Under normal circumstances, one of the most important things to do would have been finding somepony to blame. And even in the middle of what had just turned into one of the greatest crises of her life, Diamond really wanted to do that. Pause, order the events of the last few days to march through her head, put every last moment through an exacting review, and then decide exactly who was going to wind up suffering for it. Deservedly. Which was a fully separate category from the suffering she was experiencing, because that clearly wasn't deserved at all.
Diamond still felt that it was crucial to pin down a source for everything which had just gone horribly wrong. She just couldn't afford to think about it while stopped. Standing frozen in the aisle while Jestine stared at her was wasting time and all the worse --
He's probably on the date right now. It wouldn't take that long to reach the post office if he was picking her up after she finished messing up all of her work. Or her home.
Maybe her home.
...I don't know where she lives...
...maybe she's on the outskirts of town. Or right up against the fringe, like Ms. Fluttershy. Maybe he's still on the way there...
..or he's with the mailmare right now and all of those flowers were for her.
-- doing so when it might have already run out.
No.
...maybe there's still a chance...
The adult was looking at her. The expression struck Diamond as being slightly odd, yet completely explicable. It seemed to be the face of a mare who'd just watched somepony fail to make a single movement for far too long a time, and was just now beginning to wonder where the basilisk was.
"Is there something else?" Jestine carefully asked.
"No," Diamond lied. "I'll just go home."
I have to find him.
Maybe it isn't too late.
I have to --
Jestine nodded. Diamond turned, found that her legs were working with somewhat more speed and fluidity than earlier. She accurately concluded that an adrenaline dump was temporarily compensating for lack of calories, and also decided to give the surge all of the credit for why all four knees kept wanting to shake.
She wanted to go directly for the front doors. Gallop out into the cold winter night, search. And she couldn't, because all of her things were in the employee area, stored within that personal locker. Galloping from the store would draw far too much attention, and doing so while leaving everything behind...
So she had to go into the back of the store. Get dressed, and of course that was taking at least three times the duration which would have been required if a certain colt had just gone and said the right words already. Words which, as far as Diamond was concerned, should have been voiced two moons and three layers ago. So at least part of this was now Snails' fault. She'd have to make sure to tell him that, although only at the proper time. And in order to keep from sabotaging herself, that was going to be at least four dates in --
-- get the leggings on faster --
-- faster than this --
-- if they're not getting any mouth guards in my size, then somepony could at least spend the money on a clothing rack...
What had happened? She'd lost too many hours to the store. More than that: she'd become distracted. Work had done that. It had stuck her to the aisles, doing so with a force much stronger than binding glue --
-- she was having so much empathy for Snips right now --
-- and not only that, she'd barely been eating. Diamond saw her mind as a high-powered train, capable of achieving some incredible speeds on the straightaways -- but you couldn't get the steam engine going without shoving something into the boiler.
The adrenaline was letting her think clearly again (and with the sharpening of inner vision, she finally saw that her friends had been trying to warn her about the deadline all day) -- but that wasn't going to last. The internal surge would wear off, and then she was going to be weaker than any earth pony ever wanted to be...
She pulled at layers with her teeth, tried to get everything into position that much more quickly and nearly wound up tearing a few pieces. A moment was just barely spared for checking her assigned schedule, because she'd just realized that the next day opened the weekend and it felt entirely possible that her daddy had put her down for a full shift --
-- no. Work hours occupied part of the second day. The first had been left fully clear, and Diamond suspected it was to prevent her from falling behind on homework.
Fine.
(Except that it wasn't. Nothing was.)
She finished dressing. And she would have gone out through the locking dock in order to save a few precious seconds, but adrenaline didn't last and she couldn't afford to collapse. What she absolutely could afford was some candy: all properly purchased at the registers, while using the employee discount. Diamond prioritized for quick-dissolve sugars: the sort of thing which could make it to her small intestine before her stomach even realized it was there.
Most of the first packet went down her throat before she cleared the front doors.
There's still glow on the street from the display glass. That means anypony in the store can see me.
Move normally.
Edge of the light patch is just ahead.
Two more hoofsteps...
The streaked trail swished across the line, fully entered the first true patch of the night's shadows.
Diamond ran.
There had been a limited resource available: time before the date. And it had run out. All she could do was try to gallop after it, try to catch up, find her daddy and once that was done, she would --
-- no brilliant concepts surged through Diamond's head. Instead, she simply continued to run. Her mane bounced, and no metallic weight was shifted atop the strands. Mostly-bound limbs tested earth pony strength against multiple layers of fabric and were surprised to discover that the results very nearly worked out to a tie.
Maybe the sugar was still being processed. Anyway, there was a certain type of pony who was only at their best when under pressure. And when it came to the actual gem, diamonds were, in part, created by pressure. She definitely had the pressure part down. And if she continued trying to move at this kind of speed while wearing so many layers, the 'heat' requirement would just about take care of itself.
She was vaguely aware of ponies staring at her as she ran by. Their attention wasn't currently important. Store employees could potentially tell her daddy about how she'd both looked and acted on her way out. Nopony else mattered. Or rather, there were only two ponies who did and the goal was to get one of them away from the other.
None of the ponies on the darkened streets could help her. The only true candidate for assistance hadn't exactly been doing an outstanding job of it so far, possibly not any job, and yet she found her head going up. Harsh blue eyes searched the sky, looking for the last resort --
-- and there was Moon. Right where it should have been, in a position which it had probably reached exactly on time. At least it was good for that much.
Help me!
Diamond was aware that she hadn't exactly been specific. She wasn't sure whether exact instructions would have helped, and finding a place to both work them out and provide details by voice might consume minutes which, strictly speaking, she might not have to spare. She was effectively leaving Moon to its own devices and while there was some chance that Diamond would turn out to work best under pressure, Moon didn't seem to be feeling any.
But it didn't really have to do much.
Do something!
A single beam falling upon a building. That was all it might take. Moon just had to show her where they were.
She kept looking up, checking for that single ray of extra-intense light. Her desperate gaze only returned to the horizontal when she heard the alarmed yelp, and then she just barely managed to steer herself into a turn in the last instant before she would have run directly into the thin unicorn's ribs. That probably would have been a lawsuit. Or at least a really awkward explanation and attempt to apologize, both of which would have been automatically sabotaged by Resting Superiority Face.
Moon didn't seem to be cooperating. Still.
...she didn't have time to fume either.
Think...
What would he consider doing on a date? She'd tried to work that out, and she didn't know. She'd told Snips that if the goal had been a movie, then her daddy could have just bought out the entire place and had the screen to himse -- themselves. But that wasn't how he acted. He never would have wanted to disrupt the plans of so many others, especially not on the night before a weekend.
Perhaps he'd thought of -- a dance. Except that she wasn't even sure whether her father could dance. The mailmare might make an attempt, though. Maybe she just needed to keep her ears rotating, because the surest sign of that particular date activity would be hearing the first things break.
Think...
Where would her daddy have taken the mailmare? Because if she could just find them, then surely a mere glance at her daddy's face would inspire her to Think Of Something and then once she acted on it, everything would be okay again. There was still time to save him, there had to still be time, she could arrive partway through the date and that would just make the salvation a little more dramatic through taking place at the last minute...
...she checked on Moon again, just in case, and found the local radiance to be far too steady. No part of Ponyville seemed to be on track for getting dappled with extra lumens.
Diamond galloped. Passed the fountain, almost skidded out while dodging through a startled group of adults, made the turn and aimed for the restaurant district because her daddy hadn't dated for a long time and maybe he was inexperienced enough to still think it was a good idea to start with dinner and a movie. While opening with the 'dinner' portion. At least if the movie came first, then you had something to talk about over the meal. Which was assuming the mailmare had understood the plot. And it was probably far too much to hope that he would unconsciously engage in total self-sabotage through arranging to have the meal at Mr. Flankington's, not when there were so many better eateries in Ponyville --
-- Ponyville.
Fabric-wrapped legs began to slow. A heart wrapped in horror tried to pump more adrenaline through her body, and found itself merely channeling extra chill. Something which was now rising from within.
Oh no.
Money couldn't solve every problem: he'd always said that. Diamond, who didn't exactly have access to the bulk of the family funds, had a tendency to spot ways in which it could solve hers. For example, if the pay was good enough, then temporarily hiring a team to search the entire settled zone wouldn't even require an explanation. The bits would be doing all of the talking.
Fully tapping the accounts would have let her hunt through all of Ponyville, by proxy.
But her father wasn't restricted to Ponyville.
Money couldn't solve every problem. But if the issue was in wanting to impress a pegasus who, quite frankly, should have been rather impressed just by the fact that Diamond's father had bothered to notice the mailmare -- then he could have hired an air carriage. Private transportation to the capital, riding in a conveyance which had been enchanted to steer the cold air around the passengers. And once they were in Canterlot...
Better cinemas. Clubs. Theaters. Attendance as a plus-one at an invitations-only private party felt unlikely, if only because Diamond was fairly sure that you needed to be well past the first date before you really started introducing somepony around. But there would be multiple choices for dance floors, and some of them might grant the degree of respect to her father's payments which was required for risking having the mare get out there twice.
She could try to search the entire settled zone. Kick whatever bits she was carrying around and recruit at least a little help, although she was sure the amount wasn't enough to form a blockade against questions. And it might not matter at all, because... her father was an adult. One with enough money to go anywhere he liked, at any time.
Anywhere.
He hates being teleported. It makes him sick. The same way it makes me feel like somepony pulled the whole world out from under my hooves.
(He'd wanted her to learn what the sensation was like, before the true emergency came. So she'd know that she could manage the transport if it was ever necessary, and -- wouldn't be afraid.)
But he'll do it if he has to.
And if he really wanted to impress her...
For all she knew, it was a simple dinner date. And with the escort network in play --
-- the chill was coming from within, and the layers did nothing to stop or ablate the cold. She was down to the speed of a slow walk now, and couldn't seem to force any more than that --
-- a cross-continent relay series of paid teleports could place the meal in Manehattan.
Diamond looked up at Moon again, and the satellite just... hung there. Watching.
Her head dipped. Harsh blue eyes closed.
Adults flowed around her. None of them asked why the adolescent had stopped moving. She didn't see any reason for them to do so.
It wasn't their problem.
She... didn't give up completely, not then and there. She simply took a few seconds to reorganize her thoughts. If her father was in the capital, then he was still theoretically within chasing range. Diamond was sure she had enough money to hire an air carriage and if she was somewhat short on the total, then she was still clear for the train -- but it didn't matter. Canterlot was just too big to search. And if it had been the network... well, playing the role of a desperate daughter who truly needed to know where her daddy had gone didn't exactly require acting. But she still would have been relying on the charity of multiple ponies to bring her through the between and if she reached another settled zone... she would need to find a means of searching it. And if she came up empty... just trying to come back...
She couldn't extend the pursuit beyond Ponyville, and the growing shards of ice in her heart accepted that. But there was a chance that he hadn't left the most local borders, and so she made herself look.
Diamond peered through the windows of every restaurant. Nothing.
The bowling alley was dismissed as being stupid.
The cinema seemed to be talking normal business. However, there was only one way to find out who was in attendance and when Diamond approached the ticket booth with her bits carefully clenched between half-chattering teeth, the operator recognized her. Not that she'd ever insulted the stallion -- at least, not that she could remember -- but she had once tried to get into an age-restricted movie with the aid of cosmetics. This was another such film, and he took great pleasure in telling her that while she might be somewhat taller, she still hadn't reached the minimum required count of years and besides, her teeth weren't even brown this time.
(Adults tended to have their teeth brown with age. Therefore, use of white stains made them look younger -- and a filly who was deliberately turning the interior of her mouth into enameled chocolate should have passed for an adult. Diamond blamed her previous failure on what had been a distressing lack of height.)
There were clubs and bars. She'd never really tried to get into any of them before. By the time she'd finished listening to the fourth minimum age entry requirement of the night, Diamond was fully convinced that the conspiracy was well underway.
She forced her half-frozen form to trot past Town Hall, and the clock tower went off.
Diamond automatically counted the peals from the bell. Then she checked the clock face, because any news that bad required independent confirmation.
She... had to stop.
If it had been fully up to her, then she would have kept pushing. Ordered her body to carry a desperate mind through the whole of the night, until she came back to Sun with her father at her side. But she couldn't.
The new house was smaller. But it still had servants. And Diamond liked the servants: it would have been rather hard to live with them if she hadn't possessed some fondness for the staff -- but she also recognized that they spoke to her father regularly. Reported on whatever had happened while he hadn't been there. He trusted them.
And if she didn't start making her way out of Ponyville immediately, then they were going to tell him that she'd come in past her bedtime.
Diamond slowly turned. Oriented herself, aimed for the proper road, and made herself trot again.
She wanted to fume. But it was something which required a certain degree of inner heat, and every part of her felt cold.
The staff had dinner waiting for her when she came in. Much to Diamond's surprise, her body was actually willing to accept food. She put this down to a boiler which had been trying to run on sugar and distress for days, and still made sure to chew every bite at least twelve times. This felt necessary for smoothing the passage if any of it tried to come up again.
She washed up, because it was something normal which could be done. And when that distraction ran out after a mere twenty minutes, Diamond dried off, went into her bedroom, and told Cameo about everything. For an hour. The jeweled scarab was appropriately sympathetic and, during several portions of the tale, visibly stunned.
Homework was pressed into service as a distraction, and turned out to be exceptionally bad at it.
It was a cold night. Diamond checked Cameo's terrarium, made sure the charge indicators on the heat lamps were holding steady. There was also the option to slip a warming pan beneath her father's blankets, but she was --
-- angry?
Nervous?
...frightened?
Maybe it didn't work out.
It could have been a bad date.
If he comes in smelling like ozone, then everything's okay.
Unless she hurt him.
And if that had happened -- well, then Diamond knew she'd be able to come up with some ideas.
She didn't go for the warming pan. Diamond turned off her lights, left the bedroom door open just enough, and climbed into bed.
She didn't sleep. She couldn't. Her attention was fully focused on two things: the operations of her stomach, trying to make sure nothing there was about to kick itself into reverse -- and her ears. Her eyes were closed, because she needed to look as if she was asleep. But she also had to hear when her father came in.
He often came up to her doorway, when he arrived home late. Making sure she was all right. He might do that again, especially when the door was slightly open.
She wanted him to check on her.
She had to know.
The clock ticked along...
...hoofsteps. Familiar ones, but -- moving slowly. Typically, this was normal when he was coming to her for a night check, because he would be trying not to wake her up -- but there was something different about this approach. In Diamond's judgment, he was advancing at what she judged to be the speed of stun.
The approach disrupted the air, pushed some of it towards her snout. Ozone smelled a lot like bleach mixed with chlorine. It was an incredibly distinctive stink, and that was why she knew that he wasn't carrying any of it.
The hooves stopped just outside the door frame.
She risked opening her left eye. Just enough.
He looked... tired. He often did. The darkness under his eyes had threatened to become a permanent encampment. But... she'd just barely registered the new details in the store, hadn't she? That he had been trying to do something about that. His fur was somewhat more groomed than the usual, and the manestyle which he'd been using for what might have been the whole of her life -- there were shifts in the curves. The results weren't quite as formal, except for the part where she formally despised them.
He looked weary. But he also looked... hopeful.
Optimistic.
Happy.
All Moon had to do was make it a bad date.
A bad date with her.
That wouldn't have even been hard...
Her father smiled a little, if only to himself. Backed away from the door, and headed towards his cold bed.
He's happy.
...he doesn't know any better. He doesn't know not to be happy.
He's going to get hurt.
There's still time to make this right.
I have to save him...
He had told her that there were different kinds of loneliness. Diamond, failing to rest beneath her sheets, wondered if she was feeling all of them.