The Long Road
Beginning
Filthy Rich couldn't help but be distracted from his work. Barnyard Bargains was always a busy place around Ponyville what with everything that it supplied and everypony needed so seeing a lot of faces in and out each day was nothing unusual; rather it was a sign of a thriving business. However it wasn't exactly common for it to be a group of young fillies going up and down the aisles. Usually the foals that came in were either with their parents and had no say in the matter, were running errands, or just stopping in to pick through the loose candy bin before popping back out.
Instead though it was four fillies scrambling about the store, carrying paper and pencils and writing things down.
His little Diamond Tiara was easy enough to recognize, the others however were a little harder to place. He easily knew one of them was Apple Bloom, the other two were classmates of his daughter, but he couldn't exactly recall their names right now.
"Hey Diamond Tiara, what're these things supposed to be?" the orange pegasus filly spoke up as she gestured over to something on one of the shelves he couldn't see from his vantage point.
"Beats me but mark it down anyway, you might need it later," Diamond Tiara replied after seeing what the mystery item was.
Over the past week Filthy had seen his daughter hanging around with these particular fillies a lot more. He didn't know why exactly but if she were making friends it was good, especially if one of them was Apple Bloom. But to see this still had him confused and questioning it. Maybe it was time to do a little investigating.
"Sweetheart?" he spoke up to get her attention as he stepped out from behind the counter. "What's going on here?"
"Hey Dad," Diamond Tiara greeted. "The Crusaders," she paused, still finding it hard to address the three as such, "asked if there was anything I could do to help them get their cutie marks. So I suggested they make an itemized list of what your store sells since they've got some store credit to use," she explained.
"This place is huge though, this is gonna take days," Scootaloo grumbled, "and just what the hay is this thing right here?" she asked and held up what he could only assume was the previous unknown item.
"That? That's a turntable bearing used for building Lazy Susans and turntables," Filthy Rich stated before turning his attention to his daughter. "Sweetheart I'm proud of you for helping our your friends from school like this."
Scootaloo had to bite back the retort that they weren't friends. Trying to be civil around her and others was hard. Even with a week's practice it was still hard to do.
However before anypony could say anything there was a loud crash at the front of the store and a terrified scream. Everyone quickly moved into the main walkway to see the front window broken out, a large rock laying on the floor and Apple Bloom huddled down by the barrels that held the up front items, shards of glass all around her and all over the floor.
"What in Tartarus!" Filthy's voice boomed as he galloped over to see what had happened. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were immediately behind them, Diamond Tiara bringing up the rear, all three of them stopping short of the visible glass shards while Filthy charged outside the door.
"Are you alright Apple Bloom?" Scootaloo asked.
"Ah think so," Apple Bloom replied as she looked up. All around her were shards of broken glass that could so easily tear up her hooves if she tried to walk over them. "Ah can't get outta here."
"Don't worry we'll think of something," Sweetie Belle reassured her.
Diamond Tiara's attention was more focused on her father as he walked back into the store. "Did you see who did it Dad?" she asked.
"No I didn't. Whoever did it was long gone by the time I got out there," Filthy huffed. However his concern for the state of his store wasn't at the front of his mind right now as he turned his sight to where Apple Bloom currently laid. "Are you hurt Apple Bloom?"
"Ah'm fine but ah can't get outta here wit' all the glass," Apple Bloom stated.
Filthy said nothing in response. Instead he took a steadying breath and began the slow and delicate process of tiphoofing his way across the hazardous area, doing his best not to step down on any shards as he made his way to where Apple Bloom rested, grateful that she was in a spot shielded from the window shrapnel.
"Easy now," he told her as he tried to stand carefully while using one of his forelegs to pick her up to protect her hooves. Once he had her secure was the more difficult process of rearing up on his hind legs to use both forelegs to carry her out, all the while trying to keep his balance and maintain the delicate dance he was engaged in. "Apple Bloom are you sure you're not cut up? You feel damp."
"Well ah...kinda got scared an'..." Apple Bloom trailed off, leaving the obvious unsaid.
"Ah," Filthy noted, "well don't worry about that. Truth be told if I'd had anymore coffee this morning you might not've been the only one," he told her and gave a weak chuckle.
Despite stepping on a number of pieces of broken glass none of them managed to injure his hooves as he finally got clear and set Apple Bloom down, groaning as he bent back over. "I'm getting stiff in my old age," he noted and reached around to rub his back. "I'm gonna call the police. Apple Bloom you can get washed up in the back. Diamond Tiara, sweetheart, you and your friends should probably leave for now until everything's taken care of," he suggested.
"Alright Dad," Diamond Tiara replied simply.
By the time Apple Bloom had gotten herself cleaned up the police had already come and taken everypony's statement and then told them it was best to leave. More specifically they said "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here" and that was about it as they left shortly after being dismissed, the incomplete item lists in tow.
"Alright you three! What exactly happened back there?" Diamond Tiara finally demanded as they walked along.
"What?" Scootaloo asked as she turned to face her. "Are you seriously accusing us of doing that?"
"To put in simple terms no. You three were in the store so it couldn't have been you. Even if I wanted to blame you three for Dad's store window getting broken, I've unfortunately been around you enough to know that you wouldn't do anything like that," Diamond Tiara finally admitted and sighed. "Apple Bloom is too honest to do something like that, and even if she wasn't she'd still be smart enough not to be standing by the window where she could've gotten hurt. Sweetie Belle is too nice to do something like permanent property damage. If she were pulling a prank I'd expect the old bucket of water over the doorway from her," she explained before finally turning her attention to Scootaloo. "You might be the type to do something like that, but you certainly didn't do it. You three all have alibis."
"Whadda you mean by that!?" Scootaloo demanded.
"It's not important. What matters is that you three aren't suspects. Right now nopony is a suspect and that's the annoying part. I don't know who would do something like this," Diamond Tiara replied and pinched the bridge of her muzzle in annoyance. "I'm still having trouble believing somebody would break his window like that. Was it an accident? Was it deliberate? Did anypony see anything?"
"I've got an idea!" Sweetie Belle finally spoke up. "There's always stories about talented pony detectives solving all kinds of crimes and mysteries. Why don't we try something like that?"
"Hey yeah! Then we can get our cutie marks in bein' detectives," Apple Bloom agreed.
"No," Diamond Tiara stated flatly and firmly. "Look you three, the police are already on this matter and they've got far more experience in gathering clues and investigating than three schoolfillies. Now out of professional courtesy I'm not going to tell anypony about Apple Bloom getting scared and wetting herself when the window broke. Out of professional courtesy can you three leave this matter to the experts so they can do the job they've been trained for?"
"...Alright," Sweetie Belle finally agreed. The other two reluctantly nodded in agreement.
"Good. The insurance company is going to want the police report for their records before they release the money so we can get a new store window without having to pay for it," Diamond Tiara told them.
With that out of the way the four of them began walking again, their current destination undetermined.
"...Your pa's real nice," Apple Bloom commented. Diamond Tiara simply nodded in agreement. "Do ya two wanna come over fer supper tonight?"
"Tonight's no good with everything going on," Diamond Tiara said simply and shook her head dismissively. "I need a chocolate shake right about now. I'm gonna go find Silver Spoon."
"Can we come?" Sweetie Belle asked hopefully.
"Not this time. I need some time away to think and hearing you three speculate about who did what isn't going to help. So let's just leave this whole thing at "see you tomorrow at school" shall we?" Diamond Tiara suggested.
"Fair enough," Apple Bloom replied and shrugged her shoulder before extending her right hoof. Diamond Tiara returned the gesture. A hoofshake was always used to conclude whatever constituted a business interaction between the two parties before they parted ways.
"I don't like this one bit," Scootaloo grumbled once they were out of earshot of each other. "Those two are using us and I know it! I just can't prove it..."
"Ah know they are," Apple Bloom admitted. "But it's something we gotta put up with fer the time bein' if we're gonna get anywhere with this plan."
"This plan stinks. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are abusing us and we're just going along with it, and for what?" Scootaloo replied.
"We're showin' 'em that we can be the bigger ponies," Apple Bloom pointed out.
"A great dress isn't made in the course of a single afternoon. It's the sum total of a great many hours of carefully orchestrated and thought out process culminating into what amounts to wearable perfection," Sweetie Belle stated. Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at her in a confused manner. "I may've been listening to Rarity a little too much..." she admitted.
"Whatever. Let's go do something that's fun for a change. I've got an idea for how we can try and earn our cutie marks," Scootaloo stated.
Not seeing anything better to do with the day the other two crusaders nodded in agreement and followed along, deciding to take a break from the usual and focus on something they were familiar with. They could always worry about Diamond Tiara and the store window later.
