On the road to Justice.

by SugarHoneyIceTea123

Chapter 2: Burying the Hatchet

Three days have passed since the fateful night that changed the lives of two little fillies. In Applebloom’s case, her family had attempted to simply go about their lives as normal. They wanted Applebloom to know that no matter what, they were a family and that was that.

As she sat on the couch in her home, fiddling with the white crystal that was placed in her spaceship, the filly smiled as she remembered Applejack practically glued herself to Applebloom the following day saying ‘You’re my sister’ again and again. It was as if Applejack was worried Applebloom might forget that if she didn’t repeat it like a broken record.

‘As if I ever could.’ She thought to herself. Applebloom thought back on these past few days and realized just how at peace she was with the whole thing. True, when she first heard the truth of her origins she was devastated. She felt everything about her life was a lie.

But she simply remembered what her friend Scootaloo said. What has really changed?

She has certain powers now, brought on by her newfound alien heritage, but other than that nothing.

Speaking of her new powers, Applebloom and her family pretty much agreed it would be a good idea to keep them a secret, at least for now.

Still, she was able to convince her family to allow her to train and hone these new powers so that an incident, like what happened with Diamond Tiara, wouldn’t happen again.

She stopped fiddling with the crystal as she realized something. She hadn’t seen Diamond Tiara since that say. She hadn’t seen her around town or in school or anything.

She did see Silver Spoon on occasion, but to see the gray filly without her best friends was a truly strange sight.

Applebloom merely shrugged. It just meant she didn’t have to bother with dealing with Diamond Tiara’s bullying. Applebloom turned her attention back to the crystal in her hooves, all thoughts of her usual tormentor out of her mind.

Although Applebloom was now at peace with what she was, she still felt the need to understand just what exactly she was.

She knew she was an alien now, but what else?

What was her home planet like? What was it called? What were ponies like on that planet? What were her birth parents like?

Why did they send her away?

That question, more than any other, plagued Applebloom’s mind. She loved her family, she truly did and she wouldn’t trade them for any other family in the universe. But the fact of the matter was that she did have another family, somewhere out in the universe.

And Applebloom wanted to know who they were.

Applejack knew about her sister’s desires, she certainly wasn’t keeping them a secret, and Applebloom knew she felt more than a little hurt by this.

“Why do yall even want to know?” She would ask. “They gave you away. We raised you. Doesn’t that show you that we’re your family?”

But Applebloom always knew how to counter. “Wouldn’t you want to know?”

And Applejack would stay quiet after that.

For whatever reason, Applebloom knew that the answer to her questions resided within the crystal found in the cockpit of her spaceship. Whoever put her in that ship put this in there too, and they did it for a reason.

Before Applebloom could contemplate it any further, she heard the door open as her friends, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle walked in.

“Hey Bloom.” Sweetie said. “You ready to train?”

Since Applebloom decided to hone her powers, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had taken it upon themselves to be her personal trainers. And why not? It’s not like there were experts on this sort of thing.

“Sure. Let’s go.” Applebloom said as she placed her crystal in the coffee table in front of her. She hopped off and followed her friends outside.
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As luck would have it, the three were able to find a small clearing within the Everfree that would give them the space they needed and keep away any peering eyes.

“Okay.” Scootaloo said as she prepared her mental checklist. “First up: Strength test.”
Applebloom stretched out the kinks in her muscles as Scootaloo continued. “You managed to lift that big boulder over there pretty easily.” She said, gesturing to said boulder. “Now let’s really kick it up. I want you to try and uproot one of these trees.”

Applebloom scoffed. “No problem.” she said as she sauntered over to a random tree.

“Remember! Lift with your legs.” Sweetie Belle warned.

Applebloom wrapped her hooves around the trunk of the tree, planted her hind hooves firmly into the ground, took a deep breath and pulled.

With some effort, the tree was starting to slide out of the earth as its roots began to poke through. With a strained grunt, Applebloom uprooted the tree entirely with a satisfying ‘shunk’ sound.

“Timber!” She yelled as she dropped the tree. A loud crashing sound rang out throughout the forest, scaring away entire flocks of birds that happened to be nesting nearby.

“Nice!” Scootaloo shouted over the crash. “Applebloom, is it just me or are you getting stronger every day?”

Applebloom nodded as she twisted the kinks out of her hooves. “It certainly feels that way. And it’s not just my strength either. My hearings gettin’ better too.”

She pointed towards where the town was. “Right now ah can hear two ponies in town arguing over what kind of sofa to get at the quill and sofa shop.”

Sweetie Belle grimaced a little. “Uh… Applebloom? Don’t you think that’s kind of an invasion of privacy?”

Applebloom winced. “Ah… Ah guess. Ah don’t really know how to ‘turn it off’ though.”

Scootaloo rubbed her chin. “Maybe you just need to get away from the noise a bit.”

Applebloom shrugged. “Kinda hard to do that when I can hear clear into town. Where can I go to ‘get away from the noise’?”

Scootaloo smiled. “Where do you think? Straight up” She said, pointing a hoof to the clouds above them.

Applebloom realized what her friend was implying but awkwardly rubbed her hoof against her foreleg.

“Ah… Ah get you, it’s just… Ah haven’t really done ‘that’ since the first time.” She said.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each in confusion. “Why not?” Sweetie asked.

Applebloom shrugged. “Bein’ stronger, seein’ and hearin’ farther. That’s something I can learn to control… more or less. But ah’m an earth pony. Flyin’ without wings, ah don’t know, it just feels… unnatural.”

Scootaloo mulled this over before walking over to Applebloom. “Take me up with you.”

“Wha..?” Said a confused Applebloom.

“You’re an earth pony who can fly.” Scootaloo said. “I’m a pegasus who can’t fly. So if you want to compare notes on what’s ‘unnatural’ at least you get the cool end of the deal.”

Scootaloo placed a hoof on her friends shoulder as she smiled. “So I want you to carry me up there with you. That way, it will be like you’re flying for me. A pegasus in the air is a bit more normal than an earth pony in the air, right?”

Applebloom winced. “Not exactly the same thing, Scoots.”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Eh, semantics.” She said. “Now pick me up and don’t pretend I’m too heavy.”

Applebloom sighed but picked up Scootaloo all the same. The young pegasus yelped a bit at just how effortlessly Applebloom picked her up. With a slight jump, Applebloom started drifting slowly into the air.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow as she smirked. “Really? Come on, if you’re gonna fly then you gotta fly!”

Applebloom was reluctant but she realized Scootaloo didn’t exactly get many chances to get into the air. Applebloom smiled as she decided to make this memorable for her friend.

“Alright, you asked for it. Hang on!”

Scootaloo wrapped her forelegs tight around Applebloom’s neck as the alien filly willed herself to go faster. That seemed to be the key to how she was able to defy gravity, she simply had to think about it and her body did it.

With a rush of air hitting her face, Scootaloo was forced to close her eyes against the wind as the two fillies flew straight up. Sailing past the canopy of the forest in a second, Applebloom carried Scootaloo as far as she was willing to go before she felt the air grow too cold to risk going further.

If Scootaloo noticed the cold, she didn’t show it as she was much too taken aback by the sight around her.
“Wow.”

Applebloom had lifted her far above the clouds to the point where the two fillies could see the curve of the horizon. Scootaloo looked to her left and saw the very tips of the skyscrapers of Manehattan. She looked to her right and saw the peak of the mountain Canterlot was built into.

“I’ve… I’ve never been this high before!” Scootaloo said, tightening her grip around Applebloom.

“Thought you might like this.” Applebloom said through a wide smile.
Scootaloo returned the smile. “So… Hear anything?”

Applebloom, reminded why they came up here in the first place, shifted her focus to the world around her.

“...Yeah. Clear as day.” She said sadly. “Ah can even hear Sweetie Belle below us wonderin’ when we’re gonna come down.”

“It’s cause you’re focusing on it.” Scootaloo said. “Focus on anything else.”

“Like what?” Applebloom said.

Scootaloo thought for a moment. “Focus on the air above you. Nopony talking up there.”

Applebloom decided it was at least worth a shot. Directing her gaze to the skies above her, she tried to ignore the sound of the ponies below her. She didn’t exactly know how, but it was clear she was capable of ‘directing’ her hearing in some way.

And, as if somepony wiped the noise away, everything became silent.

For Applebloom, it hadn’t been silent for over three days.

“It… It worked!” She yelped.

Scootaloo smiled. “Okay, now for a bit of a test. I want you to try and hear the ponies down there again but I want you to focus on just one pony and only one pony.”

Applebloom tilted her head. “Whatever happened to ‘invasion of privacy’?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “The only way you’re gonna learn how to control these powers is by figuring out exactly what you can do. I’d say ‘focusing on a single sound’ as opposed to ‘hearing every single thing around you’ counts as control.”

Applebloom couldn’t exactly fault the logic in that. Doing as she was told, she allowed the sounds of the town below to enter her ears once more. There was the arguing couple again, apparently shifting their argument to quills now. She heard Pinkie laughing somewhere, not exactly a surprise. She heard a rhythmic ‘thunk-thunk-thunk’ coming from her farm and deduced that Applejack was harvesting their family namesake. She heard…

Crying?

It was faint, far away. Applebloom realized it was from further away than Ponyville. For whatever reason, Applebloom decided to focus on that sound more than any other. If she could find out who was crying, she might be able to help them.

Turning her head to the direction the sobs were coming from, she found herself looking once again and the gilded towers of Canterlot.

“Applebloom?” Scootaloo said, waving a hoof in front of her friend’s face. “You still there?”

“Hmm? Oh! Yeah ah am, ah just…” Applebloom paused. “I’m gonna bring us back down, okay?”

Scootaloo nodded, a worried look on her face.

Applebloom drifted back towards the ground, keeping an ear out for anypony that could witness the spectacle of a flying earth pony. Sweetie Belle was still there waiting for them.

“Well?” She asked. “How was it?”

Scootaloo dropped herself from Applebloom’s forelegs as a huge smile spread across her face.
“It was awesome, you need to see it for yourself! And we also found out a way to block out the noise she keeps hearing.”

Sweetie Belle smiled. “So, all in all, a successful day then?”

Applebloom nodded but her mind still remained on the sobbing she heard. “Hey girls, let’s call it a day for today. There’s something ah need to check out.”

Scootaloo shrugged. “That’s cool with me. What do you need to do though?”

Applebloom pointed to the mountain the city of Canterlot was built into. “While we were up there, Ah heard crying coming from Canterlot. Ah want to check it out, see if ah can help whoever it is.”

Sweetie Belle smiled coyly. “Look at you, three days with superpowers and you’re already playing superhero.”

Applebloom blushed as she rubbed her neck. “Ah come on. If I heard a pony crying right next me, ah’d help them too.”

Applebloom shrugged. “Ah just feel like helping a bit more, now that ah can.”

Scootaloo’s smile widened. “I think it’s great you wanna help ponies Applebloom, but going all the way to Canterlot just to help one crying foal? Kind of out of the way, dontcha think?”

A smirk flashed across Applebloom’s face. “Ah’ll be back soon.”

With that, Applebloom once again lifted herself into the air. But it was not slow like before. This time, she shot straight upwards like a bullet before making a sharp turn towards Canterlot leaving behind the gob smacked faces of her friends.

“Okay...” Scootaloo said “Now she’s just showing off.”
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Applebloom made sure to stay high enough where nopony would see her before she spied an alleyway, her enhanced sight informing her that nopony was residing within.

Landing in the alleyway, Applebloom gave a quick look around to make sure nopony would notice the lone filly walking out of an alleyway. She attempted to block out the surrounding noise and focus on the crying she heard earlier.

‘There...’ She thought, picking up the sound. ‘It’s more of a whimper now, but it’s the same filly.”

She broke into a brisk trot to the sound only to stop dead in her tracks when she discovered where the crying originated from. Needless to say, Applebloom now knew why this mystery filly was crying.

Still, Applebloom knew that the kindness of a stranger could help this heavy heart and walked into the Canterlot Cemetery.
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Diamond Tiara wasn’t sure how long she was here, staring at these cold stones that bore her parent’s names.

Here lies Filthy Rich and Pearl Necklace. Respected philanthropists, equinitarians, and loving parents.

Loving parents. Just… tacked on the end, as though it were an afterthought. What good were businesses and charities when there’s a little filly crying for her parents and their gone from this world?

Diamond Tiara remembered every single thing about that night. Every minute detail.

The shooter’s ugly gaunt face, the rusted metal of his gun, the blank stares on her parents faces when he… when he…

Diamond Tiara closed her eyes in an attempt to block the image from her mind. She couldn’t see it. Not again.

“Diamond?” a familiar voice said amidst her sobs.

Diamond Tiara’s eyes shot open as she turned to face her visitor. Needless to say, she was shocked to see the same filly she enjoyed to torment just a few days ago.

She didn’t exactly see the point in being antagonistic now. “H-Hey, Applebloom.”

Applebloom took a few tentative steps toward her usual oppressor, taken aback by how… vulnerable she looked. “Ah… Ah heard cryin’.”

Diamond Tiara rubbed her eyes, just realizing that she was indeed crying again. She was sure she ran out of tears hours ago.

“Yeah. My…” Diamond Tiara looked away. “My parents… are dead.”

Applebloom was shocked to hear this. “That… That can’t be right. Ah just saw your daddy talkin’ to my granny a week ago.”

Diamond Tiara grimaced. “It was… recent.”
“...How recent?” Applebloom asked, fearing the answer.
“Three days ago.”

‘Three days?’ Applebloom thought. ‘That’s when ah found out ah was an alien.’
Deciding to leave that as a coincidence, Applebloom turned her attention back towards the grieving filly.

“Diamond. You have to know… I’m sorry.”

Diamond Tiara looked at Applebloom with a confused look on her face but said nothing.

Applebloom took that as a sign to continue. “Ah won’t pretend we were good friends but… Ah wouldn’t wish this on anypony. Nopony deserves this kind of pain.”

Diamond Tiara scoffed. “Like you would know what I’m going through.”

Applebloom took another step towards her. “Actually… Ah do.”
Diamond Tiara looked at Applebloom in confusion.

“Didya ever wonder why Ah’m raised by my sister, brother and granny? What do you think happened to my folks.” Applebloom asked.

As the realization dawned on Diamond Tiara, all she could let out was a simple. “Oh.”

“Losing a loved one, especially a parent… It’s like losing a limb. Isn’t it?” Applebloom asked.

Diamond Tiara nodded. “Like some part of you was torn from your body. Something important. Something you need to live.”

More tears began to fall down Diamond Tiara’s face. “Yeah. I know what that feels like.”

For whatever reason, Diamond Tiara didn’t notice Applebloom walking up to her until she stood right in front of her. She did notice it when Applebloom pulled her into a gentle hug.

Three days ago, Diamond would have pushed Applebloom into the mud, call her a ‘filthy blank-flank’ and tell her to never touch her again.

Today, she hugged Applebloom back.

“Can ah give you some advice?” Applebloom said.
Diamond Tiara shrugged, still holding on to Applebloom.

“Do you have anypony else who cares for you? Loves you?” The farm filly asked.

Diamond Tiara slowly nodded. “Yeah. My aunt and uncle.”

“Love them back. Every single bit of affection and care they give you, you go and do the same for them.” Applebloom pulled away from the hug in order to look Diamond Tiara in the eye.

“I want you to understand. I’m not asking you to replace your parents with your aunt and uncle. I’m asking you to constantly remind yourself that you are loved.” Despite their history, Applebloom gave Diamond Tiara a warm smile. “The hurt won’t go away, not entirely. But the love will make it hurt less.”

Diamond Tiara pulled away from the hug to wipe the last few tears from her eyes. “Thank you.”

With that, she turned to leave. She walked away from Applebloom till she was a few feet away, then turned back. “You and me… We’re good, okay?”

Applebloom nodded and Diamond Tiara turned back to leave.

Author's Note:

Once again, I LOVE comments.

Comments

[Sirius_Face]

Not bad at all. This will be a pretty interesting approach to the girls taking on their superhero personas. You seem to have set it up so that Bloom and Diamond can have a working friendship down the line, and that is going to make things very interesting when they eventually start fighting crimes. Batman started off as a loner, so and Bruce Wayne didn't have close friends he trusted in the beginning, so it will be interesting to see how Diamond's origin story differs from his.

Same with Apple Bloom. Lots of important ponies she care and loves know her secret, so what kind of conflict is that going to cause when she starts her superhero path? There's lots of potential here for interesting paths for these characters to take. I'm really looking forward to when you write the next chapter.

[Mr-Astounding]

why do I have a feeling that there's going to be some kind of call-back to this in a later chapter involving Supermare and Batmare?