“What’s taking them so long? And how long are we suppose to stay in here?” Apple Bloom moaned, while shifting her weight slightly to better keep her sling-bound hind leg from touching anything it didn’t have to.
At first Sweetie Belle just shrugged and once more glanced around the rather plain room they’d been asked to wait in. Said room was technically an interrogation room at the Vanhoover police station. A few crumbs were the only things on the table and the last evidence of the lettuce and carrot sandwiches that had passed for dinner. The dim light bulb overhead did its best to illuminate the room but it wasn’t quite enough to keep the place from feeling less than welcoming. The one pleasant feature of the room was the two plush pillow seats that the fillies were currently reclined on, and ironically enough those had been brought in along with the sandwiches and clearly weren’t a permanent feature.
“That medic did a nice job of setting my leg and all, so Ah don’t want to complain. But shouldn’t Ah have gone to the hospital and gotten a proper cast on this by now?” Bloom said, looking at the splint and bandages wrapped around her broken leg, and continuing to defy the annoying silence that filled the room whenever one of them wasn’t talking.
Sweetie gave a soft sigh. “I’m wondering about that myself. Between that and the way they escorted me when I used the bathroom you’d think we’re under arrest here.”
The door finally opened and the fillies squinted at the figure silhouetted by the well-lit hallway outside. Although they didn’t really need any help guessing the identity of the small figure. When the new arrival closed the door behind her and the light returned to gloomy dim and they could see that it was Scootaloo for sure. They also made the observation that Scootaloo no longer wore the silver leg brace or her saddlebags.
“Can we go home yet?” Apple Bloom asked.
With her eyes unable to look up from the floor between them, Scootaloo shook her head and muttered, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Sweetie asked, looking both curious and worried.
“I couldn’t talk dad into letting you remember any of this.”
“Say what now?” Apple Bloom asked, looking confused.
“He said that if it was only the crime ring you knew about, he’d have let me risk my cover by trusting you two to keep quiet. But…”
Scootaloo hesitated to finish her sentence long enough that Sweetie Belle deduced the answer and finished for her.
“Because we saw the silver thing your family keeps secret we know too much?”
Scootaloo nodded.
“Exactly. That’s why once we’re done talking, the next pony who comes through that door is going to be a unicorn from the shadow-ops damage control unit. They'll cast a spell, and the next thing you know you’ll be waking up tomorrow in Ponyville hospital not remembering anything that’s happened today. And everypony will be telling you that you two got hit on the head during the attack on the museum and that’s how you got hurt and why you can’t remember today.”
“If we ain’t gonna remember any of this, why bother telling us?” Bloom asked, gesturing to the room around them.
“Because I wanted to say, I’m sorry for lying to you when I tell you those same lies tomorrow.”
“Can’t be all that sorry if ya are planning to lie to us,” Apple Bloom said with a huff, crossing her front legs.
Scootaloo only shifted her gaze even closer to her own hooves.
“We forgive you.”
Scootaloo looked up in surprise at the sound of Sweetie Belle’s voice.
“We do?” Bloom asked.
“Of course we do. Scoot is our friend and we wouldn’t want to make this any harder on her than we have to, right?” she answered with nothing but compassion in her voice.
Bowing her head slightly, Apple Bloom said, “Fine, I forgive ya too.”
Scootaloo managed a small smile, and whipping away a tear from her eyes she said, “Thank you, girls. Is there anything you can think of that I can do to make it up to you? You know, before you forget why I owe you one?”
Apple Bloom looked at her broken leg for a moment.
“Actually, there is. Promise me that you’ll take good care of yourself.”
“Take care of my self? What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked tiling her head to the side slightly.
“If Ah remembered today, Ah know Ah’d get really worried for ya every time you ‘couldn’t play today’ since Ah’d know that meant you’d probably be out doing something dangerous like this. Just… don’t go getting yourself killed or something. Ah’d rather keep Scootaloo my normal friend than have to go to the funeral of Scootaloo the awesome spy.”
“Yeah, what she said,” Sweetie said in agreement with her earth pony friend.
Scootaloo nodded her head and as solemnly as she could she said, “I promise.”
With that the young pegasus got up to leave. The door opened and as she left a unicorn entered and the last thing Scootaloo’s friends saw was a flash of pink light.
* * * * * * *
Father and daughter stood in the secret room hidden within a secret tunnel. The elder pegasus pulled the silver weapon out of the saddlebags and placed the filly-sized device back on its pedestal.
Taking notice of the way his daughter looked at the family secret, and knowing the answer even before he asked, he asked anyway. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s just… wrong. It was so… beautiful… awesome… and scary. It’s just wrong that something that awesome can be that destructive,” Scootaloo answered.
The father closed his eyes. With his daughter’s words a part of him felt bad by the fact that he wasn’t bothered by how destructive the weapon could be. Maybe it was just because his line of work had forced him to understand that the world was a dangerous place long ago. Maybe he just wasn’t as good a pony as his daughter that it didn’t bother him.
Yet there was more to his silent pondering. The hint of fear in Scootaloo’s words had made the more timid side of his daughter show itself. Not that anypony could blame her, having been born not only as a weak flyer but an especially weak flyer, it was only natural for other kids her age to notice that and tease her for being a pegasus who still couldn’t fly. As her father, a part of him wanted to help her conquer her fears, yet the idea that she might get scared away from the dangerous path of a secret agent also appealed to him.
Finally looking away from the silver weapon, Scootaloo said, “First Sweetie Belle, and now Apple Bloom. I-I can’t do this any more. I don’t want my friends to get hurt because of me.”
Resting a wing on his daughter’s back he finally replied, “No pony said you had to be a secret agent to be a guardian of our family secret.”
Looking back up at the silver device, she asked, “You said that the first time it was fired it did something good. What was that?”
“If the stories are true, it ended Equestria’s civil war.”
The answer was met with slowly growing eyes, and an equally growing tremble in the filly’s body. “I-It was f-fired at… ponies?”
“Maybe. Maybe it was just fired at an empty mountainside like today. I mean the history books only say that the unicorns surrendered and never again thought their magic was superior to the magic of the other races. Considering that this is one of the few pegasus-made magic artifacts in the world, and after seeing it work, I’d certainly come to that conclusion too.”
A small yet doubting smile crept onto the filly’s face. “Do you really think so?”
As much as he wanted to comfort his daughter, the elder pegasus knew his little Scootaloo was smart, and if she was smart enough to question the rosy theory he’d given her, she was smart enough to come to the same conclusion as he did, eventually. And while he knew he wouldn’t be winning any parent of the year awards anytime soon, the one thing that he’d found to keep the bond with his daughter strong was the fact that he’d give her the truth even when he wouldn’t give it to anyone else.
The stallion shook his head. “No, if that’s all that had happened the books would say so. The fact that they are so vague makes it stink of a cover up. It’s probably safe to assume that a lot of unicorns died that day. And while it might be sad to think about, it did end a war that killed a lot more ponies than that, a war that killed ponies who never wanted to fight in the first place even.”
After a short pause, with a more supportive tone he added, “Also, that was a long time ago, and you had nothing to do with it, okay? And now that we’ve seen it in action, we’re both better equipped to decide if and when the time is right to bring it out of hiding again.”
“I never want to fire it again,” Scootaloo said quietly.
“Don’t let fear stop you from doing the right thing,” he counseled his daughter. Seeing the unsatisfied frown on her face, he added, “Look on the bright side. As long as it took for the guardians of the weapon to decide to use a second time, what are the odds that we’ll think we need it again in our lifetimes? Besides even if we do think we need it again, as long as I’m alive, you won’t have to fire it.”
That got a smile out of her. “You promise?”
“I promise. Now it’s way past your bedtime, missy.”
The mere mention of bedtime was enough to make the filly yawn, and she certainly didn’t need any other reason to want to leave the secret room. With a sleepy smile she hugged her father quickly and then turned to leave.
As soon as Scootaloo was gone, her father looked back at the silver filly-sized weapon. Placing a hoof on the device he couldn’t help but fear. I just hope I’m not making a promise I can’t keep.
* * * * * * *
“So you’re telling me that this crystal, so radiant with light magic that it could justly be called a ‘holy relic,’ used to be a shadow crystal? The same type of shadow crystal that is legendary for its dark magic so strong that it corrupts all other magic it touches and is said that nothing can purify it?” Luna asked, with clear skepticism in her voice.
Between the darkened room and traveler’s cloak, her starlight mane was the only truly visible part of the princess of the night. Wearing similar cloaks, the two pegasus stallions nodded in response to the princess’s questions. A gesture that might have seemed foolish given the only dim light in the room was coming from the soft prismatic glow coming off of the star-like gemstone. Of course the two shadow-ops captains knew that the darkness didn’t bother the princess at all.
“With enough light magic it seems they can be purified,” the two said.
Looking between the two pegasi and then to the gem that resembled a four-pointed star, Luna asked, “Are not both of your teams made solely of pegasi? Where pray tell did you get ‘enough light magic’ anyway?”
In unison they answered, “That’s classified.”
“Even from me?”
“Even from you.”
Unseen in the darkness, Luna raised an eyebrow and the gears in her mind started to turn. As long forgotten memories found their way to the surface, revelation flashed in the alicorn princess’s eyes. “Ah, then I shall not ask which of you is the current guardian of the prism beam.”
“Prism beam?” both pegasi asked. Both curious in their own ways, as neither had actually heard that name before, either way they both carried a similar tone in their voice.
Luna gave a small laugh. “Come now, there aren’t that many things I’ve ordered hidden even from me. Surly you can imagine that there are even fewer capable of unleashing light magic.” Stopping to tap a hoof on her chin she added, “Although I suspect that this means that the official secret report blaming the war golem for the new lake near Vanhoover is not true either, is that right?”
“Yes ma’am,” both stallions answered.
Luna couldn’t help but smile at the clearly practiced uniformity the two before her were showing. Looking to the crystal on the floor in front of her, she said, “As nice as it is to be vindicated for defying my sister all those years ago, we can’t afford to have rumors floating around that the prism beam still exists.”
Daring to step forward, Cloud Wall motioned to the crystal on the floor and said, “Princess, I don’t understand. There are only five shadow crystals left in the world. The set can no longer be completed. Isn’t that one of the best things that’s ever happened for the safety of Equestria?”
“It is,” Luna answered with a nod. “But it is not that simple. Celestia views the prism beam as an abomination. As you no doubt know, light magic rarely takes on a purely destructive form. Even if she knew that it was the reason for the shadow crystal’s end, she would insist all the more that the prism beam is no longer needed. After it was first used, she ordered it destroyed. But I saw the truth, she was acting on emotion, not thinking things out. And most importantly I have seen her putting blind faith in the elements, and more recently, the spirits of harmony. Where she would see only the perversion of her precious light, I see the ultimate weapon of light capable of conquering the shadows that the elements and magic of friendship can not.”
Stepping forward, Scootaloo’s father asked, “And what do you want us to do with the crystal? A potent source of light magic like this could be used to do some good.”
“It should be hidden. One of you take it, pass it along to somepony who can be trusted to keep it hidden away, and have them pass it along to one that they trust to do the same. Let its origin be forgotten. When time has forgotten that it was once a shadow crystal, and it can no longer be traced to the disappearance of a shadow crystal, curiosity will take its course and somepony will use it for something good then.”
Seeing that the soldiers before her seemed to want more, Luna added, “Sadly that which can be made can be remade. And I’d prefer that the forces of darkness seeking to unite the shadow crystals spend their time searching for that which no longer exists than realizing they need to figure out how to make another shadow crystal to complete the set.”
The two stallions gave each other a nod and returning to acting in unison they saluted and said, “Understood ma’am, we’ll take care of it.”
* * * * * * *
Apple Bloom awoke slowly. Rubbing the stiffness out of her joints, she realized that this didn’t feel like her bed. Her mind snapped awake and she saw that she was in a hospital bed. Sitting up, she felt that something was wrong with her leg and looking at she found it wrapped in a cast. A feeling on her forehead informed her that she had bandages wrapped around her head from just above her eyes to just below the base of her ears.
“Ooohhh… my head…” she moaned. Then spotting Scootaloo sitting in a chair between her bed and another one, she added. “Scoot, what happened?”
The pegasus filly looked up from the comic book she had been reading.
“Apple Bloom! You’re awake!” she cheered.
Then she turned to face the other bed, thus drawing Bloom’s attention to the fact that Sweetie Belle was in other bed.
Scootaloo softly rocked her shoulder and in response Sweetie moaned.
“Shouldn’t you be letting her rest?” Bloom asked.
“You got it worse then she did, so if you’re ready to wake up, so is she.”
Suddenly sitting up and then drawing a hoof to her own bandaged head, Sweetie Belle said, “I’m up! I’m up! Oww! Why do I have such a bad headache?”
“There was a robbery at museum when we on the field trip,” Scootaloo answered.
“Museum? Field trip? You mean tomorrow’s field trip?” Sweetie said trying to make sense of what her memories were telling her.
“No, I mean yesterday’s field trip.”
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom look at each other with the same bewildered look.
“Ah don’t even remember going. What happened?”
“Like I said, there was a robbery. They blew a huge hole in the floor! Stuff when flying everywhere!” Scootaloo was swinging her arms excitedly as she narrated the event. “We all tried to take cover, and you were awesome Apple Bloom!”
“Ah was?”
“Yeah something big was about to smash Sweetie Belle! But you knocked her out of the way!” Suddenly sounding a lot less cheerful, Scootaloo looked to the cast on Blooms leg and added, “And it landed on you leg instead. That’s how it got broken.”
“Sounds exciting, I can’t believe we can’t we remember any of that,” Sweetie said.
“Yeah any idea why that is?” Bloom asked.
“You two got knocked out by falling rubble. We took you to the hospital when you didn’t wake up right away. And once they were done treating the broken leg and stuff they let us transfer you back to Ponyville’s hospital to wait until you woke up here. Anyway, the doctors said you two got real bad concussions. They even warned me that hits to the head like that might make you lose some of your memories.”
The two fillies in the hospital beds looked at their friend with blank faces for a moment.
Eventually Sweetie Belle returned her gaze to the end of her bed.
“I guess that makes sense.”
Reaching out and putting a hoof on the shoulders of both of her friends, Scootaloo said, “I’m just glad you two are okay.”
“Yeah, me too,” Apple Bloom said, hugging the hoof offered to her. “Say, Scootaloo?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“Did you ever find your dad and deliver that secret thing to him?”
Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah, he seemed to think things turned out okay. So you can just forget about it now. Mission complete,” she added, even faking a bit of a smile.
Then she got up and said, “I should probably get going now. I’m late enough for school already, and Cheerilee only said I could stay with you two until you woke up. So I guess I’ll see you later.”
She’d made it half way to the door when Sweetie Belle’s voice stopped her.
“Hey Scoot, don’t go doing anything too reckless without us out there!”
Scootaloo smiled.
“Don’t worry, I promise.”