Sweetie Belle, who was she?

Really, who was she? Just a little white unicorn filly with a curled pink and purple mane. Her head constantly pointed down in anguish as she let life pass her by. Her two-tone tail curled over her face to protect her from the horrors of the world. She was safe in her little bubble, she was happy in her little bubble, and her sister wasn’t dead in her little bubble.

But, no…

Rarity wasn’t dead, at least not yet. And her sister was currently out in the boutique fighting off a monstrosity to give Sweetie a chance to escape, a chance at life. A chance that Rarity potentially no longer had the luxury of, and yet Sweetie was just sitting in her big sister’s room crying in anguish over the potential that Rarity had gone off to die for her. She wasn’t even humoring the idea that perhaps her big sister was stronger than that, and that Rarity might survive.

Sweetie had just jumped to the conclusion that all was lost and that her sister was as good as gone. She didn’t even give it a second thought; she had just stopped right at the door out of her sister’s room and started crying. She immediately gave up, possibly wasting her one and only chance at survival and her sister’s sacrifice, making it all meaningless. And when the realization of it all hit Sweetie she almost instantly stood up from her spot on Rarity’s, now damp, floor.

‘I’m a disgrace…’ The realization smacked Sweetie in the face like a ton of bricks. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers, and she stared blankly at the closed door in front of her, ‘I’m wasting Rarity’s life! I’ve just cried, I haven’t even tried to go help her or escape!’ Sweetie backed away from the door numbly, her muzzle scrunching up as she let her thoughts wash over her.

The idea of what she was doing and what she had yet to do was practically tearing her mind asunder in terror. She knew that what she was doing, cowering in fear as her sister was desperately trying to give her a chance at life, was horrible. But at the same time, even the thought of stepping out her sister’s bedroom door shook her to her very core. The possibility of stepping out that door just to have her worst nightmares confirmed, it was all too much. Sweetie didn't want to see her sister nothing more than smear across the walls and floor, eviscerated by that beast. As long as Sweetie stayed in Rarity’s room, Rarity was alive. In Rarity’s room, she was safe.

Yet, if she never left this room then Rarity was surely gone. She would never come back, and she would have been lost for nothing. Everything Rarity’s done would then be for naught. Fresh tears began to roll down Sweetie’s matted cheeks anew and she shook violently. It was just all too much for her.

She’d been trying to act brave for not only Rarity’s sake, but her own as well. If she could just fake it, pretend that none of this got to her as much as it did then maybe she really could be brave enough. But she wasn’t, she was scared, more scared than she’d ever been in her entire life. And no matter how much she tried to hide and deny it, she knew that deep down she was weak. It horrified her to no end that one day that weakness would get in the way of something important to her, and now it has. ‘If Apple Bloom or Scootaloo were here they’d just do it. They'd steel themselves and go help, but I can’t. I just can’t…’

Sweetie looked around in a panic. Her eyes darting from left to right, trying so hard just to find a reason to move or an excuse to stay. She just needed something to justify her decision. Something to help her make up her mind. Just something to get her to stop gawking at the door in front of her and standing as still as a statue.

‘No,’ Sweetie internally yelled, ‘you can do this Sweetie. You won't just sit here and let your big sister d-die.’ Sweetie shook her head trying to banish the dark thoughts invading her mind. She looked up to the bedroom door and then at her little white horn tucked between the curls of her mane.

“I can do this,” She whispered to herself, “I know that I can.” She narrowed her eyes and ignited her horn, instantly bathing Rarity’s room in a lime green light. Sweetie concentrated and willed the magic that flared out of her horn to coalesce onto a single point, the handle of the door right in front of her. She wrapped the magic around the bedroom door’s handle and turned. The door creaked open slowly revealing the darkness of the boutique beyond. ‘I can do this; I have to for Rarity. I just have to clear my head and think. I just need a plan on what I’m going to-’ Sweetie’s thoughts were interrupted by a sudden noise. Her ears perked up at the disturbance as she listened closely.

The air was still for a moment until it was broken once more by a loud crash. Her ears and eyes both swiveled towards the dark abyss of a doorway in front of her. Sweetie started shaking lightly again and began to lose her nerve. The dark and uninviting hallway, the noises, and the terrors she has experienced so far were weighing on her now. She had tried to push it all off, but that bravery was faltering now in the face of an actual danger. Thinking about there being a threat didn’t scare Sweetie enough to stop her, but physically having something to confirm it did.

‘I just, I don’t know, maybe I should try the window again. But Rar-’ Sweetie started thinking before being cut off once again as a loud crack split the air. The air grew deadly still for a moment before a piercing screech of pure agony broke its tranquil state and roused the stunned Sweetie Belle from her momentary daze. And once Sweetie registered what she’d heard she realized with a drawing horror that she recognized that agonizing scream. It belonged to…

“Rarity!” Sweetie fearfully let out as she tore out of Rarity’s bedroom. She turned a sharp left as she headed straight towards the boutique’s stairs. She skidded to a halt at the top of them before swiftly proceeding down the entire flight. Upon hitting the bottom Sweetie left the stairwell and burst into the main foyer to see what horrible scene would await her.

And before her was a truly horrifying scene to the young filly that, if not for Rarity’s panicked and determined glare, would have sent the foal into a bout of terrified screaming. Sweetie stood shell shocked and stared at the scene in front of her, just trying to make sense of it. The dark creature had its back to her as it stared down at a prone Rarity who laid on the floor, fore hooves clasped tightly around her head and eye opened as wide as the surface of the moon. Her pupil had shrunk, and her eye was bloodshot as it darted around in a wild and crazy manor before landing on Sweetie. Her white fur stained a dark red as blood oozed from multiple cuts, gashes, and wounds. A river’s worth of the red viscous liquid seemed to seep from a nasty gouge across her forehead that she vainly seemed to try and stop with her hooves. A large chunk of her purple mane was also missing, seemingly stuck in a clump between the monstrosity’s blood-soaked claws. Beneath the missing mane on her scalp was an angry looking wound that seemed to bulge ever so slightly outwards. The cloth she had wrapped around her eye had been eviscerated; pieces of it stuck to the walls and floor of the boutique being held in place by some generous latherings of vital fluids. The empty eye socket, once concealed by the purple cloth, now lay exposed. And out of it seeped a large amount of pus and a black liquid as dark as the midnight sky.

The creature that towered above Rarity seemed to be only slightly damaged in comparison. Upon its black body it had only a few barely visible scorch marks and one small gash on the right side of its deformed face. The creature’s wound seeped a black liquid in a similar manner as Rarity’s fleshy tendril strew eye socket. If it was not for that, the wrecked remains of the room’s old adornments, and a few magic fueled azure flames smattering the scorched and bloodied floor of the boutique one would assume Sweetie had come across a mutilation, not a fight.

The huge beast simply stared at Rarity now seemingly frozen still in an almost shocked like state. Something then seemed to glisten within the abyss of the creature’s pitch-black eyes, and it began moving its contorted jaw in a seemingly specific pattern. At the same time the thing’s vocal cords came to life and it began to let out a series of distorted grunts. Rarity’s eye then shifted from Sweetie back to the beast as it leaned in closer towards her. Her eye once more shot to Sweetie, then back to the preoccupied beast before shifting between the boutique’s front door and Sweetie again constantly.

It dawned on Sweetie what Rarity was trying to tell her and she did not like it. She opened her mouth to protest but was once again silenced by Rarity’s quick and panicked glance at the beast that was followed by a hard look at her. Sweetie stared back harder and put on a face she hoped exuded confidence and determination, and not the terror she really felt on the inside. It mustn't have worked as Rarity’s stare only hardened forcing Sweetie to take a step back and her face to fall. She saw Rarity’s own mask had also slipped for the briefest of moments as a quick flash of terror crossed her face, before it returned to a determined but somewhat nervous state. Seeing this caused Sweetie to take her grievances inwards and to reevaluate what she wanted to do versus what her sister wanted her to do.

‘I know Rarity wants me to leave but look at her she needs help!’ Sweetie thought before another voice in her head fired back with, ‘And what exactly can you do Sweetie? I mean look at that creature and look at Rarity, what exactly do you think you could do to it that Rarity hasn’t already tried and failed at?’

‘I don’t know, but something?’ Sweetie meekly suggested back at the voice. The voice in turn responded with, ‘Think Sweetie, I am just another part of your mind. A part that is thinking rationally rather than emotionally, but still a part of your mind. Meaning if I can’t think of a way to help Rarity and you can’t think of a way to help Rarity, then we can’t think of a way to help Rarity collectively as a whole.’

‘Meaning there is no way I could help my sister?’ Sweetie nervously thought. The voice responded with a resounding, ‘Yes! So, let’s go and not make Rarity’s sacrifice in vain.’ Sweetie pondered this epiphany for a moment before scrunching her face up and shutting her eyes tight. ‘No!’ She shouted in her mind. The voice confusedly asked back, ‘What do you mean, you’ll die if you try to help! What you need to do is leave and not let Rarity die for noth-’

‘I said no!’ Sweetie cut the voice off and shot back, ‘What do you mean sacrifice and die? I just thought I lost Rarity once, I’m not about to leave and lose her again permanently this time. Clearly, you’re not the rational part of my brain, but the bad and stupid part. The part I was always taught by Ms. Cheerilee to ignore. The one that makes bad decisions like agreeing to go along with Scootaloo’s plan to get a jumping through flaming hoops cutie mark, or Apple Blooms’s plan to get a tree climbing cutie mark, or coming up with the idea of abandoning my sister to die by the claws of this monster!’

Sweetie’s cheeks had turned a shade of light red in her concentration and upon thinking her last thought caused tears to prick the corners of her eyes. ‘But Sweetie-’ The voice tried once more to protest but was once again swiftly cut off by Sweetie Belle, “I said no, and I mean it! I’m not listening to you anymore. I’m going to help and save my sister and that’s final!” Sweetie waited for a few seconds after that retort to see if the voice would respond, but she was only met with silence. Satisfied she let her features relax as she let out a sigh and opened up her eyes. The black creature was staring dead at her as its distorted face contorted in a malice filled snarl, saliva dripped from its maw and pooled on the blood-soaked carpet below it.

Sweetie’s ears splayed back, and her pupils shrunk in fear. The previously unspilled tears began to freely flow as she lost her conviction and started to tremble at the sight of the beast’s gaping maw. She was almost too scared to move, but she dared to anyway. She slowly put one hind leg behind her as she attempted to move backwards away from the snarling monstrosity. The beast in turn put forth one of its own gnarled claws as it moved slightly forward. A dangerous look crossed its twitching face as if daring Sweetie to move even one more step. In fear Sweetie stopped her retreat, but to her and her sister’s horror the beast did not. It set down another one of its mangled limbs and advanced ever so slightly towards Sweetie, just enough off of Rarity to allow her to wiggle slightly out from its grip.

“Rarity…” Sweetie let out in a high-pitched whine as she shrunk back. The creature responded with its own low and guttural growl as it moved ever so closer to Sweetie.

“Sweetie-” Rarity started before sharply inhaling as the monster whipped its head around to look at her before it let out its own ear-piercing whine.

“Rarity what I do…?” Sweetie let out in barely a whisper. Rarity's eye shifted from the beast back to Sweetie and saw her little sister trembling like a leaf. Sweetie stared at her big sister imploringly wishing that she’d find a way to save her as Sweetie thought she could save Rarity before. The beast swung its grotesque head back around to Sweetie as it continued its prowl. The creature was closing the gap between it and Sweetie fast, within a matter of moments it would then have her.

“Sweetie, there is only one thing you can do right now!” Rarity shouted drawing Sweetie’s and the creature’s attention. Rarity stared right into the beast’s eyes as it turned back to fully face her, an almost quizzical look appeared to strike its features. To Sweetie it looked like Rarity seemed to squirm under the creature’s vision at first, but the closer she looked the more it appeared like her movements were controlled. Rarity grit her teeth as her face contorted in anger and she turned her head to look at Sweetie Belle before shouting one simple command as loud as she could.

“RUN!”

Sweetie wasted no time in following her sister’s command, immediately bolting away from her and the beast toward the boutique’s front entrance. She heard the beast behind her let out a loud roar before suddenly being cut off as it let out a screech of agony. A loud crash was heard as the Carousel Boutique shuddered under the weight of an enormous impact. Sweetie, having reached the far side of the foyer by the door and a window, turned to see what had happened between the monster and her big sister.

The creature was splayed out on the boutique’s floor on its side with its back facing towards the stairs. Rarity was standing on three legs with her right foreleg curled close to her chest, it was stained a dark crimson. Her mane messily strewn over her forehead, covering the gaping hole that was once her left eye. Its purple color now muddled and turned more of a marron as it stuck to her fur, its indigo locks slicked with blood. She stood tall with a strange and frightening glimmer in her one working eye, her face contorted into a snarl of rage to match the one previously adorning the monster’s features.

“Pure hatred…” Sweetie murmured, and just for a second her fear of the monster subsided to make way for a new and uncomfortable feeling. A fear of her sister, she was scared of Rarity. She looked to her sister and recalled all the lessons she’d heard over the years about the nature of ponies. How it wasn’t in their beings to feel pure and unadulterated hatred. Sure, ponies still could hate and loathe but the level of hatred that seemed to emanate off of Rarity was bone chillingly unnatural.

Sweetie had always been taught that it was in a pony’s nature to be loving and kind. While they could be pushed to feel despise towards others it was never lasting or that intense. It was only if something seriously bad happened to them to break their minds and shatter their mental states that they'd display that type of rage. Based on her history lessons only a select number of creatures on Equus had ever been pushed far enough to feel that kind of pure and vile hatred. And now she saw that exact same hatred displayed across her sister’s face, and it shook her to her very core filling her with a deep seeded feeling of terror. To her drawing horror it also seemed that those feelings weren’t fleeting either, they stayed on her sister’s face for much longer than they had any right to.

“Rar-”

“GO! Now Sweetie!” Rarity had cut Sweetie off with a harsh bark before refocusing back to the beast that laid in front of her. Sweetie mentally refocused herself and dismissed her worries for her older sister for now. She quickly turned around and looked behind her to find one of the front windows to the boutique. She peered out of it and noticed that the dark black mist around the boutique seemed to be clearing up with some spots even completely bare and translucent.

She saw that the moon outside had been replaced with the morning sun as it steadily rose into the sky. Still however, figures just beyond her range of vision in the corners of her eyes could be seen moving about sporadically in the vestiges of the darkness outside, and they were getting closer each passing second. It was enough of an oddity to cause a momentary hesitation in Sweetie’s vie to escape. The beast behind her let out another screech of pain and anger as a wet sound met Sweetie Belle's ears. It caused her to pause long enough for her to second guess her decision to leave at Rarity’s behest, causing her to turn her head back to see what Rarity was doing with the monster.

The beast now lay on its back, head lolled back towards the boutique’s front door, with a sizable and bloody slash cut along its face. Rarity stood upon the thing triumphantly, she was panting heavily but a small smile adorned her face as she looked down at the beast. Her right foreleg was slicked with even more blood and some kind of black liquid as it hung in front of her still curled inwards.

She let out a small giggle, that when combined with the gruesome sight before her was enough to cause Sweetie to turn away and dash to the door she’d make her escape through. A strong sense of urgency washed over her as she saw the shadow of the beast begin to move in a way that could only suggest that it was regaining its footing. She got to the closed door and tried to push it, but it didn't move. She backed up and then raced towards the door slamming her small frame into it only for it to not budge.

She got back up and shook her head while backing up from the door a bit and ignited her horn. She then took the door handle in her lime green magic and pulled with all her magical might, still nothing. Without turning around she shouted to Rarity as dread began to fill her, “Rarity it won’t open! Is it locked?”

The sense that Rarity and her would never get out of this nightmare of a boutique filled her upon Rarity’s response of, “No it must be stuck, try pulling it again!”

“Okay!” Sweetie shouted back and gave a quick glance over her shoulder. She saw Rarity struggling to stand as the monstrosity tried to right itself. Sweetie turned her attention away from the creature and back to the door in front of her. This time she tried to grasp the whole of the door to pull at it and get it unstuck. The door was then ripped off its hinges before exploding in a mighty display.

Sweetie marveled at her own strength for a second before she saw that the door had not been thrashed about by her magic but somepony else’s. Particularly it looked to be pink in color if the pink magical flaming pieces of the door were anything to go by. ‘Somepony must be coming to help us finally!’ Sweetie thought overjoyed at the possibility. Looking through the now open doorway she saw what looked to be five figures quickly making their way towards the boutique and out of the darkness. Sweetie smiled as the figures approached and the sunshine that split the darkness washed over her.

Though she felt strange and almost fake in her being when the sun’s light touched her, but that feeling was quickly washed away and replaced with terror as she saw the five figures more closely. They were just like the dark creature inside the boutique, except they seemed to be differently colored then their companion if only slightly. Each had slight variations from each other, but Sweetie didn’t pay close enough attention to see because she had more important things on her mind. She attempted to turn around and warn Rarity of the coming threat.

“Rarity! Ther-” She was then drowned out by a blood curdling scream of pure agony and terror as the world around her began to shake and come undone. Her vision blurred as a wave of nausea hit her, and in her dizziness she began screaming in terror as the boutique seemed to start filling with all the darkness that was once outside. Tears streaked down her face as she swung her head around in an attempt to locate Rarity. However, no matter how much she looked she couldn’t find her in the confusion. She looked back towards the open doorway of the boutique and saw the five monsters from outside had made their way to the boutique and were piling through its front entrance. They surrounded Sweetie as some made their way past her and began letting out their own roars. In all the confusion and her inability to locate her sister caused her survival instincts to kick in.

She ran past the new multicolored beasts that seemed to ignore her as she made her way to the door where one still stood, a black one with some yellow and pink streaks going throughout its twisted body. She ignored it right back as she raced towards the gap that would lead her to the hopeful safety of Ponyville. As she neared the threshold a few joyous and scared thoughts crossed her mind.

‘I’m going to make it; I'm going to live! And once I get out I’ll see Rarity racing right behind me, because I know that she must be fine!’ A few more steps and she was almost there.

‘We’ll get Twilight and her friends, and they’ll help us! Then they’ll stop those monsters, and everything will be normal again!’ Only four more steps.

‘They’ll help us out and we’ll fix up the boutique and everything will be normal again! I can't wait to tell Apple Bloom and Scootaloo about this, they’ll think it’s so funny!’ Only two more steps.

‘Scootaloo will call me a chicken and Apple Bloom will tell me how if it was Applejack in Rarity’s place her big sister would have bucked that creature into next week! And everything will be normal again!’ Sweetie’s fore hooves crossed through the entrance as the rest of her body followed through and she spoke her thoughts of elation aloud.

“I can’t wait for everything to be normal again! I can't wait to see everypony again and put this all behind me! I can’t wait to celebrate with and see my friends again! I lived, I made it! I’m out of here! I can’t wait to see how okay Rarity is!” She fully made it out of the boutique and into the fresh Ponyville morning air, free of the horrors of the boutique and the darkness it brought. And as she felt the sunshine wash over her, she never thought that she’s been this happy in her whole life.

So at the top of her lungs, she screamed out in joy with one solitary thought on her mind, “I can’t wait for everything to be nor-”

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Dead silence filled the air as darkness washed over everything.

Author's Note

Boom! here it is chapter 4, finally! Because of my desire to get this chapter out sooner rather than any later than it already has I've decided to split it up into two chapters instead of the one long chapter it originally was. So next chapter will be Rarity's perspective of these event followed by this story's long-awaited conclusion! I hope you're all excited, because I know I am! ~ ✨Child of Stars✨