Chapter 3: Memories and Searches
Far off from the house that human Rarity and human Sweetie Belle call home, was a house that seemed to have an uninviting feel to it. Inside the darkened house were two people. One was an older female with glasses, and the second was the man in the dark cloak that Human Twilight spotted earlier. He was not in the best of moods.
"You are an hour late. You know I don't like to be kept waiting."
"I apologize Dark Soul for my tardiness, but the school board has been keeping a close eye on me ever since the Friendship Games fisaco. I can barely get out of their sights."
"And they also prevent you from getting what I need for my dark potions," he growled. "You present me with nothing but excuses, so unless you have some good news for me, then you can leave this place."
He was just about to leave the room when the woman said; "it brought a pony here Sir."
He stopped and turned around, "was it a unicorn?"
"Indeed it was. A little young perhaps, but it has alot of magic." She then pulled out what looked like a portable make-up kit, but really it was a device to detect magic. It was the very device that human Twilight had used during the Friendship Games, "this thing proves that she is very powerful."
Dark Soul smirked and cackled, "excellent, a filly with that much power would be perfect for my plan. Where is it though?"
"It went into Canterlot High, but I couldn't follow it since I'm not allowed in there following the Friendship Games."
"Then find some way of getting in there and find me that filly. Time is of the essence my dear principal, and the sooner the King arrives, the sooner vegenance will be brought upon those who ruined everything."
"Of course Dark Soul, I will see to it at once."
She then left for her own home. Dark Soul cackled quietly under his breath, "at long last, the day of darkness is approaching. It might be a thousand years late, but now nothing will stop us from completing what was started. First; Earth will be conquered, and then Equestria and finally, the universe will belong to the mighty King Sombra." And he laughed loudly in an evil way. "Oh yes, it is coming."
That night, both Pony and human versions of Sweetie Belle had terrible nightmares. They dreamt that Earth had been conquered. There was no grass on the lawns, the trees appeared to be dead and the sky looked threatening. In the midst of it all, they could see what appeared to be a human version of King Sombra, sitting on a throne while humans, all chained up, worked as his slaves.
He laughed in his usual dark ways, and struck down the ones defying him with dark magic.
Needless to say, both of them woke up in fright over what they had seen.
"Now that was scary," groaned human Sweetie Belle. "Maybe I shouldn't have watched that movie earlier." She then layed her head back down and shut her eyes. But they hadn't been closed for thirty seconds before they opened again, and she realised where she was, "now how in the world did I end up in my bedroom? Maybe Rarity brought me up here. Yeah that's it. Speaking of which, what time is it?" She looked to her clock and noticed it was now three thirty in the morning.
Human Sweetie Belle mumbled something, then went off to sleep again.
Meanwhile, Pony Sweetie Belle looked out to the star filled night sky. She had to admit, it did look just as beautiful as Luna's night sky back in Equestria. From her vantage point, she could see stars lined up in the shape of a spoon. Another set of stars looked like a bear. The rest though just shone brightly with little clouds hiding them from view.
"I wonder if Rarity is watching the stars back home," she thought to herself. "I hope she's not too upset about me being missing."
A small tear came into Pony Sweetie Belle's right eye. She wiped it away and layed her head back down on the pillow. She was so tired, but she couldn't sleep, so she stayed awake throughout the rest of the evening.
In Equestria, several hours later, Luna's moon had gone for the night and Celestia's sun was raising for another day. For Rarity though, she didn't even notice. She had been spending all night looking at the various photos of herself and Sweetie Belle. Each photo had a wonderful story behind it, which at this time brought tears to Rarity's eyes.
One memory was from when Sweetie Belle was four, and both she and Rarity were at the park. Sweetie Belle had run over to the swings and climbed onto a seat.
"Rarity, can you give me a push?"
"Of course Sweetie Belle, just hang on tight my Little Sister."
She pushed Sweetie Belle gently, making her swing slowly and not too high, but it didn't bother her. She was having the time of her life, and so was Rarity. That was just one of many great memories, but the one that always seemed to get to Rarity was the memory of a nickname that Sweetie Belle used to call her.
"I love you Rarie-Roo!"
"Oh Sweetie Belle," she sobbed, "why you? Why did it have to be you that was ponynapped?"
Her father; Hondo Flanks could see the tears coming from Rarity's eyes. He walked into the kitchen, and using his magic, brought over some tissues for her to use.
"Don't worry Rarity, I'm sure Sweetie Belle is okay. She's a tough little filly, and she's very clever."
"Do you really believe she's okay Father?"
Hondo Flanks nodded with a smile, "I'm sure my dear Rarity, just have faith in her, she'll come home safe and sound, and before you know it, she'll be hanging out with her Rarie-Roo again."
He then walked out of the kitchen to see his wife, leaving Rarity alone with the photo album and her memories.
Back at Twilight's castle, the Princess of Friendship had just gotten up from her long night's rest and was ready to tackle the books for some answers. Princess Celestia was also doing the same thing in Canterlot, so she knew there was a good chance they would get the answer to Spike's question from the previous night.
She and Spike had just reached the library when they heard the doorbell.
"Spike, can you get that please?"
"Right away Twilight," he replied. He ran down the hallways to the front door. A short while later, he returned with four young fillies behind him; the two Cutie Mark Crusaders, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
"Shouldn't you four be in school?" Twilight asked, "what will Miss Cheerilee say?"
"We wouldn't feel right going to school, not while Sweetie Belle is missing," said Apple Bloom, "so with permission from our families, we're taking time off till we find some way to help her."
"My mother argued aganist it of course," said Diamond Tiara, "but I'm taking time off too, as we're doing this for Sweetie Belle."
The three fillies nodded and shouted together; "For Sweetie Belle!"
Twilight smiled, "very well then, let's begin our search again. If you find anything that could be helpful, let me know right away."
The three fillies nodded and ran towards the shelves of books.
At the same time, back on Earth, Human Sweetie Belle had gotten up and was now making her way down the stairwell to the kitchen. As she reached the bottom of the stairwell, she could hear voices. One of which belonged to her sister Rarity. She walked over to the kitchen and found her, along with all her friends.
"Good morning Everyone," she called out. "I have something I have to say..."
"Can you hold that information to yourself for a little bit Sweetie Belle?" human Rarity interupted kindly, "Sunset Shimmer has something important to tell us."
"Okay fine, I'll wait."
She leaned up aganist the wall and waited.
"Now Sunset, you were saying?"
"Well you guys are not going to believe this when I tell you, but somewhere in our fair city right now, is a little filly unicorn that goes by the name of Sweetie Belle." The girls gasped when they heard this. Sunset continued; "according to Princess Twilight, a former servant of King Sombra had created a dark potion that brought the filly here."
"Why would he do that?" asked Rainbow Dash curiously.
"It could be for a number of reasons, but according to Princess Twilight, and this really scares me, he might want to use her magic to bring King Sombra here and conquer our world." The girls gulped when they heard that.
"Oh great, first Sunset tries to conquer, uh offence by the way Sunset," Rainbow said meekily. Sunset just shrugged her shoulders, "then the Dazzlings and even a demon Twilight. Uh again, no offence Twilight."
"None taken," sighed Human Twilight.
"The point is, how many times are we going have to go threw this?"
"Not sure, but that's why we got to find her before Dark Soul does, will you help me? I've searched a small portion of the city alone, but found nothing."
"Well of course we'll help Sugarcube," smiled Applejack, "we'll each cover a different part of the city. That will give us a better chance to find her."
The seven girls nodded in agreement to that idea. Human Sweetie Belle thought this would be the perfect time to mention that the pony Sweetie Belle was actually upstairs and fast asleep. She was about to speak up when Pinkie interupted with a question.
"Once we find her, what will we do with her?" she asked.
"Keep her hidden until Princess Twilight arrives with answers."
"What do you mean Sunset?" asked Fluttershy.
"Well, Princess Twilight also wrote that she and Princess Celestia are not sure of what will happen if Pony Sweetie Belle goes threw the portal. She could remain the same, or transform into a human, or something else might happen, I'm not sure."
Human Sweetie Belle gulped just hearing that.
"But we'll worry about that later, right now we need to find her. We have some time before school, so what do you say we get started in our search?"
The girls didn't need to be asked twice. They grabbed their backpacks and ran out the door. Human Sweetie Belle tried to get her older sister's attention, but she wasn't really paying attention to Sweetie Belle. She walked out the door and ran off to another part of the city.
"So much for getting her attention," Human Sweetie Belle sighed. "Now what do I do?"
She went upstairs and found the Pony Sweetie Belle fast asleep. After spending all night awake, she had finally decided to get some shut eye.
"I don't want anything bad to happen to that cute little filly," human Sweetie Belle thought to herself.
She walked over to the sleepy filly and nudged her on the right shoulder a bit. Pony Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and looked over to her human counterpart.
"I'm sorry to wake you Sweetie Belle," said the Human version, "I just wanted to let you know that I got to go to school soon."
"Okay," she yawned, "but did you tell your sister about me?"
"I tried, but she was in too much of a hurry to listen to me." Hearing that made the Pony Version of Sweetie Belle feel rather sad, "but don't worry, I'll find a way to talk to her, and just in case she gets home before I do, I will leave a note for her letting her know that you're here."
"Okay then," the pony version yawned again.
In no time at all, Human Sweetie Belle had written the note and left it in the one place she knew Rarity would find it. Right on the fridge door. She then told the Pony Version of herself of what she could do while the Human version was at school, and what there was in the fridge. After that, she grabbed her backpack and headed off for school.
Outside the school, she found her friends; Apple Bloom and Scootaloo waiting for her, but they weren't alone as there was a visitor there. It was Apple Bloom's own cousin; Babs Seed.
"Hey Babs, we haven't seen you in a while," smiled human Sweetie Belle.
"Yeah well my family and I have been busy as of late," she said. "Thankfully I got some time off from my school, so I decided to come here and see my favourite cousin, and her friends of course."
"Well as I was going to say before Sweetie Belle showed up, you arrived just in time as we're going to have a talent show in a couple of days, and we're going to be in it," said Scootaloo.
"Oh that sounds wonderful, I would love to see you guys on stage."
"Well two of us at least," sighed Apple Bloom and looked back to Sweetie Belle.
"Unless you can show Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna that you can sing in front of a crowd," said Scootaloo. "Just remember what Sunset told you yesterday, and you'll do fine."
"Yeah sure, that's easy to say," groaned Sweetie Belle.
She did appearcite Sunset's advice, but she still felt nervous to be singing in front of a crowd.
The four young girls walked into the school, only to come face to face with the human versions of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Like yesterday, they teased Sweetie Belle for not being able to sing. Babs Seed was not a fan of bullying, considering she used to get bullied all the time where she comes from, so she stood firm aganist the two girls.
"Hey you dummies, leave my friends alone, or you're going to learn that's a big mistake, do I make myself clear?"
At first, the girls didn't move, but they did show a scared look on both their faces. Babs Seed raised her right leg and stomped her foot down on the ground, scaring the two girls and making them run.
"Ha, works everytime," Babs snickered.
"Whoa, that was cool Babs," smiled Apple Bloom. "Do you mind if we use that from time to time, if needed?"
"Sure go ahead, it does work after all."
Since she wasn't an offical student of Canterlot High, Babs Seed had to go get a special pass that would allow her to walk around the school grounds, as long as she didn't distrub any of the students in class. As they waited for Babs to return with the pass, the thre young girls saw Vice Principal Luna coming over to Principal Celestia's office with several papers in her arms.
"Good morning girls, I trust all is well today?" she asked.
"It is," they all nodded.
"Very good." She then turned to human Sweetie Belle, "will you be trying out again for the Talent Show? My sister and I are more than willing to give you another chance to get in."
"I'll try," answered human Sweetie Belle nervously.
"Good to hear, we'll see you in the gym at lunchtime."
At that moment, Babs Seed walked out of the office and Vice Principal Luna walked in. It was also at that moment that human Rarity, Sunset Shimmer and the rest of their friends were walking into the school.
Human Sweetie Belle ran towards them, "Rarity! There's something I need..." but she was cut off as she slipped on the just washed floors. She slid along and bumped into her big sister.
"Sweetie Belle, you need to be more careful, you could've gotten hurt."
"I know that Rarity, but I have something important to tell you. It's in regards to the Pony Sweet..." but she was cut off again as Rarity placed her hand over human Sweetie Belle's mouth.
"Sorry Sweetie Belle, but we can't have you mention the pony version of yourself, for her own sake, as well as ours."
"Sorry, I didn't know I wasn't suppose to say anything out loud about her. But what I wanted to tell you is..." But then the school bell rang.
"I got to get class Sweetie, we'll talk later." And before Human Sweetie Belle could say anything, human Rarity was already making her way to her classroom.
"Since when did my life turn into a Cartoon series?" Human Sweetie Belle thought to herself.
Still with the school bell ringing, Human Sweetie Belle had to get to class. With a sigh, she followed Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to class while Babs Seed began her own tour of the school.
Outside the school, Dark Soul, in his dark outfit was using the pendant that his assistant had left behind at his place to search for magical surges. The portals though were closed, and with Pony Sweetie Belle at Human Sweetie Belle's house, he was detecting no magic.
"The filly must've moved on," he muttered under his breath. "Oh well, I'll find her soon."
He turned to leave and bumped into one of the owners of the Sweet shoppe, "oh dear, I am so sorry about that, I'm not watching where I'm going today," said Mrs. Cake.
"No harm done." To keep everyone from guessing his plans, he decided to play the role of a nice guy until he was ready to unveil his plan.
"I guess you could say I have my head in the clouds," giggled Mrs Cake. She looked up and realised, "except there are none on this fine day."
"Indeed not." He moved aside and let Mrs Cake pass, "though I hope for better days than this."
Mrs Cake was confused by that remark, but carried on regardless. Meanwhile Dark Soul snickered to himself and slipped away before anyone saw him, or so he thought. Once again, he was spotted, for looking out the window for one second was none other than Human Twilight.
"Twice now I've seen him," she thought to herself. "We really need to step up the search before he finds her."