//------------------------------// // Their Plans // Story: Children of Equestria // by Samey90 //------------------------------// Diamond Tiara looked through the window of the carriage, watching the first snowflakes falling to the ground. She sat back on her seat and opened her saddlebags, checking if her cap and scarf were inside. The train was moving swiftly through the plain between Ponyville and Canterlot. Diamond was watching the other passengers, her eyes half-closed. Some of them were unicorns from the capital – she recognised them immediately, seeing their expensive clothes. Their faces were mostly hidden behind the newspapers they were levitating. She also recognised a few familiar faces from Ponyville. It was always strange to her how they’d changed over the last ten years. “It’s cool our dad helped us finding a flat,” Silver Spoon said. “No one knows you in Canterlot…” “It’s my dad,” Diamond Tiara muttered. “I guess it’ll be a bit small for you…” “Don’t worry about me,” Silver Spoon replied, stretching her hooves and watching the snow behind the window. “At least you won’t be lonely there…” “Scootaloo lives nearby,” Diamond Tiara said. “But thank you for caring about me…” Suddenly, she heard somepony sneezing behind her. She turned her head quickly and saw a blue unicorn mare with a large scar on her hoof. She blew her nose and smiled at Diamond Tiara. “Hello,” she said. “And I’m sorry. I didn’t want to sneak on you like that.” “Hello, Colgate… umm… Minuette…” Diamond Tiara replied. “Where are you going?” “You can call me Colgate if you want,” Minuette said, sitting next to Diamond Tiara. “I’m going to visit Dr. Stable. Knowing him, I won’t be back till the Hearth’s Warming Eve...” “Really?” Diamond Tiara asked. “I thought you and Octavia…” “That’s an old story,” Minuette replied. “Berry and Vinyl are long dead. We hold no grudge against each other. Not to mention that Octavia is much better pony than some of…” She pointed her hoof in Ponyville direction. Diamond Tiara sighed. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Only when I read about Berry, I realised how big consequences my deeds had…” Minuette shook her head. “It’s not your fault, Diamond… I’ve heard the whole story. I guess Berry would do something like that anyway. That mare was a ticking bomb.” “Still, she didn’t deserve what happened to her…” Diamond Tiara said. “And with these words you prove that you’re not a monster ponies like Cherry Berry want to see you.” Minuette wiped her eyes. “You speak like my friend, Babs,” Diamond Tiara muttered. “She also says that I’m not a monster…” “She’s right,” Minuette said. She sneezed again and shook her head. “Good thing I’ll live with a doctor…” Diamond Tiara thought about Babs. In fact, they hadn’t seen each other for a while. A month ago, Babs came back from Manehattan in a foul mood, cursing everypony around to Tartarus. Then she went back to Sweet Apple Acres. According to Apple Bloom, she was getting up even earlier than Big Macintosh or Applejack, bucking apple trees so strong that they were almost devoid of bark after she was done with them. Diamond Tiara had visited her for a few times, but Babs barely ever talked to her. Babs didn’t even say anything when Diamond told her that she was going to move to Canterlot. Scootaloo, however, couldn’t wait for a moment when Diamond would become her neighbour. Diamond Tiara wasn’t sure if she really meant it, but she decided not to think about it much. Diamond learned about it just a few hours later. When her train arrived to Canterlot, she spotted Scootaloo waiting for her on the platform. She was wearing a warm flying suit and an aviator hat. The platform was already covered in snow; Diamond quickly put her scarf and cap on. “Hello, Scootaloo,” she said, stepping out of the carriage. “Nice hat…” “Thanks,” Scootaloo replied. “It was the first thing I found in my closet when I saw what the weather team prepared for us today…” She looked at the sky and sighed. “I swear, I’m gonna fly to them and ask them what they were thinking…” “Can you do that later?” Diamond Tiara asked. “It’s cold…” “Sure…” Scootaloo trotted through the hall of the station and led Diamond Tiara to the taxi stand. Most of the ponies there had apparently gotten the memo from the weather team, since they were using sleighs instead of wagons. Diamond and Scootaloo went to one of them, and soon they were travelling through the dark streets of the capital. At least the interior of the sleigh was warm. Scootaloo took off her aviator hat and ran her hoof through her mane. “So, you live with your classmate, right?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Yeah,” Scootaloo replied. “She’s kinda my fourth cousin twice removed. Her name’s Archer.” She lowered her voice to a whisper, “If you have some problem, you can always visit us. Archer often pulls all-nighters, so she won’t mind…” “How’s she like?” Diamond Tiara asked. “I don’t really remember her from school… She and Sun Glimmer moved away quite quickly…” “You’ll see…” Scootaloo muttered. “I guess each of us has a weird cousin… Apple Bloom has Babs and Sweetie has–” “Babs isn’t weird…” Diamond Tiara blushed when Scootaloo looked at her. “Do you still think she killed Featherweight?” “Of course not,” Scootaloo replied, sighing. “She has a good alibi – Carrot Top saw her on a train. Still… It had to be either one of us, or someone who was in a pub with us…” “Am I suspected again?” Diamond Tiara smiled. “I won’t tell anything without a lawyer…” “Of course not.” Scootaloo chuckled. “Chocolate Donut told me that they still wonder about it…” “If this was a novel, I’d say that it was Button Mash,” Diamond Tiara said. “Why?” “He’s simply the least likely to kill somepony,” Diamond Tiara replied. “It’s always the least likely character. Or a butler.” Scootaloo laughed. “I must tell that to Donut. I guess he and Front Kick would arrest all the butlers in town…” “Starting with mine,” Diamond Tiara muttered. “He’s surely guilty of something…” “Excuse me,” the pony pulling the sleigh said. “We arrived.” Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara paid him and left the taxi, trotting towards an old tenement house. They went upstairs. Scootaloo produced a key. “Our flat is the one on the right,” she said, pointing at the wooden door full of dents and scratches. “I guess the one of the left is yours. If you want, you can drink tea with us.” Diamond Tiara nodded. Of course she’d seen her new place earlier, but she’d never been in Scootaloo’s flat before. Scootaloo slowly approached the door to her flat, carefully listening for the noises. “Seems that Archer is home,” she whispered and pushed the door open. Suddenly, something small hit the opened door, leaving another gash in it. Diamond Tiara jumped back, startled and looked at the short arrow that bounced off the door and fell on the floor of Scootaloo’s flat. When Scootaloo trotted forward, she followed her, picking the arrow from the ground. “Archer!” Scootaloo exclaimed, entering the corridor. “What the hell are you doing?” Diamond Tiara followed Scootaloo and saw a blue mare sitting at the table, littered with parts of various stripped-down crossbows and firearms. If it wasn’t for lack of wings and blue coat, she’d be indistinguishable from Scootaloo. She was holding another crossbow in her mouth – a model with a grip on the side, allowing shooting it with pony’s tongue. Babs once told Diamond Tiara that there were attempts to build similar guns, but all the prototypes were aptly named “Dentist’s Best Friends”. Earth ponies still had to sit or stand on hind legs while shooting with their hooves. “I’m thorry…” Archer said. She spat the crossbow out and continued, “I wanted to tell you to watch out, but then it went off…” “That’s what Rumble said when… Nevermind,” Scootaloo muttered. “I swear, Archer, one day they’ll fire you from the academy… Or you’ll kill somepony accidentally.” “What exactly are you doing?” Diamond Tiara asked, looking at the parts scattered on the table, as well as several spanners, hammers and other tools. Three different bows were hanging on the walls. “Also, I have your arrow…” “It’s not an arrow!” Archer exclaimed. “Bows shoot arrows. Crossbows shoot bolts.” Diamond Tiara raised her eyebrows. “Okay, I have your bolt,” she said, putting the bolt on the table. “Okay…” Archer looked at the table. “We’re studying for a practical exam… We have to learn recognise all this stuff… A propos, Scootaloo, what’s that?” She asked, picking a random piece of metal. “It’s an extractor from Souvenir from Manehattan,” Scootaloo replied. “Some group started to copy Equestrian Army submachines, but their inventions were shooting everywhere except the place they were aimed at, and had a nasty habit of losing the bolt which then could hit the shooter and remodel their face… Did I pass?” “I have no idea…” Archer muttered, watching the extractor. “Do you know that guards in Canterlot only use bows and crossbows?” she asked Diamond Tiara. “Those rich ponies are really conservative…” “You’d better learn it quickly,” Scootaloo said. “Since you’re going to fail the safety part forever…” Suddenly, Archer looked at Diamond Tiara more exactly and gasped. “It’s you!” she exclaimed. “I’ve read everything about you!” “W-what?” Diamond Tiara asked, looking at Archer unsurely. “About the murders! It inspired me to become a guard, actually… If I was there, you wouldn’t have had it that easy…” Diamond Tiara said nothing. Archer also silenced, seeing her expression. The silence was getting awkward. Archer’s half-conscious smile was making it even worse. Finally, Archer stood up. “Do you want some tea?” she asked. “No, thanks,” Diamond Tiara replied. “I have to go home and unpack my things… See you later...” “Wait!” Archer exclaimed. “You live next to us?” “Yes, she’s our neighbour,” said Scootaloo dryly. “Chill out, Archer.” She turned to Diamond Tiara. “Sorry, Diamond,” she said. “Archer is sometimes a bit too direct…” “I’m still here, cousin…” Archer deadpanned. Diamond Tiara didn’t listen. She quickly left Scootaloo’s flat, went to her place, locked the door and threw herself on the sofa. An empty room only made her feel worse – the world started to spin around her. She quickly opened her suitcase and found a pack of her pills. She took one of them and went to the bathroom to pour herself a glass of water. Then she came back and lay back on the sofa, waiting for the ringing in her ears to stop. “Are you alright?” Silver Spoon asked, sitting on the floor next to the sofa. “You’re a part of my mind,” Diamond Tiara replied. “Try to guess…” “Oh come on,” Silver Spoon muttered. “I just want to hold a conversation… What bothers you?” Diamond Tiara sighed. The pill started to kick in and the whispers silenced. Even Silver Spoon became more blurred. “I thought I’ve seen everything…” she muttered. “But now I have a fan…” “So?” Silver Spoon asked. “You’ve always wanted to have fans…” “But not for that!” Diamond Tiara shouted. “That’s disgusting… It’s even worse than ponies who pity me...” Silver Spoon yawned. Diamond Tiara raised her head and sent her a nasty glare. “Am I boring you?” she asked. “No, I just found it interesting that ponies who pity you piss you off, while you still pity yourself…” Silver Spoon replied, watching her hooves. Diamond Tiara sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Okay, I’m pathetic…” she said. “What can I do about that?” “The same thing you planned earlier,” Silver Spoon replied. “Walk out more, meet ponies, read books, make up for the last ten years…” Suddenly her voice changed. “Or maybe we should start to do everything again? We’d be even more famous…” Diamond Tiara turned her head so quickly that one of the muscles in her neck sent a jolt of pain to her brain. Her eyes widened when she saw that Silver Spoon was no longer with her; instead Curtain Call was watching her curiously. “Those pills…” Curtain Call muttered. “You need to stop taking them. They prevent us from being truly together… Cider was a good idea, you know. Who knows, maybe Silver would also be with us? She runs away…” “N-no…” Diamond Tiara stuttered, shivering. “I’m not going to kill anypony… Get out...” “Or what? Will you break another mirror?” Curtain Call chuckled. “Face it, Diamond Tiara – you can’t survive without me…” Diamond Tiara grabbed the glass of water and threw it at her. The jingling startled her. She looked at Curtain Call and saw that she was gone; only the shards of glass lying on the floor were a proof that something happened. Diamond Tiara yawned – a final symptom that her meds started to work. She wasn’t sure if it wasn’t what caused Curtain Call to disappear, but she didn’t think about that. She lay on the couch and soon she fell into a shallow slumber, occasionally interrupted by shudders and whimpers. Babs was lurking in the shadows. She made sure Apple Bloom was asleep. Neither Applejack nor Big Macintosh were at home, so she didn’t have to worry about them. Babs smiled to herself. She remembered Granny Smith telling her once that she hoped for Big Macintosh and Fluttershy getting together and giving her a couple of grandchildren. Granny didn’t live to that moment, but Big Mac and Fluttershy eventually did became a couple. Babs wondered what they were doing – probably they were sitting together, not talking to each other. Applejack, as she told Babs, went to Pinkie Pie for a party. Probably hoping that Caramel would be there too. Babs chuckled and shook her head. She’d never think any of her cousins would ever find time for dating, and now she and Apple Bloom were the only single ponies in the family. She shrugged – it meant that she wouldn’t have to be afraid that somepony would see her. She quickly trotted downstairs, carefully avoiding all the creaking boards. She cursed under her breath, seeing that it was snowing. On one hoof, it meant that Applejack and Big Mac wouldn’t be coming back soon. On the other, her traces would be perfectly visible. Babs shrugged and took her jacket from the hanger. Then she wrapped a white scarf around her neck and looked at herself in the mirror. A brief thought that she looked like a pegasus warrior from the first Griffonian War ran through her mind, making her laugh. She checked if her knife and money were in her pockets and left home. Taking shortcuts through the fetlock-deep snow, she reached the railway station. She hid in the building, waiting for the night train from Hoofington to come. Luckily, the ticket counters were closed and those few ponies who were waiting for a train weren’t interested in looking at her. Despite that, she hid in the corner; she didn’t want to take any chances. Finally, she heard the sound of the steam engine and screeching brakes. She trotted to the platform and, hiding her face from the cold wind, started to look for a familiar silhouette. The mule recognised her first. “Hello, Seed,” she said. “Long time no see…” She chuckled and reached her saddlebags with her hoof. “I have ten minutes before the train goes to Fillydelphia…” “Hi, Ice Nine,” Babs muttered. “Not here…” She pointed at the siding. “No one will see us there…” “It’s fucking cold…” Ice Nine muttered when they were walking through the snow. “I liked our desert better…” “Stop whinin’,” Babs replied. “With your name ya should be used to low temperatures…” “Fuck off, Seed, okay?” Ice Nine sighed. “Do you at least have the cash? I’m not gonna be freezing my ass off all night for you…” “Of course,” Babs replied. “Do you have it?” “Yes. Just what you wanted.” Ice Nine opened one of her saddlebags and took some small object wrapped in a piece of cloth. “Small, easy to conceal and get rid of, not used before, and it’s not some shitty souvenir that may poke your eye out. Caps included.” “Thanks…” Babs took the money and gave it to the mule. “Three hundred and fifty, as I wrote ya…” Ice Nine counted the money and smiled, hiding the coins. “If you want, I have some cool pills I can give you. They give a great kick to the brain…” “I’d rather not have my brain kicked, thank ya,” Babs muttered. “See ya, Ice Nine.” “Take care, Seed,” Ice Nine said. “Whatever you’re planning to do…”