The meeting room was cast in an orange glow from the dim lamps that surrounded the long table. There was space enough for fifty ponies around the table in a normal meeting, but today it held only three.

Octavia sat at the head of the table in Princess Luna’s seat in her stead. Vinyl Scratch was beside her and quiet for once. Down the table, by himself, was Naught Note. The light blue stallion leaned against the glossy tabletop with one hoof under his chin. His copper eyes stared down Octavia’s violet irises.

The cellist cleared her throat. “We have dire news from Manehattan,” she said.

“Oh, I assumed you called me into this ominous meeting room to tell me what a good job I’ve been doing,” Naught said.

“This is serious!” Octavia snapped. She nodded to Vinyl. “Give him your report.”

Vinyl stood up and leaned on the oak table. “There was a large movement of dark crystal users out of the city over the weekend. Some of their more visited bureaus were empty this morning.”

“Well, where are they moving?” Naught asked.

“By all accounts from our scouts, they’re moving toward the Ponyville-slash-Canterlot area.”

Naught’s nostrils flared. “They wouldn’t dare.”

“The recovered bodies of several scouts would beg otherwise,” Octavia said. “Something has changed, and it’s enough that they would risk the journey to the heart of Equestria and pure magic for whatever it is.”

Naught thought for a moment. “We noticed that the crystal has been acting strangely.”

“Perhaps.” Octavia drummed her hoof on the table. “That is not for us to decide at the moment, however. Your assignment for the moment will be to go to the last location these . . . monsters . . . were seen and find out all you can about their movements. Your classes will be taught by a substitute until your return.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Naught asked. “I am the only teacher able to teach the combat arts, and with recent events perhaps it is time we brought them back.”

Octavia shook her head. “For the moment, we seek a quick and decisive end to this conflict before it even starts. We do not wish to involve any of the students.”

Naught nodded. “Right then, I guess I’ll be on my way.”

“May your search be quick and fruitful,” Octavia said, nodding her head.

Sweetie Belle poked at her sandwich. Lettuce and daffodils wedged between two pieces of bread didn’t look very appetizing sitting on the dirty cafeteria table. Not that she could have eaten it anyway. Her stomach was tied up in knots and all she could manage were long gulps of juice from a flask Rarity had packed her.

Diamond Tiara plopped a lunch tray across from her, snapping Sweetie Belle’s head up. The pink filly watched her for a moment then sat down. Her tray consisted of gloops of different colors. The blue one was alleged to taste different than the red, but Sweetie Belle wasn’t so sure. After her first taste of the cafeteria food, she had brought her lunch everyday.

“You look pale,” Diamond Tiara said between bites. “Well, I mean, pale-er than usual. Since you’re white. Your coat.”

“Yeah, I got it.” Sweetie Belle pushed her sandwich away. “Just nervous, I guess.”

“About the presentation?”

“Duh. We’re supposed to go up there in front of everypony and play a song we only had two days to learn, and do it perfectly while syncing our magic at the same time!” Sweetie Belle threw up her hooves. “How can you not be nervous?”

Diamond Tiara wagged a spoon at her. “Because being nervous won’t do you any good. My daddy says that before a big meeting he just thinks of everything that makes him nervous and reminds himself that it either won’t be noticed or won’t matter in ten years. It works for me too.”

“So, what, are you saying this doesn’t matter?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“You’re crazy.” Sweetie Belle thumped her head down on the table. “This is so stressful! Since when did music school have to be hard?” She groaned. “Stupid poster lied to me . . .”

Diamond Tiara watched it all, shook her head, and kept on eating. Unlike Sweetie Belle, and almost every student in the school, she didn’t have a music case with her. She had turned in her violin that morning, but had been told she’d have to make do with one of the classroom drum sets until they could get her one of her own.

She looked up halfway through her lunch to see Pipsqueak ambling toward them. They were sitting at the far end of the cafeteria, so it wasn’t hard to figure out where he was going. She waved to him and indicated for him to sit next to her.

He slammed a lunch tray down and placed his guitar case between himself and Diamond Tiara. He grinned at her and was surprised when Sweetie Belle glared in return. He looked at Diamond Tiara.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked.

“Stress!” Sweetie Belle said, her voice muffled by the table.

“She’s worried about the presentation,” Diamond Tiara explained.

Pipsqueak raised an eyebrow. “You two practiced all weekend,” he said. “You got the song down I don’t know how many times, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Worry?” Sweetie Belle raised her head up. “If we don’t do good on this, then we’ll have a bad test grade which will lead to more bad test grades and I’ll drop out of this school and have to go all the way back to Ponyville and instead of being a singer I’ll be a music teacher!” She shuddered and set her head back down. “This is so crazy!”

“Is she always like this?” Pipsqueak asked.

“You ask me like I’ve talked to her much before this,” Diamond Tiara said.

“Right . . . you two didn’t get along very well, did you?”

“We had a few . . . problems . . . when we were younger. Mostly about cutie marks.”

Pipsqueak nodded. “I remember. Are two still like that?”

Diamond Tiara shook her head and held up her hooves. “No, no, of course not! I’m much more mature now. Making fun of fillies is for, like, babies.”

“Uh huh.” Pipsqueak bit into his lunch and stared at Sweetie Belle who had started to thump her head into the table in a steady rhythm. It made an almost visible bonk sound.

“So . . .” Diamond Tiara began, “how come you’re sitting with us today? I mean, it’s not like we don’t want you to be here, it’s just that I would have thought you’d have other ponies to sit with. Not that you’re not popular, I mean—”

Pipsqueak laughed. “Most of the ponies here are wet blankets anyway. Just because we’re at a music school doesn’t mean we have to talk about music all the time.”

“Right, of course,” Diamond Tiara said.

The bell rang not long after and Sweetie Belle dragged herself from her seat and walked with Diamond Tiara out of the lunchroom and down the hall toward Naught Note’s class. The pink filly, however, kept her eyes on Pipsqueak, who trotted down toward the library for “study hall”.

Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. “You know, you don’t have to make it so obvious,” she said.

“Make what obvious?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“You know you . . . and Pipsqueak . . . together.” When Diamond Tiara just stared at her, Sweetie Belle puckered her lips and made a kissing noise.

“Oh just shut up and worry about the presentation,” Diamond Tiara growled.

Sweetie Belle edged into the classroom just as the bell rang. Diamond Tiara huffed and pushed her toward their seats toward the back. They sat at their desks and both were ready to be greeted by the usual half-profanity of Naught Note, but found . . . nothing.

It was then Sweetie Belle realized that the rest of the students were chattering among each other about their missing teacher. Then again, it wasn’t like she paid attention to the other students much anyway.

Before panic could set in on the newfound anarchy, a sharp voice rose over the crowd. “Children, chil-dren!” it called. “Quiet down, quiet down and let me explain.”

Sapphire Shores walked down the row of desks to the teacher’s desk at the bottom. She had on a snappy white dress and her aqua mane was in curls. She smiled at the gaping students as she walked. The classroom was silent while the pop star made it to the chalkboard and turned around.

“Now, I know you’re all surprised to see me,” she said, “but Naught is a gr-eat friend of mine, and I knew I just couldn’t turn this chance down. Princess Luna said I could take over the class for him until he returns from a short leave.”

The students began to smile and Sweetie Belle slumped in her seat. A sigh escaped her lips and she wiped her brow with one hoof. “Thank Celestia,” she mumbled. “Now to just relax . . .”

“You will, however, still have an assignment to complete,” Sapphire continued, to a chorus of groans. “Now pipe down, it isn’t all that bad. You’re all to do a little research into musical magic in the library and then write a song with what you’ve learned. You can write some music to go with the lyrics too, but Naught put that down as optional.”

She smiled. “So come on, let’s all head to the library for some studying!”

Sweetie Belle filed out of the room with the rest of the students. She scratched at her mane that she had started to let grow long. Write a song?

The library was a sweeping room that took up most of the back half of the school. Its domed roof extended far up toward Canterlot, which could be seen through the overhead windows. Fine mahogany bookshelves lined up in rows and were filled with pulp novels and ancient tomes alike. There was a central area with bunches of tables and couches, above that a small alcove on the second story with most of the lights turned down.

Diamond Tiara, of course, started heading there first. Sweetie Belle took one look at Sapphire Shores, then trotted after her.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“To the balcony, of course,” Diamond Tiara said.

“Why?”

She huffed. “To find Pipsqueak, duh!”

“But . . .” Sweetie Belle paused, then hurried to catch up. “How do you know he’s up there?”

“Because it’s dark up there and he’s, like, dark and brooding and stuff.”

“Since when?”

Diamond Tiara didn’t answer and instead bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and followed. Her keytar case bounced against her flank as she went. By the time they had reached the balcony, Sweetie Belle wanted to throw the thing off the top.

There were a couple more tables in the upstairs alcove, complete with their own set of short bookcases. Most of them were covered in dust and the wood had begun to warp. That wasn’t the focus of Diamond Tiara’s attention, though.

Sure enough, Pipsqueak sat at one of the tables, his leaning against one hoof while he wrote in a notebook. When he spied the two, he snapped the book closed and put on a smile.

“What are you two, ah, doing here?” he said.

“Naught Note is out for today and the sub told us to come here and do research then write a song about it,” Diamond Tiara said in one breath. “We thought we’d come and find you.”

“Yes, well, that’s just great, then,” Pipsqueak said.

“And what were you doing up here by yourself?” Sweetie Belle asked, taking the seat opposite of the colt. Diamond Tiara, meanwhile, planted herself next to Pipsqueak.

“Well, I come up here to write music,” Pipsqueak said.

“Oh, let me see!” Diamond Tiara cried. She grabbed the notebook and flipped it open, but her brow furrowed as she started to read. “You write . . . notation?”

Pipsqueak shook his head. “Not exactly; it’s more like a shortened kind. It’s called tabbing, and I write it for all of my guitar parts in the songs I think up.” He sighed. “Too bad it’s easier to come up with notes than lyrics.”

Diamond Tiara almost jumped. “Maybe we can help each other!” she said.

“Didn’t your teacher say you had to do research first?”

“Yeah, but she didn’t count on us having the help of an experienced student.” She turned to Sweetie Belle. “Isn’t that right?”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Oh, um, yeah. It is.”

“See?” Diamond Tiara said. “I told you.”

Pipsqueak sighed. “I guess it would help me to bounce ideas off of somepony else.”

He opened the notebook and picked up a pencil from the table in his mouth. He scrawled a few lines, then squinted at it. “Hey, what’s that thing dragons have instead of hooves?” he asked.

“Claws?” Sweetie Belle suggested.

“No, not that?”

Diamond Tiara sprang up. “Hands!’ she said.

“Right, yes, that’s the one,” Pipsqueak said. “Turn forever, hand in hand . . . sound good?”

“Oh, definitely,” Diamond Tiara said. “Now you can help me with my own, of course?”

“Uh, sure. What did you have in mind?”

Diamond Tiara paused. “I don’t know, but you can help me figure it out!”

Sweetie Belle tuned them out after a few minutes of the back and forth. She sat her head down on the desk and let her mane splay out in every direction. She could hear them prattle on about lyrics and sheep like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Though, in this school, she supposed it was.

Her eyes drifted over to the bookshelves in the corner of the alcove. They looked so lonely, standing all alone . . . like castaways from the expanse downstairs. Like they’d been told to leave by their sister and only got to stay in the corner because their parents spoke to their sister. Or maybe it was something else entirely. Stupid bookshelves.

“That’s the old magic section,” Pipsqueak said, throwing Sweetie Belle out of her reverie.

“What do you mean, ‘old magic?’” Sweetie Belle asked.

Pipsqueak shrugged. “That’s what they told me.”

“Hey, maybe you could write a song,” Diamond Tiara said, though her smile belied the look she gave Sweetie Belle. The look of get out!

Sweetie Belle took the hint and dragged herself over from table to a little space between the squat shelves. Her hooves kicked up dust where she walked. She may have been the first pony to walk among these shelves since they were installed. For a moment, a swell of adventure blossomed in her chest and she smiled. Cutie Mark Crusaders Book Adventurers!

Then her eyes fell on a book as dark as night and her heart stopped a little bit. It was like she was drawn to it . . . like it was a very precious thing. She found herself in front of the bookshelf it rested on—no, allowed itself to be held up by—and then just as quickly it was in her hooves.

She turned the cover and it opened without a sound. The inside page was blank. She flipped it over to find only a picture of a black crystal. There was one on every page and not much else.

Sweetie Belle kept flipping the pages until she got to the end. Blank! But how could that be? She could feel the power emanating from it. Like she held a beating heart in her hooves. She looked down again at the crystal drawn on every page and got an idea.

Looking left and right, Sweetie Belle pressed her hoof to one of the crystals. Like a switch had been pulled, magic sparks flowed through her and erupted inside her body like a lightning storm set off in her head. She fought to keep her eyes open, but was able to see letters and words form on the page her hoof was on.

Before she could start to read it, though, the magic proved too much for her. She yanked her hoof away and the feelings subsided. Even after, though, it felt like she could hear a ringing in her head . . . like a record scratching over and over.

The thought of returning the book back to its shelf didn’t even occur to her. She clutched the book to her chest and walked back over to the table where Diamond Tiara and Pipsqueak were in a heated conversation. Diamond Tiara was scribbling her pencil across a page from Pipsqueak’s notebook while the colt tried to counsel her. It wasn’t working, as far as Sweetie Belle could tell.

They both looked up when she arrived. Diamond Tiara stared at the book. “Where’d you get that?” she asked.

“And what’s with your eyes?” Pipsqueak added.

Sweetie Belle took a step back and blinked a few times, then shook her head. “I got the book from over at the bookshelves. I thought it might help me write a song. And what do you mean my eyes?”

Pipsqueak stared at her again, then smiled. “Nope, nothing. Sorry, for a second there, well, I thought I saw something.”

“Right.” Diamond Tiara sniffed. “Anyway, Sweetie Belle, we managed to make some progress on lyrics and wanted to hear if you like them.”

“What do you mean we?” Pipsqueak began, but was silenced with a hoof to the mouth.

Sweetie Belle plopped back down in her chair. “Sure, go ahead.”

Diamond Tiara cleared her throat. “Hello again, friend of a friend, I knew you when . . . our common goal was waiting for the world to end.”

“Is that it?”

“It’s a work in progress,” Diamond Tiara huffed. “It takes time to make true art, you know.”

“Well at least you have something.” Sweetie Belle looked down at the blank desk in front of her. “Class is nearly over and I haven’t even started yet.”

“What about that book?”

“It can help me, I think . . . but not right now.”

Pipsqueak ripped a page out of the notebook and slid it to her with a smile. “Here, just try something,” he said. “It can be anything at all. This is supposed to be fun, you know.”

Sweetie Belle smiled a little and levitated a spare pencil over to herself. She looked down at the blank page and groaned. Sure, it was supposed to be fun, but blank pages were the worst. Still, with Pipsqueak watching . . .

She placed the pencil to the paper and started writing. At first, it was hard to think, but then her thoughts just seemed to mesh together. Words exploded out of the nothingness of her mind with bursts of color and light that just screamed for her to use. A story, in an abstract way, found its way onto the paper.

It was like the words began to find themselves and she was only serving as their caretaker until they were on the page. The ringing in her ears returned.

When she stopped writing for a moment and looked down at the paper, her heart skipped a beat. She had almost written an entire song in, what, minutes? How was that even possible?

The ringing was gone and her mind felt just as heavy as ever. She stared at the words on the page and read them to herself. The faster we’re falling . . . we’re stopping and stalling . . . we’re running in circles again.

“You have something?” Pipsqueak asked.

Diamond Tiara chimed in, “Already?”

“No, it’s really not—”

“And what are you three doing up here?” Sapphire Shores’ voice carried over the three of them like a wave. They all spun toward the pop star standing at the top of the stairs. She was glaring at them.

“We were just studying,” Diamond Tiara said. “Not doing anything bad, promise.”

“I’m under strict orders from Princess Luna to not let anypony up here,” Sapphire said. “You three will have to come down with the other students. Come on, let’s move it!”

Sweetie Belle jammed the book and paper into her keytar case while Diamond Tiara and Pipsqueak passed in front of her. She brought up the rear while they walked back toward the other students.

One last time, she looked back at the bookshelves, sitting by themselves.

The bell rang and students all over the school ran out of class to escape and head home. Sweetie Belle walked behind Diamond Tiara and Pipsqueak as they wound their way out the school and onto the landing pad. The pair didn’t seem to stop talking now, but Sweetie Belle was more than willing to let them be. Her thoughts were consumed with a desire to open the book, like an itch she couldn’t scratch. Or, rather, scratch in only one way . . .

“So do you want to?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Huh? What?”

The pink filly sighed. “I knew you weren’t listening. Pipsqueak asked us if we wanted to come to a party for students going on tonight in Canterlot.”

“He invited us?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Pipsqueak nodded. “I thought you two might like to see more of the student body than just on the campus. We can be a lot more exciting away from school, you know.”

Sweetie Belle already knew what Rarity and her parents would say. Absolutely not! How could you even think of going to a party with two ponies you barely know?

“So what’ll it be?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”

Sweetie Belle smiled. “Count me in.”