The Green Angel

by LordOfCringe

Chapter 9 - Apple Bloom

“We need to talk,” Diamond Tiara said as she approached me. The shock of her sudden appearance froze me in place for a moment before my anger towards her returned. What did she want other than to mock me again? To humiliate me again. What other possible motives could she have? I would lash out at her as she did to me before. But there are too many people here now. I can’t afford to make a scene.

So I quickly take a breath and calm myself down and take a closer look at her. She seemed different somehow, lighter, more at peace with herself. It was a strange sight indeed.

“What would you and I talk about,” I say directly “You made it abundantly clear last time,” I narrow my eyes at her. She bites her lip before continuing.

“I know, I was wrong before. And I have a few things to say to you now. We could go somewhere else if you want.” Every fibre of my being screams for me to reject her and turn her away to where she came from. But for some reason, I can’t bring myself to do so. I need to hear her out. Besides, I can always walk away later if this turns out to be a trap.

“Fine, I’ll bite. Let’s go,” Diamond Tiara lets out a sigh of relief, strange. And I grab my towel and leave

We both walk beside each other in silence until we reach the place we last spoke. That dent in the wall. It seemed as good a place as any.

“So,” I face her and cross my arms “what did you want to say to me,” I try to keep my tone calm, but Diamond can clearly hear the contempt dripping from my voice. She seems...nervous about this, she really is acting strange. Very different from the stuck up person I knew and talked to just days before.

“Well,” she began, her nervousness melting away as she started “I wanted to say that how I acted to you earlier here was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have snapped at you the way I did,”

I can’t hide my surprise, but that isn’t the end.

“And..,” she grips one of her arms and looks at the ground in apparent shame “And I’m sorry that I have been treating you so poorly these past few years. I’m sorry about everything…”

Impossible. The Diamond Tiara I know would never say anything like this. This must be a trick, some sort of sick joke to fool me into a false sense of security.
“You can’t seriously think that I would fall for this do you? That I would be that stupid?” in my rage I pull a little on my inside energy, only to dissipate it instantly. A trick I learned after some practice on the bag.

“No, I didn’t,” she says firmly, her confidence returning. That’s more like it “But I still needed to say it. Our world is gone...our families are gone. If there was ever a time to make peace it would be now.”

“So that’s it? You’re only apologizing because our planet blew up? Typical. That’s so like you.” At that remark, Diamond takes a sharp breath as if to keep herself from getting mad.

“Look. All I can say is that I promise not to bother you anymore. We don’t have to see each other ever again,” with that she turned to leave. She seemed so sincere and honest. In a way, I had never seen before. What had changed?

My anger fades. This wasn’t right. I wasn’t blameless. and I think back to my dream, the one right before my magic manifested. Back to my greatest sin. With Anon-A-Miss I had masterminded a bullying scheme worse then anything Diamond had ever done. She was even one of the victims herself. I had accepted the Burden, and though I still didn’t understand what that meant, I knew it had something to do with doing the right thing.

Despite everything she has done to me and my friends over the years Diamond is still as much a victim of this tragedy as I am. And I at least still have my brother to look after me. I can’t let her stand alone.

“Diamond wait,” she stops in her tracks and turns again, a look of hope adorns her face. She wanted this to happen. “I have a few things to say as well,” I take a deep breath and prepare myself before continuing “I’m sorry too.”

“You? For what?”

“For Anon-A-Miss. You and Silver Spoon almost broke off your friendship because of that, not to mention the other terrible things I did when using that stupid blog. So yes, I’m sorry for doing that to you.

“Well then, I forgive you. Honestly I kind of deserved it for all the crap I put you Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo through.”

She extends a hand forward, probably hoping to seize the initiative with her own forgiveness. I am reluctant to take it. But in the end, she’s right. Our world is gone, it’s time to start getting used to that. Time to start letting the past be the past.

I take her hand and shake it firmly. I can’t help but let out a small smile, one Diamond returns. Wordlessly years of strife come to an end.

With that I lean against the back wall of the dent and gently sit on the floor, I’m still tired from punching earlier. We sit in silence for a few moments. What would we talk about now?

“Where is Silver Spoon by the way?” It was a fair question, Diamond went practically everywhere with her.

“Do I need to say?” She replies, her voice cracking.

“No, I suppose not...I lost Scootaloo too, and Sweetiebell might as well be gone as well.”

More awkward silence ensues as we both realize that every one of our close friends is gone and that, barring family, we were the closest people to each other on the entire ship. It’s a strange thought. One Diamond can’t dwell on for long apparently as she gets up.

“Come on. This place is depressing. I know somewhere better.” With nothing better to do I follow her through the ship. It takes a while and we pass scores of rooms and take an elevator up at one point. But eventually, we enter a place I didn’t even know was on this ship.

It was a massive room, almost as big as the Gathering area. But the ceiling and round walls were entirely made of glass. Other then that nothing much was there. The place was almost entirely deserted.

“The Observation area,” Diamond explains “I found out about it earlier when I was on a Holotablit, the Crew put a map of the whole ship it. I’m surprised more people haven’t come to this place,” she says after looking around.

“It’s beautiful,” I exclaim. And it was, where once there had been the vacuum of space, there was now a brilliant spread of colours right outside the glass. I walk towards the glass wall to get a better look,

“It really is, I honestly was just expecting a starscape,” Diamond says, just as amazed as I am.

“The Source really is something to look at, isn’t it. I had the same reaction when I first saw it,” says an amused voice from behind us. I nearly jump in surprise before turning around to see the amused figure of Callum Shields standing there, still wearing his formal uniform from hours ago.

“High Arbiter Shields, what an unexpected honour,” Diamond says, reverting to her formal tone of address. She bows slightly, but the tall man waves her off.

“Please young one, none of that. I get enough of it from this civilian Crew let alone teenage Newversers,” he says with a laugh. Diamond is surprised at his levity, but I decide to take full advantage, and maybe get some context as to where this ship was at the moment.

“The Source? What is that?” I ask Callum turns his gaze upon me. The amusement is still there but now there is something else I can’t quite make out.

“A fine question young lady. The Source is the energy between Universes. The thing that allows Universal Drives to travel in between worlds. It is also the thing that gives power to Casters, such as myself.”

Casters? Could it be? Maybe, but I don’t want to bring that up, not to him. I don’t know him after all.

“That sounds...interesting.”

“I can see you are very interested,” Callum says deadpanned before chuckling again. I look at Diamond Tiara who looks back at me with an equally perplexed expression. The High Arbiter was clearly not what either of us had expected, especially after his speech.

“I can see that I am unwanted here,” he says, breaking the silence “as you were Apple Bloom and company,” how did he know my name?

He walks away without another word.

“Well that was weird,” Diamond says as we face the glass once again.

“I’ll say,” I reply before bursting out laughing, Diamond quickly follows suit. We laugh for a few moments before looking once more to the glass, and the Source beyond.

And when I look into its swirling hues and brilliant colours, I can’t help but feel more at peace then I have been in a long time. I know the future is still uncertain, but whatever challenges I might face I will meet them. Perhaps with Diamond Tiara of all people by my side.

It was a new world after all.