//------------------------------// // Interluder VI // Story: Crushed: The Beginnings // by Silent Wing //------------------------------// The next two days weren’t to my liking, especially with the course the newspaper was taking. After a very nasty article about Twilight Sparkle, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I flew towards Sweet Apple Acres where Applejack informed me that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were in the clubhouse. After thanking her I made my way over there and knocked on the door waiting for anypony to open. “Oh, hey Wingy did you change your mind and now want to try for your journalist cutie mark too?” An excited Sweetie Bell asks me as she lets me step into the clubhouse.  “While I am here regarding the newspaper, I am not here to join you two. Seriously, what where you thinking when you created that abomination?” I reply upset, slamming the newest article of that horrible mare on the ground. “What, how did you know it’s us?” Bloom replies shocked, more because I know who Gabby Gums truly is than about what I think of their articles. “I may not be the brightest filly in class, but I am not that dumb either. You two are not only the two ponies that recently joined the newspaper but also the two that aren’t credited in any of the articles.” “Now, with that out of the way, what possessed you to write such crap?” I finish my explanation, once more repeating my question, waiting impatiently for them to answer. What they tell me isn’t what I expected, but I am not really surprised either when I learned that Diamond Tiara is blackmailing them into writing such crap. I haven’t seen the pictures she has of them, but I doubt that they are that bad. Honestly, I would rather bear the embarrassment for a while, then hurting and publicly humiliating my family and friends.  I take a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for what I am about to do. “Untill you haven’t come clean about Gabby Gums you can’t count me as your friend anymore.” I say finally before I step out of the door, holding in for a moment just inches past the threshold, and turn my head saying one more thing before leaving. “You have three days or somepony else will do it for you.” A few hours earlier at Golden Oaks Library: “Spike, can you please open the door?” I shout from where I am currently putting some books back in their proper place. When nothing happens and the knocking intensives I remember that he went to help Rarity with something, so I walk there myself. “Mum, what are you doing here, don’t you have school?” I ask in surprise by the sight of the light grey unicorn standing on the threshold to my home. “Twilight, we need to talk.”  She replies in a cold voice that reminds me of my filly days especially those days I did something very reckless.  “Okay.” I respond simply, leading her into my home which also serves as the town's public library. While she makes herself comfortable, I go to the kitchen and prepare some tea for us, somehow having this weird feeling that I will need something to calm me down. “So, why did you come here mom?” I ask her after some time, trying and failing not to sound nervous. “Do you know the Foal Free press?” “Yes, it’s the newspaper of the local school, why do you ask.” I answer surprised, more interested how she got her hooves on an edition of this gossip rag than what had been written in it. Either way, it was enough to end in the impromptu visit from her. “One of the colt’s I am privately tutoring informed me about a very interesting article in it.” As she says this she hooves me a copy of it, which is already opened to a particular page with a marked article. I read the article more than once, and I am about to get up to hunt that horrible mare who is currently spreading her lies all around Ponyville, when the door opens and a certain stallion steps in. He closes the door and walks over to me before he gives me a kiss on the cheek and sits down next to me. “Hey beautiful, how was your day.”  “It could have gone better, Eve.” I am quick to reply and return the favor before I silently give him the article I had been reading. It takes a few moments for him to read it, but the soft chuckles aren’t the response I imagined. “You know, if they would have waited a year or two, this would be true, my love.” He explains his reaction to me, driving away all the anger towards that mare. “But if you are up to it, we could start a bit earlier.” “So, you aren’t pregnant?” The mare I totally forgot asks me, her tone a bit disappointed as our tongues intertwine with each other. The blush spreading along Eve’s cheeks is really cute but I doubt that I am any better. “Excuse me mam, but who are you?” Eve asks slightly confused, sounding slightly embarrassed about being caught in such a situation with me, even if it isn’t the first time. “Eve, she is my mother.” I tell him, more focused on the here and now, than the other questions that came up since she showed me that article. For example, who is this colt she is tutoring and how did he get his hooves on something that as far as I know, is only available in Ponyville. “A pleasure to meet you miss.” He replies politely even thought the answer catches him a bit by surprise. I go back into the kitchen to make some more tea only to get the shock of my life when I come back and discover that mom is showing him the book. I know immediately that her visit just turned very embarrassing.