//------------------------------// // 29. Sweetie Belle's Short Fuse :: T/Da/G // Story: Kaidan's Short Stories: Vol. 1 - Teen // by Kaidan //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle makes a mistake when Opal refuses to let her study. {Teen} {Gore} {Dark} {Tragedy} Meow. Sweetie moaned and hunched over her schoolwork. “Just go away Opal, I’m busy.” Meow. She stole a glance to her right, not wanting to encourage the cat. Opalescence was sitting on the carpet looking at her. Sweetie turned her attention back to the math problem and solved for X. Meow. Sweetie turned to face the cat, who was now sitting on the edge of her desk. “Go away, Opal, I’m very busy.” Meow. Opal walked on top of the math homework and trotted in a small circle, then laid down. “No, Opal, I need to do my homework!” Sweetie pushed her off the paper, but let her stay on the desk. The cat watched her write the answer down and began to bat the pencil with her paws. Meow. “Ugh, my pencil is not a toy!” Hiss. Opal batted a claw out and scratched Sweetie’s foreleg. “Opal!” Sweetie pushed the cat backward, causing her to fall off the desk. She landed on her paws and walked under the chair. Meow. Opal rubbed her side against Sweetie’s hooves. She concentrated and used the little levitation magic she could do to apply a bandage to her scratched leg. The homework was due tomorrow and Sweetie needed to get an A on it to maintain her grade point average. There was a thud on the top of the chair. Meow. Sweetie didn’t look, but knew from the weight that Opal was now balancing on the back of the chair. With a grunt, she nudged the chair backwards, causing the cat to jump off to safety. Meow. Opal jumped up onto the desk and started laughing, before batting the pencil off the desk with her claws extended. “Dammit!” Sweetie was so angry she jumped out of the chair and pinned Opal to the table top with her hooves. She pushed down on the cat’s throat. M-M—Me— Opal couldn’t breathe, but Sweetie began smiling in her victory. “Can’t meow now!” she mocked. The cat started lashing out with its claws, scoring deep cuts in Sweetie’s forelegs. This only made her push harder in her anger. Opal’s eyes began to bulge out from the pressure, and her flailing ceased. Sweetie’s breathing began to slow down and she looked into the glassy eyes of Opalescence. Her smile slowly faded as she realized what she had done, and she released her hooves. “O-Opal?” She poked the cat’s side a couple times. “Oh no!” “Sweetie, dear, have you seen Opal?” Rarity shouted from downstairs. “No, sis!” she yelled back. Sweetie scooped Opal up and tossed her into the laundry basket against the wall, covering her with a bath towel. Rarity walked into the room and saw Sweetie wrapping a foreleg up in a bandage. “Sweetie, you’re hurt!” “I fell at school!” she blurted. “No, I’m fine!” Rarity trotted over anyway and looked at her arms, which had turned pink from the blood slowly staining the fur. “Oh, we can go see a nurse.” “I’m not a baby!” Sweetie pouted. “I didn’t say you were, darling.” Rarity paused for a second. “Sweetie, you’re trembling. Is everything okay?” “I, uh. . .” Sweetie tried to think of something believable, and had the perfect idea. “Diamond was bullying me at s-school.” “Again? I’ll go talk to her parents—” “No! I mean, I want to just let it go. She will stop if I ignore her.” Rarity sighed. “I’m not sure that’s the best course of action but if you’re sure, I’ll agree to that. Now, I must find Opal so that Fluttershy can groom her. I’ll see you for dinner.” Rarity trotted out of the room and Sweetie counted to ten before walking over to the laundry hamper. She pulled back the dirty clothes and saw Opal laying on her side, mouth open, and eyes frozen in an accusing stare. You killed me, Sweetie. You’re a monster. “I’m so sorry, Opal,” Sweetie said. She wiped a tear from her cheek, and bundled her back up in the towel. With the dead cat wrapped up she carried it downstairs into their back yard. Sweetie found a small shovel and picked it up in her mouth, then snuck out of town. Ponies were used to seeing her and the crusaders doing odd things, and the few that did spot her paid it no mind. Once Sweetie got near the Everfree, she had to find a place to hide the body. There was an ancient burial ground not too far inside the Everfree that ponies avoided. Sweetie went in and found an empty spot between two gravestones. The names appeared to be written in Zebra, which was odd as most zebras lived far to the south. She hastily dug a hole and buried Opal, patting the dirt down with the shovel and tossing the towel into a nearby bush. Taking the shovel in her mouth, Sweetie ran back home without looking back. Sweetie had killed Opal three days ago and having nightmares. Tonight she lay in bed staring out the window. Some nights she swore she could hear Opal meowing. Meow. She sniffled and started to sob. Rarity was worried sick and nopony but Sweetie knew what really happened to her cat. Meow. Now the guilt haunted her, first her dreams, and now as if the cat were still alive. Sweetie had to tell somepony but didn’t know who would understand. Meow. “Quiet, Opal,” Sweetie said. She sobbed and wiped some of the tears from her face. Meow. Sweetie felt something like whiskers brush against her ear and froze. Slowly she turned her head and rolled over to see what had disturbed her slumber. Meow. Opalescence sat there covered in dirt and leaves, skin grey and nearly falling off. Large patches of her fur were missing and her jaw and a leg were decomposed to the bone. Sweetie began to stutter, her mouth open wide, in fear. The words caught in her throat, the one simple name of her greatest sin. Opalescence had her tongue, robbing her of the voice to cry for help. Opal tilted her head. Meow. She was trembling now. Opal took another step forward and stuck his head and a leg into Sweetie’s mouth. She immediately tried to bit her, and spit her out. Opal extended her claws, and began to tear her way inside her mouth. Coughing loudly, she flailed on the bed, and Opal dug her hind claws into her chest for leverage. She couldn’t breathe with the cat in her mouth, and Opal had hooked a claw down into her throat. Sweetie continued to flail as Opal crawled down her throat, and she was powerless to stop her. The feeling of her throat expanding caused her to gag loudly. It then tore open and was the last thing she felt. Her heart had ceased beating and the last thing she saw before darkness took her was Opal’s tail vanishing into her mouth. Knock! Knock! Knock! “Sweetie, breakfast is in fifteen minutes, wake up.” Rarity trotted downstairs to finish getting breakfast ready while Sweetie awoke. In the bed, Sweetie lay dead from last night, her mouth still frozen wide open in terror. Her belly was distended, and began to move. The bulge began to move towards her chest, causing her forelegs to twitch. Opalescence had eaten her full and stuck a paw out of Sweetie’s mouth. She then stuck out another paw, and pulled her head out to freedom. The dead pony finally yielded as her jaw popped, allowing Opal to slide out much easier. She jumped down onto the floor and sat down to wait. She began grooming her fur, licking the blood off it until her coat was a pristine white sheen. Her appearance slowly returned to that of a normal, healthy cat. “Sweetie?” Rarity knocked again louder. “I said fifteen minutes, why are you still asleep?” She opened the door and screamed. Rarity ran across the room, scooping Sweetie up in her arms. “Sweetie! What happened?” She burst into tears, barely able to breathe through the sorrow. Her little sister had died in the middle of the night, forever stolen from her. Meow. Rarity felt her cat Opal rub against her hind legs. The same cat she had feared lost. Rarity gripped Opal tightly in a hug alongside Sweetie’s corpse and wept.