Fair Exchange is No Robbery

by ElementOfFlutterSwag

First Clues

(A/N: The “~~~” in between portions of the story indicates character point of view changes, i.e. from Rarity changing to Twilight.)

Twilight listened intently as Rarity retold the events of the past day, Spike sitting next to the white unicorn. He had that genuine expression of concern, most common with any creature as young as he would express. Once Rarity had finished her story, Spike and Twilight helped her at last calm down.

“I really couldn’t thank you two enough for offering your help to me.” A very subtle smile crept onto the distraught mare’s face as she hugged them both each with a forehoof.

Twilight smiled reassuringly to her unicorn friend. “You don’t have to thank us, we’re just doing our jobs as your friends. Now, why don’t you head upstairs and rest for a bit, I’m going to go out into town and start searching for clues. We will find her Rarity, I promise.”

“Oh but Twilight! I simply could not allow you to do all of this for me and-” She was cut off as a lavender coated hoof was pressed gently over her muzzle.

“Rarity, you’ve been out searching in the rain all day, now it’s my turn to get out there and look around.”

Despite feeling drained of her emotions, Rarity was smiling with fresh tears welling up in her tired eyes. “Thank you...I don’t know what to say...But thank you so much.” She pulled Twilight into a tight embrace, then slowly walked to the stairs. An hour ago, things were looking very bleak. Now however, she had hope once more. She went up the stairs. She would rest, but not for long. She had to help Twilight. She had to get Sweetie Belle back.

~~~

Once Rarity went upstairs to rest, Twilight sat down and pondered for a moment where she should begin. She face hoofed as the obvious answer presented itself.

“Okay, so I should start by heading over to Sugarcube Corner. Alright Spike, I need you to head into my office and grab my saddle bag for me. It’s time for some detective work!”

Twilight began gathering all of the tools she would need. She grabbed a magnifying glass, small bags for any evidence; typical things needed in order to find any sort of clue that could lead to Sweetie Belle’s whereabouts. Spike returned quickly and put the saddle bag on the unicorn. She then placed her supplies in the bag with her magic.

Spike jumped onto Twilight’s back and pointed at the door in dramatic fashion. “Ready to go! Hi-ho Twilight!” he shouted.

The unicorn smiled and rolled her eyes as she levitated him off of her back. “Sorry Spike, but I want you to stay here and keep an eye on Rarity.”

Spike frowned. “Are you sure Twilight?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, and I won’t take long. Just make sure she stays here. Can my number one assistant handle that?”

Spike beamed with pride at the compliment. “You bet I can! No sweat!”

Twilight giggled at her little dragon friend. “Good, I’m glad to hear it. Now it’s time for me to get started! I’ll be back as soon as I can. Take care of Rarity.”

She pulled the door to her library home open and stepped out into a rainy Ponyville. She was determined to help Rarity find Sweetie Belle.

~~~

Fluttershy, hushed Pinkie Pie softly, holding her and rubbing her back with a hoof. once Pinkie’s sobbing died down, she let go and looked her in the eyes.

“Now, do you think you can tell me what’s the matter now?” Fluttershy asked in a comforting tone.

Pinkie Pie nodded slowly. “Yeah...I think I’ll be okay now.”

“Alright, now tell me, what in Equestria happened last night? You mentioned something about the little Crusaders and then you broke down. Did something happen to them?”

“Well yeah...In a sense...” The pink pony looked down, her ears drooping.

“Well then...What happened?” Fluttershy gently pressed.

“Well you see...Everything was fine last night, we were all having tons of fun playing games and eating sweets. But by time morning came...Sweetie Belle was gone. I looked all over the place, but I couldn’t find her anywhere!” Pinkie touched her head with her hoof as if in disbelief.

“She...She just disappeared? But that doesn’t make any sense...Do you think she could have been...” Fluttershy gulped softly, “Do you think she was kidnapped?”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Oh my gosh...Why didn’t I think of that? I didn’t even think that was a possibility. But there’s a problem with that...Who would want to kidnap anypony? Much less a sweet filly like Sweetie Belle? And why would they kidnap her?”

The cream yellow pegasus scratched her head. “ I don’t know...That’s a good question. Did you tell Rarity what happened?”

The party pony shot a glance downwards again, her ears drooping once more. “I...No, I didn’t. I’m not a very good friend am I?

“Oh dear...This is not good. Why didn’t you tell her?”

“I don’t know, I just...She came over to ask where she was. I wanted to tell the truth, but I was just so scared I involuntary lied to her. It was a very super duper bad lie at that. I’m sure it was totally obvious I wasn’t being honest with her..”

“Oh goodness, this isn’t good at all...We need to go tell her right now.” Fluttershy stood up and helped Pinkie stand as well.

“Yeah...yeah you’re right Fluttershy. Let’s go.

The two mares quickly exited the cozy environment of Fluttershy’s cottage and headed out into the rainy afternoon to Carousel Boutique.

~~~

The downpour of rain had soaked Twilight’s mane and coat. She knew she should have brought an umbrella. Her hooves were muddy too now. That wasn’t important at the moment though. She quickly trotted up the couple steps to the door of Sugarcube Corner. She knocked on the door. The store always did look similar to a giant gingerbread house, and certainly stood out in Ponyville. There was no answer, so she knocked a little louder this time.

“I wonder why nopony is answering? Isn’t Pinkie Pie or the Cakes here? Where could they be?” She knocked one more time, still receiving no answer. She turned and decided to head around the back of the store.

When Twilight got around to the opposite side of the confectionery store, she went ahead and tried knocking on the back door. She wasn’t expecting an answer, and didn’t get one. She walked over to a nearby tree to sort through her thoughts while shielding her a little from the rain that didn’t seem to want to let up.

“Considering the fact that no one is here is a little unsettling...” The lavender mare began to herself, “Sweetie Belle was here last night with Pinkie and the other Crusaders, so wouldn’t Pinkie still be here? Maybe she is involved in this somehow after all...”

Twilight continued to ponder on the possibilities of this when she noticed something in the mud nearby. Breaking her from her train of thought, she trotted over to it slowly, and examined it closely. She gave a slightly contorted face of confusion upon trying to discern what it was. It was a strange looking footprint that definitely did not come from any type of pony. It was...very strange looking. To her, it seemed like it was a larger than average...dog footprint? That didn’t make much sense to her, but she knew this was probably an important clue as to what happened to Rarity’s sister.

Once she was finished looking at the strange footprint, she looked around more to see if she could find anymore footprints that looked like it. Sure enough, she found several, that she began to follow. She stopped momentarily to analyze what she had found. Adding to the growing list of things that just didn’t seem to make sense, the footprints must have been made recently. The rain had only been falling for a few hours, so whoever made them must have been here not too long before Twilight. A bad feeling was forming in the pit of Twilight’s stomach. She began walking again, following the footprints and hoping that doing so would lead her to some answers on the mysterious situation surrounding her friend’s sister.

(A/N: I’m sorry for the very long delay, an unreliable friend of mine failed to edit like he said he would, so I went ahead and posted the chapter anyway. This chapter turned out shorter than I had hoped, but I think it is the best effort I’ve put forth yet. I am just a beginner, so I don’t expect my story to be very long or anything spectacular by any means. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it!)

Comments

[Cheezy805]

I noticed a few small grammatical errors, but that's acceptable.
Here's one if you wanted to fix it: "She then place her supplies..." *Placed
There were also sentences where there should (or shouldn't) have been commas.
Overall not a bad effort, but still a bit short for my liking... Then again, I make my quota 3,000+ words per chapter nowadays and I think my average is 4,500 or something.
Waiting on the next chapter. This is one of very few stories I'm following and I don't bother looking for new ones, so there are few still updating.
I'd probably be happy to pre-read stuff for you if you wanted me to. I'm a good pre-reader as I'm fairly pedantic about spelling, grammar, and punctuation; however I do have trouble checking it on my own stories. Mainly because I don't re-read my own stories. I just write them and post them; if I find any huge errors while inserting italics, I'll fix them, but I don't have a pre-reader.

[Cheezy805]

A random thought came to mind while reading Ch3 that Pinkie went Pinkamina during the night and took Sweetie down to the basement, then lied about it to cover up. She's distraught about it, but lying; saying she just disappeared. Or perhaps she can't remember what happens when Pinkamina takes over...
Away with you, grimdark thoughts! This is ponies we're talking about, not horror!
Sorry, I'm just vocalising (or writing, anyway) the thoughts going through my mind.

[ElementOfFlutterSwag]

153232 I would be very glad if you wanted to pre-read my finished chapters! I had a friend who was supposed to but he failed me.

[emberghost]

153235 that was my thought from the beginning