After the Gabby Gums incident leaves them feeling outcast by their friends and family, the Crusaders resort to running away from home.
Ponyville Confidential, you know the story and how the CMC were shunned by their friends and family until they apologized for their "misdeed" and were eventually forgiven. But what if the Crusaders didn't apologize? Instead, The crusaders decide that if everypony didn't want to talk to them or let them explain, then maybe they should just go away. When their siblings then do decide to talk to them reasonably, they find the crusaders have left Ponyville to Celestia knows where. Will everypony finally see the error of their ways? Will the three little fillies ever come home? And most important of all, will Diamond Tiara get her just deserts for her involvement in the whole Gabby Gums nightmare?
All seemed well in Ponyville the day of the incident. As always, that afternoon, Celestia's sun shone brightly, and the cheerful little birds sang their sweet little songs as they flew through the air. Everypony was outside doing their normal daily routines and errands, not a care in the world. But little did they know that the events of that entire week leading up to today would leave an almost unhealable scar between friends and family.
Over by the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres, in a small, treehouse belonging to three young fillies, an earth pony, a unicorn, and a Pegasus, one would find said ponies having a small meeting to discuss the day’s events. Their faces painted with concern and outright sadness and loneliness, just as if certain events of that day left a heavy impact on them.
To Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, this was indeed, the worst day of their lives, if they had ever had any. It had only seemed about that week that they had joined the school newspaper, "The Foal Free Press", in hopes of seeing if they could get their cutie marks in journalism. Their first successful story was about two idiot colts that had gotten their gum stuck to their flanks. Of course, everypony in their class loved it. It eventually got into the hooves of some of the adult ponies, who found that they also enjoyed the stories as well. This newfound success gave the Crusaders the idea to write stories about everypony they knew under the persona of "Gabby Gums". However this newfound fame, soon took a turn for the worse when ponies started getting hurt by the stories and few lies that were being spread around by the newspaper. The three fillies realized by then that they were going too far, and decided to quit before things got worse, but their school bully, and editor in-chief, Diamond Tiara would have none of it, not caring one bit about "feelings". She even went as far to blackmail the trio with embarrassing pictures of themselves if they didn't find a new story soon. Things had gotten so bad, that their close friends and family outright shunned them, or even verbally or physically abused them without even giving them a chance to explain themselves. And everypony else just shunned them, all without a single second thought.
At that very moment, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat around in their clubhouse, thinking back to the events that ocurred that day. Looking so sad that if one were to look closely, it'd almost look like they had tears in their eyes.
"We've ruined all of our friendships and we still don't have our cutie marks!" Sweetie Belle moaned, glumly.
"This is t' worst day ever!" Apple Bloom sulked.
"Oh yeah?" Scootaloo asked, "Wait 'till tomorrow, our most embarrassing moments are about to be published for everypony to laugh at!"
"So, now what do we do?"
"I don't know, but we're not leaving this clubhouse until we think of something!" Sweetie Belle replied.
After a few minutes, the trio's pondering was interrupted by the sound of ripping paper. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned around to find Scootaloo, tearing down one of her Rainbow Dash Fan Club posters, in a mixture of sadness and disgust.
"Scoots? What are ya doing?" Apple Bloom was quite shocked at her friend's sudden change of behavior.
"It's not fair, you know?" The orange pegasus pouted bitterly. "I know we joined the school newspaper to see if we could get our cutie marks and all, but we also wrote those stories because ponies wanted us to!"
Her friends could tell that the Foal Free Press wasn't the only thing bothering the young filly. What Scootaloo was mostly upset about was that the fact that Rainbow Dash, the one pony that she truly looked up to, and wanted to be so close to, had heartlessly shunned her and the others over a story about Rainbow Dash getting a hooficure at the spa. Being the slightly egotistical, and brash pony that Dash was, she was furious and took it out on the three fillies by taking a raincloud and pouring rainwater all over them. Scootaloo, out of the three, was the most heartbroken that her one idol had selfishly mistreated her over something that frivolous, especially considering the fact that Rainbow Dash said herself that she wouldn't mind having a story about her being written in the paper.
"Scootaloo, I know you're still upset about how Rainbow Dash treated you, but wrecking everything you spent so much of your life making and collecting won't do any good." said Sweetie Belle, trying to calm her friend down.
"Even if we wrote an embarrassing story about her, that still doesn't give her the right to treat us like criminals! I still don't like it."
"None of us do," replied the unicorn. "But they're right about one thing though, 'Gabby Gums' was our fault to begin with before Diamond Tiara forced us to keep making more despite ponies not liking them as much as they used to. And after how we snooped around in everypony's lives, told lies about them, and exposed their secrets, I doubt they could forgive us for what we've done at this time."
"It ain't all our fault though," added Apple Bloom. "We wanted ta stop writing 'fore things got any more bad, but Diamond jus’ had ta go an' threaten to humiliate us!"
"We have to tell somepony what's really going on..." Sweetie Belle said.
"What good would that do?" Scootaloo shook her head. "Nopony's going to listen to us! They'll think we're just making up excuses and despise us even more!"
"Well, what else is there that we can do?"
As Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle continued to wonder what they should do next, Apple Bloom thought back to the moment before, when they approached her siblings to try and find a new story and to possibly reason with them. Unfortunately however, both Big Macintosh and Applejack were too angry to even listen to them, Applejack, responding to them only with "Eeyup" and Eenope" responses which was usually her older brother's shtick. And Big Mac was so angry that he actually verbally expressed it, which was something he rarely ever did, his exact words being:
"You should be ashamed of yourself, humilatin' yer sister an' me like that! We don't wanna talk ta any y'all right now, so take yer little gossip column an' yer embarrassing photographs an' just GO AWAY!"
Her brother's last two words continued to buzz inside Apple Bloom's head as if it were an angry parasprite. Finally, the earth pony took a huge breath and turned to her friends, a newfound idea on her mind.
"Maybe we will just go away..."
The other two crusaders turned to face their friend and gasped.
"Apple Bloom? What are you saying?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Let's face it, girls. Everypony hates us ‘nuff already, that we can't even go ta anypony we know fer help! They probably don't even want us around anymore. So maybe mah brother's right, there ain't no use in stick'n around where we ain't wanted."
"So that means, we'll run away forever?"
"And the Cutie Mark Crusaders of Ponyville will be no more?" added Scootaloo.
"If that's t' price we'll pay," Apple Bloom lowered her head in sadness. "Then so be it..."
The other Crusaders stared at one another for a moment before nodding in agreement as tears began streaming down their faces. The trio huddled together for a group hug, as they tried to hold back even more from falling. Leaving Ponyville, the one place full of ponies that they loved very much, wasn't a very good decision. But after what happened over the course of the week, it seemed as though enough damage had been done and that it was all over for their time there.
"Then we'll go grab our things and hide out until near sunset and then, we're out of here." Sweetie Belle sniffed.
The three fillies wiped the tears from their eyes and shook their hooves in agreement.
Applejack was fortunately, away visiting friends and Big Mac was delivering their goods to the farmer's market. Granny Smith, on the other hand, was fast asleep in her rocking chair, so it was a little bit of a challenge for Apple Bloom to sneak upstairs to her room and pack her things without waking her grandmother up with the creaky wood floor of the family house. Apple Bloom grabbed some of her favorite things, including one of her favorite bows, a blanket that she had once slept with as a foal, and a few of her books. She then moved over and was about to pack a picture of her and her family including her now long gone parents, standing in front of the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. Apple Bloom hesitated for a moment at the thought of bringing along something that reminded her of how her siblings selfishly turned her away, but decided that it would be best to save one good memory of her family and stuffed the picture in her bag. After grabbing a few snacks from the kitchen and filling a few water bottles with water and apple cider, she quietly snuck out the back door and headed back to the clubhouse.
As for Sweetie Belle, her older sister Rarity, was away gathering materials for a new dress design. Upon returning to the Carousel Boutique, the young unicorn proceeded to pack up her things, first the essentials, such as a blanket, a toothbrush, and a canteen, and topping it off with a few books, and some snacks for the journey. Finally, just before heading out, she stopped, there was one more thing she remembered, and she most simply couldn't leave it behind. Using her slowly developing magic, Sweetie Belle levitated a small unicorn filly doll off the shelf of the guest bedroom. The doll was pink, locks of blue with purple highlights atop its head, and on its flank, a cutie mark shaped like a moon with stars scattered all around it. Sweetie Belle looked at her doll and smiled.
"Come on, 'Little Sweetie'," she said to her favorite toy, sadly. "We have to go."
She hugged the doll tightly and then, using her magic, yanked on the small pull string located on the doll's side. "Mama..." came the artificial sounding filly voice from within the doll, as the string slowly retracted back to its starting position, ready to activate the mechanism allowing it to talk again whenever its owner wished. Sweetie Belle placed the toy inside her bag and began heading back to the clubhouse.
And finally after arriving home, Scootaloo went straight to her room to start packing to leave, bringing along her favorite comic books and a Wonderbolt action figure, and some snacks as well. She then laid down on her bed to rest a little bit, and that was when something caught her eye.
It was a photograph of her and Rainbow Dash that was taken only a few months ago, when Rainbow Dash appeared at Sugarcube Corner to give speech to the fan club Scootaloo had started. Taking one look at the picture, Scootaloo thought of her former idol.
The one who outright turned her away when she came to her with a new idea for a story and for help...
The hypocrite who practically asked for a story about herself in the first place...
The one who spitefully caused a downpour to upset all over her and her friends, assuming that they’d just humiliate her again...
The dirty, arrogant, self centered, good for nothing, selfish, sorry excuse for a...
With that thought in mind, Scootaloo felt her blood boil drew a huge X in front of the face of the picture and threw it against the wall with an angry scream, where it cracked into pieces upon impact. For moment, Scootaloo stared in disbelief at the now broken picture, surprised that she actually did what she just did. Returning to her bed, She thought back to when the Crusaders met with Rainbow Dash and ended up getting drenched. She remembered that Rainbow hadn’t poured rainwater on them until she herself asked for another story. Reminiscing on this, split Scootaloo’s anger into half, as she realized that she shouldn’t have asked Rainbow Dash for such a thing while she was still furious.
Now Scootaloo wasn’t sure how she was feeling, on one hoof she was mostly angry at how Rainbow Dash had treated her and her friends, and she was also angry at herself for making stupid decisions. But on the other hoof, she was sad; sad that Rainbow Dash, the very pony she idolized and wanted to be like her big sister, hated her.
With one more sigh mixed in with a quiet sob, she then moved toward the other items of memorabilia of Rainbow Dash, angrily ripped them from the wall and off her dresser and closed them away into a large box which she then pushed into the far back of a closet. Scootaloo then grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a message to her parents and her two aunts, before grabbing her scooter and heading back to the clubhouse.
By the time the sun began to set over Ponyville, The Cutie Mark Crusaders had already left a few miles from town, and were near the train station looking on from the outskirts of the town they had once called home.
"Take one good look, girls." sighed Apple Bloom, with a tone of even more despondency in her voice. "Fer we can never go back now..."
"Goodbye Ponyville..." whispered Sweetie Belle, trying not to cry even more.
"We'll miss you," Scootaloo added, "But we're not sure you'll miss us..."
Making their way towards the train station, they paid their bits to the ticket master, and headed aboard the train, having finally left the family and friends they ever knew, and on their way to where? Well, the rest of their side of the story is for another time, for now...
It was the very next day, as Celestia's bright and shining sun rose high into the sky to signfy the start of a brand new day...
Inside the Apple Family's farmhouse, Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith were inside, having just about woken up, and halfway done with their complete breakfast of pancakes, with a few glasses of apple cider. No pony had noticed of course until later on that something or somepony was missing...
"That's funny," said Granny Smith, gulping down one bite of pancake from her plate. "Ah haven't seen or heard a peep out of Apple Bloom all day! She never misses pancake morning, where could she be?"
"We haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon, Granny." Applejack replied.
"Eeyup." answered Big Mac.
"Funny thing," Granny said. "Ah heard there was some drama going around town 'bout Apple Bloom's school newspaper print'n some questionable stuff that's gotten every pony all up in a tizzy more than a rattlesnake with a beehive stuck on its head!"
'Eeyup, we unfortunately got stories 'bout both of us in that gossip column." Applejack replied. "An' when t' Crusaders tried ta get us ta agree ta another story 'bout us, Ah was too angry ta even talk, and Big Mac sure gave 'em an earful and told them ta buzz off..."
All of a sudden, Granny Smith slammed her front hooves on the table in disgust.
"Why, that's just doggone awful!"
"Ah know!" Applejack agreed. "T’ nerve of Apple Bloom, humiliating her own siblings like that an' all fer some dumb ol’ cutie mark!"
"No, no, darling," said Granny Smith, "Ah'm not talk'n 'bout Apple Bloom, Ah meant you two!"
"What?" her grandchildren were both surprised at their grandmother's disapproving tone. "We didn't..."
"Ah can't believe you'd be so selfish an' harsh towards yer sister like that! An’ over somethin’ so ridiculous as a gossip column!"
"But, Granny..." Applejack argued.
"But noth'n!" their grandmother snapped. "Now Ah'm sure that what they did was wrong, but ya'll should remember that Apple Bloom's still just a little filly, she don’t know any better! All foals make mistakes, an’ ignoring ‘em an’ hollering at ‘em like they're wild animals is not t' way ta solve a problem! You're supposed ta sit down an' talk with them an' straighten things out."
"We were just..."
"Darling, it pains me ta say it," Granny Smith's angry tone began to calm, yet remained with a hint of disgust and disappointment. "But Ah fear that you've brought shame, something fierce upon this household with how y'all both treated yer little sister over something that wasn't that important ta you at all! Ah bet that if yer ma an' pa were still with us, they'd be pretty disappointed as much as Ah am right now. What you both did, was probably just as hurtful as any story those three fillies could write."
"But... but..." Applejack stammered out.
"Now if y'all will excuse me, Ah'll be finishing my meal in the den, 'cause it seems like you two have some serious think'n ta do..."
And with that, Granny Smith carried her plate of half eaten pancakes and stormed off to the living room, leaving Applejack and Big Macintosh still at the table, stunned, and confused at what had just transpired. They began to think back to that moment before, that yesterday afternoon when the Cutie Mark Crusaders came by to ask for a new story and for help, and how Applejack had outright ignored them and Big Macintosh turned them away. Thinking back to how she refused to listen to her little sister, the one pony who looked up to her as much as Scootaloo looked up to Rainbow Dash, made Applejack's ears begin to droop.
At that moment, the two ponies' consciences began to become one and manifest themselves into the form of a beautiful angelic looking pony with a horn and wings and draped in a flowing white dress, hovering above them.
"Granny Smith is right you know," said the angel pony. "Even if the Crusaders made a big mistake, that did not give you the right to outright turn them away and holler at them like a puppy that left a spot on the carpet. You two should be ashamed of yourselves!"
Suddenly, another form took shape next to the two siblings, this form appeared almost ghastly and had a look mischievousness on it's smile. It looked like a pony, but it was a blood red color, with black wings, and two black horns atop its head, and its hooves were cloven like a goat. It also had a long, spikey tail, and carried a pitchfork in one hoof.
"Aw, don't listen to that goody two-horseshoes!" chuckled the devil pony. "You gave those little brats just what they deserved. How else are little fillies supposed to learn anything if you don't put your hoof down when they mess up big time?"
"You've known Apple Bloom since the day she was born," argued the angel pony. "Do you honestly think that she'd hurt you two and your friends on purpose?"
"If I remember correctly," Devil Pony, scratched the goatee on his chin. "She wrote in the paper that you Applejack were a lazy slacker, and that Big Mac has some really weird attachment to your friend Twilight's old fillyhood doll!"
"I know things look bad, but how do you think Apple Bloom feels right now? It's only pretty obvious that the poor dear must be so sad!" Angel Pony painted a visual picture with her magic of Apple Bloom with a sad face.
"Pah!" scoffed the devil. "Who cares? She'll get over it eventually."
While the consciences continued to battle, Applejack turned to her older brother.
"Big Mac, please tell me Granny Smith is wrong, we weren't that hard on her, were we?"
Big Macintosh thought back to that moment when he told the Crusaders that they should be ashamed of themselves and to take their gossip and their embarrassing pictures and go away, and thinking back to how he not only turned away his little sister when she and her friends tried to reason with them and ask for help, but he also probably had to go and mentally scar her.
Hanging his head in shame, the only words the stallion could utter out were, "Eeyup, we were..."
Applejack felt her heart begin to split, as she then buried her head in her hat, overcome with guilt.
"Ah... ah can't believe it..." she moaned, her voice muffled by her hat. "Should've known... Ah got mad at my own little sis an' her friends fer no good reason, Ah'm so stupid!"
Devil Pony began to laugh, getting a sick kick out of seeing the two overcome with guilt. "Face it A.J, you and Big Mac haven't much luck at helping raise a dependable, faithful little sibling as you do keeping a good reputation!"
"You're not stupid, A.J." reassured Angel Pony. "You two just made some bad decisions. If I were you, I'd march straight up to Apple Bloom's room, sit down and talk things over with her and figure out what's going. Who knows? There might be more to this than just wanting a cutie mark."
"I'd hate to admit it," agreed Devil Pony. "But that's a great idea! Of course, the chances are that Apple Bloom will be too upset to talk or she's probably gone and run off somewhere, but then again, how's she going to escape? It's not like she can just trot right out the front door or anything..."
"Okay, you two really ain't helping our case at t' moment." Applejack said, growing annoyed.
"Eeyup!" agreed Big Mac.
"Oh, right! Bye!" And with that, the manifestations disappeared.
"C'mon Big Mac," A.J then said to her brother. "Let's go check on our little sis."
The two earth ponies then exited the kitchen and quietly began to climb up the stairs to the door to Apple Bloom's room. Once they had stopped at the door, Applejack quietly knocked on the door.
"Apple Bloom?" she asked. "Sugarcube, are ya okay in there?"
There was no answer.
"Maybe she didn't hear us." she said to Big Mac.
So she tried again. "Sugarcube, please open up. We'd like ta apologize..."
"We just want ta talk, sis." Big Mac said, looking through the doorknob to see if the lights were off in the room. "We ain't here ta yell at ya again."
Still no answer.
"Apple Bloom, ya can't stay in there all day! At least come out before yer gonna be late fer school!"
"She might be still asleep." A.J concluded. "Ah'll go in first an’ wake her up..."
Applejack slowly turned the doorknob, opened the door and crept inside. Granny Smith was just walking upstairs when she saw Big Mac outside the door to the room, and smiled.
"Now that's what Ah'd like ta see..." she whispered, proud to see that her grandchildren understood their mistake and were working to try and fix it. "Ah just hope that Apple Bloom isn't too upset."
The moment was soon interrupted by the sound of a blood curdling scream from inside the room. Shocked and fearing the worst, Granny Smith and Big Mac burst through the lit room and found Applejack, hyperventilating and an empty, almost messy room with no sign of Apple Bloom in sight.
"What is it, A.J? What happened? Where is she?!" asked Big Mac.
"S-s-she's gone!" cried Applejack.
"She's WHAT?!" Completely shocked for a moment, Big Mac recomposed himself and then asked, "Are ya sure she didn't leave early fer school?"
“All of her favorite things are gone...” she sniffed. “Even her picture of Ma and Pa an’ her favorite bow are gone!”
"She couldn't have gone that far..." said Granny Smith, growing increasingly worried. "You two, check every square inch of Sweet Apple Acres. Ah'll get in contact with t' relatives an’ see if anypony's seen her!"
Applejack and Big Macintosh dashed out of the room and immediately began searching all over the farm.
They searched high, and they searched low.
They searched inside and even outside.
They even searched around the Crusaders’ clubhouse, but they found that it also was empty...
Oh, how they were so worried, searching every nook and cranny, vainly calling out their sister's name as they searched, but to no avail.
Finally, Applejack, headed upstairs to her room, stuck her head out the window, and with tears in her eyes, hollered out at the top of her lungs, echoing so loud that it could be heard almost across Equestria.
Over at Carousel Boutique, Rarity had already woken up, after a nice and thankfully, un-burnt breakfast, and was now gathering new fabric and jewels she had obtained for a brand new dress design that she had been working on for quite some time. By that afternoon, and in no time at all, she had put the finishing touches on the new design and was now eyeing, the grand design with a sense of accomplishment.
"Once again Rarity," the white unicorn said to herself. "You've outdone yourself. Won't everypony be surprised when my latest design is worn by Sapphire Shores and put on display at Hoity Toity's boutique in Canterlot!"
She then noticed that a small spot on the design was missing some sequins on one side, took a deep breath and began to head upstairs to fetch more from her room. On her way to the stairs, she suddenly tripped and almost fell on something beneath her hooves. Getting back up on her hooves, she levitated the strange object with her magic and looked at it for a moment.
It was her personal, private diary full of her own thoughts and secrets, which her little sister, Sweetie Belle had published in their school newspaper not too long ago. When Rarity found out, she was understandably furious.
"I still can't believe that Sweetie Belle published my diary in her gossip column..." she said to herself. 'She should know better than this!"
Just then, who or what should appear in front of her, but Angel Pony, fluttering around Rarity's head with a look of disappointment on her face.
"That's the problem..." the apparition said. "She doesn't know better, she's still just a little filly after all, and I call that cowardly hypocrisy coming out of your mouth."
"Nonsense!" came another voice. It was Devil Pony, also poofing up besides the angel. "She lies to you Rarity, whatever she says, you're clearly right and your sister was wrong!"
"Wait, who or what are you two creatures?" Rarity asked.
The two spiritual ponies looked at each other for a moment and then said, "We are you..."
"Well, technically we aren't really you..." said Devil Pony. "We don't even look like you, nor do we even exist. We're just some commonly used, clever, metaphoric visual manifestation of the inner abstract concept of a conscience, and..."
"Moving on," the unicorn interrupted, ignoring the monstrous looking pony to focus on the much more bright, and beautiful pony that was buzzing around her. "What was all that about hypocrisy?"
"Didn't you snoop through her belongings and read that article in the first place?" asked Angel Pony.
Rarity thought back to a few days before, when she noticed a copy of the school paper sticking out of her sister's backpack and unable to resist the temptation, gave it a look and couldn't resist tittering at the sight of Snips and Snails with gum stuck to their flanks, Sweetie Belle on the other hand was upset at first.
"Yes, I admit I did snoop through her things but afterwards I did give her a small talking to after she looked at my things..." she said.
"Listening back to that entire conversation..." Angel Pony began. "You didn't seem all that sorry for doing that, and might I also say, that even if the column was her and her friends' idea, you gave her the idea to write stories about everypony else?"
Rarity then remembered telling Sweetie Belle that everypony would love the stories that the school was printing more than what was currently being printed in Ponyville's mainstream newspaper, "The Ponyville Express".
"Yes, but I..."
"Might I also add that you didn't seem to mind reading about gossip going on in Ponyville until you were targeted?"
"I...I was so upset that I had forgotten all about that..." the unicorn then said, looking down at the floor slightly embarrassed.
"So just to recap, you got mad at your little sister for something that you did yourself, and what you didn't mind them doing, writing stories about every pony else, which you gave her the idea to do so, and even what you and every pony else wanted to see more of, but then when the joke was on you, all of a sudden they went too far. Sheesh! What kind of sane, civil pony could be so fickle and hypocritical?" asked Angel Pony. "I'll bet that Sweetie Belle probably spent the entire night upstairs silently crying herself to sleep, haunted by how just about every pony thinks she's nothing but a troublemaker! and she probably still was this morning and still is after coming home! Can you even imagine what your parents might say about this?"
"Well, what would they say about such reprehensible actions by Sweetie Belle and her friends?" asked Devil Pony.
"Well, knowing her father, he'd probably say, ‘Rarity sweetheart, even if what your sister did was wrong, you're still just as responsible for this mess to begin with!’ and her mother would probably say, ‘What's more important? Your diary or Sweetie Belle's feelings?’"
"Who cares about feelings?" laughed Devil Pony. "A pony's personal secrets are more important than that! She'll pout about it for a little while, but then over time she'll come crawling back and'll forget the whole thing. Rarity is the young adult, and Sweetie Belle is just a foolish little filly. And further more..."
"And further more, I've heard about enough out of you..." Rarity said, indignantly, levitating the devilish figure with her magic and tossing him into a nearby wastebasket.
"Well played..." Devil Pony said from inside the dark basket. "You win this time..."
"Nicely done, Rarity." said Angel Pony, proud of the unicorn's actions. "Now, as if you didn't know what to do..." she then said before disappearing.
Rarity was then left alone to ponder what to do next.
Sweetie Belle seemed very upset, after what I said to her before... she thought to herself. I'd better go talk to her and sort things out....
Rarity then noticed a small tray with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk she had set aside for when Sweetie Belle would come home from school and levitated the tray up with her to the second floor where Sweetie Belle's guest room was next door to her's.
She then knocked on the door, hoping her little sister would wake up and answer it.
"Sweetie Belle, darling..." she called at the door. "Are you alright in there?"
No answer.
"Sweetie Belle, I've brought you your favorite, milk and cookies after school!"
Rarity knew that Sweetie Belle couldn't resist the mention of an after school snack from time to time and would be attracted instantly. But Sweetie Belle still did not open the door.
Rarity knocked again. "Sweetie Belle, we need to talk about what happened before today..."
Still no answer, by this time, the older sister was starting to grow impatient.
"Now see here, little sister..." Rarity then said rather offended. "It is not very polite to ignore requests to come in without answering yes or no, now I order you to open this door at once!"
Still no answer.
Rarity then turned the door knob with her magic, finding that it was unlocked and stepped inside and headed for the light switch.
"Now Sweetie Belle, I've had enough of this silent treatment...."
As she turned on the light, she found that the room was empty and the young unicorn filly was nowhere to be seen.
"Sweetie Belle? Hello? Sweetie Belle, where are you?"
The bed was left neat as before, and the rest of the room looked almost untouched, but Rarity also noticed that Sweetie Belle's backpack and her favorite toy, which she affectionately called "Little Sweetie" was missing. This puzzled her older sister.
"Maybe she's still outside.." Rarity said to herself.
She then went downstairs and opened the front door.
"Sweetie Belle! It's time to come in, dear..." she called out.
Rarity knew that Sweetie Belle often would respond with "Coming!" and come galloping back home. But surprisingly, there was no answer to that either. Where could that little filly be? she wondered.
"Wait, wait I know, she must be still at that little clubhouse of her and her friends'."
Rarity then left Carousel Boutique and set off to the Crusaders' treehouse.
Once arriving there, she was surprised to find that the treehouse was empty, Now Rarity was starting to grow concerned. There was still one last place that hadn't been checked yet.
The Ponyville Schoolhouse...
But when she arrived there, class had already been dismissed, and a school of foals was already stampeding out of the schoolhouse.
Rarity dodged the sea of schoolponies and headed inside to find Miss Cheerliee packing up her things, about ready to head home after a long class period.
The teacher then noticed Rarity entering the doorway, and smiled.
"Oh, why hello, Rarity!" Cheerliee said. "What can I do for you?"
"Cheerliee," Rarity began to ask. "Have you seen Sweetie Belle at all today, did you need her to stay after for some reason?"
"I'm afraid not, sorry." the teacher said. "As a matter of fact, she and her friends hadn't shown up today at all, I assumed they were out sick."
"And I thought for sure that Sweetie Belle already left for school early this morning..." said Rarity, starting to get an uneasy feeling.
"That's very strange," Cheerliee replied. "It's not like them to go off and play hooky like that.."
Before Cheerliee could say anything else, Rarity had already trotted farther away from the schoolhouse, back where she came before.
As Rarity headed back into town, she froze at the sight of a certain orange earth pony galloping by, in a blubbering panic.
"She's gone! She's gone!" sobbed Applejack as she passed by.
Immediately, the unicorn knew that her friend was talking about her own sister, Apple Bloom, and then it hit Rarity....
If Apple Bloom was missing, and the Crusaders hadn't had gone to school at any possible time...
Her little sister had gone missing as well...
And she was also to blame....
She then too began to panic and burst into tears realizing that she had repeated some of the same mistakes she made during the time of the Sisterhooves Social.
"What did I do? I'm sisterless again!" she wailed. "Woe is me! Of all the worst possible things that could happen, this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!"
Over in Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash was busy finishing up some work as weather patrol manager. The last few clouds that afternoon, had been cleared away so that Celestia's sun could shine brightly above Ponyville even more without anything getting in the way.
"Finally," the rainbow maned pegasus sighed to herself, "Now maybe I can get home and relax."
As she was exiting the factory hand getting ready to head home to her cloudominum, she accidentally bumped into somepony, and the two fell over on their flanks. Since they were both standing on cloudy matter, they were not injured.
"Oof!" she groaned, and then recomposed herself. "Oh, sorry about that, buddy."
"It's alright, it's alright..." The stranger sighed, brushing his coat.
Rainbow Dash then looked up at the huge stallion who looked much bigger than her, his coat was light gamboge, and his greyish tangelo mane covered his eyes.
Two other pegasi stallions were with him, one with a dark greyish brown coat and an amberish grey mane that also covered his eyes albeit slightly, and the other, a Persian bluish grey coat and a reddish brownish grey mane that like the bigger one, also covered his eyes.
They each had individual and respective cutie marks of three basketballs, a steel barbell, and three footballs...
"Hoops? Dumb-Bell? Score?" Rainbow Dash asked, surprised to see her former fillyhood bullies, whom she hadn't had seen since the Young Fliers Competition.
"Well, well well, long time no see, Rainbow Crash." Hoops smirked, using the old nickname he and his pals would always call her back in foalhood, this time rather playfully.
His friends, Dumb-Bell, and Score chuckled to themselves.
"Very funny," Rainbow Dash laughed sarcastically. "Old habits, seem to die hard with you guys, eh?"
"Aw, lighten up, Dashie," Dumb-Bell said, changing the subject. "Hey, we saw you in one of the latest articles of that newspaper, the Foal Free Press. The stuff they've been writing's full of pretty neat and funny stuff! Like this one!"
Hoops pulled out a copy of the Foal Free Press and pointed to the front page, which had a picture of Rainbow Dash getting a hooficure at the spa.
"Who knew you were sometimes in touch with your feminine side, Crash?" Hoops teased. He and the others started laughing even harder as if it was the funniest joke ever told.
"Get that thing away from me, Hoops." Rainbow Dash grumbled. "I don't want to talk about it. And I already gave those jerks involved with Gabby Gums what for for printing that stupid story!"
"That's funny," Dumb-Bell said, raising an eyebrow. "Word around Cloudsdale is that you once mentioned that you wouldn't mind it if there was a story printed about you! This was the best you could get, or was that not enough?"
Rainbow Dash remembered mentioning to her friends that she wouldn't mind it if Gabby Gums wrote a story about her.
"Yeah, but... I didn't want them to tell this story!" she complained. "Now every pony thinks I'm a huge softy!"
"Well, there's an old saying, Crash," said Hoops with the others joining in briefly. "Wise stallions say, 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it and it just might kick you in the flank.'"
"Well, thankfully, they're not getting another story from me. I made sure of that!"
"Oh, really?" Hoops asked.
"Yeah," the sky blue pegasus said rather proudly. "I dumped some rainwater on those troublesome little fillies when they came by asking for another story."
The three stallions all froze.
"Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa... WHAT?!" Hoops gasped, his front bangs flared up to reveal his eyes filled with immediate shock. "You took your anger out on three little fillies?! That's pretty low, Crash, and that's coming from the guys who used to pick on you and Fluttershy all the time at 'Junior Speedsters Flight Camp'."
Rainbow stood silent for a moment, surprised at his reaction. "But I..."
"They're just fillies! Foals! Children!" Dumb Bell shouted, disgusted at Rainbow's confession. "All foals make mistakes, but they don't all do them out of malice! I even heard that one of them was somepony who practically worships the living Tartarus out of you, she must be so crushed by now! Looks like you've not only already lost your fanbase and your reputation, not just as yourself but as a hero to every pony in Equestria! I guess it's true what they say, 'Hero worship is unhealthy sometimes'."
The trio turned away from Rainbow with a indignant snort, ready to take off for home themselves, but then Hoops turned his head back to say, "Y 'know, if we really wanted to, we'd dump one of those storm clouds all over you and see how you like it!"
"Yeah! Smell ya later, Rainbow Crash!" said Score.
And with that, Hoops, Dumb-Bell, and Score flew off, laughing to themselves.
Rainbow Dash herself was left to fly home as well, as she headed towards her cloudy home in the sky, the events of yesterday clouded her mind.
She remembered how angry she acted towards the Crusaders when they came by to ask for another story, and over something she technically brought onto herself, she could almost envision Scootaloo running away from the cloud alongside her friends, crying in guilt and heartbreak yet Rainbow Dash herself didn't notice then. This made the sky blue pegasus' heart shrivel up in guilt, as she also remembered her own words and the words Hoops and his friends had spoken to her, and they were right.
Once Rainbow Dash had reached the door to her house, just as she was about to open the door and get inside, something had caught her eye.
An envelope with a letter inside had been left on her doorstep, yet it was opened and the letter wasn't addressed to her.
Rainbow Dash pulled out the letter and read it slowly in the sunlight, it was a letter addressed to Scootloo's parents and her two aunts back home down in Ponyville. The message read:
Dear Mom, Dad, and Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty,
These past 6 years of love you've all given me have been the best of my life, however with recent events and with all of Ponyville against us, me and my two other friends have decided that we can't stay where nopony else wants us, and we must move on.
Don't bother to come looking for me, I will be fine and maybe someday I will come back to visit. But for now, by the time you read this, I will be far, far, far away with my friends, and by now we have found a new place to live in, especially where there are no hotheaded, pigheaded, egotistical pegasi to dump rainwater on us for something so ridiculous as a gossip column.
Sincerely,
Your loving daughter and niece, Scootaloo (At least until my new family renames me)
After reading the letter, Rainbow Dash was filled with shock and guilt. Because of her selfish, petty, egotistical feelings, she had driven the one pony who truly looked up to her and wanted to be like her when she matured into marehood away.
But there was something else that she noticed upon looking down below where she had opened the letter, another piece of paper had fallen out, it was a note, written in crayon, presumably from Scootaloo's mother, or one of her two aunts. This message read:
You just couldn't let it go, couldn't you? Well, I hope you're proud of yourself and that raincloud of yours too!
Rainbow Dash turned the paper over to find that the message was written on a picture of her and Scootaloo at Sugarcube Corner when she made an appearance for her fan club. The entire photo was crossed out in marker with a big red X on it, right where Rainbow's face was.
All Rainbow Dash could do was stand there, overcome with guilt. Said guilt was crushing her soul as if she had been hit with a ton of bricks.
Not only did she lose her temper at three little fillies, but now as a consequence, she had now lost her number one fan and friend she had known for some time.
As her eyes welled up with shame, all Rainbow Dash could quietly whisper was, "Scootaloo... what have I done?"
Next thing she knew, she was flying off from her home, her mind racing in panic for she knew she had to do something, anything to fix this.
I wonder if the others know she's gone... she thought to herself.
Over in the middle of Ponyville, in her home at the Golden Oak Library protected by a shield spell and with the windowshades drawn, Twilight Sparkle was busy upstairs, studying one of her books on magic. Celestia's personal protege was feeling very relaxed, for this was a moment of time that she had so needed. Ever since Gabby Gums wrote an article on her, something about her being another Canterlot snob, all she needed was some time alone to herself, and especially to keep anymore schoolponies from the Foal Free Press from bothering her for another story.
At that moment, Spike, her young dragon assistant came climbing up the stairs with another book clutched in one clawed hand.
"Here's that other book you wanted, Twilight." he said, replacing the old, melting candle that was slowly burning out.
"Thank you, Spike." the unicorn warmly said. "It certainly feels good to finally be able to read something that isn't slanderous gossip."
"Agreed."
Just then, from outside there came what sounded to be an almost warped, knocking sound. Now who could be knocking at this time of day? Twilight wondered.
"Spike, go look outside and see who that is."
"It better not be those fillies again..." groaned Spike.
Both he and Twilight were still feeling a little sour from how the Crusaders had written that humiliating article. As Spike grabbed a broom, ready to head out and smack the currently unwanted guests, he headed towards the door, threw it open and stormed outside.
"I thought I told you three to get...!" before Spike could finish his sentence, he took another look at the ponies outside, they weren't the Crusaders.
It was Applejack and Rarity, knocking frantically on the forcefield, almost as if it was an emergency.
"Twilight, it's Applejack and Rarity! They're acting kind of weird."
Twilight smiled, knowing that she could trust two of her friends to visit and lowered the shield down and Spike hurried downstairs, to open the door.
The two mares came bursting through the doorway, accidentally knocking Spike into a bookcase that emptied some of it's contents all over him.
When Twilight got downstairs to greet her friends, the joy at what seemed such a pleasant surprise turned into shock and concern when she saw that both Applejack and Rarity were sobbing hysterically, and hyperventilating!
"Apple Bloom.... gossip column... Granny Smith... Gabby Gums... gone... horrible..." Applejack spluttered, she would not stop crying, so it was hard to make out only a few words of what she was saying.
Thinking quickly, Twilight brought over a paper bag and levitated over to her friend to calm her hyperventilating. Within moments, the cowpony was slightly calmer, but she still continue to blubber.
"Now, tell me what's going on? You both look like somepony just died!"
"Or like you found a bit and lost a gemstone!" Spike added, rubbing his head and getting back onto his feet after being bowled over into the bookcase.
"It's Apple Bloom..." sniffed AJ. "She's gone missing! Ah' can't find her anywhere!"
"And Sweetie Belle's missing as well!" added Rarity, sobbing.
Twilight gasped. "That's crazy! Are you sure you looked everywhere?"
"We searched all over Ponyvile, we even searched the schoolhouse and their clubhouse, and they weren't there!"
"All Ah' know is that Apple Bloom is gone!" said Applejack. "Where could she be?"
With that, the two mares collapsed into tears again, which almost started flooding the entire first floor of the library.
Pulling out an umbrella hat to keep from getting drenched with tears, Twilight finally stepped forward to try and calm them down.
"Alright, every pony calm down. I'm sure they couldn't have gone far." she assured . "We'll need to let Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie know what's going on. You two head over to Sugarcube Corner, and Spike and I will head over to Fluttershy's cottage."
With their mission clear, the ponies split up to gather the rest of their friends.
A few moments later, five out of six of the ponies, including Big Macintosh and Spike, were having a meeting inside the library to discuss the situation at hand. It did take awhile to get Fluttershy out of her cottage, because after what had been going on that day, she had been bawling her eyes out like there was no tomorrow. It took a lot of comforting words to console her, and she finally stopped crying and agreed to come along when she heard that the Crusaders had gone missing.
Pinkie Pie wasn't that hard, on the other hoof. She was so upset, she didn't feeling like talking to any pony, and neither did she nor her employers, the Cakes, feel like baking anything, so they had closed up shop for the day, but when she too found out that the fillies had gone missing, she too agreed to help out.
"The only one we haven't talked to yet is Rainbow Dash." said Rarity. "And I doubt that she'll want to listen to us."
Just then, who should come bursting through the window in a panic, but Rainbow Dash herself.
"Guys! Guys! We've got a problem! Scootaloo's run away!" she yelled.
"We know, Dashie." Applejack sniffled, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Apple Bloom an' Sweetie Belle are missing too!"
"I honestly wouldn't blame them for running away." the sky blue pegasus sighed remorsefully.
"Why would you say that, Rainbow Dash?" asked Twilight.
"They came by yesterday, asking for another story, and I got a raincloud and poured water all over them, before they could even explain..."
"Why?" Fluttershy asked in her usually quiet voice. "That was... really mean of you! Sorry..."
"I know! I know! I just got so mad that I don't know what I was thinking, I especially didn't think that I brought this on myself for asking for one story in the first place!"
"You're not the only one with regrets, darling." said Rarity, sniffling. "We all played a part in this."
"What are you all talking about?" Twilight, glanced over at everypony in the room.
"It's my fault, Twi." Big Mac sighed, lowering his head in shame. "Ya see, Ah' yelled at them yesterday afternoon an’ AJ here, just refused ta talk ta them."
"I yelled at them too.." said Rainbow Dash.
"So did I..." said Spike, his ear flaps drooping with regret.
"Oh dear, I do wish I hadn't cried so much..." Fluttershy sighed, sadly.
"I got mad at my own little sister for something I basically told her was okay," said Rarity. "And I didn't set a good example when she looked through my diary after I looked through her bag..."
"We were all a bunch of meanie-bo-beanies, to those fillies..." sniffed Pinkie Pie, her hair starting to deflate as it it usually did whenever she was sad.
"What about you Twilight?" asked Fluttershy.
Twilight remembered, that she also refused to talk to them and outright shunned them by putting up that forcefield of hers and how Spike had snapped at them to get lost.
"I should've just talked with them..." the unicorn sighed in regret. "But right now, the real issue here, is that we need to find them before something bad happens!"
Just then, there was another knock on the door.
"Ugh! Now what?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"I'll go see who's there." Twilight stood up.
Now who could that be? she wondered.
Upon unlocking the door, the lilac unicorn came face to face with the strangest figures she had ever seen. Standing before them, were the strange figures of a tall brown unicorn stallion, a slightly small light magenta unicorn mare, and an young earth pony stallion. The tallest one, dressed in a small trench coat with a noticeable white shirt and black suit tie, and on his head, a fedora hat with a sign that read "Press" on it. The mare's mane was stylized in a bobcut, and she had a noticeable cutie mark with a blot of ink squirting from a pen. The earth pony had a rather scrawny-looking appearance and was carrying on his back, a wagon containing a typewriter and other supplies. Twilight was unnerved by the appearance of these characters.
"I'm terribly sorry, sir," she said. "But if you've come to borrow a book, you're out of luck. I've just closed up for the rest of the afternoon."
"Oh, my apologies..." the tall unicorn chuckled, in a rather warm and friendly sounding tone. "I've forgotten my manners. Allow me to introduce myself, the name's Scoop, Big Scoop, and this is my fiancé, Ink Press, and over there is our assistant, Click Typer."
"Greetings..." the unicorn mare, Ink Press said, holding out her hoof for a hoof shake.
"H-hello..." Click Typer stuttered, he was kind of struggling to pull that wagon, due to how much was packed in there.
"Wait a minute..." said Twilight, eyeing the tall unicorn meticulously. To her, he seemed familiar. "Did you say your name was 'Big Scoop'?"
"I believe I did, ma'am." Big Scoop replied.
"As in The 'Big Scoop'?" asked Rarity, stepping forward to also take a look. "The ace investigative reporter for the 'Canterlot Chronicle', Canterlot's best selling newspaper and the most widely known throughout Equestria?"
"Well, Canterlot's ONLY newspaper." Ink Press laughed.
"It really is you!" said Spike excitedly, "Twilight and I used to read that newspaper all the time back in Canterlot. Of course, I was more in it for the funnies section."
"So what brings you all to Ponyville?" asked Fluttershy.
"Well, business over in Canterlot has been running low all week, and there haven't been that many newsworthy stories to find lately, so the chief sent us out to Ponyville to find some sort of event worthy of writing about." explained Big Scoop. "We were just about to give up and go back, when we overheard some commotion going on around here, and..."
"Wait, you were spying on us?" asked Rainbow Dash, rather weirded out.
"We're investigators, sweetheart." said Ink Press, glaring assertively at the pegasus. "It's our job to snoop around..."
"Fair point."
"Anyways, we think we might be able to help you." said Big Scoop. "Would you like that?"
"You came at such perfect timing, Big Scoop. Please, come in." Twilight smiled as she let the three ponies inside.
"Now what seems to be the trouble?" the stallion asked.
"It's our little sister an' her friends." said Big Mac. "They've run away from home an' we've looked all over fer them! It's driven mah poor other sister an’ her friends ta tears!"
“Oh my...”
"Oh dear," said Ink Press, sympathetically. “What a shame... that’s too bad...”
“How awful!” Click Typer nodded.
"All Ah' know," Applejack said, starting to go into a panic once more. "Is that she could be lost, cold, hungry, itchy, stuffed up, an' needin' ta go ta t’ bathroom! She can't survive out there in t’ cold cruel world!"
"And after what happened earlier," sobbed Rarity. "I might never see my little sister ever again! NEVER! EVER!"
"Alright, now, take it easy, miss." said Big Scoop. "We're professionals and we'll do whatever it takes to help you find them, isn't that right, my dear?"
"Yes," said Ink Press. "We can't stand to see family and friends be torn apart like this, dry those eyes."
The unicorn mare then levitated over two handkerchiefs for both Applejack and Rarity to blow into and clean their faces. While she was comforting the grief stricken ponies, Big Scoop took Click aside to talk.
"Send a message back to the chief." he whispered. "Tell him that we think we found a story that will knock his horseshoes off."
"Yes, sir." The scrawny earth pony nodded, and immediately set to work to send a telegram back to the Canterlot Chronicle.
Big Scoop then sat the four ponies that were close to the crusaders down for questioning. Ink Press stood beside him, writing down notes.
"Now, what are the fillies' names?"
"Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo..." they answered one by one.
"Now for Apple Bloom," asked Ink Press. "Do you spell it out as all one word like 'Applebloom' or is it two separate words?"
"Two separate words." said Big Mac.
"When did you notice they were missing?" asked Big Scoop.
"Ah' noticed when Big Mac an' Ah went upstairs ta her room ta talk with her, an' all of her things were missing, including her framed photo of our late Ma and Pa."
"I found the same thing when I went to check on Sweetie Belle!" said Rarity.
"I found Scootaloo's goodbye letter to her parents, on my doorstep," Rainbow Dash said. "With a picture of me and her all crossed out with a big red X."
"Have the fillies ever run away from home before?" Big Scoop asked.
"Oh no, not ever!" replied Rarity. "Sweetie Belle would never go off and worry her family like that!"
"Apple Bloom wouldn't dare leave Sweet Apple Acres, let alone Ponyville," said AJ.
"Also, do you happen to have any recent photos of the fillies?"
"We'll need to make copies of those for posterity and identification purposes." explained Ink Press.
"Ah have one." said Applejack, taking out one photo from underneath her hat.
"Here's one of Sweetie Belle." said Rarity, out of her bag.
"Here's that one of Scootaloo and me," said Rainbow Dash, handing over the photograph. "I tried to wipe off as much of that marker as I could."
"And finally it all comes down to this," began Big Scoop, laying out and turning on a small tape recorder attached to a microphone. "While Ink Press and Click over here write down notes, I want you all to tell me how this all started,"
It was then that one by one, each of the ponies told their side of the story, with Applejack and Rarity, trying to choke back the tears as they testified, Pinkie Pie's story was a little bit exaggerated, but that didn't matter. Most of the story, was realistic, starting from how the Crusaders joined their school paper in hopes of getting cutie marks in journalism, to the paper getting into the hooves of the older ponies, to the newfound short lived popularity of Gabby Gums, to the stories becoming more hurtful to each pony that started being targeted, to Rarity finding out Sweetie Belle and her friends were behind the whole thing, which led to the shunning, and physical and verbal abuse that the Crusaders unfairly received from their friends and family, who ironically enjoyed the stories, save for Twilight until they were targeted. Big Scoop and his fiancé each looked at each other in disbelief and somewhat shock at the testimonies the ponies gave out until they had finally finished with how they found out that the Crusaders had run away.
"Tell us Scoop, sir." said Big Mac. "Were we really that hard on them?"
"I don't blame most of you for being mad even if you brought this on yourself by asking for more stories and enjoying them in the first place." Big Scoop said, understanding of the situation.
"What you all did was wrong and in Miss Dash's case, uncalled for, but what's done is done." said Ink Press.
"Now the real question is," said Fluttershy. "What do we do now?"
"Ah'll tell you what we're all gonna do!" said Applejack. "We gotta inform everypony in Ponyville of what's goin' on!"
"Indeed, Applejack." said Big Scoop. "I personally believe that there is more to this entire story than meets the eye. And one of the keys to unlocking the truth is to spread awareness of the issue at hand."
"Spike and I will go to town hall and inform Mayor Mare of what's going on and call for an emergency town meeting." said Twilight.
"That's a good idea, Miss Sparkle," Click agreed.
The others nodded in agreement, and with that, Twilight and Spike left the library, and headed to town hall to inform Mayor Mare of the situation. Everypony was in hope that if they could figure this mystery out, they would be able to bring the Crusaders home and everything would go back to normal.
Little did anypony know, but earlier that morning at about dawn, deep down in the basement of the Ponyville Schoolhouse, the editor in chief, Diamond Tiara had just entered with an impatient look on her face. Nopony had heard from the Crusaders since they left to find more stories at their chief's demand.
"That's it. Gabby Gums is out of time." she said, turning to a small bluish gray colt, covered in ink from the printing press, and handing him a set of three photos. "Run these instead. I want this paper on every street corner in Ponyville!"
"Yes ma'am!" said Shady Daze, as he headed over to the ink press to begin work. As the ink press spluttered and splashed ink everywhere, the newly printed newspaper came out nice and clean as could be. The pink earth pony filly trotted over to the end of the press and slowly and careful as not to get a paper cut, took one newspaper and started reading it, laughing to herself rather proudly.
"Featherweight, come over here, boy." she called over to the scrawny looking, buck toothed, pegasus with a camera around his neck, who came trotting over at the command.
"Is something wrong, Miss Tiara?" he asked.
"Nothing at all," said his boss. "I just want to thank you for finding all these great pictures for great stories this past week. You've really outdone yourself, especially on these ones."
Featherweight squeezed in to get a better look at the pictures that he took, now printed in the newspaper. They were pictures, which would be rather amusing to somepony who was lucky enough to get a hold of them, of the Crusaders. One was of Scootaloo struggling to get out of the mud while being teased by the bystanding birds gathered around, the second was of Sweetie Belle, wearing what appeared to be the most funniest looking peacock-esque outfit, that looked very uncomfortable and embarrassing judging by the face on the filly wearing it, but none was more embarrassing than that of a photo of Apple Bloom and Granny Smith showing her granddaughter a picture of her as a foal, with a diaper stuck on her head.
As Diamond continued to laugh at the embarrassing photos, Featherweight on the other hand, was starting to feel unsure. Earlier he too had laughed to himself while Diamond was threatening to print the embarrassing photos of the Crusaders if they refused to write another story, but now after some thought about what had happened when they had last entered the basement workshop for the Foal Free Press, he was starting to wonder if things were indeed going too far.
"Now, Feathers," said his chief. "You're free to go for now. But I still want you be very alert with your camera today, for we need some brand new juicy photos for brand new juicy stories!"
"Yeah.." the pegasus colt laughed nervously. "Uh... about that, chief... that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. Now I've been thinking..."
"I've been thinking that maybe we should... scrap the whole Gabby Gums concept and write about something else? I... I heard that the foals' sports teams around Ponyville and Cloudsdale, especially at the Junior Speedsters Flight School, are getting popular this time of year..."
Diamond stared at her lead photographer for a moment or two before she burst out laughing hysterically, as if he had just told the funniest joke in Equestria.
"That... that's really funny... Feathers..." she laughed, before slowly calming down and realizing that Featherweight wasn't laughing too.
"What are you trying to say?!" she then demanded.
"Well, it was fun for a while, and everypony started liking the stories and asking for more, but now there's some that are getting really hurt by the stories, For example, I followed the Crusaders around yesterday and saw them over by Miss Fluttershy's house, and she looked like she was crying really hard! Maybe we should heed their advice before things get really ugly!"
"Feathers, I'm going to remind you what I already told those blank flanks earlier. I don't give a million flying feathers or fat flanks about feelings! If they don't like them, then why did everypony enjoy reading it in the first place? Miss Cheerliee made me in charge and as such, I all I want is for this newspaper to succeed, and I'm making sure that Gabby Gums sticks around and if it meant I had to put those fillies in their place, so be it! Gabby Gums is the ice cube in my drink of success, and no pony is telling me otherwise!"
"I'm.. I'm sorry chief." Featherweight said, his voice with a small tone of reluctance. "But I have to agree with them, I don't think what we're doing is right anymore."
At that statement, Diamond Tiara laughed even harder than before, and then with a stern, and very authoritive look on her face, leaned in really close to the pegasus. Shady Daze nearby, slowly back away and ducked behind the press, afraid of what was going to happen as the chief began to rip into Featherweight really hard.
"What?! Am I hearing correctly? You don't think I'm right? WHO said your job was to think, FEATHERBRAINS?!"
"But.. but... I just thought..."
"Just use this vast reserve of brain power to consider THIS for a moment." Diamond snarled. "Now, if it wasn't for me, YOU wouldn't be working on the Foal Free Press like your sister, Namby Pamby did! And as a matter of fact, my scrawny little friend, you would've been stuck working the ink press a long time ago with Shady Daze over there, so you can just SHUT your mouth and get out there and get me more juicy photos, ASAP!"
Now Featherweight was frightened. Most of the other young ponies knew that it was best to not get on Diamond Tiara's bad side and he was this close to doing so, but he managed to gain a small sense of bravery and glaring back at her finally said indignantly,
"And what if I don't?"
The pink, rich filly thought for a moment before giving a sinister looking smile as if she had an idea.
"Well, Featherweight... I'm glad you asked."
And with that, she trotted over to her desk and pulled out from the drawers, a folder and opened it up to find a group of photos inside.
"You see, about last summer, I went with my bestie, Silver Spoon, to catch a premiere showing of The Swan Pony at the cinema, and we took pictures at the event. And when me and her were looking through our photos, we found this strange little occurrence we didn't notice before until just recently."
She then pushed the photos towards Featherweight and said, "Now take a good look at these photos and look up in the right hoof corner behind me, and tell me, do you recognize the colt in that picture?"
Featherweight studied the photograph carefully, and was shocked by what he saw.
The colt in the picture sneaking into a room with two other colts had a brown mane, a light yellowish gray coat, big brown eyes, and... two small buck teeth...
The colt was him...
"That... that..." he stammered out, completely flabbergasted.
"That's right, Feathers. And aren't those your friends Rumble and Button Mash, too? And it looks like you're all about to sneak into, my word, an R-rated movie!" Diamond tsk tsked. "Now what do you think your sister and your parents would say if they saw you and your friends sneaking off to see an R-rated movie at your age?"
"T-that's not me!" Featherweight said, trying to cover his mistake up. "That could be any scrawny looking pegasus colt! My parents and sister will never believe you!"
Diamond laughed yet again. "Well now, I wouldn't say that, my little friend. This situation happened to work perfectly over at Silver's house, just ask her little brother, Chocolate Cigar! Now you wouldn't want to end up like him and those incompetent blank flanks, now would you?"
Featherweight felt himself shrink in fear, he was now caught between a rock and a hard place. If he refused to find more photos, or tried to even expose what was going on, Diamond would certainly print those enlarged photos. He'd be a laughingstock, and he'd be in very big trouble if his parents found out he snuck into a rated R movie while underage.
Defeated, all he could was take a huge gulp and say, "No, ma'am..."
"Good boy!" Diamond Tiara said, patting him on the back. "Now get out there and find me some new pictures by tomorrow or it looks like we'll have another story for Gabby Gums by tomorrow!"
Without another word, Featherweight trotted slowly out of the basement and back upstairs, exiting the schoolhouse. Diamond then turned around to face the group of young fillies and colts staring at her, dumbfounded and completely in shock from her outburst.
"What are you all staring at?!" she growled. "We're done for today, now get out! Out!"
The group of foals quickly ran out of the basement as fast they could, in fear. Shady Daze was the last out and tried to carry as many newspapers as he could to finish his task. Diamond was left to her own devices and gathered her things, and grabbed the embarrassing photos of the Crusaders and Featherweight, and stuffed them in her bag.
I love my job... she thought to herself, as she exited the schoolhouse and headed back home to her mansion.
At that moment after leaving the Golden Oak Library, Twilight and Spike had just made it to the Town Hall, where Mayor Mare's office stood in the center of Ponyville. They all knew that it was important that she be notified first before everypony else in Ponyville was alerted of the situation at hand, and if anything, once they explained everything to her, she'd be able to help them out.
Twilight and her assistant headed up the stairs of the office and knocked on the door.
"Hello? Mayor Mare?" the unicorn librarian asked. "It's us, Twilight Sparkle and Spike."
The door slowly creaked open and Mayor Mare, clad in a dark hooded cloak, poked her slightly obscured head through the door.
"Oh, Miss Twilight!" the mayor said, in relief. "What a pleasant surprise. I was just about to head up to read my novel."
She then noticed the looks of concern on their faces.
"What seems to be the problem?" she asked.
"It's my friends' little sisters, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and their friend, Scootaloo." explained Twilight. "Because of all the backlash Gabby Gums has gotten, they've gone missing and they might've even ran away from home!"
"That's why we came straight here." said Spike. "We need you to help us find them, Rarity and the others are all in a tizzy!"
"We already have an investigative reporter from Canterlot and his team helping out, but we need to gather everypony together and inform them of what's going on."
As Twilight and Spike explained everything, the mayor was in complete shock and sympathy towards the Crusaders' family and friends.
"Say no more, Twilight." she said. "I'll schedule an emergency town meeting right away, in the meantime, I need you to ring every doorbell in Ponyville and spread the word. I'll see if I can gather everypony else from my end as well."
The lavender unicorn and dragon nodded and hurriedly headed off to spread the word, Mayor Mare on the other hoof, quickly trotted upstairs and dug out a megaphone, turned it on, and headed toward the window and poked her head outside.
"ATTENTION EVERYPONY!" she called through the megaphone. "THERE IS TO BE AN EMERGENCY TOWN MEETING HAPPENING IMMEDIATELY! ALL MARES AND STALLIONS ARE TO MEET AT THE TOWN HALL AT ONCE! REPEATING, THERE IS AN EMERGENCY MEETING ABOUT TO TAKE PLACE AND ALL MARES AND STALLIONS ARE TO MEET AT TOWN HALL AT ONCE! THANK YOU, THAT IS ALL!"
A few moments later, everypony in Ponyville had gathered outside of the town hall for the emergency meeting. They were all talking amongst themselves, wondering what was going on and what the emergency was. Twilight and her friends stood onstage, and Big Scoop and his team sat offstage writing down notes and taking pictures of the meeting.
It was then that Mayor Mare stepped up to the podium.
"Can I have everypony's attention please?" she asked.
At those words, the crowd silenced and directed their attention towards the mayor.
"Thank you, and I'm especially pleased that you all came here for this meeting which I will now call to order."
"Well, now that we're all here," began Amethyst Star in the crowd. "Would somepony please explain what in Tartarus is going on here?"
"I have a few ponies here with me who will help explain everything, starting with our resident librarian, Twilight Sparkle." the mayor said, motioning toward Twilight Sparkle who stepped up to her place on the podium.
"Thank you, Mayor Mare." the unicorn said to the mayor, stepping down. "Alright everypony, I regret to inform you all that the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo have gone missing, therefore we are currently rounding up a search party."
The entire crowd was silent for a moment, with confused and outright indifferent looks on their faces.
"And... why should we care?" asked Carrot Top, stepping forward.
"Yeah! Haven't those three caused enough trouble for us already?" added Cherry Berry.
"What?!" Twilight and her friends were in shock. It looked like they weren't going to get any more help after all.
"H-how can you all be so heartless? This is serious!" said Rarity, growing even more hurt and angry.
"Well, what do you expect?!" asked Berry Punch. "They wrote slanderous filth about us and exposed our secrets! To that, I say good riddance!"
As the entire crowd began to nod in agreement and start grumbling on and on about what the fillies had done, Mayor Mare had had enough and stepped back forward to the podium with a disgusted look on her face.
"I can not believe what I'm hearing!" she said, indignantly. "You should all be ashamed of yourselves, passing insults and judgement on three little fillies for making a simple mistake that shouldn't even matter that much to everypony! You know, I heard it from Twilight herself and she's right. Gabby Gums was popular despite the fact that they were spreading gossip about everypony, but then with each new pony being targeted, started getting more and more hated!"
"That's right! I told you all that it wasn't a good idea liking Gabby Gums' gossip columns in the first place, but noooo.... you told me to lighten up, you said that I was full of it. Nopony cared to listen until it was too late!" said Twilight.
"And if you all knew that Gabby Gums was writing hurtful things about you, why didn't anypony bother to do anything about it other than shutting yourselves away or verbal and physically abusing those involved?"
The crowd was almost dumbfounded, and tried coming up with an answer. It was then that Caramel stepped forward.
"But Mayor Mare," he argued. "Shouldn't you be upset at them as well? I mean, they wrote that whole story about your mane really being pink instead of grey!"
It was then that the lone sound of laughing erupted on stage, everypony turned to see Pinkie Pie rolling on the ground, guffawing like a kookaburra.
"Now that one was really funny!" she giggled before being met with glares from her friends.
"Now Pinkie, you enjoyed that story when you first read it, didn't you?" asked the mayor.
"Sure did!" said the pink earth pony, pulling out a copy of the newspaper in question. "'Mayor Not Naturally Gray!' Ha ha! Who wouldn't want to read that?"
"And when they printed a story about you being an 'out-of-control party animal', you didn't like that, didn't you?"
"No way!" Pinkie said. "I mean, sure it's true that I love parties and all, but they made it sound like a bad thing!"
She then froze, and trotted back to her spot next to her friends, rather embarrassed.
"Now, I have forgiven the Crusaders after having some alone time to think, and now the entire problem doesn't bother me as much." explained Mayor Mare. "But it seems that the rest of you have still yet to let go of this issue!"
"What Pinkie has just demonstrated is the very definition of hypocrisy." added Twilight. "Which is what you all seem to suffer from, and which is also the reason that Gabby Gums is what it is because of you liking these stories until you were being targeted."
It was then that the entire crowd slowly hung their heads in a mixture of shame, guilt, and embarrassment. They had realized that Twilight and the Mayor were right.
"An' now thanks ta us and also all of ya," said Applejack. "Mah lil' sis is somewhere out there suffering with her friends an'll probably be haunted by this fer t' rest of her life! An' all because y'all seem ta care more 'bout yerselves than others!"
"You know, when me and Twilight first moved to Ponyville," said Spike,"I thought that sign right there was just for a Pony Fools joke that hadn't been taken down yet."
He then pointed over to a sign that read: "PONYVILLE, THE MEANEST TOWN IN EQUESTRIA".
"But now I know that sometimes, it's the truth!" he then finished, snorting in disgust.
The entire crowd started talking amongst themselves, overcome with guilt and saying a few apologies. It was then that Cranky Doodle Donkey and Mr. Cake trotted forward.
"Alright, alright, alright, Applejack," Cranky grumbled. "You made us all feel bad about what we did to your little sister and her friends, so now what?"
"Yeah? What do we do now?" asked Mr. Cake.
"That's why we're putting together this search party." said Mayor Mare. "We must bring the Crusaders home and straighten everything out. And then, and only then, will we be able to put this entire 'Gabby Gums' nightmare behind us."
"We'll all split up into two teams," explained Twilight. "We have with us, Big Scoop and his team over here..."
When they noticed Big Scoop, the crowd cheered and whistled.
"I love you, Big Scoop!" screamed a pony in the crowd.
"Thank you, thank you all, you're too kind." Big Scoop smiled humbly.
"They're going to help us in this search, Spike and I will go with him and interview some of the Crusaders' classmates. and Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity will be leading Team Alpha. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy will be leading Team Gold." Twilight said. "Team Alpha searches uptown, and Team Gold searches downtown and in any other area."
"Are there any questions?" asked Rarity.
The crowd was silent for a brief moment until...
"YEEEEAAAAAH! GOLD TEAM RULES!" shouted Bulk Biceps, flexing his muscles.
"Looks like Bulk over there's ready and raring!" said Rainbow Dash.
"Then let's get to it!" said Applejack.
And with that, the entire crowd yelled out in agreement and set off to begin the search.
The hunt had just begun, just about almost everypony was searching the entire town and beyond for the Crusaders, putting up missing posters, or even calling out the fillies' names.
They all searched high, and low and through every single spot in Ponyville and nearby. But unfortunately there was no sign of the Crusaders anywhere.
Twilight and Big Scoop interviewed many of the classmates of the fillies but unfortunately, a majority of them hadn't had a lot of knowledge of the operations of the Foal Free Press since they weren't part of the after school program, and those that were, were acting rather strange, almost as if they were too afraid to say much about it.
On the other hoof, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and the others weren't having much luck either, they were busy doing a status report with the split up search party.
"They aren't by the Ponyville Lake." reported Shoeshine, all soaking wet from the lake in question.
"Well, keep lookin'!" said Applejack.
"They aren't anywhere near Mount Dragonshy!" said Twinkleshine, covered in dust and debris from the rocks near the mountain.
"Well, keep looking!" said Rarity.
"They aren't in my thoughts..." said Cranky Doodle.
"Well, keep thinking!" said Rainbow Dash.
"This isn't doing any good, everypony.." sighed Rarity. "We're going to have to double... no, TRIPLE our efforts!"
"How about calling it a day?" asked Rainbowshine, exhausted. "We've been at it since 4:00! And we're almost close to dusk! Celestia's sun is about to set at any minute!"
"Think about the children!" said Millie, rocking her infant foal in her pram.
"That's perfect!" said Rainbow Dash. "We can use the foals to look in places we weren't able to look before!"
The other ponies groaned at how stubborn and overzealous things were getting.
"This is a load of horseapples." whispered Lyra to her friend Bon Bon.
"Ah heard that!" snapped Applejack. "Nopony's sleeping or goin' anywhere 'til we find mah sister an' her friends!"
"Oh, wait! Here she is!" called Minuette, as she held up up a small filly that looked nothing like Apple Bloom.
"That ain't Apple Bloom! Apple Bloom's coat is light yellow, an' she has a red mane an' tail an' a magentaish bow tied in it!"
Thinking quickly, Minuette stuck a pink bow in the filly's mane and held her up.
"Uh, howdy everypony?" the filly said nervously, trying to give the best cowpony impression she could give. "Ah love buck'n apples with mah sis?"
"No ya don't!" groaned the cowpony.
"I've found Sweetie Belle!" said Lemon Hearts, dragging over a confused earth pony filly with a white coat.
"Ugh!" sighed Rainbow Dash. "Is everypony being daft tonight?!"
"Well the coat's the right color," said Rarity. "But Sweetie Belle is a unicorn and has a pink and purple curly mane and tail!"
"Yeah!" added the sky blue pegasus. "And Scootaloo is an orange Pegasus with a dark pink mane and tail."
"Oh, here she is!" said Sassaflash, holding up a orangish looking hen. "Hey, can we go home now?"
Rainbow Dash could only facehoof in annoyance. Either everypony was being a complete idiot or they were really just getting tired and giving up too easily. Things weren't really going anywhere.
A few hours later, it was now past dusk and now night had begun to fall on the town of Ponyville.
Over at the Golden Oak Library, Twilight and a few of her friends were having a meeting on their own. The library itself looked slightly different since it was cluttered up with Big Scoop's equipment.
"This search has been gettin' us nowhere!" said Big Mac.
"And we still don't have any clues on where they could've gone or what else might've led to all of this." sighed Click Typer, who was polishing his camera while Big Scoop and Ink Press were analyzing the clues, testimonies, and alibis from everypony they interviewed.
"How's Rarity and Applejack doing?" asked Fluttershy.
"Ever since Apple Bloom an' t' others went missing," said the tall earth pony stallion, "AJ's mind's been deteriorating alongside Rarity's, so Spike and Ah put them upstairs ta rest."
Upstairs, Applejack, and Rarity were indeed upstairs trying to rest a little, but little did anypony know, they were each slowly beginning to enter a terrifying nightmare.
In Applejack's dream, she found herself in complete total darkness with no sign of light in sight. After a brief moment of idleness, the cowpony began to take a few steps forward.
It was then that a small voice called out in the darkness.
"Hello?"
Applejack recognized that voice, and turned around to notice the faint form of a light yellowish figure with a red mane and tail, and a pink bow in it and a blank flank.
"Apple Bloom!" Applejack ran towards the figure of her little sister, and then finally realized that she wasn't getting any closer to her. It was almost like she was half frozen in place. Realizing that Apple Bloom was starting to trot away, Applejack started to call out to her. "Apple Bloom! Wait! It's me, Applejack!"
The little earth pony then froze before turning around to face her older sister, but instead of her normal eyes, her entire expression was that of disgust, disappointment, and utter coldness.
"What do ya want, Applejack?" she asked, in a bitter tone of voice that sent chills up AJ's spine.
"Please... Apple Bloom, come home, Ah'm sorry 'bout what happened between us before! Ah was selfish an' let mah own pride an' foolishness get in t' way of mah own judgement! You're mah lil sis an' Ah love you!"
Apple Bloom let out a loud snort of disgust. "Ya think a simple apology'll fix how you an' Big Mac treated me? Ya think Ah'll just forgive an' forget that easily? Nice try, Applejack, but ya already blew it, an' as of right now, Ah no longer have a sister!"
Apple Bloom then slowly started to walk away.
"No, Apple Bloom, please wait!" Applejack began to trot after her but she was still stuck in the same place while Apple Bloom trotted further and further out of sight.
The cowpony lowered her head in shame as sparkling tears began to fall from her eyes. The tears began to float around Applejack and started taking shape, the shapes started out slightly abstract until they began to take on a familiar form, the glowing spirits of two ponies, a mare and a stallion, one wearing a Stelson hat like Applejack's, and the other with orange frizzy hair.
Applejack could hardly believe her eyes... "M..m.. Ma? Pa?"
The spirits of Buttercup and Bright Mac said nothing, but could only stare remorsefully at their daughter with a look of utter disappointment on their faces, before disappearing into nothingness.
All of a sudden, the entire scenery changed and Applejack found herself back at Sweet Apple Acres that afternoon, where the whole thing began. She looked around, confused, until she saw herself, Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom and the rest of her friends. It was right after they had arrived to reasonably ask them for another story.
"Apple Bloom!" Applejack tried to move but she found that her hooves were glued to the ground.
"Aw c'mon, Applejack!" said Apple Bloom to her sister, the other Applejack. "Yer not mad at us too, are ya?"
"Eeyup..." was the only answer the other Applejack could give, with a stubborn, sulky looking on her back-turned face.
"No! Ah... Ah'm not mad Apple Bloom, Why are you giving her that shoulder, ya idiot?" Applejack yelled to herself in anger.
"Yer not even gonna talk to us?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Eenope..." responded the other Applejack.
"No! Just talk ta them! Let them at least try ta explain themselves!"
It was then that Big Mac stepped forward, with a distainful glare on his face.
"You should be ashamed of yourself!" he snorted angrily. "Humiliatin' yer sister an' me like that!"
"Stop it, Big Mac!" cried Applejack. "It wasn't like that! They didn't mean it!"
It was then that Big Mac stepped even further to the point where he was towering over the fillies and poking a hoof near Apple Bloom's forehead and pointing in the direction they came.
"We don't wanna talk ta any y'all right now, so take yer little gossip column an' yer embarrassing photographs an' just GO AWAY!"
It was then that the images of Applejack and Big Mac vanished as the Crusaders trotted slowly and sadly away, watching this made the real Applejack's heart sink, it was then that she finally was able to free herself and tried to chase after the Crusaders.
"Wait, Apple Bloom! No! Come back! Please!"
Once she had been able to catch up to them, she tried giving her sister the biggest hug she could, but was horrified when her hooves went right through her. Just then, her heart began to sink even more when she noticed something she hadn't before, Apple Bloom had tears in her eyes as she left Sweet Apple Acres with her friends.
"Mah own family hates me.." Apple Bloom sobbed quietly.
"No, Apple Bloom! Ah don't hate you! Please... please don't cry..." Applejack herself began to cry in guilt and despair. "Ah love you... Ah'm sorry... Ah'm so sorry..."
"AJ!" Big Mac called to his dozing, and struggling sister. "AJ!"
"Rarity, wake up!" cried Spike. "You're having a nightmare!"
It was then that the two mares woke up screaming as loud enough for everypony's ears to almost bleed.
"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, AJ!" yelled Big Mac, delieving a sharp smack to the face to snap his sister out of her panic.
Taking one deep breath, Applejack came to her senses again. "Thanks, Big Mac... Ah needed that..."
After that, the two mares began to slowly calm down and were almost relaxed, yet still haunted by their nightmares.
"Ya had the same dream as Ah did, Rarity?" asked the cowpony, slowly hyperventilating. "But about Sweetie Belle?"
"Yes... she... she said she never wanted to talk to me again!" the unicorn sniffed. "And she said she'd tell every psychiatrist she goes to what I did! Every sister's greatest fear!"
Rarity began to burst into tears, that nearly flooded the upstairs and started to almost seep downstairs near the equipment which Big Scoop rushed to protect from getting ruined.
"Rarity, please..." said Spike. "Everything's going to be fine..."
"No, it's not!" cried the white unicorn in an emotional rage, glaring at the baby dragon. "How can everything be fine when I feel like I just kicked my little sister to the curb for something I brought on myself!"
"It wasn't all your fault," said Fluttershy. "We all played a part in this..."
"Oh, Big Mac..." wept Applejack. "How could Ah have been so cruel?"
"Ah've been ask'n myself t’ same question..." said her brother, hanging his head in guilt.
"I wouldn't be surprised if Scootaloo's already found somepony new to look up to after what I did to her." sighed Rainbow Dash.
"You should all be ashamed!" said Click Typer, pointing his camera at the group. "Actually, can you look even more ashamed? I know we're helping you find your siblings and all, but we're still getting big bits out of this as well."
"How's this?" asked Spike, making an even sadder face.
"Perfect! Great! Swell!" said Click, taking even more photos.
"One thing for sure is, if we're going to find the Crusaders," said Ink Press. "We're going to have to take a different approach."
"Hey, Twilight?" asked Spike. "Do you think we ought to ask Princess Celestia to help?"
At the mere mention of her mentor, Twilight's stomach began to tie itself in knots. She knew that if Princess Celestia got involved and found out what she had done to the Crusaders by refusing to help them in their time of need, and what everypony else had done, she would be very, very, disappointed in her, even more than she was that faithful day when Twilight went completely bonkers because she hadn't had written a letter to Celestia for an entire week.
But before Twilight could say anything, Big Scoop stepped forward. "While it would be proper to inform the princesses of the situation at hand," he said. "I believe that we're starting to slightly get closer to the next piece of this puzzle."
The ponies looked at the unicorn stallion, weirdly.
"What do you mean?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Well, having been working in the news industry for awhile now," said Big Scoop. "I know for a fact that while the Crusaders did indeed write the stories, we don't know for sure that they took those embarrassing photographs or if they even had access to a camera. As with every newspaper in every part of Equestria, there is a single photographer like Click Typer here, to take those photos. And also, what baffles me is why no pony bothered to complain to the editor and chief.."
"What does t' editor n' chief have ta do with any of this?" asked Applejack.
"The editor and chief is responsible for the publishing of each and every story that is presented to him or her." explained Ink Press. "So that all means that even if they wrote those embarrassing stories and lies about everypony, somepony had to have taken those photos and another pony would've had to have approved of them. The question remains however, who's responsible for all of this, and who put them in charge?"
This made everypony present start thinking, they now understood that if they found the two ponies responsible for the pictures and for publishing the newspaper, they would be able to solve what would come to be known as the "Great Gabby Gums Caper".
It was then that Spike noticed something outside the window, it seemed like some floating grey speck getting closer and closer.
"Hey guys! Check this out!" he said. "There's some weird grey speck in the sky!"
Everypony headed over to the window and saw the grey form in the sky heading towards the library.
"I say," said Rarity. "Is that some blind carrier pigeon?"
Rainbow Dash took a closer look and immediately realized what or who it was.
"Oh no... INCOMING!" she yelled as everypony ducked for cover.
CRASH
When the dust settled, there was a huge gaping hole where the incoming presence had arrived, and everypony found a grey pegasus with a saddlebag attached to her back, lying on the floor, dazed and surprised. Next to her was a young unicorn filly with a pale purple coat and a blond mane, also dizzy from the impact.
"Geez, what the Tartarus, Derpy?!" yelled the sky blue pegasus, before noticing the young filly next to her. "Oops, didn't mean to cuss in front of a child."
"Why didn't you just use the door?" asked Twilight, helping the grey Pegasus to her hooves.
"Uh, making an entrance?" answered Derpy, sheepishly. "Fact aside, you guys won't believe this!"
"My mom and I were looking through Ponyville trying to find a clue about where the Crusaders could've gone," said her daughter, Dinky. "And that's when we saw Miss Fluttershy's bunny, Angel coming towards us with a newspaper in his mouth!"
It was then that Angel appeared, poking his dizzy head out of the bag before he quickly recovered and hopped over to Fluttershy with the newspaper in question in his mouth.
"Not just any newspaper though, it's the newest edition of the Foal Free Press, and you'll never believe who's in it!"
"Looks like somepony else is running Gabby Gums since the Crusaders are gone." said Twilight as she and the others opened up the newspaper and gasped in complete shock at what they saw.
The most embarrassing pictures of the Cutie Mark Crusaders...
"L... look at Scootaloo!" said Rainbow Dash pointing at the picture on the left. "She's trying to get out of the mud, but she can't! And those birdbrains are just standing by there, mocking her!"
"Looks like somepony's not getting their after-lunch birdseed snack cakes tomorrow!" said Fluttershy, disgusted at the sight of the birds tittering at Scootaloo's predicament.
"I remember this!" said Rarity, pointing at the picture of Sweetie Belle wearing the peacock-esque headdress and matching shorts with attached tail feathers. "This was when I had Sweetie Belle model that new design I was making for Sapphire Shores! What was I thinking? I should've added more feathers on that design, it would've looked much better on Sweetie Belle as it would look on Sapphire!"
"An' that's a picture of one of Apple Bloom's baby pictures!" said Big Mac.
"She made us promise ta keep those hidden," said Applejack, "'Cause in her own words, 'If anypony got a hold of those, Ah'd never hear t' end of it!'
"How did they get in here?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Well, as Big Scoop stated before, somepony had to have taken them and somepony had to have published them!" said Click Typer. "But who?"
"Let me have a look," said Big Scoop, levitating the newspaper over to himself. "Ink Press, bring me over that magnifying glass."
Ink Press levitated over the magnifying glass and her fiancé began to examine the newspaper searching for a clue as to who might've taken the photos.
Finally, Big Scoop let out a triumphant, "Aha!"
"Aha? What 'Aha'?" asked Twilight.
"I believe we have our first suspect..." said Big Scoop.
He handed back over the newspaper and positioned the magnifier underneath the pictures. There was a caption underneath them that read: Photos courtesy of our main photographer, Featherweight.
"Do any of you happen to know somepony named Featherweight?" he asked.
"Oh, I know him!" said Dinky. "He hangs out with me, Pipsqueak, Button Mash, Snips and Snails, and Rumble at recess and sometimes after school!"
"And isn't he that young colt that recently got his cutie mark?" asked Rarity. "I remember Sweetie Belle talking about a foal recently earning his mark and oh, how jealous she was!"
Twilight took a look at the newspaper and also saw Featherweight's name in the fine print.
"This story checks out, everypony." the lavender unicorn said.
"So it was that colt that took those embarrassing pictures of us!" said Big Mac. "Hearing this makes me feel even worse fer snappin' at Apple Bloom..."
"Why that nosy little sneak!" growled Rarity.
“I can’t believe a little colt like him would do such a thing,” gasped Fluttershy, “Even making that fake picture of me with tail extensions!”
"I think we'd better have a little talk with this colt, and straighten this all out." said Big Scoop.
"If my fiancé's hunch is right," said Ink Press. "Then this Featherweight's going to have some explaining to do..."
"Dinky, didn't you say that Featherweight was hosting a sleepover at his house?" Derpy asked her daughter.
"Yeah," sighed Dinky with a tone of disappointment. "With Rumble, Button Mash, and Snips and Snails, they said I couldn't go because they wanted to have a 'boys-only night' first, before they even consider inviting a girl."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" said Rainbow Dash, unfurling her wings. "Let's find that little punk and give him a piece of our minds!"
"Yeah!" everypony, sans Twilight and Big Scoop agreed before they began to storm out of the library.
"Wait everypony, let's not be hasty!" called the reporter.
"Can't we talk this over?" said Twilight. "He's just a colt!"
It was then that the unicorns set off after the other ponies to confront Featherweight and get some answers out of him.
Within moments, the determined and still very much angry group of ponies and investigators found Featherweight's house, which wasn't very hard to find since it was the only house in Ponyville that night with a dimly lit window and the glare of a flashing television set projected from inside.
With little to no hesitation at all, Rainbow Dash roughly knocked on the front door, she was still fuming about finding out who took that picture of her at the spa, and who took that humiliating picture of Scootaloo stuck in the mud. She was ready and raring to give the young photographer a piece of her mind.
The door slowly opened, revealing a young pegasus mare. If one were to compare, she looked much like Featherweight, with a similarly colored coated, very skinny legs, and two buck teeth. The only differences were that her mane and tail were a much brighter color of brown with green bows tied in them, and a cutie mark with a pink feather with sparkles around it.
It was in fact, Featherweight's older sister, Namby Pamby, who had graduated from Miss Cheerliee's class the year before.
"Oh my, visitors!" she exclaimed, taken by surprise which then turned into uncertainty upon noticing the serious looks on their faces. "Uh, what can I do for you?"
Namby jumped back, unnerved by the pegasus' tone. "He's upstairs with his friends... playing games.." she answered. "Uh, why are you all looking like that?"
"Well in that case," Rainbow answered, ignoring Namby's question and marching upstairs with Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike, Pinkie Pie, Ink Press, and Click Typer in tow. "I'm gonna show him a game he'll never forget!"
A few moments after the group had gone up the stairs, Twilight and Big Scoop came to the door, exhausted from all the running.
"Excuse me, miss..." Twilight asked, "You didn't happen to see a group of disgruntled ponies come here, did you?"
"Yes, I did." Namby replied. "They just went upstairs. Now would somebody tell me what's going on here and why everypony's mad at my little brother?"
"Twilight, head upstairs and calm your friends down." Big Scoop told the lavender unicorn before turning to the young pegasus mare. "In the meantime, Miss uh, Namby Pamby is it? I'm Big Scoop, investigative reporter for the Canterlot Chronicle, and I'll be more than happy to explain once we've got everypony settled."
Meanwhile, upstairs in his room, Featherweight was busy with a few of his friends, Snips, Snails, Rumble, and Button Mash playing a video game that Button had brought over.
"Alright, I've got the Final Clash ball," Button announced. "Activating... now!"
Button pressed a button on his controller and on screen, his character released a powerful stream of fire, blasting the other players off the playing field.
"And... Game!" the in game announcer cried. "We have a winner, Player Button Mash!"
"And that, my friends... is how you win a match in Super Equestrian Clash Brawl!" the brown earth pony colt said proudly.
"Wow, Button..." Snails said. "When you said you were the master of this game, you weren't kidding!"
"I know, I know..." Button grinned, proudly soaking in the victory. He then turned to Featherweight.
"You know, you weren't too bad out there yourself." he said. "You stick with me and give it time, and you'll be second to me as a master of Brawl!"
"Uh, thanks, Button..." Featherweight said, nervously. He was trying to keep his mind off of Diamond's threats and enjoy the sleepover wither his friends, but the rich filly's warning lingered on in his head. Worst of all, he kept thinking back to the Crusaders and the brunt of flak they received when ponies found out what they did when he was also to blame.
The Crusaders are in enough trouble already, but what's going to happen when ponies find out I was the one who took those pictures? he thought to himself.
That very moment, Rainbow Dash and the others were standing outside the door of Featherweight's room, ready to confront the young colt.
"Now, Rainbow..." Twilight warned. "Let's just calm down before we do something we'll regret..."
"To Tartarus with that!" huffed the sky blue pegasus. "This little punk's responsible for my humiliation in Gabby Gums gossip column, and he caused me to take it out on Scootaloo when she didn't really deserve it! One way or another, I'm gonna make him talk."
And with that, Rainbow Dash banged on the door roughly. "Open up, Featherweight!" she barked. "We know you're in there!"
There was nothing but silence. Behind the door, Featherweight recognized the voice and was now shaking in fear.
Trying to hide, the colt disguised his voice and said, "Uh, Featherweight's not here... I'm just a lady!"
Rainbow didn't buy it and knocked again.
"Uh, nopony's home!" called Snips from inside.
Rainbow knocked once more.
"Please leave a message after the beep! Beep!" said Snails.
Applejack tried giving it a shot and bucking on the door.
"Uh, the check's in the mail!" Rumble yelled.
Then it was Rarity's turn to knock, this time much calmer than the others.
"I'm in the tub!" called Featherweight, trying again.
"It's no use..." sighed Ink Press. "He's not coming out."
"Let's not rush him," Fluttershy said. "He must be so scared right now."
"Oh, I'll give him something to be really scared about if he doesn't open that door." said Rainbow Dash. "And if he's not coming out, I'm coming in after him!"
"Rainbow Dash, no!" cried Twilight.
But it was too late, Rainbow Dash pawed her hoof against the floor and charged towards the door, breaking it off its hinges and knocking it down to the ground.
"Aha! There you are, you little weasel!" she yelled.
"Leave me alone, Rainbow Dash!" the colt cried trying to back away as the sky blue pegasus advanced towards him.
The colts backed out of the way as Featherweight came running out of his room, yelling in fear, with Rainbow Dash in pursuit.
"Namby, help me!" the colt yelled as he got ready to head down the stairs to his sister. He descended so fast that he tripped midway down, and came tumbling until he reached the bottom.
Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Ink Press and Click Typer tried to stop Rainbow Dash by blocking the stairs, but it was no use. In fact, Rainbow Dash collided with the group, causing them to all come rolling down the entire flight, ending up in a huge crash!
At the bottom of the stairs, stood a huge pile up of ponies, dazed and surprised.
Twilight, Big Scoop, Spike, Namby Pamby, and the other colts cringed at the painful sight.
As Big Scoop and Spike hurried over and started helping the ponies get up off the floor, Twilight turned to Namby Pamby, who was checking Featherweight all over to make sure the colt had no bumps, bruises, or broken bones.
"That was assault!" the colt groaned.
"I am so sorry," Twilight said, regretfully. "We tried to stop everypony and get them to calm down, but we were too late."
"It's alright," Namby sighed. "It looks like he doesn't have that many bumps. Now, that that's out of the way, WOULD SOMEPONY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON HERE AND WHY YOUR PSYCHOTIC FRIEND ALMOST KILLED MY LITTLE BROTHER?!"
"With pleasure, Miss Namby. If you don't mind, we've come here to talk with your little brother." Big Scoop explained, motioning towards the young pegasus colt shivering behind his sister's leg. "My team is investigating the recent disappearance of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and your brother is our first suspect.”
"W-wh-what do you want from me?" Featherweight asked, timidly.
"Easy kiddo, easy..." said Ink Press, her voice sounding sweet yet serious at the same time. "We're going to preface all of this with you're in trouble, and this is going to be a group talk so we can get your side of the story."
"Basically, we know all about your work for the Foal Free Press." explained Big Scoop, "You've been taking photographs of ponies in embarrassing and sometimes out of context situations, so that embarrassing gossip in the form of Gabby Gums can be complete. You've... done a lot of bad things, son."
Namby looked down at her brother. "Featherweight, is that true?" she asked suspiciously.
Featherweight's heart pounded inside his chest. All he wanted to do was hide.
"I.. I don't know what you're talking about!" he protested.
The other ponies could tell the colt was lying. Fluttershy stepped forward, petting Featherweight's mane with her hoof.
"Featherweight, listen..." the yellow pegasus said gently, "You're not a bad colt, everypony makes bad decisions. If you just tell the truth, we won't be mad. Though, I can't say the same for a few of my friends."
"Sneaky little dirtbags like you make me sick!" snapped Rainbow Dash, causing Featherweight to shrink even more. "There's no tree, nook, or corner you can hide where I won't catch you!"
"Now hold on a sec," Spike asked. "If me, Twilight, Scoop, Ink, Fluttershy, and Click are supposed to be the good cops, and Rainbow, Rarity, AJ and Big Mac are supposed to be the bad cops, then who's Pinkie supposed to be?"
"I'm the funny cop!" Pinkie chirped. "Pull my hoof!"
"Does it even matter?" yelled Namby before turning back to her brother. "Featherweight, don't you dare lie to me!"
Well, the pressure from being interrogated combined with the guilt of his involvement in the school newspaper scandals consumed poor Featherweight, and he just couldn't take it anymore.
"YES! YES! I ADMIT IT!" Featherweight finally said, bursting into tears. "I took the pictures! Every single one!"
"And so the truth finally comes out..." smiled Ink Press.
"Featherweight... How could you?" asked the colt's sister, a tone of shock and disappointment in her voice. "When you first joined the paper, I thought I taught you the most important rule of being a photographer, 'Never take embarrassing or candid photographs of anypony'!"
"I'm sorry, Namby!" the pegasus colt sniffed. "But it's not all my fault! I swear, the Crusaders and I wanted to stop but then Diamond Tiara..."
Featherweight suddenly froze, covering his mouth.
"Diamond Tiara? What about her?" asked Applejack.
"I've already said too much!" Featherweight squeaked.
"Excuse me, but who is this 'Diamond Tiara' character?" asked Ink Press to the ponies.
"Diamond Tiara is a filly 'bout Apple Bloom and th' others' age." explained Big Mac. "Her father, Filthy Rich owns th' family business 'Rich's Barnyard Bargains' an' is th' most richest pony in Ponyville. Our family is his biggest supplier."
"Son..." Big Scoop asked, looking Featherweight in the eye. "Is there something we need to know?"
"I-it's a long story..." Featherweight hesitated.
"I like stories. I like 'em just fine."
Featherweight still wouldn't budge. Keep your mouth shut or you'll be dead meat! he thought to himself.
"Featherweight, please tell us what's going on..." pleaded Twilight.
"I can't!" Featherweight protested. "Then I'll be a tattletale!"
"Darling," Rarity, said stepping forward, "There is a difference between snitching and telling somepony what's wrong..."
"Really?"
"Yes," confirmed Namby. "Featherweight, if you tell us what's bothering you, we will help you."
Featherweight realized that he had no other choice and took a big breath.
"Alright," he began, "Yes, once ponies started getting hurt by Gabby Gums' gossip in the paper, the Crusaders wanted to stop, but Diamond Tiara wouldn't let them! She said she doesn't care if feelings get hurt! She told them if they didn't get another story on her desk soon, she'd print those embarrassing pictures of them! When they didn't show up this morning, she went right on ahead and did just that! I tried reasoning with her myself, but then I found out she took pictures of me! And if I don't get her pictures for the Foal Free Press by tomorrow, she's gonna print them instead!"
After that, all the stress, anxiety and fear became too much for Featherweight. He started to cry once more, burying his face in his sister's chest.
"Shh... shh... it's okay, Featherweight." Namby cooed, stroking his mane and back, gently. "Just let it all out..."
The group of ponies were beyond mortified after hearing Featherweight's testimony.
"Why that's just as awful as when she made Apple Bloom feel embarrassed about Granny Smith!" said Applejack.
"Eeyup!" agreed Big Mac, with anger in his eyes.
"What she's doing to us all is just disgraceful!" said Fluttershy.
"Disgusting!" added Spike.
"Despicable!" finished Rarity. "Who in their right mind would make her in charge of the school newspaper?"
"Miss Cheerliee put her in charge," sobbed Featherweight, "I don't know how or why, but she did."
"When I was running the Foal Free Press last year, I treated my co-workers with respect and carefully chose what we depicted in the papers." said Namby Pamby, "But now Diamond's gone and turned it into a nightmare! Something has to be done."
"Namby Pamby is right," agreed Big Scoop. "Now that we have our next clue, we've got this mystery almost all wrapped up. All we need now is to make a plan."
"Yer darn tootin', Big Scoop!" said Applejack. "So what do we do?"
"Well, I've got an idea," said Twilight. "What we need to do now is inform everypony of...."
"No!" cried Featherweight, clinging onto Twilight's back leg, "Please don't tell anypony! If Diamond find out I tattled on her..."
"She'll do nothing of the sort," Twilight assured the colt, "We're going to make sure of that."
"Yeah! We'll give that rotten little brat what for!" said Rainbow Dash.
"Are you sure?" Featherweight asked.
"Sho' nuff!" confirmed Applejack. "Nopony messes with my lil' sis an' her friends an' gets away with it!"
"As I was saying," Twilight continued, "We'll need to inform everypony of our discovery, and Featherweight's going to help us. Big Mac, I need you and Namby Pamby to head to Miss Cheerliee's house and explain everything. Big Scoop, Ink Press, Click, Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity, gather up every single pony in Ponyville, tell them what's going on and tell them to meet me, Spike and Fluttershy at Rich Manor."
"We're coming too!" chimed in Rumble, descending the stairs alongside the other colts.
"I'm afraid this is adult ponies' work," said Twilight, blocking the young ponies with her hooves.
"No way!" argued Button Mash, "If Diamond's going to mess with our pal Featherweight, and especially Sweetie Belle and her friends, then she's gonna mess with all of us!"
Twilight sighed, "Alright then, but just as long as you follow directions and stay out of trouble."
"Yes, Miss Twilight..." the colts said in unison.
"Then there's no time ta lose." said Applejack, tipping her hat until it nearly covered her eyes, "Let's go lasso up that bad seed, shut her down for good, and get our little sisters back!"
And with that, the ponies headed out the door and split up, setting their new plan in formation.
No sooner had they had left Featherweight's house, had Big Macintosh and Namby Pamby arrived at the front door of Cheerliee's house.
With no hesitation at all, Big Mac knocked on the door.
The door opened, revealing the moderate cerise earth pony mare in question.
"Well, hello there, Big Macintosh!" Cheerliee warmly greeted, before recognizing the scrawny looking young mare next to him "Namby Pamby, one of my best pupils! What a pleasant surprise."
She then noticed that the two ponies both had very serious looks on their faces.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, concerningly.
"Miss Cheerliee," Namby began, "We need to talk... about your new editor and chief..."
