Chapter Four – The Million Dollar Question

"And he just, disappeared?" Applebloom asked. Scootaloo nodded, clearly telling the truth.

"I just don't see how that's possible." Sweetie Belle said. "Ponies don't just disappear like that."

The trio pondered this fact as they trudged onward to the schoolhouse. The early morning light of Celestia's sun shone in their eyes as they walked down the familiar path.

"Well at least we'll be able to ask him to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders today." Applebloom said, shielding her eyes with her hoof.

"Yeah." Sweetie Belle said. Applebloom thought she detected a note of dread in her friend's voice.

"Was that all Scootaloo?" Applebloom asked. The orange filly nodded her head.

"After he left I just went inside and tried to fix my scooter. Without much success." Scootaloo's lack of an actual scooter affirmed that statement. "By the way, can I copy your math homework?" She added.

Both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom groaned, used to this kind of behavior by now.

"Really Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked, though she knew the answer. After a little bit of persuading, Scootaloo managed to coax Sweetie into giving up the answers.

The schoolhouse came into view at last, and a bell rang out from inside. The trio ran forward, realizing they would soon be late. They managed to make it inside before class had begun. Applebloom saw that Obsidian Glass had already arrived and was sitting in the same desk as yesterday.

Cheerilee told the rest of the class to get seated. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle took their seats toward the back of the class, while Applebloom sat in her desk right beside the mysterious colt. He nodded, acknowledging her existence, but didn't say anything to her.

"Class, today's lesson is on Equestrian history…" Cheerilee began. Applebloom tried to pay attention to her, but felt her mind drift. She formulated a plan in her mind to ask Glass to join the Crusaders, playing out the scenario in her head dozens of times. She kept exchanging anxious glances at the clock every twenty minutes, only to learn that about five minutes had passed overall. The yellow filly eagerly waited for recess as the day's lesson droned on, switching eventually to language, then science, and then finally math.

Halfway through the lesson, a piece of paper landed on Applebloom's desk. Checking the direction of the thrower, Applebloom saw that it was Diamond Tiara, who was trying hard not to laugh. Unfolding the paper, Applebloom saw that it was blank and she groaned inwardly. At least once a week Diamond Tiara pulled the same joke that she had been using on Applebloom since the beginning of the year. It was tiresome to say the least.

"Look familiar, Applebloom?" Diamond whispered at her. She could think of no reply. As it turned out, she didn't need to.

"Yeah," Glass whispered, having overheard the conversation. "It looks like your IQ score." Applebloom choked back a laugh, while Diamond Tiara's cheeks burned with anger. The pink filly turned back to her work, almost unable to contain her outrage. Applebloom turned to thank Glass, but he had already redirected his attention to the board, pretending the encounter had not happened.

As her magenta teacher finished her lesson on geometry, Applebloom almost prematurely jumped out of her seat. The bell rang and the class full of ponies rushed out to enjoy recess. In the havoc, Applebloom lost sight of Glass.

Once outside, she regrouped with Sweetie and Scootaloo. "Didya see where he went?" She asked them. Both fillies shook their heads. "Darn. How does he keep disappearing on us?" Neither had an answer for her, so they began scouring the playground.

It seemed like a futile effort before too long. Glass wasn't near the school, on any of the playground equipment, or socializing with anypony. Applebloom asked around, but Featherweight hadn't seen him, and Snips and Snails simultaneously pointed her in opposite directions before laughing at their own joke.

Sweetie Belle seemed to put little to know effort into the search. Merely glancing in a direction or two before she gave up and moved on. That was very unlike her, Applebloom decided. Normally her purple-haired friend was ecstatic about things like this.

Finally they caught a break when Scootaloo came running up declaring she had found him. Making a mental note to talk to Sweetie Belle later, Applebloom ran to where Scootaloo led them.

Towards the fringe of the schoolyard – right before the forest area began – there was a large oak tree. Scootaloo was apparently leading the Crusaders in that direction. Applebloom assumed that Glass was sitting on one side of the giant oak tree, which is why they hadn't found him earlier.

Scootaloo suddenly stopped before rounding the tree trunk, which gave Applebloom little time to stop before crashing into her orange friend. She did however, manage to stop. Sweetie Belle on the other hoof, hadn't realized that her friends had ceased running, and crashed into Applebloom. The yellow filly promptly tumbled into Scootaloo, and all three fell onto the ground.

"Sorry." Sweetie Belle said, disentangling herself from the pile.

"It's okay." Applebloom said, getting up. She looked around. "Hey Scootaloo, didn't you say you found Glass?" The yellow filly asked.

Scootaloo stood. "Yeah I did." Then she pointed up. Craning her neck back, Applebloom looked up the massive tree. There she saw a white pony lying supine on a branch. It was Glass.

"What the…" Sweetie Belle said. Applebloom merely stood dumbstruck. Somehow Glass had ascended the gap between the ground and the lowest branch on the tree, which was twenty feet up.

Applebloom began to form a question. "So what do we ––"

"Hey Glass!" Scootaloo suddenly screamed. Applebloom flinched with the sudden fear that Glass would fall out of the tree in shock. He didn't. As best she could tell, he stretched out his hooves as if waking from a nap, and rolled over to look down at them.

"Hi Scootaloo." He said. "Ya need something?"

"Yah! My friends and I wanted to ask you a question." Wordlessly, the dark-haired colt jumped off the tree limb. Applebloom and Scootaloo both gasped as he sailed to the ground. Sweetie Belle watched in silence, her eyes wide. Just before he hit the ground, Glass curled up into a ball, and managed a safe tuck and roll. He stood up and brushed himself off, completely unharmed.

"Are you crazy?" Applebloom screamed at him. "You could have killed yourself!"

"I wouldn't have gotten up there if I couldn't get myself down again. Now if that was the question you were referring to…"

"No, that wasn't it." Scootaloo said. Glass shrugged, then he looked at Sweetie.

"Who exactly are you?" He asked.

"Uh… Sweetie Belle." She said sort of surprised, as if she didn't expect Glass to even look at her.

"Okay. Now the question?" Obsidian Glass said.

"Oh right." Scootaloo remembered. "Would you like to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Glass blinked inquisitively. Applebloom decided to elaborate for him.

"We're a club," She said. "Dedicated to finding our Cutie Marks. We go on adventures to discover our destinies and find our special talents."

"So what do you say? You wanna join?" Scootaloo asked eagerly. Faintly, Applebloom heard Sweetie Belle sigh.

Glass looked as if he was pondering the offer. A moment passed that felt like an hour to Applebloom. Then he spoke. "No thanks."

The Crusaders each reacted differently. Applebloom was sure she looked like a fish thrown out of water. Scootaloo looked something like she did when her scooter broke. And Sweetie Belle looked… relieved?

Without even giving the Crusaders a moment to digest what he'd said, Glass gave them a friendly smile and said, "Goodbye." Then he turned and trotted off just as the bell to end recess rang.

Stunned and a little downtrodden, Applebloom walked back to school slowly, her friends right behind her.

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Whew! I barely got this one done before vacation. More or less I've had to do this fanfic in my free time (of which there is none), and at the same time as my other one. So yeah, the well of creativity is starting to run a little dry. Don't worry though, I'll work on this story no matter what.

In Bronyhood,

Fire Gazer the Alchemist