Diamond Tiara of The Royal Guard

Diamond Tiara paced back and forth along the side of the path. Her eyes kept flicking toward The Everfree Forest as she moved. Her body was tense, eyes narrow, tail flicking and ears twitching.

Dinky Hooves and Rumble stood nearby, watching their teammate pace. After moving past them for what must have been close to the fiftieth time, Rumble leaned in closed to Dinky and whispered in her ear. Dinky looked at him a moment, then gave a nod before turning her attention back to Diamond Tiara.

"Keep that up," Dinky called out, "and you're going to be exhausted before we even start."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Diamond Tiara snapped, glaring at the pair. "Is my being nervous about this discorded mission bothering you?" With a huff, she resumed her pacing. Rumble smirked and held up a hoof. Rolling her eyes, Dinky gave him five bits.

"Can I call you Di?" Dinky asked.

The question made Diamond Tiara stop. Once again she turned to look at the Dinky, raising an eyebrow.

"What?"

Dinky repeated, "Can I call you Di?" She shifted and continued. "Now that we're on our first mission and out of training, I figure we should relax a little, be more like friends. I also don't want to have to keep calling you by your full name, Diamond Tiara. So I figured I would call you Di, and you could call me Dinks."

"...Dinks?"

"Yeah. Short for Dinky. Sounds better than Dink. I suppose you could just call me D. That would be kind of interesting. D and Di. Or Di and D. I think I would prefer Dinks though. So, can I call you Di, or would you prefer DT?"

Diamond Tiara stared at Dinky Hooves a moment, one of her eyes twitching. With a groan, she closed her eyes and rubbed her head.

"Fine," she huffed. "Whatever. I don't care. Call me whatever you want."

"Seems a bit odd," Dinky said, "but okay. Anyway, Whatever You Want, there's nothing wrong with being nervous. In point, it can be a good thing. Might make you more attentive to what's going on around you and react faster when things go badly. You have to be careful though. If you wear yourself out before we start, you're not going to be very capable if and when you need to be."

Diamond Tiara looked at the smiling unicorn, considering the words. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to relax a little.

"I think somepony's coming," Rumble called out, pointing a hoof toward town. Dinky and Tiara turned to look.

Coming toward the three of them from Ponyville were three more ponies. Two of them were unicorns, with the one in the lead being a pale gray stallion with darker mane and tail. The one following was a yellow coated mare with pale orange mane. The third was a young, gangly looking pegasus stallion with a cream colored coat and brown mane and tail.

"Ah," the gray unicorn said as the arriving group joined Diamond Tiara, Dinky, and Rumble. "You three must be the guard escort assigned to us. I am Professor Dusty Tomes." He turned and motioned toward the yellow unicorn. "This is my assistant, Bright Ideas, and..." He turned to look at the pegasus. "Sorry, what was your name again?"

"Featherweight, sir."

"Right," Professor Tomes said with a nod. "Featherweight, a local photographer we managed to hire for the expedition."

"Nice to meet you," Dinky said, moving forward to shake hooves with the professor. "I'm Dinky Hooves. That is Rumble, and that's Diamond Tiara."

Rumble gave a small wave with one of his wings. Diamond Tiara stood stiffly, staring at the three new ponies.

"Do you have any experience in a situation like this?" she asked.

Professor Tomes smiled and let out a small chuckle.

"Well I'm no Daring Do, but I've had my share of exciting and dangerous expeditions."

Okay, Diamond Tiara thought as she relaxed a little more. If they have been in dangerous situations before, then they should know at least a few spells they can use to protect themselves. Featherweight is from here, so he grew up near The Everfree Forest same as we did. This looks like we have a better chance of making it through this alive than I originally expected.

Worst case scenario: we all die, but at least there will be some pictures of whatever ate us.

"Shall we get going, then?" Bright Idea asked.

"First, some rules," Diamond Tiara stated. "Stay close to each other, keep to the trail, listen to us, and don't touch anything in the forest. There are plants out there that are just as dangerous as any creature, if not more so. Everypony clear?"

There was a round of nods.

"Great. Let's get going then."

With that, she turned and started walking toward the entrance to The Everfree Forest. The others watched a moment before following after her. As they walked, Featherweight moved to catch up with Rumble, standing next to him.

"So, you put her in charge?" Featherweight asked.

Rumble slowed down, chewing his lower lip for a moment as he considered the question.

"I wouldn't say we put her in charge," he finally responded, "as... she declared herself in charge and neither of us really cared enough to argue with her."

The statement made Featherweight stop, eyes wide. He stood there as he let the statement sink in. As he did, the others continued to walk. With a shake of his head and a flap of his wings, he ran back up to join Rumble again.

"So, you're okay with her being in charge?" He glanced toward Diamond Tiara, then leaned in and lowered his voice. "I mean, we both went to school with her, but I was in her class and worked for her at the paper for a couple days. I know from personal experience how bad she could be."

"First, are you the same pony you were back in elementary school?" Rumble asked.

"No," Featherweight answered.

"Would you want ponies to treat you the same way they did back then?"

"Probably not."

"Second..." Rumble paused, considering a moment. He then took a deep breath.

"Dinky says that she's trying to change. You know, trying to be a better pony than she used to be. So we need to give her a chance to redeem herself and prove she's a better pony than she was back then."

He then grinned and let out a snicker.

"Besides, she already has experience bossing others around. Might as well let her put the skills to use."