Princess Sweet

by rosebudthefoal

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Sweetie Belle, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Rarity
Length: 10280

There's a secret about Sweetie Belle that not even she, Rarity, nor her parents know.

Something very odd is happening to Sweetie Belle. First, her magic is powerful and uncontrollable all of a sudden. Second, old scars that disappeared years ago have come back. Third, her mane and tail are waving like the princesses' do. Confused, everypony goes to investigate. They may find that there's a lot more to this filly than they thought.

Any criticism is both welcome and appreciated :)

The artist who made the vector used in the coverart is http://pvt-llama.deviantart.com/ .

Published 2012-10-22 00:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-04-17 04:53:10 UTC

Chapter 1: Weirdest Day

Sweetie Belle awoke to the sound of Rarity running about downstairs. She groaned and lifted herself out of bed, trotting sleepily downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

“Rarity, what’s with all the noise?” she asked as she pushed open the door and found her older sister running back and forth between fabric, dress design sheets, and ponnequins.

“I’m sorry if I woke you, dear.” Rarity said, not looking up from her work. “I’ve just remembered that I have an important order of twenty dresses due tomorrow, and I’ve only got ten done!” She stood and ran over to a ponnequin wearing a red dress with rubies around the rim.

“Well, since I’m awake now, can I help?” Sweetie asked. She dared to get her hopes up, even though she knew that Rarity would insist she be left alone to her work. However, she was surprised when Rarity looked over at her and adopted a horrified expression.

“Sweetie!” Rarity exclaimed running over to her. “What in the name of Celestia did you do to your coat and mane?!”

“What?” Sweetie asked, confused. “I didn’t do anything.” She twisted to look at her body and gasped. Her white fur was tinged red and pink, as if she had rolled in paint. She grabbed a lock of her mane with her hoof and looked at it, seeing it half black and half… green?

“Sweetie, your colors; it’s awful!” Rarity rushed her sister over to the nearest mirror and Sweetie Belle got a full look of herself. It wasn’t just the black and green mane and the red and pink coat; she also had splatters of blue and dark purple streaks in her tail. Her eyes were different colors too; one green, one yellow.

“Are you sure you weren’t playing around with any of my fur dyes?” Rarity asked sternly.

“I swear, Rarity!” Sweetie insisted. “I liked my colors the way they were! I have no idea what happened!”

Rarity galloped over to the door of the bathroom and flung it open. “Come here, Sweetie Belle, if you take a bath maybe you can wash the dye out.”

~<3~

Sweetie rubbed her mane with a towel until it was dry. She dropped the towel on the floor and turned to look at the mirror. She was still an assortment of random colors, the bath had taken no effect whatsoever.

Rarity looked very upset. Her sister was now the least fashionable thing in her shop. “Take another bath.” She ordered. “You probably just didn’t scrub hard enough.”

~<3~

Three baths later, Rarity decided that the dye wasn’t coming out. She was now digging in the closet for something while Sweetie Belle sat with a towel wrapped around her in a chair.

“I guess we’ll just have to fight dye with dye.” Rarity said, finally stepping out of the closet. She held in her magic three dyes; white, purple, and pink.

“Rarity, I’m not sure this is a good idea.” Sweetie said, cautiously.

“Do you have a better one?” Rarity asked.

Sweetie Belle shook her head.

~<3~

“I don’t understand it!” Rarity tossed the white bottle of dye in frustration. After applying the dye, it simply seemed to wash off, not affecting Sweetie’s color at all.

“Maybe we should just give up?” Sweetie asked hopefully.

“No, no, it’s time to bring out the big guns.” Rarity disappeared among her racks of clothing, reappearing with a big hat and a long dress. “Put these on.” She ordered. “These should cover up most of your colors.”

“Why?” Sweetie asked. “Are we going somewhere?”

“Yes, just put them on. Quickly, now.”

~<3~
“And you thought I could help… how?” Twilight gazed at Sweetie Belle, her eyes full of confusion.

“Well, it didn’t wash off and dyes didn’t help, it seemed only logical that magic could help.” Rarity said.

“I don’t think I know any spells that could fix this.” Twilight said, “But I could try to undo the magic if that’s what did this to her.”

“Well then, why don’t you try it?” Rarity said, pointing at the discolored filly. The fashion mare was losing her patience with this whole situation.

“Alright.” Twilight dipped her head and pointed her horn at Sweetie Belle. As the unicorn’s horn glowed with purple magic, the filly felt nervous and wondered if she would come out of this whole thing with an extra ear or something. After all, Twilight had once changed the voice of Bon-Bon with a spell gone wrong.

Suddenly, Twilight stepped back, the light dying from her horn. She lifted her head up and looked at Sweetie Belle with surprise. “Wow, that’s powerful!” she said.

“What’s powerful?” Sweetie asked.

“The magic that dyed your coat.” Twilight said, her look turning to confusion. “It’s powerful magic, almost as powerful as mine. If this is somepony’s prank on you, the pranker must be a very powerful unicorn.”

“But you can undo it, right?” Rarity asked hopefully.

Twilight nodded. “Yes.”

Rarity sighed with relief. “Thank goodness!”

Sweetie Belle found herself wrapped in purple magic and floating about an inch off the wooden floor of the library. She wiggled in the magic hold, but found that she could barely move. She looked at her sides and found that the odd colors seemed to be peeling away and evaporating, revealing her normal white coat underneath.

She fell back to the floor, thankful that the lock of hair from her mane that fell over her eyes was pink and light purple again. Finally, everything was back to normal! Now she could go see what Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were up to, and maybe even do some crusading!

However, Rarity was staring at the filly’s sides. Twilight hadn’t noticed this, and was talking about the spell. “I simply had to undo the original spell. It was powerful, but very crudely done. As if it was by somepony who had no idea what they were doing. But now that I think of it, it had to be some unicorn pulling a prank on her; her eyes had changed color. Dyes couldn’t do that, and if it was contacts she would have noticed.”

“Sweetie, dear, your scars.” Rarity said, not having heard a word of what Twilight had said.

“My scars?” Sweetie Belle looked at her sides again and saw two scars, one on each side, standing out clear as day against her white coat. “Oh, wait… what? These scars went away years ago!”

“Scars?” Twilight asked, walking over to look.

“Sweetie Belle had these scars as long as I can remember; she got them when she was just a little foal.” Rarity explained. “But they healed and faded so long ago that nopony even noticed them anymore.”

“Then why are they showing up so clearly now?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know, dear.” Rarity said. “So many strange things have happened today. It will be a miracle if I ever get my orders done.” Then her eyes widened. “My order! I completely forgot about it! Sweetie Belle, why don’t you go play with your friends while I go back to the boutique and finish my work?”

Sweetie smiled and raced out the door of the library. “Gladly!” she called over her shoulder.

~<3~

Sweetie Belle spotted an orange blur on a scooter shoot past, and her smile widened. “Scootaloo!” she called after the blur, chasing it. However, her pegasus friend hadn’t heard her, and rode on. “Scootaloo, slow down!” she called, speeding up to try and reach her friend. However, Scootaloo was about as fast as Rainbow Dash when she was on her scooter, it would be almost impossible for Sweetie Belle to catch up to her.

But wait, Scootaloo’s wings had suddenly stopped moving! The orange pegasus toppled over in surprise, her helmet preventing most injury. “Ouch.” Sweetie Belle heard her groan as she caught up to her.

“Scootaloo, are you okay?” Sweetie asked, sprinting the last few feet over to her friend.

“Oh, hey Sweetie Belle.” Scootaloo greeted her. “And yeah, I’m fine. I’ve had worse crashes.” Then she noticed something. “Sweetie Belle, your horn is glowing! When did you learn magic?”

Confused, Sweetie Belle turned to look at her reflection in a nearby store window. Indeed, her horn was glowing a light green about the same color as her eyes. She hadn’t even noticed! She had never used magic before, and never really bothered to learn it. She knew that magic took a lot of study and practice, and she had never been interested in sitting in a library all day just so she could hold things in the air. But still, magic was pretty cool.

She turned back to Scootaloo with a large grin on her face. “I didn’t even know I was using magic! I don’t know how I’m doing it, though.”

“Maybe your special talent has something to do with magic!” Scootaloo said excitedly. “You could be a war pony who uses magic to defeat bad guys! Come on, let’s go find Apple Bloom, we can get some awesome crusading out of this!”

As though she hadn’t been hurt at all, Scootaloo hopped back onto her scooter. She kicked the ground with her hoof to start off, but barely got a few inches. “I can’t feel my wings.” The pegasus said, trying to twist to see if something was wrong with her wings.

The problem was clear to Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo’s wings were surrounded with a light green aura; the same as Sweetie’s magic. “Oops, sorry.” she told her friend.

“Hey, cut it out.” Scootaloo said, annoyed once she saw the green magic around her wings and realized what was going on.

“I don’t know how, but I’ll try.” She closed her eyes and searched her mind, hoping to find the magic. It wasn’t hard to find; she could now feel the magic all over her. All she had to do was figure out how to stop the magic.

“Uh, Sweetie Belle?” the unicorn heard Scootaloo say, although for some reason the voice came from below her. “You should really open your eyes.”

So she did. Sweetie Belle was now surrounded in her own magical aura, floating about three feet in the air. “Ahh!” she screeched in panic. “Somepony get me down!”

Scootaloo jumped up and grabbed her hoof, but then they were both floating higher and higher into the air. Their panic was short lived because they were barely at the height of a short tree when they felt somepony pulling them back down.

“What’s going on?” the cyan pegasus asked, pulling the two fillies back down to the ground.

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo grinned ear-to-ear. “Thanks for saving us!”

“Uh huh.” Rainbow said, her attention mainly focused on Sweetie Belle, who was no longer flying upwards but was still hovering a few inches above the ground. “You okay?” she asked the unicorn.

“I don’t think so.” Sweetie replied. She closed her eyes again and attempted to stop her magic once more. This just resulted in her flipping upside-down in the air. “I might need some unicorn help.” She said, looking at both pegasi, who appeared upside-down for her.

~<3~

“I think we solved the mystery of what magic caused your color issue earlier, Sweetie Belle.” Twilight said. The expression on her face told Sweetie that she was holding back laughter. Although annoyed by this, the unicorn filly could understand why she would be amused by what was going on. After all, she was now flying upside-down and her hooves were now splattered blue. The magic had gotten worse on the way to the library, and it seemed every time Sweetie tried to stop it, something else happened.

“Can you fix my magic?” Sweetie asked.

“It’s not your magic that’s the problem.” Twilight explained. “It’s the fact that you can’t control it. Your magic is unusually powerful, and you have no idea how to control it, so it’s getting a bit out of hoof.”

“But can you fix it?”

“I’ll try.” Twilight closed her eyes and her horn started glowing. Sweetie Belle was once again surrounded in Twilight’s purple magic. The blue faded from the filly’s coat, she flipped right-side-up, and she slowly fell to the floor. Twilight’s magic faded and she opened her eyes again.

“Thanks, Twilight.” Sweetie Belle said, happy to be right-side-up once again.

“Maybe magic isn’t your thing.” Scootaloo pointed out.

“I guess not.” Sweetie agreed. “Let’s go find Apple Bloom and tell her about what happened!”

“Wait,” Twilight said, “I’ve got an idea.” She disappeared upstairs, leaving Rainbow and the two fillies for several moments. She returned, holding a collar in her magic. She slipped it on to Sweetie, who jumped back in surprise.

“What’s this?” the unicorn filly asked.

“It’s a magic blocking collar.” Twilight explained. “It stops magic; you shouldn’t have any more magic troubles with it on. You can wear it for now until I can think of a way to help you control your magic.”

“As long as I’m not floating upside-down anymore, I’m happy.” Sweetie Belle replied.

“Come on, Sweets!” Scootaloo turned and dashed out the door.

“Wait up!” Sweetie ran after her friend.

Rainbow and Twilight were now alone in the library. “Twilight,” the cyan mare asked, “Why did you have that collar just laying around?”

“Never mind that.” Twilight said, waving a hoof to dismiss the question. “I’m curious. Sweetie Belle’s magic is so powerful for her age, and it’s unusual that if her magic has always been so powerful that it wouldn’t show until now. I need to investigate this, you want to come along?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I have nothing better to do. Sky’s clear and I’ve already taken my afternoon nap.”

“Great!” Twilight turned and called upstairs, “Spike, I’m leaving for a bit, make sure you do your chores!” Then she raced out the door. Rainbow followed her, hearing the grumbling of Spike from upstairs before she left.

~<3~

Sweetie Belle sat in the wagon that was strapped to the back of Scootaloo’s scooter. The two were speeding along the dirt road on their way to Sweet Apple Acres. The unicorn was thinking over the events of that morning.

Things have been really weird. she thought. First the random colors, then my scars showing up, and I’m having uncontrollable magic… Why is all this stuff happening to me? She stared at her magic-blocking collar and saw that it was made out of some brown, durable material. It felt rough, and she had never seen anything like it before. Where did Twilight get this anyway?

She felt her mane and tail flowing in the wind as they sped closer to the home of the Apple family. She understood why Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo liked racing and such; it was a wonderful sensation.

Suddenly, Scootaloo skidded to a stop. The wagon twisted around and flung Sweetie Belle out onto the road. She fell flat on her face. Groaning, the unicorn sat up and looked questioningly at Scootaloo. “Why’d you stop?” she asked.

Scootaloo simply pointed a hoof at Sweetie Belle’s mane. The unicorn immediately realized what was wrong.

Although there was no wind and they were standing completely still, her mane and tail were still blowing around, much like how the princesses’ did. Both of the fillies’ eyes grew wide and they stared at each other, not sure what was going on.

“Howdy Sweets, howdy Scoots!” a young voice with a southern accent called. Sweetie and Scootaloo both looked towards Sweet Apple Acres and saw a yellow earth pony filly running towards them. Apple Bloom stopped by Sweetie Belle’s side and looked in wonder at her hair. “That’s a cool trick, how’re ya doing that?”

Sweetie Belle instead turned and sprinted to Apple Bloom’s house and looked at her reflection in one of the windows. Exactly like Celestia’s did, her hair was waving in non-existent wind and seemed to glow with unknown magic. She let out a confused sigh. “Today is such a weird day.” She said out loud.

Chapter 3: In Canterlot

Princess Celestia recovered from her current coughing fit. She felt as if she should both smile and frown as she glanced up towards the calendar. Two weeks left. Where was Luna? She had to tell her of this news...

"Princess?" a white pegasus guard donned in the usual armor trotted up to her. "Are you alright? Do you need me to call the royal doctor?"

"I'm fine, General." Celestia assured him. "But I will need you to call for somepony. Please find Princess Luna for me; she said that she was going out for a flight so she should be flying somewhere near Canterlot."

The stallion nodded. "Of course, your highness." He turned and spread his wings, flying out the doors of the throne room.

Princess Celestia held the small, pocket calendar in front of her face as she sat on her throne. She looked around and saw nopony with her in the room. Knowing she was finally alone, she allowed her eyes to water. "Only two weeks left." she whispered to herself. She looked away from the calendar and observed the stained glass windows, each showing different events that had happened since she had become princess nearly three thousand years ago. She sighed happily as she saw the one of the element bearers curing Luna from her dark half.

The large white alicorn stood from her throne and trotted down the long side of the room, admiring how well-made the windows were. There were also many more normal windows, left for any more important events that should be recorded in the form of art. "Fine Craft and his team sure did well making these." she said, running on hoof along one that showed Princess Cadance and Shining Armor banishing the changelings.

"Princess?" a voice called from the doorway. Celestia turned to see a white unicorn stallion poking his head in through the double doors.

"Yes, Shining Armor?" she asked.

"You wanted me to give my report on the protection of the Griffon Empire." he said, trotting in and closing the door behind him.

Celestia nodded. "Yes, I do. Are they faring well after the incident?"

"Yes. There have been no reports of any Shadow sightings and no more disappearances. It looks like it was only that one griffon, maybe they've moved on." the stallion said.

"Let's just hope they haven't moved on to Equestria." Celestia sighed and looked at the stained glass window. there was a brief moment of silence before she asked, "How is my student? I heard that she has come to Canterlot. Do you know why?"

Shining jumped up into the air. "Oh, no, I don't. I didn't know she was here. If I'm dismissed, I'd like to go look for her. I haven't seen her since the Crystal Empire reappeared."

"You are dismissed, go see your sister. And if she wishes to stay in Canterlot, let her know that there is always a suite in this castle for her."

Shining nodded. "Thanks, Princess." then he bolted out of the room unceremoniously. Celestia smiled at this and let out a soft chuckle before falling into a fit of coughs again.

"Where is Luna?" the princess wondered once she recovered. She looked out one of the normal windows left and scanned the skies. She couldn't have gone far... there she was! She was being led back to the castle by three pegasi guards. Celestia opened the large window with her magic and hopped out, her powerful wings not yet weakened by her sickness. "General, you may return to your duties now." she called to the pegasus in the lead. He nodded and the three guards turned and dived for the streets of Canterlot below.

"You wanted a word, sister?" Luna asked, looking a bit worried. She knew what was coming, but it would be much worse than she thought.

"My three thousandth year is approaching, Luna." the sun princess admitted.

Luna's eyes widened. "But... it won't happen, will it? There is nopony-"

Celestia held up a hoof to silence her sister. "Mors Minatio is still alive." she told her.

~<3~

Twilight groaned. "Are you sure there's no more trains today?" she asked the pony standing at the ticket stand in the train station.

"Sorry ma'am, none until tomorrow." the pony, a brown mare with a blonde mane and tail and a ticket for a cutie mark, shook her head.

Twilight groaned again. "Looks like I'm spending the night in Canterlot." she sighed, turning and walking out of the train station and out onto the streets of Canterlot again.

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air next to her. "I could push you on a cloud again." she offered.

"I'm not flying again, not even if I had wings." the unicorn told her, a little annoyance in her voice.

"Alright, sorry, sorry." Rainbow replied. "But where are you going to stay?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. "'You', as in just me?"

"I've got weather duty tomorrow, and wings. I gotta head back to Ponyville." the pegasus said.

"Fine. I guess I can spend the night at my parents', or visit the royal library."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Only you would want to spend your vacation in Canterlot surrounded with books."

"I call it's not really a vacation, it's more like I'm stranded here." Twilight pointed out. Both mares trotted down the street. Twilight started to think of the whole matter with Sweetie Belle again. "You have to admit something really weird is going on with her. She's not blood related to Rarity, Magnum, or Pearl, she's really powerful all of a sudden, and she had those cuts on her back... what do think that could mean?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Maybe her real parents just abandonded her."

"But what about those cuts? That seems like an odd place for somepony get hurt, in the same place on each side... and why would the scars be coming back all of a sudden? Why is she suddenly so powerful?"

"I dunno."

Suddenly, Twilight spotted a white figure racing towards her from down the road. "Shining Armor!" she shouted happily, recognizing the figure. She raced towards it and she and her brother met, hugging each other.

"How are ya, Twily?" Shining asked, laughing as he left the embrace.

"Fine, How are you?" Twilight asked, also leaving the embrace.

"What are you doing in Canterlot?"

"Rarity's little sister... sort of... has been acting pretty weird lately so we wanted to talk with her parents. They're staying in the 'Amanezing Hotel'." Twilight explained. "It's nice to see you again, BBBFF. It feels like it's been forever."

"It does." Shining agreed. "Are you staying in Canterlot for a bit? The princess told me to tell you that there is always a suite at the castle open for you."

"Well, I am kinda stuck here until tomorrow." Twilight said. "There isn't a train leaving until tomorrow and I'm not trusting Rainbow to fly me back after I almost lost my lunch the first time."

Shining Armor chuckled as he saw the look on Rainbow's face. "Well, I can take you to the castle if you want."

"I wanted to visit the royal library while I was here anyway." Twilight told him. She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Are you going back to Ponyville now?"

Rainbow nodded. "If I hurry I'll have time to practice my new quadruple-barrel-roll-dive move."

"Well then, make sure you tell the girls where I am and remind Spike to feed Owlioucious before he goes to bed."

Rainbow saluted. "Gotcha." then she turned and flew off towards Ponyville, leaving rainbow trail behind her.

~<3~

"So, what are we gonna do?" Apple Bloom asked. The three crusaders were in the wagon, being pulled by Scootaloo on her scooter down the streets of Ponyville.

"Maybe we can stop at Rarity's." Sweetie suggested. She had tucked her flowing mane under her helmet, but had nothing that could hide her tail from view except sitting on it. She looked around at the ponies whizzing past as they sped down the street. None of them gave the fillies a second glance.

"We're almost at Rarity's shop." Scootaloo told her. "Aaaaaaaaand... here we are." she leaned back, bringing the wagon and scooter to a complete stop right outside Carousel Boutique.

"Maybe Rarity'll know what ta do." Apple Bloom said, hopping out of the wagon. Sweetie Belle slipped off her helmet and hopped of out of the wagon as well. The three fillies headed for the door of the boutique, but Sweetie suddenly stopped as she saw something flicker out of the corner of her eye.

"What was that?" Sweetie asked.

"What was what?" her friends asked, looking around.

The white filly looked in the direction she had seen the flicker. There was a shadow cast across the ground, coming from a sign next to the shop. For a split second, she thought she had seen the shadow move, even though the sign hadn't. After looking at it for half a minute and not seeing it move, she turned back to her friends. "Nevermind, I must have imagined it." and the three trotted into the shop.

Behind them, the shadow of the sign flickered. Although no light was moving, the shadow stretched over to the door and managed to slip through before it was closed.

~<3~

"Mors Minatio can't have returned." Luna paced the throne room with worry. "She can't! She disappeared, didn't she? That's what you told me!"

"I thought she had disappeared as well, Luna, but my sickness itself proves her survival." Celestia held her wing over her sister. "We need to find Mors, Luna. She will be young, but it will be her duty to take her place."

Luna kicked the throne in anger and frustration. "Why did Mors have to live?"

"Don't curse life, Luna." Celestia said kindly, smiling to her sister as if to reassure her all would be alright.

"I'm not, I'm cursing death."

~<3~

"That's really weird." Shining Armor commented as him and Twilight trotted through the halls of Canterlot Castle. "And scars on her sides?"

Twilight nodded. "Her adoptive parents said that the scars were the injury she had when they found her. It just seems so odd... and somehow really important."

"I don't know." Shining Armor looked down at his hooves for a moment. Suddenly, he spoke up, changing the subject. "Has Celestia seemed a little... off in any letter's she's sent you this week?"

"No, I haven't had a letter to send to her since two weeks ago, so she hasn't sent me a letter at all. Why?" Twilight asked, looking slightly worried.

"She's been kinda sick lately. She's been coughing and hasn't been going out for walks or flights anymore. I've ordered the guards to ask her if she needs the royal doctor whenever they hear her coughing, but she always declines." Then he looked up and saw the wide-eyed look of anxiety on his sister's face. "Don't worry." he said quickly. "She's Princess Celestia, Twily. She basically immortal; if it was anything too bad I'm sure she could handle it for herself." he looked away, not quite believing his own words.

"I hope she's okay... what if-" Twilight stared, but was interrupted as Shining Armor blocked her mouth with his hoof. He knew his sister; she was about to rant about all the things that could possibly be wrong with Celestia then have a mental breakdown about she didn't want anything bad to happen to her mentor.

"I said not to worry, Twily." Shining said. Twilight nodded, pulling her face away from his hoof and they continued down the hallway

"If you're that worried, we're about to pass the throne room." Shining told her, pointing to large double door near the end of the hallway. "She's in there. Maybe you could try to talk to her."

"Oh no, I wouldn't want to bother her." Twilight shook her head.

"The princess would never be bothered to talk with you." Shining said. "You always seem to think she's some mean ruler, you gave up completing your test for the safety of the crystal ponies and Equestria and you thought she would hate you and fail you on your test."

"No, she's not mean, it's just-" Shining Armor grabbed the unicorn and pushed her towards the doors.

"Come on, Twily, just knock."

~<3~

Sweetie leaped into the air, startled. "What was that?!" she asked.

"What was what?" her friends repeated.

"I heard somepony whisper something, didn't you hear it?" Sweetie asked.

Her friends shook their heads. Sweetie sighed. "Nevermind." the three fillies walked forward into the trashed shop. They weaved their way through discarded rolls of fabric, spools of thread, and knocked over ponnequins. "Rarity?" Sweetie Belle called. "Rarity, where did you go?"

"This place is spooky." Scootaloo said. Indeed, the lights seemed to be darker and there was an eerie silence. No sun made it through the windows, and as the Cutie Mark Crusaders made their closer to the stairs they saw that it was nearly pitch black upstairs.

"Really spooky." Sweetie agreed. Sweetie jumped again. "Did you hear it that time, girls?" she asked. The confused looks on Apple Bloom's and Scootaloo's faces gave her her answer. "Nevermind." she sighed again. They continued on their way to the stairs.

"SWEETIE!" a shriek from upstairs nearly knocked all three fillies backwards.

"Rarity!" the Cutie Mark Crusaders shouted. They bolted towards the staircase. However, just as they reached the bottom step, Sweetie Belle stopped.

"Sweets, what are you doing?" Scootaloo asked, looking back when she noticed Sweetie had stopped. "We gotta save Rarity!"

Sweetie Belle just stood there, one hoof on the bottom step, eyes wide as she stared at something about two feet above Scootaloo's head. The orange pegasus turned to see what she was looking at.

On a wall was a huge shadow of a pony. It had bat-like wings and Sweetie could see fangs in its open mouth. A quick look behind her proved that there was no such pony in the room. The three fillies were frozen with fear. "You are not fit for the job Celestia wishes to put upon you shoulders..." the shadow hissed

Suddenly, none of the Cutie Mark Crusaders could see. They were wrapped in shadow, nothing but blackness around them. Sweetie found her consciousness ebbing away.

Author's Note

I would like to apologize for any spelling errors in this. Due to me losing my other computer and the fact that my new one doesn't have spellcheck, it's much more likely to have misspells.

Also, things are starting to get interesting...

Chapter 4: She's GONE

Princess Celestia looked over at the big double doors of the throne room. She had just heard a knock coming from the other side. "Enter." she called calmly.

The doors creaked open and a purple face peered in. "Hello, Princess." Twilight Sparkle greeted nervously.

"Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia trotted over to the doorway and pushed one door ll the way open with her wing. "I haven't heard from you in awhile. How are you?"

Twilight stepped in and looked around. She saw a rather worried-looking Princess Luna standing back, and wondered what she was upset about. "I'm good, Princess." Twilight answered.

"Well, was there something you wanted?"

"Well..." Twilight glanced at Shining Armor, who stepped in after her. "Shining told me how you didn't seem well and I wanted to see if you were okay."

Celestia ruffled her wings and gave the stallion a quick glare before replying. "I'm perfectly fine, as I keep telling everypony. But I'm touched you were worried about me." she then pointed towards the door. "Shining Armor, would mind retrieving some tea and cakes from the kitchens? We can all sit down and visit if Twilight isn't planning on leaving."

"I'm not planning on leaving, but you don't have to. You're probably busy..." Twilight said quickly.

"No, I'm free for now." Celestia told her.

A few minutes later Celestia had set up a table and she, Luna, Twilight, and Shining all sat down at it and talked. "So tell me, why did you visit Canterlot today?" Princess Celestia asked her student. "Certainly not just to say 'hi'."

"Oh, Rarity's younger sister has been... weird today." Twilight explained, setting down her slice of cake so she could talk.

"Sweetie Belle?" Celestia asked. "The delightful little flower filly at the wedding?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes. She's had some very powerful magic outbursts since this morning; powerful enough to match mine and way too powerful for a filly."

Celestia raised an eyebrow and exchanged a glance with Luna. Twilight continued.

"She somehow dyed her coat without meaning to, and it somehow managed to deflect all the different dyes Rarity tried to get her coat back to normal. And the thing I understand least; she had two little scars on her back." Twilight used a hoof to trace two lines on her own back. "Then I went to talk with her parents to see if they would know anything. They told me how she was adopted, and about how they had found her in the park. The two scars were injuries from back then."

Twilight was about to continue when Celestia stood quickly. "I need to see this filly." she said seriously. "Shining Armor, go get some pegasus guards and a carriage. We're going to Ponyville."

Shining Armor ran off immediately, sensing the urgency in the alicorn's voice. Luna had stood as well and was pacing back and forth. "Could it be her, sister?" she asked.

"I can't be certain, but it would make sense." Celestia replied.

"Certain about what? Can it be who?" Twilight asked, confused. "What's going on, Princesses?"

"I suppose I should explain." Princess Celestia sighed.

~<3~

*drip* *drip* *drip* *drip*

Sweetie Belle woke up to the sound of water. The air smelled musty and all seemed cold. In the distance she could hear what sounded like constant thunder. Whatever she was laying on was soft, like the fluffiest blanket. However, it was thin and she could feel hard earth underneath it. She could hear somepony shifting around not far away, but they made no other sounds.

The filly opened her eyes. They fell upon a little spout that dripped water, like a leaky faucet. It stuck out of a wall of dirt, and upon looking around, Sweetie realized all the walls around her were made of dirt. She appeared to be in some sort of cave. She was behind iron bars, like a jail cell. Her cell was well lit with floating magic orbs of light near the ceiling, as was the rest of the cave. The only part she could see was a circular chamber around her with two other cells. She saw two sleeping fillies in the other ones; a yellow one and an orange one.

She stood to walk over to the bars and realized at that second that she was wearing something. She reached up and touched her neck. The magic collar was still on, but it felt... heavier? She twisted it around and looked at it. There was a light chain attached to it; so light that it barely tugged on the collar. Am I somepony's puppy now? she wondered. She tugged experimentally on the chain. It wouldn't come out of the wall. Despite the fact that it was light, it seemed very tough.

She looked down at her hooves. She was sitting upon a sort of blanket. It was dirty, but that was probably because she would have rolled around in sleep like she always does, causing the dirt from the floor to stick to it. It was made out of some wool material and looked like it was sewed perfectly. That's weird. she thought. I thought I was in some sort of evil lair, but it's lit up and I have a comfy blanket. You'd think they would be more cruel.

"Tammavarsa on hereillä!" a voice called out. Sweetie Belle's head snapped up, and she saw a shadow cast upon the wall. It was like the one from before; fangs poked out from its mouth and bat wings unfurled from its figure. It was just a shadow; there wasn't a pony like it in the room.

Another pony shadow appeared next to it, this one identical except it had a twisted horn instead of wings. "Täydellinen! Valta, tammavarsa on hereillä!" it called in the same language that Sweetie Belle couldn't understand.

A voice from some place that Sweetie Belle couldn't see answered, "Tiedät mitä tehdä, niin! Olen kiireinen ja palaan tarkistamaan hänen myöhemmin!"

"Kyllä, Valta!" the two shadows in the room called back. They exchanged a few words, then the bat-winged shadow turned his head to face Sweetie. Of course, he was a shadow so it did little to the filly's eyes. "Tarvitsetko jotain? Onko sinulla nälkä?"

Not completely sure how to respond, Sweetie Belle remained silent.

"Haloo? Kuuletko minua?"

"I'm sorry, but I understand what you're saying." Sweetie Belle told them.

The bat-winged shadow turned back to his friend. After a short discussion, he turned back to Sweetie Belle. "How about Equestrian? I would guess that's what you speak."

Sweetie Belle nodded."What are we doing here? Who are you?"

"Well, my name is Lapsi." the winged shadow told her. "And my friend here is Orja. You're here because... well, I don't know. It's a secret that only our boss, Valta, knows."

"Well, what are you?" Sweetie asked. She walked as far as the chain would allow.

"Shadows." Lapsi answered simply. "We are creatures from outside Equestria. We're very much like ponies, except... well, Shadows. I don't how to explain it any better."

Orja spoke up. "Oh, but as we were saying, do you need anything?"

Sweetie Belle blinked in confusion. So, her captors were asking if she needed anything? They wanted to make her happy? Well, this isn't like any stories I've read about ponynapping. Then her stomach growled.

"So, you are hungry?" Lapsi asked.

Sweetie nodded. She decided should milk the silliness of her captors as much as she could. "Do you have some pizza?"

Lapsi and Orja exchanged a look. "Umm... I'll go get some." Orja hopped up so his hooves weren't touching the ground, curled himself into a ball, and circular shadow ducked out of the room via floor. It looked almost as if an invisible pony had walked out. Sweetie thought she could hear a faint mutter of, "What in the world is pizza...?" before he disappeared.

"So, anything else?" Lapsi asked.

"Not until my friends wake up." Sweetie Belle shook her head. "But, how did he do that?"

"Oh, we can change our shape so we can disguise ourselves as normal shadows." Lapsi explained. "Like, if we were undercover and there was the shadow of another pony, we would take its shape so we wouldn't be detected."

"Cool!" Sweetie Belle grinned. "Please tell me more?"

~<3~

"What?!" Rainbow Dash's eyes widened when Twilight finished recounting to her what Celestia had said. Twilight, Celestia, and Luna were in a flying chariot headed for Ponyville and had met Rainbow Dash on the way there. Now Rainbow was flying alongside them, shocked as she heard what they said.

"Yes." Twilight nodded. She looked off into the distance, where she could see Ponyville's tallest buildings. "We'll land near Town Hall and we can save a lot of time and searching if you find the others and gather there to wait for us. Bring the Crusaders too."

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Rodger that!" and she swooped off.

"Princess, what are we going to do when we've gathered everypony and told them the truth?" Twilight asked, looking away from the quickly disappearing pegasus to her mentor.

"Well, there's only two choices." Celestia sighed. "Neither are very good. In fact, they're both terrible. But it's unavoidable; this was all caused by an ancient magic nopony has yet unraveled."

"Well, what are the two choices?"

"Death or death."

"Wait, what?" Twilight gasped. "You mean you don't have some big plan on how to fix this? But..." Realizing what this meant. Twilight went silent and stared at her hooves. There was a long silence, in which the only sound was the rushing wind and the beating of wings. Twilight thought she heard a whimper from Princess Luna, and couldn't blame her.

The chariot started to move downwards as Town Hall came into sight. Twilight looked up to check and see if Rainbow had gathered her friends and the Crusaders. Below, she saw a pink blob and a yellow blob. As the carriage moved closer and lower, she could see that they were Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, both bouncing around.

When the chariot was about five feet from the ground, Twilight hopped off. Her hooves hurt for a moment from the impact, but she ignored it and ran over to her friends. She could understand why Pinkie was bouncing, she was always bouncing, but why was Fluttershy? When both looked up and ran to meet her, Twilight saw the anxious looks on their faces.

So they were bouncing worriedly. "Did Rainbow Dash tell you?" Twilight asked, stopping right before she smacked into them.

"No, she said that you and the princesses were coming to tell us something important and to come to Town Hall." Fluttershy told her. Her hooves were twitching around nervously, as if she was too anxious to stand still. "Twilight, she looked so pale! What's going on?"

"I'll explain fully when everypony's here. Is Rainbow off trying to find the others?"

"Yes." Fluttershy nodded. She looked like she was on the edge of crying.

"But!" Pinkie cut in suddenly. "She told us to find Rarity 'cause we were close to the boutique and all! But when we got there..." she waved her hooves around erratically. "She was nowhere! Gone, she was GONE! We looked around town, Fluttershy even flew around to look for her, but we couldn't find her anywhere!"

"Did something bad happen? Did somepony take Rarity?" Fluttershy asked. "We can't lose a friend!"

"Calm down, I'm sure we'll find her." Twilight placed a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "But did you find Sweetie Belle or any of the other fillies?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "When we didn't see them around town we thought they would be at Sweet Apple Acres, which is where Dashie is." Pinkie explained.

"Okay, we should just wait until Rainbow comes back. Maybe Rarity's at Sweet Apple Acres."

"Twilight, it's not that simple." Fluttershy said again. "Carousel Boutique was... ruined. L-like there was a struggle."

"Perhaps we should check her Boutique." Celestia spoke up. "Is it far?"

Twilight shook her head. "It's just down the street." She pointed.

"Then Twilight, Miss Shy, and I will go while Luna and Miss Pie stay here. If the others come please run to tell us and we'll come back."
~<3~

"Well." Twilight's eyes gazed all around the interior of Carousel Boutique's first floor. The whole place was a mess; fabric pieces laying about, ponnequins knocked over, dresses thrown over the floors, chests toppled over and their contents spewed all over, and more. "Something happened."

"Something big." Celestia agreed. Her eyes widened when she saw something fllicker inside, and when Twilight attempted to step forward into the room, she reached out a hoof and stopped her. "No, it may not be safe." The alicorn's eyes searched around the room. "Tell me, Twilight Sparkle would you exist if there was no light?"

"What?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Of course I would."

"But what about shadows? Do they exist if there is no light?"

"No, there needs to be light for something to cast a shadow."

"Exactly." Celestia reached into the room with her magic and closed all the blinds. It got darker with every window covered until she finally flicked off the light, leaving the only source of the light doorway. "But when you turn the light back on, the shadow comes back.

"So, basically, shadows are frozen, unable to move until there is light. So, if you were being followed by a shadow, you could just turn off the light and the shadow wouldn't be able to move."

"Being followed... by a shadow?" Fluttershy asked, peeking into the now dark boutique.

"But princess, how are we supposed to see if there's no light?" Twilight asked. Celestia stuck her head in the door, still looking for something. There was a short silence that seemed to stretch on forever until the princess pulled her head back out, horn glowing. She was holding three pairs of glasses. Her yellow magic sparked around them for a moment before she gave them to each pony.

"These will help us see." she explained.

Twilight took her pair in her magic and slid them on her face. Instantly everything in the dark room ahead seemed to turn green. It wasn't particularly easy to see, but it was better than darkness. "A simple night vision spell." she said under her breath.

"Also an Object Communication spell." Celestia added. She pushed Twilight and Fluttershy into the darknes, closing the door behind them. "If one of us finds something important, it will tell the other glasses. It's in case we have to split up and go to other rooms."

"I'm confused." Fluttershy said softly, eyes 'derped'.

"Just search for clues." Twilight told her, unaffected by this strange turn of events. She still had other things on her mind. She glanced at Celestia quickly before trotting off to search one side of the room.

Author's Note

The show's canon has completely ruined this by making Twilight an alicorn and just spitting into the face of the whole alicorn curse thing I was working on. Buck my life. >:(

Chapter 2: Amid the Tulips

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash stood before Carousel Boutique. Twilight knocked on the door, and the two waited as they heard hoofsteps on the other side. The door glowed blue and was swung open, revealing Rarity with her mane slightly messy and wearing her sewing glasses. "Oh, hello girls." she smiled at them. "I don't have the time to visit, though."

"We just wanted to ask you about Sweetie Belle." Rainbow said.

"Yes, Rarity, something really weird is going on with her and we thought you could help us." Twilight added.

Rarity glanced back at her shop, which was a mess in the inside with rolls of fabric scattered about and half-completed dresses draped over sewing machines. "I've got to finish this order as quickly as possible, I'm sorry, but I simply don't have enough time for chatting." Rarity shook her head. "But you could ask mine and Sweetie's parents. They recently sent us a letter saying that they were in Canterlot on their tour of Equestria. I could find the address of their hotel and I give it to you; they're very nice ponies and probably won't mind you stopping by."

"Great, that would be perfect." The two waited while Rarity raced back into her shop, disappearing for about a minute or two but reappearing with a slip of paper.

"Here you go dear." Rarity closed the door quickly, adding, "Sorry I couldn't help you."

"That was interesting, but at least we should have a great source of information." Twilight levitated the slip of paper in front of her eyes. "Who knows Sweetie Belle better than her own parents? The problem will be getting to Canterlot. I don't have the bits for train tickets..."

"Who needs the train?" Rainbow asked, flapping her wings.

"But how will I get there?" Twilight asked, looking up at the sky. The sun was now starting to descend past the halfway point, afternoon approaching.

"Don't you know how to cast that cloudwalking spell?" Rainbow flew up into the sky before the purple mare could respond. The rainbow blur returned seconds later with a cloud in her grip. She dragged the cloud down to ground level and set it in front of Twilight. "Well?"

Twilight rolled her eyes in a joking manner before closing them. Her horn glowed with magic and so did her hooves. After a few seconds, there was a slight pop and the magical glow disappeared. The purple unicorn hopped forward and stepped on the cloud, not falling through like most unicorns or earth ponies would.

Rainbow Dash grabbed the cloud and pulled it back up into the air. As they drifted upwards, Twilight clutched the sides of the fluffy cloud. "Don't go too fast, please." she whispered in fear, sounding a lot like Fluttershy as she saw how far away the ground was.

"Sorry, what was that?" Rainbow asking jokingly. She planted her hooves on the back of the cloud flew off in the direction of Canterlot, pushing the cloud much faster than Twilight was comfortable with.

~<3~

"That's really spooky." Applejack gazed, wide-eyed at Sweetie Belle's floating mane and tail. The filly was attempting to hold down her flowing mane with her hooves while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom attempted to pin her tail down.

"Call me crazy but Ah don't think is helpin'." Apple Bloom said, disappointed as she stepped back and Sweetie's tail continued moving.

"Maybe this is just my magic freaking out again." Sweetie suggested.

"Ah think we should go see Twilight." Applejack offered. She had come to see what all the fuss was about when Apple Bloom and her friends were shouting, and she certainly wasn't expecting to come across Sweetie Belle with her hair floating like the princesses'.

"I've already seen Twilight twice today!" Sweetie protested.

"And Ah thought you just told me you had a magic-collar thing on." Apple Bloom pointed to the brown collar Sweetie was wearing. The unicorn looked down at the collar, biting her lip as she thought. If her mane and tail were flowing, it wasn't because of her magic because the collar should be blocking it.

There was complete silence for a few moments, before Scootaloo hopped up into the air, clapping her hooves as a thought occurred to her. "You're a princess!" she shouted.

"...what?" Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom all asked at the same time.

"Your mane and tail are all wavy," Scootaloo grabbed Sweetie's mane and waved it for emphasis. "and your magic is suddenly super powerful."

"But Princesses have wings, Scoots." Apple Bloom pointed out.

"And Mom and Dad aren't alicorns, and Rarity isn't either." Sweetie added.

Scootaloo crossed her forelegs, annoyed that her friends had so quickly poked apart her idea. "It was just an idea."

~<3~

Twilight felt her breathing slow as she and Rainbow Dash approached land. Twilight's mane and tail were messy, having been blown back by the strong winds. She also had screamed for the first few minutes, giving what seemed like every bug in the sky a chance to hop inside her mouth and make her choke.

Finally, the cloud touched the streets of Canterlot. Twilight simply rolled off the cloud, laying on her back in the street. she saw Rainbow hiding a smile behind her hoof. "You jerk." the unicorn muttered. "Next time, we're taking the train. At a reasonable speed." Twilight was so happy to be back on solid ground she nearly kissed the stone road beneath her. She took deep breaths and attempted to get her mind back on track.

"Fine, fine." the pegasus waved a hoof, then looked up at the building they had landed next to. "Is this it?"

Twilight rolled onto her belly to get a good look at the building. It was very large and built out of bricks. It had a nice stone staircase leading up to double doors with a sign above reading, 'Welcome to the Amanezing Hotel'. "Amanezing?" she raised an eyebrow.

"That's a terrible pun." Rainbow rolled her eyes, disappointed with their choice of name. "I don't think that should even be called a pun; it's so bad..."

"We're not here to criticize the choice of hotel names, Rainbow." Twilight got to her hooves pulled out the slip of paper that had the room number of Rarity's parents on it. "We're here to get some answers from Magnum and Pearl."

"Is that what their names are?" Rainbow asked as the two trotted up the stone steps towards the double doors.

"Yes, Rarity must have told us a thousand times at our picnics." Twilight said.

"Meh, I guess I just drown that out. Probably why I didn't know you had a brother until the wedding."

Twilight facehoofed and sighed. Rainbow rolled her eyes and pushed the door open, flying in about a foot off the ground. Twilight followed, the door automatically swinging closed behind her. Her eyes grew wide as she took in the room. The floor was made of marble, there was a small water feature, a beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling, and the desk with a pony sitting behind it was gleaming as if it had just been polished.

"Hello, sir." Twilight greeted him. The pony looked up, his green eyes filled with boredom. He was a deep brown earth pony and was wearing a red and white suit. His mane was black and carefully combed and he had a bracelet around one hoof that had many keys hung on it. "My name is Twilight Sparkle."

"Looking for a room to spend the night in?" the stallion asked, looking in between Twilight and Rainbow with a certain look in his eye. "Just you two? Romantic evening?"

Both mares jumped back instantly, blushing deeply. "W-what? No!" Rainbow said quickly, flying up towards the ceiling as if to flee the scene.

"We're just friends!" Twilight shook her head quickly, waving her hooves in a 'no' motion rapidly. Her face burned. How could he even think that! "We're just here to see the ponies who're staying in room 8!"

"Oh, right." the stallion said, a smile and something in his tone told Twilight he didn't quite believe them. Either way, she rubbed her face with a hoof until the blush went away and when she removed her hoof from her face she saw the stallion had disappeared from his desk. "Coming?" he asked. Twilight turned around to see him standing at the end of a hallway behind her.

"Oh, yes." Twilight trotted down the hallway after him, Rainbow following. The hallway was narrow but well decorated with framed posters on the wall and a beautiful blue carpet was under their hooves. Twilight counted the doors as they passed. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Finally they came to door number 8, decorated with a golden number hung on the door.

"Here it is." the stallion nodded to the two mares before slipping past them and back towards the lobby. Twilight thought she heard a snicker from him before he disappeared.

"Why, that little..." Rainbow growled. She made a motion as if to fly after him.

"Don't run off, Rainbow." Twilight grabbed her cyan friend's tail in her telekinesis. "We're finally here. We can find out why this is happening to Sweetie Belle."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and landed beside Twilight. The unicorn knocked on the door with a hoof. She heard some muffled hoofsteps inside, a soft voice, then saw a gray-blue eye look through the peep hole. "Pearl? Magnum? It's Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash- we're friends of Rarity and Sweetie Belle."

"Really?" the door opened and a pink unicorn mare with a huge, purple mane, a red t-shirt that barely concealed a pearl for a cutie mark, and blue-gray eyes was revealed. "Well, come on in, then!"

"Thank you." Twilight trotted in and looked around the room. It was very small and defiantly wasn't a luxury suite. In the back of the room was one double bed with an open window right behind it. There was a bedstand with a book and notepad on it. The floor was the same carpet as was in the hallway, and the walls were painted an off-white color. There was also a door that Twilight could only assume led to a bathroom and a counter with a tiny refrigerator that was probably the kitchen.

"Take a seat." Pearl waved a pink hoof towards the bed. "My name is Pearl, by the way, but if you're friends of Rarity you probably already know that." Twilight smirked at Rainbow. Both purple unicorn and cyan pegasus walked over to the bed and sat upon it.

"Pearl? Is somepony here?" a male voice called.

"Yes, Magnum." Pearl called back. "Friends of Rarity and Sweetie Belle."

"Ooh!" a gray stallion entered the room, wearing a cap weaved out of hay. "Hi-o, friends of our daughters! Is there something ya needed?"

"We actually came to ask about Sweetie Belle." Twilight said calmly. Pearl looked at her in surprise.

"What about her?" she asked, walking over to close the door.

"Judging by what I've seen this morning, Sweetie Belle is having odd outbursts of magic, magic that's much more powerful than not only a filly should have, but any unicorn should have. It's so powerful even I had some trouble controlling it." Twilight explained. "Rarity brought her to me earlier, and she apparently had accidentally changed the color of her coat, which is a very complicated spell that one shouldn't be able to do 'accidentally'."

"But what do you need to ask us about?" Magnum asked, sitting on the floor in front of the bed. He was much bigger than Twilight and Rainbow Dash, so although he was sitting on the floor, he was still around eye-level for them.

Twilight continued. "The main question I really want answered is; is she related to somepony with powerful magic, or did she had some sort of traumatic experience when she was younger? Both could lead to unusually powerful magic outbursts at her age."

The two parents exchanged looks. "We... don't know." Pearl admitted.

Rainbow Dash, who hadn't spoken before mainly because she didn't really have any idea what was going on, said, "How can you not know? You're her parents, shouldn't you know if she's related to somepony powerful or if something tartic happened?"

"Traumatic." Twilight corrected.

"Whatever."

Pearl and Magnum turned and around and had a whispered conversation, making Twilight and Rainbow tilt their heads in confusion. It sounded like they were worried, and at one point, Pearl bit her lip nervously. Twilight was about to say that they needn't speak if they couldn't handle it, but it looked as if the parents had already come to a conclusion. "We've never told anypony about this before..." Pearl sighed. "But we're not Sweetie's parents."

Pearl and Magnum giggled as they walked through the park in Canterlot. They were watching Rarity, a small filly that was barely school age, pick flowers. She had hopped back when a fleck of dirt had flown at her from a group of foals racing by. "Hey!" the white filly shouted in protest.

"It's okay to get dirty once in awhile, Rares." Magnum patted his daughter on the head.

"But I don't want to get dirty." Rarity pouted.

"Why don't you go play in the sand?" Pearl suggested. "It's like dust, but it comes off with a good shake so you'll have fun and you won't get too dirty."

Rarity smiled, her young, blue eyes gleaming. "Yippie!" she hopped off towards the sandbox.

"She's not going to be happy when she's covered in sand." Magnum sighed, watching his daughter race through the grass on her tiny, filly hooves.

"Oh well, as long as she has fun." Pearl stopped as she spotted a small patch of white and bright purple flowers ahead. "Oh, look, Magnum! It's those Sweet Bell Tulips." She ran forward towards the tulips. Her husband followed her, and they both soon reached the flowerbed, surrounded with decorative bricks and back against a large willow tree.

Pearl leaned down to sniff the flowers. "They're so pretty, Magnum." she sighed with content as the sweet smell flooded over her. Sweet Bells were her favorite flowers. She remembered how, when she was just a filly, her mother used to call them that because they would make the sweetest sounds when they blew in the wind, just like bells...

Suddenly, she heard a soft whistling from within the flowers. That wasn't the sound Sweet Bells usually made. It was like a soft, sorrowful song. She pushed her nose through the flowers and blinked with surprise. Inside she saw a tiny, white foal. It made the quiet whistling noises that sounded almost like it was attempting to sing. It had curly pink and purple hair and a small unicorn horn. All around it the leaves and grass was soaked with blood that came from two large slices in its back.

"Magnum!" Pearl called in alarm, hopping back. "Get Rarity, we need to go to the hospital!"

"What is it?" Magnum asked.

Pearl levitated the small foal out of the flowers and into the air so Magnum could see. The gray stallion immediately ran off towards the sandbox to retrieve his daughter. Pearl, in the meantime, looked over the small unicorn foal. It started to cry now that it was in sunlight and no longer shaded by the tulips. Blood dripped from the cuts on its back, staining the grass at her hooves red. She slipped off the pink t-shirt she was wearing and wrapped it around the foal. She hugged it close to her, rocking to try and calm it down.

"It's alright, my little Sweet Bell." Pearl whispered to her. "Everything is okay now, I'll take care of you."