//------------------------------// // 45 - Recap // Story: Sweetie Belle Gains a Soul // by Bad Dragon //------------------------------// I opened my eyes, but I was still drenched in darkness. The shadows surrounded me. Only a little flickering of light defied them. The shiny dance of light on the rocky ceiling was mesmerizing. Something touched me! It brushed through my mane. I lifted my head and saw Clonie beside me. She gasped and wiggled her body left and right while she clambered up. She turned her head and yelled toward the entrance of The Mirror Pool cave. “She’s awake!” “Hey! I’m right here. Don’t refer to me in the third person, foal!”  She gasped and put a hoof before her muzzle. After taking a step back, her head and shoulders slumped. “Did you touch me just now?” She tensed her body and closed her eyes. I swung a hoof at her, but lost my balance midway, falling beside her. She squinted one eye and looked down at me. “I’m sorry!” I clambered up onto all four hooves. There was an abundance of water waiting for me on the curved leaves that lay on the stones beside me. I dunked in my muzzle and sipped as hard as I could. Clonie opened and closed her mouth several times before gathering the nerve to jabber about. “Clonie and me were really worried about you all this time, and I just wanted to let her know that you’re awake. I didn’t mean to touch you, either. The thing is.... They hurt you really bad. I hated seeing you so defenseless and exposed.” She looked up at me. Her eyebrows rose and pressed together, wrinkling her forehead. I put down the emptied leaf and breathed deeply. It seemed I’d been more thirsty than I had realized. “How long was I out?” “Since yesterday,” she said. “How did I get here?” “Um, I…” She bowed her head. “I left my post, and—and then I had to feel you out all over and have my way with you.” “Whaa...” I glared at her. “What are you babbling on about?” “Clonie and me saw flashes in the sky. Then, there were roars and thunder. The whole ground shook.” “I was the one doing those things.” “We thought so, too. That’s why we guarded the entrance, just like you ordered us to before you left. We thought you’d come home after everything calmed down, but you didn’t. You were gone for so long and—” her ears flopped as she took a big breath “—I take full responsibility!” Her body shook. “Clonie had nothing to do with it! She even reminded me that we were told to stay guard no matter what. That’s how good she was at her job!” “Ugh!” I pressed a hoof on my head to ease the migraine she caused me. “Tell me how I got here, already!” “I really tried to do nothing, but after a while, I couldn’t merely stand at the entrance anymore. You were risking your head for us and it didn’t seem right to just leave you stranded. I was afraid that the evil townsfolk might hurt you. I told Clonie to stay put, but then she told me to stay put. We wrestled to figure out who was right, but it was a tie. Then, I raced her to your knife and fairly won because I gave myself a head start. She surrendered and agreed to do as she’s told. I then gently put back your knife—I’m sorry for borrowing your knife without asking—and set out to go to the place where flashes had come from before. I thought about wearing that black jumpsuit you made me fix to protect me from cuts and bruises”—she pointed at my swimsuit, sewn with the hairs from her own tail—“but I’d probably just tear it on my way. That wouldn’t be right because it was yours and I also didn’t want to apologize for borrowing yet another one of your things. So, I just ran to get you and tried not to bleed too much when branches hit me on the way. And then, when I found the messed up glade and you at the bottom of the dike I took a rest while I licked your wounds. Then, I brought you back here as fast as possible, but it took some time because you’re kind of heavy. No offense.” “Wait, you dragged me all the way from the glade to here?” “I carried you...” “The books! Did you just leave them?” “I saw the books. There were so many of them there. I don’t know how I could have carried them all. The thought of townsfolk coming for you also scared me. I couldn’t let them find you asleep. You weren’t prepared to face them in your condition. I just wanted to get you away from that place as soon as possible. If you want, I could go see if they’re still there...” I noticed her legs. They were covered in cuts and bruises. She swayed from side to side on the wiggly appendages. If I asked her to stand on just three legs, she’d probably fall over. “No, you’re right. They are, most likely, already gone by now. It doesn’t matter, anyway. I’m done foaling around with books. That’s not where my destiny lies.” “Even without them, it took me all day to bring you here. The night almost overtook me.” “Forget the books. They’re not important.” “Clonie was really happy when she saw us. She stood guard all the time and didn’t do anything wrong…” “You did well, Clonie.” I extended a hoof to stroke her on the head. “Both of you. Well done.” “Except…” She lowered her eyes. I growled and struck my hoof on the rocks, “Except what?” “She—met a zebra.” “We were found out? This is bad! We need to leave right away!” “No.” She dared to raise a hoof in my path. “She didn’t meet her at the entrance.” “Wait… Did she leave her post as well? I gave you one simple job. All you had to do was stay put and both of you managed to fail at it?” Clonie bit her lip and slightly nodded. “Take her place and tell her to come down here. I want to hear what she has to say for herself.” She opened her mouth as if she wanted to utter something but promptly forced it shut. After a quick nod, she limped to the cave’s entrance. The skin under my coat itched all over. I slowly stood up and checked my body. There were just bumps and bruises on my sides, legs and back. It didn’t look too serious. Nothing seemed broken. My whole body jerked as I noticed a book on the stone beside me. It looked ominously familiar, which was odd. I remembered levitating all the books when I had been preparing to face Twilight. When I’d cleared out the cave, I had not left a single one behind. There was no need to keep them around since I had already skimmed them all. The book before me, definitely, wasn’t from Twilight’s library. I’d remember a thick, leather cover like that. I leaned over the tome. It didn’t have a title, just a seal. I recognized the symbols as if I had seen them before. Yet, for the life of me, I couldn’t make myself remember. The memory was held just out of my reach. My head jerked and both ears perked up. There was movement at the cave’s entrance. Clonie ran down to meet me. She sure took her sweet time... I levitated the book onto my bed of moss and leaves then sat on the towel that was rolled to form a pillow. Clonie abruptly stopped at my bed and crumpled beside me. “Where did you get this?” I pointed at the book. “A zebra gave it to me. She said I was meant to see it, but might have trouble to believe it.” I opened it. The pages were rough, yellow and crinkled. I felt gratitude and fear at the same time as I hoofed through it. The writing wasn’t printed but mouth-written. I looked at Clonie. “What happened? Tell me everything.” “Clonie and me watched from behind the bush that hides the entrance, exactly like you ordered us to. Then, there were flashes and explosions. After that, the ground under us shook. Clonie couldn’t just stand by anymore, so she went to see if you’re alright. I stayed and guarded the entrance. After a while, I got really thirsty. I wanted to chew on the leaves of the bush, but then I didn’t because I thought I could blow the cover if there weren’t enough leaves on the branches. I thought about getting a drink from the pool inside. But you said that we shouldn’t even poke at the magical water, so I didn’t. I stayed and kept guard like the good filly that I am. Then, I got really, really thirsty. I tried to distract myself by listening to the water. That was a bad idea. It trickled and splashed in the stream, making me even more thirsty. I could even smell the freshness and moistness. It called for me. You know, the brook that’s just behind those big brown—” “Stop rambling and tell me what happened, Clonie!” “I… I went for a drink… But I kept looking back to the entrance all along! Nopony could enter without me seeing it. Except when I was drinking from the stream. I wasn’t looking at the entrance then, but I tried to swallow really fast, despite the coldness of the water. I also peed at the same time so I could return to the entrance as soon as possible.” “Get on with it already!” “I heard the crack of a branch. When I looked forth, I saw a zebra on the other side of the stream. The golden wrists on her foreleg jingled as she backed a few steps.” “Zecora,” I interjected. “She rose a hoof and said she meant me no harm and something about my darkly charm. She talked really funny.” “Zebras speak in rhymes,” I explained. “Yes. She said that she’d been searching for me. Then, when I didn’t say anything, her body shook, and she begged me not to kill her. That was so weird, I wasn’t even doing anything.” “Hehe.” I facehoofed. “Zecora thought you were me. I don’t know why she’d be afraid, though. She took no part in my exile. I have no quarrel with her.” “This zebra then took the book from her saddlebag and laid it on the ground. She insisted that I need to understand something in it and apologized for not showing it to me sooner. Then, she kept crying over something else that she supposedly did to me.” “That’s weird. Thanks to her potion, I’m more than whole.” I caressed the reddish horn with a hoof. “Why would she be sorry for that?” “I don’t know, but she seemed to really mean it. She was even hitting her head with a hoof as she sniffled.” “In all the time I knew her, I only ever saw her cry once. It was when she hosted a party for me and her weird zebra friend. She cried then. You’d think celebrations would make ponies happy, not sad. Or maybe it was something else that made her upset...” I supported my head with a hoof. “It doesn’t make much sense… Did she say anything else?” “No. When I didn’t say anything, she shook and again, begged me not to kill her. Then, she suddenly turned around and galloped away.” “Weird... Did anything else happen?” She shook her head “Okay then. Go up to Clonie and keep her company guarding the entrance.” “Aren’t you going to kill me?” “Maybe next time. I’m too tired now.” I pointed a hoof at her. “Don’t leave your post again, though. I need to know if I get discovered so that I can move away in time.” She sighed with relief and ran toward the exit.