First drops of rain banged against the leaves. Diamond Tiara looked at the pony in front of her, who was standing in the middle of the swamp, unfazed by its smell.
“It’s impossible,” she said calmly. “You’re locked in Trottingham. I must be dreaming.”
Curtain Call turned her big, green eyes at her and started to play with her braid. “Of course it is,” she replied. “But who can tell what is a dream? Maybe you’re locked with me and this–” she pointed at the trees, “–is just a scenography? It’s raining, but we are dry. We’re sitting in the mud, but we’re clean.”
“Oh, come on…” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. “You’re gonna teach me about what is real? Don’t you remember the pageant?”
“There’s no pageant,” Curtain Call replied, smiling in her usual, a bit unconscious way. “But I prefer to think that there is. You know what’s the alternative…”
Diamond Tiara felt a chill running down her spine. Suddenly, she saw that Curtain Call was now right behind her. She jumped, startled and tried to run away, but her hooves refused to follow her orders.
“Oh, I see that you get the idea,” the filly said. “Who knows, maybe there’s no Ponyville… No Silver Spoon… Just the loneliness and cold walls of the mental hospital…”
Everything around them started to blur. Diamond Tiara looked around in panic, but now she couldn’t even see Curtain Call’s face.
“Insomnia… aggression… I doubt she’ll ever get better…” Midline Shift’s voice was coming from somewhere above her.
“Oh yeah…” Barrel Cortex replied. “I’m afraid she’ll have to stay here forever…”
“Forever…” Pepper’s voice rang in her ears.
“Forever!” Sunshine Rainbows laughed. For a moment, Diamond Tiara caught a glimpse of her, waving her bloodied hoof at her.
“Maybe now you’ll play in a pageant with me?” Curtain Call asked with hope in her voice.
“There’s no pageant…”
“But there can be… You and me will make a lovely play…” Curtain Call appeared in front of her, smiling impishly. “Who knows, maybe we’ll get more ponies to star in it?”
“There’s no pageant!” Diamond Tiara exclaimed, trying to push her away.
“Diamond! Are you okay?”
Diamond Tiara’s eyes shot open when she heard Filthy Rich’s voice. She grabbed her pillow and hugged it, tears flowing down her face. She looked around and saw her father standing in the door to her room with worried expression.
“Y-yes…” she replied. “I… I had a bad dream…”
Filthy Rich sat next to her. She noticed that he looked much better than before she’d gone to Trottingham. “Is that…?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “I guess it’s just because of Zippoorwhill… I talked to her a bit before… She seemed so normal...”
Filthy Rich nodded understandingly. “Sometimes it’s hard to say what’s going on in a pony’s head…” he replied.
Diamond Tiara had never agreed with him so much before. “I sometimes think that… that I’m getting too used to that,” she said.
“What do you mean?” Filthy Rich asked.
“The whole…” She pointed her hoof at the window. “The ponies dying… The atmosphere… Randolph…”
Since she’d returned, Filthy Rich ordered Randolph to walk with her any time when she was going to the town. No foal died since Twist and Alula were found, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
Her father remained silent.
“I’ll go back to sleep,” Diamond Tiara said. “I want to see Silver Spoon tomorrow.”
“I’ll tell Randolph in the morning,” Filthy Rich said. “Goodnight, Diamond.”
“Goodnight, dad,” Diamond Tiara replied. When he left the room, she pulled the blanket over her head and sighed.
She felt that she wasn’t going to sleep that night.
Silver Spoon was sitting at the window of her room, watching the street below. A couple of foals went down the pavement, accompanied by Carrot Top. Silver noticed Carrot’s daughter, Ginger Snap, walking in the group. She was wearing her filly scout uniform, so Silver deduced that they were going camping.
Suddenly, she saw Diamond Tiara trotting towards her house. Randolph was walking slowly behind her, looking around carefully. Silver Spoon began to wonder how’d he help Diamond Tiara if someone wanted to kill her. Maybe he’d scare the killer away?
She got up and went downstairs where she nearly bumped into her mother.
“Where are you going, hon?” Silverspeed asked. She was wearing a brightly-coloured apron. Even though she was rich, she still liked to cook by herself.
“I saw Diamond Tiara coming here,” Silver replied.
“Oh, it’s good she’s back,” her mother said. “I thought that you were going to spend the whole summer in your room…”
“I didn’t sit there the whole summer…” Silver muttered.
“Yeah, you’re going downstairs when you’re hungry… Really, if you had a fridge in your room, I’d forget what you look like…” Silverspeed shook her head. “You really should go out more. Maybe you should become a filly scout, like Carrot Top’s daughter?”
“No, thanks…” Silver Spoon replied, imagining what Diamond Tiara would say if she saw her in a uniform.
They heard knocking at the door. Silver Spoon ran to the hall and opened it.
“Diamond Tiara!” she exclaimed and pulled her friend into a hug. She felt Diamond’s muscles tense, as if she want to push her away. Maybe she doesn’t want Randolph to see that? she thought.
“Hello,” Diamond Tiara said. “Good morning, Ms. Silverspeed,” she added when she saw Silver Spoon’s mother.
“How are you?” Silver Spoon asked. “Better?”
“Yeah, much better,” Diamond Tiara replied absentmindedly. “Randolph, you can go. I’ll be going back about eight.”
“Yes, Miss Tiara,” Randolph replied. He bowed and walked away.
He seems almost invisible, Silver Spoon thought, watching him. Who knows, maybe he’s the killer? No one would suspect him.
“Good to see you back, Diamond,” Silverspeed said. “Do you want something to eat?”
“No, thanks,” Diamond Tiara replied. Silver Spoon noticed that she wasn’t as cheerful as usual; her eyes were half-closed; her fur lost its shine. Maybe it was a side effect of some medicines?
They walked upstairs to Silver Spoon’s room. Diamond Tiara sat on an armchair and looked at the shelves, where Silver’s collection of rare spoons was.
“Any new ones?” she asked.
“My aunt sent me one from Stalliongrad.” Silver Spoon went to a shelf and took a wooden spoon painted in leaf-like motifs. Diamond Tiara looked at it and a faint smile appeared on her face.
“How’s your vacation?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing special…” Silver Spoon replied. “I’m just sitting here, thinking… Even though no foal died recently, I’m kinda afraid… And you know me, I don’t like, umm… company…”
“Yeah…” Diamond Tiara smirked. “And how about DJ Pon3? I’ve heard that she died…”
“That was horrible…” Silver Spoon’s eyes widened. “Berry Punch beat her to death… She thought that Vinyl killed Ruby…” When she looked at Diamond Tiara she saw that she was staring blankly at something in the corner of her room. Silver Spoon followed her gaze, but there was nothing there. “Are you okay?”
“Y-yes…” Diamond Tiara replied. “I mean… That’s really terrible. And what’s with all those ponies in the street? They don’t seem nice...”
“They’re helping the guards to find the killer… But they mostly accuse each other,” Silver Spoon replied. “Zippoorwhill’s father almost beat them when they came to his house… He thinks Berry killed Vinyl because of them…”
Diamond Tiara looked through the window and saw Time Turner and Roseluck patrolling the street. She noticed a sleepy bat pony walking on the other side of the pavement. The members of the neighbourhood watch were eyeing her curiously.
“Mom says that they panic too much,” Silver Spoon said. “She says that the killer ran away to the Crystal Empire or somewhere far away…”
“And what do you think?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Who do you think it is?”
“You’ll laugh… For a moment today I thought it was Randolph…” Silver Spoon replied.
Diamond Tiara gave out a little chuckle. “Randolph? Why’d he do that?”
“I don’t know… In books it’s always the butler…” Suddenly, Silver Spoon’s expression turned somber. “Once I had a dream that it was my dad…”
“But that’s impossible, right?” Diamond Tiara asked. “He’s still in Vanhoover…”
“Yes; and he’s not going to be released anytime soon…” Silver Spoon sighed. Diamond Tiara knew how hard it was for her to talk about that.
“Good,” Diamond Tiara said, looking at the corner of Silver’s room again. For a moment, they were sitting in silence.
“How was, umm… the hospital?” Silver Spoon asked.
“Crazy…” Diamond Tiara smiled. “All those ponies… Not to mention Zippoorwhill… She came there, I talked to her and then… She’s gone. Just like that… And I couldn’t even make myself care… Like… I got used to death…”
“So did I,” Silver Spoon replied. “It’s the town, you know… I just wait for something to happen… Who’ll be next… Will it be me?”
“No,” Diamond Tiara replied. Silver Spoon looked at her, surprised. “I mean… I don’t think the killer would want to kill you…”
“Why do you think so?” Silver Spoon asked.
“Who’d want to kill you, Silver? You’re the best, kindest friend I know…” Diamond Tiara replied, hugging her.
Few hours later, Diamond Tiara was trotting home with Randolph. She noticed that Time Turner and Roseluck were no longer patrolling the street, replaced by Big Macintosh and Applejack. From what Silver told her, the Element Bearers were also involved in looking for the killer. Some ponies were saying that Twilight Sparkle even asked Princess Luna to search the dreams of all the inhabitants of Equestria to look for some clues.
I doubt she did that… Diamond Tiara thought. Luna would surely see–
Hello, Diamond! Curtain Call was trotting next to her as if she was really there, though Diamond Tiara was sure that she was the only one who could see her. She was with her all the time, sitting calmly in the corner of Silver Spoon’s room. I saw kids going camping! Maybe they’ll also want to play in our pageant?
“There’s no pageant,” Diamond Tiara muttered through gritted teeth. Randolph looked at her, but said nothing; Diamond Tiara smiled sheepishly at him.
Oh, come on! Why don’t we go there and ask them? Curtain Call insisted. I’m so bored…
Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. I’m not going to talk to you, she thought. You don’t exist.
Oh, please… Suddenly, Curtain Call appeared in front of her. Her green eyes were almost hypnotizing; her mane became an orange blur. A strange thought appeared in Diamond Tiara’s mind. As she walked, it was growing clearer and clearer, till it finally flashed before her eyes.
The outskirts...
Cloud Kicker looked at the moon above her; she could swear that its position was completely different than a couple of minutes before. She faintly remembered the navigation lessons back in the Cloudsdale Academy; she wasn’t sure, but the moon probably wasn’t supposed to do that.
Also, they told us not to drink and fly… she thought, recalling all the beer she’d drunk before she decided to take that flight. Definitely, it was affecting her orientation in the night sky. Not to mention that she already felt how true was an old saying about renting beer instead of buying it.
She took a long, hungry look at the small hut at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Well, Dusk Dancer could wait. She found a strategically placed group of bushes on the ground and landed next to them. She put the safety matches and a can of kerosene on the ground and hid between the bushes to get rid of the beer.
A couple of minutes later she was back. She looked at the ground, searching for matches and the can, but she couldn’t find them. She scratched her head.
“Must’ve forgotten them…” she muttered to herself. The world was spinning around her, which wasn’t helping her to focus. “Or maybe I just…” She looked at Dusk Dancer’s house. “What am I even doing? They’ll lock me with Berry...” She shrugged and took off clumsily, almost losing balance.
It seemed that the way home was going to be long. She had problems with flapping her wings in a coherent way. She brushed against a tree branch and barely avoided crashing into an old oak. For a brief moment she thought about just sleeping it off on some cloud, but all of them were out of her reach. She didn’t want to risk flying too high in such a state.
Another tree appeared just a couple of feet in front of her. She straightened her wings to slow herself down, but even then she rammed into the treetop. Branches scratched her face and a large bough hit her stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs.
“Shit…” Cloud Kicker hissed through gritted teeth. She climbed onto a branch and lay flat on it. “No more flying for me today…”
She closed her eyes and snored.
“Hey! She’s here!”
Cloud Kicker groaned. Bright sunlight assaulted her eyes. She felt as if there was an iron foundry in her head. She even could smell the smoke.
“She’s here!”
Of course I’m here… she thought. Shut up and let me sleep…
“Applejack! Don’t–!”
“Thud!”
The whole tree shook as if it was hit with a pile driver. For a one, blissful moment, Cloud Kicker felt a familiar sensation of flying. Then she hit the ground.
“Wake up!” Somepony caught her mane and shook her brutally.
“Minuette! Enough! Somepony call Front Kick!” Applejack exclaimed. Cloud Kicker recognised her accent immediately.
Cloud Kicker rolled on her legs. Just like every pegasus, she knew that gravity was a harsh mistress, but the effects of her punishments weren’t usually long-lasting. If only the smell of smoke could leave her nostrils alone…
She blinked and looked at the ponies in front of her. Applejack’s hat was missing; she was covered in ashes. Minuette had a long burn on her side, but she seemed unfazed by it. There was also Derpy Hooves with them; when Cloud Kicker looked at her, she felt chill running down her spine – for the first time in her life she saw such disdain in her eyes.
“What the hay…” she muttered.
“Front Kick will explain that to you,” Derpy said. “And pray that Riot Control or Carrot Top don’t get you earlier…”
Cloud Kicker saw the guard walking to them through the grass. He was wearing an expression of worry – and Cloud Kicker knew that a guard with such expression meant bad news.
“Good morning, Ms. Cloud Kicker,” he said. “You’ll go with me.”
“Wait… What did I do?” she asked. “Is it about flying intoxicated? Or sleeping on a tree?”
Front Kick looked into her eyes. She felt that her fur was drenched with sweat. “Someone lit the meadow on fire…” he explained. “Unfortunately, it was in the place where filly scouts were camping.”
Cloud Kicker froze. Then she remembered that she’d left the matches and kerosene at home.
“Some of the foals are wounded… One of them… Riot Control’s granddaughter… is dead,” Front Kick continued.
“Do… do you have the suspect?” Cloud Kicker asked, her throat dry. She didn’t like the looks Derpy, Minuette and Applejack were giving her.
“Well… we found an empty can of kerosene…” Front Kick said. “There were hoofprints on it. We identified them as belonging to a mare who was caught shoplifting in Cloudsdale, a couple of years ago…”
Cloud Kicker shuddered. She remembered exactly a rather unpleasant visit on the Royal Guard station, a short trial and long hours spent cleaning the lower levels of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. She remembered how she promised herself that it was the last time she’d ever done something against the law.
Something clicked and she felt the hoofcuffs closing around her forelegs.
Cold.
The bathroom floor was cold. Diamond Tiara shuddered. Her stomach was burning; she crawled to the toilet bowl and threw up again. She made sure that the door was closed; last thing she wanted was her father seeing her like that.
She swallowed saliva, feeling the bitter taste of bile in her mouth. Then she flushed the toilet and went to the shower.
“That was awesome!” Curtain Call exclaimed. “We really need to do that again…”
Diamond Tiara looked at her. She could still see her excitement when they were avoiding the members of the neighbourhood watch; how she spotted drunk Cloud Kicker going somewhere and how it gave them the idea; Curtain Call’s mane, flowing as if the filly was a princess; becoming one with the raging fire. How she danced in flames, reciting a poem she probably had made herself.
Scouting is fun, scouting is games,
Scouts are all caring and helpful;
Scout Ginger Snap, she died in flames,
probably she wasn’t careful.
“We’ll do that one more time, right?” Curtain Call asked, looking at Diamond Tiara with hope in her eyes.
Diamond Tiara glared at her angrily and turned the tap. Cold water seeped into her fur, rinsing the ash and kerosene. “This will end,” she replied. “This will end today…”