Broken Belle

by LucidTech

Empty Stomach

Sweetie Belle had received mail.

This was a surprising, albeit not exactly shocking, circumstance. She had eyed it with a gloomy gaze over a breakfast of canned food, the only thing that had survived over the obscenely long period of time that she'd been out of the house, the infested cereal was immediately thrown out in favor of not having insects crawling through her food. They'd cleaned the front room, just as Scootaloo had said. But that was the extent of their work.

Not that Sweetie could blame them. Even after all this time and even with perfect walls and floor she could still feel it in her bones. She suspected that wasn't limited to just her. She suspected the neighboring houses had lost a lot of value after the event, no one wanted to live next to the building that sent chills down your spine if you walked in front of it.

So she'd decided that the mailpony deserved a small bonus for having the guts to drop off a letter addressed to her. She'd left it sealed though. Sweetie Belle didn't particularly care to have her sins listed off to her quite this early in the morning, as she expected the note to say. So after finishing off a particularly tasty can of applesauce with some cinnamon mixed in she moved upstairs and took a shower.

She turned the water on and was extremely disappointed when nothing came out of the tap, or rather she was mildly inconvenienced. She’d forgotten about the water bill. She’d need to begin paying that again before she’d be able to get water no doubt. She gazed at the shower head for a minute in silent apathy before she snatched a bar of soap and some shampoo from the cupboard, grasping it strongly in her magic. She left the bathroom and pulled open the door directly outside it. She yanked one of the towels from within, also in her magic, and left. She stopped outside the door and began to beat the towel out to make sure no insects had made it their home in her absence. Almost immediately her beating grew less violent and she seemed to be losing herself in contemplation.

After a moment she entered her home again, snatched the letter off the table and added it to the ever growing collection of item's she held aloft. She gave the towel one more good whip to make sure it was empty of creatures and headed out towards the nearest town square.

It was sooner rather than later before she arrived. Several ponies were already about their morning business and that meant two things for Sweetie Belle. With what looked to be almost subconscious casting she turned invisible with all of her items and even her magic aura. She moved towards the fountain in the middle of town with single-minded steps, avoiding collision with any of the other ponies that populated the path between herself and her destination. She paused momentarily at the edge of the fountain, a brief moment of hesitancy striking her before she pushed past it and into the water.

She levitated the items out of the way of the watery splashes and moved towards the middle of the fountain, wanting to use the roiling waters to her advantage. Of course, she would have preferred it if she could dunk her head directly into the falling water. But disguising water flow would require an invisibility spell on the displaced water and an illusion spell to make it look like the water was still flowing normally. And while she COULD have done that she decided not to in favor of simply settling into the churning base of the fountain.

Firstly, she dunked her head readily into the water, her magic almost faltering from the cutting cold of the morning that had lingered on in it. Carefully, she lowered herself the rest of the way into the water, keeping all the items from getting even marginally wet, and kept them all held tightly in her magical grip, ignoring the cold that leeched down to her bones.

She let the biting water run over her coat and her mane, pulling at it and moving it about in the whirling ripples. She held her eyes closed but only barely, as if reluctant to put too much effort into it. The soap was the first to get wet and she used it to scour her fur, removing what little dirt had managed to stray into it. In all honesty she hadn't needed a shower, but it wouldn't have been lady-like to go about the day without one.

Deciding she needed to work quickly on this next step she raised her head above the water and squeezed some of the shampoo into her mane. She rubbed it into every follicle of her hair with care and determination, making sure not a strand was missed. She did that twice before she decided that she was certain she'd gotten everything. With one swift movement she plunged her head back into the water and used her magic to help the water run through it and get the remnants of the shampoo out.

This, of course, had the side effect of bubbles. Lots of bubbles.

When she stood from the fountain, still fully invisible, a large portion of the ponies were beginning to turn towards the fountain in curiosity. Stunned by the sudden wave of bubbles that was covering the entirety of it. This played to Sweetie's advantage as it let her slip out of the fountain without being noticed.

Well, for the most part. There was one colt who saw. He was looking straight at her as she walked out of the fountain, and he saw her wet hoofprints left behind on the stones. He was stiff with fear as he watched the steps approach, his mind entirely caught in horror. "Gh-Gh-Gho-Gh" he stuttered, trying to speak. But his voice was too quiet for his mother to hear against the murmuring crowd.

Just as Sweetie Belle was within poking distance he managed his words, but was unable to add any volume to them. "Ghost." He said softly, his words not even louder than a breeze. Sweetie heard him though, close as she was, and answered his call as she passed.

"Ghost?" She asked, and softly shook her head, talking more to herself than the colt. "I wish." And that was all she said. The words caused the colt to turn to his side to look at where the voice had come from but there was nopony there. There were only the wet hoofsteps moving away from the fountain, and he was far too frightened to follow.

She waited until she was free of the crowd before she let her invisibility fade. She lifted the towel and began to dry her mane and coat. She had the towel over her head when she heard a gasp, and she lifted the cloth to get a look at who she had managed to startle this time. She saw a set of purple eyes in the distance, barely visible as they turned down an alley. that vanished around a corner, out of sight. Sweetie blinked once in response and continued her trip, ignoring the appearance in all respects.

She moved the coat over herself one more time, managing to dry herself off for the most part, then returned the towel to the collection of floating objects, swapping it out for the note. She opened the envelope carefully and lifted the paper from within. A vibrant filligree decorated the paper, the faux gold in the print giving it reflective qualities. Sweetie opened it and read the words contained therein.

Her eyes scanned over the redundant pleasantries. Idly. It was an invitation to some kind of party. She read it again to make sure that it was only a party, not any kind of important event, and promptly tore the letter in half and threw it into the nearest trash can. She looked ahead at the alley way she’d seen the eyes disappear into and saw them staring at her again. When the owner of the eyes realized they were being watched they disappeared back into the darkness.

Sweetie Belle went home. Deciding she would take care of the actual ghost later, there was no rush after all.

Comments

[nodamnbrakes]

What a splendid story. I think that I shall favorite it.

[Crystal Moose]

Sweet mercy you have created pony-crack. I need more of it.

Faved and thumbed.

[Swan Song]

Hmm.

[wayward_pony]

I think I know which pony the eyes might belong to. Also, I wonder if Sweetie's become anti-social from her time/the trama of the events, or she's just in a state of shock and withdrawal.

"and he saw her wet footprints" hoofprints might be better, since you mentioned the sound of horesshoes in the first chapter.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

This continues to be more and more intriguing.