//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - The Stakes Are Raised // Story: Dadonequus Discord (Book 2) // by CrazedLaughter //------------------------------// The next few hours would be quite the contrast to the last few. Calm and pleasant as you and Fluttershy sift through everything she was going to take and making sure it was all packed properly.  Double checking, triple checking, and even quadruple checking to make sure nothing was missing or misplaced. “So, when will you be back, a week? Maybe two?” You ask “Oh, probably about five days to a week really. That is, if everypony is willing to be reasonable and listen.” Fluttershy says as she finishes securing one of her bags. “Oh…” That was a little too long for your taste, and Fluttershy notices that is disheartened you so. “It’ll be alright, Anon.” Fluttershy puts the bag down and walks over to you to give you a gentle hug “It won’t be too long, and I know you can handle yourself without me. Besides, I know you have other friends who can keep you company when I’m not around.” “Well, yeah, I know. I just like being around you sometimes. You’re one of the few ponies I know who help me feel calm and relaxed.” “What about your marefriend?” Fluttershy gives you a poke on the nose “Doesn’t she do that for you too?” Yes...Sometimes...when she was doting over you mostly. “Yeah, I guess so. Erm, so then…” There was one other thing you wanted to talk to Fluttershy about. You had wondered what she thought about Twilight’s school. “So what do you think of that friendship school Twilight is having built?” “I think it’s wonderful” Fluttershy cooed with a heavenly sigh “Everycreature from across the world learning about friendship? It’s one of the most amazing things ever. And I can’t wait to teach them all about kindness, love, and care. And I can’t wait to have you in my class, Anon. I’ll be able to teach you all kinds of things within a group that I couldn’t just by myself.” Oh shit! DAMMIT! YOU DIDN’T KNOW SHE WAS GONNA BE A TEACHER! HOW DID YOU MISS THAT?! How could you miss that? Ugh… “Oh...erm...About that, I kind of declined Twilight’s offer to go.” Fuck man, why did you have to ask for her opinion? You couldn’t even look at her as your ears drooped down from the shame of disappointing her. “You did? Why?” Fluttershy looks to you with some worry, but not as much as you thought she was going to have. She just seemed more curious as to why you said no. “Because, I felt a school isn’t really a place to learn about friendship. Y’know, in a practical sense. I feel it’s something you just learn naturally. Plus, I’ve made so many friends already, and even reformed quite a few of them...Except for Stygian, that was a bit of my bad on that one.” Fluttershy stared at you silently for a moment, then gave you a nod “I respect your decision, Anon. Those are actually very fine points you made. And truthfully, you really have improved since we first met. And reforming Tempest? Oh my, I remember how absolutely mean she was when we first saw her, she was so scary.” Fluttershy then let out a little bit of a giggle “Maybe we should ask Twilight to make you a teacher then. I know you don’t really like the idea of the school, but you do seem to have a way of reforming ponies who just seem really mean and rude.” “Haha! I guess I...wait…” You as a teacher?! NOPE! You’re not gonna deal with a bunch of dumb kids. Not no way, not no how. “Is that a joke?” “Yes and no.” Fluttershy has a little bit of a giggle when she notices you get a little frantic “It is a nice thought. But I know how you are, I know it’s not a thing for you...hmm” Fluttershy looked up and across the archway to her kitchen. “How about those smoothies and cookies, hmm? We are pretty much done, and I know my animal friends will help me super duper make sure I’m ready.” Fuck yes! Just the promise of delicious cookies was enough to get that friendship school out of your mind. “Sure!” “Alright, let me just...Oh?” Fluttershy’s ear perks up when she hears a knocking at the door “I wonder who that could be? Oh, it might be Pinkie Pie. She probably forgot when I’m actually leaving and came to say goodbye.” But as Fluttershy got up to check the door, your ears perk when you hear the frantic callings of Diamond Tiara. Diamond? What was she doing here? “Future Aunt Fluttershy! Are you home?! Is Anon home?! I need to speak to him! Right now!” Right now?...oh boy...What happened now? The way she was sounding, it made you scared that something bad happened...or something bad for you, anyway. “He’s here, what ever is wrong? Are you alAGH!” Fluttershy jumps back the moment she unlocks the door as Diamond dashes in, darting towards you as if she always knew where you were. “HIAUNTFLUTTERSHY!” Diamond yells as she rushes towards you, grabs you, and rushes out the door with you “BYEAUNTFLUTTERSHY!” Fluttershy can only blink as everything happens before her eyes in a near quick flash. “Gyah! Diamond! Diamond!” You yell as she already has you over the bridge, your back being dragged across the ground by her unusually high strength. “Huh? Oh!” Diamond stops and let’s you go. She then helps you up and brushes off your back. Despite all this, she was still filled with energy as to whatever the fuck just happened. “Sorry Anon! But something amazing is going to happen!” Something amazing? “Erm...isn’t the fake wedding at the end of the week?” “Yes, it is. But it’s not that. I heard you defeated a dragon this morning, something I know I don’t need to ask you since I already know it’s true. And do you know who also knows that?” Diamond looks at you with a snooty but lovestruck smile. Who else would she really care about knowing unless it was her parents her some princess? “Well, you probably know that Twilight knows...So I’m going to guess your parents, right?” Diamond let out an adorable little giggle as she taps her nose with yours “You’re always so smart, Anon. That’s right, both my parents know! And that’s why I came to tell you something, because that something is pretty big! Like, totally big!” Uh oh...Maybe you publicly crushing that dragon may have been too much after all. Because if it involved Spoiled, then it involved something that if it didn’t meet her approval or standard, everyone suffered for it. “So, what is it?” Diamond looks around, then looks to a set of bushes. “Silver Spoon, are you still there?” Silver Spoon pokes her head out from the bushes and nods her head “Uh huh, and theres nopony around since you went to the door. So it’s totally safe to tell him.” She says as she hops from the bushes to join Diamond. Oh god, and it’s supposed to be secret too?! What the hell can it be?! “Errr, totally safe to tell me what? What’s going on?! I mean, I beat a dragon. I know that’s cool and-” Diamond cuts you off as she hops up in excitement. “YOU MEAN TOTALLY AWESOME! Oh, I wish I could have seen it for myself.” Diamond swooned. “I know right? Imagine if you were stuck in a tower, and that Anon came to rescue you after he beat that dumb dragon” Silver Spoon says, inciting Diamond enough for her to let out a long doting sigh. “I know...It’d be super romantic. Oh!”  But she snaps out of her love filled haze and looks to you, still smiling, but she also looked rather serious. “So that thing? That secret thing? Well, do you know how you’re doing your final training exam tomorrow? With Spitfire and Rainbow Dash.” You nod “Yeah...why?” Diamond looks around, and starts to get giddy “Well, Mother thought it’d be a great idea to make it a Barnyard Bargains sponsored event! With limited tickets and benches and all that stuff! We don’t even have to do any mass advertising since your dad has been running around town telling everypony about how you beat a dragon and that you were his son. I mean, we knew that last part, but it helps let everypony know that it’s you, I guess. Mother is personally going to be inviting her friends for tomorrow’s event! My Anon, the amazing hero colt! The youngest ever to be trained by an element and the Wonderbolts!” She looks at you with dreamy eyes “Ohhhh, is there anything you can’t do?” Oh no...Spoiled, what the fuck?! “Erm...Yeah, I do do a lot of stuff. Erm, what do you mean by your mother’s friends by the way?” She had friends? “Oh, you know, just ponies Mother knows that she wants to rub in their face that she’s the future mother-in-law of the greatest colt in Equestria...You” Diamond says as she tenderly rubs the side of her face with yours. “They are gonna be sooooooo jealous when they see Anon pass that test like a pro!” Silver Spoon adds, her voice full of smug. Diamond looks back at her with a nod “Well, they should be. They always try to one up Mother, so this will really show them who is the best! Which would be us! And you too, Silver Spoon, since you’re my best friend.” “Oh, you don’t have to tell me that. I already know I’m the best since I’m best friends with the greatest filly in Equestria.” Silver Spoon says with a bow “Future Princess Diamond Tiara” Diamond Tiara giggles as she raises her hoof towards Silver Spoon “Arise, Lady Spoon, you needn’t be so formal. I mean, that’s for everypony else to do...towards us I mean.” They both started giggling towards each other. But you felt horrid dread fill your soul at that very moment. Tomorrow was going to be a lot worse than you could ever imagine. Now? Now you couldn’t fuck up ONCE! You weren’t even worried about the fucking crowd. You were more worried over the fact that Spoiled was putting her social status on the line over your fucking final exam! If you screw up… “Erm, Diamond...What would happen if I screwed up? Just asking.” You were near white at this point. “Oh, that would be pretty bad...Erm…” Diamond pondered on it a bit before looking at you with a cheerful smile. “She’d probably ruin your life so bad that you wouldn’t even be able to show yourself in the badlands...But why are you worried about that? You’re Anon! You never mess up!” She said with ignorant cheer. You didn’t know how to feel. Dread? Scared? Mortified? Hell, maybe you should have just fucking stalled the dragon until Twilight got there. Or fucking disintegrated the fucker and told her that it flew off. This was worse than Snips and Snails. Oh so much worse… Fucking Discord. He had to get some glory out of this, didn’t he? Running around the entire fucking town singing of your praises just so it’d make him look good. UGH! You suddenly felt a lack of confidence in passing your exam tomorrow. Hell, it’s one thing screwing up, you really didn’t want to see Spoiled’s reaction if the crippled pegasus whooped your fucking ass. You needed emergency training. But without the horn, you had no way of locating Rainbow Dash or creating a quick training exercise to get you focused. You needed to get some sort of quick warm up training to make absolutely sure you were ready for tomorrow. You needed to make sure you had no way of fucking any part of that exam. You needed something tougher and more dangerous than that exam to make sure you were at your best. You needed...Starlight. “Diamond, my princess, my love...I need to go!” You say, feeling panicky and frantic. “What?! But I wanted to go out with you so we can go get some ic-” Diamond stops when you give her a quick peck on the mouth “Err...ok…My prince” She says with a drunken giggle. “Wait! Anon, where are you going anyway? Oh, I guess you were doing something with your Aunt, right?” Silver asks, absolutely making sure for Diamond that you couldn’t be THAT busy. “err..Yeah, and then I had this other big thing...which was…is...for tomorrow’s training. Super important!” You tell Silver Spoon as you slowly step backwards “Oh! Yeah, that totally is a good reason. You have to be super ready for tomorrow. Just make sure not to tell anypony what we told you, alright? If anypony found out the reason my Diamond’s mom is doing this, then well...QRRRK” Silver rubs her hoof along her neck to signify death. How comforting… “G-got it, take care you two… I love you, Diamond!” You say as you rush off. Diamond just looks over to you with a smile “...O-ok...wait!” She calls out to you frantically as she snaps out of her stupor “Anon! Wait!” You stop dead in your tracks near Fluttershy’s door and look back at her “What is it?” “I LOVE YOU TOO!” She yells back at you from the little bridge. You just smile at her, salute, blow her a kiss, and frantically dash back inside. Fucking...dammit. You never get a day of rest.