All Silent In Manor Archambeau

Sweetie Belle awakes, wrapped in her sister’s blank, she tries to blink the tiredness from her eyes with little progress being made. The rancid smell of the garbage bag is what brought it to fruition, and the grunts, that were closely followed by the sounds of the bag being dragged, caused her to finally get up, the saddlebag slipping off her as she did. She had forgotten to take it off before sleeping, even though she thought she had, she then promptly tripped over the box that she had set beside the bed, still not fully awake but getting there. As she got to the door, Sweetie Belle could hear a thumping sound, it grew lower with each thump as the bag was being pulled down the stairs.

She cracked the door open and popped her head out to see Apple Bloom carefully walking backwards down the stairs, the tied bag in her mouth with Scootaloo directing her at the bottom of the stairs, making sure her friend was safe and so the content in the bag didn’t burst at the seams. She took a seat at the door, bringing a hoof to her eyes, rubbing the little bit of sleep that had still lingered in them. She stood back up, fully exiting the room, making her presence known to the two mares.

“Morning!” Scootaloo yelled at the bottom of the stairs full of energy, still ushering the earth pony down, turning to not take eyes off of her.

“You forgot to take it out last night and we couldn’t stand the smell anymore, so we decided to take it out.”

“Still don’t know why y’all couldn’t have done the dirty work,” Apple Bloom said in a not so cheery mood, letting go of the bag for a second to speak.

“Y’all got wings and can fly so y’all really-”

“Eyes on the prize Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo interrupted, noticing the bag beginning to slip.

The yellow mare quickly grabbed a hold of it and began slowly descending the stairs. When she made it to the bottom, with no incidents occurring, she dragged it through the front of the boutique, the pegasus held the door and motioned her forward as Apple Bloom moved through, disappearing to the side of the building and reappearing shortly after, a disgusted look engraved on her face, feeling as if the prolonged odor had now effected her breath.

“Y’all do the dishes since I had to bury my muzzle in that,” she said, smacking her lips, trying to get the taste out.

“I’m going to wash my mouth out.”

Apple Bloom journeyed back up the stairs, brushing past Sweetie Belle as she came down, on her way to help Scootaloo with the dishes that were piled in the sink. Pulling a washcloth from the cabinet underneath, Sweetie Belle began washing the various items that had been placed in the sink previously while Scootaloo would put them up. She got to the last bowl but noticed something clung to the bottom, she removed it and placed it to the side as she finished cleaning.

Sweetie Belle picked it up, it was a picture, now distorted from the water, but she could make out what appeared to be a baby, or at least what she assumed was a baby.

“Is this my niece?” She asked out loud, catching the attention of the orange pegasus next to her.

She walked over, craning her neck out to see.

“It’s kind of hard to make out,” Scootaloo said, squinting her eyes at the picture.

“But if you look hard enough, it sort of looks like you.”

“Huh,” Sweetie Belle expressed, now squinting, trying to envision the pegasus’ claim, all she could really see was the pale white coat and the toothless smile.

“I think you’re just imagining things, unless you’re talking about the coat of course.” She said, confident in how she thought she was right.

“Umm, I guess, was this with the birth certificate?” Scootaloo asked, scratching her head with her right forehoof.

“I think so, why else would it have been mixed up with the stuff on the table?” Sweetie Belle questioned, now surveying around it, looking for any possible clues.

After a second she found something, the initials “S.A.” on the bottom left of the back of the picture, the same birthdate as the certificate was written next to it, only confirming that the photo must’ve been with it.

“What y’all gawking at?” Apple Bloom said, walking into the kitchen after her extensive mouthwash session.

“Sweetie Belle found a pic of her supposed niece,” Scootaloo answered.

“There must be more in that box, this can’t be all there is,” Sweetie Belle said, still staring at the picture.

“What if y’all find something, but it isn’t what y’all are looking for?” Apple Bloom asked, genuine concern for her friend sparking.

“What do you mean?” Sweetie Belle asked out of curiosity.

“Like what if the search takes us in another place or what if y’all do like the answers that come from it?” Apple Bloom had put that thought in Sweetie Belle’s mind now.

It wasn’t something she gave much thought to, but even with that, she still wanted to know. Whatever she could get hooves on had to amount to something, she just knew it. They already knew her mind was made up, though the outcome was important, the search was on the same level, maybe even higher in some regards.

“The first one, the first letter, it’s still at the treehouse, we should take whatever we found there, box and all, and see what we can dig up,” Sweetie Belle, looking up at them when she finished collecting her thoughts.

“Alright, I reckon since it’s daytime it wouldn’t be a problem, plus we actually got some energy in us now,” Apple Bloom replied.

“Great, let’s get our bearings and go!” Sweetie Belle said, racing upstairs, grabbing her saddlebag and the box.

They passed through town, heading towards Sweet Apple Acres. They ran past Applejack and Big Mac, who were hauling a cart of apples to sell at the market, not saying a word. When they got in the treehouse, Sweetie Belle made room and dumped the contents out onto the floor, a metallic clink resonating throughout their current residence. They all looked over to see a small golden ring, one that looked to barely fit the young unicorn. In the mix of the pile next to it held an assortment of letters, each having the weird crest that had now been associated with the name “Archambeau”.

They had ripped through most of them, but they all held the same information from the first discovered one except that the writing had been better. The pile also contained a myriad of hospital billings, some saying “Rarity Archambeau” while others simply said “Rarity”. They still had little gain from the info gathered, only names and billings that led back to before Twilight had ever entered Ponyville. It wasn’t until they found the last letter that had actually found something of substance.

Tearing through the envelope and taking the parchment to eye level. This letter had a mixture of the same material as the others but with a bit more to it, it had asked the wellbeing of both Rarity and his daughter, Serenade while also mentioning a figure that had caught Sweetie Belle by surprise. Mr. Archambeau had asked about the Rich family. The three mares had looked at each other, mouths gapped as Sweetie Belle’s twisted into a smile.

“Finally, another lead!” She said in a victorious holler.

“Judging by the crest, we already assumed that Mr. Archambeau was a wealthy pony, but if the Rich family is being mentioned, this just confirms it.”

“But that’s just one thing, and an unimportant one at that,” Scootaloo said, trying to make a point.

“Not necessarily,” Sweetie Belle interjected, posing herself as she put her thoughts into words.

“The Archambeau’s were wealthy and they talked about the Rich family, they must’ve had dealings with each other, maybe an investment was made into whatever they were doing under then name, maybe Filthy knows something.”

“Maybe, it’s the only thing we’ve garnered from this Scoots, it’s worth a shot.” Apple Bloom stated, siding with the white unicorn.

“Alright then, I just want you to prepare for the worst, this could-”

“Why are you acting like this?” Sweetie Belle asked, interrupting the pegasus who was visibly concerned for her.

“Well, for a long time now, you’ve been obsessed with all of this, just knowing you have some form of family out there, I know that this has been on your mind but what if there is still nothing?” Scootaloo asked.

“What are you saying”?

“I’m saying that your hopes are up, there’s nothing bad about that, but nothing is absolute, the way that you’re seeing things might not be the way they are. This could end worse than it started, what if it’s bad, what if Rarity hid this for a good reason, what if there’s a reason that the name Archambeau hasn’t been at the forefront of pony society since way back when? We only got a sliver of info from any of these letters, and then there’s the medical records.”

“What about them?” Sweetie Belle asked, a serious tone filtering throughout herself.

“Have you actually read them?”

The orange mare grabbed one of the medical papers from the pile.

“This one right here's a prescription for Mirtazapine, and this one,” Scootaloo said, reaching out and taking another.

“This one is a prescription for anxiety medication.”

“Mirtazapine?” Sweetie Belle tilted her head, confused.

She never saw her sister take any form of medication before, in fact, this is the first she had heard of it.

“It’s used against a number of things, like depression and has been known to be used by ponies with PTSD,” Scootaloo said, staring intensely at the unicorn.

“What are you sa- actually, how do you know that?” The white mare asked, confusion reaching a boiling point.

“It pretty much said it on the paper, but that’s not the point,” She steadied herself, letting her stance be known.

“The point is that she has been through a lot, judging by her reaction a couple of days ago, all of…. this, and the fact she probably hasn’t been home since then, I’m with you all the way, we both are, but there’s clearly a lot more to this than your sister overreacting, I know Apple Bloom thinks the same thing but doesn’t want to voice it because she understands what you are trying to accomplish, but you can’t just be thinking about yourself on this.”

She went over and placed a hoof on her shoulder, giving a kind smile.

“Like I said, we’re with you and we will go with you to see Filthy, but when we are done, we got to find your sister, you two have a lot to talk about and she has been gone for a while now, we got to make sure she’s safe.”

Sweetie Belle teared up, this never came to mind, what had happened to her sister so long ago that would cause all of this? She still wanted to know, but not as much anymore, this had caused her sister pain and she didn’t know it, practically ignored it, passing it off as nothing but a dramatic outburst when it was more like a cry for help, a cry of fear, a cry of pain.

She looked up at both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom who both had placed a hoof on both of her shoulders, smiling, giving her their full corroboration, they knew she still needed to know and they will be right beside her no matter what.

“T-thanks girls,” Sweetie Belle said, softly smiling back with tears still dribbling from her eyes.

“That’s what friends are for, I’m just glad Scoots said it, I wanted to bu-”

“I get it,” Sweetie Belle interrupted Apple Bloom, pulling both her and Scootaloo in for a tight hug that lingered for moments.

“No matter what happens, I still got you two…”