Sweetie Belle groaned and felt soreness in her limbs as she stirred herself awake on the hard stone floor. She blinked and looked around the dark room. She could barely see, but quickly wished she could go back to not seeing. The room was three walls, a floor, and a ceiling all made of stone … and metal bars comprising the fourth wall.
“H-Hello?” she called out timidly. Her voice cracked and screeched a bit like she had a sore throat. “Is anypony there?” In response she thought she could hear whispers, just on the edge of her hearing.
Still too young.
Drained too much of her love.
She doesn’t know how.
“Hello? Who’s there?”
Already connected to the mind.
Should silence her voice.
Could be useful.
Just a drone.
Will wait and listen.
Will wait and listen
.
Straining to hear the voices was starting to make Sweetie Belle’s head hurt. So she slumped back to the ground to hold her head in her hooves. That’s when she felt the device attached to her horn. Her eyes went wide at this. The device was a magic inhibitor, a silver-lined cone designed to block a unicorn’s ability to use magic. “I …. I didn’t get away,” she realized, tears fillingher eyes. “Now … now I’ve been foalnapped.”
The sound of a heavy lock being unlatched echoed through the cell block, followed by the squealing of abused, rusty hinges as the door was pushed in resounded off the walls. Sweetie stood as she saw a faint torchlight peer in, silhouetting two mare ponies as they entered. The first was an earth pony that looked to be brown, while the second was a charcoal unicorn. The torch they carried was kept behind them which prevented Sweetie from getting any real sense of their features.
As they stood in front of Sweetie Belle’s cage the earth pony leaned to her leading companion. “Boss?” she said, “When you said-”
“I know,” replied the unicorn.
“But she’s just a-”
“I know.”
“She’s not ev-”
“Probie!” The unicorn’s head whipped around to her companion. Though her voice became harsher, it didn’t raise in volume even slightly. “Do you really think anything about this has escaped my attention?”
The pair went silent again and looked back to the cell’s sole occupant. Sweetie’s head lowered and her ears drooped as she backed into the corner. It hadn’t sounded like they wanted to hurt her, but the silence was more than a little unnerving, given the circumstances. “Uh-umm …” she he hesitantly began “h-hello?”
The unicorn decided to take a more non-chalant approach and lay on the ground with her hooves folded in front of her. “Well,” she said, “It would seem we’ve all gotten ourselves in a fine mess now; haven’t we, Little One?”
Sweetie Belle sat in her back corner and nodded.
“My name is Special Agent Plain Sight,” she said, introducing herself, “and Captain Obvious here is my partner. Our job here is to sort out this whole mess and hopefully find a lost little girl and return her to her family. To do that, though, I’m going to need your help, okay?”
This statement confused Sweetie Belle. Who was lost? How was she supposed to help them find her? ‘Wait,’ she thought, ‘they must have foalnapped me because Scootaloo got away.’
Protect
Defend
She felt a glare darken her expression. “I won’t help you!” she declared. Unfortunately, to her most of the emphasis seemed to be lost in her scratchy throat.
Plain Sight tilted her head in curiosity. “Oh?” she asked, “and why is that?”
“Because you’re bad ponies, and I won’t let you hurt my friends.”
Curiosity morphed into confusion and Plain Sight looked back at her partner, who seemed even more lost than she was. “Umm, Little One. Do you know where you are right now?”
Now it was Sweetie Belle’s turn to be confused. “In … in your secret hideout?” she guessed.
The grey unicorn shook her head. “No. You’re in the jailhouse beneath Ponyville Town Hall.”
“WHAT?!” She immediately began looking around. As if something about the walls of her cell could confirm or deny the claim. At that moment a thought struck her as her eyes came to rest on the open door to the cell block. Surely the walls would have a soundproofing spell cast upon them, but that wouldn’t stop sound from carrying through open doors or windows. “MOMMY! DAD! RARITY! SOMEPONY HELP ME!” Sweetie Belle then let out a blood curdling scream at the top of her lungs. If she were really in Ponyville, there was a chance somepony would hear her.
After a few seconds a magical aura reached out and clamped Sweetie’s mouth shut. “That is quite enough of that, Little One,” said the unicorn. “My partner and I are from Canterlot Special Investigations. We’re here to try and find a pony who was foalnapped.”
Sweetie glared as her mouth was released and immediately threw out an accusation. “You’re a liar,” she declared. “You’re the foalnappers pretending to be guards to get my help.”
“Boss?” The earth pony said. “I don’t think she realiz-”
Plain Sight held up a hoof to silence her partner and thought for a moment narrowing her eyes at Sweetie Belle’s form. “Little One,” she began carefully, “I do know the name you’ve preferred to go by this past … however long you’ve been here.”
Sweetie Belle tried to wrap her head around the meaning of that statement, but after a few moments all she could come up with was a resounding, “Huh?”
“Either you’re extremely clever,” Plain Sight continued, “which means you know a great deal more than you’re letting on, and this whole act is … well … an act.” She walked out from view of Sweetie’s cell and she heard the creaking of bars. The unicorn’s voice rose a bit so as she could still be heard. “The other option is that you’re as ignorant of the situation as you appear to be.” She reappeared with what looked to be a square picture frame floating next to her. “Regardless of which it is, I’m afraid we have to alleviate the potential ignorance of the situation. If you truly don’t know, then I am sorry. Nopony wakes up hoping they’ll have to break somepony’s view of the world, least-of-all me.”
With that statement, Plain Sight levitated the small frame into the cell and set it face up on the floor, just inside the door. Sweetie Belle could see from where she stood that it was, in fact, a mirror. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her captors. She didn’t understand what they expected her to see, but she moved forward and peered down into the reflective surface to see her true self for the first time in her life.
This time Plain Sight didn’t prevent her from screaming.