It was a night not unlike any other night. Sweetie Belle had gone to bed early and lay soundly asleep in her room, chest rising and falling ever so slightly with her breath as the clock ticked down the hours.

The cold breeze was blowing through Ponyville that night and the shutters of her windows trembled and rattled, a distant howling on the airwaves as a long and distantly retreating storm dispersed across the horizon.

Lightning flickered over the Everfree, where the storm’s last remains lingered, watching, waiting, like unseen onlookers content in its doing. Trees scraping across the roof’s tiling under the force of the nightly discord slowly faded into a calming, blissful silence.

Sweetie’s mouth turned from a smile into a frown, tiny streaks of sweat beading her forehead as she began to toss and turn in her sleep. A magical hint was still in the air—a percussive force that permeated the sheets, taking away from the biting chill of the night.

A shiver ran up the little bundle in the bed. Sweetie’s frown turned into an even deeper scowl, the words: “Pipsqueak...” escaping her lips. Her teeth clenched, as a distant thump, thump, thump, like the beating of drums echoed from the stairwell outside.

There was a rap on the door, and all at once, Rarity burst into Sweetie Belle’s room, stirring the filly awake with a yelp—“Rise and shine, little filly!” she shouted.

“Yeep!” Sweetie Belle practically jumped out of her skin as she was startled awake.

Rarity did an about-spin in the doorway, flashing Sweetie a flick of her tail and a raised eyebrow. “I swear to Celestia, if I wasn’t here...” She harrumphed. “Breakfast is ready,” she said. “I want you downstairs and ready for school in five minutes. Your friends are waiting.”

Sweetie Belle was still feeling disoriented. Glancing around her room, everything felt wrong. The furniture she recognised from her memories, but the size of everything, it was somehow bigger, like it was when she was younger.

Pressing a hoof to her pounding head—Sweetie silently cursed under her breath. “Y-Yes,” she grumbled. “I’m coming.”

Author's Note

Sweetie will return in the as-to-be-announced sequel, Plunderings of a Filly's Past