Suddenly Sweetie Belle

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

Chapter 5

Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad.

Beep…

Groaning slightly, I try to open my eyes, which proves harder than I thought it would be. Barely opening them more than a few millimetres, the light flooding in is too bright and I shut them again with haste. Better prepared for the brightness, I open my eyes again, only to see a white roof above me. Looking around, I see the walls and floor are white as well, with a door on one-side of the room and a window on the other. Part of the room is blocked by a curtain of such a shade of green that it clashed with the walls, presumably so I can have some semblance of privacy. Despite the bright lights, I can see the moon out the window, telling me that it’s night outside, which has always been oddly calming.

Beep…

Oh, and there’s a machine hooked upto me, which is keeping track of my heart rate and breathing. I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that those are still working. The sheer whiteness of the room isn’t much help for giving me stuff to do, as is the lack of stuff to do, so I decide to get to some maintenance.

‘Sweetie, you’re in control now,’ I think towards her before jumping out of the metaphorical driver’s seat, ‘Act natural.’

Without another word, thought or otherwise, Sweetie is back in control of her body, and I can get to some relatively important business. Examining my right foreleg, I find that it isn’t white anymore like Sweetie’s, but more of a very light pink, sort of like a cherry blossom. Lifting the leg up to my forehead, I find a horn, which doesn’t surprise me as much as Sweetie’s did. Placing my hoof back on the ground with a wibbly thud, I turn to see that my tail, and presumably mane as well, is a light blue colour, with an unusual cutie mark plastered on my flanks.

‘A quaver and a quill, huh?’ I think to myself, hoping that I’m not interrupting whatever Sweetie is doing, ‘That’s… interesting, to say the least. I guess that means my special talent has something to do with writing, or music. Heck, why not both.’

Shrugging my forelegs slightly, an action that normally would’ve broken the laws of reality, I meander out of the airport-styled terminal that is the hub between my and Sweetie’s minds and into the rolling countryside of my mind. I don’t know why it’s a rolling countryside, but my best guess would be that it sat still for a while, before getting bored. Looking to the sky, I see the sun drop suddenly from the azimuth to just above the horizon.

Wandering the countryside, which has finally stopped rolling, I come upon a mountain range, at the top of which lies a moderately sized cabin. Teleporting there, because I’m not going to climb a mountain in my head, the ground around the cabin falls away, revealing a castle to which the cabin is the top of a tower. Trotting down the stairway, which leads to the castle gates, I hear Sweetie thinking something to me.

‘Jason,’ She starts, a hint of something I can’t quite put my hoof on in her tone, ‘Has anypony ever confused somepony not related to you for one of your parents?’

‘Someone thought Blueblood was your dad, didn’t they?’ I think back to her, stopping suddenly about halfway down the stairwell.

‘Yep.’ Sweetie thought to me, the tone of her voice betraying how disturbed by that image she is (see: very). Not that I notice for long, seeing as how the image made me laugh like some sort of madmare, tumbling down the stairs.

Lying at the bottom of the stairs in a mess of hooves and wings, I groan slightly, sore all over from the tumbling. I eventually try to stand, untangling myself from the pegasus that I may have accidentally grounded. I stop for a moment, taken aback by the pegasus, looking him over.

His slim build, light blue coat, lighter red mane and tail and blank flank all tell me that this is the pegasus that had slipped my mind for a good fortnight or so, in the old measurement of days at least.

“S-Storm Chaser?” I stammer, earning a slight groan from the named pegasus, before he opens his eyes, rolls out from under me, gets to his hooves and decides to float about half a metre in the air.

“I’ve been waiting for you, mistress Scratch,” Storm states in the depressing tone that I now kinda regret giving the poor little colt, though it is cute when his voice cracks, before flying towards the castle at trotting speed, “Please, come with me.”

Following Storm, I make my way into the castle, which looks more and more like Canterlot during the Grand Galloping Gala as we traverse the halls, complete with snobbish nobles. Passing hundreds of ballrooms, about half a dozen of which have some less than ‘safe for work’ stuff in there, Storm eventually lands at a door, barely tall enough for anypony to trot through, and turns to me.

“The control room, mistress Scratch.” Storm says before flying away swiftly, leaving a small trail of red in his wake.

Using magic to open the door, I find a dimly lit room, filled along five of its six walls, from floor to roof, with technology that is probably nonsensical, if the lightsaber hanging above the window is any indication of it. Trotting to the far wall, a computer terminal sits, waiting for somepony to press a button. Swishing my tail for the hell of it, I lift myself, using the terminal for support, up onto my hind legs.

Pressing the power button on the terminal, the computer comes to life and the door behind me slams shut, which sends a shiver up my spine. Breathing heavily, I read the screen, which awaits further instruction.

ENTER PASSCODE

“Passcode, passcode. Damn, what was my passcode?” I think aloud quietly to myself, worried that somepony might overhear me, “Ah!”

ENTER PASSCODE

*************************************************************

CHECKING PASSCODE…

“Come on, come on, come on, come on.” I say quietly, willing the machine to work faster.

PASSCODE ACCEPTED. WELCOME.

“Good, I’m in,” I cheer quietly, letting out the breath I didn’t know I was holding in.

Grabbing the mouse with my right fore-hoof, I clicked around through files in an odd manner, selecting things that I didn’t think it would be best if Sweetie could see, taking into consideration that we could both view each other’s mind. As I clicked, the room took on an ethereal glow, floating up and out of the castle, continuing until the castle was little more than a speck, the world around it viewable in its entirety.

With the moon shining brightly above me, I skim through all of the files, each file lighting up a different area of the world, putting the final touches on to filly-proofing my mind, lest something horrible happen. Sighing in relief as I complete my task, I turn the terminal off and fall onto my back, shutting my eyes and falling slowly back to the ground.

Passing through several clouds, I land with a soft thump on the field outside the airport terminal, the blades of grass tickling my back with their weird little fingers. Giggling, I roll onto my hooves and trot back into the terminal, just as a military jet passed overhead. Inside, I find Sweetie heading back in from her side, a contented smile on her face and humming a merry tune, one that I’d heard many times beforehoof, compelling me to sing along.

'Summer has come and passed. The innocent can never last. Wake me up, when September ends!’ I sing in my ‘what-would-be-tenor-if-I-were-a-guy’ voice, which just happens to come to me most naturally. Sweetie stops humming, but the backdrop picks up exactly where she left off.

‘Like my father’s come to pass, seven years has gone so fast. Wake me up, when September ends!’ Sweetie sings, her voice melodic and easily able to capture anyponies attention. Prancing gracefully, we circle the room, gradually approaching each other.

‘Here comes the rain again, falling from the stars. Drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are!’ I continue, slightly disharmonious from the backdrop due to a filly-sized distraction.

‘As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost. Wake me up when September ends!’ Sweetie finishes, half expecting me to return to the outside, at a guess. But, of course, I have other plans.

‘I’m not a fan of puppeteers, but I’ve a nagging fear, that someone else is pulling all the strings,’ I sing, forcing the backdrop, which has materialised as an orchestral group, to adapt to the new style, ‘Something terrible is going down, through the entire town, wreaking anarchy and all it brings!’

Before I can start the next verse, however, the orchestra disappears, leaving me to stumble over my words and, by extension, my legs. Using magic to stop myself from falling flat on my face, I take my leave, returning to the world beyond our minds.

Waking up, I find myself being carried in the arms of somebody that I’ve never met before. Looking around worriedly, I spot Blueblood trotting along next to the stranger, his eyes lighting up slightly as he notices my nonsleepingness, which is totally a word.

“Mmm,” I force out, before stretching my legs as much as I can before rubbing some of the sleep out of my eyes, “Where the fuck are we, Bluey?”

The stranger dropped my out of shock when I said fuck, but Blueblood managed to catch me with his magic before I hit the ground, levitating me towards him and dropping me on his back. Fidgeting slightly to get into a comfortable position, I look around to get a better view of my surroundings.

I can’t really see everything due to the large number of people rushing about, or standing there gawking at me and Bluey, but the first window I manage to get a good look out of shocked me right to that little place next to my core. What I saw was an Airbus A380. Blueblood cleared his throat and spoke calmly.

“We’re in Los Angeles International Airport.”

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