16: I Want to Believe

"This is your plan?!?"

Sweetie Belle stared at the crude lean-to I'd constructed, a ramshackle structure made out of sticks and leaves.

"I know it doesn't look like much," I admitted, lighting an asparagus stalk. "But we may have to survive out here for days, weeks, months even. We are going to need shelter. Food. Water. A steady supply of asparagus. Ammunition. Barracks and provisions for the army we need to raise. This humble shelter is just the beginning."

Sweetie Belle raised a single eyebrow, saying nothing. Then she walked over to the lean-to and nudged it gently with a hoof. It collapsed. She turned and looked at me with the same dry expression. I shrugged.

"Okay, I'll admit my design could use some tweaking. If you have any suggestions, I'm willing to listen."

She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, follow me."

She led us back through the orchard a little ways, until eventually we came to a small clearing. At the center was a squat, wide-branched apple tree with a wooden hut built into it. I recognized it as the treehouse I'd been brought to shortly after my arrival on the horse planet.

I stood at the base of the tree, scratching my chin. I had to admit that this place would make a good base of operations. There was even a reconnaissance tower complete with a spyglass at the very top.

"This will probably work for now," I mused. "But if we're going to withstand a prolonged siege, we're going to need provisions..."

Sweetie Belle said nothing. She walked over to the trunk of the tree, then gave it a swift kick with her hind leg. An apple dropped from one of the overhanging branches. She caught it in her horn aura and munched it slowly, giving me that same deadpan stare.

"Alright then, that takes care of food," I said. "Now we just need water. I'll see if I can rig up a filtration system so we can drink our urine—"

"Yeah, I already told you I'm not doing that," said Sweetie Belle. "Besides, there's a stream right over there."

She gestured with a hoof, and sure enough a small brook was softly gurgling a short distance away.

"You can't drink from that!" I exclaimed. "You don't know what's in it!"

Sweetie Belle just shook her head, and began tromping up the ramp.

"Come on, Mr. Rusty," she said wearily. "Let's just get some sleep. We can figure the rest out in the morning."

I felt like I had barely drifted off, when I was suddenly jerked awake by the sound of birds chirping on the branches outside. I groaned and opened my eyes. The light coming in through the treehouse window was the dull grey of early dawn. My body was stiff and cold, and there was a thin layer of dew on my clothes.

I sat up slowly, rubbing my aching joints. Sweetie Belle was sitting behind a wooden crate that functioned as a table, munching despondently on an apple. The dark circles under her eyes suggested that she hadn't gotten much sleep either. Wordlessly, she levitated another apple and passed it to me.

We had a silent, gloomy breakfast, and then clambered slowly down out of the treehouse. The clearing was in the middle of an immense grove of apple trees, stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction. Sweetie Belle had explained the night before that the treehouse was situated on Apple Family land, about halfway between the farm and the Ponyville school.

We hiked a short distance through the orchard until we reached the road. The sun had risen by then, transforming the early morning mist into a golden haze that made it difficult to see very far. In the distance, I could hear the faint sound of hooves approaching.

"Get down," I whispered, ushering Sweetie Belle into some nearby underbrush, and then crouching down next to her. I lowered my clip-on sunglasses and peered over the top of the bush, squinting into the morning sunlight.

The hoofsteps gradually became louder, and a moment later Apple Bloom trotted around a bend in the path. She had her schoolbag slung across her back, and still looked a little bleary-eyed from sleep.

"Psst!" I hissed from my hiding place as she passed by. The filly paused, looking around. "Pssst!" I hissed again.

"Is somepony there?" she called out hesitantly.

"PSSST!" I hissed, louder this time.

Next to me, Sweetie Belle sighed and stood up. She stepped out of the bushes.

"Over here, Apple Bloom," she called out.

Apple Bloom turned.

"Oh, hey Sweetie Belle."

I stood up and brushed myself off. Sweetie Belle had cost us the element of surprise, but that was probably okay this time. The little pony looked like she was alone.

"Hey, Mr. Rusty," Apple Bloom added when she saw me. She frowned, taking note of my muddy, rumpled clothes and Sweetie Belle's dissheveled mane and tail. "Uh, are you two alright? You look like you slept outside or somethin'."

Sweetie Belle blinked and yawned. She had dark bags under her eyes and looked like she was beyond exhausted.

"We slept in the treehouse," was all she said.

"The treehouse?"

Apple Bloom looked back and forth from one of us to the other.

"Uh, maybe you should tell me what's goin' on."

We did our best to recount our adventures from the night before. Apple Bloom's frown deepened.

"So... you're sayin' these weird shape-shiftin' bugs kidnapped Silver Spoon's parents and replaced 'em with copies?"

Sweetie Belle nodded.

"Yeah. Probably Silver Spoon too. And my sister." She looked drained. "They can make themselves look like anypony they want."

"How many of 'em are there?"

"I don't know. We’ve only seen two, but there are probably lots more.”

She gave a huge yawn, swaying unsteadily on her hooves. Apple Bloom watched her with concern.

"Uh, I'm not sayin' I don't believe you, but... maybe you should just go home and get some sleep, Sweetie Belle. You too, Mr. Rusty. I can tell Miss Cheerilee you're not comin' to school today—"

"NO!"

Apple Bloom jerked back, alarmed by the sudden force in her friend's voice.

"No," Sweetie Belle said again, in a more normal tone. "Please, I know how all of this sounds, but I swear we're not making it up."

Apple Bloom looked from her face to mine and then back again, frowning.

"I swear we're not making it up," Sweetie Belle repeated.

"So... what should we do, then?" asked Apple Bloom.

"We're going to need to raise an army," I said. "We've secured a base of operations, but we're going to need weapons, ammunition, provisions that can last through a protratcted siege—"

Sweetie Belle stomped on my foot.

"We need to find Scootaloo," she interjected, cutting me off with a sour look.

"Don't you two usually walk to school together?" Apple Bloom asked, glancing at me briefly with a mild look of pity in her eyes.

Sweetie nodded.

"Yeah. She sleeps late, though. Sometimes I have to go in there and get her out of bed. She probably isn't even up yet."

"Well, let's get goin' then!"

Scootaloo's house turned out to be a dilapidated two-story cottage in a run-down section of Ponyville. The windows were dirty, and the roof badly needed to be re-thatched. The overgrown yard had trash and rusted scooter parts strewn across it.

"You know, I think this is the first time I've ever been to Scoot's house," said Apple Bloom as we approached the shabby hut. "Does anypony else even live here?"

Sweetie Belle shook her head wearily.

"It's kind of a long story," she said. "Anyway—"

"Get down!" I hissed suddenly, grabbing the two ponies and ducking behind the unkempt shrubbery that bordered the yard. We peered cautiously through a hole in the bushes just as the front door of the house began to creak open.

"So, what was the thing you guys wanted to show me before school?"

Scootaloo stepped out onto the porch, blinking sleepily in the morning sunlight.

"It's over at Twilight's library," said a voice that sounded vaguely like Sweetie Belle's. Sweetie's clone emerged onto the porch a moment later, followed by mine.

"Yeah," said the Dale clone. "I really think you're going to like it."

Scootaloo yawned and cracked her neck.

"I've been to Twilight's library before, no offense but it was nothing special. Can you at least tell me what it is before we walk all the way over there?"

'Sweetie Belle' scowled and tapped her hoof impatiently. The whites of her eyes had a faint green glow behind them.

"It's a surprise," she said. "But we have to hurry up and get there now, before everypony starts waking up."

Scootaloo stretched and yawned again, extending her tiny wings as far as they would go.

"Your voice sounds kind of weird, Sweetie Belle," she said. "Do you have a cold or something—"

"BOO!"

They all jumped as I sprang out of the bushes suddenly, landing directly in front of them and making jazz-hands.

'Sweetie Belle' and 'Dale' hissed in surprise, and with a blue-green flash they both transformed into bugs. Scootaloo just stared blankly, looking back and forth between me and the two insect-creatures who were standing where I and Sweetie Belle had just been. The bugs hissed again and took to the air, buzzing quickly over my head. With another flash of light they transformed into pegasi and disappeared into the town. A nearby stallion pulling a cart laden with vegetables watched them go, a confused expression on his face. Then, he shrugged and continued on his way.

Scootaloo blinked as Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom emerged from behind the shrubs. She glanced at us, then at the direction the bugs had gone, then back at us again, and then behind her into the house. She shook her head and scowled.

"Dammit. I'm still asleep, aren't I?"