Blood Curse Hunters

by Rarity Belle

Chapter 16

For minutes sat Twilight just there, crying her eyes out until the tears just stopped. Her tears had come to an end and she wanted to see what was in that room. A sudden urge to figure out what had managed to hide itself in the room came to her. She wouldn’t cry any longer, she couldn’t cry any longer even. But in order to give her some more courage, she drank the ice cold tea. The cup could be used as a distraction for anything and everything.

With a deep exhale stood Twilight back up on her hooves. There was no more the time and the place to be a coward, she had to do it, whether she liked it or not. If there was still something hidden in that room, she would have found it. It was her house after all and unwelcome visitors weren’t allowed. With shaky legs she turned around the corner, her horn still glowing bright.

What she caught in her eyes was nothing. Just the empty room that she had left behind. There was nothing that indicated there had been somepony physical there. Twilight blinked for a moment before she appeared whole in the doorway. “H-Hello, anypony there?”

Of course was there no answer, despite her voice being quite loud. Twilight gulped before she took another step into the room. It was just another section of the library she knew all too well, but she had a particular interest in the window. Using her brain to work out the variables, it must have been directly in front of the window that she saw the shade, but there was nothing that indicated that there was anypony. Had that shade than been on the outside? It was a possibility, but not one that Twilight was a real fan of. No, something else had to have been the matter with that room. But what?

The unicorn wandered further into the room and began to ignite all of the candles. One by one they revealed the room as it was. Nothing was changed, nothing was thrown around. It was just the way she had left it earlier that day. Twilight was both baffled and amazed at the scenes. Was she wrong? Had she seen it wrong? Or had some of Sweetie’s grief managed to intertwine with her own personal nightmares?

It was a horrid thought for certain, but one that was possible for her either way. A deep sigh came from her before her magic closed the curtain and she settled down in the chair. The whole thing was just crazy, stupid even. Had Twilight really let herself being led by her frights? If anything, it did felt good to have cried her tears. That was perhaps the one bright light on that entire evening.

A sigh came forth from her mouth while the eyes had a gander over all of the book. She knew each and every one of them, had read them time and time again, organized them even more. No, Twilight have stayed there for the night, awake, alert. Who knew what else roamed through the town at those hours. Who knew, where the Night Guard could have been.

But then there was a chuckle that came from her. It was just a stupid little idea that she had before she left the chair again. Twilight shook her head before a smile was formed. “I’m stupid, just utterly, utterly, utterly stupid indeed,” she mumbled to herself. Of course was there nothing that roamed the room, or the library as a whole for that matter. It was just her imagination that had gone wild again.

The unicorn left the room for what it was, before the candles all dimmed again. The mare then would have strolled over to her bedroom. She wanted sleep. She wanted nothing else more in the world than to just sleep.

In her bedroom had Spike already been sleeping in his basket when she finally crawled in her bed. It just felt so good to have the mattress beneath her and the blankets over her. The warm comforts of her bed, had always been enough to vanquish even the worst nightmares. And in that moment, that was that she wanted from it. A smile crawled to her face while the rain continued ticking against the window. The nightly storm would come to pass soon enough, but first: sleep.

~~~~

Neither Apple Bloom nor Scootaloo had even an idea as to what they had to do. Sweetie Belle had left the clubhouse only a mere set of minutes prior and they were still baffled by her words. Neither of them could believe that Sweetie Belle, their Sweetie Belle, pretty much gave them a death-wish. It just didn’t felt like it was their Sweetie talking to them.

“What can ya make out of it?” Apple Bloom asked with worry. She sat down in the chair and held her head between her hooves. It just didn’t make sense. “Also, where did ya learn those things? Never heard ‘em outta yar mouth.”

Scootaloo dropped down in the beanbag with a grin. She would have told Apple Bloom everything about the matter, everything that she knew of the situation. “I learn a lot, Apple Bloom, I learn more than anypony dares to dream. But you have to keep in mind that the most damaged ponies are the wisest, because they don’t want to see others suffering like they do. I had hoped that Sweetie would understand, and she did, I believe, but her grief for Rarity, by Luna, that’s never going to be given a place. What if she continues to do this, Bloom? What if she actually joins them?”

There was no answer that Apple Bloom could have given in return. The question asked to her was one that didn’t have any meaning or concept for her. It just, didn’t make sense to her. Would Sweetie truly have joined the Night Guard without them? She seemed determined enough. The young earth pony just shook her head again. All the mental strain around and about, it just wasn’t helping her in any way or form.

“Ah don’t know, Scoot, Ah honestly, haven’t a clue,” she returned before leaning back in the chair. She was sure that the pegasus hadn’t a clue either, which only mean more luck for them both. Doubts began to rise within her, that much was certain.

But Scootaloo was having already another scenario, where that young mare managed to get the energy from, Apple Bloom didn’t know. Nor did she really wanted to know either. “What if, just what if, we join up with the Night Guard and we do, miraculously, find out who killed Rarity. Do you think Sweetie is able to hold herself from slaughtering more? I do doubt it. When we find him or her, she’ll go on a rampage. She’s a unicorn for Celestia’s sake! If there’s one thing history taught us, is to never let a unicorn go on a rampage! Their magic can devastate everything, now imagine that power fall on Sweetie, image the damage she can do, Apple Bloom. Imagine, just for a second.”

Apple Bloom closed her eyes in response and indeed started to imagine what it would have been if Sweetie had been exposed to such things. The events that played out in her mind had been everything but good, that was for sure. Trouble dawned and a charcoaled Ponyville entered her mind. The sheer horror while the screams of innocents filled her ears, all having fallen by the dark powers of Sweetie.

Then the earth pony looked back up again, glancing deep in the eyes of Scootaloo. “Yar ‘fraid she’s gonna use dark magic, ain’t ya?” was all that she asked. The pegasus just nodded. That was enough for Apple Bloom to understand. She knew more than enough about any and everything. She knew more than enough, about the entire situation. “It was fun, yah know, hanging around with Sweets, crusading for our marks, but these times, these past two years, changed her. And it ain’t for the better. Something’s out there, Scoot, but Ah can’t place what it is.”

Scootaloo just huffed in an agreeable manner. Apple Bloom was right. Tons of things were out there that shouldn’t have been there. A deep exhale came forth from her nostrils before she stood back up again. But she also had to give Sweetie some credit. “It isn’t easy, after everything she has been through, you know. I know, we too went through some horrible stuff, but you weren’t old enough to remember your parents, no offence, but you were just born. I have never known mine. Our scars, aren’t as deep as hers.”

Apple Bloom wanted to scream, rage and rant against Scootaloo for that comment and had already gotten out of the chair, but then she realized the words as they were. They were the truth. She had only been a just-born foal when her parents left to Celestia knew where. The urges to slap Scootaloo right in the face just managed to reduce themselves to near nothing. A gentle tear rolled away from her eyes before she nodded. “Perhaps, if we let ‘er speak with AJ, she might see reason?”

That idea wasn’t half crazy, and something they both should have come up with ages ago. It still didn’t justify the reasons as to why Sweetie wanted revenge on something. It just didn’t fit her personality at all. “It is worth a try, we could ask Applejack tomorrow morning, I’m sure she’ll make some time to talk to Sweetie about this. After all, they could always find it well enough with one another. And it is going to save her another preach from Twilight, which is always a good thing.”

They both let out a chuckle before nodding. So that would the plan have been then: to let Sweetie and Applejack have a couple words with one another. Perhaps it would have been better, perhaps worse, either way, it was worth the try. The two of them hugged each other before nuzzling the cheeks a little bit. It felt good to at least still have one friend left in the treehouse.

They both trotted over to the bedrolls and rolled them out. They would have spent the rest of the night in the clubhouse. It wasn’t worth it for them to rush back through the rain, back to the farmhouse and from there dry themselves just to get back in bed. They both had just been dry from the time they went to the clubhouse.

Moments later could both of the young mares be found in one bedroll each. With their faces staring to the ceiling, it didn’t make a lick of sense. Everything that Sweetie had said to them, it just didn’t make any sense. “You know,” Scootaloo began before she turned her head, “it more and more seems to look like some kind of cheap book that Twilight might have in her library. I mean, Sweetie who all of the sudden blames it on these immortals, her wanting to join the Night Guard, what does she try to accomplish? To find Rarity’s killer, but there’s never been any evidence that she was murdered.”

“Twas an accident, that’s all we can say ‘bout it, remember? Ah don’t believe that what we’ve seen than, was the truth. Ah refuse to believe it. Rarity’s dead, burned the night the boutique burned down, Ah don’t want to believe it any other way,” Apple Bloom responded. The flashes of the events over a year ago returned to her mind. Those horrible flashes that she had deemed to be not true. She shook her head for the moment and shifted her attention over to the pegasus.

“I want to keep it on that as well, but you never know it anymore in these parts. Mystery just, finds a way. I have no idea, but I wish it is true,” commented Scootaloo in return.

“Let’s just hope it’s one of Sweet’s things, that it’s all over in the morning. It would do us all more good like that, don’t yah ‘gree?”

Scootaloo nodded to those words before their eyes went shut. They too, were in the desperate need to get some much needed sleep. Everything that had happened, and they hoped that it was just something that blew over like the storm.