There was a pizza parlor a few blocks away from the club where the party would be held. Pipsqueak had told them that it wouldn’t begin until later, then led them to the restaurant to wait. He and Diamond Tiara sat together, of course, while Sweetie Belle sunk into the plush bench on the other side of the wooden table from them.

A waiter in a funny hat plopped a steaming hot plate of pizza in front of them. Sweetie Belle grabbed a particularly cheesy piece and let it flop onto her plate. They sat next to a large plate glass window that afforded them an excellent look at Canterlot as the sun began to dip down.

The city had grown since she had visited a few years back. Construction crews were raising new buildings all over the city, most of them far less ornate than the stone and marble buildings that decorated the area around the castle. Lights twinkled on as the sky turned various shades of magenta and violet.

She picked up the slice of pizza and took a big bite, smacking the cheese and bread in her mouth while Diamond Tiara watched, mortified. She didn’t notice and just kept staring out the window toward the club. It was called the RockIt, according to Pipsqueak, and was supposed to be some big musical venue in Canterlot. It also made a natural place for music students to go hang out.

“How come you eat with your hooves?” Pipsqueak asked her.

Sweetie Belle’s turned and eyed him. “Huh?”

“You eat your pizza with your hooves.” He pointed to her horn. “You have one of those, you know.”

“Oh, that.” Sweetie Belle sighed and rubbed the base of her horn. “I can use it for music things, but trying to use spells that I’m no good at makes my head hurt, especially lately. Twilight and Rarity can do them just fine . . . but not me.”

“So you can, like, make a shield and do all the music stuff but you can’t levitate a piece of pizza?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Well, I mean, yeah . . .”

The pink filly sank back in her seat. “Wow.”

Sweetie Belle looked away while a silent moment passed between the trio. She ran a hoof through her matted pink and purple curls that had started to get far longer than she had ever kept them.

Pipsqueak coughed after a moment. “So I take it you two don’t come to Canterlot often?”

Diamond Tiara shook her head. “No, not really. My daddy likes to stay around Ponyville or Manehattan, and our family is from far away.”

“Same here,” Sweetie Belle muttered.

“Isn’t your sister dating a prince?” Pipsqueak asked.

Sweetie Belle sighed and recited, “My sister and Prince Blueblood met at the last Grand Galloping Gala and decided that if they were going to be together, it would be in Ponyville and not in Canterlot so Blueblood could prove that he’s not just royalty.”

“So she’s got him on a leash,” Diamond Tiara said.

“More or less. It’s not like I want him around all the time.”

Pipsqueak laughed. “I imagine. He’s got a reputation for being a jerk around here.”

“No, no, not like that.” Sweetie Belle tapped a hoof against her chin. “He’s more, well, he tries almost too hard to be better, you know?” She shuddered and looked back at the short, scrappy hair that made up her tail. “I only asked him to help comb my tail . . .”

Diamond Tiara laughed, looked around and saw nopony else had joined her, and shut her mouth. “So, Pipsqueak, you live around here now?” she asked. “Do you know any good places to go before we head to that party?”

Pipsqueak grinned and took a big bite of pizza. “What, you don’t like this place?”

“No, I mean, I do, but well . . .”

“We just want to stretch our legs, you know,” Sweetie Belle finished.

“Yeah, what she said.”

Pipsqueak scrunched up his lips. “Well, I guess I know somewhere that we could go. I haven’t been there in a while. Still interested?”

Diamond Tiara was up in a flash. “Sounds great!”

Pipsqueak followed while Sweetie Belle trailed after them, taking the time to approach their waiter. “Just put it on Prince Blueblood’s account,” she said, producing a card from her keytar case. The waiter took one look at it and his eyes widened. He bowed a little to her and took their plates back up without a word.

Sweetie Belle smiled to herself. He was annoying, but being close to royalty certainly had its perks.

Pipsqueak’s spot, as it had turned out, was at the top of a very large hill. Sweetie Belle’s breath came in gasps when she reached the top. Diamond Tiara were already standing at the concrete landing that topped the flight of stairs and looked out over the clearing.

It was a small park, festooned by a ring of trees and bushes. There were some wooden benches spread around a swing set and sandbox as well as other various children’s play places. The moon provided illumination to the space, for the streetlamps didn’t make it that far.

“So your special spot is a park?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Did it really have to be at the top of a hill? I mean really.”

Pipsqueak laughed. “It does if you want a little privacy.”

If he noticed how Diamond Tiara perked up after that, he didn’t show it. Instead he trotted away toward the swing set, his tail flicking behind him. Flicking and flicking and flicking . . .

“Sweetie Belle!” Diamond Tiara hissed.

The teenaged filly shook her head and threw the thoughts as far away as she could. “What?” she said.

“Don’t screw tonight up,” Diamond Tiara said. “If you mess up my time with Pipsqueak I swear to Celestia . . .”

“So you do like him. I wonder what everypony back in Ponyville would think . . .”

Diamond Tiara glared at her. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“I wouldn’t . . . for a friend.”

“But we’re not friends,” Diamond Tiara snapped.

Sweetie Belle pouted. “Well fine, but if you don’t want everypony around time to hear that you’ve turned over Pipsqueak’s new leaf, then you have to say it.” She held out a hoof. “Friends?”

Diamond Tiara took a peek at Pipsqueak, who waved to her from the swingset. “If this is for that time I told you about Rumble then . . . never mind. Friends.” She grabbed Sweetie Belle’s hoof and shook once before letting go and running after her crush.

Once she was gone, Sweetie Belle snickered to herself. Somehow, revenge years later was just as sweet. Though Rumble was long gone, her cheeks still burned when she remembered the—forged, as she later found out—love letter on her desk. And then the dress Rarity had made and how she’d stood at the tree for an hour . . .

No, Diamond Tiara may be acting all nice now, but that didn’t mean she was going to treat her like nothing had ever happened.

While the pink filly went over to try to chat up her colt toy, Sweetie Belle walked to a nearby tree and sat down under its spreading branches. The rustled softly in a night breeze that chilled Sweetie Belle even under her coat.

She did her best to ignore it and brought out her keytar case. She snapped it open and produced the sheet of paper and blank book from the library. If there was going to be a more isolated place to look into it, she wasn’t going to find it anytime soon.

As it had been before, the pages of the thick tome were blank. Sweetie Belle grimaced when holding it up to the moonlight didn’t do anything, though she wasn’t surprised. Luna, even in the times of Nightmare Moon, hadn’t been associated with black magic.

Finding her previous page was a futile effort, so she flipped to the very first page in the book. She looked down at the picture of the crystal in the middle of the page. It looked smaller than the rest, perhaps weaker in the amount of magic it would take to view.

Sweetie Belle looked again at Pipsqueak and Diamond Tiara before taking a deep breath and planting her hoof on the crystal. Immediately, black magic snapped and cracked around her hoof and left little welts at the bottom of her hoof. She hissed at the pain, but kept her eyes open.

There were a few blocks of text forming. Not sentences in paragraphs, but slogans. Three at the top of the page and one at the bottom:

PEACE IN UNDERSTANDING

BROTHERHOOD IN FREEDOM

VICTORY IN KNOWLEDGE

and

THE INFORMED CHOOSE, THE IGNORANT OBEY

Sweetie Belle eyed them for a second more before releasing her hoof from the page. For a second, though, the magic clung to her and it felt like a claw trying to pull her into the pages. It passed, however, and the book snapped shut. Sweetie Belle told herself it was the wind.

Still . . .

She thought back to those slogans. They didn’t seem like the start to a history book, but more like something out of a propaganda book from Prance or Germaneigh. Though she guessed the message sort of fit the school, but not the black magic. So what would a pony using black magic need with a book that talked about knowledge?

Sweetie Belle glanced at the book again and gulped. The black magic had hurt, but yet part of her wanted to open it again and mash her hoof onto one of the crystals. Just read and read and let the black magic flow. She shuddered. There was a part of her that wanted it to hurt.

So, instead, she shoved it back into the case as fast as she could and snapped it shut. She took a deep breath and rested her back against the reassuring bark of the tree above her. It felt so natural and cool . . . a perfect contrast.

Beside her, she spied the loose piece of paper with the song lyrics on it. Sweetie Belle picked it up and turned it over to see again what she had written, but when she did her heart stopped.

The page was blank save for a small picture of a crystal on the middle of the page.

Diamond Tiara growled under her breath on the entire walk of shame from Sweetie Belle to Pipsqueak. How could a filly like that make her feel so bad with just a simple word? Friends. Since when did that sound more like a slur when she said it? Diamond Tiara knew it, of course.

Since you started to think of her as a friend.

She shook her head to clear out one meddlesome teenager and replace it with Pipsqueak who gave her a lopsided grin when she sat on the swing next to him.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“I can’t decide if getting you two to come to a park in the middle of the night is the best or worst idea I’ve ever had,” Pipsqueak answered, pumping his legs in front of him and letting the momentum carry him back and forth.

“Well I wasn’t expecting us to come to a foal’s park,” Diamond Tiara said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that . . .”

Pipsqueak shrugged. “I just come up here for a little peace and quiet. Seeing as Canterlot is the capital, it’s at a premium.” He laughed. “That and swinging never stops being fun.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Aww, c’mon, something on your mind?” Pipsqueak asked.

Diamond Tiara shook her head. “No, it’s not that.”

“I’ve picked up on it, you know,” he said. “I’ve seen all the looks, the way you’ve been talking, and how you’ve been acting tonight.”

If she had been chewing gum, Diamond Tiara would have spit it out. “So you know, do you?”

“Well of course I do.” Pipsqueak smiled. “You’re becoming friends with Sweetie Belle!”

What?!

“Oh, so, uh, you caught onto that, did you?” Diamond Tiara stammered.

“Sorry, it was just a little obvious,” he said.

“I-I guess it was.”

Pipsqueak dug his hooves into the dirt and slowed his swinging to a stop. “I thought it was pretty crazy, considering the little rivalry you two seemed to have last time I was in Ponyville.”

“It was just us being stupid kids,” Diamond Tiara said. “I mean, I did some things . . . but I’m sure we’re both past it by now.”

“So maybe you’re trying to make it up to her now?”

Diamond Tiara looked away. “Well, it doesn’t help not knowing anypony in this school. Silver Spoon and I were friends since we were foals.”

“I understand.” Pipsqueak grinned. “Now we can all three be friends, how about that?”

“Yes, that would be . . . great,” Diamond Tiara said.

Pipsqueak laughed and started to swing again. Diamond Tiara, after a moment, joined him. Somehow, having something else to do gave her a little peace of mind. Plus, getting to swing next to Pipsqueak and have fun with him, well, that was just a step below dating, right?

Soon, despite herself, Diamond Tiara found herself having a little bit of fun too.

The trip back down the hill was much easier, and the trio were still refreshed by the time they arrived at the RockIt. Outside, it was nothing appealing. It was a squat, gray building with a few bay windows near the top and a wide set of doors down at the bottom. A few posters cluttered around said doors advertising various bands. There were so many, in fact, that it was difficult, if not impossible, to tell who was actually playing that night.

There was a line stretching away from the door and out of sight, but Pipsqueak marched past it and up to the burly stallion who was managing the whole thing. The brute snarled at him until he brought a small pass out of one pocket on his jacket.

The stallion took the pass, looked at it for a second, then stepped away to allow the three of them to pass. When they were inside and away from the guard, Diamond Tiara leaned close and asked, “What was that?”

Pipsqueak smirked. “Second year privileges.”

The interior of the RockIt wasn’t much, but then again, Sweetie Belle figured, it didn’t have to be. Just a stage at one end, a big concert floor, and some tables at the back and on a balcony above. There was a bar, though the trio steered away. Students caught drinking, as a sign informed them, faced expulsion from the CMMA.

Most of the students, then, seemed to be among the crowds or up on the balcony. Diamond Tiara and Pipsqueak began to make their way toward the crowd on the stage floor, and a look from the pink filly sent Sweetie Belle in the other direction.

She grumbled and walked over to a smaller bar, away from the main one. It was marked for the students and sold fizzy soda and milkshakes. Not the most adult thing she could have thought of, but a milkshake tasted a lot better than nothing at the moment. She paid for it with a couple bits and walked up the stairs to the balcony to maybe find somewhere to sit and enjoy the music.

The headlining band wasn’t bad, but was definitely a headliner. They were playing a little wailing song while the singer moaned into the microphone*:

I heard Ramona sing,

And I heard everything.

The speed they’re traveling,

They are the only thing.

Ramona.

Sweetie Belle walked toward the back of the balcony. Ponies cleared out of her way as she kept her plastic cup of milkshake close to herself. Her keytar case bumped a few of them, but she didn’t pay attention. Once a small group had cleared out to reveal the back wall, Sweetie Belle didn’t pay attention to much at all.

There, leaning upright against the back wall, was a pegasus. He wore a loose blue hoodie with the insignia of the Wonderbolts on it. His shaggy midnight blue mane fell to his pale aqua shoulders. He was a figure she had seen when she was younger, but not for years . . .

Rumble.

Sweetie Belle did her best to approach him without being noticed. By that, she crashed through a group of fillies, tripped, and slammed into the wall shoulder first, spilling her milkshake on her coat. She cried out as she looked down and saw the damage. She was going to be sticky for days . . .

The situation only got worse when Sweetie Belle looked up. Rumble stood over her, a worried look on his face.

“Are you okay?” he said. “I saw you trip and spill your drink . . .”

“Fine!” Sweetie Belle cried. “Just fine! Peachy! I trip all the time! I mean, uh, not all the time, but like I’m used to it. Oh, I mean—”

Rumble smiled and grabbed a few napkins from one of the tables scattered around the balcony. He offered them to Sweetie Belle. “You might need these,” he said.

Sweetie Belle did her best to smile and took them, then wiped her matted coat as fast as she could, aware of the head radiating from her face the longer she took. After a few minutes, she gave up and tried to pat down her ivory coat until it resembled something presentable.

Rumble watched the whole time, then when she was finished, asked, “Hey, you’re from Ponyville, aren’t you?”

“Yes!” Sweetie Belle said. “I mean, uh, yeah, totally. You used to live there, right?”

“Yep. Me and Thunderlane, my big brother, were there before we moved here,” he said.

“Oh, I remember him! How is Thunderlane doing?”

Rumble’s face darkened. “Dead.”

Sweetie Belle’s heart stopped for a moment. Of all the stupid things she could ask . . . “Uh, well, I’m so sorry to hear that,” she blubbered. “He was such a nice stallion and didn’t deserve whatever happened.”

“He was a criminal who was killed because he didn’t back down peacefully,” Rumble said in monotone.

“Do you want to dance with me?” Sweetie Belle blurted out.

“What?”

“I mean, well, you don’t seem that happy and I’m still drying out from the milkshake,” Sweetie Belle said.

Rumble raised an eyebrow. “And your solution is to dance with a pony you haven’t met in years?”

“Is there a way to make it not sound crazy?”

“You’re certainly not on that road.” Rumble laughed. “But hey, there’s music and I get to see somepony from back home. Sure, why not?”

Sweetie Belle’s heart kickstarted itself and thumped against her rib cage until she was afraid it would burst out. He said yes! She followed him across the balcony to the area near the edge that was ringed by a cast-iron railing.

The main band was coming on and the lights over the crowd turned down and focused on the stage. Unlike the last band, or many Sweetie Belle had seen before, the one coming on stage did not just have the usual bass-guitar-singer-drummer setup. Instead, there were many other instruments like horns and even a xylophone onstage.

The singer danced her way out, clad in a form-fitting black suit and bowler hat. She waved to the crowd as the band members picked up their instruments.

Ponies on the balcony gathered near Sweetie Belle and Rumble. The filly looked to her older dancing partner and gulped. “So I guess this is the part where we, uh, dance?”

“I assume so,” Rumble said. “I mean, we could not dance, but then that would take away the point, wouldn’t it?”

Sweetie Belle laughed and rubbed one hoof over the other. She tried not to look Rumble’s way until she realized that his hoof was stretched in front of her. She hesitated, then grabbed on to it. Just as she did, the band began to play and singer began her song.*

All the “bad boys” want some brawl, it’s tricky,

And girls enjoy, they feel so lucky.

Laughing at weeds running out the door,

Calling their mom when they lick the floor.

Look how those funky ponies talk and walk in store,

They’re lost, sad and brawny like an apple core.

Who can believe that there will be some gore,

With those wimps like I said before.

Sweetie Belle danced with Rumble, but he kept apart from her, like he almost didn’t want to touch her while they danced. She didn’t ask him about it, though, and instead answered what he wanted to know.

“So you a student of the CMMA now?” he asked.

She nodded. “Just recently, though. Diamond Tiara and I didn’t take the test until this year.”

“Oh, well, good for the two of you.” He tried to smile.

“Why, are you part of the school too? I mean, it’s a big school, so I might not have seen you,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I was, once,” Rumble said. “Not anymore. I’m surprised you are, though.”

“Why?”

It ain’t right, babe, no,

It ain’t right, no no.

Mama, don’t do that you know,

It ain’t right, yeah, boy boy.

It ain’t right, babe, no,

It ain’t right, no no.

Mama don’t do that you know,

It ain’t right, yeah, boy boy.

Rumble didn’t say. Instead, he indicated for Sweetie Belle to take his hooves so they could dance closer. She thought about refusing for approximately no time at all and just about grabbed him.

When she did, though, she felt a small jolt of energy. A little bolt of black lightning passed from her to him and his eyes met hers.

“Are you sure you belong at a school like that?” Rumble asked.

Sweetie Belle looked away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Rumbled pulled her closer until their noses were almost touching. His voice dropped low. “You’ve found your way into the black magic. Very . . . brave . . . for a girl in the CMMA. Though I don’t suppose you know what’s even happening inside yourself, do you?”

“Inside . . . me . . . ?” Sweetie Belle whispered.

“Bad boys” are not so picky,

They ride away and feel so happy.

To fight for girls they do adore,

Snorting like boars rolling on the floor.

With their leather jacket and their rocky voice,

They hit, fight, kick, wreak havoc and rejoice.

Nobody knows what they are looking for,

A kind of battle axe or maybe more.

Rumble twirled Sweetie Belle with one hoof as they kept up their dance, then pulled her close again. “Black magic is dangerous, especially for somepony like you,” he said. “It spreads and its effects are . . . not pleasant.”

Sweetie Belle gulped. She realized that she had begun to sweat, though the club was very cool. “W-What do you mean?”

“You’re in danger, Sweetie,” he said in her ear. “And being at the school won’t help.”

She let him guide her around on their hind legs. They swayed to the beat of the music and in and around the other pairs on the balcony. She wished he would stop talking.

“How do you know so much about this?” she asked.

Rumble sighed and placed one hoof on her chest. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Sweetie Belle watched as black sparks of magic flowed out of her, twirled around him, then dissipated into thin air.

“I’ve run into it before,” he said.

The song ended and they began to drift apart. Sweetie Belle found herself wanting to hang on, and she fought the urge to ask him to stay. But that would have made her sound weird, she thought.

Rumble started for the stairs.

“Wait!” Sweetie Belle called.

He stopped.

She trotted up to him. “So you’re here and know about the black magic and even dance with me . . . was this a setup?”

“Be careful where you go,” Rumble warned, “because there are more ponies than just me who can sense a powerful black magic presence. And they are usually far less kind than I am.”

With that, he disappeared with the crowd heading down the stairs. Sweetie Belle tried to run after him, but everywhere she looked were ponies from the school chatting with each other.

Some time later, Pipsqueak and Diamond Tiara caught up to her. They were smiling and laughing, and didn’t seem to notice Sweetie Belle’s expression. She kept turning Rumble’s words around in her mind. Over and over. The black magic . . . it had seemed so much worse than what she had thought. But what about the book?

“Hey, Equestria to Sweetie Belle,” Diamond Tiara said. “We sharing a taxi or not?”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Oh, yeah, sorry, got a little distracted there.”

“Just try not to in the future,” the pink filly said as she led Sweetie Belle down the street. “You don’t know what could happen.”