//------------------------------// // Rescue // Story: Breaking Cute // by GoldenState3 //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle was wondering if Apple Bloom was ever going to decide if it was the right time for them to be rescued. Ponies had been going by their hiding place all night now, and Apple Bloom still kept shaking her head as everypony went by. Rarity and Applejack had to be at their wits end by now, and it hurt to stay in hiding this long. Scootaloo had fallen asleep, and the little Pegasus's unconscious wing movements were starting to dig into the Unicorn filly's sides. Apple Bloom also looked to be on the verge of falling asleep, the way she was yawning. Maybe she should get some sleep herself. There was a thud high above, and followed by more thuds, and second later, a face broke through the tree. Sweetie Belle hoped that if she wasn't dreaming, whatever monster was about to eat them would get it over with and do it fast. She realized that she was dealing with a pony of some type. "Hey! You're those Fillies that they're looking for!" The face said. Sweetie Belle finally recognized the face. It was Derpy Hooves. She was a Pegasus from Ponyville. She shook Apple Bloom and Scootaloo awake. By this time, Derpy had managed to extract herself from the tree, and a much more familiar face was looking at them from the Derpy's hole. "How you doin' in there?" said a certain blue Pegasus. "Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo said. Sweetie watched the young Pegasus jump hover towards her idol. Scootaloo fell a few feet short, and when Dash didn't attempt to pull her out, she was forced to lower herself back to the other crusaders. "We were scared. We decided to hide in here. We might have fallen asleep." Apple Bloom told Dash. "No problem Kiddos! We'll have you back to Ponyville in a jiffy!" Rainbow said. "Or I'm not the coolest Pegasus in Ponyville." It took much more then a jiffy for the five ponies to make it back to Twilight's library. It was slow going through the dark forest, and with two of the foals half asleep, this made the journey take all that much longer. The moon was high overhead by the time that they made it back to the library. Dash opened the door for them, before streaking back off to the forest. Inside, Sweetie Belle could see Applejack in tears, with Rarity trying to comfort her. Twilight was sitting at her desk, and she looked something was eating her up. Pinkie was curled up asleep in one of the far corners of the library. She stepped into the room. Instantly, Rarity descended on her. "Where were you? We were worried sick about you!" Rarity said through her tears. Sweetie hugged Rarity back. She could Applejack hugging Apple Bloom as well. Scootaloo stood off to the side, she didn't have anyone to comfort her, and Sweetie could tell that she was starting to feel like a fifth wheel. Applejack told Derpy to bring Scootaloo home, and the ditzy Pegasus complied. Sweetie hoped that Scootaloo would turn out all right. Derpy had a way of screwing up simple tasks, like escorting a little filly home. "Girls, Babs is dead." Applejack said to the two remaining Fillies. "There wasn't anything anypony could do. Twilight thinks she was poisoned. I think this was all just a freak accident." "This isn't something we should be talking about in front of the kids." Rarity said. "I for one do not want Sweetie Belle's foalhood to be ruined by such talk of... evil things." "Who'd want to hurt Babs?" Apple Bloom asked. "Nopony sugar cube. Let's get you off to bed." Applejack said. Sweetie Belle's heart was in her throat. If Twilight was onto them, it was only a matter of time till they became lawn ornaments. Sweetie Belle had no intention of becoming some decoration in Celestia's garden, a lesson to future school ponies about the desperate lengths that some silly foals would go to earn their Cutie Mark. She remembered how Cherilee had talked about Discord. She didn't want to be remembered like that. Rarity didn't say anything as she walked Sweetie Belle through the streets of Ponyville. They were heading for the Carousel Boutique, and not their parent's house. This made her happy. Any time she spent with Rarity was good time, even if she felt like crying inside. Rarity put some blankets on her sofa for her sister to sleep on, and she was soon fast asleep. The light of dawn was slowly streaming through Twilight's windows. The young Unicorn sat up in bed, and studied the world around her. Spike was asleep in his bed, no doubt having one of his mysterious ice cream dreams that he never wanted to talk about. She hadn't been so lucky. She been tossing and turning all night, alternating between fitful sleep, and wakefulness. She'd never bothered to blow out her lantern, but it had burnt itself out sometime overnight. She stretched, and got to her feet. A pony was moving about downstairs. She walked through her bedroom door, and into the library proper. She had been about to tell the pony downstairs that the library was closed, when she realized that it was Celestia. "Did my sister talk to you last night?" Celestia asked. "Yeah, she did. That's what's kept me up all night." Twilight said. "There's no way some pony did something like that to the poor foal. It was too terrible." "My sister's imagination has a way of getting ahead of her. It's part of how she became Nightmare Moon. She's a good girl, she just jumps off along tangents sometimes." Celestia said. "Don't worry about it. Zecora's already determined that there was no poison involved. The poor girl just ate some Castor Beans. I really shouldn't let my ponies grow them, but I understand they provide a valuable oil for wheels and things like that. I guess I'll have to look at that again. Farewell, my faithful student." The Sun Goddess disappeared in a flash of magic that instantly made Twilight Sparkle jealous. She wished that she had the power to teleport halfway across Equestria on a whim like that. In the newly vacated tree house of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, an emergency meeting was taking place. Twilight was on to them, and if they didn't play their cards right, they were going to be in serious trouble. "We can't do this anymore. We didn't mean to do it. It was all a big mistake. We have to make Twilight understand. Applejack ain't gonna let Twilight hurt us. We'll be safe." Apple Bloom said. "She's right." Scootaloo said. "We never should done this to begin with. Why we let this happen? We could have just lied low for another few weeks." "Ain't no use cryin' over spilled milk now. We're in this now, and we gotta get outta it." Apple Bloom said. "You remember Discord right? I don't want to become like that." Sweetie Belle said. "I don't want to be a statue used as a lesson for all the little school fillies." Her outburst surprised the other two ponies. They hadn't been expecting the young Unicorn to react like this, but she spent the night dreaming of the horrors of spending the rest of eternity as a stone statue. It hadn't been pleasant. She would do anything to avoid that fate, even if it meant doing what the monkeys from the movie had been doing. Sweetie Belle had worked out how to watch more of the Monkeys, and they seemed to be preoccupied with hiding their crimes. She'd guessed that was how things worked when you did bad things. You had to spend a lot of time hiding them. "What if we dispose of Babs' body? Make it so they don't have any evidence of what kind of poison was used to... you know... kill... her." Sweetie Belle said. "That's what the monkeys would have done." "That's what got us here in the first place, listening to those Monkeys. I'm going to Rainbow Dash, and I'm telling her exactly what happened. She'll help us out. She's a good pony." Scootaloo said. "But we can't!" Sweetie Belle said. "Please, can't we just try this. I don't want to be a statue." Sweetie Belle was hoping that Apple Bloom was going to tell her no, but that didn't work. Apple Bloom looked like she was starting to warm up to Sweetie Belle's idea. That was bad. While she didn't want to become a statue, she also didn't want to do something terrible to what was left of Babs. They'd already hurt her bad enough. It had been one thing to think about getting rid of the body last night in bed. Now, in daylight when they were actually working out plans, it was another thing completely. Now she was having second thoughts. But, it was too late. Apple Bloom had started to warm up to the idea of disposing of the corpse. Now Sweetie Belle wished that she'd never opened her mouth. But it was too late now.