Silver ran through the streets of Ponyville panting, her breath hot from exertion after running from Sweet Apple Acres with the Golden Oaks Library as her goal. Ponies screamed and made a path when she shouted for them to move out of her way, yelping again when a mossy timberwolf passed in Silver’s wake.
“Almost… there. Just another turn and two blocks,” Silver said to herself without looking back. She grit her teeth and clenched her jaw, her breathing organized chaos as she panted out, gasped in, and ignored the burning in her lungs. Her legs were miserable, and she’d forgotten about them through the aching pain of her joints.
“Ha, eat tail hair,” Diamond Tiara announced herself from a turn just ahead of Silver Spoon. Silver growled and her head started to bob in time with her pace as she made the race personal. Silver could practically taste the cherry and raspberry shampoo Diamond used on her tail, she was so close.
Silver spoke between gasps of air, “Shut… up. I’ll, like… bite your… tail off.”
Diamond tittered from the lead. “Ooo, kinky filly. I’ll tell Snickers you’re off the menu and he can go straight to dessert.” Diamond swayed her tail like she was trying to catch the attention of a colt on the playground getting a growl from Silver Spoon.
Snorelax barked from behind Silver Spoon and rushed to match her speed, siding with the grey filly and looking over with green irises. Lime green, the same as Snickers’s eyes. Silver Spoon thought.
Finding a fourth wind, Silver could now read the words on the library’s signage and put on a final burst of speed, matching Diamond Tiara. Diamond looked to her side and winked her eye, then arced left. Silver Spoon didn’t realize until one second after it became too late to change her direction that she was going to impact the library at full speed.
She was shoved from the left at the last instant and sent galloping to a canter, able to slow to a stop at the cost of Snorelaxe's body being shattered against the library. Silver trotted back to the site the pup had struck and collapsed, inhaling dust and dry air from the well-packed road that still lingered in her wake.
She whined and reached a foreleg to the reforming sticks. “Laxie, get help. I think I’m dying,” she coughed weakly and let her head fall into the grass.
“What a drama queen,” Diamond said, Spike beside her with a cup of water in his hand. “Give her some water and help me drag her into the library, she has something to tell Twilight because I can’t be trusted with such important information.”
“Not… gonna make… it. Tell Snickers, I love him. He can have my Lunar Moon doll… to remember me by.”
Spike giggled. “Yeah, Twilight gets the same way when she has to run anywhere. That mare really needs to get out more,” Spike said to himself. He carefully lifted Silver’s head and helped her drink some water, most of which ran down her cheek and into the grass. “And what’s with Pup’s, er, Snorelax’s name? I thought it was final yesterday.”
“Well, Snorelax is a bit of a mouthful, so we all decided that for short we’d call her Laxie. It doesn’t sound like laxative and it sounds smoother in both our language and Snickers’. It’s cute, too,” Diamond finished patting the nearly reformed wolf on the head. “Who’s a good girl? Saving Silver’s life like that? Who’s a good girl? Who’s a good puppy? You are, that’s who!”
Laxie’s tail cracked the air like a whip as it swung side to side and Laxie rolled to her back and gladly accepted the belly rubs against her still bare-wood underbelly.
“Alright, I think she can stand now,” Spike said, moving to Silver’s side. Silver rocked and pushed herself to standing, showing Spike and Diamond her rough exterior. “Oh, she’s got a lather going… I’ll get some soup I have for just this happening. Hurry up and come inside, Silver, before you get leg cramps.”
Silver nodded her head, weakly moving with Diamond as a crutch. Silver’s head, while spinning and dizzy from a poor diet, lack of exercise, and overconfidence; still managed to wonder how Diamond was in such better shape, when they both did almost everything together, which included their exercise, or lack thereof.
Several minutes later, Silver Spoon lay on a cushion in the loft; an empty bowl of soup by her head as she dozed quietly. Diamond was reluctantly massaging Silver’s hind legs and Twilight was using her magic to massage the filly’s forelegs. “So,” Twilight started, “why was it so important you get here that Silver would risk her health?”
Diamond Tiara rolled her hooves, taking a short rest from massaging before starting again. “Well, Snickers said there was a breakthrough idea he had about the toy idea you both had.” Silver moaned weakly and her tail moved slightly. “I’m sorry, Silver Spoon, but you’re out of it and I’m just gonna get this message to her.
“I’ll owe you one later, okay?” The two waited for a response, but Silver had returned to a state of exhaustion, and was actually enjoying being pampered a bit by the two as well.
Twilight’s ears moved at the sound of claws walking up the stairs. “So, Snickers has an idea about the toy line? What has he told you about our ideas, so far?”
Diamond snortled. “I just found out about it, but it sounds like something mares everywhere will pay top bits for.”
Twilight cocked her head, then blushed brightly. “No, it’s n-nothing like that. There’s already a huge industry related to that, and I don’t really want to get in on that line of work. No, the toys we’re planning are enchanted to work with electricity charged batteries that power magical enchantments.
“The first model is going to be of a pony about the size of two hooves and with the help of three other ponies, we’re going to make a living clockwork toy! Oh, it’ll be so exciting to see something from his universe in ours, and the possibilities are endless once the toy becomes popular.
“I can use the money to create new jobs, new uses for alternating current energy; cross thaumatic-electric power sources will be the future and maybe everypony, someday, can have such power sources in their own homes, carts, wagons, and inside themselves. Think of a… Diamond Tiara, are you sleeping?”
Diamond sat up straight. “No, Miss Cheerilee, I wasn’t.”
Twilight humphed. “Well, Spike cares about the future of power and technology, don’t you, Spike?” Twilight looked to the stairs in time to see the end of Spike’s tail slipping out of sight. A second later, Spike impacted the main room’s floor.
“I’m okay,” he said weakly.
“Spike, what have I told you about running from my lectures?” Twilight asked loudly, then looked at Diamond Tiara. “Baby dragons can be so difficult sometimes,” she said with a smile.
Diamond scoffed. “Well, maybe if I had one, I’d understand. I’ll ask daddy to get me one for the Running of the Leaves, it’s my least favorite holiday. Daddy says it’s a pointless holiday with ponies just running around to waste time that could be used being productive. Instead, he gives me presents for how good I’ve been,” she said and flounced her mane.
“So, how much unrefined coal do you get then?” Twilight snarked back.
Silver Spoon giggled and lifted her head. “Good one, Miss Twilight.”
Diamond stuck her tongue out at Twilight and crossed her forelegs over her chest with a dismissive sniff and looked away.
Twilight smirked. “Thank you. How do you feel?”
“Like I’m not gonna lose my legs from cramps. Thank you for helping rub them, I’ve never run so much or so far in my life.”
“Over a colt, of all reasons,” Diamond Tiara said scornfully to Silver Spoon. “If you had a good reason, you wouldn’t have run all the way here in the first place.”
Silver narrowed her eyes. “And, as I recall, you were just as excited to get here to tell Miss Twilight, so you challenged me to a race.”
Diamond looked away from her friend again. “I wasn’t really excited, I was just teasing you and wanted to show you how silly you were being. It had nothing to do with who or what the message was.”
“Ugh, whatever. You’re just jealous he likes me more than you,” Silver teased with a little sing-song to her voice.
“He does not! Uh, matter to me like that,” Diamond tried to cover her slip, “because I don’t like colts that way.”
Silver giggled. “I knew it! You like Snickers. You like Snickers! Snickers and Diamond sitting with me in a tree...”
“I do not,” Diamond defended herself while standing up, “stop singing that dumb song.”
“...k-i-s-s-i-n-g.”
Both were surrounded by Twilight’s magic and silenced. “Girls, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I don’t have time for silly filly games. Is there anything else you need from me?” Both fillies shook their heads. “Okay then, you may see yourselves out.” Both fillies felt a spell wash over them, unknowing of what it was, before they were released.
They left the library side by side, refreshed and in good spirits as they made their way back to the farm to meet the CmC and help plan another cutie mark attempt.
---
Scootaloo adjusted the helmet she wore and reared onto her hind legs with the help of a special brace that attached to her thighs with bungee cords to offset the balance difference. She clapped her padded hooves together and grinned confidently. “Ready to go down on me?”
Several adults snickered and Snickers facehoofed. Diamond snerked. “Are you sure that’s what you meant?”
Scootaloo grinned at Diamond. “Yeah, she’s gonna go down because I’m gonna knock her down; so she’s going down on me.”
“Scootaloo, stop talking,” Silver Spoon snapped from across the boxing ring, “and get ready to go down on me.”
Ponies were laughing now, Snickers was blushing at the filly he liked talking to the filly that liked him, talking about going down on one another without knowing what they were implying through double entendre.
“Don’t listen ta them, Scootaloo, kick her flank!” Apple Bloom cheered.
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle cheered, “it’s okay if you tie, because you can go down on each other then.”
Diamond Tiara, along with most of the other members of the gym, lost it and gave in to the humor while Silver Spoon and Scootaloo squared off. They took hesitant two legged steps closer and closer, then Silver threw the first punch and spun on a hoof, landing flat on the floor with Scootaloo following, landing on top of her.
Snickers rushed into the ring and pulled a short quick-release rope on Scootaloo’s standing device and helped her to her hooves before doing the same to Silver Spoon.
“Let’s just go,” he said, leaving the ring without listening to the fillies, not that he could hear over the laughter in the gym, which he’d avoid for a while after the failed mark attempt.
…
“Hey, I thought boxing was a good idea,” Scootaloo said, rearing and shadow boxing.
“Yeah, until you started talking about going down on each other,” Diamond snickered and didn’t hide it.
Scootaloo didn’t find it funny. “Well, if Snickers, or you, Diamond Tiara, told us what it meant, maybe I could have gotten my mark in boxing, but you just let those adult ponies laugh at us until we left.”
“The fact they were laughing didn’t matter. You just weren’t gonna do it, and we’ll have to go back to try again later.”
“Or,” Scootaloo said, leaning against Snickers, “we can make our own ring and try to get boxing marks.”
Snickers leaned into Scootaloo. “I dunno, we don’t have gloves, or floor padding, or an adult to watch us, or--”
“Whatever, when has any of that stopped us before, right girls?” Scootaloo said proudly.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle tried to make their smiles seem genuine. “Well, ya see, Scootaloo… Ah dunno about boxin’ in the first place. Ah mean, Ah’m an earth pony and might hurt ya more than Silver Spoon would, on account ‘a that Ah work on the farm doing chores.”
Silver nodded. “Yeah, she might send you to the hospital. You don’t want that, do you?”
“They have good points.” Sweetie Belle added. “Maybe you shouldn’t have the next turn, since boxing was your idea this time. It’s Apple Bloom’s turn, anyway.”
Apple Bloom smirked. “Oh yeah, well… Ah guess we haven’t tried hopscotch.”
“Can it be extreme hopscotch?” Scootaloo asked.
“How in tarnation can ya make hopscotch extreme?”
“Simple,” Scootaloo hopped into the air a few inches and floated down, “flaming rings, a square full of nails, itching powder on the odd numbers and burning powder every other even, and the other evens, we can have a choice of lava or fire! Extreme hopscotch,” Scootaloo finished with pronking in a line, pretending to step on something and shaking her forehoof.
The others looked at Scootaloo like the crazy filly she was being.
“Anyway, where can we even draw it?” Diamond Tiara asked. “You do know every street is dirt, and the ones that aren’t dirt are grassy or gravel.”
Apple Bloom rocked her head in thought, then said, “We can draw it inside.”
“Where, in the Clubhouse?” Diamond scoffed. “You can’t get more than six squared in there, bumpkin.”
Snickers moved between the fillies before the arguing could start and looked at Diamond Tiara, who was the same height as he was. “Apologize, now.”
Diamond harrumphed, and looked away again. “I don’t have to listen to you. You’re just a dumb colt that thinks he’s a stallion. You can’t make me do anything,” she said indignantly.
“Really?” Snickers asked sardonically. “C’mon, girls; let’s get some fruit at the market, I’m buying. Diamond, you can go home since you’re gonna be a bitch about stuff.”
Diamond raised a forehoof, ready to slap Snickers, then held herself and lowered her foreleg. “Fine… I’m sorry I called you a mean word, Apple Bloom.” Diamond didn’t show any remorse and said the words flatly.
Apple Bloom nodded. “Ah’m fine with it, we all know ya have yer moments. Doesn’t mean we ain’t friendly still.”
“Alright, enough of the mushy stuff. Let’s go make an extreme hopscotch ring and box while hopping between squares.”
“No, Scootaloo,” Silver Spoon said. “We’re going to try something less crazy this time. I let you talk me into boxing because I wanted to give it a shot. Instead I had to stand on my hind legs like a weirdo and fell onto my side hard enough to knock the breath out of me, and that was before you landed on me.”
“Well, hopscotch is a dumb cutie mark. What would we do with it, hop around like bunnies?” Scootaloo said, waving her forelegs for emphasis. “At least making it exciting would give us something we can live with for the rest of our lives. Something like lion tamers that teach the lions how to hop, or something. And there’d be flaming rings, and nails, and it’d be awesome.”
Snickers and Diamond Tiara groaned. “This is about Rainbow Dash again, isn’t it?” Snickers asked.
“Yeah, she’s my big sister and if I can be as awesome as her, then she’ll help teach me how to fly better.”
“That’s not how it works,” Sweetie Belle said.
Apple Bloom ignored the others. “Well, not that this isn’t as good as a bowl of applesauce, but Ah’m stickin’ ta my idea.”
…
Applejack sighed and looked at the colt and three fillies sitting in a wash tub outside her farmhouse, scrubbing one another with firm bristle brushes and lots of soap. “Girls, Snickers, can ya explain ta me how ya got tree sap all over ya?”
Sweetie Belle spoke up, “We were playing hopscotch and went under a tree that was collecting sap in a bucket. Scootaloo,” the others looked at the most covered filly, “wanted to make it an extreme jump over the branch in our way and knocked the bucket over onto herself.”
Apple Bloom picked up the story. “Then, her eyes bein’ covered with her mane and all slippery and sticky, walked into another bucket that fell on her head, but right side up.”
“She was off balance and stumbled back toward us, then tripped and the bucket spilled on us,” Snickers finished.
“It wasn’t as cool as I thought it’d be, but I think we almost got our marks in sap collecting,” Scootaloo said, hopefully.
“Ah don’t think a bucket ‘a sap is what I want on my flank, Scoots,” Apple Bloom stated, then pressed harder from her frustration between Scootaloo’s wings, getting a pained nicker from her.
Scootaloo looked back at Apple Bloom. “Not so rough, Apple Bloom, my fur’s supposed to stay on, not come off.”
“Oh, quit yer bellyachin’; Ah’m not takin’ any fur off… the sap is.” Apple Bloom replied.
Scootaloo turned to look at her back and noticed her coat a bit thinner as the sap was brushed away. “Great, I bet two bits that Diamond Tiara teases me for being bald back there. At least it isn’t for my flanks anymore.”
Snickers nodded. “Yeah, I’d hate to kick her ass again.”
Applejack snorted. “Ah don’t like foals cussin’, colts especially. Look here so Ah can give yer muzzle a little lesson in what not ta say.”
“No! Ya can’t,” Apple Bloom turned around to glare at her sister. “He’s precious and shouldn’t be hurt like that. Ah gave him a bloody nose doin’ that, and Ah felt bad fer doin’ it.”
Snickers stopped scrubbing Sweetie Belle and covered his muzzle. “Please don’t…”
Applejack huffed. “Fine, Ah guess Ah should treat ya with more respect. Just do everypony the same, and don’t let me hear ya cussin’ again.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Snickers said with a salute. His eyes widened and he looked at the others in the tub. “Language! I can speak another one, so if I teach you some, then maybe we can get our marks in language speaking.”
The others shared a nod, a grin, then turned to face one another and brought their hooves together in a high-hoof. “cutie mark Crusaders, language experts, yeah!”