It started when Rarity came to the library to tell me her sister was missing. At first I was sceptical. I saw Sweetie Belle out with her friends the day before yesterday. But Rarity was frantic, and assured me that Sweetie hadn't come home last night. At that, I asked if she told anypony else. Rarity said that no, she hadn't spoken to anypony because she didn't want the entire town to worry, that probably Sweetie had just wandered off and gotten lost and they just needed to find her. I suggested we ask our other friends for help, but she refused. Now this I found odd, but when Rarity said all that was needed was my "fabulous intelligence," I caved and promised to keep it a secret, at least for a while. But if we still hadn't found her by nightfall, we would have to tell others. Rarity agreed.
After I left Spike a note telling him I'd be out, but not specifying why, Rarity and myself began our search by splitting up. Rarity said she'd search Sweet Apple Aces, and I was left to search around Ponyville. I asked around, but nopony had seen Sweetie since the last time I had seen her. After her last sighting was firmly established, I decided I should look for those close to Sweetie Bell. Sweetie Belle's friend, Apple Bloom was probably at her home of Sweet Apple Acres, and thus I decided was probably being spoken to by Rarity now. If she wasn't at Sweet Apple Acres, she would be with Scootaloo, another one of Sweetie's friends. And so unless something very odd was going on, Scootaloo was the more productive search.
Indeed, it wasn't long before I found both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom together just outside Ponyville, around Fluttershy's cottage near the Everfree forest. I worried they were being foolhardy, playing so close to said forest, thought truth be told it wasn't very dangerous as it was still close to town.
I smiled as I approached them, though I admit I've never been very good at keeping secrets, so it could be that I made more of a grimace. When the two little fillies saw me, they stopped their playing and smiled brightly, greeting me enthusiastically.
"My little ponies," I said, once within ear shot. "Have either of you seen Sweetie Belle today?"
Scootaloo scowled, and Apple Bloom shook her head. A strange thought occurred to me then, but it was much too early to entertain such things.
"She's been spending a lot of time with Rarity," said Apple Bloom. "'No time for fun and games when you have to help build a boutique!'" Her voice was in a mocking tone, and probably, she was quoting something Sweetie had said.
"When was the last time you saw her?"
"The day before yesterday," said Scootaloo. She rolled her eyes. "We only got to play for two hours before she said she had to leave to help Rarity some more."
"I...see," I said, trying to keep the worry from my voice. "Alright, thanks for your help girls."
"Wait," called Apple Bloom. "Is Sweetie in trouble? Did she do something bad?"
"Whatever it was we didn't have anything to do with it!" shouted Scootaloo.
I paused for a moment. Was Sweetie Belle in trouble? It was starting to look like she was.
I tried to assure the fillies that Sweetie hadn't done anything wrong, and everything was fine, though I added a "probably" under my breath. I had walked into a dead end, and was at a loss for where to go from here. So I began my walk all the way across town, to Sweet Apple Acres in hopes of catching up with Rarity.
About half way there was Carousel Boutique, still under construction. Thinking it wouldn't take too long, I decided to check and make sure that Rarity wasn't already back home, though I doubted it. I knocked, and when there was no answer, I let myself in.
The place was a mess. Rarity had always been, for lack of a better word, anal about neatness. It was astonishing to see the place in such disarray. As this was so uncharacteristic of my friend, and I, I am ashamed to say, am rather nosy, I decided to take a closer look around.
I sighted several rather mundane things, which despite their messy state, weren't particularly out of place. There was a table, askew, with papers littering the top. I noticed most of these were blueprints for the expansion project. There were food stains on some of them, mainly around the ends of the table, indicating to me that Rarity and Sweetie Belle had eaten breakfast here. I moved on.
I continued my search. The shower was dirty, but not exceptionally so. Hard water stains had just begun to form, and some of the bottles of soap and hair care products were left open. The entire place was starting to look like Pinkie Pie's more than Rarity's.
I entered the new basement. It looked to be only recently begun, and my suspicions were confirmed when I noticed that the blueprints for this particular room were here, as well as bags of cement, a mixer, and sacks of bricks. I saw only one completed wall. In fact, it was not only built, but plastered, which I found very unusual. One usually waits until all walls are build before applying the plaster, and Rarity wasn't one to do things out of order. She also wasn't ignorant of construction, and I had recently learned she designed and built her original boutique from the ground up.
I stood there, silently, taking everything in. It was silent. I chill crept up my spine, and I suddenly felt ill at ease. I decided to leave the basement.
Going back upstairs, I felt overcome with fatigue, probably from the dark, damp environment of the basement. I took a seat at the table covered in blueprints, along with a few calming breaths.
I looked down again at the papers. I noticed the order of them, that things that would be constructed first were on the bottom, and more recent additions were on top. Looking again at the food stains, I then saw what exactly they were on. It was for the most recent addition, just prior to the basement. Rarity was punctual, however if the boutique was any indication, she was a currently out of sorts. Still, I thought about what it meant.
There were two areas where food had spilled, so two ponies must have eaten here. They were not fresh stains, so it couldn't have been done this morning, but neither did they appear very old, and the blueprints themselves indicated it happened very recently.
Further, it looked like Rarity herself was either the last one to see Sweetie, or she hadn't told me everything she knew about Sweetie's disappearance. Possibly both were true, and the ramifications were becoming more clear to me.
I stood up. I suddenly wanted very badly to leave. I did so, and made my way back to the library. Opening the door, It looked like Spike still hadn't returned yet. And so I decided to quickly write these events down here in my journal while they were still fresh in my mind.
I'm starting to think Rarity either knows more about what's happened to Sweetie than she is letting on, or she's the one who caused the disappearance. Perhaps an accident she doesn't want to be blamed for, or maybe Sweetie has run away recently and Rarity's hoping to find her before anypony can blame her for bad babysitting. I'm not sure. But whatever it is, it doesn't seem good, and I intend to add to the note to Spike to check my journal when he gets back, and leave this here before I confront Rarity about this. Just in case.