It was a bright and beautiful afternoon in Ponyville today. Most residents of the quaint town had a smile on their face, and today was just a perfect day.
Rarity thought it a wonderful day for a picnic, and so she did just that. She approached her young little sister. “Sweetie Belle, what would you say to going out and enjoying a picnic today?”
Rarity smiled as her sisters face lit up. “That sounds like a great idea Rarity! Can I help make the food?”
The elder unicorn put on the most convincing fake smile she ever wore. “Well I uh... How about you go and gather all of the things we’ll need while I take care of all the food preparation?” She hoped her sister would buy this excuse.
The little white filly nodded enthusiastically. “Yes ma’am! Right away ma’am!” She hurried off to begin her mission, leaving Rarity, who let out a relieved sigh. She remembered all too well what happened last time her little sister tried to cook. She moved into the kitchen to begin preparing the food.
Once everything was finished, and Sweetie Belle with the picnic basket, Rarity organized everything nice and neatly inside. The plates stacked together, the cloth folded on top, and the food perfectly organized, as was always her style. Using her magic, she levitated the basket and off they went into the beautiful day to have a sisterly picnic.
“Sweetie Belle, what do you think of this spot?” Rarity asked as she pointed to a nice partially shaded area. There were two trees spaced apart from one another, providing the comfortable amount of shade. Not too much, not too little.
“It’s perfect Rarity! Let’s set up here!” And so they did. Rarity laid out everything, cloth first, plates, and then the food. The two sisters then sat down to enjoy lunch on this gorgeous day.
After eating, and cleaning things up, the two sisters laid there together, enjoying the light breeze and chirping of nearby birds. Rarity hoped this perfect day would never end. “The weather today is simply divine. Don’t you think so Sweetie?” She looked over to her sister, and smiled.
“Oh yes, absolutely Rarity.” Sweetie Belle replied. the two drifted off into a comfortable silence, simply taking in the nice weather. Rarity was so glad to be able to spend time with her sister, especially on such a beautiful day like this one. She didn’t want anything to come and ruin this day for them. It was just too perfect. And then, suddenly, it was dark. Pitch black all around them. All they could see were the trees, and the cloth in which they were laying on. They could see no further in the distance. they both looked around in panicked confusion. “R-Rarity...? What’s going on?” Sweetie Belle asked, her voice shaking a little in fear.
“I...I don’t know. Come, get close to me.” She motioned for her sister, who got up to walk over. Suddenly, a long large arm, with claws, reached out and grabbed Sweetie Belle.
She let out a sharp scream. “Rarity! Help me!” The arm began to drag her away, into the darkness.
“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity yelled, immediately pulling with her magic, frantically trying to pry her sister from the arm’s grip. But the arm was much too strong, and with a final fright filled scream, Sweetie Belle was dragged away.
Rarity was left all alone on the picnic cloth. she looked around one more time. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. Her sister, gone. Lost in this endless darkness, and Rarity couldn’t do anything to save her. She laid down once more, and cried into her hooves.
Rarity snapped awake. It had only been a dream. No, not a dream. A nightmare. She had been sweating, and she was panting softly. “Just a dream...” She whispered to herself. But that still didn’t stop the tears forming in her eyes.
~~~
Twilight was rudely awoken by Spike that morning. He was shaking her and yelling for her to wake up. The little purple dragon was a persistent one, that’s for sure. She finally managed to sit up, and she rubbed her eyes with her hooves. “Goodness Spike...What are you yelling about?”
“Nurse Redheart just came by!” Spike said.
“Yeah? So...?”
“She told me that Pinkie Pie arrived at the hospital today! She got a nasty wound on her flank.”
Twilight’s eyes widened a little. “What? What happened? Did she say?” When Spike shook his head, the purple unicorn immediately got out of bed. she quickly brushed her bed head mane, and lifted the baby dragon onto her back with her magic. “We need to hurry and get to Ponyville Hospital.” And with that, the duo quickly headed downstairs and out the door of the library.
On their way to the hospital, they passed Sugarcube Corner. Twilight walked up to the door and peaked in. Mr. Cake was manning the counter this morning. He was slender stallion with a yellow coat, a sharp jaw and and orange mane and tail.
“Why hello there Twilight.” Mr. Cake said. “What brings you here today?”
“Well, Nurse Redheart came by this morning and told me that Pinkie PIe arrived at the hospital this morning. Do you know what happened to her?”
“She told myself and Mrs. Cake that something attacked her last night when she was on her way back here.” Twilight’s eyes widened at this, what in Equestria was going on? She had to get to the bottom of this. “If you want the full story, you should go see her at the hospital. I feel like this incident may be related to Sweetie Belle’s disappearance as well.”
The unicorn nodded. “Yes, I agree. I was just on my way to the hospital to get the whole story from her. I better hurry over there, take care Mr. Cake” She waved a hoof, and Mr. Cake returned the gesture. She continued on at a quick trot to get to the hospital.
~~~
Mrs. Cake waited in the waiting room, trying to be as patient as possible while the doctors examined Pinkie’s wound. They had left for the hospital as soon as the morning sun was brought up by Celestia. She didn’t think her wound was too bad, but you couldn’t be too careful. The baker mare was still rather disturbed by Pinkie’s story from last night. What in Equestria could have done such a thing to her? Especially in such a peaceful place like Ponyville? Then again, recent events have proved that the quaint town wasn’t as safe as everypony thought it to be. Mrs. Cake shuddered, she couldn’t help but feel responsible, at least in some part, with Sweetie Belle’s disappearance. She knew Pinkie and Carrot also felt guilt for it as well. Particularly Pinkie Pie. No doubt she is doing her very best to help Rarity find her missing sister. Pinkie may not be the most normal mare in the world, not by a long shot in fact, but Mrs. Cake couldn’t help but feel proud of her. Her positive attitude never failed to bring a smile to anypony who may be having an uphill day.
Her train of thought was broken as the doctor entered the waiting room. “Excuse me, Mrs. Cake?” He approached the blue pony, holding up a clipboard with his magic. He had a sort of a brown curly mane, with a lighter brown coat, covered slightly by the typical lab coat worn by doctors. His cutie mark was of a stethoscope. He had a very defined jaw, and was a little taller than Mrs. Cake.
“I am Doctor Baker, and I’m here to tell you the extent of Miss Pinkamina’s injury.”
Mrs. Cake perked up a little at this. “Yes? How is it?” She asked eagerly.
“Well, the wound itself isn’t too deep, and the bleeding had stopped before she arrived this morning. The way I see it, the wound will heal perfectly fine. She can be released in about an hour or so.”
Mrs. Cake let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you very much doctor, I’m glad to know she’ll be okay.”
Not a problem Mrs. Cake. However, she did mention needing to see her friend Twilight, I believe her name was. She claimed to have something very important that she needed to tell Miss Sparkle as soon as possible.”
“I assume she wants to discuss what happened last night, and-” She stopped mid sentence, receiving a confused look from the doctor.
It had only just now occurred to her. What happened to Pinkie Pie, was it somehow related to Sweetie Belle’s disappearance? She needed to know, she intended to sit in on Pinkie’s conversation with Twilight to learn more about the situation.
As if on cue, the doors to the hospital opened in an aura of purple magic, and in trotted a particular lavender unicorn. Her trusted assistant Spike on her back.
Twilight quickly approached the receptionist counter. “Hello, miss? I would like to see the patient Pinkamina Pie please”
The receptionist behind the counter glanced over a list of patient names, and nodded. “Room 27. Through those doors, second left turn, and third door on your right.”
“Thank you very much.” Twilight turned around to head through the doors when she noticed Mrs. Cake sitting in a chair, a doctor in front of her.
“Mrs. Cake! You were the one who brought Pinkie here?”
The blue mare nodded. “Got her here as quick as I could. Doctor Baker? Is it alright if we go in and see Pinkie Pie?”
The doctor nodded. “Of course, she is fine for visitors. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go and take care of some other patients. However before I go, you simply must try one of these. They’re called, “Jelly Fillies”. He levitated a said “Jelly Filly” to both Twilight and Mrs. Cake. then he turned and headed back through the double doors he came from.
After eating their “Jelly Fillies”, which were quite delicious by the way, the two mares headed through the same double doors, and proceeded to the second hallway on the left. Approaching the third door on the right, as instructed by the receptionist, Mrs. Cake knocked on the door softly.
“Doors open!” They heard Pinkies muffled but enthusiastic voice from the other side of the door. Opening the door, they both smiled when they saw the pink pony smile and give a wave with her hoof. “Hey guys! I’m okay!”
Both Twilight and Mrs. Caked giggled as they approached the bed. We’re glad to know you’re okay” Twilight said.
Pinkie then turned to face Twilight, an uncharacteristic serious look on her face. “Twilight, you will not believe what happened to me last night. I think we may have come across another clue to finding Sweetie Belle.”
The two mares got even closer to the bed occupied by Pinkie Pie. Both were eager to listen, to get more puzzle pieces into place.
“Last night, when I was on my way home, and let me tell you it was not a good idea to go home alone. Not one bit. Anyway, about halfway home I started to hear rustling in nearby bushes, and it felt like I was being followed. I tried not to think about it at first, but eventually it was too much to ignore. So I started to move faster, and I was getting scared. Really scared. I know Granny Pie always told me not to be afraid, but this was different. This was something that definitely wasn’t safe. So anyways, I started hearing somepony walking behind me, trying to keep up with me. So I started to panic more, and began to run. I kept telling myself that I had to get home!” Right as I felt like I was losing whoever was chasing me, something huge was standing in the middle of the road, only a few yards away! I decided to try and run around it, and escape its grasp. At first I thought it worked, but boy was I wrong. Some kind of hand, a hand Twilight, grabbed onto my flank. And get this, the hand had claws, and it dug into my flank and gave me the wound I have now. So in a split second thought, I brought up my hind legs and bucked it as hard as I could in the face. Then I galloped as fast as I could, finally getting inside Sugarcube Corner and throwing the door shut. I locked it too. Then Mrs. Cake found me laying on the floor, and now here we are.”
Twilight was silent for a few moments, taking in everything Pinkie had just told her. Finally, she spoke up. “This is uncanny. First the strangely shaped footprints, then the hole in Rarity’s boutique, and now this. Hands and claws? Pinkie, how big was this... This thing?”
Pinkie lifted a hoof to her chin. “It was at least twice the size of me when I’m on all four hooves. maybe just a bit taller than that. It looked like it might have had hind legs too, but I’m not totally sure since it was so dark outside last night.”
“Hind legs, huh? And I also assume that it was standing on only two legs, considering how tall it looked. These are interesting clues indeed, not to mention disturbing. From now on none of us should be alone at night. We should always stick together. I have a feeling whatever that was won’t stop with just trying to get you. It’s going to go after all of us. Which also means they’ve caught on to what we’re trying to do, and we need to figure this out really soon before they do something drastic. I think from now on, we should stay together in the same place to minimize this unknown enemy’s chances of getting to one of us.”
Pinkie Pie nodded in agreement. It was safer for them to all stick together in this situation. “Good idea Twilight, we should definitely go and get Rarity and Fluttershy after I get released from the hospital. We need to tell them what we’ve found out.”
“Once we’re done with that, we’ll set the next step in motion.” Twilight said.
“And what exactly is your next course of action?” Mrs. Cake chimed in.
The unicorn looked at Mrs. Cake, and then to Pinkie Pie. “I think we should go see Zecora.”