September 1 1006 Post Nightmare Moon
September 1 1006 Post Nightmare Moon
Sugar Cube cantered briskly through the busy streets, swiping candies and snacks from open saddlebags with a deftness that would leave most ponies baffled. In her own mind, the little filly was a chocolate furred ninja, liberating snacks from prisons before welcoming them into a better world in her stomach.
She emerged from the other end of the market place crowd with her saddlebags bulging, full of her pilfered foodstuffs.
With a smirking glance over her shoulder and a giggle she trotted off to her favorite hiding place, under the crusaders clubhouse.
"Didn't even know what hit 'em." she giggled triumphantly.
"Oh. Sugar Cube! Hey Sugar Cube!" A voice called out from behind her.
'Oh Blimey..' Sugar Cube thought. 'Don't you draw attention to me and my loot you little git!'
The teal pegasus filly with a two tone blonde mane and tail cantered over, her wings buzzing as she panted lightly.
"And here I thought you were the soccer teams star player." Sugar Cube remarked. "Just goes to show how good the team as a whole is."
The pegasus shot the unicorn a glare before taking a deep breath and straightening out. "The ball hit my chest pretty hard in training and I'm still a bit winded. So shut it. I just wanted to know if you know where Sweetie Belle is?"
"Not a Luna damned clue." Sugar Cube said matter-of-factly. "Now if that's all?"
Sunny drooped visibly. "Well...can I tag along with you in case you run into her?"
The chocolate brown unicorn filly stopped and thought. 'If I do bring her along, then I have somepony to shift the blame on, saying she tricked me into doing it.' A smirk crept to her face as her line of thought continued. 'But that also means I'd have to share it with her...'
The teal pegasus watched the unicorns face scrunch up in thought. 'wow... miss Twilight and miss Rarity really got a blank slate to mold in her.'
"Alright fine." Sugar Cube finally answered. "I was heading out to their clubhouse to eat anyway."
Sunny buzzed her wings happily. "Thank you Sugar Cube."
Sugar waved her hoof dismissively. "Yeah yeah. But if anypony asks, it was your idea." she said as she started trotting off.
The young pegasus stopped and tilted her head. "Huh? H-hey! Wait up!" Sunny called out as she struggled to keep pace with the older filly. "I wanted to ask, have your parents seemed off to you?"
Sugar Cube gave the pegasus following her a weird look. "Nope. Not at all. Why?"
"Oh..." The pegasus dropped again.
'She droops any lower and her head will be carving a ditch through the town.' Sugar Cube thought to herself.
"Well because my mom and dad have been acting really strange. Mom's taken to being really careful, and she seems to have somehow gotten really good at drumming since we had that sleepover at Aunty Applebloom's. And dad has become... well sort of a fitness nut, and can barely use his magic at all." Sunny explained.
"... are you sure the ball hit your chest and not your head?"
"Hey!"
"That wasn't very nice Sugar Cube." Icing said as she trotted over.
"Hey Icing!" Sunny smiled and waved the pale lavender earthpony over. "Have your mom and Luna been acting weird too?"
The young earthpony fell in line behind Sunny. "Not really acting... well Princess mommy has been acting weird, almost like she's scared of something. But mommy hasn't. She has been talking weird though."
As the other fillies talked with themselves, Sugar Cube took the opportunity to dart into a nearby alley between two houses and hide, watching as they kept trotting, unaware that they were now short a member.
With a small smile, Sugar Cube's horn took on a light yellow glow, her hooves becoming enveloped in the glow.
With an experimental stamp of her hoof she confirmed that the silencing spell had worked just fine and slipped out of the alley,heading back towards Carousel Boutique.
"Mom! Mom! Big Brother! I'm home!" Sugar Cube called out as she closed the door behind her, trotting towards the stairs that lead up to the second floor of the building.
"Welcome back Sugar Cube, darling."
"Welcome home little one."
"Hey sis! I thought you were gonna head to Sweet Apple Acres to see if Sweetie's ready to come home."
"I was, but Sunny and Icing distracted me. Besides. Aunty Sweetie is a smart pony. She can find her own way home."
The two mares and one dragon looked at each other as the brown filly trotted upstairs, her saddlebags making noises suspiciously similar to candy wrappers.
"Well she is right but I'm still worried about Sweetie." Twilight frowned slightly.
"You and me both." Rarity frowned along side her marefriend.
"It's not like it's the first time she's stayed over at Appleblooms. What's the big deal?" Spike asked as he turned the blue card over in his claw. "blank." he whispered.
"I'm not sure. Something just feels... odd." Twilight stated.
Rarity nodded. "Agreed."
Meanwhile...
"So explain to me again sending Sweetie back to Diamond for supplies was a good idea!?!" Scootaloo yelled as she ducked under a Shadow's fist and pummeled it's belly with her forelegs, before windmilling to sweep another Shadow's feet out from under it. "Luna in the moon I feel stronger though."
"Well how was Ah supposed to know we'd be jumped by all these Shadow's?" Applebloom yelled back before skewering a bunch of weaker Shadow's on her pitchforks forks. "What about you Spoon? Anything to add?"
Silver Spoon's sword was a dervish as she parried the strikes of a sword wielding Shadow and upended it, skewering it's wrist and making it drop it's sword, kicking the Shadow away from the blade before cutting another three of the Shadow's weaker friends in twain. "Sorry. I'm a little busy here! Ask me again later!"
Scootaloo rolled her eyes as she blocked another Shadow's punch. "Glad one of us is ha-uh?"
A Persona card flitted across the battlefield before a white streak slammed into it,shattering in a cloud of dust.
Bolts of lightning struck out, knocking many of the Shadow's off their feet and killing the rest.
"Come on girls, we have an opening!" Sweetie called from the dust cloud. "What say you?"
"Ah've about had it with these things! Ah'm in!"
"Yeah! Been waiting for this moment!"
"I too grow tired of this, let's end it!"
"Time to go wild!" Sweetie smirked as the dust cleared from her face.
The four fillies picked a set of targets from the ten Shadow's and pummeled them until they vanished into the familiar black skull and crossbones.
Silver Spoon watched the others collect the spoils from their battle as she studied the sword the Shadow had left behind.
It was massive, easily one and a half times bigger than she was. "Yeah... I don't think I can use this."
"I could!" Diamond Tiara's voice sounded from the earpiece she was wearing.
"What? Really?"
"I'm stronger than you give me credit for Silver."
"Well... I guess I could try and haul it all the way back to you."
"Would you?"
"Yeah. I'll try."
"Cool! Thanks Silvia!"
"No problem Danielle."
With that Silver Spoon hefted the blade onto her back and followed after the three fillies in front of her. Hopefully they could find a place to stow it in the clubhouse...