the glowing object. Once Sweetie Belle found the spot where she wanted to start, she raised the shovel high in the air then shot it down into the dirt and began digging.
Digging...
And digging.
And thump!
Her shovel hit its target and Sweetie Belle quickly dropped it, causing the shovel to sag down into the loose dirt. She started to dig with her hooves, and after a few moments, she saw a wooden box-like object. Once she had removed all the dirt that covered it, she determined that it was indeed a brown coffin.
What the hay?! Sweetie Belle turned to the door she came from. “Rarity!” she called out, “Come look at what I found!” She turned her attention back to the coffin that glowed once more. “What is this?”
She jumped into the hole she had dug and placed her hooves on the lid of the coffin. With a couple of small grunts and pulls, she finally opened the coffin and saw what lay within...
A stone shaped as a moon glowed with a brilliant blue light. It was plugged into an equine skeleton’s chest. “Ewww!” Despite her initial disgust, her hoof slowly reached for the moon. It sprung from the chest of the dead pony and began to circle around Sweetie Belle.
“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle cried to her sister. She tried to run away from the moon, but it blocked her path with some kind of magical field, preventing from getting help from her sister. “Something is happening!”
Sweetie Belle sagged down to the ground and began to cry. “PLEASE, SOMEPONY HELP ME!” she called in between her sobs. The magic began seeping its way down into her brain. Her head fell and smacked against the ground as the magic began to take its toll.
As her eyes slowly drooped down, she reached a hoof towards the door. “Please help me.” she squeaked out, her voice cracked with each syllable, and then her eyes closed completely shut.
Sweetie Belle couldn’t feel or move her body. All she could do is feel a shot of pain coursing through her head.
Sweetie Belle.
Who’s there?
You have awoken me from my long slumber, and I ask why?
Something was glowing in my backyard. So I decided to check it out, and now here I am!
Do you know who I am?
I don’t have the slightest clue.
So this is who I’ve woken up to? How wonderful.
Was that sarcasm?
Tell me something, Sweetie. Are you a thestral?
A what now?
A pegasus hybrid created by Luna’s dark magic. We can hear most things that a normal pony can’t. We can see in the dark, and we’re stronger.
Well, sorry to disappoint,but I’m not a thestral.
I can feel the thestral magic hidden deep inside you.
I’m a unicorn, silly!
Stop toying with me. My senses do not lie.
I’m telling the truth. I. Am. A. Unicorn!
Hmmm, interesting. Do you have relatives that are thestrals?
My parents did talk about my great, great grandfather being one, and a few relatives before him. Why?
Our thestral bloodline travels through the family. Our magic can survive through eons, until we birth a child, and some of our magic travels into the child and it repeats.
So I’m sorta like a thestral?
Yes, but your thestral magic is slowly fading away. I can unlock your full potential, Sweetie Belle. I can temper that latent magic hidden inside you and make it better.
I don’t know... It sounds kinda scary. How do I know can I trust you?
Sweetie Belle, you have my word. It won’t hurt a bit, and the change will make you into a stronger pony. It’ll make you feel like you can take on the world! Just say 'I accept,'and I’ll make you better, more powerful... More like me.
.
...
….
…..
…...
I accept.
Chapter one: Just flying around
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.”
