Cutie Fixation

by WondersparkOfHope

Chapter 8: Fashion Fatale:

Apple Bloom paced back and forth throughout the clubhouse as Scootaloo watched.

"Ah wonder if she's okay," Applebloom panted.

"Will you relax?" Scootaloo asked.

"The policemares are doing what they can to find her."

"She's been missin' fer over a month, Scootaloo! Whatever them policemares are doin', it ain' workin'."

"Okay, so maybe we should be concerned---"

"Or maybe we should go look fer her ourselves."

"Are you nuts, Applebloom? I mean, I'm all for adventure, but we don't even know what she's gotten herself into. She could be held captive by a killer pony or even dead! Is that really a chance you're willing to take?"

"If it means findin' out what happened to her. Now are ya comin' er not?"

The two crusaders stared at each other for a while as Scootaloo's mind began to race. On one hand, it was a dangerous game they were playing. They may have gotten into a lot of sticky situations with trying to find their cutie marks, sometimes literally as Scootaloo thought back to the time they tried zip lining and ended up covered in tree sap.

But on the other hand, this was a fellow Cutie Mark Crusader. Sweetie Belle was also the most observant of the three and could point out the best opportunities for getting their cutie marks.

However, despite her being the most adventurous, something in Scootaloo's mind told her to stay directly out of this, at least for now. Perhaps she and Applebloom could find a compromise. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Applebloom, but it's been over a month. I'm all for adventure, but this might become really dangerous. I mean, what if she was murdered?"

Applebloom stared at Scootaloo with a hardened expression until she heard the word "murdered." She gave a gulp.

"Maybe yer right. Why don't we check with Rarity? Maybe she knows what's up with Sweetie Belle."

"Good idea."

-----------------------------------------------

The two fillies arrived at the Carousel Boutique, only for Applebloom to stop to a halt.

"Do yeh hear that?" she gasped.

Scootaloo listened in confusion. She shook her head.

"I don't hear anything. It's quiet."

"Exactly," Applebloom replied.

"There's no sound of inspiration."

"What kind of drugs are you on?"

"Just hear me out. Whenever ah come round here, Rarity's workin' on somethin' and, even when other ponies don't hear anythin', there's this sound in mah head. It's tough teh explain. Stuff like this has been happenin' to me fer years. But that's not the point. It's too quiet."

"Maybe she's taking a break."

"Well, let's find out."

Cautiously, the two fillies creeped up to the door and softly knocked. They waited for a few moments, the feeling of numbed terror gnawing at their stomachs as they hoped for somepony familiar to open the door.

"What are you two doing here?" a voice behind them asked.

The two crusaders jumped in shock. They turned to find three ponies, a mare and two fillies, staring at them.

"Twilight?" Scootaloo asked.

"What are you doing here?"

"Um, she asked you first, blank flank," Diamond Tiara scoffed.

"Yeah, blank flank," Silver Spoon added.

"Diamond. Silver," Twilight responded firmly.

"I'm fillysitting these two while their parents are speaking at a Stockpony Disease Conference and we were out for a walk. What about you?"

"We're lookin' for Sweetie Belle and we were hopin' Rarity might have some idea of where she might be," Applebloom replied.

Twilight gave the two a puzzled gaze.

"What?"

"Rarity and her family are on vacation in Canterlot," Twilight answered.

"Didn't you know? They left about a month ago."

Now it was the crusaders' turn to look confused.

"Sweetie Belle never told us about a vacation," Scootaloo said.

"We thought she was fillynapped so we called the policemares."

"And what about Opal? Did Rarity git a cat sitter?"

"I have no clue," Twilight replied.

All of a sudden, they heard a strained meow coming from inside the boutique. Applebloom grabbed the handle and turned only to find it was locked.

"Is there a key round here?" she gasped in a panic.

Scootaloo began to help search for one.

"Calm down, my little ponies," Twilight told them.

"I'm sure Opal's fine."

Another strained meow followed by a cough echoed from inside.

"She don't sound fine teh me," Applebloom exclaimed angrily.

"I found it!" Scootaloo said holding up a platinum-covered key.

Using her mouth, Applebloom placed it in the keyhole and turned. There was a click and the door flew open. The five stepped in cautiously and Scootaloo fumbled around for a light switch. Soon the lights came on and everypony gasped at the sight.

Every single clothing rack was taken apart and scattered about. Pieces of fabric from prototypes had been torn off. Dust covered almost every inch of the floor. And a strange stench lingered in the air.

"This place is a mess!" Silver Spoon coughed as dust hit her throat.

The strained meow echoed once again. All five froze in fear.

"Ah think it's comin' from one a the changin' rooms," Applebloom whispered.

Carefully she crept towards the changing rooms. She opened a door with a creak and gasped at what she found.

She could've called her Opal, but the thing was barely distinguishable from the once well-groomed feline. The poor thing was severely emaciated and covered in various foul-smelling concoctions. Even just thinking about what Opal was covered in made Applebloom feel sick.

She backed away from the corpse and returned to the party.

"Opal's nearly dead," she told them.

"How is she not dead, assuming no one came and fed her or anything?" Twilight asked.

Suddenly there was a scream as Diamond Tiara trembled and pointed.

"What the buck is that?"

The group turned and everypony's stomach began to churn.

"Please tell me it's not---" Applebloom gulped.

"P-p-pony organs?" Scootaloo quivered.

Sure enough, in a nice, neat pile laid intestines, a heart, eyes, gums and teeth caked with bloody tissue, a stomach, lungs, and other organs, all covered in blood.

"Ah think somepony was murdered," Applebloom trembled gravely.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Diamond exclaimed.

"But why would a murderer put all those organs so neatly together?" Twilight asked trying to keep her daffodil and daisy salad from lunch down.

"Who cares?" Diamond cried.

"Let's just get the buck out of here!"

As this was occurring, something on a stack of cardboard boxes caught Silver Spoon's eye in between her coughs. She trotted over, trying to keep her coughs down, and picked up a slip of paper

"Hey cough, everypony. You should cough come and cough, cough see this," she gasped.

"Silver Spoon, are you alright?" Twilight asked concerned.

"Just cough, cough, cough come over cough, cough, wheeze here."

The group crept up to her and glanced at what she had found.

"This is a slip mail ponies bring when they need to pick up packages," Scootaloo exclaimed in confusion.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"'Work Order Slip fer Derpy Muffin Hooves. Pick up packages from Carousel Boutique to be shipped fer delivery to Canterlot,'" Applebloom read trying to drown out Silver Spoon's coughing spell.

"It says this work order slip was from a month ago. Didn't yeh say Rarity and her family were in Canterlot fer a vacation, Twilight?"

"Yeah," Scootaloo agreed.

"But if Rarity was going to Canterlot, why didn't she just take the packages with her?"

"And don't mail ponies usually take the work order slips when they take packages fer delivery?"

"But where are the packages?" Diamond Tiara scoffed.

"If the mail pony did her job right, which I doubt she did, the packages would be with the slip at all times when she collected them.

In her fit, Silver Spoon pointed at a pile of boxes taped and ready for shipping; the packages.

"But if the work order slip is here and so are the packages, then where is Derpy?" Twilight asked fearing the worst.

All of a sudden, there was a thud. They turned to find Silver Spoon in the floor, her face turning a dark shade of blue.

"What's going on?" Scootaloo asked.

"She's having an asthma attack!" Diamond Tiara exclaimed in fright.

Diamond began to search Silver Spoon for her inhaler but it was nowhere to be found.

"I think she left it back at your place," she squeaked at Twilight.

"We'd better go. And fast," Twilight exclaimed with urgency.

All of a sudden, Twilight felt a thud to the back of her head. She fell to the floor and the world began to fade to black. She saw something hit Scootaloo and Diamond's heads.

"You're not going anywhere," Derpy explained in a monotonous, metallic voice.

Her head slowly and robotically turned to spy a trembling Applebloom who was slowly backing towards the door. Derpy walked rhythmically towards her until she had the fearful filly against the wall.

"W-what do yeh want with me?" Applebloom whimpered.

"Do not be afraid, Equestrian unit," the roboticized Derpy replied.

"I shall not harm you as long as you comply. Do you comprehend?"

Somewhere in Applebloom's mind, the fight-or-flight instinct she would usually utilize in situations like this clicked off and a new instinct kicked in; comply-and-survive. She nodded.

"What do yeh want me teh do?" she asked the robotic Derpy.

Derpy's eyes began to glow and emit rings of color; rings that seemed almost to have a transparent, liquid consistency, moving at a slow rhythm that began to put Applebloom's mind at ease.

"Do not look away."

Applebloom had no trouble following this order. Perhaps this robot wasn't trying to hurt her. All of her current predicaments seemed to become secondary to this feeling of deep relaxation.

"Relax, relax, relax, relax," a voice in her head repeated over and over in slow rhythm.

Applebloom began to sway with this new rhythm. Her muscles began to loosen and her eyelids began to flutter. The feeling was bliss and Applebloom wished she could always feel this way.

"Deeper, deeper," Derpy commanded gently.
"The more the rings go through you, the deeper you go. The deeper you go, the more relaxed you feel. The more relaxed you feel, the more the rings go through you. The more the rings go through you, the deeper you go.
"The deeper you go, the more relaxed you feel.
"The more relaxed you feel, the more the rings go through you.
"The more the rings go through you, the deeper you go.
"The deeper you go, the more relaxed you feel.
"The more relaxed you feel, the more the rings go through you.
"The more the rings go through you, the deeper you go.
"The deeper you go, the more relaxed you feel.
"The more relaxed you feel, the more the rings go through you."

The more the rings went through her, the deeper Applebloom went.

The deeper she went, the more relaxed she felt.