//------------------------------// // Twilight's Angels // Story: Hell's Belles // by Silent Whisper //------------------------------// There were, in fact, pancakes on the table after my escapade of making coffee, running to the bathroom, banging my head on the wall because this was not how I thought the day would go, accepting my inevitable part in whatever crazy mess would come as a part of this, denying my acceptance, and returning to the kitchen with two steaming mugs of coffee balanced carefully in my magic. “Where’d you learn to cook like this?” I asked, reaching for the cinnamon syrup.  Sugar Belle gave me a strange look before taking a measured sip from her mug. “I’m a baker. I’m married to Big Mac. Bit of A, bit of B.” “Right, right,” I replied, taking a bite and remembering to follow it with a swig of black coffee before continuing to speak. “You housesitting?” “That’s right, or, well… kind of. It started like that, but a few friends called in a few favors, and now I’ve got my very first mi- big favor to do.” She took a big drink from her mug, her gaze darting everywhere but at me. “Cool,” I said, minding my own pancakes. “So, you’re saving Twilight from using herself against herself. What’s the plan?” “Well,” began Sugar Belle, carefully setting her mug down. “The plan was to… commandeer the artifact before the imposter Twilight Sparkle attempts to take it for herself.” “Commandeering is for pirates.” I dunked a pancake in coffee. “The word you’re looking for is ‘steal.’ You’re going to steal Twilight’s magic.” She sighed. “Yes. I’m going to steal Twilight’s magic.” “Quick question,” I asked, deciding that coffee-dunked pancakes was a great way to ruin both pancakes and coffee in one easy motion. “Are you Tirek disguised as a changeling disguised as Tirek or something?” Sugar Belle didn’t even blink. “Not that I know of.” “Alright, good to know. How are you going to steal the sole ruler of Equestria’s special magic trinket full of alicorn juice?” Her horn flickered to life as she laid out a much less-precise sketch of the chart she’d originally had. It looked as though it’d been drawn in multiple different pens that had run out of ink. I snuck a glance at the waste bin. A few writing utensils were smoking suspiciously.  “This is a much rougher map of the Canterlot Castle vault that we’re concerned with. Here’s where I’ll enter the vaults, and here-” She added the frowny-face tin pie that was once a fork. “Is where we think the artifact is.”  I peered at the vent. One of the lines on the side was curvy, and the other was almost nonexistent. “So… how are you going to get out again?” Her muzzle scrunched in a way that I imagined Big Mac found quite endearing. “I’m not entirely sure. It depends, you see, on what happens on the way. If the alarms are already tripped, we’ll go through the main doors, but if they aren’t, we’d want to be stealthier, so as not to alert the fake Twilight to our plans.” “Alright,” I said. It was about as good of a plan as I could reasonably expect from anything that happened in the vicinity of an Element bearer. “What about the real Twilight? Isn’t her life in danger, and all that?” Sugar Belle shrugged. “Only as much danger as she always is. We’ve got age- er, friends already protecting her and making sure she isn’t in more harm’s way than she is just by existing.”  I took a sip of pancake-flavored coffee. “Fair enough. So, when are you going to do all this?” She bit her lip and looked distinctly nervous. “Er, during the Grand Galloping Gala was the plan. There’d be so many ponies wandering around at the time, it’d be the ideal moment for fake Twilight to strike without anypony noticing.”  I settled back in the chair, nodding at nothing in particular. “That makes sense, I suppose. So, need any help with, uh,” I looked at the pens in the trash can. They were still smoking. “Any sort of set-up or something? I’ve got the rest of the day.” I doubted that Rarity would miss me, and the Grand Galloping Gala was in a few days anyway so she’d be busy enough to not really notice I was gone. “Not unless you have Gala tickets,” she said, slumping at the table. “I mean, my fellow a- friends, friends, said that they’d help me break in, but I’d really rather not. There’s so many different things that could go wrong with that part alone, and I’d rather save my luck for the, er, heist itself.” Frowning, I pushed my plate and mug to the side. “Didn’t Big Mac invite you? I’m sure he got some invites, working at the Gala and all.” “I, ah, might have said that I wasn’t going,” she said hesitantly. “I wasn’t planning to attend before learning about all this, and it wouldn’t make sense for me to ask to go now anyway, because he’d want to spend time with me. Of course, I want to spend time with him, but…”  “Not when the fate of Equestria hangs in the balance?” I finished, getting up to stretch. “I get it, I get it. Hey, my sister probably has tickets. I bet I could blackma- er, ask for a couple. She’s a friend of Twilight, she can get more.” Sugar Belle sighed. “Sure, go ahead. It’s definitely worth a shot. Just… don’t mention the whole secret alternate Twilight thing or anything, okay? If Twilight finds out about this, it could put her in even more danger than she already always is.” I chuckled as I made my pancake-stuffed way out the door. “Leave that to me. I’m great at keeping secrets!”