//------------------------------//
// 10 - Silver Belles 
// Story: Six Two Six Two 
// by lunabrony 
//------------------------------//

	No sooner had Stitch dumped out the highly annoyed blue unicorn, than he began to get an intuitive suspicion that she was not particularly welcome here. He didn't really want to get in the way, and there seemed to be a lot of tension in the room. As the small group began arguing, he quickly made his way out of the room and rolled into a ball. There, it was only a simple matter of rolling towards the Boutique, where he had last seen Rarity and-
Voom!
A pink blur bounced past him with such speed that he barely saw her.
"Hi, Stitch! Bye, Stitch!" Pinkie said, making her way towards Fluttershy's Cottage. Odd, he could have sworn the ponies had agreed not to leave each other alone. All the more reason to hurry up and check on the pointy headed prissy one.
Quickly arriving at the Boutique, Stitch peered in through the window, ears perked as voices came from within.
"...Can't stand her sometimes, who does she think she is?" Rarity was saying.
"She's your friend, and sometimes friends don't get along. But you gotta love her anyway," a younger voice was saying. Must be the sister that Rarity had talked about.
Inside, with Stitch silently observing, the siblings were having a personal discussion.
"Yes, but she's so... aloof." Rarity said. "Drives me absolutely up the wall. And no matter how chic that wall is decorated, it's still a wall."
Sweetie Belle sighed. A low growl echoed through the room.
"Darling, if you're going to make such noises, please have the courtesy to excuse yourself," Rarity said.
"But it wasn't me!" Sweetie Belle insisted.
"Well it most certainly wasn't me, the very idea! Then what in Celestia's name was that?"
Their confusion was short lived, as a hulking creature burst through the back wall of the Boutique, flashing thick, sharp teeth.
"That is mahogany!" Rarity exclaimed, and instantly began to scold the intruder. "I can only assume that you are the creature attacking my friends, and we absolutely must have a discussion about that. But have you no decency whatsoever?! Look at you! You're tracking debris all over my floor! You are going to fix that wall right now, and you can start by clearing up the-"
The intruder interrupted her by spreading its enormous wings. Its eyes glowed with an ominous shine.
Rarity immediately lowered her head. "Sweetie Belle! Go at once, and whatever you do, don't look at it!"
"How am I supposed to not look at, it's so big!"
"Pretend it's wearing plaid! Or corduroy!" Rarity shuddered at the thought. 
The antagonist crashed deeper into the Boutique, knocking over a table with its tail. Rarity kept her eyes to the ground, firing off spells with her horn, none of which seemed to do any good.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" The creature asked.
"As a matter of fact, I'm quite annoyed, thank you for asking." Rarity said. "You've hurt my friends and you're tracking mud all through my shop! Who do you think is going to pay for that?!"
"Your insurance should cover it," he pointed out.
"Yes, most of it, but I'm not sure it covers attacks by... whatever you are," she said.
"Well that's an issue you need to take up with your financial... wait, why am I talking about this with you?" The creature growled. "I need one of you, and I'm not leaving until I get it."
"Need us? For what?!" Rarity sounded horrified.
"That's my business," he said, and grinned, flashing his petrifying eyes again, though this time accompanied with a flick of his tail which smashed one of Rarity's many mirrors. Rarity didn't think much of this, but Sweetie Belle saw what Rarity didn't. The shards of glass would fall, and though Rarity was looking away...
"Reflections..." The filly whispered.
Sweetie Belle was terrified. She was scared, and angry, and would do anything to protect her sister. She felt a sense of urgency, and... something else. She wasn't entirely sure just what. Her horn glowed, and the ground fell away from beneath her hooves. In that split second, she vanished from the doorway and appeared between Rarity and the monstrosity, just as the shards of glass fell. Everything had happened in a matter of seconds.
The filly caught only a glimpse of glowing eyes before her last conscious thought faded.
Not Rarity.
Rarity was awestruck, and stared at her younger sister for several moments. "Did... she... just..." But then reality set in, and the mare turned the full force of her anger on the attacker. "You brute!" She screamed. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"
A passing stallion in a fez paused outside the broken opening in the Boutique, and glanced up, muttering only:
"Run."
Rarity charged the creature with a very unlady like war cry, and the large being quickly folded its wings, making a terrified bolt for the surrounding forest, with Rarity chasing after it.
With the two gone, and the dust settling, Stitch slowly entered the ruined Boutique. He carefully moved Sweetie Belle's frozen frame over near the window where she'd be safe, and raced off after the two figures who'd disappeared into the forest. Not long after all this had taken place, Pinkie would arrive with the others at the Boutique, and they would discover the remains of what had taken place, and soon after that depart for Twilight's Library, where a few final answers awaited them.

After that, they would need all their wits and all their strength to take down this thing that was picking them off. They didn't just seem like random attacks anymore, this enemy knew what it was doing. One last battle was coming, and it was coming soon.