"I can't believe she didn't take you, Sweetie," Apple Bloom said, "I was sure you were in this thing the whole way!"
"Me too," Sweetie Belle kicked a pebble as she walked, "I bet we'd all get to go if we had our cutie marks. Then they wouldn't treat us like such foals."
"Yeah," Scootaloo said, "and we even have our super special connection with your magic, Sweetie! We'll save them one day, that'll show 'em."
"Wait," Sweetie said, "you're right Scoots, even if we don't have our marks yet, we've got real talents. What if they need us? What if they made a mistake, leaving us behind?"
"Come on Sweetie," Apple Bloom said, "they've saved Equestria a bushel of times. Why would they need us?"
"Everypony starts somewhere," Sweetie huffed, "only Twilight had some fancy title when they took on Nightmare Moon. That's the whole point, you never know when or how your friends'll come through! 'Sides, Twilight didn't always listen to Celestia either, like when she realized Nightmare Moon was coming back herself!"
"But she ended up doing the same stuff she'd have done if she'd listened..."
"Whatever," Scootaloo said, "I'm with Sweetie, we need to figure out where they are and go help!"
"I dunno girls," Apple Bloom said, "I'm not sure we're ready to face the kinds of things that are dangerous to all them..."
"I'm totally ready, Rainbow Dash trained me herself, and Sweetie's almost officially Twilight's personal student! And you're a great organizer just like your sister. Besides, this could get us our cutie marks!"
Apple Bloom's ears pricked up, but she just said, "Yeah? In what?"
Sweetie Belle bounced almost as high as Pinkie Pie. "Being heroes, of course! We never tried that!"
"Oh, I guess you're right," Apple Bloom grinned, "that's gotta be why we've been waiting so long! We just needed a real emergency we could help out in!"
"Yeah, that's gotta be it!" The other two hopped around her. "How're we gonna find them, though?"
"Oh, I've got it!" Scootaloo said, "Twilight writes everything down. I bet we could find some note or something in the castle!"
"Hmmm, maybe, but what about the guards?" Apple Bloom said.
"I bet they'll let me in," Sweetie said, "Come on, let's go!"
The trio dashed off towards the castle at full gallop, caught up again in crusader fever. When they arrived, though, the two guards on the door were asleep, and the front gate was ajar.
"Wait," Apple Bloom whispered, "they're asleep on the job? Both of them? I don't like this, girls."
"It means we were totally right," Sweetie hissed, "something's definitely up. Somepony must have enchanted them or something, we can catch them in the act!"
Scootaloo and Sweetie immediately took off towards the gate.
"Sure, let's catch the pony that put two guard ponies to sleep in the act," Apple Bloom grumbled, but she followed her fellow Crusaders through the gate. Despite the suspicious nature of the entrance, though, they found nothing particularly unusual inside, other than a lack of guards.
"Let's go check the council room," Sweetie whispered, "maybe that's where her records are."
There was no sign of anyone else as they walked to the council chamber, nor in it. The great table was bare, but somepony had attached a small file to the back of each seat, containing a sheaf of notes. They eagerly lifted them out and started looking them over.
"They must have been real distracted," Sweetie said, "or in a big hurry. A couple of these are blank. Twilight might not put something for herself, but Applejack's blank too."
"Yeah, and all the rest still say they're in Las Pegasus or Veroneigh, but they already got back," Scootaloo said.
"Well that's great," Apple Bloom said, "we're no better off than before."
"I saw them leaving on the train, heading south," Scootaloo said, "maybe if we go look at the schedule at the train station, we can see where they were going."
"Yeah, all right."
They turned and walked into the central stairwell of the castle and began back down to ground level. As they approached one of the mid-level doors, though, it creaked open, and another filly darted out into the hallway.
"Diamond?" Apple Bloom said, "what the hay are you doing here?"
The pink filly's head jerked up to look directly at her, expression unreadable. Then without a word she turned away and galloped down the stairway.
"Hey, get back here!" Sweetie called, and the three friends chased after her. She had a significant head start, though, and by the time they emerged on the ground floor, there was no sign of her save the front gate, slightly more open than they'd left it.
"What in Equestria was up with her?" Apple Bloom said, "she's never run from us. And why was she here to begin with?"
"Who cares," Scootaloo said, "she's never made any sense, and if you ask me, her running away's a big improvement."
"But maybe she's got something to do with all this."
"I know she's a big jerk, but I don't think she's a threat to Equestria," Sweetie Belle said.
"I dunno, maybe not," Apple Bloom said, "but somepony put those guards to sleep, and it's awful suspicious she was in here."
"She's not even a unicorn, though," Scootaloo said, "how could she put the guards to sleep?"
"I could do it with a potion, no problem."
"Whatever," Scootaloo said, "I want to find Rainbow Dash, not dumb Diamond Tiara, I'm going to check out the train station. You coming, Sweetie?"
"Yeah," Sweetie said, "let's wake up these guards first. Catch up with you tomorrow, AB?"
"Yeah, sure," Apple Bloom grumbled, but took off down the stairs at speed. By the time she made it out the front gate, though, there was no sign of their old nemesis. She galloped down the road towards town, hoping to bring Diamond into sight, but she'd seen nothing by the time she hit the first major fork. She took her best guess, but it wasn't long before she gave up and headed back to the farm.
They met up again at recess, as usual.
"Any luck, girls?" Apple Bloom opened.
"Nah," Scootaloo said, "that train has tons of stops, and goes all the way to Baltimare. None of them looked all that important."
"Any luck with Diamond?" Sweetie asked.
"I couldn't even find her," Apple Bloom admitted, "I just wandered around town until I had to go home. Maybe I'll just go ask her now, when she can't run away."
"Ugh, I still can't believe you want to talk to her," Scootaloo said, but all three started scanning the yard for Diamond Tiara.
"Huh," Apple Bloom said, finding no sign of her, "I see Silver Spoon over there, but where's Diamond? She was in class, why isn't she out here?"
She walked over to Silver Spoon, followed reluctantly by her friends.
"Hey Silver, where's Diamond?"
"I don't know why you would care, and I certainly don't" Silver Spoon said, "but I think she stayed inside to talk to Ms. Cherilee. I heard her mention something about extra credit."
"I bet she needs it," Sweetie Belle snorted.
"Just because I'm angry at her doesn't mean I'm so desperate as to turn to you blank flanks," Silver Spoon turned her nose up. "But I hoped you'd do better, Sweetie Belle. You should follow your sister's example, she's almost classy. I think these two must be a bad influence."
"I'll influence your face!" Scootaloo said, and reared up before Sweetie and Apple Bloom grabbed her and dragged her away as Silver Spoon sneered at them.
"Come on Scoots," Sweetie said, "if you get detention, it'll slow us down."
Scootaloo stopped struggling and walked off with her friends. "Yeah, yeah. So what are you gonna do, AB?"
"Follow her after school," Apple Bloom said, "and see what she does. Then I guess I'll figure it out from there. Y'all want to come?"
"We didn't talk to the weather team yesterday," Sweetie Belle said, "since we didn't think of it. But they fly all over the place, so if anypony's seen anything, it should be them. We're going to go ask them what they know."
"And you don't mind my doing this instead?"
"Nah, we've got this covered. I still think you're crazy to care about Diamond being weird. Anything'd be an improvement. But I'm not mad at you." Scootaloo said.
"Yeah," said Sweetie Belle, "go for it."
"Thanks, girls."
After school, all three hung about in the playground, idly tussling until the other students left. Sweetie and Scootaloo broke off and headed for the weather team offices downtown, while Apple Bloom snuck off after Diamond Tiara, sticking to the overgrown verge of the path well back from her quarry. Diamond was walking alone, and poking along reluctantly, frequently pausing to look from side to side or kick at a rock with her hooves. She stopped dead at the first fork in the road. Normally none of the young ponies took the righthoof trail at this fork; the left went to Ponyville proper, while the right headed out of town towards the outlying farms and the edge of the Everfree.
Apple Bloom took cover in the undergrowth as Diamond paused, and held her breath as the other pony scanned the area. She seemed to go undetected, as Diamond then began trotting down the righthoof path at a steady clip, her hesitation seemingly vanished. Apple Bloom went after her as fast as she felt she could. The quick dashes from cover to cover tired her out, but it seemed her quarry was dead set on her mysterious destination, and she did not look back again.
Diamond went past the farms, and then veered off the path into the edge of the Everfree. Hoping not to lose her, Apple Bloom quickly followed, but it seemed Diamond was not going far into the woods - almost immediately upon moving into the tree cover, she stopped and sat on her haunches. Apple Bloom was scanning the area for good cover closer by, when she saw another pony approach Diamond out of the woods. Or at least, what appeared to be another pony.
The figure was large enough to be full-grown, and wrapped entirely in a black cloak, though the hood was pushed up in the forehead in the shape of a unicorn's horn. Apple Bloom felt herself sink to the ground in irrational fear, then the figure turned to face Diamond (and incidentally, Apple Bloom herself) and the latter nearly cried out in fear. The inside of the hood was completely dark, as if the sunlight could not enter, without even the hint of an outline of a face, or any features, save two: the glint of blue eyes, and a thin, elegant crown of white metal.
"Princess," Diamond Tiara said, her voice more respectful than Apple Bloom had thought it could be, "your servant returns for your orders."
The hooded figure leaned down, seeming to gaze into Diamond's eyes, and said something in a low, hissing voice that made the fur on Apple Bloom's back stand up, though she could hear none of the words. As the dark pony spoke, a red glow surrounded Diamond Tiara. Apple Bloom recognized it with a shiver as the mysterious magic they'd been searching for with Twilight, before she left. But Diamond didn't seem to notice, and kept her eyes locked on the empty hood. Finally, the hissing ceased.
"Yes, Princess," Diamond said. She turned, and Apple Bloom could have sworn her eyes locked with hers, and she saw them flash red like the magic that had surrounded her. Then the flash was gone, and Diamond's eyes moved on, unseeing, and she trotted past the hidden, petrified Apple Bloom, and off onto the trail.
The Princess, whoever she was, had already left, but still the chill and unease of her presence lingered, and Apple Bloom was unable to muster the courage to move, lest the monster hear and come for her. Finally, after what felt like hours, she crawled back, wincing at every broken twig or crunched leaf, constantly fearing the sound of hooves behind her. She reached the edge of the undergrowth. Now the path was in sight, just one or two full body lengths away, but the open space terrified her, and she lay trembling for several long breaths before she steeled herself. Once she moved, she broke to full gallop, going headlong, heedless down the road, too terrified to look behind her. She was never sure if the terrible hissing she heard mixed in with her heavy hoofbeats was imagined, or not.
But she was, if only for that moment, no longer so excited about a hero cutie mark.