Shadows' Call

by NPP6

Chapter 3 - Fringes of Truth

It was a Saturday, so when Twilight answered the knocking on the castle door, she was expecting to find the Crusaders wanting to play with Nyx. When she realized that it was Diamond Tiara, she was instantly wary. Nyx had forgiven the filly wholeheartedly, but Twilight had some reservations. “Hello Miss Tiara, is there something I can help you with?”

“I… I was wondering if I could… if I could look at some books.” The panting and request were enough to throw Twilight off guard.

“Well, there is a library in here, so I would hope so.”

“Th-thanks.”

“No problem. Were there any books you specifically wanted?”

The filly had finally caught her breath and was following the mare through the castle towards the library. “Actually… I was wondering if you had any history books.”

Twilight found herself chuckling despite herself. “Actually, we’ve got hundreds of history books. Was there any time period you found particularly enticing?” The filly gave her a blank stare. “What part of history specifically?”

“Equestrian?”

“In general, or were you looking for a specific point in time?”

“Oh! Umm… Early? Like a little before Nightmare Moon… The first one! The first time Nightmare Moon happened, not –”

Twilight put a hoof over Diamond’s mouth. “I get it.” She turned to one side as they entered the library. “I think we have something… over this way.” The mare led her past several shelves. “Here we are! These should be just what you need. Why are you looking into this?”

Diamond found the only thing she could think of spilling out of her mouth, “School project!”

Twilight resisted the urge to narrow her eyes. Elevated volume, rushed voice, slightest bit of panic in the tone… Even if she didn’t know that Nyx hadn’t been given a project like that, she would have suspected that the filly was lying. “Oh! That’s important, why don’t I see if I can find you anything else that might help.”

“Thank you.” Diamond opened the cover of one heavy tome, grunting as she did so. Twilight was surprised to see that the she opened to the table of contents. After skimming down it, she started turning pages. Twilight read the name of the chapter she stopped on, then wandered off to see if she could find anything relevant elsewhere in her library.

---

Cheerilee was surprised to hear the knock at her door. She almost never got visitors.

She opened the door to find a very nervous Twist. “Why hello Twist, what brings you here today?”

“Mith Cheerilee, can we talk?”

“Of course!” She opened the door wider to let the filly in, then closed it after she entered. “What did you want to talk about Twist?”

“Well you thee Mith Cheerilee, I’m confuthed.”

Oh. School. Well, at the very least she had enough time in her schedule for an impromptu tutoring session, she’d just have to skip her Saturday afternoon workout for the first time in months. “What about?”

“Mith Cheerilee… Lying ith bad, right?”

---

Twilight was seriously impressed. Diamond Tiara was actually doing research.

Well, research from a school age filly’s perspective.

She had gone through almost fifty books, reading one or two chapters out of each. It had gotten late, and Celestia was in the process of setting the sun. She had been there for hours.

And in that time Twilight had managed to figure out what she was really up to. She was touched really, and a little guilty. To think, she had been suspicious of this filly when all along…

“Diamond? We need to close soon.”

The filly sighed, “Okay Miss Twilight. Thanks for all your help.”

“I was happy to do it dear. Did you find what you were looking for?”

“No, I couldn’t find it anywhere.”

“Well then in that case, let me help you one last time.” Twilight leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, “You can tell the rest of the Crusaders that Nyx is doing fine.”

Diamond blinked at her. “What?”

“Oh, don’t worry Diamond, I’m not upset. If anything I’m impressed! Nyx mentioned that you and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were trying to help her feel better. I know that you came by to see how she’s doing since she’s been skipping crusades. It’s good to know that she has friends watching out for her.”

Diamond sat down with an audible thump. “Miss Twilight I…” She shook her head. “No. I’m sorry. I wish that were the case, I wish I would have thought of Nyx when I decided to come here, but… I didn’t. I just… didn’t.

“I’m sorry that I’m not caring enough to think of her when I’m visiting her home, even if it was for something that had nothing to do with her. I wish I was a better pony, maybe if I was, I would have. I really did come to try and learn something.

“And for the record, I’m not a Crusader either. After everything I put them through… I can’t ask them.”

Had she been willing to meet the alicorn’s gaze, she would have seen the shine of unshed tears in her eyes. “You remember what I said about being impressed? It’s still true. I’m proud of you Diamond Tiara.”

The filly rocked backwards in shock. After a moment, she looked up at the mare with a bright smile. “Thank you. That… means a lot.”

Twilight returned the smile, although hers was ever so slightly more watery. “You’re welcome. And please pass on the message anyway, I’m sure the rest of your friends would want to hear it.”

“I will. And you’re right, it will make them happy.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes, making their way towards the castle entrance. “So what were you looking for Diamond?”

“I… I was looking for stories about the princesses. Back when they first started ruling Equestria.”

“Do you mind me asking why?”

“I was just wondering about some of the ponies who helped them, but… from the way those books said it, it sounded like they didn’t have any help.”

Twilight froze mid step. After walking a few hooves, Diamond turned back to face her. “Miss Twilight?”

“D… Diamond Tiara, why did you want to know about that?”

The filly’s internal trouble radar went off. Long years of bullying meant it was well-honed, as were her abilities to escape said trouble. “Miss Cheerilee. School project, remember?”

She got a look. It was familiar, the I-know-you’re-lying-to-me look. “Diamond, my daughter is in your class. I know you don’t have a project for school related to this.”

The filly’s eyes widened. “You know what Nyx does at school?”

Of course I do, don’t your pa– Twilight felt a pang in her heart for the filly as she realized. Could her parents really be as uninvolved as she seemed to think? “Yes I do. So, why did you really want to know about this?”

Diamond knew what she had to say. When the first lie failed, it was time to shift the blame. “A friend asked me to find out. They didn’t want me to tell anypony who they were though.”

She waited for the interrogation to continue. She knew how this went, the adult would keep asking her questions until they either gave up, or were so confused by her stories that they couldn’t tell what the truth was.

She was again to be shocked. “Okay. That’s fair. But Diamond, I want you to promise me something. If your friend decides to do something dangerous, I want you to tell me, alright?”

Diamond nodded. “Yes Miss Twilight.”

“Good. Now then, most historians agree that Celestia and Luna imprisoned Discord and freed Equestria on their own.” She continued speaking over something the filly was trying to say, “But there are some books… a few… special books, that tell another story. I don’t have any here, they’re in Canterlot, but I can have them here by next week if you’re willing to spend another Saturday inside.”

The filly jumped up and hugged her. “Thank you Miss Twilight!”

“And for crying out loud, just call me Twilight! All of my daughter’s friends do. You’re going to make me feel old with this Miss Twilight thing.”

“Okay Twilight.”

---

Twilight watched the filly walk off. She now knew two things, whoever their mystery filly was, she was probably in Ponyville, and if she was, she apparently trusted Diamond Tiara a great deal. She wasn’t sure if she should have tried to find out or not, Luna insisted that Midnight was adamant about them not meeting her. On the other hoof, she was just a filly, and probably one of Nyx’s friends.

She needed to talk to the other princesses.

---

“Diamond Tiara, can you please wait after everypony else leaves? I’d like to speak with you for a moment.”

Diamond finished packing her saddlebag and waited at her desk again. It was the first day back at school since her failed attempt to learn about Midnight Star. She could only hope that things went better this Saturday. Maybe with Twilight’s help…

She didn’t know why she didn’t want to tell anypony about the stallion, but it just felt like something she needed to keep secret. Maybe it was that whole secret identity thing that the Shadow Rangers had.

She noticed the teacher coming towards her desk and tried to beat her to the punch. “Miss Cheerilee, I’m sorry, I’m trying really hard, and I only got distracted twice today, and they weren’t for that long and I’ll do better and –” A hoof on her mouth. A lot of adults were shushing her that way lately.

“That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about Diamond.”

“Oh. Then what is it?”

“One of you friends – I won’t say which and I don’t want you asking – came to me with an interesting question about lying. I won’t tell the full story Diamond, but the point is that she did. I know about what happened with Nyx and the stallion at the bridge.”

“Oh, that?”

“Yes ‘that’ Diamond. I want you to understand, what you did was extremely dangerous. You could have gotten your friends very hurt.”

“He was already going to hurt Nyx anyway. Honestly Miss Cheerilee, he was just an overgrown bully.”

“He was a dangerous pony. You should have gotten an adult for help.”

“Right, and while I’m trying to find somepony to listen, he makes off with Nyx.”

“Tone.” There was a brief pause in the conversation. “Fair enough, you saw that you needed to act quickly and you did. Why didn’t you tell anypony afterwards?”

Cheerilee received an unsettlingly level look. “Miss Cheerilee, if going to grownups ever solved anything, I never would have gotten away with bullying the Crusaders for all those years.”

The mare was shocked enough to choke on her words. “I… I don’t think… Diamond, I…” The mare was honestly quite hurt to find out that her student didn’t trust adults to be reliable. Even more so as she realized that it was probably true for her entire class.

“Can I go now Miss Cheerilee?”

The mare finally found her voice, “Yes… you can go join your friends.”

The filly nodded and scooped up her bags. As she reached the schoolhouse door however, she stopped and turned. “Actually Miss Cheerilee, can I ask you a question?”

Are you sure you want to? The knife in her heart was driven in even further as it occurred to her that her students might have good reason not to trust her with their problems. What had happened to her? She used to be the one that the foals could always count on. “Yes, of course Diamond.”

“What would you do if you had to make a choice, and you knew that if you made the wrong choice, ponies would get hurt, but you weren’t sure what the right choice was?”

Cheerilee underwent a form of mental climate shock. Diamond had just gone from not trusting her to something extremely heavy almost instantaneously. “I…” She had to stall for enough time to reorient herself. “I suppose that would depend on the choice.”

“…That… Doesn’t really help.”

“I’m sorry, maybe if you could tell me a little bit more about the choice you’re trying to make?”

“I… I don’t think I’m supposed to talk about it.”

Alarm bells about secrets conflicted with worries about trust issues in Cheerilee’s mind. “Well why don’t you tell me what you can? If ponies are going to get hurt, that’s something pretty serious.”

“I’m not sure what I can tell you.”

“Diamond, I can’t really help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”

The filly shook her head. “I’m not really asking for help, just… advice?”

Ah. That’s what it was. She did trust Cheerilee. She trusted her to say the right thing and then not do it. The knife went out the back end of the teacher’s heart. The teacher broke right then, and fell back on the endless hours of training she had received. “How about this then. You just talk about it until it feels like you shouldn’t say any more, and I’ll do my best, alright?”

“Okay.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay… Where should I start?”

“Well, you could start at the beginning, or you could start with the main issues.”

“Main issues? Well, I suppose everything is about him…”

“Who is he?”

“…His name is Midnight Star, but I think that’s all I’m allowed to say.”

“I see.” Mystery stallion? At her age? “How did you meet him?”

“He saved me from a monster.”

“What kind of monster?”

“…It’s hard to describe.” Interesting. She knew for a fact that various members of her class had encountered just about every monster in Equestria at one point or another.

“Alright, we may need to come back to that, but we’ll move on for now. What happened next?”

“Well, he watched me for a while before he saved me.” He watched her? “And then after he saved me we talked. He took me to this big old castle and told me about some secret stuff.” He took her somewhere? Secrets? Several Klaxons were reverberating through Cheerilee’s skull.

“I see.” She couldn’t panic her. Once the foal was talking, you had to keep them talking. By the time they were ready to start talking again, it could be too late. “Did he have you do anything? Give you anything?”

“He did give me something. He said he has some more gifts too, but I need to decide first.”

“Decide?”

“The choice I’m trying to make.”

“…Diamond, can you tell me what the choice is?”

“…No, I don’t think I can.”

“Why not?”

“Ponies could get hurt.” More alarms.

“Which ponies?”

“I’m not sure, maybe even you?”

She was obviously getting confused. And stressed, Cheerilee needed to relax her. “Alright then, I won’t push you. Have you seen him since he rescued you?”

Diamond nodded. “He’s visited me a couple of times. He showed me some really interesting stuff too.”

“How were the visits?”

“…I was really mad at him one time, when I wanted to see him instead of him just visiting me. But he explained. He wasn’t doing anything wrong. He showed me a new part of the castle that time. That was nice.”

“Any patterns to his visits?”

“No, he just shows up some nights.”

“He visits at night?”

“Uh-huh. He can only visit me at night because…”

“Because?”

“I don’t think I’m supposed to say that part.”

“Okay. I’d like to meet him; do you think you could arrange that?”

“…I don’t think so. It’s probably not a good idea anyway.”

“Why not?”

“I… I don’t want you to get hurt, and if you meet Midnight Star, you might.”

The mare worried the floor with her hooves. “You’d be surprised.” She growled.

“What? I’m sorry Miss Cheerilee, I didn’t hear that part.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it dear. I was just talking to myself. Noticing something. Anyway, your friend the stallion, can you describe him?”

“I don’t know…”

“It’s alright if you can’t, I’d just like to know who he is if I ever do meet him.” So I can relieve Equestria of the burden of his existence, but she doesn’t need to know that part.

“He’s… I dunno. I’m not sure if I should tell you or not.”

“How about your first impression of him? Would that be safe?”

“…For the first month, I just knew him as the voice in my dreams.” Dream-grooming. Definitely a unicorn. A powerful one too, to be able to use that spell. Or he was rich enough to pay somepony off. Still, short list of suspects. “Then, when I actually met him, before he told me his name, I guess I thought of him as my dream stallion.” Horseapples. Completely effective dream-grooming. That took rare kinds of power. Cheerilee was definitely out of her league.

They talked for another hour, Cheerilee growing more and more concerned the entire time. In the end, she wasn’t able to get much more out of the filly, although she did find out that the stallion was having her do things now. She managed to close it on a good note, leaving the filly comfortable with the way the conversation had gone. There was only one more important question to ask:

“Diamond, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you figure out what you need to do. Would it be alright with you if I asked for help from some other ponies?”

“…I don’t know… If they tried to find out more about Midnight than you have…”

“They could get hurt. Fair enough. Still though, we do need help, is there anypony in town you would trust?”

“…Twilight?”

At the sound of that name, Cheerilee could have kissed whichever deity had smiled on that moment. “Okay. I’ll talk to her and see what she says. And I’ll make sure she knows you don’t want to say too much.”

“Okay. Thank you Miss Cheerilee.” The filly turned to leave.

Her teacher called out as she reached the door, “Diamond! I… I just want you to know. If the time ever comes…” She locked eyes with the filly.

“I would be glad to get hurt for you.”

Author's Note:

Every time I sit down to write a chapter I tell myself that it's going to be the one where she decides.
This could turn out far longer than I originally intended.
Also, before anyone points out that Miss Cheerilee made the logical jump to molestation too quickly, there's a reason, I promise. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but there's a reason.
-NPP6