With Pipsqueak going to find Dinky and with Button Mash asking around town hall to see if there was anypony suspicious there, Rumble really had nothing he could do. So instead of doing something productive he decided to go against all logic and try getting though Sweetie Belle to talk to Scootaloo. He knew this would probably fail badly, he knew that he would probably get nowhere even if he succeeded, and he didn’t care. The pegasus colt wanted to at least try and hope that maybe he was lucky that day.
So Rumble flew over to Sweetie Belle’s white riverside house with the waterwheel at the side and landed right in front of it. As soon as he landed he looked over at the wooden door and took a deep breath. Then, with confidence in his eyes, Rumble walked up to the door, lifted his right forehoof, and knocked on the door.
After a few seconds of waiting, the door opened up revealing Sweetie Belle on the other side. Rumble opened his mouth to talk to her, but before he could even get a word out Sweetie Belle slammed the door in his face. The impact of the door caused Rumble to stumble backwards a few feet.
“Well that went well,” Rumble said. “I was kinda hoping that I would at least be given the chance to explain myself, but I apparently can’t have that. Well…maybe I can try again?”
Rumble walked over to the door and once again knocked on it. Sweetie Belle one again opened up the door only this time she walked outside of the door before closing it. She gave Rumble a furious look, one that could possibly rival Fluttershy’s stare, which caused Rumble to take a few steps back.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” Sweetie Belle asked coldly.
“I’m here to see Scootaloo,” Rumble said without flinching at all through Sweetie Belle’s gaze.
“Why? So you can rub in how great your new fillyfriend is?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I don’t think so. You’re going to leave my house now, and if I don’t see you again, it’ll be too soon.”
“Silver Spoon is not my fillyfriend!” Rumble said.
“Which is why you kissed her,” Sweetie Belle pointed out. “You can go now.”
“Listen, she isn’t my fillyfriend!” Rumble repeated. “I don’t have any feelings for her.”
“Then explain what I saw,” Sweetie Belle demanded. “Because to me, it looked like you were just standing there letting that filly get in your face without bothering to try and stop her. And I saw you look at both of us, while you were doing that. If you weren’t intentionally hurting my friend, then what were you doing?”
“I couldn’t do anything!” Rumble said. “I was stuck there, completely still! I couldn’t move if I wanted to. I couldn’t push Silver Spoon away, and I couldn’t go away. I just wanted to ask her where Scootaloo was, since I was told she was in town hall, but Silver Spoon started flirting with me and I wasn’t able to do a thing about it.”
“And do you know why?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Last I remembered you don’t have a habit of getting sudden paralysis out of nowhere. And I doubt a medical condition like that would suddenly appear. So can you explain why you weren’t able to move? Because if you don’t, I can sure think of one.”
“Well…I’m not completely sure,” Rumble admitted. “I…we think that a unicorn might have used a spell on me or something, which stopped me from being able to move or talk.”
“A unicorn?” Sweetie Belle asked, disbelief well in her voice.
“Y-yeah,” Rumble said his voice becoming nervous at her disbelief. “A…unicorn.”
“Mm hmm. And you do know a unicorn is standing right in front of you now, right?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Rumble looked at Sweetie Belle’s horn. “Yeah…I know,” he said.
“Good. So then you know that I know how impossible what you said is,” Sweetie Belle said. “Whenever a unicorn uses magic they give off a magical aura, around their horn and around whatever they are using magic on. If you were being held down by a unicorn everybody around would see a magical aura. We would all know.”
So then…how was I stuck? Rumble questioned. High Score thought that it was possibly a unicorn that did it.
“Is it possible for a unicorn to use a spell without any aura showing?” Rumble asked.
“Not that I know of,” Sweetie Belle told him as bluntly as possible. “So your ‘unicorn’ excuse falls flat now doesn’t it?” Sweetie Belle huffed. “Seriously Rumble, can’t you at least try and give a good excuse? Instead of a halfhearted one? A unicorn did it? Yeah right.”
“Rumble you are horrible,” Sweetie Belle continued. “Not only did you cheat on Scootaloo, but you also had the audacity to make up a stupid excuse, that I can tell you didn’t even fully think out yourself! Let me guess, Pipsqueak told you that excuse? Maybe the colt should have paid more attention when he was dating me.”
“Sweetie Belle I’m not lying,” Rumble said.
“You can leave now,” Sweetie Belle said as she turned around.
“But wait!” Rumble called out.
Sweetie Belle looked back at Rumble, her horn glowed, she opened her mouth wide, and an earsplitting sound resounded around the area. The high pitch of the sound sent Rumble to the ground with his forehooves doing their best to cover his ears, completely immobile because of the sound. After a few seconds Sweetie Belle decided to give the poor colt a break and stopped the sound.
After giving Rumble an annoyed look, Sweetie Belle walked into the house and once again slammed the door behind her. She wanted to grunt in an annoyed tone at Rumble’s presumptuous behavior but she had better things to do then let him bother her. Like go back upstairs and check on Scootaloo, since she probably heard Sweetie Belle screaming and is wondering what happened out there.
Sweetie Belle walked over to her room—a room Scootaloo didn’t usually like hanging out in because it is too girly for her tastes—and as she expected she found Scootaloo how she last left her. Practicing fighting moves on a pillow to get out all the anger she had for what Rumble did. Scootaloo was really going to home with that pillow, knocking it into the air then doing a few hoof chops before flying quickly above it and kicking it to the ground. Every impact Scootaloo did on the pillow caused feathers to fly out from it, and by now the floor of Sweetie Belle’s room was covered in them.
“Rumble was outside,” Scootaloo said as she landed, not looking at Sweetie Belle. It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah he was,” Sweetie Belle said.
“What did he want?” Scootaloo asked.
“He tried ‘explaining’ to me what happened, but I could tell her was lying,” Sweetie Belle said. “I don’t know what he wanted, but I wasn’t about to let him in."
“How do you know he was lying?” Scootaloo asked.
“Because he gave me an excuse that involves a unicorn, forgetting that I am a unicorn and could see through his lies,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Rumble…isn’t like that,” Scootaloo said. “He wouldn’t lie like that.”
“That’s what I thought with Pipsqueak,” Sweetie Belle said. “I thought Pipsqueak would never cheat on my. That he would never go for that…unicorn. But I was wrong, and you were wrong.”
Scootaloo was silent and she continued to pound her anger out of the poor pillow. Whether she believed Sweetie Belle or not was hidden within the same angry face that kept on since she got to Sweetie Belle’s house.
“So anyways I have a plan,” Sweetie Belle continued through Scootaloo’s silence. “We’re going to the Carousal Boutique and I’m going to help give you a makeover. We’ll make you look irresistible and then when Rumble sees you next…”
“No,” Scootaloo said softly. She turned her head over to finally look at Sweetie Belle. “I’m not going to dress up just to make him jealous. If Rumble wants to date Silver Spoon that’s his problem. He doesn’t know what he is missing.”
“Alright fine,” Sweetie Belle said. “I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”
Sweetie Belle turned around and left the room through the door. Scootaloo sat there without doing anything for a few seconds waiting for Sweetie Belle to go far enough. After she figured Sweetie Belle went far enough Scootaloo looked towards the window, but not really at it, thinking about Rumble.
What is up with you Rumble? Scootaloo thought. I never thought you would kiss somepony else. This is something I would maybe expect from somepony else but not you. Why did you do it?
She then remembered something that was said earlier in the day.
“It’s too bad Rumble. You actually get a mare and of course it has to be a mare that you can’t even date. I guess that’s too bad for you. Maybe you should go looking for some other mare that you can actually have your way with.”
~
Ouch, Rumble thought as he groggily got up off the ground a few minutes after Sweetie Belle knocked him down there with her voice. I don’t know what hurt worse: her screaming, that insult, or the fact that I’m once again reminded how much I hurt Scootaloo.
The pegasus looked over at the house once again and his thoughts continued. I know this would be a bad idea, but I didn’t expect it to go over this badly. And if this is how angry Sweetie Belle is, then I can’t imagine how furious Scootaloo must be at me right now. Great, I’m going to have a tough time trying to convince her it wasn’t my fault, especially since I have no proof.
“Rumble, there you are!” said a female voice that Rumble found unfortunate familiar. Rumble turned around to confirm that Silver Spoon was behind him, with a serious look on her face.
Rumble stood there for a few seconds before spreading his wings out and taking off, completely ignoring Silver Spoon. He flew over Silver Spoon and in the direction to Ponyville, though not that quickly. Silver Spoon watched him fly over before running along the ground in order to follow him.
“Rumble wait!” Silver Spoon cried out into the sky.
“Silver Spoon, listen,” Rumble said from the sky. “I don’t need to be seen around you right now. I’m already going to have a tough time when I talk to Scootaloo and I don’t need any more rumors about us floating around.”
“But I have something I need to tell you!” Silver Spoon yelled.
“I don’t care!” Rumble said. “I’m sorry Silver Spoon, but you’ve caused me enough problems as it is! And I really need to fix those problems now.”
“That’s what I’m trying to help you with! I have something to tell you that will help you! I know why you weren’t able to move! I even told that to your friend Button Mash, the colt you call High Score, who told me where to find you!”
At the mention of Button Mash’s nickname Rumble slowed down and looked towards the ground at Silver Spoon. He then trained his eyes on the ground and found a good spot to land on the cobblestone streets of town. As soon as he landed he waited for Silver Spoon to catch up with him.
“You talked to High Score?” Rumble asked. “How did you actually manage to do that? Did he not figure out that the filly with the silver spoon on her flank was Silver Spoon?”
“No he knew exactly who I was,” Silver Spoon said. “And believe me, it took a lot of convincing to finally convince him I wasn’t out to get you. Apparently your friend is better at not getting entranced in my looks then you are.”
Rumble gave her a very annoyed stare, telling her exactly how much he liked her joke.
“Sorry,” Silver Spoon apologized. “I guess it’s a bit too early to be making that joke. Anyways after I explained myself Button Mash told me to go find you, telling me you were probably at Sweetie Belle’s house even though it would be really stupid of you to go there, and if I needed to convince you just tell you High Score. Why High Score by the way?”
“Well…just look at any arcade machine in Ponyville and you will almost always see the initials B.M on the high score slot and sometimes even on all of the scores. High Score is the best gamer in Ponyville, and Pip and I decided to give him that nickname. High Score told you to tell me that, because while that is what we always call him, it’s not exactly known around town that we call him that, and there would be no way you and Diamond Tiara would know that without one of us telling you.”
“Diamond Tiara and me…” Silver Spoon said ponderously. “Why do you mention us together?”
“Because Sweetie Belle told me about what you and Diamond Tiara did to her and Scootaloo years back,” Rumble pointed out. “You two apparently tormented them a lot back when they were still in Elementary School and didn’t have their Cutie Marks yet. In fact if it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t know you or Diamond Tiara I probably would have flown off as soon as I saw you before. I almost wish I did since I wouldn’t be in this situation now.”
“Yeah, I know what I did but…” Silver Spoon said. “That was before I transferred to Manehattan. You see…” Silver Spoon nudged to the side of the road where there happened to be a bench and Rumble followed her to sit down on it.
“Alright fine, but I still don’t want to be seen around you,” Rumble said. “If you want to sit down that’s fine, but I’m going to stand over here. If ponies see us sitting together then I’ll hear no end to it, and that’ll make it even more difficult to convince Scootaloo I like her and not you.”
“Alright, I can understand,” Silver Spoon said as she walked over to the bench and sat down on it. “Anyways, I know I used to pick on them all the time, but then everything changed when I moved to Manehattan. I guess it’s sort of ironic what happened there. You know how I used to insult the Cutie Mark Crusaders for being Blank Flanks?”
“Yeah, I told you that already,” Rumble said. “You used to pick on Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle all the time.”
Silver Spoon gave Rumble a strange look but decided to press on with what she wants to say and ask about what was confusing her later. “Well anyways, when I got to Manehattan, everypony happened to have their Cutie Mark in my grade, so nopony would make fun of you for that. Instead they would make fun of the new filly with glasses and a useless Cutie Mark.”
“You?” Rumble asked.
Silver Spoon nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “All it took was one look at my flank and I was insulted because it was only a silver spoon. ‘What good is a spoon?’ they would ask or ‘is you’re special talent eating?’ I was called useless and sometimes behind my back they would call me a waste of pony life. And the insults weren’t even the worse they did. Some of the things they did…” Silver Spoon shuddered “I never thought it would be so bad. Even we weren’t that bad to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
“What does you’re Cutie Mark represent anyways?” Rumble asked. “I mean yeah it’s a spoon but that could mean anything.”
“My Cutie Mark…my special talent is crafting silverware,” Silver Spoon said. “You see, within my estate’s basement we have a workshop where my family makes silverware. My father made his living off selling high value silverware made from precious metals. My father gave me a chance to try it out, even though my mother didn’t exactly approve, and even though I had never tried before I managed to make myself a Silver Spoon. And well…after making that my Cutie Mark appeared on my flank.”
“So you can craft silverware,” Rumble said. “I don’t see how that is a useless talent. If you just told that to somepony then you wouldn’t be picked on so much.”
“Well I would but…there was a reason my mother wasn’t really interested in me trying it out,” Silver Spoon said. “Fillies don’t normally do any of that sweaty work. Fillies aren’t normally supposed to do hooves on work unless it’s sowing. So I never told anypony because I didn’t want to be embarrassed by it. Heck, I was lucky that Diamond Tiara when I first met her only cared that I had a Cutie Mark and didn’t care what it meant.”
“I don’t think that’s embarrassing,” Rumble said.
“Yeah well you’re dating a tomboy,” Silver Spoon pointed out. “If Scootaloo made the world’s loudest burp you wouldn’t care how unladylike it is. But I do. And even though I was being tormented by it, I thought it would only be worse if I told them the truth. So I kept it to myself for more than year and a half. At least until I finally managed to make a friend.”
“The same friend that gave you the tips and accidently caused your coat to darken?” Rumble asked.
“Yeah exactly,” Silver Spoon said. “But that wasn’t for a while. At first she was just a friend to go to and talk with. It was thanks to her that I was able to get through the day and without her, I don’t know what I would be doing today. Being honest, my new look was just because she wanted to help me not be bullied as much. I didn’t get these looks for any dates, to manipulate anypony, or anything.”
“Which is why you did that to me,” Rumble pointed out, getting back on track.
Silver Spoon lowered her head. “I’m…sorry about that,” Silver Spoon said. “You see, I came back to Ponyville to meet up with Diamond again. I wanted to come here and tell her what happened to me in Manehattan. Sure we sent letters between each other all the time, but this is something I wanted to tell her in person. I was hoping that I could tell her and we would see how wrong we were all those years ago. And to tell you the truth…after that I wanted to go over to Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom,”
Silver Spoon looked up at Rumble hoping for some reaction but got none so she continued “I wanted to go up to those three and apologize for what I did, and I was hoping after Diamond heard what I had to say she would apologize to them too. But…then Diamond threw me into her scheme to make Scootaloo jealous and…if I wanted to tell her then I thought I would have no choice to follow along.”
“Glad I got a say in this,” Rumble said. “And this is how you were supposed to apologize to Scootaloo?”
“Sorry but what I wanted to do, is I only wanted to flirt with you so long as you weren’t opposing it,” Silver Spoon told him. “I was hoping you would fly away or push me away before Scootaloo even got there, that way I could do what Diamond wanted and I wouldn’t cause any drama.”
“Well that worked out so well,” Rumble told her. “I would have flown away, I would have pushed you away, but I couldn’t. I wanted to scream out when I saw Scootaloo come up, but I couldn’t.”
“And…I know why,” Silver Spoon said. “Diamond bribed somebody behind my back. There was a unicorn we met before that she bribed to keep you still while I flirt with you. He even used a paralyze spell and a silence spell on you so nopony could see a magical aura.”
“Are you sure that’s what happened?” Rumble asked. “Because I talked to Sweetie Belle and she said that there was no way anypony could have used magic on me without an aura around me.”
“That’s what that colt said, and I doubt he was lying,” Silver Spoon said.
“Well thanks,” Rumble said. “Hopefully that will convince Sweetie Belle.”
“Hey! Rumble,” Shady Daze called out from Rumble’s right. The light blue earth pony colt with a darker blue mane walked up closer to Rumble using his hind hooves, and was holding the camera he usually had around with his other hooves. It was an awkward and unbalanced walk but a walk nonetheless.
“Spending some time with your new fillyfriend?” Shady Daze asked. “I heard you already got a kiss. Dang, you work fast! But I guess I should expect that from the brother of Thunderlane.”
“She is not my fillyfriend!” Rumble yelled. “Scootaloo is! And we haven’t kissed!”
“Yeah sure Rumble,” Shady Daze said, disbelief obvious in his voice. “Whatever you say. Anyways, I’ll see you later.”
Shady Daze dropped his camera down and finally put his four hooves on the ground. He then walked off after giving Rumble a wink and waved at Silver Spoon. That did nothing to help Rumble’s mood right now.
“That’s strange,” Silver Spoon noted. “You mentioned that you and Scootaloo are a couple, yet Shady Daze didn’t say anything on you cheating on her. He didn’t even mention her.”
“Yeah…” Rumble said, his head lowering. “That’s…sort of both of ours fault. Scootaloo’s and mine. You see, first off my brother has sort of a reputation within this town with the mares, so it wouldn’t honestly surprise anypony that I would do something like this, even though I’m not like that. But that’s for anypony that actually knows Scootaloo and I are a couple. You see…we’re not really the most romantic couple in the world.”
“Define ‘not the most romantic couple’,” Silver Spoon asked.
“We…haven’t even kissed yet,” Rumble said. “Usually when we’re together all we do is practice flying. I mean, we have had a few personal talks, and we have hugged twice, but we have never been on a date, and we have never kissed. Being honest, not much has changed between Scootaloo and I since we became a ‘couple.’”
“So to anypony that passes by you guys are pretty much good friends right?” Silver Spoon asked.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Rumble said. “And yeah, I can understand why we haven’t, Scootaloo isn’t the most romantic type, but…” Rumble shook his head. “Never mind. It’s something I have to talk to Scootaloo about and not you.”
Rumble looked over to his right where Sweetie Belle’s house was. “Well I guess I better head back and try to get through Sweetie Belle. That…should be interesting.”
“Well I can help,” Silver Spoon said as she hopped off the bench. “It’s the least I could do for causing this mess in the first place.”
“Thanks,” Rumble said as he gave her a half smile.