Setting Things Straight

Chapter Four: Something Amiss

When Twilight Sparkle woke up, it was still dark. She felt the dampness of her pillow and the cool air penetrating her exposed body. Twilight was sure she had a nightmare, but she didn't remember anything about it at all. She was going to go back to sleep until she noticed that a pair of socks were laying down next to the front door. That's odd, Twilight thought. Spike usually takes such good care of ANYTHING he gets from Rarity. Curious about why Spike would do such a thing, she headed up to the bedroom.

There, Twilight Sparkle found that both beds were unoccupied and wondered why the two of them weren't in bed. After looking around the entire building for them with no success, she became worried. Twilight tried to think of where they would be, but the only place that came to mind was Rarity's boutique. Could he of come to Rarity's for revenge for rejecting him? No, I shouldn't even think that. Prince Blueblood may come off with the impression that he's rude, but maybe he's just socially awkward like me. Maybe I'll just head on to visit there to confirm that he wouldn't do something like that.

Before leaving, Twilight put her and Spike's socks to where their dirty laundry is kept and left a note. She promptly headed towards Rarity's house. When she got there, Twilight saw nothing out of the ordinary. Still, worries compelled her to go in. Everything in the Carousel Boutique seemed so peaceful when Twilight entered. Nothing was knocked down and it was rather quiet. Twilight debated with herself whenever to wake up Rarity and tell her what has been going on, or to just let her be. Prince Blueblood is the last pony that Rarity would want to come across, but there's always a chance she could help out.

Suddenly, the silence was broken by a series of screams coming from Rarity. Twilight Sparkle knew that she had to do something fast. She levitated a couch and hurried to Rarity's bedroom. Once she was in front of the door, Twilight heard Rarity saying, "You can do whatever you want with my face, I'll be beautiful any way you do me!"

Touched by Rarity's courage, Twilight Sparkle became determined. She rammed open the door with the furniture she picked up. "I'm coming for you Rarity!" she shouted

However, it appeared that Rarity was the only pony in the room and she still had her sleep mask on. She was now shrieking louder than before. When Rarity took off her mask, she became less panicked and more annoyed. "What the heck are you doing here at this time Twilight? I was going to have the perfect facial and you came and ruined my dream!"

"I'm really sorry about that." She put the couch down. "If it makes you feel any better, I could give you a facial right now. I remember what you taught me."

Noticing that Twilight probably wasn't on the same subject matter, Rarity said, "I would be fine with just knowing why you are even here at a time like this."

"Oh yeah, I should probably explain..." Twilight pondered for a bit before telling Rarity, "I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that Spike wasn't in bed. I searched the entire house for him to no avail. That was when I decided to come to your home."

Hearing that, Rarity got out of bed. Twilight got a good look of the lavender, elegantly designed, see-through lingerie she had on. "That still doesn't explain why you broke down my bedroom door with my sofa."

"About that, your screaming made it sound like you were in danger."

"I assure you, my screams were of pleasure, not terror." Still embarrassed, she added, "I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone else about that."

"Will do."

"Anyways, I'm up now and I am willing to help you find Spike."

"That's great!" Twilight didn't know how to go about the topic of Prince Blueblood with Rarity, so she thought of something to buy time. "Maybe we should look all over your house just to make sure."

"It's worth a try." Rarity took off her lingerie and tossed it at a wall before she headed off to another room.

Even after trotting through some rooms, Twilight couldn't think of a good way to bring about somepony her potential aide loathes. She ran out of time when Rarity called her down.

Once Twilight Sparkle was beside her, Rarity stated, "If he's not here, I fear that something happened to Spike."

"Actually, I have to tell you something."

"What would that be?"

"You see... I got an assignment from Princess Celestia." She continued once Rarity encouraged her to. "Her letter told me that I had to make a pony who was behaving badly to be nicer."

"What does this have to do with Spike?"

"Well, I guess I have to tell who the pony is for this to make any sense..."

"Go ahead."

"Princess Celestia made her nephew stay over at my home. Even though he has been mean so far, I have tried to be as nice as I could."

"I can't believe that! I bet that he's a sociopath who tricked Celestia into thinking that he could be reformed. Even though he's related to her, you don't have to treat him with any respect at all. You know that I saw what a jerk he is."

"I don't think that she would be fooled that easily. Princess Celestia has lived for over a thousand years after all, so she's probably right."

"Just because Celestia is the most powerful pony does not mean she's infallible. No one is perfect, not even her."

Twilight felt a little uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, so she said, "Well, if both Spike and him are missing, maybe Spike tried going after him."

"Do you have any good ideas on where he is headed? I would love to give him a piece of my mind!"

"I haven't thought of anyplace, but I'm sure that we could eliminate some areas he would never go to."

"Well, I know that he would never go to Sweet Apple Acres. Apparently, he's too good for apples." Rarity then began to mock Prince Blueblood. "My lips have touched common carnival fare! I think I'm going to die!"

Despite the fact that she was trying to be as nice to possible to him earlier, Twilight Sparkle couldn't help but resist laughing with Rarity. Suddenly, Twilight came up with an idea. "We're more likely to find him if we split up. Let's assume that he is currently in Ponyville, so let's search there."

"That sounds fine so far. Do you have any plans on how we should go about?"

"I was thinking that one of us should search from the inner most part of the town and work her way out, while the other would circle around the outskirts before searching deeper."

"We could do that. I'll start from the outside if you don't mind."

"That's alright."

Twilight Sparkle and Rarity headed out of the boutique to begin their search. Before they split off, Rarity gave her friend some advice, "You shouldn't act like a doormat to Prince Douchebag. No matter what you do, he'll be a jerk to you. Maybe Celestia is just testing you out to see if you know that you can't change certain ponies to be decent."

As Twilight headed to the center of Ponyville to start her search, she thought about what Rarity said to her. Prince Blueblood didn't seem mean to Spike for whatever reason, and despite sometimes being vague, Celestia would never lie to her star pupil. There must be a way for Prince Blueblood to want to better himself.

I changed the content rating to M, because of the scene with Rarity.