Sweetie watched as Twilight ran back towards the area they saw the filly crying. She turned back and headed towards the shops.
"If I remember correctly it's just past the market and to the... left?" she said to herself passing through crowds of older ponies coming back from their daily grind. She weaved through them offering apologies for those she bumped into and found herself at the open market.
"I never did get to shop around here. Maybe I can find something to surprise Rarity!" She ran towards the market and looked at the wares of any stores still open.
"There isn't much here that Rarity would like... Oh! What's that?" She ran towards the back end of the market and hid behind one of the empty stalls. "Is that? No way!" She hid behind stall as her voice attracted attention. She peeked around the stall and proceeded to follow who she saw.
"What do you mean you let her go home by herself?!"
"I'm sorry Rarity. I asked her if she knew the way back and she said yes so I let her go ahead of me. I didn't think it would turn out like this."
"I told you that she gets lost easily! Do you honestly believe that you aren't to blame if anything happens to her? Dear Celestia! What if something has happened? What am I going to do?"
Rarity was starting to panic more so than she did when learning about Sweetie's disappearance. She paced back and forth and continued to bring up several scenarios of what might have happened to the filly. Twilight kept watching as her friend's emotions kept changing from anger, panic, and sadness.
"Rarity!"
"What?!"
"I think we should start searching for her immediately. I'll look for her around town while you let every pony else know she is missing."
"You're... You're right. Making a scene here isn't going to find her any quicker. I'll go let Applejack know and then let the proper authorities help as well."
"Ok, I'll go check everywhere I went with her." Twilight was turned to run only to be halted by a bubble of magic owned by her fashionista friend. "Rarity?"
"Twilight, If anything has happened to my sister I swear by Celestia that whatever Nightmare Moon would have done to us would be nothing compared to what I'll do to you. Got it?"
Twilight nodded slowly at the obvious threat. Rarity let her down in front of her and grabbed Twilight by her neck pulling her closer.
"Good."
Rarity let her go and went off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres leaving Twilight to catch up to the sudden threat the ivory unicorn had made.
"I'll think about this later. I have to find Sweetie Belle."
Twilight ran towards the shops she visited with the young filly only to find them closed and the owners already gone. The few ponies she saw and asked had not seen the girl anywhere. As she ran towards the fountain she caught sight of a mass of red coming towards her. She stopped in front of the fountain and turned to see Big Mac slowing down to meet her.
"Big Mac?"
"Twilight, we've heard what happened. A.J is with Rarity right now looking around the outskirts. Applebloom and Granny went to inform the authorities so I'm here to help you search."
"I..."
"Before you say anything, I have to say that I went too far in hitting you. For that, I'm sorry but I won't apologize for kicking you out. The way you handled everything was beyond idiotic, especially coming from some pony like you. If it makes you feel any better A.J gave me quite the shiner once she found out."
"No, I don't hold it against you. Like you said, I should have gone about everything in a completely different way. I was too occupied with trying to make things right that I failed to take anything into consideration in regards to her feelings."
"We'll agree to disagree. Now, where's the last place you saw her?"
"On the bridge back to town coming from the schoolhouse."
"How did you two become separated? Rarity didn't tell us that part at all."
"I... kind of... let her go back on her own..."
"Wha... What in the name of Celestia were you thinking?!"
"She said she knew the way back!"
"What could be so important that you would let a filly that barely knows the town? What were doing?!"
"Stop yelling at me!"
Mac took a step back at the sudden spike in volume coming from the unicorn.
"S-Sorry. I just..."
"Let's just find Sweetie Belle. Any place else you two were going to check out today that you haven't checked yet?"
"Well we left the schoolhouse early and after that I was suppose to let her meet Spike."
"I'll go check the schoolhouse then. You check in with Spike."
"Wait! I don't think she'll be there."
"Why's that?"
"If she was there then I would have seen her coming back."
"Coming back? What exactly were you doing?"
"N-Nothing. Let's just go check the library. Though, I doubt she'll be there as well. She would have been found by now."
They ran towards the library and watched as the several other ponies were going around searching for something. Mac asked what happened and they were informed that Granny Smith had explained everything to every pony. They returned to their own search efforts and soon arrived in front of the library.
"Spike! Are you here?!" Twilight called out as she and Mac stormed through the door.
"Twilight? I didn't know... You!" The baby dragon yelled as he rushed towards Mac.
Spike jumped and just when it looked like he was about to bite Mac; Twilight stopped him with her magic. She held him in the air as he struggled and screamed words she knew he shouldn't know.
"Spike! What are you doing?!"
"Let me go Twilight!"
"Not until you calm down and explain yourself."
"This guy hit you! You think I'm just going to let him walk around like nothing happened?! Let me down so I can teach him what happens to people that mess with my family."
"Spike, calm down!"
"It's alright Twilight. Let him go and do what he needs to do."
"Mac?"
"Please, Twilight."
She let the dragon down and he immediately tackled the stallion; at least, he tried to anyways. It resulted in him just trying to push Mac down to no avail. The stallion stood still as the small dragon tried his best. It wasn't until Spike let go that Mac brought his face down to his level.
"Go ahead. Hit me; I understand the feeling of someone hurting your family so I want you to do it."
"Fine." Spike reared back only to extended his claws and swipe at Mac. The action left scars under his right eye and started to bleed.
"Spike!"
Mac flinched but otherwise stopped Twilight from interfering. "It's fine, this will heal with time and I deserve it. We have more important matters at hoof."
"But... you're right. Spike have you seen a filly with a white coat, and purple and pink mane?"
"What's this about?"
"Spike, please. Rarity's sister is missing and we're trying to find her. Are you sure you haven't seen her?"
"She was Rarity's sister?!"
"You've seen her?!"
"Yea, I was out getting some groceries and saw a filly that looked like that follow some mare in a hood. I wasn't sure what was going on but they went towards the Everfree. You don't think..."
"Mac! Can you go tell every pony else about this? Me and Spike will head towards the Everfree and see if we can pick up the trail."
"Sure thing Twilight."
Mac turned and left in a hurry to inform the others as Twilight levitated Spike onto her back. They left the library and headed towards the outskirts of the Everfree before the search party arrived.
"She can't have gone in there... right?"
"I don't know Spike. I really hope she hasn't but this is the best lead we have right now. Let's go and stay close to me no matter what happens. Okay?"
"Okay."