Runaway Sweetie

It had been such a blur. One moment, Sweetie Belle had been standing there in the reception.

The next, she'd been violently pushed into the hole in the wall, and all she could do was scream as she slid into the embrace of the pitch black.

She didn't know how long she was sliding, but she was so shocked and busy shrieking that she didn't care.

Then the sliding stopped.

She had reached the end of the long slide, and rolling at full speed, the small filly crashed into a wall, the impact leaving a large, cruel bruise on her forehead. She yelled out helplessly in agony as she clutched it.

As soon as that had happened, the wall began shaking violently again, and the hole was once again shrouded by a layer of metal wall, so Sweetie Belle couldn't climb back up.

Panicking, and standing up, she peered all around her.

All that was there was a tiny candle attached to the wall, the light it was giving so small that the opposite side of the room was still completely black.

Sweetie Belle began to search frantically for a way out, close to tears and her breathing raspy.

A door, a window, a passageway...

There were none.

Nothing but a bare floor and walls, with so much dirt on them it looked as if they had never been cleaned. Sweetie Belle lifted up one of her hooves, to find a whole sheet of dust and dirt weaved within the once crisp white fur. Now, it was more of a dirty grey.

She was empty. She didn't know what to do. Desperate, she tried kicking the walls, throwing balls of dirt at the ceiling in the slightest hope that they would break. Of course, all she left was a few more stains on the ceiling.

Now stripped of any remaining hope, she slumped down under the candlelight, trying to stay strong.

"There has to be a way out. I mustn't cry, I can't cry. I...I..."

A tear rolled down her face.

Once that first tear broke free, the rest followed in an unbroken stream. The filly bent forward where she sat and pressing her hooves to the cold metal, she began to cry with the force of a pony vomiting heavily.

She didn't know how long she stayed there, tears trickling down her face and staining her fur, but she didn't care. She couldn't even find the courage to stop them. She just howled in misery and pain, her head still stinging, the room cold and uncomforting.

Before she knew it, she had made a small puddle in front of her, which was still continuing to expand.

She wanted to go back to Ponyville. She shouldn't of trusted those two mares. Rarity was always giving her talks back at home telling her never to trust strangers.

Rarity.

Sweetie Belle hadn't realised until then how much she needed Rarity. How much she should have stayed with Rarity...

And how much she loved Rarity.

All of the times they had enjoyed together. Rarity had always tried so hard to take care of her. They had laughed, and had fun...

And she had ran away from it all.

Sure, she could be shouty at times. And a drama-queen, and even a little oblivious.

There were bad times.

But now Sweetie Belle faced it.

She loved her big sister so much.

And she always would.

It took what seemed like an eternity, but at last, Sweetie Belle cried herself out. Wiping her deeply bloodshot eyes, and smoothing her tear-stained cheeks, she curled up away from the puddle, trying to keep herself warm as she came to realisation of how cold the room was.

She had no idea what was going to happen next. Would she stay trapped in that tiny room forever and starve to death?

Some horrible thoughts then struck the filly.

Were they cannibals? Would they rip her up, her heart still beating, and feast on her flesh?

Were they going to torture her?

All these thoughts raced through Sweetie Belle. They made her scared, no, petrified. The most petrified she had ever been.

They also filled her with adrenaline, and desperation.

Pumped with new determination, she galloped over to one wall, and began slamming into it as hard as she could.

"LET ME OUT!" she cried, "LET ME OUT!"

She continued to do this for what seemed like forever, in hopes that somepony might just hear her, and indeed let her out.

She did this for a while. She was sweating, and slamming into the hard wall was hurting her side, but she ignored it.

Until at last, her breathing began to get heavy, and she was slowly giving up again.

"LET ME...OUT. L...Let me..."

The tired filly collapsed to the floor, her energy now completely drained. She lay there, inhaling, trying to get her breath back.

She waited.

Nopony came.

The tears returned, and she soon found herself sobbing in another puddle of tears. It seeped into her fur, but she didn't even try and move away.

'Does it even matter anymore?' she wondered.

Her side began to ache terrifically, and trying to ignore it, she began to think of Ponyville again.

All the adventures she and her friends had together.

Even the less successful ones, she admired. She would give anything to go back to the way it was then.

And Rarity.

Sweetie Belle glanced over to the cold darkness at the end of the room, and it filled her with memories.

She hated the dark when she was little.

But before she went to bed every night, Rarity would always read her a bedtime story, and that seemed to make everything ok.

She remembered Rarity reading them. How she sometimes did voices to match to characters, which always made Sweetie Belle giggle.

The lonely filly gave a small smile, as she remembered Rarity kissing her on the cheek as the story finished.

"Goodnight Sweetie-Belle. I love you, darling," she'd always say.

Still releasing waves of tears, but smiling at the same time, Sweetie Belle closed her eyes.

"Goodnight Rarity," she whispered.

"I love you too."