My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

by Drizzle Quill


Chapter Sixteen: Investigation

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Sixteen
Investigation

Rarity hummed as she worked with her intricate fabric, weaving it in and out, through and around, in ways many ponies (namely Applejack or Rainbow Dash) would find strange and confusing; however, it all made sense to the unicorn. It was her hobby, her talent, and she would continue to work with it until the end.

For the first time in a few hours, the boutique was quiet. One white ear flicked slightly; too quiet. Where was the ruckus previously caused by Opal and their new canine companion, Zoe?

“Opalescence?” she called loudly, waiting for the response and frowning when there was none. “Zoe?”

No answer.

Rarity blinked and slowly set her fabric down, trotting into the kitchen where she had seen the two pets last. “Where are you two? Opal? Zoe? Are you in here?”

“Mraow.”

The unicorn jumped as her fluffy cat wrapped herself around her legs and looked up, eyes unexpressive, as usual. “Mraow,” she mewed again, as if trying to tell her owner something. “Mraow.”

“I’m afraid I don’t speak Cat, Opal, dearest,” Rarity mused, attempting to pry her feline companion off of her leg; it was a simple task, as Opal leapt away and hissed, swiping at her owner’s mane and grumbling as she stalked off into a corner. “But I have to find where Zoe has gone.”

There was no sign of Zoe in the kitchen except a huge mess; Rarity shrieked with horror and immediately levitated her mop towards her, missing dog forgotten.

Opal rolled her eyes, let out another “Mraow,” and began to groom herself, waiting.

After about ten minutes of frantic scrubbing, washing, drying, cleansing, and anything of the sort, Rarity came to a halt and inspected her work, eyes alight with pleasure. “There! Opal, sweetie-pie, how does it look?”

To Opal, the kitchen looked the same as ever – a clammy mess for cat eyes – but she said nothing, though Rarity would have been unable to understand her anyways. Instead she trotted over to the door and let out a long wail. Why her owner would be looking for that despicable dog she had no idea, but she might as well help her out.

“Huh?” Rarity turned, violet mane flipping. As she spotted Opalescence sitting by the door, yawning and waiting, she gasped. “Oh, Zoe! She must have gone out in the world!”

The unicorn whipped past her cat, causing Opal to spin in place and land in a frazzled frenzy, fur blown and spiked all over, eyes wide and bow displaced. “I have to go find her!”

Opal sighed, let out another “Mraow,” and closed the door.

xxx

“Zoe! Oh Zo~oe!”

The ponies of Ponyville had seen Rarity the unicorn doing many strange things before. They’d seen her hunting gems, they’d seen her kidnapped by a giant rampaging dragon (and soon defeat that same dragon after), and they’d even seen her with wings!

But they had never seen her digging throughout the entire town looking for a puppy. For all they knew, she didn’t even have a puppy! But here she was, levitating every bush, peeking around every corner, calling for a dog.

“What if I run into Blythe…how could I tell her I lost her pet so quickly? No, no, that simply will not do…” Rarity gritted her teeth. “Zoe!”

“Why, hello, Rarity,” came a quiet voice from behind the frantic unicorn, causing her to jump in the air.

“Fluttershy, darling!” she squeaked, saying the name before she confirmed it was indeed the shy pegasus who was one of her best friends – she would know that voice anywhere. “That was…indeed, frightening!”

“Oh, I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Fluttershy replied, alighting on the ground from her hovering spot in the sky. From on her back poked out a curious blue head which Rarity recognized as belonging to Sunil the mongoose.

“No, it’s alright, I promise.” Rarity laughed shakily and looked at Sunil, who was still quivering, presumably from the flight. “Hello, there! How did you enjoy Cloudsdale?”

Sunil blinked, as if he hadn’t expected to be addressed. “…Interesting?” he choked out weakly, hopping to the ground.

“We watched Rainbow Dash and Pepper in a contest to see who could drink the most rainbows for the longest amount of time,” the pegasus intervened. “Rainbow Dash won.” She smiled and let out a weak, “Yay!”

Rarity blinked and smiled. At least Fluttershy is having better luck with her animals than I am…

“Have you seen Zoe recently?” she asked mindlessly, lost in thought.

Fluttershy cocked her head to one side. “I thought you were supposed to be watching her, Rarity. Shouldn’t you know where she is?” Sunil also looked at Rarity curiously, wondering, watching, and waiting.

“Ah-heh-heh…about that…see…I think I kind of…” The last two words were hardly audible, but Fluttershy, ears adjusted to whisper-speak, heard Rarity mutter very ungraciously, “…lost her.”

“You’ve lost Zoe?” Sunil squeaked, leaping up with spiked fur in panic and causing both Rarity and Fluttershy to leap up in shock. “Do you know how easy it is for her to get lost out here? She gets into a daze with her singing and cannot get out! Oh, this is bad. You’ll – we’ll be in trouble!” He placed his paws against his head and shook back and forth slightly.

A bead of sweat trickled down the back of Rarity’s white-furred head, something she rarely allowed to happen and usually tried to avoid. “Y-You really think Blythe will be cross with me?” she asked worriedly.

Fluttershy blinked and looked down at Sunil. “Well…”

“Perhaps not cross,” the mongoose replied. “Just a little upset, is all.”

Rarity sighed. “We still have to find Zoe – I can’t believe I have abused my new responsibility so quickly…I feel like I’m a failure.” She looked down in shame, feeling guilt course throughout her whole body.

“Nonsense, Rarity. We just need to go find her, is all,” Fluttershy replied, pushing her long pink mane out of her eyes and smiling at her friend.

Rarity straightened up, allowing a small smile to twinge at the corners of her mouth. “You’re right, darling. I shouldn’t be surprised – you always are – but, nonetheless, you are absolutely correct.” Grinning now, she looked first at the pegasus and then at the mongoose. “Soooo…who’s ready to go find that dog?”

xxx

“Zoe! Zoe, are you out around here?”

“Zoe, please come out. Rarity misses you very much.”

“Zoe? Please, I need you!”

It seemed as if they had searched all over Ponyville for the violet-furred spaniel, but she was nowhere to be seen, and Rarity was reaching the end of her patience. She wanted Zoe to show up and she needed her now.

Perhaps there are too many of us in one place? We should split up, she thought desperately, trying any method her mind could create, even if they seemed destined to fail. However, she voiced the idea in a desperate hope that they would agree, and to her pleasure, they did, Sunil clinging to Fluttershy’s mane as they flapped off towards the center of Ponyville, leaving Rarity to sweep the edges of the Everfree Forest, dark, dingy, and damp.

She hadn’t really wanted to patrol the Everfree, the unicorn realized as she felt her hoof squelch into something sticky and wet, sending shudders throughout her body. However, she knew that Fluttershy was easily scared, and she couldn’t bear to force the poor pegasus to face her fears just for one dog who was surely lingering somewhere.

Rarity travelled along for about three or four minutes more, whisper-calling Zoe’s name in a soft voice, as if something might come out of the forest and harm her, when she heard it.

Soft voices. Soft voices from unfamiliar ponies.

Ears pricking in curiosity, Rarity crept closer and peered through the bushes, eyes straining to see the sources of the voices.

“…so I’ve got the stupid dog and gecko convinced they’re going to be superstars – HA! Everything is falling right into place. Everything.”

Stupid dog? Rarity leaned in closer, trying to both listen in and keep her hooves out of the mud at the same time, which was actually quite a difficult task.

The next voice laughed, but the laugh seemed forced, and it was undoubtedly male, unlike the first, honey-sweet, snake voice, which had been female. “You think they’ll tell their other friends and have them come to the meeting then, Zelda?”

Zelda, Rarity mused. She had never heard of a pony with a name quite like that before…and were they talking about Zoe? Was Zoe there?

“Of course! Did you see those fools? You could run ‘em into trees and they wouldn’t notice ‘till five minutes later!” There was a short pause, as if the speaker was rolling her eyes, and Rarity let out a low growl under her breath. “Then we’ll swipe ‘em all up, and our fate will be back in the bag. It’ll be the best circus ever…but for us, not for them!”

Rarity had heard enough. Lifting her white-furred head high, she pranced into the clearing, ready to confront these devilish ponies, when she saw the creatures who had been talking.

There were two, as indicated by the voices. But they weren’t ponies.

One was a certainly ugly mountain goat; his eyes were like beady black buttons and his horns were twisted and scraped. Rarity shuddered as she looked him over, the spiky fur, the slight buckteeth…this was not somepony she would become friends with through the fashion business, for sure.

But the second creature took Rarity’s breath away.

She was a zebra, much in the same as Zecora, but in some ways not the same. Her mane was not spiked in a garish Mohawk, but instead was lying in rippling waves around her face. Her aquamarine eyes shimmered, and her stripes were dark and bold on the bland grey of her fur.

Needless to say, Rarity was stunned.

Visions of dresses pranced into her head, presenting themselves on zebra mannequins, with extensive wardrobes all around. Hats and floral slippers, scarves and designs, all simply beautiful for this particular zebra…

…who was one of the baddies. Focus, Rarity, focus. You have to confront them.

“Ex-cuse me, but may I ask what you were so rudely saying about the pe—” Rarity cut off when she realized she had no audience. The zebra and the mountain goat had turned and fled into the bushes at the first sign of her speaking. Shocked, the unicorn yelped, “Hey! That was rude!” and took off after them.

The chase was long and hard – how far could such a fashionable zebra run, anyways? – and Rarity found herself slipping multiple times, dirt getting matted in her fur and leaves tangled in her mane, though for once she simply didn’t care; the thieves were getting away, and she, the Element of Generosity and caretaker of one of the animals they were speaking of, was not about to let them get away so easily.

There were some panicked shouts up ahead, and Rarity strained her ears to hear what was being said.

“Biskits! Come on, we’ve got to run! Get out of the hut and stop drinking my tea NOW!”

Two more flashes burst through the undergrowth; one burst out screaming as she tripped and fell, but the other quickly pulled her back up and they continued to sprint. Rarity’s eyes narrowed. So there are four of them at this game, huh? They think they’re so great!

She burst ahead in a flash of speed, feeling the wind projected from the lagging creature’s movements – but something was wrong. That wasn’t how an equine ran! It was upright on two legs – how could anypony run upright on two legs?

Rarity blinked in surprise and stopped in her tracks, staring as the creature looked back, saw her pursuer, screeched, and darted into the bushes again. The last thing Rarity saw was the shaking bushes and then all four were gone, too far away for her to catch up.

The unicorn stood up, eyes wide at her new discovery.

Whatever those two things were, they weren’t ponies. And they were working with the zebra and the mountain goat on their twisted plan.

Rarity inhaled a deep breath, heart pounding in her chest so rapidly she thought it would explode, leaving her lying in the forest, dead and dirty.

But there was no time for that…

…she had to find Twilight.