Sweetie Belle and the Cutie Mark Crusaders get into trouble with a pack of Diamond Dogs!
While attempting to get a mining Cutie Mark, Sweetie Belle makes the mistake of taunting a Diamond Dog. She is bitten, and suddenly the world becomes a very different place for the young filly. Join Sweetie Belle as she tries to understand what is happening to her, while a strange beast plagues the streets of Ponyville...
Sweetie Belle's head hurt as she struggled to use her newly developing magic to raise the tiny pickaxe over her head. The white filly grinded her teeth together as, through a sheer force of will, the pickaxe rose into the air and stabbed itself into the cave wall in front of her. Dripping with sweat, Sweetie Belle let her magic stop flowing. Beneath the pink hardhat that sat upon her purple mess of a mane, Sweetie Belle could feel a twinge of pain that told her that if she continued to use magic that night, she would wake up with a terrible migraine. The lantern that sat at her feet, filled with brightly glowing fireflies, flickered a bit, and caused shadows to dance all over the stone walls of the cave, startling her a little bit.
Sweetie Belle and her two friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, were trying something new to get their cutie marks: mining! Though they had barely started digging, Sweetie Belle could tell that this was going to end just as bad as every other attempt they have had. Scootaloo or Apple Bloom was going to do something slightly stupid, a catastrophic event was going to occur, and then Sweetie Belle would be stuck cleaning up after them.
Sweetie Belle couldn't help but give a half-sigh-half-chuckle at the thought. She knew that she had caused her own fair share of incidents, but most of them were slightly more embarrassing than anything her best friends had done. She preferred to keep them a secret, even from her big sister (and usual caretaker), Rarity.
"Watcha laughin' at?" Apple Bloom asked, as she trotted over from the other side of the dark and musky cave. Unlike Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom had a pair of flashlights duct taped to either side of her yellow hard-hat, and she carried her pickaxe in her mouth. Despite her lack of magic, being an earth pony, she wasn't at a disadvantage. In fact, due to Apple Bloom's upbringing, Sweetie Belle figured that if anypony had a chance at getting a mining cutie mark, it was probably Apple Bloom.
"I was just wondering why we were down here," Sweetie Belle lied. She didn't want to tell her friends that she thought this was a useless endeavour.
The problem that always persisted between the three fillies was that they all enjoyed very different things. Sweetie Belle loved the arts and girlie things, like making dresses (which she had no talent for) and performing on stage, but Apple Bloom preferred to do things that involved manual labour, such as farming and physical exercise. Even worse, however, was Scootaloo, who insisted, at every opportunity, to on doing 'extreme' things, like hang gliding or zip lining. Now that Sweetie Belle thought about it, most of the worst accidents occurred whenever Scootaloo made a suggestion. She wanted to giggle at the idea, but held it in as best as possible.
"Ah told you, Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom said, raising a hoof, "we're here to get our minin' cutie marks!" Just as Sweetie Belle was about to make a retort, Scootaloo fluttered down from the ceiling of the cave. She had gotten much better at flying over the recent months, thanks to personal training from Rainbow Dash herself. "I really don't think we're getting anywhere with this," she complained, "I've been digging at the ceiling for hours now, and I haven't found a single jewel!"
"Really?" Apple Bloom smirked, and titled her head. "I've found a couple, but nothing worth getting excited about," she said, pointing towards a big pile of rocks that she had dug out of the wall.
Even from a distance, with the low light of their torches, Sweetie Belle could tell that the only thing Apple Bloom had been successful at digging up were rocks and chunks of very tiny quartz. After a few seconds at admiring the less-than-shiny chunks of rock, Scootaloo admitted that she had been unsuccessful at digging up anything either.
"Ah kinda wish we coulda waited for Babs to get here," Apple Bloom sighed, as she thought about her favorite cousin, "we probably coulda dug up way more if we had another pony!"
Sweetie Belle couldn't help but roll her eyes at the idea. It wasn't that she didn't like Babs Seed, quite the contrary actually. Sweetie Belle very much liked Babs, despite how shy she could be around fillies with cutie marks. The idea that irritated her a bit was the fact that Apple Bloom hadn't given up on the whole 'mining' thing yet. They had been at it since well past their bed time, and all three of them were quite surprised considering that nobody had come looking for them yet.
"Why did we have to do this at night, anyways?" Scootaloo asked.
"Because there'd be no way, no how, that Apple Jack woulda let us do this durin' the day!" Apple Bloom asserted, shaking her head so furiously that her hard hat almost fell off.
Scootaloo shook her head and landed next to Sweetie Belle, and then dropped her own respective pickaxe at Apple Bloom's hooves. "Sorry, this just isn't for me," she grumbled.
"Me neither," Sweetie Belle admitted.
Apple Bloom sighed, but then nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Ah wasn't really havin' much fun, neither," she grumbled, tossing her pickaxe aside. "Let's just get out of this here creepy cave, okay?"
All three fillies nodded, and began packing up their flashlights and pickaxes in their saddle bags. Sighing at another failed attempt at acquiring their cutie marks, the girls began wandering off in the first direction they saw.
After fifteen minutes of wandering, it finally occurred to Sweetie Belle that Apple Bloom, the pony who had been leading them through the mines, was lost. Sighing in frustration, Sweetie Belle flattened her ears against her head. Even without the aid of a mirror, she could tell her mane was a mess. Rarity was going to chew her ear off for wearing such a tacky hard hat, she just knew it.
Suddenly, Sweetie Belle could hear a scratching noise coming from the cave walls. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom must have heard it too, because they both stopped walking and turned to face the noise.
A tiny crack began to form in the cave wall, as it seemed it was being pressured from the other side. As the three fillies stood and watched, the crack got bigger and bigger, until it wasn't a crack anymore. It was a hole. And out of the hole jumped a figure that only Sweetie Belle recognized.
The creature stood only on its two under-developed hind paws, with its large front paws dragging along the ground as it walked. It had dark grey fur and piercing yellow eyes, and a drooling blue tongue was hanging out of its mouth, which was filled with sharp and jagged teeth. Atop its head were two pointed ears, both of which were filled with dirt. It was wearing a yellow vest and a black collar, from which a brass name-tag hung. Between its legs was a fluffy tail, which was swaying back and forth half-heartedly.
"A Diamond Dog!" Sweetie Belle squeaked, leaping into the air and diving behind Apple Bloom. "It's going to kidnapped us and make us dig in the dirt forever and ever!"
The Diamond Dog's eyes bulged his ears folded against his head. Apple Bloom frowned and realized that the creature looked rather offended at the idea.
"Sweetie Belle, I really doubt this lil' fella can do much harm," Apple Bloom assured her. "Look at him! He's hardly even bigger than us! And there are three of us, and one of him!"
Looking over Apple Bloom's flank, Sweetie Belle realized that she was right. It was clear to her, upon examining the Diamond Dog closely, that he was much smaller than the ones that her sister had described to her.
"Oh, he's tiny!" She exclaimed, standing up and trotting over to the Diamond Dog. "He's so cute too!"
"Hey!" The Diamond Dog growled, baring his fangs. "I am not cute!"
"Yes you are!" Sweetie Bell smiled, scratching the diamond dog behind the ear. "What's your name, little guy?"
"Sparky," he answered, his eyes rolling up into his head and his tongue lolling out as he enjoyed the ear scritches. "P-please stop!" He growled. "This is embarrassing!"
"Who's a good boy! Sparky is! Yes he is!" Sweetie Belle cooed.
"Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom started, "Ah really think you should give the Dog some space."
"Oh, I'm sure he's harmless!" Sweetie Belle assured her, the fear that had been so present in her head having evaporated faster than water on a hot summer's day.
Now thoroughly annoyed with being treated so poorly, Sparky the Diamond Dog opened his mouth and lashed out at Sweetie Belle. Before anypony had a chance to stop him, he had sunken his teeth into the flesh around Sweetie Belle's forearm.
Sweetie Belle's eyes began to water, and as soon as Sparky released her, she began to scream. "He bit me!" She squeaked, flailing her hooves in the air. "That Diamond Dog bit me!"
"You had it coming! I asked you nicely to stop!" Sparky growled, before running off down the tunnel with his tail between his legs.
"Are you okay, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked, pulling some bandages out of her saddle bag and wrapping them around Sweetie Belle's forearm.
Sweetie Belle didn't know what to say. On one hoof, she was mad at Sparky the Diamond Dog for biting her, but on the other hoof she was mad at herself for not being smart enough to realize that he could bite her. "I think I'll be okay," she lied, while in reality she was feeling very dizzy from the bite, "but I think we can all agree that I'll never get a cutie mark for handling Diamond Dogs."
The girls all shared a half-hearted laugh, before they resumed their journey to exit the caves…
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.
When recess finally came around, Sweetie Belle made sure she could get herself alone with Storm Spark. She didn't know why she was so fascinated with him, but whenever she caught his eyes, she found herself getting weak in the knees. This was an emotion she really hadn't felt before, even around her friends. It was so alien to her, that she wasn't even able to put a word to the sensation. She didn't know what scared her more, the fact that she was having the emotion in the first place, or the fact that she didn't know what to call it.
Storm Spark, during recess, seemed to have the same idea that Sweetie Belle did, as he followed her out of the classroom to one of the trees in the playground. It wasn't a particularly big tree, but it did offer a nice amount of shade, so it was one of Sweetie Belle's favorite places to sit during recess time.
"Hello there," he said, taking a seat in the soft grass beside her. "I don't think we were given a proper introduction back in class," he stated. "My name is Storm Spark, from Hoofington. What's your name?"
"I'm Sweetie Belle," she answered, "from Ponyville."
Storm Spark nodded, and ran his hoof through the grass. The pair sat in awkward silence for a while, as they slowly moved closer to each other. Sweetie Belle wanted to ask about what had happened to Storm Spark's ear, but she felt that it might be a bit too rude of a question, and considering that they had really only just met, she didn't want to do anything to offend him.
"So you're a pegasus?" Sweetie Belle asked, in an attempt to jump-start the conversation. She didn't really know anything about him, so she decided to break the ice with something simple.
"Sure am. You're a unicorn?"
"Last time I checked."
At the exact same time, Storm Spark and Sweetie Belle turned their heads to face each other, but ended up bonking noses together. Sweetie Belle fell onto her back, rubbing her nose with her hooves, while Storm Spark jumped into the air, and did the same thing.
"Ouch," the said in unison, before laughing at their own silliness.
So far, despite the shenanigans, they were off to a good start.
"So, I couldn't help but notice that you don't have your cutie mark either," Storm Spark remarked, as he fluttered down onto the grass.
Sweetie Belle couldn't help but blush at the comment, but she knew that, unlike Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Storm Spark wasn't speaking with the intent to harm. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She barely knew him, yet she could immediately tell that he was very nice. She wanted to bombard him with questions, but she was just too tired.
"I'm not the only one," she admitted, twiddling her hooves a little. "My friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, don't have their cutie marks either."
Storm Spark couldn't help but laugh a little, but again, it didn't feel like a harmful laugh. It felt friendly, as if he was trying to say that it was okay to not have a cutie mark.
"Any particular reason you find it funny?" Sweetie Belle asked, not aware that she was sounding a bit ruder than she intended.
"Oh, I was just worried that I'd be the only foal without their cutie mark," he admitted, immediately ceasing his chortle. "It's actually quite a relief," Storm Spark sighed and shuffled his hooves a little, looking down at the ground and folding his ears towards his head. "Back in Hoofington, I was the only foal in my class without a cutie mark. It was kind of depressing." Sweetie Belle completely understood how Storm Spark felt. Before she had transferred into Apple Bloom's class, she had been the only filly in her class to not have a cutie mark. Even then, when she hadn't known Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon, she had been bullied. It seemed that the less-than-friendly ponies could be found everywhere in Equestria. While this fact scared her, it also gave her some comfort, because it also meant that Equestria was filled with ponies just like her, that don't have their cutie mark yet.
"Do you miss your friends from Hoofington?" Sweetie Belle asked. She wanted to know more about Storm Spark. It was clear to her now that she had feelings for him, and it excited her.
Storm Spark tilted his head a bit and scrunched up his face as he took a moment to think about it. "Not really," he admitted, "now that I think about it, most of them were pretty mean. As soon as they got their cutie marks, they stopped being friends with me," he grumbled, pouting a bit.
"Well they don't know what they gave up!" Sweetie Belle squeaked, grabbing Storm Spark in a hug. "You seem really sweet!"
Now it was Storm Spark's turn to blush. He wouldn't readily admit it to anypony, but he had never been hugged by a filly before. In fact, the action caught him completely off guard, and as Sweetie Belle held him in her warm embrace, Storm Spark's knees turned to jelly and parasprites began to flutter through his stomach. His breathing became quick, and his heart started to race a little bit.
"Sorry," Sweetie Belle apologized, blushing again and pulling away, "I didn't to hug you out of the blue." Her ears grew hot as the blush moved through her entire face, filling it up with warmth. She had never blushed this hard before, for any reason at all. If she hadn't been so fascinated with Storm Spark, she might have been scared by it. Then again, it was just part of her body, so maybe not. "So, what sort of things do you enjoy?"
"Things?" Storm Spark raised an eyebrow and tilted his head again. "Do you mean activities or objects?"
Now it was Sweetie Belle's turn to tilt her head. She hadn't really anticipated that question. "Both, I guess?"
Storm Spark tapped a hoof against his chin a couple times as he tried to think of an answer to Sweetie Belle's abnormally ambiguous question. "Well, I guess flying would be one thing. I'm not very aerobatic, though, and have a tendency to crash into things. I guess I also enjoy jewels, too. I used to have a really nice collection before they were stolen by Diamond Dogs… I never did get those jewels back."
Storm Spark continued to list off things that Sweetie Belle really didn't care about, but she did her best to remain interested, often even just adding a "cool" or a "uh-huh" in between his comments. She was about to thank him for listing, when he ended it with something that really interested her.
"One thing that I really like, but will never admit to anypony else, is that I really like music," he whispered, hanging his head a little. "Like, I really enjoy music. It calms me down whenever I'm angry."
"What a coincidene!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "I really like music too! Well, not all that much… I sing and stuff, but it's still music, right?"
Storm Spark laughed again. Sweetie Belle liked it when he laughed, because when he laughed it was like the world was empty of troubles, void of evil, and full of happiness. She couldn't help herself but stare into his eyes, golden yellow in colour, like the sunshine, and lose herself in their splendor.
"Well, Sweetie Belle," Storm Spark sighed, hopping into the air with a flap of his wings, "it was really nice talking to you. Let's chat again sometime, okay?"
Sweetie Belle nodded, but she found herself to be at a loss for words. She didn't want him to go. She didn't want him to leave her there, all alone, without him by her side. Her heart longed for him, and thought of him not being there made her sad.
But none of that was reflected in her face.
Instead, she simply smiled and nodded her head. "I'd like that, Sparky," she said.
Suddenly, Storm Spark did a double take. "What did you call me?"
"Sorry," Sweetie Belle said, jumping to her hooves. "It's just that saying your full name is a lot of work, so I thought I'd just give you a nickname. Is that okay?"
Storm Spark made a bit of a grimace, but didn't seem to dislike it. "It's not that I don't like it, it's just, where I come from, there were a lot of bad things attached to that nickname. Sorry, I'd just prefer if you called me Storm Spark."
Sweetie Belle nodded and apologized again. Then she watched, longingly, as Storm Spark fluttered back towards the school house. It was then that she noticed that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had finished their 'discussion' with Cheerilee, and were making their way over to her.
"Heya, Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom called, prancing over. "I saw you makin' sweet talk to the new foal."
"He seems cool, doesn't he?" Scootaloo added.
"Ah bet if we asked him real nice, he'd join the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Apple Bloom continued.
"Oh yeah! That would be totally sweet! Then we'd finally have a boy in our group!" Scootaloo cheered leaping into the air and fluttering her wings at mach speeds.
"I don't think that will work, girls," Sweetie Belle admitted.
"Why not?" the other two asked, in a perfectly rehearsed unison.
Sweetie Belle couldn't control the blush this time, and the pink was visible even through her fur. "Because I think I'm in love with him."
She didn't know why, and she didn't know if there was anything she could do to get around it, but for whatever reason, her body just simply refused to go to sleep. She tried everything she could think of to fall asleep, from reading a book to throwing off her covers to meditation. Nothing was working. She didn't know if it was because she was too busy thinking about Storm Spark, but he was definitely running through her mind that night.
What was it about him that drew her to him so much? He wasn't much different from any other colt she's met, and yet she found herself strangely attracted to him. He was strong and cool and probably even smart. And the best part of all was that he was just like her! A blank flank! He didn't have his cutie mark either!
Sweetie Belle sighed as she remembered his face. She just couldn't get the image of those eyes out of her mind. They were so bright and so deep, she could just lose herself in them is she stared long enough. She hadn't had a chance to ask about that chewed up ear, though. It hadn't looked like an old wound, either. In fact, if she had to guess, she figured that Storm Spark had gotten it the night before coming to school.
Sweetie Belle sighed and hugged her pillow close to her chest. Her covers had long ago been tossed onto the floor of her room, yet nothing could stop the onslaught of sleeplessness from invading her head. "At this rate, I'm going to stop being Sweetie Belle and start being Sweaty Belle," she grumbled, as the peculiar heat refused to leave her alone. Sitting up in bed, Sweetie Belle tried to telekinesis her pillow across the room. She closed her eyes and tried to summon up the power within herself, as she had done many times while Rarity and Twilight were teaching her. She could feel the pressure building up at the base of her horn, could see the faint light of her magic as it built up, getting ready to cast the spell.
And then it didn't.
Just as Sweetie Belle was getting ready to cast the Telekinesis spell, all the magic she had been charging up to do it suddenly vanished. It was as if somebody had cut her off from the flow of her magic. As if on queue, she suddenly felt a heavy pain at the base of her horn, in the exact place she would usually feel her magic.
"Ow ow ow ow!" Sweetie Belle squealed, writhing on her bed. "Ow it hurts! What is this!?"
As her eyes began to fill with sudden tears, Sweetie Belle put her hooves to her forehead, and she felt something that, to this day, still terrifies her. Her horn, much to her chagrin, was growing inward, its length shrinking away. Within seconds, despite the horrible pain in her forehead, Sweetie Belle's horn was gone.
Now, tears streaming down her face, Sweetie Belle hopped to her hooves, and ran to the mirror that was hanging on the wall beside her bed. Her horn was gone, all right, and there was something else that was very, VERY, wrong with her reflection.
Sweetie Belle's eyes, which were normally green on top of the typical white back one would see in an eyeball, were instead a solid green colour, with dark green slits for pupils. Her eyes were tugging up slightly at the corners, becoming sharper and more menacing than they used to be, and she could feel her jaw shift and grow along with the changes.
"What's happening to me?" Sweetie Belle squealed, immediately clapping her hooves over her mouth. Her voice had come out wrong. It had been too low and growly. It didn't sound anything like her! "What's happening to my voice!?"
Something was wrong.
And it was about to get so much worse.
Sweetie Belle paced around her room at a running pace, unable to contain the terror that was surging within her. She didn't know what was happening to her, but she definitely did not like it, not one bit. Even as she moved, she could feel the changes surging through her body, changing her even more, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it! Her horn was gone! She was left without her magic, as miniscule as it was, and now she was turning into a monster! How could this night get any worse?
As it turns out, it could get very much worse. As Sweetie Belle crossed in front of the window, the curtain suddenly blew open, and she found herself drowning in silver moonlight. As soon as the pale glow of the moon touched her coat, Sweetie Belle felt an entirely new and different surge of pain flow through her body, as another onslaught of transformations took place.
Sweetie Belle fell on her rump as, rather suddenly, her center of gravity completely vanished. She watched in horror as her hind hooves began to melt away, replaced by a pair of three-toed canine paws. Her legs cracked and locked into place, becoming stubbier and shaggier as her fur grew out and changed to a pale shade of grey, replacing her once pristine white coat.
Sweetie Belle whimpered, just like a dog, as she wiggled her new toes. She had never had toes, or paws, before, and she could definitely say, after having the experience, that she really didn't like it. More tears streamed out of her inpony eyes as the changes started creeping up her body.
Her tail was the next thing to change. Like her horn, the pink and purple hairs that made up her tail were sucked into her spine, and she could feel her tail growing in length. Like her hind legs, her tail was also covered in shaggy grey fur. It was stubbier, too, its length stopping at her crooked knees. At the tip of her tail, the shaggy fur seemed to arrange itself into a club-like pattern, as the knots and split ends combined to create something solid enough to hurt if it hit something.
"Oh Celestia, oh Luna," Sweetie Bell prayed, "please stop this! Please make this stop! I don't wanna be a dog! I'm a pony! I'm a pony!"
She couldn't stop the tears now. They were coming without halt, streaming down her face and rolling down her body. And still, the transformations would not stop. The darker fur crept up her body, changing the shape of her hips and torso, realigning her bones into a more canine posture.
When it finally got to her front pair of hooves, the pain started becoming unbearable. It wasn't just muscle or fur that was growing now. Her arms were lengthening, becoming longer and thicker until they were longer than she was tall. Then, just like before, her hooves melted away, as they were replaced by massive canine hands, with three fingers and a thumb on each. On the underside of her all four of her paws were thick pads, perfect for running over rough terrain, and at the tips of each toe and finger was a long and thick claw, shaped like a spade to make digging through rough soil easier. Sweetie Belle sniffled as she attempted to move her new hands. The sensation was so alien, so unnatural, that the instant her thumbs started twitching, she couldn't help but scream in pain and horror.
"I'm a dog," she whimpered, realizing that the only thing left to change now was her head.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, her jaw started aching. It was stretching out, elongating, becoming a vicious underbite common to all Diamond Dogs. As the tears cleared out of her eyes for a second, Sweetie Belle caught a glimpse of her reflection in her bedroom mirror.
She was almost completely a Diamond Dog now.
Sweetie Belle cried and whimpered as her mane, much like the rest of her of her fur, darkened in colour. It became shaggier and messier as the grey fur continued creeping up her body, covering her neck and jaw and finally her nose, which turned black and wet like that of a dog. As the grey fur finally finished covering her face, her tongue turned blue as the final changes ended.
Sweetie Belle was a Diamond Dog. Tears streaming down her face, Sweetie Belle let loose a howl that shook the very foundations of Carousel Boutique. If Rarity hadn't been awake from her cries before, she would most certainly be awake now.
"I have to get out of here!" Sweetie Belle growled to herself, her voice scratchy and low. "I can't let Rarity see me like this!"
Sweetie Belle struggled to pull herself to her paws, and was quite happy to find that she could still walk on four legs nearly as easily as she could before. There was still the challenge of the fact that her eye level was higher, and her depth perception was off, but it didn't hinder her movement so much that she could make her way to the door. She was about to use her mouth to grab the door knob, when she realized that she had a set of razor sharp teeth. Growling in anger, she grabbed the uncanny strength of a Diamond Dog, she ripped the door clean off its hinges.
Sweetie Belle whimpered. Everything was getting worse and worse by the second.
And as a light turned on down the hall, Sweetie Bell realized that the worst possible thing had just occurred.
Standing in the hall, bathrobe on and mouth hanging open in fear, was Rarity, her stunning purple mane and tail done up in curlers for the evening.
Rarity's lip began to quiver, and her breathing became quick and sharp. Sweetie Belle had seen this look before, and knew immediately that her older sister was about to scream.
"Rarity! Wait! Please! It's me, Sweetie Belle!" She growled, but her voice came out all wrong.
"What have you done with my sister!?" Rarity screamed, as she began throwing objects at Sweetie Belle with her telekinesis.
Once again, Sweetie Belle's eyes were blinded by tears. No longer did she try to walk on all fours, instead, she hopped onto her hind legs, as stubby and under-developed as they were, and made a break for the stairs, running as fast as she could, all the while dodging Rarity's fabulous projectiles. She wanted to plead with her sister, but part of her knew she would never get the chance. She would be handed over to Princess Twilight or the Mayor to be sent to some prison camp for Diamond Dogs, and she would never see her friends or family again, and she would most definitely never get her cutie mark!
Wait a moment, she thought, do Diamond Dogs even get cutie marks?
Sweetie Belle didn't get a moment to think of an answer. As she made it to the store front of Carousel Boutique, Sweetie Belle risked looking over her shoulder, and what she saw was enough to give her nightmares for the rest of her canine life.
Rarity's eyes were crackling with power, and every object within her reach was floating around her. Sweetie Belle had never seen her sister use such power. It was unheard of!
"If I find out you have harmed my sister in any way," Rarity began, her voice growing louder as her magical power surged, "you will wish that I have not given you the chance to leave."
Sweetie Belle wondered what she meant, when suddenly the front entrance of the store was thrown open, as the doors were ripped off their hinges and thrown against the wall, where they shattered into dozens of pieces of wooden shrapnel.
"Leave," Rarity ordered, "now! AND NEVER COME BACK!"
Sweetie Belle pressed her ears against her head, and ran out the door as fast as her little legs could carry her. A voice at the back of her head was telling her to get underground, as she would be safe there. Without taking a second to think about it, Sweetie Belle dove towards the ground, and began shoveling away the dirt.
"Dig down," she muttered to herself, "dig down to safety."
Under ordinary circumstances, Sweetie Belle would be mortified by her situation. She was completely filthy, covered from head to paws in dirt and grime. Her newly heightened sense of smell told her that she stank and was in desperate need of a bath, while her new Diamond Dog instincts told her it was okay to be dirty.
Secretly, though she would never admit it to anypony, she kind of enjoyed being covered in dirt.
She must have been tunneling for a while, because she went far enough down into the earth to pop out in one of the many tunnels that snaked their way underneath Ponyville. Rarity had once told her that there was an entire catacomb of tunnels and mines beneath the town. Given Sweetie Belle's new affinity for dirt, she realized that these tunnels were the safest place for her to be.
Slumping against a cave wall, Sweetie Belle took a few moments to examine her new body. She definitely a lot stronger than before, she could tell that much. She had tunneled several hundred meters into the earth, and her massive arms weren't even tired. There were chunks of black dirt stuck beneath her claws, but it was easy to pick them clean thanks to how sharp they were.
Despite there being no actual light in the tunnels, Sweetie Belle found that she wasn't having much trouble seeing. Her new Diamond Dog eyes were designed specifically for night vision, making seeing in the dark an easy feat. Of course, there wasn't a complete absence of light. Gazing down the long tunnel, Sweetie Belle could see torchbugs flittering around, and glowing blue slugs slithering along the ceiling of the cavern.
"I guess this won't be so bad," Sweetie Belle growled to herself, taking in her surroundings, "being a Diamond Dog. At least the caves are nice." She couldn't tell if that was the old Sweetie Belle talking, or her new Diamond Dog self. Either way, she wasn't doing a very good job of convincing herself that everything was going to be fine.
Sweetie Belle sobbed as she started to think about everything she would need to leave behind now. She had to leave her school and her friends. She would have to forget about ever falling in love with Storm Spark now, and she would definitely never be able to see her sister again. Rarity… Rarity had been so angry at her, simply because she was a Diamond Dog! She wasn't even aware that she was attacking Sweetie Belle the whole time!
"I don't need them anyways!" Sweetie Belle asserted, hopping to her hind paws and punching at the cave walls. "I don't need anypony! I don't need anybody!"
Despite her attempts to assert that she didn't need her pony friends, she still felt herself crying and sobbing at the thought of never seeing them again.
"You do know you're not going to dig up any gems by punching a wall?"
The voice had come from seemingly out of nowhere. Sweetie Belle jumped in surprise and whipped around, coming face to face with no less than three Diamond Dog pups. They all seemed to be around her age, and at least two of them were girls. Looking at the wall behind them, Sweetie Belle noticed that there was a hole, freshly dug, in the earthen soil. They must have dug their way over from another tunnel.
The first of the three Diamond Pups reminded Sweetie Belle of a pony named Pipsqueak, and he was about as big as him too. His fur was a dark and creamy white colour, but he had dark brown splotches dotting his body, and one big one over his left eye, both of which were dark brown in colour. His ears, unlike Sweetie Belles, were long and droopy. It hadn't occurred to her that, like regular dogs, Diamond Dogs must come in many different breeds.
The second Diamond Pup, which was clearly a female given the tuft of fur on her head that resembled hair, actually reminded her a lot of Babs Seed, Apple Bloom's cousin. Her fur, however, was entirely dark orange, almost brown in colour, with the long mane of fur on her head being slicked to the right, hanging over her eye. This Diamond Pup had neon-green eyes, which almost seemed to be glowing in the dark.
The third and final Pup, also a female, reminded Sweetie Belle of Apple Bloom. She had creamy yellow fur, stained in a few places with dirt and such, bright orange eyes, and she had a big pink bow tied around her left ear, and eyes that glowed green, just like the other Diamond Dog.
The pony within Sweetie Belle was completely startled by the sudden appearance of three young Diamond Dogs, yet her new instincts guaranteed her that she had nothing to fear from her own kind. A light chill went down her spine as she realized that she thought of herself as being one of them.
"I don't think we've ever seen you around here before," the short male said. "Are you someone new?"
Sweetie Belle twiddled her thumbs for a second, and considered telling them who she really was. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."
"Pleasure to meet you," the brown one said, "my name is Maya."
The one with the bow's ears suddenly perked up, making her bow hop to the side. "I'm Daisy."
"And I'm Killer," the short one said, pointing a thumb at himself proudly. "And together we are--"
All three Diamond Dogs raised their fists in the air and struck a rather dramatic pose. "The Diamond Pups United!" They shouted, in a perfectly rehearsed unison.
Sweetie Belle wanted to fall over onto her back and burst out into laughter. The three young Diamond Pups really had no idea how ridiculous they looked and sounded when they did that. She opened her mouth to make a mention of it, but suddenly realized something that made her blush.
She had done the exact same sort of thing, several times, with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. The Diamond Pups United, in some strange and wacky way, was a Diamond Dog parallel of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"Pretty cool, aren't we?" Maya said, with a jagged-toothed grin.
Sweetie Bell returned the grin and nodded. "Yeah. Pretty cool."
"What about you, new one," Killer continued, hopping forward a few steps and getting a bit too close to Sweetie Belle for comfort, "you got a name, or did your parents hate you?"
Sweetie Belle raised a clawed finger for a second, and was about to tell them her full name, but she decided that it was too pony-ish for a Diamond Dog. "Just call me Sweetie," she told them, cutting off the 'Belle' portion of her name, just to be on the safe side.
Killer and Maya both burst into laughter, but Daisy just smiled. "That's a lovely name," she said, holding her hands behind her back.
"You're not one to talk, Daisy," Maya giggled, "you got saddled with a name just as bad!"
This got an even bigger burst of laughter out of Killer, who was now rolling on ground, holding his sides. "C'mon, guys, stop, I can't," he mumbled, in between fits of laughter, "I can't take anymore. You're all too funny."
"Killer has an overdeveloped sense of humour," Daisy whispered, "try to ignore it as best as you can and you'll be fine."
"Hey hey hey, it's not that bad," Killer growled regaining control of himself. "Now stop me if you heard this one! A Diamond Dog goes to see the doctor and says 'doc, I think I'm going crazy!' and the doctor says 'what makes you say that?' and then the Diamond Dog answers 'I'm Barking mad!"
Neither Maya nor Daisy laughed, but Sweetie Belle couldn't help but giggle lightly.
"See?!" Killer laughed, hopping to his feet. "See? She laughed! I'm funny!"
Rolling her eyes at Killer, Maya went and put a friendly paw on Sweetie Belle's shoulder. "I'm going to go off on a limb and say that you're not from around here, are you? You've probably never been in these tunnels before in your life. And I'm not just saying that because we don't recognize you, coz that happens all the time."
Sweetie Belle shook her head and flattened her ears against her head. She wasn't about to tell them about how she had to leave all of her pony friends behind, given how she wasn't a pony anymore, but she really wanted to. She had a feeling, though, that they would less accepting of her if they knew she had once been a pony. As it were, as strange as everything was getting, it was nice to feel somewhat welcome. And since Diamond Dogs don't get cutie marks, she would never need to worry about being called a blank flank ever again. Maybe this could work out.
"I ran away from home," Sweetie Belle admitted. She really needed to get that off of her chest, considering it felt like it was weighing her down.
As soon as she said it, Daisy and Maya gave her a reassuring hug, as if they understood exactly how she felt. It was actually kind of startling, and it felt like it came out of relatively nowhere. In a way, Sweetie Belle felt like she was back with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, and she relaxed a little, but in another way, she was nervous; if these Diamond Dogs ever found out that she was actually a pony, they would do to her what they did to Rarity...
"Why don't you come with us to town," Maya suggested.
"We were just on our way to school, as it were," Daisy added, "and we'd be happy to take you with us."
Sweetie Belle thought about this for a second. She would taken to a Diamond Dog town, where she could attend a Diamond Dog school. Considering her options, this wasn't such a bad idea. After all, she was one of them now, so what harm was there in acting like one or living like one? Who knows, she thought, maybe I can learn to like being a Diamond Dog. "I'd like that a lot," she said, nodding happily. "Then it's settled!" Killer squealed, jumping into the air, doing a back flip, and landing on his front paws. "Sweetie gets to come with us! The fourth member of the Diamond Pups United!" "Wait I never agreed to--" Sweetie Belle didn't have a chance to refuse or deny her membership before Maya and Daisy grabbed her by the hands and started pulling her through the tunnels.
When Sweetie Belle first set eyes on the Diamond Dog town, she couldn't help but let her jaw hang open just a little bit. She had honestly expected to see row after row of caves, filled with mine carts and other digging tools. Instead, when her new friends welcomed her to the town, Sweetie Belle was greeted by wooden buildings and torches. A large cave, easily as large as Ponyville, had been cleaned out, and an entire town had been built within in it.
"Welcome Diamondville," Maya said, as she and Daise each grabbed one of Sweetie Belle's front paws and started pulling her through the town.
Killer, given his smaller stature, had to run to keep up with them, but he didn't object or hint that he disliked being slightly ignored. Sweetie Belle, looking over her shoulder, got the feeling he was actually kind of used to it.
Sweetie Belle also didn't want to admit it to her new friends, but she was still having trouble adjusting to running on two legs rather than four. It was a very alien sensation for her, and she found herself tripping over her own paws several times. Maya and Daisy, thankfully, didn't seem to notice, or if they did notice, then they were being very polite and pretending that they didn't care.
"That's Diamond Chow Corner," Maya said, pointing to a building that looked suspiciously like a bakery. "They make all sorts of great food in there, most of them spiced with various jewel dust."
The pony in Sweetie Belle remembered how Spike the dragon enjoyed eating gems, but she wasn't aware that creatures aside from dragons did it too. Then again, Maya had said 'spiced' with jewels, which couldn't be all that bad. As they lead her through the town, Sweetie Belle caught the eyes of several other Diamond Dogs. It actually kind of scared how similar this town was to Ponyville At times, she swore she recognized several diamond dogs. There was a white Dog with a blue Mohawk and purple goggles, a pink Dog with excessively puffy fur and bright yellow eyes (who was jumping up and down and almost appeared to teleport everywhere), and other Dogs that shared similar qualities to other ponies that Sweetie Belle knew. It was almost as if this town, which was situated beneath Ponyville, was an alternate version of it. Up ahead, sitting on a mound of dirt, with other Pups playing around it, was a small red building, which Sweetie Belle figured must have been the school house.
"Oh shoot we're late," Killer grumbled, as he noticed that the pups in the yard were all younger than them, "come on girls, we have to hurry, otherwise Mami is gonna chew our ears off! And this time it might not even be figuratively!"
Sweetie Belle wanted to ask who Mami was, but Daisy mouthed the word 'teacher' to her before she could. After that, everything made perfect sense.
Of course, much to their horrible luck as Killer put it, there was an adult Diamond Dog waiting at the entrance of the school, her arms crossed and eyes locked in a frown.
"Late as usual?" She said, her voice a bizarre cross between a whisper and a growl. Sweetie Belle couldn't help but tilt her head when she saw this Diamond Dog; she had yellow fur with sky-blue eyes and wore a pink vest. On top of that, she sounded just like Fluttershy.
"Sorry Mami," Daisy, and Maya said, flattening their ears against their head.
Killer, on the other paw, was much too excited to sit still. "Mami, look, we found someone new!" He barked, hopping from paw to paw, pointing at Sweetie Belle.
Mami raised an eyebrow and gave Sweetie Belle a once over, and then her entire demeanour changed. Her frown was replaced with a smile. "What's your name, sweetie?"
"Actually," Maya said, jumping into the conversation, "her name, out of sheer coincidence, is Sweetie."
Mami raised her eyebrow again, but did not make any comment, instead, she just motioned for Sweetie Belle to go inside. "I need to give these three a very stern talking to. Go find yourself a seat, okay Sweetie?"
Sweetie Belle nodded, and weaved around Mami and entered the classroom. Over her shoulder, she could hear Mami growling at her friends, but the noise inside the class was too loud, so she couldn't quite make out what was being said.
The classroom, as should have been expected, was a classroom. Students were sitting at desks, books lined the shelves, and a chalkboard decorated the front. The teacher, however, didn't have a desk; instead, at the front of the class was a bright blue beanbag chair. As she entered, several students quieted down and started staring at her. It felt awkward, having so many eyes gazing in her direction, but Sweetie Belle did her best to ignore them. She looked around for any available seats, and noticed that there were four, at the back of the classroom.
Desks were arranged in five rows of five seats; the row at the back of the classroom was occupied by a single Dog, and when Sweetie Belle saw him, her heart dropped.
Sparky looked up and met her gaze, and he flattened his ears against his head and immediately looked down at his desk.
This is bad, she thought, Sparky might recognize me! But it could also be good! He bit me, and that's the only thing I could think of that could have transformed me, so maybe he would know how to change me back!
Sweetie Belle immediately made a b-line for the desk right next to Sparky, where she sat down violently and did not stop staring at him.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Sparky asked, when he realized that her gaze was still locked on him.
"Debatable," she growled.
Sparky whimpered a little, and bit his lower lip. "We'll talk after class."
Sweetie Belle nodded, and then proceeded to sit in silence. After a couple more minutes, Daisy, Maya, and Killer all walked in, their ears flattened and hanging their heads in shame. They completely ignored the rest of the class, and made their way to the back, where they took their seats at the three remaining desks on Sweetie Belle's right. Daisy sat in the seat closest to her, and Maya sat in the farther one. Killer sat between them both.
Then Mami walked in, a friendly smile plastered across her face. She immediately plopped herself down in her beanbag chair, and then started to scratch her ear with her hind leg. This action got a quick chuckle out of the class, and Mami looked relieved.
"Good morning, class," she said.
"Good morning, Mami," all the Diamond pups answered.
Sweetie Belle would have said it with them, but the last time she had been on the surface, night had only just fallen. So why were they all wishing each other good morning?
"I have a few announcements to make today," Mami said, "first is that any student caught coming late to my class three times in a row will have a note sent to their parents," she growled, frowning and looking directly at Killer and the others. This earned a quick chuckle from the rest of the students. "The second announcement is that we have a new student joining us today. Please give a warm paw to Sweetie."
Sweetie Belle didn't know what to expect, but she wasn't surprised when every student in the room turned around in their seats to stare at her again. "H-hello," she said, raising a paw and waggling her fingers in a nervous wave, "my name is Sweetie. I'm new."
"Why don't you come up to the front of the class and tell us a little bit about yourself, Sweetie?" Mami suggested. "Come, come, don't be shy."
Sweetie Belle swallowed the spit in her mouth, and made her way to the front of the class. Everybody wouldn't stop staring at her, and it was making her very nervous.
"So," Mami started, "can you tell us where you're from? Or a little bit about yourself?"
"Well," Sweetie Belle started, "I'd rather not tell you where I'm from. I… I ran away."
Nobody said a word, nobody breathed. It was as if an creepy silence had fallen onto the class.
"But anyways," Sweetie Belle continued, trying to put on a happy face, "my name is Sweetie, and, uh, I guess I like singing." She giggled a little, trying not to show how nervous and scared she was.
"Why don't you sing us a song?" Mami asked.
Sweetie Belle's eyes widened and she bit her lip in surprise. She really hadn't expected that. Nopony had ever asked her to sing before. Suddenly, her stomach seemed to fill with butterflies, and her knees felt weak.
"I really only know a few pony folk songs," Sweetie Belle whispered, blushing, "nothing really special."
"That's fine, we would still love to hear it," Mami smiled, clapping her hands a little. "Go ahead."
Sweetie Belle took a deep breath, and tried to remember the lyrics to a song that Pinkie Pie had once sung around town, something about smiling a lot. Given her current situation, it was the only thing she could think of to calm herself down. After a few flat lyrics, Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and imagined she was surrounded by her pony friends: Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Rarity, Applejack, everypony. As their faces smiled in her mind, she found herself calming down more and more, and finally she was able to sing without being scared.
It was the first time that Sweetie Belle had sung anything in front of a group of complete strangers, yet, when the song was over, she felt relaxed. Taking a deep breath, Sweetie Belle opened her eyes.
Everyone's was smiling and applauding her singing. The feeling of being able to share her singing with others, Sweetie Bell had never been able to feel it before, but now that she has, she liked it.
Sweetie Belle had expected class to drag on and on about pieces of information that she really didn't care about, but much unlike pony school, Diamond Dog school only seemed to last a couple of hours. Mami taught them how to identify the differences between gold and pyrite, and the best places in the tunnels for mining diamonds, and then she sent them on her way. There seemed to be some sort of contest in the class; whoever brought in the most gems got the highest grade, or something like that.
Of course, Sweetie Belle had no intention of going out to dig in the dirt. She needed to talk to Sparky, who, quite surprisingly, was trying to get away.
"Hey!" Sweetie Belle squeaked, grabbing his arm as he got up from his desk. "We really need to talk, and you said after class."
Sparky whimpered and flattened his ears against his head, and then sat back down in his seat. Killer, doing cartwheels over the desks came over and plopped himself down in front of Sweetie Belle.
"Hey Sweetie," he said, excitedly, "we're heading to the West-North-West mines to try and find some sapphires! Are you coming with?"
"Sorry, Killer," Sweetie Belle said, "I just need to… er… get settled in. Diamondville is so much bigger than where I'm from, and Sparky has offered to show me around!"
Sparky whimpered again, and tried to make himself appear smaller in his seat. Killer's eyes narrowed and he turned to Sparky and growled, in a very nasty manner.
"If you hurt her, Sparky," he barked, "I swear to Dog -"
"Killer," Sweetie Belle frowned, crossing her arms, "everything will be fine. Go have fun with Maya and Daisy!"
Killer whimpered an apology, and then ran straight for the door, with Maya and Daisy following close behind. In a few more seconds, with the exception of Sweetie Belle and Sparky, the class room was void of living creatures.
"Now we're alone," Sweetie Belle sighed in relief, closing the door, "so we can talk."
Sparky nodded and whimpered, still trying to hide beneath his desk. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Do you remember me?"
Sparky looked into Sweetie Belle's eyes and nodded. "You're the pony that I bit last night, right?"
Sweetie Belle nodded. "I was a pony, but now I'm a Diamond Dog," she growled, crossing her arms. "The only possible reason I can tell for my less than fortunate transformation is you biting me!"
Sparky whimpered again, and winced a little at Sweetie Belle's sudden aggressive tone. "Sorry," he whimpered, "but in my defense, I did ask you to stop petting me."
"That doesn't mean you should bite me!" Sweetie Belle growled and tugged her ears angrily. "Now I'm going to be a Diamond Dog forever! My own sister attacked me when she saw me!"
Sweetie Belle coughed a couple times, and then couldn't hold back the tears that were hanging in her eyes. She fell to the ground and held her face in her massive hands, and sobbed. She let the tears flow out of her, rolling down the fur on her face and splashing onto the ground.
"I'll never be able to see my friends or my family ever again, and it's all because of you!" She cried, wiping her eyes on the back of her massive paws. "You did this to me."
Sparky whimpered again, but he didn't deny that he understood it was his fault. Instead he nodded, and silently admitted that, if he go back in time, he would have stopped himself from doing it to begin with. He didn't like seeing anyone or anypony being hurt, that's just who he was.
"If it's any consolation, you're not completely a Diamond Dog," Sparky whispered, twiddling his thumbs nervously.
Sweetie Belle's more sensitive ears picked up Sparky's words, in between fits of sobbing, and she lifted her head out of her paws and stared at him. "What do you mean I'm not completely a Diamond Dog. Last time I checked," she added, quickly examining her body, "there isn't an ounce of me that is pony!"
Sparky nodded. "It's kind of complicated. We're Equinines," he said, almost too quietly to hear. "During the day, we're ponies, but at night or in the complete absence of sunlight, we're Diamond Dogs. Biting you gave you my curse, and I'm really sorry."
Sweetie Belle just stared at Sparky in mild disbelief. She didn't quite understand what Sparky was saying. Equinines? What the hay are those? She shook her head violently, as she tried to process the information, but inevitably fell on her back and groaned in annoyance. "I don't understand what you're talking about."
Sparky got up from his desk and sat on the floor, next to Sweetie Belle. "I know this is a lot to take in, but your entire life isn't completely over."
"I'm a pony during the day?" She asked, trying to wrap her head around the scenario.
"And a Diamond Dog at night," Sparky nodded. "Of course, if you ever go underground, even during the day, you'll almost immediately turn into a Diamond Dog. It's the absence of sunlight that causes our transformation into Dogs, rather than moonlight, though from what I've been told moonlight can definitely accelerate it."
Sweetie Belle blinked a couple times, letting a few stray tears escape her eyes. She could go home? She could see Rarity again! She could be with her mom and dad, and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo! Her life wasn't over!
"We have to go to the surface!" Sweetie Belle squeaked, hopping to her feet. "I have to be up there when the sun rises!"
"Digging up is a lot harder than digging down," Sparky explained, "but if you really want to, I'll help you. I know of a tunnel that leads right under the outskirts of Ponyville."
Sweetie Belle couldn't contain her jubilance, as this was the best news she had heard all night. She was going home! She could explain everything to Rarity and make everything okay again! Nopony would need to worry about her! And Scootaloo and Applebloom! They'd understand what was wrong with her! They might even be able to help her find a cure or a countercurse!
"What are we waiting for?" She squeaked hopping to her feet. "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"
Sparky nodded, and then grabbed her hand. Sweetie Belle blushed at his touch but didn't ask him to stop, and she simply allowed him to lead her out of the classroom, back out into the massive cavern of Diamondville, and through the snaking streets. At the back of her head, Sweetie Belle knew they were heading east. She wanted to think about how she knew that, but she felt it was just her Diamond Dog instincts telling her a direction, and was absolutely harmless. Several of the other Diamond Dogs caught their eye as they ran past, but Sweetie Belle ignored them and continued to let Sparky pull her through town. When they started reaching the edge of town, buildings were replaced with holes in the ground and tunnels in the cavern walls.
"We'll have to dig upwards in that one," Sparky said, pointing to a smaller cave. "Come on!"
As soon as they were in the tunnel, Sparky let go of Sweetie Belle's hand and started attacking the cave ceiling with his razor sharp claws. The cave seemed to be made out of ancient and well-formed stone, yet Sparky was having no trouble digging through the surface. After a couple minutes, he broke through to the dirt on the other side.
"This is where it gets kind of tricky," Sparky whimpered. "You'll have to stand on my shoulders and make this tunnel big enough for me to climb into, then I can make it longer and start digging upwards."
Sweetie Belle nodded and climbed up onto Sparky's shoulders, using the tunnel he had just created to support her weight, and then began to dig. She really didn't like digging, as it was getting dirt under her claws and all over her fur, but she simply allowed her instincts to take over and started grabbing large pawfuls of dirt, tossing them to the side. It was slow going, and it was hard staying perfectly balanced on Sparky's shoulders, but after nearly thirty minutes of straight digging, she finally had made the tunnel long enough for him to climb into.
"Good job, Sweetie," he smiled, and jumped straight into the tunnel. Unlike Sweetie Belle, who had been slow and steady with her digging, Sparky was fast, throwing several pawfuls of dirt out of the tunnel with each second. After a few seconds of digging, Sparky reached down, out of the tunnel, and grabbed Sweetie Belle's paw, pulling her into the tunnel with him. "Just dig your claws into the wall, like this," he said, demonstrating, "and they'll be able to support your weight. And whatever you do, don't look down."
Sweetie Belle nodded, and followed Sparky up the tunnel as he continued climbing up the tunnel, making it longer and longer, reaching up towards the surface. Sweetie Belle lost herself in the tunnel, becoming one with the cave wall. Time seemed to move slower and faster at the same time, and in some ways it felt like time didn't even exist at all. It wasn't a scary feeling, but it was…
Disturbing.
She didn't like how comfortable she felt while digging a tunnel. She didn't like the way that digging felt like safety in and of itself. She didn't want to like it, but she did.
She lost track of how long they had been digging, but when they finally broke through the surface, there were thin beams of sunglight shining through the tunnel.
"Get out quickly!" Sparky shouted, clambering out of the tunnel. "Before your claws turn back into hooves!"
Knowing that her Diamond Dog claws were the only thing keeping her pinned the tunnel wall, Sweetie Belle tried to hurry as best as she could, but she was already too late. Already her claws were shrinking, turning back into hooves. She could feel her horn growing back out, her fingers merging into a singular digit. It was getting harder and harder to climb. Her tail changed shape, reverting back into the fluffy pink tuft of fur that she loved so much. The shaggy diamond dog fur that coated her body shrunk away, quickly being changed back into the bright white coat that was so very much hers. She could feel her jaw changing shape, and her vision darkened as her eyes reverted back into those of a pony.
And her claws were failing her.
"Sparky! Help! I can't on much longer!" She cried, barely able to hold on to the cavern wall.
Suddenly, a pair of grey hooves shot into the tunnel, grabbing Sweetie Belle and dragging her up and out. "I've got you!" She heard Sparky say, in a softer, more pony-like voice. "You're okay!"
Sweetie Belle once again stood on four hooves, admiring her reverted body, and allowed a few happy tears to roll down her cheeks. She was filthy, and probably stank of Diamond Dog, but she was okay, and a pony! She could go home to Rarity and explain everything!
But what about Sparky?
Sweetie Belle turned around and looked at Sparky, who was trying to hide behind a tree. "What are you doing? Get over here and let me thank you properly!" She cheered happily, waving him over.
"I don't want you to see me like this," Sparky whimpered.
"Oh come on, you can't be that ugly, can you? I mean, you were a rather cute Diamond Dog, after all."
A grey coat and yellow mane peaked out from behind the tree, and Sweetie Belle felt her jaw hit the ground.
