Much to Scootaloo’s dismay the Ponyville guard station had no record of her father being stationed there. Needless to say they couldn’t tell her where her dad was, and not being a central hub they didn’t have the records of where her dad was stationed. With their only real lead exhausted, there was little surprise when the day ended and she and her friends were calling it a night empty hoofed.
Thanks to a reminder from her friends the night before, the next day saw Scootaloo ready for an explanation to Cheerilee and a field trip with the class.
The good news was that between the rough first draft (as Cheerilee called it) and the news that she’d missed class on account of being turned to stone, her teacher gave Scootaloo credit for her part in the Hoofer Dam assignment.
The more good news was that the field trip had the class going to the Baltimare Magical Artifacts Museum. While the museum itself had no value to Scootaloo, the idea that she could slip away during the lunch break and ask around the Baltimare guard station for signs of her father had inspired her to bring her family secret with her. Granted it was a wild long shot, but it was all she had to work with.
Of course that meant she had to get through the museum tour first. And sitting in the entrance room of the building with its grand pillars and marble floors was already trying Scootaloo’s patience. Had she been paying more attention she might have noticed the odd exchange of words between Cheerilee and the tour guide. Namely that her teacher had thanked the museum staff for the invitation and the tour guide had responded by saying she wasn’t doing anything that wouldn’t be done for anyone else who reserved a tour.
Instead Scootaloo was focused on pacing in circles, paying attention to the weight in her saddlebags. Like any other inanimate object it dutifully weighed her down, waiting patiently.
“Come along class!” Cheerilee finally told her students, motioning for them to follow the guide.
The tour began with the wing dedicated to magic artifacts of historical significance. Mostly stuff where the names like Star Swirl or Meadow Brook came up. Maybe some other names came up too, but Scootaloo had basically tuned out what the tour guide was saying by the third artifact.
The artifacts themselves captured her interest though. The polished metals and various crystals and gems that they had caught her eye. Most seemed to be primarily made of gold or silver, although the older ones seemed to prefer bronze or brass and even a few wooden artifacts could be found.
As the tour went on Scootaloo couldn’t help but notice that unicorn made artifacts seemed to use gemstones and/or enchanted, runic etchings to serve as the power source, seemingly without exception. Interestingly enough, just as she was wondering if unicorns ever made magic artifacts that used liquid rainbow as a power source, Apple Bloom put a similar question to words. The tour guide laughed and then tried to explain that potion making was considered a different field all together, so ‘potion-powered devices’ weren’t considered ‘magic artifacts’ as diplomatically as possible despite the dismissive laugh that preceded it.
Entering yet another room not only Scootaloo, but all of the class’s eyes fell on a simple wand, made of ebony steel and topped with a dark purple gem. A black and purple darkness swirled in the gem that made the crusaders’ skin crawl.
“What’s that?” Sweetie Belle asked, with a timid note in her voice.
Taking a position beside the glass box containing the artifact in question, the tour guide said, “That is a shadow crystal. An artifact of such powerful dark magic that it draws in all magic that touches it and turns it into more dark magic. The rod is actually just to handle it safely, as touching the crystal directly results in excruciating pain. Or so I’m told, on rather good word I might add.”
Suddenly Scootaloo couldn’t shake the feeling that a glass box and a velvet-rope barrier didn’t seem like enough security for this display.
“Isn’t it kind of dangerous to have something like that out in the open like this?” Sweetie Belle said, putting the shared concerns to words.
The guide just smiled and said, “Don’t be a silly filly. Powerful artifacts are never put on display. This is just a replica made by one of our artists. The only magic this thing has is a little bit of illusion magic to make it look exactly like the real thing. The real one is safely locked away in the vault, in the basement.”
With that the guide moved on, leading the group to another display and giving a quick explanation of the artifact being presented.
They had made it about half way around the room when the floor in the center of the room exploded. Bits of concrete, marble flooring, and the displays that use to be in the middle of the room sailed outward from the blast.
Colts screamed like fillies, fillies screamed like fillies and a few adults screamed like fillies, some just screamed. Among all of the screaming only Cheerilee’s scream of ‘Take cover!’ was remotely coherent.
Also strangely accustom to random catastrophic explosions (possibly for related reasons,) the three crusaders acted on instinct and found the largest piece of debris headed their way and jumped to be anywhere else. And as soon as their bellies hit the floor they covered their heads with their front legs to shield themselves from all the smaller stuff they couldn’t hope to dodge.
While her friends had closed their eyes as they cowered, Scootaloo dared to keep one eye open and peak out from under her hoof. Among the falling rubble two things captured her attention. First the replica shadow crystal landing on the floor, a few feet away. Second was an oddly familiar, white stallion of the royal guard landing a few feet beyond that, with another shadow crystal grasped in his mouth.
The instant the pegasus stallion’s eyes came back into focus from his hard landing, he spotted the replica and a millisecond after that he saw the orange filly just beyond it. The moment their eyes met, the corners of the stallion’s mouth gave a hint of a smile and immediately he spat out the wand with the shadow crystal and leapt at the replica instead.
With the shadow-crystal topped wand sliding right at her, Scootaloo didn’t even think twice before stretching out her neck, biting down on the metal rod, and stuffing the artifact into her left side saddlebag.
Scootaloo pulled her muzzle out of her saddlebag and looked back up just in time to see five more pegasi come out of the basement’s new skylight. The mare and stallion with white coats and blue manes, who wore golden armor were clearly of the royal guard. And much like the stallion on the floor a few feet from her, Scootaloo even knew their names. On the other hoof, the three pegasi who wore only saddlebags positioned to cover up their cutie marks were complete strangers to her.
Of the three bandit pegasi, the stallion of the group had a midnight blue coat, black mane, and his brown eyes were currently darting around the room searching for something.
That was when Cloud Wall stood up with the replica shadow crystal in his mouth and said, “Loofing for thish?” And with that the royal guard captain flapped his wings and bolted into the air.
That definitely got the bandit’s attention, and he then darted after Cloud.
By now Scootaloo’s friends had noticed that the debris had stopped falling around them and so they dared to open their eyes.
The first thing to catch Apple Bloom’s eyes were the royal guard mare and the bandit mare with a gray coat and rusty red mane trading blows in the air, a few feet from the balcony above her.
The first thing to grab Sweetie Belle’s attention was the royal guard stallion brawling with the other bandit mare. The pegasus bandit in question had a lime-green coat and blond mane. The two bounced off of each other as a result of both landing decent kicks on the other’s torso. The guard flapped his wings hard and recovered from his fall inches above the floor, while the bandit kicked off of one of the few displays still standing in the room to recover from her spin. Both darted right back at each other, resuming their fight in the air over the hole in the floor.
By now everypony in the room was starting to realize what was going on and new shouting joined the chaos of the moment. A teacher shouting for her students, museum staff shouting for everyone to head for the main hall, and guards and bandits shouting at each other as they fought.
Scootaloo didn’t hear a word of it. Instead her mind was so focused on Captain Cloud Wall and the fact that the captain just flew through a doorway on the balcony that the sounds of everything around her seemed muffled. Her eyes shrank to dots at the thought that her best chance of finding her dad just left the room, and the only impulse she could feel was the one that told her to go after him.
Even as the bandit followed through the same doorway as the captain, Scootaloo’s eyes had already locked onto a doorway below that one, on her own floor, that looked like it would lead to the same room and dashed at it.
Seeing their pegasus friend run off in the opposite direction that their teacher was calling the class left Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in a moment of indecision. But if nothing else, the crusaders were friends and soon they ran after Scootaloo. Only Sweetie Belle took a moment to glance over her shoulder as she left the room, to see that Cheerilee was too busy corralling other students to see the trio of fillies chasing after the fight instead of fleeing from it.
As Scootaloo ran through the short hallway, she couldn’t help but notice something felt off about her saddlebags. Namely that they weren’t touching her sides anymore, almost as if she had two magnets in them, each repelling the other. But she didn’t have time for distractions right now, so she banished the thought from her mind and continued on, despite the increasingly uneasy feeling growing in her gut.
Emerging into another room of the museum, Scootaloo found new cries of surprise filling the air, as Cloud Wall flipped over the balcony railing in a less than controlled manner and smashed into a display formerly containing a golden crown and scepter. As the captain came to a sudden halt the shadow crystal replica went flying.
Scootaloo ducked behind the nearest set of enchanted pony armor and peeked out to watch the captain and bandit both jump for the errant replica.
A second later, the sudden feeling of presence made her look back to find her friends joining her in taking cover behind the armor display.
“Ah know this is exciting to watch an all, but won’t Miss Cheerilee get awful upset with us for ignoring her like this?” Apple Bloom asked in a whisper.
“I’m sorry, but this is too important. So I don’t care if I get in trouble. I need to talk to him,” Scootaloo whispered, motioning to the guard captain currently brawling with the bandit over the shadow crystal replica.
“Fine, Cutie Mark Crusader Fieldtrip Ditchers it is,” Bloom muttered with a sigh, shaking her head slightly.
Right about then the bandit pegasus managed to land a good kick on his opponent, sending the captain tumbling to the floor and the shadow crystal replica sliding free across the marble floor. Snatching the fake wand off the floor, he yelled, “Got it!” Then he promptly took flight, soaring out the nearest window.
A second later the two bandit mares appeared in the sky outside the window, followed by one of the royal guards. The mare of the guards however came blitzing into the room and spotting her captain sprawled out on the floor came to a hover just above him.
“Sergeant?” Captain Cloud Wall asked.
“Chasing.”
Motioning for Scootaloo to come out from her hiding place, Cloud said, “Thank Celestia you’re quick, kid. Now let’s get out of here before they realize they stole a fake.” As soon as he’d finished speaking the captain raised an eyebrow at the realization that not one, but three fillies came out from behind the armor display.
“Wait! Don’t Ah know you?” Apple Bloom asked.
“We’ve met in passing before, yes. But now isn’t the time for that. Let’s go!” Cloud Wall insisted, as he started leading the way toward the exit.
Cloud had barely stepped into the entrance hall when he suddenly stopped and shot his hoof out to the side. Bumming into the unexpected obstacle, Scootaloo backed up, raised a single eyebrow and gave the captain a ‘what gives?’ look.
“There are two ponies out there with press hats,” he explained.
Now it was Sweetie Belle’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “What’s the big deal? The museum just got robbed. Isn’t that a newsworthy story?”
“Exactly, kid. The museum just got robbed, like forty-five seconds ago. There’s no way anypony from the actual press should be here already, they must be with the robbers.” With that the captain turned around and headed deeper into the museum, adding, “Let’s go slip out the back door instead.”
Soon the five ponies found themselves peeking cautiously out an open door marked ‘Garden Exhibit.’
“Where is everypony? Ah mean, Ah’m not surprised that the museum is empty but it looks like they’ve clear outa here already too!” Apple Bloom pondered aloud.
A guilty smile crept onto Cloud Wall’s face. “My team and I weren’t here because of luck you know. We had reason to think something was going down today, so we may have dropped a not so subtle hint to the museum staff that they should be ready to clear everypony out on a moment’s notice today.”
As they left the building, they traded the marble floor and plaster walls for smooth brick paths and walls made of hedgerows and backed by black iron fences. On the grass, on the sides of the path was an assortment of magic artifacts. Some being really tall like the enchanted lightning rod next to the building and others being magic artifacts designed to react to the sun or rain, all of them accompanied by the usual plaques describing them in more detail.
As soon as they had entered the garden area, the two royal guard ponies bolted, inspiring the trio of fillies to do the same. Yet Apple Bloom had an observation she couldn’t help but share. “This place looks awful walled in! Are ya sure there’s an exit around here?”
The two adults and even Scootaloo all giggled at the question.
“What are you laughing at? You can’t fly either!” Bloom reminded her pegasus friend.
The reason Scootaloo had joined in the laughter was that she’d already noticed the one display that was out of place. Being the only magic artifact sitting on the brick path the royal-guard pegasus chariot stood out to her. It didn’t hurt that the plaque next to it had a distinctly impermanent design that separated it from the other artifact’s plaques out here.
Cloud Wall quickly grabbed the plaque next to the chariot and tossed it into the nearest bush.
“Wait! I know you’re guards and all but that doesn’t mean you can steal the museum’s guard chariot!” Sweetie Belle protested.
“Yeah… this never belonged to the museum in the first place,” Cloud explained as he slipped into the harness. A second later he added, “Hold on to something!”
Scootaloo had already grabbed hold of the bench on the right side of the chariot, but the captain’s words prompted Sweetie Belle to mirror Scootaloo on the left side bench. At the same time Apple Bloom stood up and used her front hooves to grab the top of the leading wall of the chariot like a proper rider.
Flapping his wings hard and pushing off hard with his legs, Captain Cloud Wall pulled the chariot into the sky. Judging from the screams maybe a second before two of the fillies were ready for hard acceleration, but a glance over his shoulder confirmed that no pony had fallen out.
With her friends defeating the point of keeping quiet even Scootaloo couldn’t help but let out a cry of her own, although in her case it was more of a cheer than a scream.
On the city streets below few noticed the royal guards flying overhead, and the ones who did mostly only to wonder why they were flying so low, staying well below the tops of the buildings around them.
As they flew north Sweetie Belle joined Scootaloo in looking out the open back of the chariot and admiring the city as it rush by. However, Apple Bloom couldn’t take her eyes off of the stallion pulling said chariot through the sky.
“So where do Ah know you from?” Bloom finally put her thoughts to words.
“I’m friends with her dad. I gave you a ride to a library once, but outside of that I don’t believe we’ve crossed paths,” he answered, giving a nod in Scootaloo’s general direction.
The hasty retreat from the museum lasted at most a minute before Cloud Wall brought the chariot down, landing and taking cover in the first patch of trees he could find.
Breathing heavy from his aerial sprint Cloud said, “Oh wow, you’re a life saver, Scootaloo. And thank Celestia that you’re quick enough to figure out what to do even without the briefing. Heck I’m surprised you were even here.”
“What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked, tilting her head slightly.
“I left you a note Saturday but when you were a no show Sunday I figured you were sick or something. I mean it’s not like you to not show up even if all you can do is explain why you’re too busy to help. So yeah, I figured you wouldn’t even be on that fieldtrip I set up for your class.”
“Wait! You arranged that fieldtrip?” Sweetie Belle asked the stallion.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, like I said I wanted Scootaloo on site. But given the formalities involved I had to set the ball rolling on that last week. Say why didn’t you respond to my note?” he said, aiming the last part at the pegasus filly.
“Someone using an illusion spell turned me to stone, and no pony found me until Monday. And speaking of what you wanted me to do, can you hurry up and take this thing? It’s giving me the creeps.”
“That’s… that’s a new one,” Cloud managed to say, clearly caught off guard by the answer.
Opening her left side saddlebag and motioning for the elder pegasus to take the contents, Scootaloo added, “Oh and I need to talk to you about dad.”
The instant the dark magic artifact was removed from her saddlebag the feeling that Scootaloo could only liken to a weird magnetic tempest in her gut also vanished.
Also as Captain Cloud Wall withdrew the former museum artifact from the filly’s bag, Sweetie Belle gasped and said, “You stole the shadow crystal?!”
“Well technically the royal guard gave this to the museum in the first place, and if I’d known this was what the thieves were after I could’ve just asked for it back and removed it this morning. But I didn’t. So hence the rather improvised method,” Cloud explained to Sweetie. Then turning to Scootaloo, he added, “So what’s this about your dad?”
Taking a deep breath and putting on her serious face, Scootaloo railed off, “When dad found out I’d been turned to stone, he asked me to bring him something important, but he didn’t say where to bring it, so I need your help finding him!”
Taking note of the weight bulge in Scootaloo’s right side saddlebag Cloud Wall said, “I might be able to help with that. But seeing as your teacher will notice your absence soon, maybe I should just take it to him for you.”
“No. You’re not allowed to know what it is,” she stated flatly.
“I’m not allowed to know?” the captain repeated in relative disbelief.
Scootaloo simply shook her head to confirm her statement.
Taking a moment to consider the authenticity of the filly’s assertion Cloud tapped a hoof on his chin. Looking the filly over he couldn’t help but notice the dead serious look on her face and the shimmer of determination in her eyes.
Finally he asked, “Who is allowed to know?”
Now it was Scootaloo’s turn to pause and think for a moment. “Just me and dad, I think.”
A hint of revelation flashed in Cloud Wall’s eyes. “Ohhh… one of those kinds of secrets.” Soon the captain’s eyes found their way back to Scootaloo’s friends, then to the mare that happened to be his coworker. “Lieutenant, can you take these two back to the museum? Tell them that we have the missing artifact and tell Scootaloo’s teacher that we’re keeping her for questioning or something.”
The lieutenant nodded.
“No.”
All eyes fell on the yellow filly who had just spoken.
“Y’all heard me, Ah said ‘no.’ The cutie mark crusaders are a team, so where Scootaloo goes, we go!”
“Yeah, what she said!” Sweetie Belle chimed in.
Cloud Wall stared at Scootaloo. “What?” was all she could say in reply.
“They’re your friends. Can’t you talk them into being reasonable?”
“I don’t think the crusaders have ever been accused of being reasonable. Besides, I already tried.”
“They do know they’re asking to go someplace that could be dangerous right?” Pausing for a second the captain looked to Scootaloo's friends and repeated, “You do know that, right?” Once he's asked the question, he pulled a spare saddlebag from his chariot’s hidden bench compartment.
“We don’t care! If it’s not too dangerous for Scootaloo, it’s not too dangerous for us!” Apple Bloom insisted. Although a worried look crossed Sweetie’s face, she seemed intent to stick with her friends.
With a quick glance into the saddlebag now hanging from his mouth, the dark aura of the artifact within pulsed as if to threaten oblivion to those who lingered in its presence. “Fine, we don’t have time for this.” Turning to the mare, Cloud amended his orders. “Aurora, go inform the museum that the artifact is safe, and give these three a cover story.” Tossing the saddlebag with the shadow crystal in it to the newly arrived stallion, he added, “Comet, take that to HQ. Then meet us at rendezvous point echo.”
“Yeah, that figures,” Comet said in a flat tone of voice that practically screamed ‘I missed something important, didn’t I?’