Their hooves clamped in a rhythmic manner on the dirt road as they headed straight for Ponyville, determined to reach their third member to eventually begin their search. Sweetie Belle didn’t much like the fact she was going behind Rarity’s back, but she wanted to know more, she only had her sister in her life and a family in her mind, she wanted that to be a reality, no matter how her possible divorced husband wronged in the past, the letter was all she could go off of, a daughter, a niece, a family that had been hidden from her for unknown reasons, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it and maybe even meet her.
She looked at her earth pony friend who ran beside her, matching her speed and softly smiled. She didn’t know how she got so lucky, ending up with friends that would stick beside through thick and thin. It had seemed like yesterday that they had stuck up for each other at Diamond Tiara's Cute-ceañera, without even knowing each other at the time, sure they’ve had their ups and downs, but friends haven’t? she was almost always able to count on them.
Shaking the thoughts out her mind, the unicorn looked forward with a more serious expression as they entered Ponyville, only to stop at a screeching halt. The streets of Ponyville had been more packed than usual, the two mares tilted their head in unison, curious on the happenstance that had befell the town. A top on Sweetie Belle’s right shoulder sprung her to life, she looked over to be greeted by an orange coated, fuschia maned pegasus that had flown over to them when she took notice of their whereabouts. Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom’s eyes beamed, happy to have not had to navigate through the army of colts and mares in their wake.
They had clapsed onto each other for a moment, hugging in a warm embrace. Glad to have had the gang all grouped together, they then got up and walked some distance away from the crowd with Sweetie Bell catching Scootaloo up to speed on the letter and their speculations to the possibilities they held.
“So we only really have this letter to go off of, would that make investigating a little more difficult?” Scootaloo began to question, leaning up against a random building that had stopped at, fore-hooves crossed.
“You said it yourself, Rarity pretty much said she burnt the rest, so there isn’t much we garner from this besides the words of a dying pony.”
“Yes but Rarity was hysterical,” Sweetie Belle said in retaliation, sitting on the ground next to the pegasus.
“Being dramatic is her usual schtick, especially when exhausted, so I don’t really believe her.”
Y’all calling her a liar?” Apple Bloom asked, standing in between both ponies.
“Well she did keep this type of info to herself, wouldn’t that be good grounds for such claims?” Sweetie Belle asked, giving a more passive aggressive tone as she looked up at the yellow earth pony.
“Fair enough, I guess,” Apple Bloom shrugged, being reminded of that little tidbit.
“There’s got to be more, more than just this one,” Sweetie Belle started, staring down at the ground beneath her for a moment in thought, until she stood up, lightbulb glowing overhead.
“I think I know where we should start, come on girls!” She said as she took off with haste.
Without time to question, the other two follow suit, speeding off with the unicorn. It had now turned night as the ponies made it to their destination. Their ears had perked up as music had played low in the distance, they wondered about it for a second before putting their heads back into the game. They had noticed the door to the boutique had been left on locked and proceeded to push it open, it had let out a low but elastic creak that reverberated off the walls of the emptied apparel shop. They had then split up to cover more ground with Sweetie Belle making her way upstairs, a gnarly smell made her girned as she had reached the very top, she looked to the right.
Right next to the bathroom door down the hallway, Opale’s litter box laid, it hadn’t recently been cleaned, she groaned, planning to deal with it later. She turned to the left and went straight for her room, opening the door, and pulling her saddlebag out just in case they were able to gather anything. She proceeded towards the kitchen to retrieve a plastic bag from one of the cabinets of the integrated sink. When she entered, she was greeted by Apple Bloom, who was about to come upstairs to get her.
“I found something y’all are going to want to see,” she said, using her left fore-hoof to gester to the complete mess on the dining table.
A piece of paper had stuck out of the dirty dishes that had piled on the table. Her horn had lit as she took the paper and eyed it carefully. It was a birth certificate with the name “Serenade Archambeau” in bold ink, and the birth date, July ninth, eight hundred thirty eighth, located directly at the bottom with the place of birth being at the very top, no hospital name was stated but the town was, “Briehoof”. After a quick examination, Sweetie Belle undid the button on the right side of the saddlebag, slid it in and then secured it, she then used her horn to levitate the dishes over to the sink and sat them in the bowl of it.
She gazed down while getting a plastic bag and noticed that Opale’s food and water bowl were completely empty, this made her wonder, since clearly Rarity was down here, judging by the mess she left, did she even realize to take into consideration the needs of the house cat, as soon as that thought had came, it crosses her mind that she had admittedly been doing the same thing for a couple of days now, she levitated the water bowl over to the sink, quickly switching on and off the cold water, and placed the now full bowl down.
From the cabinet she pulled out a plastic bag, a box of kitty litter, and the cat food that had been placed there some time ago. She poured the cat food into the food bowl until it was filled to the brim and left the bag out, in case Rarity came back to her senses. Sweetie Belle had turned around, bag and kitty litter floating next to her, and noticed that Apple Bloom had vanished from her line a vision, thinking she had went off to search another part of the boutique with her not having heard her leaving the room, she went back upstairs and started cleaning out the litter box, she levitated the box over, opened the bag and began to pour the content down, making sure to not make any unwelcome mess. She tied the bag and sat the box back in place, now pouring in the kitty litter, again, making sure not to spill anything.
Her ears lifted high as she hears shuffling coming from her sister’s room, she left the kitty litter and bag behind as she peered into the room, it was pitch black, except for a yellow glow, that was shifting slightly with each shuffle, until it had looked towards where Sweetie Belle had been, giving a meow as the lights switched on. Revealing Opalescence, who had gone back to pawing at something underneath the bed. Sweetie Belle stared at the bed top, Rarity wasn’t there, this would be easy then. The mare had walked over to the left bedside, taking the white house cat, wrapping her fore-hooves around her and had set her on the bed, taking note of the now dried stain next to her.
She heard the clamping of multiple sets of hooves climbing up the stairs and she made her horn glow and peered under the bed, finding an old and recently clawed box. The door opened wider as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom burst into the scene, all the while Sweetie Belle had pulled the box out and set it next to Opale, the cat jumped as she was cleaning herself and gave the box a bap before continuing to cleanse herself.
“I couldn’t find anything,” Scootaloo began, watching as Sweetie Belle flicked off the loose lid of the box.
“And I’m sort of starting to feel uncomfortable going through your sister’s belongings, and I know tha-”
She was cut off when an audible gasp escaped the unicorn's lips. The box held a numerous amount of things, most importantly, letters that held the same symbol as the letter she had pulled from the mail.
“I knew it!” Sweetie Belle shouted in excitement.
“I knew there was more and you didn’t want to believe me,” She said pointing a hoof at Apple Bloom.
“I never said I didn’t,” She retorted.
“And y’all are acting like a filly.”
“We got to bring these back to the treehouse, the whole box,” The pale mare began planning out the next day.
“We can all sleep up there and then search through it in the morning!”
“But the sleeping bags in there won’t fit us, I’ve seen y’all struggle to rest wrapping three of them around y’all self,” Apple Bloom stated, starting to yawn from a day of investigating.
“Plus it’s very late and I don’t want to make that long trip over there,” Scootaloo said, adding onto the earth pony’s comment.
“Hmm, you’re both right about that,” Sweetie Belle began, yawning as if it was on queue.
“You both can sleep over then!”
“You both can share my bed and I will sleep here for tonight, I should have an extra blanket in my chest,” she said as she sat the box on the ground.
They both agreed and exited to the right of the room, opening and closing the door in the next room over. Sweetie Belle gave a tired stretch before tucking herself in with Opale curled next to her, she began to close her eyes, until she realized the front door was still unlocked, she then promptly went and locked it, she turned but then thought “what if Rarity came back?” She turned to the door and then turned back.
“If she left out, I’m sure she would’ve taken a key with her right,” She thought out loud.
“Then again she might still be weary from those sleepless days, ugh!” She groaned loudly, not knowing what to do.
She fought with herself back and forth until a new thought ranged out.
“What if someone tries to break in?”
That thought overtook every other argument in her head, that was her voice of reason, Rarity is a very popular pony, so what if? She turned and went back to Rarity’s room and tucked herself back in with Opale still curled up in the same spot, her eyelids gilded over slowly and then shut, taking in long slow breaths as she slept the night away.