Chapter 10-Revelations and Renewal
It was afternoon, at least it was supposed to be. Sweetie Belle, along with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were in the process of leaving school for the day. Or was it actually night? Nopony could really tell anymore.
As her friends talked, Sweetie was quiet. She looked up at the sky. Two days ago, the sky had been dark as night when it was supposed to be day. The sky had a lighter tone, but was still dark. The sun was nowhere to be seen. And when it was night, it seemed a little darker than usual. The three fillies hadn't had much time in the past two days to be together. Apple Bloom was trying to help her sister with the farm, and Scootaloo had her own agenda.
Sweetie had been busy also, but for an entirely different reason. Two days ago, when this had all started, she had gone into the CMC clubhouse and seen her changeling friend Shade. He had spoken to her, saying that he was about to leave, but he had passed out. Sweetie had taken it upon herself to take care of the tired changeling. But she was worried. Shade hadn't stirred in the last two days. She kept him warm, and tried to feed him. He wouldn't eat or drink anything, which worried the little unicorn.
She had ran and checked out a book on changelings from Spike when Twilight was away, knowing that the purple unicorn didn't fully trust him after that meeting. Reading that, she knew that Shade could eat normal food, but was mostly fueled by emotions. Whenever she was with the unconscious changeling, she would try to show as many feelings as she could. She had no way of knowing if anything she was doing was helping.
“Hey! Equestria to Sweetie Belle!” Sweetie was jerked out of her thoughts by Scootaloo waving her hoof in her face. “You zoned out there.”
“Sorry. I was just thinking.” Sweetie smiled at her friend. “I'm rather tired though.”
“Yeah.” Scootaloo replied. “Miss Cheerilee looked upset today.”
Apple Bloom spoke up. “Did ya hear? Miss Cheerilee might have to close the whole school down!”
Sweetie gasped in disbelief as Scootaloo asked, “Why?”
“I guess it's got something to do with that.” The young earth pony replied, pointing at the sky.
“I hope that whatever is going on, stops soon.” Sweetie said. “Ponyville's falling apart.”
“I don't get it.” Scootaloo said. “Maybe we should have a meeting to figure out a plan.”
“Uh, sorry girls. I need to go. Maybe another time.” Sweetie dashed away from her friends.
Scootaloo gave Apple Bloom a look. “Has Sweetie been acting weird to you also?”
“Ah guess.” Apple Bloom said. “She started avoiding me when the sky stayed dark.”
Scootaloo rubbed her chin in thought as they continued walking. “Let's meet up at your house later. We'll talk about it later.” Apple Bloom nodded, waved to her friend and ran off.
. . .
I finally opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was that I was in my changeling form. I started to shift into a pony, which brought on the second thing I noticed. I had absolutely NO energy. None. I could barely raise my head to look around. I was actually in the Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse. Because I had lapsed into a coma, I thought that it was just a hazy dream that I had been there. Turns out, it wasn't a dream.
It didn't matter though. I was helpless in a clubhouse, but that wasn't the worst. I was miserable. I felt hurt, lost and betrayed. And now when I was discovered, I would probably be handed to Chrysalis on a silver platter. Upset, I started to quietly cry.
My back was to the door, which is why I didn't notice the pony behind me until she spoke, “Shade? Please don't cry again.”
I felt worry rush over me, and quickly drew the emotion into my body. Forcing myself to roll over, I saw Sweetie Belle sitting next to me. Guess that hadn't been a dream either. I tried to move back from her, but I didn't get very far. “Sweetie?!” I was afraid. She knew where I was, so she could turn me in. Or even worst, tell Twilight where I was! Impulsively, I tried to cast a teleportation spell, but the strain of that caused me to nearly pass out again.
“Shade! Relax.” Sweetie put her hoof on my leg.
I took a deep breath. “Please don't tell anypony that I'm here. I'll leave Ponyville when I can move again, just please don't tell anyone.” My heart was racing and I was sweating. No matter what happened, I did NOT want her telling anypony that I was still in the town.
Sweetie gave me a smile. “Shade, you've been unconscious in here for two days. I've been taking care of you.”
Sweetie's words washed over me. “You mean, you haven't told anypony that I'm here?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
I laid my head down, tired again. “Thank you...”
I felt Sweetie move around in the clubhouse. “Get a actual nap, okay? I'll be back in an hour.” I managed a grunt before I fell into a deep sleep.
. . .
Sweetie burst into the Carousel Boutique, heading straight for the kitchen. “Okay, I know he doesn’t eat food, but it might help. Gotta think of an excuse..”
The young unicorn was so wrapped up in trying to get some food for her friend, she didn't hear her sister come inside. She jumped when she heard Rarity yell, “Sweetie? Are you home?”
Sweetie was as quiet as she could as she started placing some fruit and veggies on the kitchen table. She cleared off everything from the table that wasn't food. Hearing her sister call her name again, she sped up.
“Sweetie Belle? Answer me!” Rarity was getting upset. Knowing that her sister wouldn't let her back out of the shop if she continued to ignore her, she called out. “Sorry Rarity! I'm in the kitchen!”
“Oh, well. I would like to talk to you before you leave again!” Rarity yelled back.
Sweetie judged that Rarity was at the top of the stairs, so she had about thirty seconds before her sister came in the room. She grabbed the edges of the tablecloth and swiftly bundled up the food. Tying it off, she stowed in behind the door and pretended to be washing dishes when Rarity came in the room.
“Oh, Sweetie! It is nice to see you doing some chores.” Rarity said.
“Uh, yeah! Just wanted to clean a little bit before I went to hang out with the girls.” Sweetie nervously said.
Rarity sat at the table. “Sweetie, I need to ask you something important.”
“Yes?” Sweetie replied.
“Your friend, Shade. Have you seen him lately?” She asked.
Sweetie looked at her sister angrily. “What do you mean, “your” friend? He's your friend too, isn't he?!”
Rarity looked shocked at her sister's anger. “Why yes!”
“Then don't just call him “my” friend.” Sweetie turned back to the sink.
“Well, I was just wondering if you have seen him lately.” Rarity said.
“No, I haven't. Why?” Sweetie asked.
“Well, my friends and I need to speak with him.” She replied.
“About what? How he supposedly bit Diamond Tiara's father, hurt Fluttershy, and caused the sky to stay dark?!” Sweetie snapped. “I've heard. Everypony in town thinks that it was him!”
Rarity attempted to reason with the angry filly. “Sweetie, the evidence against him is a lot....”
Sweetie whipped around from the sink. “He never did anything to hurt anypony, and now we all act like he's Nightmare Moon reborn?! Just because of some stupid lies?!” The filly angrily slammed the dishes down and stomped over to her sister. “I don't care what you say, he didn't hurt anypony!” She grabbed the tablecloth of food she had and walked out.”
“Where are you going with that food?” Rarity yelled.”
“I'm having a picnic!” Sweetie yelled back and slammed the door.
Rarity stayed sitting at the table, as a realization came to her. “Oh my, I must speak to Twilight!”
. . .
Sweetie Belle was the best pony in Equestria. As I proceeded to stuff myself, I felt joy radiating from my young friend, and in turn, it fed my soul. I felt more alive then I had in days. As I ate, I told Sweetie everything that had happened to me after Celestia had taken me from that meeting. She was shocked, especially when I told her that Twilight had tried to kill me.
“So, Discord has Celestia, everypony thinks that you hurt Fluttershy, and Twilight tried to kill you because of it?” Sweetie asked.
I nodded, but then stopped eating. I took a moment to reflect on her words. “I don't understand.” I said. My voice started to break. “I don't understand, why they would all hate me? Why they think I would so suddenly turn on them.” I started to cry again. Sweetie was quiet as I cried. “I've been trying to prove to everypony that I'm not evil, but I've really been trying to convince myself.” I broke down then, shamelessly weeping. "My life's been a lie, my father wants to use me for some sick reason, I can't control my powers and I don't care anymore!
I felt two forelegs wrapped around my neck. “Shade. I believe you. None of this was your fault. You have to believe that you aren't evil. Make sure that you know what you are, and then it'll be easier to prove to everypony else. Just please don't give up.”
We stayed there for a little bit, Sweetie just hugging me as I let my bottled up emotions run out. When I was done, I wiped my tears away. “Thanks Sweetie. Personally, I'm glad I have feelings.”
Sweetie giggled. “Me too. Gives me things that I can tease you about later.” I lightly shoved the filly as she laughed.
As we relaxed, we started to get serious. “We need a plan.” I said.
“But what can we do?” Sweetie asked me. “I'm the only pony in Ponyville that knows you didn't do any of those awful things.”
“Hmm. We need to go straight to the source.” I said. “This all started with Diamond Tiara's father, so lets start there.”
“Do you think that he'll talk to you?” Sweetie said.
I shook my head. “I know he won't.” I thought hard.
“What about Diamond?” Sweetie asked. “We could ask her for any clues.”
I grinned at her. “Great idea! I think that...” We both froze as we heard Rarity yell up to us. “Sweetie Belle? Is somepony up there with you?”
“Buck.” I hissed. “Sorry for my language Sweetie. Could you take a peek down there for me?” I watched as Sweetie looked out the window.
“It's my sister, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.” Sweetie said. I shuddered at the mention of the purple unicorn. “Why did Rarity bring them if she just wanted to tell me to come home?”
I gasped. “They know that I'm here. Twilight's here to stop me from using magic, and Rainbow's here to chase me down. The only reason that they haven't done anything is because they can't prove I'm here yet.”
Sweetie gulped. “What should we do?”
I shifted into my unicorn form. I started to start my spell, but I stopped looking at my friend. “Sweetie, you know that they are going to be chasing me down. You too, if you come. You can stay, pretend that I ordered you to not tell anypony...”
Sweetie shook her head. “Nope. You know that I'm coming with you. Besides, Rarity would just question me for hours.”
“You sure?” I asked. She nodded. “Okay then.” My horn started glowing and just as Rarity poked her head into the clubhouse, we were gone.
. . .
“He WAS here!” Rarity jumped down and landed by Twilight and Rainbow. “I though that she was hiding something, always running out of the house with food. I can't believe she LIED to me!”
Twilight paced. “What is he doing though?”
“Who cares?” Rainbow said, flying in circles around her friends. “We need to find him. He has Sweetie Belle!”
“Rainbow.” Twilight started. “Sweetie Belle is helping Shade.”
Rarity sat down. “You know, Twilight. It might be possible that you scared Shade. That's probably why he's running.”
Twilight looked at her. “Well...Um....I guess.”
Rarity looked at her with a exasperated look. “Dear. You teleported him to a different dimension and almost killed him. Now, maybe we should just ask him what's wrong instead of accusing him. We've been doing this all wrong.”
Twilight sighed. “You're right, Rarity. I was just so angry that Fluttershy was hurt, I just reacted when I saw him.”
Rainbow groaned. “Great. Now we have to search all over Ponyville for a changeling that won't look like himself. Not to mention we have no idea what his plan is.”
“Let's get all of us together.” Twilight said. “The six of us should be able to find him easily.” Rarity and Rainbow nodded as Twilight teleported them to her house.