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

Sweetie’s battle to convince Rarity to let her walk to school the next day had been the stuff historical war books were written on.

After an entire night of townsponies poking through every corner of Ponyville had commenced, still with no sign of any of the missing fillies, Rarity’s paranoia had gone from bad to worse. Sweetie Belle couldn’t blame her—it wasn’t exactly an unwarranted worry at this point—but it had still been an inconvenience enough to be worth convincing her out of.

Nopony, Sweetie reminded Rarity, had been snatched in plain view right off the street. Furthermore, she had gone on, to Rarity’s unsympathetic protests, Sweetie always took a very busy path to school, in plain view of almost the whole rest of town. She could change her route to stay in perfect sight the whole way. If she saw somepony strange, she’d run back home immediately.

Rarity had huffed and put up quite a fuss, but eventually given in. Sweetie Belle didn’t mean to pile any additional stress on her sister, but the prospect of staying trapped in the boutique all day, helping Rarity with customer’s at one end and being doted on in obsessive worry the next had been the most miserable prospect Sweetie could imagine. School was better, even if it still meant a pit of sick worry in her stomach when she thought about Applebloom and Scootaloo’s seats empty next to her.

The search party hadn’t turned up anything. Even Sweetie Belle had almost been convinced by the time the event was fully underway that, of course, with everypony in town searching, something had to turn up. There was no way two (or four) fillies could hide from an entire town’s worth of inquisitive busy-bodies. They had pegasi who could see an overview of all of Ponyville. They had unicorns with scrying spells, and earth ponies who knew every inch of the town’s layout. They even had Pinkie Pie helping, sniffing at the air, bound by an invisible leash, searching for errant limb-twitches or ear-flutters guiding her in the direction of the missing bodies.

The only sign they’d gotten was a tail-twitch as one of the stallions, good-minded but unobservant, had peered into a window and detached the hanging plant above his head. Nurse Redheart had patched him up in no time, of course.

Sweetie Belle spent the day at school trying not to worry. She knew that worrying wouldn’t do any good, and that no matter how many times she looked to her left or her right, fretting over her friends’ disappearances wouldn’t cause them to magically apparate at the schoolhouse door, beaming and offering a simple explanation for their vanishing.

“Oh, we just got stuck in a tree,” Scootaloo would say. “I’m still covered in sap. But look—we found a rare bird-egg! We’ll have our cutie marks in orni...orna...bird-science in no time!”

Sweetie Belle sighed. The lump in her stomach felt bigger every time she imagined her friend’s voices. It didn’t help that she hadn’t been able to see them the day before. She knew there wasn’t any sense in blaming herself either—what could she have done differently?—but the thought gnawed at her regardless.

Occasionally, she let her eyes slip from the front of the class, or her notebook covered in depressing scribbles, to the left of Scootaloo’s spot.

Diamond Tiara was focused on her notes mostly, or staring intently at the front of the class, where Cheerilee took care to intersperse her normal instruction with reminders that of course nopony should be anywhere after school but at home, and that if anypony saw anything suspicious that they should report it to an adult immediately. But sometimes, as Sweetie Belle looked over at the face she’d been unable to muster anything but resent for, on every school day prior, Diamond Tiara looked back at her.

Neither of them said anything, but they always held their gazes together for a few seconds. Sweetie thought she could almost hear Diamond Tiara’s breathing in sync with her own, after the third time, but she didn’t mention it. Neither girl spoke. They just shared a stare for a moment before turning back to their books. This happened a few times, and Sweetie wasn’t sure what to make of it.

The end of the day came quicker than Sweetie expected. She’d imagined that with no friends or fun to occupy her school-breaks, that surely immersion in learning would cause time to drag by—but the pace of school surprised her, and before she knew it, the bell was ringing to send her home for the day.

She had a bit of a walk before she got back to the boutique—but today, she felt like taking a sort of detour.

Sweetie didn’t take an alternate route per say, because that would have meant taking a route in the first place. She was on her way home, in some roundabout fashion, but there was a lot she wanted to do before she got there—or rather, one thing she wanted to do until she got it right.

Something that might take a long time if she didn’t find what she was looking.

“Um, excuse me,” Sweetie said.

The couple that was walking by paused at the verbal interruption. Ponies in Ponyville were normally friendly enough to assume that an erstwhile conversation starter was worth stopping for, or at least that they could stand to do so out of courtesy. In this case, Sweetie’s voice was familiar and innocent sounding enough that it would take a fairly stolid heart to continue walking.

The two ponies looked like they were out of an old painting. The stallion had a black hat with a buckle on it, and an orange mustache and goatee that contrasted his brown coat. His wife had a grey mane and pink coat, and wore her hair up in a bonnet. They both turned to look towards Sweetie, but it was the stallion who spoke.

“Yes?” he said. His tone was non-confrontational, though he sounded in some kind of hurry.

“Sorry to be a bother,” Sweetie said, “but I was just wondering if either of you had seen, um, any ponies about my age wandering through town recently?”

The stallion and mare shared a look, then turned back to Sweetie as one, shaking their heads slightly.

“I’m afraid not,” said the stallion. He sounded a tad put out that he’d been stopped.

“You’re sure?” Sweetie asked. “One of them has a big red bow in her hair, and the other one is really loud and maybe riding a scooter...”

The stallion shook his head more firmly.

“I haven’t seen any such thing,” he said.

Sweetie let her eyes swell extra big and pleading and turned to the mare, but she answered with the same solemn headshake.

“Sorry,” she said.

The couple didn’t wait for further questioning. They turned their heads before Sweetie had time to ask anything more, and trotted off briskly, evidently unconcerned with where Sweetie’s inquiries might be leading.

Sweetie cursed under her breath (a schoolyard jibe, nothing particularly offensive), and swung her hoof at the dirt.

Well, that was only the first attempt. Plenty more where that came from.

A blue-maned stallion with a music note cutie mark ambled by behind Sweetie, looking to be in no particular hurry. Sweetie watched him for a moment before dashing to his side and piping up in the most pleading voice she could muster.

“Um, hello. Sorry to be a bother, but I don’t suppose...”

The sun was beginning to set, and Sweetie felt miserable.

She’d asked everypony she could find on her way home, making several loops around the center of town in the hopes that she’d catch somepony she hadn’t yet harangued with questions. She had run into the same groups three or four times, and given them a nod in the hopes that they might have suddenly recalled more information, but head-shakes had been all that answered her.

She’d asked everyone. Neighbours, vendors, passerby. She’d varied her questioning to seem less focused—’Have you seen anypony wandering around who looked kind of suspicious? No? What about a griffon?’—but had ultimately been unssuccesful. Several of the ponies she asked had pointed out that the town had already conducted a citywide search trying to find her missing schoolmates—but she hadn’t let that deter her. Grown-ups were never particularly good at finding anything, and Sweetie Belle had a hunch that if she could just muster up enough information, she could track down Applebloom and Scootaloo, as well as the other ponies that had gone missing as well.

She had a plan, and it was almost surely foolproof.

It was just the getting started part that was proving unduly difficult.

Sweetie sighed as she trudged home. She knew Rarity would probably be upset with her for dallying so long after school—she’d already cooked up an excuse for her slow walking speed. It had changed in her head since its inception—first a gaggle of kittens that had gone missing, and that Sweetie had needed to help collect—then to an errand she’d been asked to run by Mrs. Cake that morning that she had gotten lost executing—eventually, though, she had settled on Cheerilee asking her to stay after class because she’d needed help with a lesson. She avoided going for a detention, because Rarity was the type who’d probably go speak to her teacher about it, and that would only open up a whole new awkward mess. Sweetie had elected to stay of her own volition, or would say she had. Fractions are hard, she would say.

Sweetie was almost home when she spotted a familiar face she hadn’t questioned. Or, rather, in this case, two familiar faces. She managed to avoid running into either of them at high velocity; it was a habit she was trying to break, lest one of the ponies in town most willing to put up with her youthful exuberance might sour on her forever forward.

Lyra and Bonbon were walking in sync with each other, each sparing a hoof to hold the other’s. The two of them were behind the pulling-harness of a giant wooden cart, and staring into each other’s eyes and smiling as they talked.

The subject of what exactly was between Lyra and Bonbon was always a subject of discussion around town. It wasn’t as though same-sex couples were an oddity—Sweetie suspected several of her sisters friends were ‘friendly’ with each other than they let on, even—but the mint-green unicorn and candy-maned earth pony became the subject of discussion simply because what was between them wasn’t clear. If they were dating, why didn't’ they just come out and say so? Nopony had ever seen them kiss—and when pressed about the subject, they always managed to avoid changing the topic. Sweetie had never bothered to ask: one, because it wasn’t exactly polite, and two, because both ponies were usually happy to see her, and she didn’t need to know whether they were going out or not, as it didn’t have anything to do with her interactions with them in the first place.

“Hi Lyra. Hi Bonbon.”

The cart stopped as both ponies heard their names, and pulled their hooves and gazes apart to find Sweetie Belle waving dejectedly at them from several feet away.

“Hey, Sweetie Belle. What’s haps?” Lyra asked. Bonbon didn’t add her own greeting, but smiled sweetly as Sweetie trudged closer to the cart.

“Nothing,” she said. She stared at the ground in a way that begged the question ‘but?’

Lyra and Bonbon shared a glance.

“Is something the matter, sweetheart?” Bonbon’s voice was motherly sounding despite its youthfulness. While Bonbon didn’t seem to be any older than most of the ‘grown-up’ ponies Sweetie Belle associated with, it always had a certain tone about it; the kind that said, on the off chance that you were sad and needed somepony to talk to, Bonbon would be happy to listen without obligation. It was the kind of voice that had a bowl of fresh-candy to hand out, and hugs to go along with them.

“No,” Sweetie said, still staring at the ground. She kicked a hoof into the dirt, ignoring Lyra and Bonbon’s concerned looks. She huffed up her face into a scrunch and let it go with a sigh. “Yes,” she said, and raised her head.

“What’s up?” Lyra asked. She leaned one hoof on the wooden joinder connecting the pulling bar of the cart to the frame proper, and eyed Sweetie with a sort of nonchalant concern.

“Well, you probably already heard about Applebloom and Scootaloo.”

Lyra and Bonbon shared a look. Bonbon’s eyes widened a little in a way that suggested there might be a shocked gasp hiding behind them, whereas Lyra’s sparkled with more investment than was prone ever to appear on her face in normal circumstance.

“No,” Lyra said. “What’s up with Applebloom and Scootaloo?”

Sweetie lifted her eyes from the ground for the first time since running into the couple.

“You didn’t hear? They went... missing.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow, restraining her investment in the revelation, but Bonbon’s eyes went even wider, and she raised a hoof to her mouth, letting out the gasp that had been held behind her concern a moment ago.

“Missing? Where on earth could they be?” Bonbon sounded just like Rarity. It prompted another sigh from Sweetie.

“I don’t know. Almost everypony in town was out looking last night, and I’ve asked everyone I could find, but nopony seems to have any idea what could have happened to them.”

Bonbon looked imploringly in either direction, as though she expected some kind of explanation to tumble from the sky to fill in the events she’d somehow not been privy to.

“We... we were out all last night. Nopony mentioned anything to us...”

Sweetie gave a sort of despondent shrug, and turned to Lyra.

Lyra scrunched up her eyebrows and put a hoof to her chin in contemplation.

“Huh,” she said.

Sweetie Belle’s eyes swam with sadness.

“I don’t suppose you guys have heard anything? Or seen either of them since the day before last?”

Lyra and Bonbon both shook their heads after a moment.

“Sorry, kiddo. I haven’t seen much of them at all, but not specifically in the last few days.”

Sweetie turned her head to Bonbon, who looked more distressed than Sweetie had seen anypony over her questioning thus far.

“I saw them both at my little giveaway a few days ago, but I haven’t seen them since...” she said. Her voice sounded sunken, like a mother fretting over a missing child.

“Did they seem okay when you saw them then?” Sweetie Belle asked. She hadn’t even thought to remember Bonbon’s candy party, but now that the subject came up, it occurred to her that both ponies had been there. Maybe Bonbon had noticed something that might lead her in the right direction.

Bonbon nodded, eyes still wide in perpetual distress.

“They seemed fine. They were both well-behaved, though Scootaloo was a bit rambunctious at times...”

“Have you heard anything about anypony else going missing since then?” Sweetie Belle asked. This was the closest thing she had to a lead, and she was going to follow it until it burned out or turned up something else to follow.

“No, I haven’t. The only pony I can think of who seemed a bit out of sorts afterwards was Rumble, and that was only because he ate too much and got a tummy ache.”

“Have you seen him since then?” Sweetie asked, staring up at Bonbon.

It was Lyra who piped up, bobbing her head as she spoke.

“Yeah, we’ve seen him. Ever since then he’s been hounding us for some more of Bonbon’s candy.”

Lyra’s horn shone. The back of the cart, covered by a huge blue tarp, began to rustle. After a few seconds, a glowing grey object came from underneath and was tugged into the air overtop of the cart, then to the side.

Rumble dangled there, held up by one leg with Lyra’s magic.

“There’s just wrappers in there, dude,” Lyra said. She plunked Rumble down onto the ground with maybe a little less care than might have been appropriate, but the tiny pegasus didn’t protest. He let himself hit the ground, then picked himself up with a too inoccent to be real look on his face.

“I knew that,” he said. Without waiting for a response, he turned and dashed off in the opposite direction, a single candy-wrapper floating off his hind leg as he ran.

Sweetie watched him vanish into the horizon and sighed.

“Alright,” she said. “I’m sorry for bothering you guys. If you find anything though, could you make sure to let me know?”

Bonbon nodded sympathetically, but Lyra held her head in place with a hoof on her chin, staring off into the distance at nothing in particular, as though she was pondering.

“Actually...” she began to say.

Sweetie perked up immediately, her eyes opening beyond their despondent glare for the first time that evening.

“Yes?” she asked excitedly, her voice bubbling with potential enthusiasm.

“Well, I dunno if it’s what you’re looking for, but I did notice something weird a couple days ago. Not about your friends... but there are those other ponies who have gone missing too, right? Like, two of them?”

Sweetie Belle bounced her head up and down rapidly, and Lyra gave a curt nod.

“I was out on a walk a couple nights ago, and I think I saw—don’t quote me on this—but I think I saw a little kid or two doing something near someplace on the hills at the outside of town.”

Sweetie blinked, and Lyra bit her lip as she tried to find a way to articulate her location.

“You know how at the end of town, all the houses stop and the ground over by that one part gets all kind of hilly?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I was walking there, and I noticed, like, what looked like one or two kids walking around on one of the hills. I wouldn’t have, but it was lit up, like, maybe with a fire or something. It was kind of blinking at me. I didn’t really think to go check it out, but... maybe that was something?”

“What did the kids look like?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Lyra shrugged.

“I dunno. I didn’t really get a good look at them. Though, with the fire there and everything... one of them looked really shiny. With like, a grey coat maybe? Or kind of... silvery?”

Sweetie’s eyes lit up like the sun.

“Are you sure? You saw a silver filly at the edge of town a couple nights ago?”

“Hey, I said don’t quote me. I’m pretty sure I did, but that was a while ago, and it was pretty dark. I wasn’t exactly paying close attention either.”

Sweetie let Lyra’s qualification go in one of her ears and out the other.

Lead. She had a lead. And that meant it was time to put her plan into action.

“Thank you so much Lyra!” Sweetie jumped up from the ground and wrapped her forelegs around Lyra’s neck, which Lyra responded to with an awkward start, as though she’d been glommed onto suddenly by an errant land-bound jellyfish. She didn’t even return the hug before Sweetie let go and fell back to the ground.

Sweetie turned immediately. She looked back toward Lyra and Bonbon, her eyes sparkling.

“Thank you again, both of you! That’s more than anypony’s been able to tell me all day.”

Sweetie readied herself as though preparing to dash off, but Bonbon reached out a hoof to signal her to stay.

“Sweetie, dear,” Bonbon started, her voice cautionary and hesitant, “you aren’t planning to go off to the edge of town all by yourself, are you? It could be very dangerous, especially with ponies disappearing as they have been.”

“Yeah. Don’t take what I said as an invitation to go getting yourself lost or anything. Like I said, I’m pretty sure about it, but it’s not one hundred percent.”

Sweetie Belle nodded to both ponies, smile still on her face.

“Don’t worry, I’m not. I’m just glad I have a little more information.”

“You do promise to tell anything you find out to an adult, don’t you?” Bonbon asked, her eyes narrowing as the possibility of a reprimand lingered on her tongue.

Sweetie nodded again.

“And to not go wandering off in the night to somewhere that could be dangerous?” Lyra asked. Again, Sweetie Belle answered with a nod.

“Of course,” she said. “I’ll go home and tell Rarity right away.”

Bonbon relaxed her eyes, and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good. You go ahead then, and do tell your sister we said hello.”

“Speak for yourself, she still owes me for those window sidings I helped her put up.”

“Lyra!”

“What?”

Sweetie Belle smiled at the pair one last time before bounding off in the opposite direction. Both ends of her mouth stayed up, her smile affixed in permanence to her face.

She’d tell Rarity eventually, anyway.

But first, there was investigation to do.