Suddenly Sweetie Belle

Chapter 3

First Contact

Walking through the barren wastelands of an unknown country, where the crumbling remains of civilization and various critters are the only things moving, and the air stinks of death and decay, I find myself back in the waking world. Or perhaps I’m dreaming. I could never tell, it always looked so real. Still looks real.

The sun continues its slow descent towards the western horizon, while the moon sits in the sky, almost as if it were mocking any who look upon it. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, it gets hotter as time passes, until it overwhelms me. It seems my time has finally come. My race will die with me today.

Just as I lie down, the environment suddenly fractures and shatters, to be replaced in an instant by mountains and trees. I sit up and spot a village nearby, suggesting that there is some form of civilization. Standing up, I approach the village, suddenly feeling tired from all of the walking I’ve been doing. Then I hear the sound of wolves nearby. I instinctively grab the blade strapped to my hip and unsheathe it, the ringing sound so very familiar, yet wrong somehow.

Looking at the blade for a moment, I see that it is made in the shape of a key. Returning my attention to the wolves, I see that they, as well as the world around me, are gone, replaced by a glass platform. The platform depicts Sweetie Belle and me in the centre, with various faces filling the smaller circle near the top, some of which I’ve never seen before. Looking around, there are obviously other platforms, but no way to reach them.

The world around me crumbles again, leaving me in a decrepit facility on an alien world, the smell of ungodly beasts filling the air, and their corpses littering the floor. I notice a door just ahead of me and, upon opening it, receive a greeting from a small horde of the beasts. Some of them try to shoot me by controlling the remains of my fallen comrades, while others just throw balls of fire at me. Carefully evading most of them and blasting the foul beasts into oblivion with my shotgun, I check my singed shoulder, only to find the world gone again.

“ENOUGH!” I shout into the void, which replaces itself with Ponyville, though not like I’ve seen before on the show. There’s nopony around, most of the building are gone or on fire, and it smells of burned flesh. A beat runs through my head, urging me to go along with it, leading me to a flaming Carousel Boutique.

A new beat, but still very familiar, enters my ears. It overpowers the other beat, and seems chaotic in its uniformity. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Repeating seemingly ad infinitum, never faltering, never fading.

Sitting in front of where the door of the boutique would be if it were still there, I find Sweetie Belle, tapping away at the ground. I cautiously approach her, unsure if she would be scared or not, but tread on a stray twig and snap it underfoot.

She stops tapping and looks up at me in one quick movement. Her eyes are wide and unblinking, like she had just escaped a mental asylum, filled with fear and hurt.

“What have you done?” She asks me, her eyes still not blinking.

“I-” I start, but the world is torn out from under us, replaced by a giant city, stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction. I recognize some of the buildings, and pin our current location as the plane of Ravnica, in the Boros district if the marching of soldiers is any indication of this.

Shaking my head, I return my focus to Sweetie Belle, who no longer looks like something broke in her head. She is instead seated at a table, most likely part of an outdoor restaurant, eating a salad. One of the people working there usher me over to the seat opposite her, rather forcefully seat me and take my order. I look around to see that the people are staring at the two of us, though more of the stares seemed to be directed at me rather than Sweetie.

“This is the last time I go to a place like this wearing this,” I say to no one in particular, gesturing with my hands to the t-shirt and tracksuit pants that are on my body, as well as the simplistic and inelegant running shoes and thick gloves that are on my hands and feet, irrespectively.

Sweetie chuckles a bit at my fussing as someone returns with my order; some salmon and potato wedges. Picking up the fork and knife that sat either side of the plate, I started cutting the fish into smaller pieces. Placing one of the pieces in my mouth, Sweetie clears her throat.

“So, how’s things?” She asks nervously, obviously unsure how to start a conversation with someone who has essentially taken control of your body.

I attempt to maintain some form of composure while I finish the piece of potato in my mouth, before bursting into loud, hearty laughter. Part way through, I fall back in my chair and the laughter has evolved from loud and hearty to inane and of an oscillating volume. Most of the people nearby are at least a little frightened by this, if their running away screaming is any indication of this, while soldiers look on, unsure of whether or not I should be apprehended.

“T-The drums, the n-never ending d-drums,” I stammer like some kind of madman, prompting a couple of the guards to restrain me, as a precaution for my hitting someone, “The c-clever girl, she f-found the drums, and the p-precious, and t-the answer. Hahahaha. W-What use is an a-answer if y-you don’t even have t-the question?” My blabbering became more nonsensical and my right eye twitched, while Sweetie remained in her seat, eyes filled with terror, “D-Don’t be a-afraid, clever g-girl. I c-can fix me. Just w-watch.”

And with that, I snap my fingers and dispel the world around again, replacing it with a classroom, the one in Ponyville, if I’m right. The room is empty of ponies, except for Sweetie, who is seated at the centre desk, while I stand in front of the chalkboard.

“Ahhhhhh,” I sigh contentedly, stretching and cracking various parts of my body, “That’s much better.”

“Yes, now that you’ve had your fun,” I say in a stereotypically English manner, fixing the collar of my shirt.

“‘Had mah fun’?” I start again, now in the also stereotyped Texas accent, pulling a Stetson out of hammerspace and dropping it on my head, “Th’ fun‘s only jus’ startin’!”

“Uh… Um… I think that now isn’t really the time for this. Um… I mean, if you don’t mind,” Again, me, but as Fluttershy-esque as I can muster.

Shaking my head and blowing a raspberry, I sit in the chair that is at the teacher’s desk, in front of all of the others, for optimal teaching patterns.

“Now,” I start mock sternly, as if Sweetie had done something wrong, “You know what happens when you try to strike up a conversation with me, at a restaurant in the Boros district while I’m eating fish and chips, with the line ‘How’s things’.”

For just the briefest of moments I thought I could smell smoke over the chalk dust that filled the room, but that was probably just residual… stuff from the… place jumping, for lack of better terms.

“You aren’t crazy, are you?” Sweetie said, the connection between her brain and mouth quite loose at this point.

I couldn’t help but quietly chuckle at the directness she seemed to possess when she had no idea what was going on.

“Well, yes and no,” I say with an air of indifference.

Sweetie merely cocked her head to the side, her face easily described as reading ‘What’.

“It’d take too long to explain and I doubt we have the time for it,” I state with a hint of finality, seeing as to how I’ve never been comfortable talking about myself. Hell, I even had troubles telling people my name when I was younger. And then there’s always been that other problem, but any way, I’m still talking, “But, we do have enough time for you to explain something.”

“Oh, really? What?”

“How come I’m wan-”