Apple Bloom was the one to notice the strange new pony.
Ponyville wasn’t a very large town, and even a young filly like Apple Bloom knew everypony who lived in it by sight, if not by name. The new pony stuck out to her like a sore fetlock.
Even better, the new pony had the slight cast of the eyes that marked her as being from one of the eastern lands!
“Sis! Sis!” She jumped up and down, nearly knocking Applejack over in her excitement. “Look, look!”
“Woah nelly, Bloom. Jus’ lemme finish up here…” Applejack didn’t turn her head to look, a flicked ear being the only physical response that showed she’d heard. Her eyes stayed focused on the mare in front of her, and the bushel of apples she was gripping with her teeth. “Like ah said miss, that’ll be ten bits…”
Apple Bloom pouted. “But, but sis! It’s one o’ them foreign ponies you were tellin’ us about! I gotta go say hi!”
“Just a second, Bloom!” Applejack said, carefully counting the small golden coins the other mare had passed her.
But instead Apple Bloom did what came naturally to small children not under constant supervision, and wondered off.
The new pony had almost left Ponyville’s marketplace by the time Apple Bloom’s little hooves had caught up to her. She jumped in front of the mare, blocking her path to the train station. “Miss, miss! Are ya one of the ponies who helped mah sister fight Nightmare Moon in that Academy place? You are, aren’t ya! She’s so cool! She had another adventure after that, but all ah know about tha’ one is that Pinkie Pie had to stay overnight in the hospital… it must have been an awesome battle!” She paused. “Only, sis doesn’t seem ta wanna talk about tha’ one… oh! Ah know! You could tell tha’ story!”
The new pony stared down at Apple Bloom, her expression devoid of any emotion at all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Excuse me…”
Apple Bloom blinked, her mouth opening slightly as she watch the older mare step around her. “O-oh, okay…”
Then she saw the other mare’s Cutie Mark, and her eyes widened. “Miss, miss!” She cried again, running after the other mare.
Said mare sighed as Apple Bloom didn’t take the hint, but she continued walking.
“Mah name’s Apple Bloom! Nice ta meetcha!”
There’ll be no getting rid of her now the other mare thought, but replied anyway. “Deep Blood.”
Apple Bloom smiled, trotting up to pull even with the ponified Aisa Himegami. “What’s your Cutie Mark mean?”
Himegami stopped walking.
Apple Bloom blinked, worrying that she was two for two, but all Himegami did was turn her neck around to look at the mark in question. Apple Bloom turned to look as well, giving it a thorough look.
It’s basic shape was the skull of a pony, though now that Apple Bloom was looking, there were several strange details about it. Himegami was an earth pony like her, but the skull in her Cutie Mark had a horn. As she squinted, she realised that the skull also had elongated canines. Finally, it looked to Apple Bloom like something had been chewing on it – the skull had several holes in it, scattered around randomly and all at different sizes.
“It means,” Himegami said, interrupting Apple Bloom’s contemplations “that I need to get to Canterlot right away.” She resumed her trot towards the train station.
Apple Bloom blinked again, thoroughly lost. “Ah don’ get how it can mean that at all…” She hurried to catch up, looking Himegami in the eyes even as Himegami kept her own gaze firmly forwards.
“So, um… is your Special Talent, like… forensic science?” Apple Bloom probed.
“No.”
“How about archaeology?”
“No.”
“…piracy?”
“No, now stop guessing. It doesn’t matter.”
“But it’s your Special Talent! It’s the one thing in the whole universe that makes ya unique!” Apple Bloom protested. She couldn’t understand why the other mare didn’t seem to be excited by it at all.
“Good.” Himegami replied, coming to a halt in front of the train station, a train currently waiting at the platform. “If it’s unique, then that means that no one else will have to suffer through it once I get rid of it.”
Apple Bloom froze. “G-g-g-” she swallowed “get rid of it?”
The idea that you could hate your Cutie Mark enough to want it gone… it just didn’t work in Apple Bloom’s head. Your Cutie Mark was you, distilled down to a simple image – or at least, that was what Granny had taught her. Hating your Cutie Mark was like hating yourself, and that idea…
That idea was just so sad that tears started to form in Apple Bloom’s eyes.
Which probably made it the worst moment for Applejack to catch up.
“Mind explainin’ to me why mah sister is cryin’?”
Himegami glanced behind herself to find Applejack stepping in front of Apple Bloom. “No idea.” She said, returning to her examination of the ticket prices.
“‘No idea’, huh?” Applejack didn’t sound the least bit impressed.
“Do you have ten bits?” Himegami suddenly said.
“…say what?”
“A ticket to Canterlot.” Himegami pointed. “They’re ten bits.”
“Oh, so you’re lookin’ for a hand-out. Sure, I keep those in mah saddlebags right next to your apology.”
Himegami looked back, a hint of confusion the only emotion on her face. “I didn’t apologise, though.”
“Oh gosh, well, that’s too bad.” Applejack said sarcastically. “Guess that means I won’t be able to find ya a hand-out then.”
The train’s whistle blew, and actual panic suddenly shot across Himegami’s face. “No, you don’t understand! I need to get to Canterlot right away!”
“Guess ya should have packed enough bits for the journey, then.” There was not a trace of sympathy in Applejack’s voice.
The train pulled out of the station, and Himegami rushed after it, looking about ready to try to jump and ride it on the outside. But she was too far from the platform, and by the time she got there, the train was moving faster than she could gallop. “No!” she cried at the retreating carriages “Come back!”
“Ain’t that a shame.” Applejack drawled.
Himegami whirled around, quiet fury on her face, but then her eyes jumped to something on Applejack’s left, and they widened.
Blinking, Applejack turned to see a most peculiar sight. One of the mares Applejack regularly saw in the marketplace (Rose, she thought her name was) was standing there, salivating. She was looking at Himegami like Winona looked at fresh bones. Even as Applejack’s eyebrows rose, Rose slowly licked her lips. “You smell” she panted “so… good.”
“Applejack, look out!” Apple Bloom yelled, as Rose bent down like a cat about to pounce.
Himegami, for her part, looked dead inside, any hint of emotion draining out of her. As closed her eyes, as though expecting the inevitable.
Rose leapt through the air, hooves outstretched for Himegami.
Applejack’s lasso missed the airborne pony.
Though that was mostly because Rainbow Dash got there first, crash-tackling Rose down to the ground with a cry of “Intervention!”
Applejack blinked, allowing her rope to drop from her slack jaw. Apple Bloom leaned out from behind her sister, a hoof over one eye.
“What’s gotten into you, Rose?! Usually you’re only jumping stallions like that! If you’re going to be branching out, you need to give the rest of us fair warning first!” Rainbow teasingly reprimanded Rose, even as the other mare wriggled underneath her, trying to get loose.
“But she’s delicious!” Rose cried.
“I get that, but seriously –”
“I have to suck out everything she has!”
…
After a pause, Rainbow slowly leaned back from Rose. “Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry.”
Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Apple Bloom all looked over at Himegami, who was staring at Rose with pity in her eyes. “It’s started.”
“What’s started?” Apple Bloom asked, afraid of the answer.
Himegami closed her eyes again. “The death of everypony in this town.”
“U-um, Princess?”
Princess Celestia looked up from the spell notation she was examining to see Twilight Sparkle standing in the doorway to her study. “Twilight! Come in, come in!”
Twilight gingerly walked into the room, pulling several sheets of paper from her saddlebags. “I, um, finished that report you asked me to do…”
“Wonderful.” Celestia beamed. “Just put them in my ‘in’ tray, would you?”
Twilight deposited the forms where indicated, and turned to leave. But she halted, her curiosity getting the better of her, and she turned back around to get a better look at what Celestia was reading. “What are you doing?”
Celestia leaned back so that Twilight could get a better look at her desk. “Just refreshing my memory on some magic that I haven’t needed to use in… my goodness, has it been three hundred years already?”
Twilight could understand the old-style notation, but without context she couldn’t make heads or tails of what the notes were about. “What kind of magic?”
“Have you ever heard somepony say that another pony was off in their own little world?”
Twilight nodded.
“Well, Starswirl was able to prove that –”
“Wait, Starswirl?” Twilight suddenly perked up. “As in, Starswirl the Bearded?!”
“Hm? Oh, so you’ve heard of him.” Celestia smiled, rearranging the notes in her magical grip. “It always manages to surprise me how few ponies know his name these days. He really was a genius when it came to spellcraft. Some of the problems he left me I’m still trying to solve, even after all these years.”
“You knew Starswirl the Bearded?!” Twilight managed to hold herself back from screaming, but only barely. “I did my thesis work on his theories on double-inverted spell parallelograms!”
Celestia laughed. “That must have given poor Miss Sugarplums such a headache.”
Twilight may be Celestia’s personal student, but she had still attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. The teachers from there had given Twilight the bulk of her education, with the princess herself serving like a kind of super-tutor.
Twilight blushed. “I made sure to include diagrams and everything…”
Celestia smiled. “I wish you’d told me you were going to do that. I’d have lent you Starswirl’s old notes on the subject.”
“Y-you’d have lent me…?” Twilight gasped, feeling faint.
“Of course.” Celestia finished sorting the notes, turning around fully to face Twilight. “You obviously don’t know, but Starswirl taught Luna and me much as I’ve been teaching you, Twilight. I knew him quite well, and I’m sure he’d approve of a pony as brilliant as you picking up where he left off.”
Twilight did her best not to swoon, still swaying on her hooves despite her efforts.
“Mind you…” Celestia said, turning her head to stare out of the window, eyes unfocused. “As brilliant as the stallion was, he was completely oblivious in some respects. The Magic of Friendship, most obviously. Even when Discord and his ilk threatened the land, Starswirl never even tried to wield an Element – Luna and I had to face them alone.”
Twilight blinked, wondering who ‘Discord’ was. (She did realise after a second that by ‘element’ she probably meant an Element of Harmony, the magical artefacts she had later used to banish Nightmare Moon.)
“Speaking of which…” Celestia said, glancing at Twilight out of the corner of her eye.
Twilight swallowed, her earlier euphoria draining out of her. “Um, it was really great having this conversation, Princess, but if I don’t get a start on that after-analysis –”
“Your friends have started writing to me, Twilight. They seem to be under the impression that you’ve been ignoring them.” Celestia paused. “They’re worried about you. All of them, though Rainbow Dash was beating around the bush a bit.”
Twilight felt her muzzle heat up. She wanted desperately to escape this conversation, but the princess’s gaze made her legs feel like they were locked in place.
“None of them blame you, you know.”
Twilight managed to wrench her gaze from Celestia’s, looking down at the floor. She whimpered something inaudible.
Celestia sighed. She’d been planning on teaching Twilight not to get so invested on one goal that she lost sight of all else, but this was far from the way she would have taught her.
Then, a rather mischievous idea popped into her head, a little shoulder-Discord whispering in her ear.
“As it happens,” she said, her voice bright and perky “I’ve been meaning to invite your friends to the Grand Galloping Gala at the end of the year.”
Twilight looked up, confusion plain in her expression.
“Of course,” Celestia continued, fighting back a smirk “Gala tickets are so sought-after that I can’t trust them to the regular mail, and Spike came back with you; so you’ll have to deliver them in person.”
The confusion on Twilight’s muzzle turned to pure panic in an instant. She was saved from having to squeak out a response by a knock at the door.
“Captain Armor!” Celestia said, not even waiting for the door to open. “Good, you’re just the pony I want to see.”
Shining Armor stuck his head into the room, a stack of paperwork floating behind him in the soft glow of his magic. “I am, Princess? Oh, hi sis.” He added, having noticed Twilight.
“Yes, Captain. Just put the forms down there, please. I have a new mission for you.”
Twilight was beginning to catch on, her eyes flickering back and forth between her mentor and her brother so fast that her pupils were starting to look like lines. It made her look like a frog.
Celestia wrapped a wing around Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle both. “Would you escort your sister to Ponyville and back? Twilight here needs to deliver something to her friends there.”
If Twilight had had claws, Celestia was sure they would have been gauging claw marks in the floor as Shining nodded and pulled his sister out of the room.