Midnight Belle (and the Case of the Vanishing Foals!)

Sweetie Belle woke up, and the day was full of possibilities.

That’s the thought that began every day. Every morning was an opportunity, whether for the new or the familiar, and Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but smile. She didn’t mind the mornings, or the nights, or the parts in between, because she always had something to look forward to.

She smiled as she hefted her book-bag over her back. Though a normal filly might have something to complain about on their way to school, Sweetie Belle didn’t seem to mind, because the smile didn’t leave her face even as she stepped toward the door to begin her daily walk to somewhere most young ponies don’t want to be.

“Sweetie Belle!”

The voice stopped Sweetie Belle with her hoof on the door-handle. She turned her head to the familiar tone around her name. The voice came from the top of the stairs, but Sweetie could hear its owner descending rapidly, the patter of hooves on staircase sounding like a strange wooden drum rhythm as it grew closer.

Rarity peeked out from the stairwell a second later looking slightly flushed. Her brow was furrowed and her lips were pouting.

“Yes, Rarity?” Sweetie Belle asked. While she normally tried to cherish the moments with her sister as best she could, the expression on Rarity’s face didn’t say she was going to enjoy the next few moments.

After a few seconds of quieted breathing, Rarity’s expression turned into a soft smile.

“You forgot your lunch,” she said. Her horn glowed and a flower-print tin lunchbox hovered towards Sweetie Belle, hidden behind Rarity’s back on her descent.

Sweetie Belle grinned wider and caught the lunchbox in her teeth.

“‘fanks,” she said through the plastic handle with some difficulty.

Rarity smiled warmer and walked to the door where Sweetie’s hoof was frozen.

“I know I don’t need to remind you, Sweetie, but do be careful on your way to school, alright?”

Sweetie Belle nodded, and the lunchbox swung from her teeth.

“There’s still no sign of those poor little fillies that have gone missing, and I’d hate to have you disappear in such a fashion.”

Sweetie nodded again.

“Besides,” Rarity went on with a playful smirk, “what would mother and father think if you vanished? I’d be in quite a spot then.”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, sparing Rarity from a sanctimonious chastisement only through virtue of her mouth being full.

Rarity giggled softly and gave her sister a pat on the head, nudging her bouncy curls into place as best she could muster with a light prod of her hoof..

“Alright dear, just trying to make light of a dire situation. You go straight to school, and no talking to strangers, understand?”

Sweetie steeled up her tooth-grip on her lunch box and nodded as curtly as she could manage. Rarity’s mouth narrowed in approval.

“And be sure to come right home after class. We have a great many things to do after you get home, and I expect you to be on time. You did promise, after all.”

Sweetie rolled her eyes, but nodded again.

“Very well. Off you go then.”

Rarity waved her hoof at Sweetie’s backside, but Sweetie threw open the door to quick for it to hit. She spared a glance back at her sister and gave her a wink as she disappeared around the corner on her way to school. Rarity watched her go, leaning against the door-frame and smiling.

The advice fled Sweetie’s head as soon as she was out of her sister’s sight. There were too many ponies on the way to school not to talk to them, even hampered by the verbal impediment of pink plastic between her teeth.

“Mrnwrg Mr. nd Mrs. Crk,” Sweetie said as she passed by the cheerful couple. Both ponies waved their hooves, holding them up from the pair of strollers they were pushing.

Sweetie so desperately wanted to stop and fawn over the still adorable baby foals, but she knew her route didn’t give her much time to spare on the way to school. She could always visit Mr. and Mrs. Cake another time if she really wanted to.

Cutie Mark Crusader Babysitters, she thought to herself, smiling with her teeth occupied.

“Mrng Derpy,” Sweetie said as she passed by a grey pegasus stuffing a robust berth of letters haphazardly into a mailbox. Derpy raised a hind leg and waved it at Sweetie as she went by, too focused on her task to draw her attention away. Sweetie giggled as Derpy managed the final cram of letters into their place, overflowing the tiny mailbox like a balloon bursting with white, papery water.

Sweetie’s walk took her through the most populaced parts of town, giving her chance to say hello to everypony she passed by and then some. Everypony’s smile was one worth seeing, including the ones who didn’t really smile.

There was one part, however, which Sweetie had taken to mentally categorizing as the ‘not-so-fun’ part of the trip—as fun as any trip to school could be, anyway.

An alleyway between Ponyville proper and the outskirts leading to the school path was between Sweetie and her destination, and she always paused right before she reached it, knowing full well what was coming.

Sweetie stared at the open mouth of the alley, half expecting it to open wide and swallow her up, but no such thing happened. The alley was plain and boring—a stone path between two brick walls, make up the edges of the stores on either side of them. One was coated in graffiti and scuffed up tag marks, while the other was simply falling apart in places, the odd errant brick smashed or shorn from its place in the structure. The lighting wasn’t even suspiciously dark—not during the daytime, anyway. At night, Sweetie suspected it was probably darker than the other alleys.

Sweetie took a big swallow of nothing before she stepped forward. Her lunchbox swung in her teeth.

She wasn’t more than a few steps into the alley before a shadowy figure emerged from her right. Just like a movie. Like a script. Like the way Sweetie had imagined it in her head.

“Get away from me, you weirdo!” Sweetie jumped into the air and spun completely around, pausing mid-spin to kick backwards and send the mysterious figure reeling.

Sweetie suddenly felt very tiny.

The figure was a pony, at least, but not one that Sweetie recognized. His face, from what she could tell, was made up of a scruffy brown coat and leering yellow eyes that peeked out from his outfit, a black cloak that trailed on the ground.

His breathing was loud enough to hear as he walked closer. Sweetie shivered.

“Hey, little princess. How are you doing?”

His voice was exactly like Sweetie imagined: slimy and slick and prickly in every part. Sweetie’s legs shook as she steeled herself against the stallion’s approach. She didn’t answer him.

“You look like you’re headed somewhere. Where are you going?”

“School,” Sweetie blurted out. She hadn’t meant to, but it came naturally, and she didn’t want to lie—even more than that, she didn’t want to keep quiet, because it felt like the stallion might take that as a sign to move closer.

Which he did anyway.

“School, huh?” His cape shook as he jostled himself closer. Sweetie noticed one of his hooves was missing, his right foreleg, and the suspicious bulge under his cloak suggested where it might be.

“You know, there’s a lot of stuff you can’t learn in school. Why don’t you come with me, and I can give you a private lesson—”

Sweetie had been through enough nightmares with lecherous, lerring dialogue to know where this was going. She didn’t respond. She simply turned and ran.

She ran as fast as it felt like her legs could be moved. After the first hundred yard sprint Sweetie could feel her legs beginning to ache, but she ignored them, as well as the dull thud of her lunchbox against her chest as it bounced with the force of her movement.

She she darted through town, not sure where she was going. Nothing looked like her normal walk to school anymore.

She had to be sure he wasn’t following her.

Sweetie opened her eyes more than half-way and turned her head over her shoulder, trying to make out the black cloak or dead stare that would identify the pony from the alley.

That pony back and to the right had a big bundle of black on him, maybe he was the—

Sweetie hit a wall. Her lungs emptied themselves of air, and the rest of her body succumbed to gravity’s insistence as a result, pulling her from her collisional backwards topple and straight to the ground, lest she float forever.

The wall made a painful sounding ‘oof’ noise. Sweetie was quite sure walls weren’t supposed to be able to talk.

Sweetie Belle opened her eyes as her brain began to reassert itself, and her vision reluctantly followed. The nature of the wall materialized in front of her as her eyes gained focus.

It was a green one. Green and standing up with a sour look on its face.

“Oh my goodness, Lyra! I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there...” Sweetie held a hoof to her face as her voice dripped with apology. Her lunchbox lay on the ground where it had landed from the collision, momentarily forgotten.

The green pony named Lyra didn’t seem too upset. She tilted her head to either side and held a hoof to her chin as she cracked her neck. After that, she smiled and shrugged.

“No big deal,” she said. “I wasn’t really paying close attention to where I was going anyway.”

Her voice dripped with nonchalance. It was spunky and effusive and colourful and cheerful all at once. Sweetie Belle found herself smiling in spite of her still settling jumble of perceptions. She needed to gather up her lunchbox and get on her way to school..

But Lyra was familiar enough to warrant keeping herself for a minute or two.

“Are you okay?” Sweetie asked. She looked around to see if she’d caused Lyra to drop something in the same stead as her own lunchbox, but found nothing.

“Yeah, I’m alright. I’d let you know if anything was broken. Maybe make you set it yourself.”

Sweetie chuckled, and Lyra did the same.

“Where’s Bonbon? Is she with you? I didn’t knock her over too, did I?” Sweetie asked.

Lyra shook her head.

“Nah. I think she’s at home, making some dumb candy or something.”

“Her candy’s not dumb,” Sweetie protested, screwing up her eyebrows in an arch at Lyra.

Lyra shrugged again with a grin. “It’s alright I guess...”

The two ponies shared an awkward smile, neither of them seeming interested in ending the conversation, but apparently not able to come up with anything further to carry it on.

“Are you on your way to school?” Lyra asked, looking over Sweetie’s book-bag and nearby lunchbox. Sweetie nodded, glad to be free of the metal container that would surely have bonked against her chest if she was holding it.

“Uh-huh. In fact... I should probably get going.”

Lyra nodded again.

“That’s cool. I don’t want you to get in trouble for being late or anything.”

“I think I’ll be on time.”

Lyra turned to watch Sweetie as she walked forward, her eyes squinting small as she tried to reassemble her path through town to bring her to the schoolhouse.

“Hey.” Lyra called out as Sweetie made to round the corner of a nearby house. Sweetie stopped and turned her head with her eyebrows raised, her lunchbox collected from its place on the ground.

“You should stop by the shop sometimes. If you like Bonbon’s candy so much, we could always use a new set of hands to help out.”

Sweetie spit the lunchbox from her mouth, letting it land on the ground with a clink.

“...hands?” She tilted her head quizzically.

Lyra pondered the word for a second, then brought her hoof to her forehead with an exaggerated smack.

“Oh... right. Hooves. We could use an extra pair of hooves. If you wanted to, I mean.”

Sweetie blinked. She nodded slowly after a few seconds, wondering why such an unfamiliar word sounded like one she should know.

“Sure! I can’t today, but I’ll ask Rarity if I can come over after school some time.”

“Sweet. Speaking of which...” Lyra tapped an invisible watch on her left foreleg with her other hoof.

Sweetie Belle nodded again and picked up her lunch box. Her hooves began to move quicker than normal—no matter how sure she was she could find a new path in short enough time, it didn’t pay to be sluggish. Just in case.