If I had payed attention

Chapter one

An MLP fanfiction

By CandyCorn Rainbow

A/N: Chapter one! Yeah! I'm really into this now and don't think I will stop! I have lost my creativity for I'm sorry and may not post chapters for that in a while, sorry! I want to, but I don't know what to do with that or where it's going!

Sweetie belle opened her eyes and glared at the harsh brightness that was the sun peeking through her window. She stood up and pushed aside the light violet drapes and pushed the window open. She gazed upon Ponyville with a small bubble of happiness growing in her stomach. With one big breath of air, she walked over to her vanity. She had gotten it from Rarity for Hearthswarming eve last year, and she loved it, even though the pink stood out in her violet and white themed room. She picked up her comb in a green aura of unicorn magic and brushed her mane out, making sure it curled like it usually did. She had been letting her mane grow out, and was quite proud of how long it was.

She hopped down the stairs of her and Rarity's house and smiled at her sister, who was sipping coffee at the table, a large mess of papers in front of her. Sweetie poured herself her own cup of coffee and added a ton of sugar before walking over to her sister and looking at what Rarity was focused on. "I would put a bow here." She pointed at a part of the dress plan her sister was staring at. Rarity stared at the sport for a moment before nodding.

"I see. The dress is blue. What color?"

"Violet. Or sea foam green." She sat at the other end of the table and began to down the coffee.

"I'm going down to Manehattan to buy some supplies. Want to come with?" Rarity began to pack her things into a large white saddlebag. Sweetie belle shook her head.

"As much as I love shopping with you, I have plans today..." She grinned into her sugary concoction.

Rarity put her saddlebag on and jabbed her in the side lightly. "With Scootaloo?" She grinned like an older sibling does when teasing their brother or sister.

"Maybeeee..." She laughed. Her sister seemed to think that her and Scootaloo were the best couple, although most ponies didn't like the idea. She stood up and put her coffee mug in the sink. She rinsed it out and walked to the door, where she picked up her own bag. "I'm off!"

"Have fun!"

"I plan on it!" Sweetie Belle walked outside into the crisp morning air. It stung her lungs, but was so exhilarating she couldn't help but take in a deep breath. She walked down the path to the library. Her and Scootaloo had a study day planned. She smiled to herself, and went around the bend. Then she stopped in her tracks.

Smoke. She saw the smoke before the acrid tang hit her nose and made her eyes water. She saw ponies screaming, and crying. A young mare was helping a filly who looked similar to her run, but the child was limping. Wet blood followed in a trail behind her, and Sweetie Belle felt the bile rise in her throat. She ran to help.

Before she could reach the two, something flew behind them. Another pony. The young child was thrown across the sky in a flash of silvery blue. She hit a building and sank to the ground, unmoving. Sweetie Belle craned her neck to so the attacker, and felt another wave of sickness.

Scootaloo. She hovered there on wings that worked, a sickening sight. Blood dripped from her front hooves. It splashed onto the ground in a dancing red, thick and metallic. Her eyes were dark, and her long magenta mane was a mess. She grinned. "Look at me! I can fly!" She swooped down until her face was inches from the white unicorn's, who was frozen in fear. "Why couldn't your magic do this?" she hissed.

"S-Scoot... What's going on?" Sweetie tried to back away, but her fear held her tight. She could smell the blood on Scootaloo. It made her sick.

"I can fly. All I needed was some magic. You have magic..." Scootaloo flew behind her and pressed a hoof on her back, pressing the white mare to the ground. "Why the fuck couldn't you help me?!" She shouted into Sweetie's ear. The unicorn cringed.

"I d-didn't know you could do that!" She yelled back, struggling. The blood on her friends hooves leaked down her back. It made her struggle harder.

A loud beating sound came from above, like large wings. "Scootaloo! We don't have time for this. We need to get moving!" A loud voice demanded. The entire area fell silent. Sweetie Belle recognized this voice, but it had a menacing crackle to it. Bitterly twisted. Nightmare Moon.

Scootaloo lifted upwards, to the sky. Sweetie Belle spun herself around to see Scootaloo and Nightmare Moon hovering above her. Both were glaring, and a drop of blood on Scootaloo's hoof landed on Sweetie's nose. She shook as the two mares flew south. She couldn't move from shock. What had happened to Scoot? Since when did she... she shook her head. She had to report this to Twilight. She began running to the castle, Kicking up dust as she moved as fast as she could. Many ponies were running in the opposite direction, to the burning library.

She ran up the glittering steps and banged on the doors with her hooves as loudly as possible. The doors opened and a small green and purple dragon looked up at her. "Spike!" She cried. "I need to see Twilight, it's an emergency!"

The dragon looked her up and down with his green eyes filled to the brim with concern. "O-Okay!" he ran off in a rush. A few minutes later he came back with a tall alicorn. Her deep blue hair, with purple and magenta streaks, was in a ponytail, and her eyes were narrowed with worry and loss of sleep.

"Sweetie Belle? What's going on?"

"S-Scootaloo... Nightmare moon! S-She's back. Then library... on fire." She swallowed. "A-Attacked me... I think Nightmare Moon gave her wings! T-That work..." She couldn't talk. Her mind was racing and her head began to spin and her vision blacked out. "Go h-help!" She collapsed.

When she woke up, Sweetie Belle was in a bed. Somepony was talking but she couldn't make out what they were saying. She felt something sharp and painful in her arm and with great difficulty she turned her head to see that it was an IV. She groaned. Was she in a hospital? It smelled like it. A mix of chemicals and generic laundry detergent. On her other arm there was a white paper strip with her name and room number on it.

"Can I see her?" she heard a familiar voice on the other end of the room, outside the door. Rarity.

"If she's awake." A male voice said quietly as the door opened. A brown colt walked in, with her sister next to him. Sweetie forced a smile.

"Hey." She croaked. Rarity ran to her side and burst into tears. She placed a hoof atop Sweetie Belle's.

"Had I not gone to Manhattan... I could have known there was something wrong and come faster! Are you hurt?"

"It's okay. I wasn't hurt. I saw a filly..." She swallowed. "I saw Scootaloo attack a filly... She was flying, Rarity! How was she flying?"

Rarity took her other hoof and stroked her sister's hair. "I don't know, Sweetie, I don't." She let a few tears fall onto the bedsheets. The sunk in and left little dark circles. "Had you been in the library any earlier... No I don't want to think about losing you in a fire, too..." she was referring to how their parents had died about two years earlier. They were returning home from a trip, and Sweetie Belle had just started collage. The train crashed and was set on fire. Both parents had died. After that her and Sweetie never took a train anywhere ever again.

Sweetie Belle felt her own tears rising into her crisp green eyes. She bit her lip. Throughout this exchange the doctor had stayed silent, but he then spoke up. "Miss Belle. You were sent in because Miss Princess Twilight was concerned for your health. According to her, you hit your head on a pillar as you slipped into unconsciousness." he looked at his clipboard. "You should be fine, if you are awake so soon. Let me just have a look at your eyes and we'll be good to go."

Rarity moved out of the way as the doctor came over to her and leaned in to see her eyes. He watched them and shined lights in them for a little while before nodding and scribbling something on the clipboard. "Just take this slip and have her wear a wristband that the nurse will give you and she should be fine." He handed Rarity a doctor's note and set his clipboard on the shiny metal counter. "Come on then." He helped her out of the bed and let her lean on Rarity as they went back to the front desk. Sweetie Belle felt dizzy, and still sick to her stomach.

They went up to the granite counter, where a deep purple mare sat, typing away at the keyboard in front of her. She looked up at Rarity. "Watcha need, Sugar?" she asked in a thick voice.

"The doctor said we needed to get her a wristband...?" Rarity looked awkwardly around.

"Ya got a note?"

Rarity handed her the note in a blue magical aura. The lady looked at it, handed it back to Rarity, and stood up. "Gimme two minutes." She went to the back area and returned with a pink wristband. It had some words Sweetie didn't bother to read on it. "You show this to your teachers, and that note, so that they know you may go unconscious in classes, m'kay?" She smiled.

Sweetie Belle nodded woozily and let her sister lead her down to the bus stop. She was still leaning on her when she felt sick. "I-I'm gonna be sick." Rarity led her to a bush and looked awkwardly as Sweetie Belle let her stomach into the bushes. An acidic tang was left behind that was uncomfortable. The bus pulled up to the stop and Rarity led her aboard, purchasing their tickets. The driver gave them a concerned look and began the bus. There were only three other ponies on the whole bus. Rarity sat her down and looked at her. "Are you hungry?"

Sweetie Belle felt her stomach tug. "Y-yeah but I don't know if I can keep anything down right now." Her stomach was whirling, and her vision was still pretty fuzzy. Her mane was disheveled and all she wanted was something to eat and a bath.

"Do you want some vegetable soup?" Rarity asked, rubbing her back.

Sweetie could only nod meekly. She couldn't open her mouth for fear of being sick on the bus. She was too shocked. Scootaloo... what had happened to her? What was with Nightmare Moon? She felt her stomach to another twist.

When they got to the stop, Rarity pulled the stop string and helped Sweetie Belle up. The white unicorn staggered and moaned in pain as they walked up the front steps to the house. She was led to the soft plush couch, and she gratefully rested her head on the cool couch pillow. Rarity went off and got her a bucket from the utility closet that she could be sick in. Rarity smiled at her reassuringly. "I'll make you some soup. Here, watch the television. It'll distract you. I'll call Applebloom and see if she can bring you some ginger ale. She must be worried sick, and I have a feeling she might want to know about what happened."

Rarity walked off to call the Apple family and Sweetie Belle was left with a bucket and the television remote. She flipped to the news station. A gray colt was reading off a piece of paper, and a picture was next to his head. It was of a burnt down library. Sweetie Belle felt another wave of nausea. She vomited into the bucket.

She then turned her attention back to the colt. "Witnesses say they saw Nightmare Moon, an enemy Equestria had thought it got rid of many years ago. Here are some witnesses of the event." The screen changed to a powder pink pony whom had a very grave face.

"Thank you, Mic. Ponies are calling this event many different things. The main one is that this is an attack in hate of Celestia. The Solar Library, a fund-raised library donated to Ponyville by Princesses Twilight sparkle and Celestia, was made to celebrate the togetherness of everypony in Equestria. To set a fire in this building, and then attack the ponies within, well, that's one thing. But to have all the witnesses claim seeing Nightmare moon within the library only moments before... That's no coincidence. I have a few witnesses here to talk about what they saw."

Another screen change. The mare was now with three other ponies. Two of them Sweetie Belle recognized. The filly and her sister, and then another she didn't.

The one she didn't was a red colt, with a short purple mane. "Hello, you say you saw the arsonist?"

The older sister nodded her orange head, pink mane falling in and out of it's crisp bob cut. "She was an orange Pegasus. A-About as tall as us. She had really tiny wings, but then s-she talked to Nightmare Moon in the corner of the library... and her wings grew. They saw us and attacked. She kicked us about and we managed to get out..." The mare gripped her younger sister's shaking body, as if afraid she may be attacked again. "T-then Nightmare shouted at her, saying there was no time. She used her horn to start a fire, and they flew out, closing the doors behind them. Then the pony attacked up again. She kicked my sister at a wall, where she pretended to go unconscious. I saw the pony attack a white unicorn... she was coming to help us. She knew the pony..." The two ponies were shaking so much that another reporter came over and led them away, trying to soothe them.

The colt nodded. "I know the Pegasus. She was asking how to use the printer a few minutes before it happened. She was waiting for her girlfriend..." The colt shook his head. "I don't know, she seemed so sweet. She had a good sense of humor. I guess some ponies are what they seem to be..."

the reporter nodded. She then turned to the screen. "If you know anything about who these ponies are or where they may be, please call this number..." Sweetie Belle stopped watching the news and let out a heavy breath. She should call in. She made a mental note of the number and stood up on shaky legs. She walked over to the phone and picked it up, pressing the numbers into the keypad. It rang three times, and a husky male voice greeted her.

"Hello?"

"Yes... I-I know who the arsonist is..." Sweetie Belle's legs shook.

"You do? C-can we put this conversation on the news? It's pretty important..."

"Yes, that's fine..." She swallowed. She was turning Scootaloo in. The line beeped.

"Okay, you are on air! Who is it. Tell us everything you know!"

She took a deep breath and began. " I was going to the library to meet up with her. We were going to be studying for collage exams. Her name is Scootaloo. I was going there when I saw the smoke. I panicked, afraid she was in there. M-my parents died in a fire, and I wanted to make sure she was okay. I saw two ponies struggling, and as I was going to help them, Scoot attacked them. I was too scared to move. I didn't get hurt, but as she was leaving, I saw Nightmare Moon and her leaving. It has to be Nightmare's fault! Scoot had a disability! She couldn't fly..." She started to feel hot wet tears run down her face.

It was quiet before the man spoke again. "Thank you miss, this really helps. I-I'm sorry..."

"Thank you..." She hung up and went back to the couch, where she was sick again into the bucket. She sighed and rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.

She woke up a little bit later to somepony shaking her side. "Hey, sunshine..." Applebloom was hovering above her, eyes turning with worry. "I heard what happened. Y'okay?"

"No..." Sweetie Belle sat up. Applebloom handed her something. A bottle of ginger ale. "Thanks." She used her magic to unscrew the cap and take a swig. Her head felt better.

"Rarity made you some soup, but she went to bed. She was up all day talking to the police with me. Apparently, Scoot ain't nowhere to be found." Applebloom stood up. "Want a bowl?"

Sweetie Belle nodded and took another swig of the ginger ale. The bubbles tickled her tongue. Applebloom came back with two bowls of soup, and set one on a fold out table by the couch. "Here." She handed her a spoon.

"T-thanks." Sweetie realized how hungry she was and took a bite. It was thick, and had bits of carrots, celery, and potato in it. She took another bite.

"Ya' know, I'm not surprised..."

"At what?" Sweetie looked up.

"That Scoot did it. Think about it. A Pegasus who can't fly is promised the one thing she's always wanted in exchange for service. Plus that with evil magical juju and you get just what happened." Applebloom explained. Sweetie Belle was taken back. She was right. Scootaloo had always wanted to fly, and was never able to because of her disability... she sighed.

"Then it's our fault... Or at least mine. I never noticed..."

"It's not your fault. None of us could stop it!"

"But had I known she was so upset by it.. and I tried to find a spell to fix it... then..." She bit back the words she wanted to spit. She remembered what Scootaloo had said, and how right she was... "I can fly. All I needed was some magic. You have magic...Why the fuck couldn't you help me?!" She cringed. "I could have helped her, Applebloom, but I didn't why couldn't I have seen it sooner!" She let out a pained cry, the tears she had held back throughout the day let themselves break the barrier.

A/N: Holy shit I wrote this in one day! I amaze myself! I hope you liked this! Please review and tell me what you think!