In their tutor room, the crusaders were talking about what they should try next to get their cutie marks. Canterlot High School offered a wide variety of extra curricular clubs and they had just received a pamphlet detailing the tens of clubs available.
"What about embroidery?" Apple Bloom asked.
"That sounds good," Shiner said.
"My mom was really good at embroidery," Sweetie Belle commented.
Scootaloo and Shiner stared at her, their wings being kept folded tight.
"...and?" Scootaloo asked.
"I don't want the same cutie mark as her!" Sweetie Belle complained.
"Well there's a ton of other clubs we can do," Apple Bloom continued, "gymnastics, cooking, art..."
"All of them sound fun," Shiner commented.
"Yeah, but I want something we know we're good at," Scootaloo sighed.
Sweetie Belle looked at her copy of the pamphlet, then gasped, "what about working for the school paper?"
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, followed by Shiner in a delay, quickly shoved their heads to where Sweetie Belle pointed with her hoof and saw 'The Canterlot High Tribune: JOURNALISTS WANTED!' printed in large, red letters.
"That's what we're doing!" Apple Bloom smiled.
Shiner questioned this choice, referring to the previous Gabby Gums problem, but they were sure to only document the truth. They quickly wrote out application forms and handed them to their tutor teacher, Chemist Carpenter; a light-olive green unicorn with grey hair and a bushy mustache and then happily trotted out of the classroom.
***
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders, GO!
We're on an adventure, we're on a quest,
to find out what we do the best.
Our cutie marks are what we seek,
we'll push our selves every day of the week!
Cutie Mark Crusaders! Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Apple Bloom's the handy one,
give her work in a minute it is done.
Sweetie Belle, she just loves to sing,
she wrote this song, it has her ring.
Scootaloo is rad and cool,
try her stunts and you'll look like a fool.
But then Shiner already has his mark but,
he'll help us catch our cutie marks!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusa~ders!
There's no limit to what we will try!
No matter how many rules we will defy,
WE WILL GET OUR CUTIE MARKS IN TIME!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders YEAH!
***
After school hours, the crusaders made their way to the English block and to room A11, where the meeting for the newspaper would take place. Apple Bloom opened the door to see that only one pony was there so far, and that was Shady Daze. Much older in appearance now, he was a well known colt around the school; mainly for his impressive work on the paper in previous years. He greeted them as they entered the room and took seats. For a moment they sat in awkward silence until a few more ponies entered the room and the meeting was ready to begin.
"So where's the leader? Who's running this joint?" Scootaloo asked.
Shady Daze took a sweep of his head and looked over the present ponies, "not here ye-" he was interrupted by the door swinging open.
The crusaders gasped at who they saw enter the room, somepony they had not seen in years (or so they thought.) It was a pink earth pony with light purple and white hair, styled different than how it used to be and on her flank was the cutie mark of a tiara, but not just any tiara. One made of diamonds.
"Sorry I'm late," she said with a tone of voice that sounded like she did not mean her apology, "I had other things to do."
She trotted to the front desk, eyes shut and took a seat, then opened her eyes and reviewed the ponies before her. Her pupils dilated at the last three ponies she saw. 'Crusaders' she thought to herself. They were all gazing at her with unimpressed emotions detailed in each of their eyes, but she ignored this and began to speak to the whole room.
"You all probably know me, but if for some absurd reason you don't; my name is Diamond Tiara. As head of the Canterlot High Tribune, it is my duty to set you all jobs. Does everypony know what they want to do? To save me the trouble of course," she said with a lack of care.
The tens of ponies gathered mumbled to each other and looked to Diamond Tiara and nodded slowly, it was visible that they were all uncertain as to whether they liked her.
"Well whatever it is, write it down on a piece of paper and pass it to the front. It's gonna take a lot of time to go through each of you individually," she sighed as a unicorn pony handed out pieces of paper with magic, "write down your name and what you wanna do, then pass it to the front and you can go. I'll see you next week."
She looked at the ponies as they wrote their decisions, then to the Crusaders as they struggled between themselves to make a choice. Soon enough, the four of them were the only ponies left.
"Will you guys just hurry up? I want to get home," Diamond Tiara complained.
Apple Bloom looked up from their discussion and glared at her, Shiner then apologised but Scootaloo told him to be quiet. The girls couldn't agree on a part for the job, but Shiner agreed to every suggestion; he mainly did this because he didn't want to disappoint or upset anypony. This caught Diamond Tiara's attention and she studied him more. Eventually, the crusaders decided to get stories like they did for the Foal Free Press.
"So Diamond Tiara," Sweetie Belle asked, "why haven't we seen you at school these past few years?"
Diamond Tiara gasped and looked at them with angry eyes, "I've been here all the time that you have! Have you not noticed me?"
"Sorry!" Shiner quickly said. Scootaloo put a hoof to his mouth.
The three trotted out of the room giggling, they legitimately had not actually noticed Diamond Tiara in the past few years and saw this as a way to annoy her. Shiner looked back to see her staring at him through the glass on the door and quickly looked away.
Half an hour later the group was on the late-train ready to go home and it had just started its journey back from Canterlot to Ponyville. As usual, the four were sat on chairs around a table with Scootaloo next to Shiner and Apple Bloom next to Sweetie Belle. The train quickly left the school station.
Scootaloo turned to her lover, "isn't it your turn to get snacks today?" she asked.
He nodded, "of course! What does everypony want?"
The girls gave him their orders, then he pulled a bag of bits from his school saddlebags and trotted to the snack cart, which was about two down from the one they were sat in. He asked for the treats to the mare behind the counter and turned around to see Diamond Tiara smiling at him. Her stare made him somewhat uncomfortable.
"Uh...hi Diamond Tiara," he managed to say.
"Hey Shiner! Glad I saw you here actually."
"Why's that?"
"Well, I feel that I'll need to know what I'm working with on the school paper, I've never seen your writing before so I was hoping if you could do something for me?" she explained.
He raised an eyebrow, knowing of his friends' past rivalry with the earth pony. With caution he asked, "and what would that be?"
"Well, my class' English homework was to write a piece of non-fiction text on something. Maybe to prove what you can do for the paper, you could do mine? It'd be great to see what you could do!" Diamond Tiara smiled again.
Shiner had to think for a moment. He was a kind pony down to his heart, not one to usually say no to a favor; but he didn't really think of this as a favor. But this colt was not a pony to say no. With a smile he accepted the favor, to which Diamond Tiara pulled a notebook from her saddlebags and gave it over to him. He was unsure of what he may have been getting himself into.
The next morning, again in their tutor room, the crusaders had nothing to do; though this was usual for tutor mornings. Their teacher, Carpenter Chemist, had not yet arrived, but when he did, he rushed in looking worried and exhausted. He was trying to get the class' attention, but they were talking too loudly. He couldn't shout, so he looked to Shiner, who usually had to get everypony's attention. Not a pony to say no, Shiner sprung up and hovered in the air.
"QUIET! DR.CHEMIST IS TRYING TO TALK!" he shouted, then looked around as everypony was staring at him, "uh...thanks."
He flew down back into his seat, Scootaloo trying not to burst into hysterics over him. Dr.Chemist looked upon his class and took a deep breath before making his hurried and urgent announcement.
"I don't mean to scare anypony, but this is important news. I understand if you're surprised by this, so any sense of alarm is mutual," he began and took another breath.
"So what's the news, sir?" Apple Bloom asked.
"The young royal, Prince Regal Crown, has been reported as missing," he announced.
The class gasped in unison as if they had rehearsed it. Sweetie Belle looked to be the most concerned of all as her face instantly transformed into a frown of gloom and worry. The class quickly turned to muttering again; most with the news they had just heard, others with the awesome party that Grape Punch threw the previous night. Apple Bloom looked to the rest of the crusaders with a smirk.
"Gals...and colt," she sniggered to Shiner, "looks like we've got our first story!"
"You think we should report on Regal Crown?" Scootaloo asked for confirmation.
"Ah think we should do it, it'd be a good start to the new paper right?"
Shiner and Scootaloo nodded, but Sweetie Belle still looked confused.
"What exactly are we gonna do though? We can't exactly interview him," she said.
Apple Bloom paused for thought, "maybe we could talk to Shining Armor and Cadance?"
"Yeah! We were their bridesmares! We could easily meet them," Scootaloo noted.
"It could take a while to get to speak to them though," Shiner added, "I think we should do it! But let's focus on some other stuff in the mean time."
Chemist Carpenter spoke up again since the class was still somewhat quiet, "also, I'll be giving out forms for our school's residential. It's at Buckinghamshire Manor, some groups of ponies have gone already, but they haven't come back yet. It's been a month. I guess they just wanted to stay a little longer, but have a look at the letter and give in the forms by next week if you want to go."
He then walked around handing out paper with his unicorn magic. Eventually he got to the crusaders who eagerly took the letters.
"Look at this! Zip lines, archery...why, this place is lit'raly shouting 'CUTIE MARKS' at us!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.
The others examined the paper before them, but then the bell rang to begin the day and they stuffed the sheets into their saddlebags.
First lesson, Shiner had history, a lesson which which none of the others shared. He trotted down the many stairs from his tutor room, located at the very top of the science block, with Scootaloo who was headed in a similar direction. The two embraced before they split at the bottom and Shiner went along to history. He waited outside for the teacher to call them in, then Diamond Tiara approached him.
"Oh, Diamond Tiara!" Shiner smiled, "what are you doing here?"
"I'm in your class..." Diamond Tiara said with a hint of frustration.
"You are?" Shiner then realised he had to be nice, "oh yeah! Of course! Silly me! Hey, I have your English work here!"
He fumbled a wing through his saddlebag and passed a book to Diamond Tiara. She sat on the ground and flicked through it with her hooves to find the homework Shiner had done for her. She smiled to herself somewhat evilly.
"Good work, Shiner, good work. You'll be an excellent addition to the newspaper team!" she said with a fake grin.
Shiner laughed and told her it was his pleasure, then they were called in to class.
Afterwards, Shiner had exited when Diamond Tiara came to him again with a forced look of worry on her face. She looked Shiner dead on in the eyes to make him ask her what was wrong. He did quickly, being the pony he was.
"Well, the homework that Mr.Baker set us sounded hard...I didn't know what it meant," she whimpered.
"Oh. Well I understood it, maybe I could explain it to you?" Shiner offered.
Diamond Tiara acted a sigh and looked to a wall, "I still don't think I would understand it, Shiner."
"Okay...so what do you want me to do?" Shiner asked.
"Do you think...maybe you could do just this one homework for me?" she asked helplessly, "you did such a great job on my English homework..."
Shiner could detect the sheer desperate tone in her voice, but he didn't know it was all spurious behavior. He nodded to her and with a huge sigh and thanks, she gave him her book. She was liking where this was going. She would have less time bothering with homework because she could take advantage of Shiner's kind nature. Now she could focus on getting herself known in the school. With a colt doing anything she wanted, the name of Diamond Tiara would be common talk at Canterlot High.