Sweetie Belle: Changeling Hunter
In Canterlot, there was a building. Nobody particularly cared about this building, for it was rather run-down and falling apart. Nothing exciting ever seemed to happen there, so most ponies generally just ignored it and went to other, less boring places.
However, some ponies had to go to that building. After all, if they didn’t go, then they’d probably be fired. In the building, there were rooms. In one particular room on the seventh floor, there were two ponies. Two unicorn stallions, to be specific. They worked in this particular building, although only one of them, the gray unicorn, worked in the office they were currently in. The other pony, the light blue unicorn, only occasionally stopped inside this room. Nine out of ten times it was to yell at the other pony or assign lots of boring paperwork because he was bored and felt like bossing somepony around.
The two stallions stood in silence for about a minute. The pale blue one, who appeared to be the gray stallion's superior, inspected a document while the gray unicorn waited tensely for his boss’ approval. Finally, after what seemed like forever, his boss lowered the papers and spoke.
"You sure she’s the one?”
“Yes,” the gray stallion confirmed.
“Absolutely sure?”
Paperweight halted, then answered the other pony hesitantly. “Well… kind of. Ninety percent sure. She fits the description pretty well, has no known parents, and has been living in the orphanage since she was very young." He paused, then added, "At least, that’s what I’ve been able to conclude. The orphanage is very sensitive about the privacy of the foals, so it wasn't exactly easy. When I asked, the ponies at the front desk kept telling me that they had never heard of her, but of course they were lying. I literally saw a pony fitting the description we have walking out of the building.”
“The description? You mean that really vague description we got from the crazy old stallion in the mental hospital as he was dying? Seriously? You’re going off of that? I'm disappointed in your methods, Paperweight.”
“Okay, maybe more like forty percent sure," Paperweight admitted. "Sorry, but her family records have been wiped and she's too young for us to have that much information on her. Our best scouts are all busy, and from what I’ve seen, they’re just too lazy to actually gather intel even if they weren’t swamped with work, so we have to make do with what we have. But I don't see why you're so worked up about it. Does it even matter?”
“Yes, it matters! You can’t just apprehend her if you’re not sure. You have to observe the target and gather more information.”
“I know, but given the subject’s appearance, it would look really suspicious if I did! I could easily put this whole operation in jeopardy if I’m discovered. I’m unable to get close to her.”
"What about the scouts?"
"Were you even listening to me? I told you, they're absolutely useless! They can't be bothered to help us."
“Ugh. Fine, then find someone who can. I don’t care who. As long as they meet the basic criteria, it's fine with me. Our job is to help rid Equestria of potential threats, not to capture random ponies and waste our valuable time. As you should hopefully know already, it's especially vital that we use our time efficiently. Due to the invasion in Canterlot a few years back, Princess Celestia herself is overseeing all of our operations, and I won't have us look like fools in front of her! If we mess up, she might take it upon herself to do a little investigating of our systems, which I needn’t remind you is something we don’t want.” The blue stallion paused to glare at his employee. Intimidation, he had found, was great for keeping scatterbrained workers in check. He waited until the target of his harsh gaze looked away nervously before he continued with his instructions.
“Do some research. Find a close friend, teacher, whatever, as long as you have something to persuade them to keep quiet that won’t cost us money. Got it?” The stallion paused expectantly and the other pony gave a small, curt nod. “Good. I’ll check back with you on Tuesday, which gives you about four days to find somepony. That’s more than enough time.”
“And if I don’t find someone?”
The stallion didn’t bother replying as he strode out of the room, leaving an agitated gray unicorn sitting in his office, wishing he knew what to do. The circumstances of this particular scenario made his job even more difficult than usual. He’d signed up for the job under the impression that it would be exciting, but when pitching the job to him, nopony ever bothered mentioning the amount of paperwork there was to it.
Paperweight sighed and spun around in his chair, reaching for his file cabinet. He opened it up and leaned forward to pull out a large amount of folders, which he heaved over to his desk and began to leaf through them. Determined to find a pony suited for the task his boss needed done, he vowed not to sleep until he found a perfect match. He had a long night ahead of him.
Long, boring hours passed. He snickered occasionally at some of the private info contained in various ponies’ personal files, but the only sound for the vast majority of the time was his breathing and the clock ticking. Each tick echoed throughout the office, reminding him of how incredibly bored he was.
At four in the morning, more than three-thousand clock-ticks later, he finally collapsed into his chair, exhausted but with a strong feeling of accomplishment. He had finally found the perfect candidate. Actually, she was the only valid pony for the job. Any other unicorn would look suspicious, but her? Absolutely perfect. Her age brought other matters to light, though. How could you convince somepony that young to work hard and keep quiet?
*******
“Hey Scootaloo, slow down! I can’t keep up with you when you’re on your scooter!” Sweetie Belle called out in annoyance to her friend as she ran, panting and struggling to keep up with the pegasus on wheels. Apple Bloom was also struggling to catch up to the pegasus, although she wasn’t as far behind as Sweetie Belle because she was more athletic than her.
“Scootaloo! Slow down,” Apple Bloom yelled. This time, Scootaloo heard the shout and she braked her scooter, letting it screech to a halt as she jumped off of it. She let out an extremely exaggerated groan of impatience as the other two crusaders hurried over to her.
“Slowpokes,” she teased them, grinning as she adjusted her helmet.
"Hey, ya know that ain't fair," Apple Bloom said disapprovingly as she sprinted the last few yards over to her fellow crusader. She stopped right in front of the pegasus and playfully whacked her on the top of her helmet in the sort of way friends do when they’re annoyed with each other.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes and peered around Apple Bloom's head to get a look at Sweetie Belle, who had collapsed onto the ground and was flopping around in exhaustion. Dirt quickly gathered on her gray coat, due to the fact that it was sticky with her sweat. "I'm okay," she groaned after managing to catch her breath, getting unsteadily to her hooves, "but Scootaloo? Never again. Ever. Just... No. Next time, we walk, okay?”
Scootaloo shrugged, indifferent. "Yeah, whatever, but no promises. I can't be awesome if I do everything slowly. I need to have speed!" She jumped up into the air and performed a backflip for emphasis.
"That's great and all, Scoots, but do ya think you could save your awesomeness for when you're not hangin' out with us? It might impress Rainbow Dash, but it's just plain annoyin' when ya ditch us like that," Apple Bloom reasoned.
"Fine, fine. I'll try. Maybe. I like going fast, okay?" Scootaloo said. Sweetie Belle gave up all hope and flopped back onto the ground. Startled, Scootaloo quickly took back her last statement. "Sorry. I'll only crank up my awesomeness all the way if Rainbow Dash is watching."
Sweetie Belle figured this was better than nothing, so she quit the drama and stood back up. “I guess that’s alright, as long as you actually remember to do that.”
“I will!” Scootaloo promised, looking slightly offended that Sweetie Belle was doubting her. “Seriously. I’ll slow down for you guys. I’ll go really-” Suddenly, she gasped. “Hey, I just thought of something! How about we try for cutie marks in doing things in slow-mo? You’ll be able to keep up!”
“Actually, I don’t really wanna do any more crusadin’ today. I’m kinda tired from all that runnin’, and I’m guessin’ Sweetie Belle is too. Why, she did even more runnin’ than me!” Apple Bloom remarked.
“Tired is a bit of an understatement,” Sweetie Belle laughed sheepishly.
“Really? You guys are done already?” Scootaloo exclaimed in disbelief. The other two vigorously nodded. “Ugh. Now what am I supposed to do?”
“Well, we could always get ice cream or something like that,” Sweetie Belle suggested. Ice cream was pretty harmless, and didn’t require that much effort.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Apple Bloom agreed.
“Oh, I dunno,” Scootaloo said. She started fidgeting with her hooves and looked at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the other two fillies. "Let's do something else."
“What’s the big deal?” Apple Bloom demanded.
“It’s nothing.” A red tinge started to appear on Scootaloo’s cheeks as she said this.
Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes. “Doesn’t look like nothin’.”
“I told you, it’s nothing! Let’s just get the stupid ice cream already, okay?” Scootaloo shouted. Apple Bloom recoiled and slowly backed away towards Sweetie Belle.
“What’s her problem?” she whispered. Sweetie Belle just shrugged.
“If she doesn’t want ice cream, then that’s fine. But I want some, so I’m heading over to that vendor in town. Are you coming with me?” Sweetie Belle asked Apple Bloom.
“Nah,” Scootaloo said.
“I wasn’t asking you,” Sweetie Belle retorted, then turned to Apple Bloom.
“Scootaloo ruined the mood for me,” Apple Bloom grumbled, “so Ah’m just going home. You go on ahead.”
“Okay,” said Sweetie Belle sadly, "I'll just go alone. See you later."
"Wait, I changed my mind!" Scootaloo yelled, scampering over to Sweetie Belle, who raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, me too. If she's going, then Ah'm goin'," Apple Bloom declared. Sweetie Belle threw her hooves in the air in exasperation.
"Actually, I'm not going anymore. If Apple Bloom is gonna be there, then I don't want to go," Scootaloo corrected her earlier decision.
"Make up your mind already!" Sweetie Belle said, starting to get annoyed with her friends.
"Fine then, I'll go," Scootaloo decided.
"Yeah, me too," Apple Bloom agreed.
"No, I'm going!" the pegasus shouted.
"But-" Apple Bloom started.
Sweetie Belle gave up and walked away to get herself ice cream, her friends too absorbed in their pointless argument to realize she had gone. Noticing this, she tried stomping really loudly and muttering about how terribly delicious the sugary treat was, but it was to no avail. Evidently, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom thought a silly fight to be more important than having fun.
Once she was a good distance away from the fighting fillies, Sweetie Belle expressed her frustration by kicking a rock, and immediately regretted it. “Ow!” she shouted angrily, wincing as she hopped around and fell on her butt.
“Are you all right?” a concerned voice asked from behind her.
“Yeah, I’m fine, except this stupid rock hurt more than I thought it would,” Sweetie grumbled, massaging her hoof. She tried to stand back up, but yelped and fell down again as she put weight on her hoof.
“Here, let me help,” the stallion said, walking over and lending his hoof to help her up. Sweetie Belle was hauled back up, where she stood on three hooves to avoid aggravating her injury even further. “I’ll take you to the doctor; you might have seriously hurt yourself.”
“No, that’s okay.” Sweetie Belle declined his offer.
“I insist.”
“Seriously, it’s fine. Thanks for helping me, but my big sister can take me.” Sweetie Belle attempted to wobble away, but the stallion grabbed her in his peach-colored magic and tossed her onto his back. “Hey! Put me down!”
“No, I really do insist.”
“Stop! You don’t need to take me to the doctor!” Sweetie Belle protested as she struggled to remove herself from the stallion’s back. Sensing this, he cast a spell that held her down and rendered her unable to move.
“I won’t take you to the doctor, but you will have to come with me. We need to have a talk,” he stated. In response, Sweetie Belle managed to partially break free of the spell and kicked him, making him growl angrily. “Okay then, if you’re going to be difficult, then you’re just going to have to take a little nap, aren’t you?” He dropped the spell for a brief second, then his horn resumed its glowing as he cast a new one.
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened as she felt her body start to relax and her mind go foggy. She struggled to stay conscious, but the spell won over her and her body went slack. Her eyes drooped, then slowly closed.
