Sweetie Pup

by GrimInk

Cutie Mark Crusaders Students!

When Sweetie Belle woke up the next morning, covered in dirt and stinking of mud, she wasn't really surprised that she had a major headache. She remembered everything that happened the previous night, from using her magic to manipulate a pickaxe to being bitten by the Diamond Dog, Sparky. But, she couldn't remember anything that had happened afterwards…

She didn't remember going to bed, yet she woke up at home nonetheless. Her pillow had been thrown across the room sometime during the night, and her covers were in a crumpled heap on the floor, but aside from that, nothing was really out of place.

And then she noticed the pile of jewels on the floor.

"How did those get there?" Sweetie Belle mumbled, shrugging as she shoved them into a box. "Rarity must have left them in my room when she came in to check on me last night… or something like that."

Without being fully aware of it, Sweetie Belle let out a long and hearty yawn, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as she did. As soon as she realized it, she immediately stopped, out of concern that Rarity might accuse her of being unlady-like.

Sighing, Sweetie Belle pushed the box out of her room, nudging it carefully down the stairs, and dropping it, almost violently, into Rarity's workshop. Her big sister, thankfully, was not home, for reasons Sweetie Belle had yet to know, but it didn't bother her all that much.

"I can take care of myself!" Sweetie Belle asserted, trying to convince herself more than anyone who might have been listening.

As Sweetie Belle made her way down into the kitchen of Carousel Boutique, the establishment in which she lived with Rarity, it finally occurred to her that she was still wearing the bandage around her forearm, where that stupid Diamond Dog named Sparky had bit her. Curiously, Sweetie Belle poked and prodded the wound with her nose, and was quite surprised to find that it didn't hurt at all.

That's quite peculiar, she thought, as she started to unravel the bandage.

As the bandage came loose, Sweetie Belle discovered that her forearm was completely undamaged. There was no evidence to suggest that Sparky had even bit her, yet she clearly remembered the pain, and she knew that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had seen it happen. It had to be real, right? It did happen, didn't it?

She didn't want to think about it. Questioning her own sanity made her head hurt.

Instead of fussing over the details, Sweetie Belle decided to completely ignore the thought, and headed straight for school. On an ordinary day, Sweetie Belle would head for Sweet Apple Acres, so she could walk to school with Apple Bloom, but for some reason or another, she found that she wasn't really in the mood for it. Breaking from her usual routines, Sweet Belle instead made a b-line for school, ignoring the greetings of most of the other ponies on her way.

"I don't feel too good today," Sweetie Belle grumbled, as she neared the all-too familiar school, "I don't know why, but I got a queasy feeling in my stomach."

Unlike a typical school day, where Sweetie Belle would be playing in the schoolyard with her friends until the bell rang, she instead headed straight into the classroom, sat at her desk, and planted her head on the desk. She really was feeling sick. She felt tired, like she hadn't slept at all the night before, and her limbs felt heavy. Yawning loudly, she risked shutting her eyes for just a second.

Sweetie Belle wanted more than anything to fall asleep, but she knew that was not going to happen. School just wasn't a good sleeping environment. Too much noise. Despite being indoors, Sweetie Belle could hear everything going on outside. She could hear Snips and Snails snorting and giggling as they stared at something trivial, and Featherweight giving the school paper staff a pep talk. Strange, she thought, how she could hear them all so clearly. Shrugging it off as a fluke, she instead tried to focus on the swirl of colours behind her eye lids.

When Cheerilee started to usher the students in, before the first bell rang, Sweetie Belle wasn't feeling any better. Her stomach growled menacingly as she realized that she had forgotten to grab breakfast, and she couldn't help but growl at herself in annoyance.

Cheerilee must have noticed Sweetie Belle's less-than-optimal mood, as she stopped greeting her students in order to check on her. "Are you feeling okay, Sweetie Belle?" She asked, leaning forward and whispering, so as to not alert the other students that Sweetie Belle might not be feeling well.

"I feel fine," Sweetie Belle squeaked. "Really I do! Totally fine! Nothing wrong here! I definitely wasn't up super late last night trying to get a mining cutie mark with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo! Nope, nothing out of the ordinary here!"
Cheerilee raised an eyebrow at Sweetie Belle's sudden outburst, but didn't make any comment. She figured that the filly would tell her if something was wrong were it a serious matter. After assuring Sweetie Belle that she was always available to talk, should she need it, Cheerilee returned to the front of the class, and then began waiting for the rest of the students to take their seats.

When Apple Bloom and Scootaloo entered the classroom, Sweetie Belle avoided their gaze and did not return their waves. She really didn't want to talk to them at that moment. She wasn't mad or anything, but an instinct way at the back of her head told her not to say anything.

Finally, once all the students had taken their seats, Cheerilee asked them all to quiet down. "I have a few announcements to make," she said, raising a hoof and taking on a very serious tone of voice. "The first is that, as many of you are probably aware, there were several break-ins last night. The Cakes have reported that their entire collection of baking gems were stolen."

Upon hearing this, Sweetie Belle's ears perked up. Stolen gems? Why did that sound familiar? This tone of voice was also very… strange, for Cheerilee. Cheer was in her name, yet here she was, sounding serious and somewhat scared. It was making the entire class nervous.

"Additionally, Twilight's dragon friend, Spike, has also reported that his secret stash of jewels went missing."
Now the entire class was whispering, as the students bickered and tried to speculate who would do such a thing. Sweetie Belle could have sworn she heard somebody say 'Rarity' a few times, but she also heard 'lying, no-good dragon' and 'Slendermane', so she really wasn't all that concerned. Foals gossip, it happens all the time, and even she was guilty of it ever now and then.

"Other ponies that have reported missing gems include Bon Bon, Pistachio Pudding, and Caramel," Cheerilee finished. "I don't want any of you to be alarmed, in fact I didn't even want to tell you, but the Mayor insists that everypony be informed so that the thief can be stopped as soon as possible."

Over her shoulder, Sweetie Belle could swear she heard Diamond Tiara making horrible comments about how "that greedy mule Rarity probably snuck into everponies house and robbed them blind!" It took every ounce of her willpower not to buck Tiara out of her chair.

"And now class," Cheerilee continued, taking on her normal cheery tone of voice, "on a much happier note, I am pleased to announce that we have a new student joining our class today! Everypony, I would like you to give a warm welcome to our new friend, Storm Spark!"

Everypony sat at their seats, completely silent, as they waited for the new classmate to appear and greet them. The silence was quite deafening, and Cheerilee let out a light chuckle as they waited for him to appear.
Which he didn't.

"That's strange," Cheerilee muttered, "I just saw him outside." Shrugging, she turned to the rest of her class. "Everypony just stay put, please. I'll be right back."

As everypony waited for Cheerilee to return, Sweetie Belle continued to listen to Diamond Tiara talking smack.
"Who else would steal jewels except for Rarity?" She commented, much louder than before, while fluffing her mane with her hoof. "I mean, everypony knows that she's completely obsessed with them! My daddy says that there's nopony else, not even that dragon, who would do such a thing!"

"Hey now," Apple Bloom said, jumping into the conversation before Sweetie Belle had a chance to do so herself, "that's no way to talk about Rarity! She may be a stuck-up froo-froo of a mare, but she is not a thief! You really shouldn't talk about other ponies like that!"

"Yeah!" Scootaloo added. "You don't even know Rarity!"

Sweetie Belle couldn't help but smile as her friends came to the defense of her sister and herself. She was happy to know that she could always rely on her friends to help her, no matter what. For a moment, she even considered telling them about the unusual jewels she had found in her room that morning. That, however, would need to wait until the end of class. She definitely wouldn't want to talk about that, especially after Cheerilee had announced that jewels had been stolen all over Ponyville.

When Cheerilee finally returned to the classroom, everypony was in something of an uproar. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were arguing with Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara about whether or not Rarity can be trusted, while the other students were hiding behind their desks. Sweetie Belle folded her ears against her head and was covering them with her hooves, doing her best to block out the noise. As soon as Cheerilee cleared her throat, everypony dropped what they were doing and returned to their seats.

"I'll talk to you four during recess," Cheerilee scolded. The four fillies who had, up until this moment been in the middle of a heated debate, all sank into their seats, and Sweetie Belle swore she could hear Diamond Tiara whimper. "Now that that's out of the way, I would like to introduce to you our newest friend, Storm Spark!"

Sweetie Belle's ears perked up when she saw the young Pegasus colt walk in. He wasn't very tall, maybe an inch taller than she was, and his coat was a shiny silver colour, with a lemon yellow mane and tail. His mane was cut short, and spiked forward, while his tail was cut slightly longer, and spiked backwards. This gave him a very sleek appearance, despite the fact that his left ear was chewed off slightly. Sweetie Belle couldn't help but be excited when she noticed that, like her, Storm Spark was a blank flank.

"Nice to meet everypony," Storm Spark said, staring out into the crowd. He did his best to smile at everypony, but it was clear that he was very nervous. When he met Sweetie Belle's gaze, their eyes locked, and they shared what Sweetie Belle considered to be an intimate moment.

Author's Note:

It's probably worth mentioning that, while I do care about quality and spelling and stuff, I'm really just writing for the sake of writing. I'm not paying heavy attention to chapter length or description/dialogue ratio. I'm really just trying to focus on the plot. Besides, if you're on this site, odds are VERY good that you've already seen the show, and therefore do not actually need an excess of descriptions.

Comments

[ManWithThePan]

Dammit! Something to do with species swapping! Something new! Must favorite. Beep. Boop. I am now randomly a robot...

[GrimInk]

2648226
;D it's a bit more complicated than just "species swapping", but that is definitely a factor

[ManWithThePan]

2648234
I am interested. Beep boop.