It was Friday, the students were already preparing to return home and enjoy their weekend.
Spike, Rumble and Button Mash were outside Canterlot High, unlike other students, they couldn't wait for the weekend to end so they could participate in the second round of the tournament.
“It was a fun experience, I must admit I didn't expect to see so many skilled bladers,” said Rumble.
"Ugh, but there were also rotten bladers like Heath Burns, that lunatic," Button Mash answered but then remembered Snips and Snails, "And some even though they tried to play dirty, they didn't deserve what happened to them."
"Buddy," Spike said as he placed his hand on Button's shoulder, "We all make mistakes, you just don't let them consume you."
Memories of his battle with Rainbow Dash flooded Spike's mind, "I swear I'll never succumb to anger again."
“Only then will we defeat the Dark Crystal Knight and his minions,” the 3 boys said at the same time.
The 3 looked at their beyblades and after a few seconds the 3 returned to their respective homes.
Hours later.
At the Sparkle family's house.
Spike, Twilight Sparkle, Night Light, and Twilight Velvet were having dinner in the dining room.
"Tell us Spike, how did that tournament go?" her mother, Twilight Velvet, asked.
"It was fantastic, Mom, we all did great," Spike answered cheerfully, but then he remembered Smolder and Thorax's battle, "Well, almost everyone."
"Did something happen Spike?" his father asked, Night Light seeing Spike's mood drop.
Spike didn't know what to say, but Twilight Sparkle chimed in.
“Smolder didn't make it through the first round,” Twilight Sparkle said.
“Smolder? Isn't she one of the BeyStore manager's daughters?" Twilight Velvet asked.
Spike and Twilight Sparkle nodded.
“Well, that happens sometimes son, remember there can only be one winner and eventually several of your friends, even you could be eliminated, but don't let that discourage us,” said Night Light.
"Dad's right Spike, remember you got through the first round because you worked hard, so you should always keep your head up, Smolder wouldn't like to see you second-guessing," Twilight Sparkle continued.
Spike smirked, “You're absolutely right, I don't know how, but I'm going to avenge Smolder, well, professionally speaking, I'm not some emissary of revenge like in my comic books,” Spike said, but then he remembered that the tournament battles were set randomly, "Well, if I ever get to face Thorax, if not, I'll leave the job to Button Mash or Rumble or even Ember."
Suddenly Spike's cell phone started ringing.
"Oh, can I answer?" he asked his parents, after all, they were having dinner, it would be impolite to answer without asking permission.
“Of course sweetie,” Twilight Velvet replied.
Spike answered his cell "Hello?"
"Hey, Spike," said a voice Spike recognized.
"Apple Bloom, hello how are you?"
"Well, we just met in class a little while ago, I guess I'm fine and I'll assume you are too."
"You assumed correctly."
"Oh right, the reason I called you, the rest of the Crusaders are celebrating in the clubhouse, because we all made it through the first round, I wanted to know if you'd like to come."
"Sure Apple Bloom, I'll be glad to be there in half an hour."
"Alright, see you there then."
Spike hung up his phone and turned around with a smile on his face and saw his sister and mom giggling, and his dad smirking, he looked confused saying, "what?"
His mom and Twilight giggled again, "nothing Spike."
His dad asked out of the blue, "hey son, how do you feel about your friend there?"
“AppleBloom?” Spike answered with another question.
"Looks like they're getting along better since this tournament started," Twilight Sparkle added.
"I guess so, she's kind of cool, she's not like other girls," Spike answered blushing.
His mother smiled, "You know Spike, you have that look, I've seen that look before, and those other times have been when Twilight is with Flash or when your brother Shining Armor is with Cadence."
Spike only blushed even deeper, trying to put his hood on his jacket to keep his family from seeing him.
"Well, I, ummm," Spike said trying to speak but trailing off, he thought, "Why am I feeling this?"
Twilight Sparkle giggled at the sight of her nervous little brother.
"Well, we'll talk about that later, I have to go, I'll be back in a few hours," Spike said incredibly quickly as he sped out of the house.
His parents giggled, "Young love is so cute."
Spike was in Sweet Apple Acres.
"Okay, time to go to the tree house," Spike thought but then remembered something important, "Wait a minute, where's the clubhouse?"
Spike felt silly for not asking Apple Bloom for her exact address when he talked to her on the phone.
He was going to talk to her, but then he saw Big Mac coming out of the barn.
"Hey Big Mac, nice day don't you think?" Spike said.
Big Mac only responded with a single word, "Eeyup."
“You may wonder what I am doing here.”
“Eeyup.”
"Well it turns out that your sister invited me, but I got lost, do you know where the clubhouse is?"
“Eeyup.”
“Could you tell me where it is?”
"Eeyup," Big Mac pointed in the direction Spike had to go.
“Thanks Big Mac,” Spike started in the direction Big Mac pointed, but then stopped, “You know Big Mac, the spring break is starting soon, maybe I'll have an O&O session, would you like to join in like old times? ”
Big Mac beamed and yelled "EEYUUUUUUPP."
"Fascinating, see you later."
Spike kept walking through all the apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres until he managed to see the tree house, he headed to the place but at that moment.
CRASH.
Spike collided with something and when he opened his eyes he saw that something was Button Mash.
“Button?” Spike asked and then saw Rumble approaching.
“Rumble? What are you doing here?"
"Sweetie Belle invited me, what are you doing here?" Button Mash replied with another question.
"Me? I'm here because Apple Bloom invited me,” Spike replied.
"And Scootaloo invited me, interesting," added Rumble.
The three of them were silent for several seconds pondering the implications until Spike decided to speak.
"Well then, why don't we go in."
Rumble and Button Mash nodded and the 3 went to the clubhouse, climbing it was not difficult and when they arrived Spike knocked on the door.
knock
knock
knock
The door opened and they were greeted by Apple Bloom, "Guys, you're here, come on in."
The boys entered the clubhouse, they were surprised by how well kept and clean it was.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were sitting on chairs by the window and gladly received them.
"So this is the famous tree house, it's cuter than I imagined," Spike said.
Apple Bloom blushed, to which Spike decided to correct himself, “Umm…. I meant the tree house.”
"What? Wait a minute, you hadn't seen her, hadn't we invited you before?" asked Apple Bloom, then she looked at the other Crusaders to see if they had invited him before, however, they both shook their heads.
"Oh," Apple Bloom thought.
Minutes passed and the 6 were enjoying that little celebration.
Button Mash listened to Sweetie Belle singing, she had brought with her a speaker where songs were played.
Sweetie Belle sang:
“Ready to sing for this crowd,
Listen up, 'cause here's our story
I'm gonna sing it
Very loud!!!!!!!”
Button Mash was amazed, Sweetie Belle sounded like an angel singing, or at least that was his way of describing it.
“We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders
On a quest to find out who we are
And we will never stop the journey
Not until we have our cutie marks!!” Sweetie Belle stop singin.
“Wow, that was amazing Sweetie Belle,” Button said in awe, "Wow, I was also encouraged to sing but the new songs I know are video game soundtracks."
“Well, I like to sing, I do it in my spare time,” Sweetie answered with a blush.
“You should do this more often,” Button Mash said then remembered something in his backpack, “You should actually have this.”
Button handed Sweetie a white attack ring, Sweetie Belle witnessed the ring, it had a white design but it looked kind of heavy.
"Wow Button, what is this?"
“A voice controlled ring, the BBA labs are located in Seaquestria, in that city is where modifications are made to improve the game, they invented the Burst system.”
Sweetie Belle listened intently as Button almost lost herself in her gaze.
"Sorry I got excited," Button apologized and continued, "Anyway, they invented a system to control the beyblade through voice, sound attack rings."
"Seriously?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Yes, Spike and I bought a sound attack ring when they were available, but since we couldn't get our voices to sync well, we couldn't control them, but I'm sure you could control it, after all, your beautiful voice deserves to be heard even in the beybattles,” Button Mash said as he handed her a kind of bracelet that had a microphone on it.
"This, that's very kind of you, Button," said Sweetie Belle as she took Sweet Tone out of her bag and placed the ringing ring on it, "It looks prettier that way."
Button just smiled as she watched Sweetie Belle place Sweet Tone on her launcher and spin it around.
LET IT RIP.
Sweet Tone whirled as Sweetie began to sing.
“La, la, la.”
Sweet Tone reacted by making better movements in sync with the rhythm of Sweetie Belle's voice.
Button and Sweetie were surprised to see how the device worked.
“That's amazing Button, thanks for making beyblade more fun for me,” said Sweetie Belle as she hugged Button Mash.
Flustered, Button could only say, "Umm, your welcome Sweetie."
Meanwhile, Rumble had left the tree house to get some fresh air, when suddenly an apple came down and hit his head.
"Ouch."
“Ooops, sorry Rumble,” Scootaloo said.
Rumble looked up and saw that she was at the top of the tree.
"Scootaloo what are you doing there, it's very dangerous."
“Relax, I always come up here, it's the best way to get some fresh air,” Scootaloo replied, surprising Rumble.
Rumble asked, "How did you get there?"
“With a lot of practice, maybe one day you can learn to….” Scootaloo said but stopped when she noticed that Rumble was no longer there.
“Hi.”
"Ahhhhh, how did you get here?" Scootaloo asked.
Rumble laughed, “Are you really asking that? Remember I jumped higher in my battle against Bulk Biceps.”
"How arrogant," Scootaloo laughed, "You remind me of my big sister."
“I imagine you admire her a great deal,” Rumble said.
"Yes, she is my heroine, I would like to be like Rainbow Dash because she is never afraid of anything," answered Scootaloo, "But what about you, what can you tell me about your brother?"
"Thunderlane was very close to me, not counting my mother, I only had him since I had no friends until I met you," said Rumble while Scootaloo felt sorry for him, "He is someone who always stays with you and you can say your problems, but he is also someone who never gives up, he is always training.”
“Wow, you must admire him a lot too,” Scootaloo said to which Rumble nodded.
"Yes, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here right now."
At that moment, Scootaloo was going to fall off the branch, "Whoaaaa whoa."
But Rumble broke her fall by grabbing her hand.
“I got you,” Rumble said as he held her up, making them both blush.
Meanwhile.
Spike was leaning against the window of the tree house looking up at the stars.
Apple Bloom walked over, "Admiring the sky Spike?"
"Yeah, from this angle the trees don't block the sky, so I can see the stars," Spike replied.
Apple Bloom walked over to Spike to witness the beautiful starry sky.
"I have to thank you for having us Apple Bloom," Spike said, "After we got through the first round, I think we all deserved a break like this."
Apple Bloom smiled, but soon her smile began to fade.
"Actually Spike," Apple Bloom said in a sad tone, "I want to apologize to you, and so do Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle."
Spike was surprised and confused, because they wanted to forgive him, they hadn't done anything wrong to him.
"Why?" Spike said strangely, "You girls didn't do anything to me."
"That's exactly why Spike, we didn't do anything," Apple Bloom said with tears in her eyes.
Spike could only say one thing, "What?"
"When you and your family moved here, we quickly became friends right?" Apple Bloom recounted the time they first met, "Twilight got along perfectly well with our older sisters and the others."
Spike was listening intently, he thought he knew where the story was going.
"But you, you were alone, we were able to invite you to our group but we didn't dare ask you," said Apple Bloom with tears in her eyes, "I wouldn't know where I would be if it wasn't for Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, but you…."
Spike tried to calm the situation, "Hey hey, it's okay Apple Bloom, we were little kids, we didn't think well, besides that I'm a boy, I understand why, and I wasn't alone, I had Big Mac, he behaved like a second older brother to me.”
"Still, you needed friends your age and none of us cared about you, we were selfish," said Apple Bloom who was crying this time.
At that moment Spike hugged her, "Apple Bloom I know how you feel, but the truth is that I was selfish too, I could have spoken but I decided to stay quiet, I felt comfortable with Big Mac and a year later I met Button Mash, but I never worried about you, the selfish one here is me.”
Apple Bloom dried her tears, "I guess we all made mistakes, I think we shouldn't let them dominate us."
Spike smiled and then realized that their faces were very close, this made him blush.
Apple Bloom also noticed and blushed too.
"Oh no, why so soon," Spike thought, "Wait a minute why do I feel?"
Apple Bloom closed her eyes out of inertia.
“Perhaps my heart feels something for….”
CRASH.
He couldn't finish thinking because suddenly the ceiling broke because Rumble fell from the branch where he was and went through it.
“Ahhhhhhh,” Spike yelled in fear and pain as Rumble and various pieces of debris had fallen on top of him.
“Rumble/Spike, you're okay,” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom said at the same time.
Sweetie Belle and Button Mash came over to see what was going on.
“Don't worry, I'm very resistant, besides it didn't hurt at all,” said Rumble recovering from the fall and with injuries.
"That's because it broke your fall, clumsy," Spike said in pain as he was under Rumble and the rubble.
Button laughed, "Normally these things happen to me, hehehe."
Spike didn't like Button's comment so he threw a rock at him.
PLAFFFT.
“Where's the leak ma'am?” Button Mash said dazedly.
That stone hit him on his head causing him to fall to the ground knocked out.
And so our heroes had a day to relax.