Silver Spoon stirred about in her sleep, snoring quietly, and occasionally mumbling something nonsensical. A gentle prod caused her to groan and swat a hoof at the source of the sudden uncomfortable feeling.
Diamond Tiara poked her friend again, a little harder this time. She could have sworn that Silver Spoon muttered Sweetie Belle’s name, and was momentarily taken aback by this.
‘W-Why is she dreaming about that blank flank?’ she thought to herself, but a quiet stirring behind her reminded her that there were more important issues at hoof. She shook Silver Spoon from side-to-side. “Hey, wake up,” she whispered.
Silver Spoon slowly opened her eyes, and stared up at the roof of their tent in annoyance. ‘And it was such a good dream, too. It was about… I can’t remember, but I know I was enjoying it.’
Looking over at her friend, Silver Spoon’s anger was instantly blown away, and replaced with a look of amusement as she failed to hold in her giggling. “Sleep well, Diamond?”
Diamond Tiara scowled at the laughing Silver Spoon. “Quiet!” she shouted as quietly as she could. She quickly pointed to the fillies sleeping behind her. “Do you want them to wake up and see me like this?”
Silver Spoon pretended to think about it for a second. “Maybe I do,” she teased, grinning at Diamond Tiara, who was clearly not amused. “Just kidding,” she said, not sure if Diamond Tiara had seriously believed her or not. “Don’t get your mane in a mes-PFT!”
She couldn’t even finish her sentence, erupting into muffled laughter once again as she looked over Diamond Tiara’s mane. A fun fact about the filly that only two ponies – Silver Spoon, and Diamond Tiara’s mother – knew, was that Diamond Tiara always woke up with the most atrocious bed mane ever.
Usually, her mother would brush her mane every morning, but whenever Silver Spoon slept over, the two friends would brush each other’s manes in the morning. This time, however, Diamond Tiara was on a time limit. She had already set an alarm to go off at 06:00, just to make sure she awoke earlier than everypony else, but she hadn’t anticipated sharing a tent with Apple Bloom. Farm ponies were known for starting their days very early.
“Just, hurry up and sort this out, before they wake up!” she demanded, handing a brush to Silver Spoon. “Above all, I don’t want them to find out about this,” she said, turning around and waiting for her friend to start.
Silver Spoon let out a loud yawn, and slowly crawled over to Diamond Tiara. She was still tired, and rather annoyed that she was expected to get up so early just to tidy up her friend’s mane, but she knew it was for the best. The alternative was Diamond Tiara overreacting, and locking herself in her room, or maybe even ruining everypony else’s mane, just to make her own look better.
‘I wouldn’t put it past her,’ she thought to herself as she ran the brush through the hair.
At the very least, she could look forward to the same treatment from Diamond Tiara, and she did like it when Diamond Tiara brushed her mane for her, so it wasn’t a total loss.
“Did you sleep well,” Silver Spoon asked again, though this time it wasn’t out of sarcasm; it was a genuine question.
“As well as can be expected when you’re sleeping next to those three,” Diamond Tiara responded. “Honestly, what was Miss Cheerilee thinking, grouping us together with these blank flanks?”
The two nearly jumped out of their skins when they heard Apple Bloom tell them to stop calling her out, but calmed down when they saw that she was still sleeping. “… Did she… Respond to that out of habit?” Silver Spoon asked.
“How should I know?” Diamond Tiara responded. “What’s worse is that we have to share a bath with them…”
Silver Spoon recalled Cheerilee mentioning that each group would take their baths in turn. There were two tubs, but they were small, and could only fit up to five foals in at once. Proof that the school’s budget for outings was rather tight.
The groups with mixed gender would go first, with the males and females using separate tubs. After that, the groups of just one gender would go, and each group was to bathe as a group. Which, for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, meant sharing a bath with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Suddenly, Silver Spoon realised something. “Wait, why am I brushing your mane if we’re going to be taking a bath soon enough anyway?”
Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes and responded: “Because I can’t walk around looking like I take no pride in my appearance, even for a second!”
“… Oh, right,” Silver Spoon responded, wondering how she hadn’t realised that. It must have been because she was woken up so early.
“So, where did you go last night?” Diamond Tiara asked. Silver Spoon stopped brushing for a moment. “I was awake when you returned. Where did you and that blank flank go?”
It took Silver Spoon a moment to process her thoughts, and she quickly wracked her brain for a reasonable explanation. Then she thought: ‘Wait, why don’t I just tell the truth? Maybe omit some stuff out, but still the truth.’
“I was just taking a walk,” she said. “To get some air. And then I happened to bump into Sweeti-Into that blank flank.”
“I see,” Diamond Tiara said, turning her attention to the sleeping Sweetie Belle, and glaring at her. “And that’s all?”
Silver Spoon caught the glare, and felt mixed emotions. On one hoof, Diamond Tiara seemed to actually care, which made her happy. On the other, she didn’t like the way she was looking at Sweetie Belle… It was nothing new, but usually, she glared at the crusaders as a group, not just Sweetie Belle on her own. And for some reason, Silver Spoon didn’t like it.
She decided to try and shift the conversation, and also, to get a little revenge for being woken up early. “Diamond?” she asked, prompting her friend to look at her. “Are you… Jealous, by any chance?”
Diamond Tiara immediately scoffed, and turned her head away. “O-Of course not! I’m just trying to make conversation, that’s all!”
“Ah! You turned your head away!” Silver Spoon said, leaning over Diamond Tiara’s shoulders and trying to get a better view of her friend’s face. She caught a quick glimpse, before Diamond Tiara turned her head as far as she could. “Why is your face red?” she teased, before leaning around the other shoulder.
Diamond Tiara was quick, and rotated her head to avoid her friend. This would continue for a while, with Silver Spoon constantly pressuring Diamond Tiara to let her see, and Diamond Tiara ordering her to stop.
“Silver Spoon, stop this at once! What is wrong with you?!” Diamond Tiara shouted.
Silver Spoon just continued grinning at her friend. “Oh? I think you were smiling just then,” she said, as she put her hooves to Diamond Tiara’s hips and started rubbing.
Diamond Tiara resisted the laughter building up inside of her as best she could. “Was… Not…” she said, before it became too much, and she erupted into laughter as her friend continued tickling her. “S-Stop! It! Silver! Spoon!” she said in-between laughs.
It didn’t take long before Diamond Tiara turned around and attempted to pry her friend off of her, but when that failed, she resorted to plan b: revenge tickling.
Silver Spoon, caught completely off guard, began laughing immediately upon being tickled, and was forced to stop tickling Diamond Tiara for the time being.
After a few minutes of tickle wrestling, an activity that the two hadn’t partaken in so long (it brought up good memories for the two of them), they eventually stopped so that they could breathe. Silver Spoon found herself hanging above Diamond Tiara, her forehooves pinned to the ground on either side of the pink filly, and both were breathing and sweating heavily, with their faces red.
A squeak startled both of them, and they quickly turned their attention to front of the tent, where they saw Sweetie Belle sitting up, her hoof over her mouth, and her eyes watering.
“I-I’m sorry!” she said, getting up and turning around. “I-I didn’t mean to… I’ll just… Go outside.” She began to leave, and didn’t realise that Silver Spoon was about to say something before she added: “Um, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are still asleep… P-Please be careful.”
Sweetie Belle quickly ran out of the tent, and Silver Spoon tripped over herself as she quickly tried to get up from her position. “Wait! It’s not what it looks like!” she shouted. “It was… We were just…” Suddenly, she realised what she was doing, and she also noticed the strange look that Diamond Tiara was giving her.
“Why are you so flustered?” she asked. “Nopony’s going to believe a word she says, even if she does talk. And it’s not like anypony will really care… Well, besides my legions of admirers, I guess.”
Silver Spoon thought about it, trying to think of the reason why she was so flustered for herself. “I… I don’t know,” she said. ‘Why am I so worried? It’s not like I cheated on he-Wait! There’s nothing between us, anyway! I can’t cheat on her!’
Whilst Silver Spoon’s mind was going through total chaos, Diamond tiara had picked up the brush inside her friend’s bag, and brought it over to Silver Spoon’s mane. This broke the grey filly out her thoughts, and the tent returned to its calm, peaceful silence that it was earlier that morning.
“I think… I need to go take a walk,” Silver Spoon said after Diamond Tiara was finished brushing. “You want to come?” she asked as she got up.
Diamond Tiara pulled out a book from her bag and opened it up to the bookmarked page. “No thanks. I’m almost finished with this chapter, and I don’t really like walks, anyway.”
Silver Spoon nodded, and made her way outside the tent. For a moment, she wondered where Sweetie Belle could have gone, but immediately shook that thought from her mind. ‘W-Why?! Why am I so concerned about that… That blank flank?! We may be on friendlier terms since last night, but she’s still the enemy!’
She angrily walked through the campsite, making her way past various tents, her mind once again a total mess. So far, the fresh air was doing little good. ‘Why do I care so much if Sweetie Belle thought I cheated on her? AH! No, that’s not it! She thinks I’m in a relation with Diamond, she doesn’t think I cheated on her! Why does that though keep crossing my mind?! And why can’t I stop worrying about her right now?! I shouldn’t care where she is!’
Whilst lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the pony in front of her until it was too late. She fell down onto her flanks, and rubbed her nose as she groaned.
“Oh my, sorry Silver Spoon. Are you okay?”
Silver Spoon looked up to see Cheerilee looking down at her in concern. The teacher offered a hoof to help her student up, but Silver Spoon silently rejected it, and got up on her own strength.
“I’m fine. Sorry about that, Miss Cheerilee,” Silver Spoon said as she dusted herself off.
“No, it’s my fault,” Cheerilee said. “I’m looking for Sweetie Belle, and I wasn’t paying attention to where I was…” Cheerilee’s eyes narrowed, sending a shiver though Silver Spoon’s spine. “… Perhaps you could explain why Sweetie Belle ran past here not too long ago, looking like she was about to cry?”
Silver Spoon’s expression turned to fear, and didn’t go unnoticed by Cheerilee. “I thought I made myself perfectly clear about the consequences of any more fights between you five.”
“It’s… Not like that,” Silver Spoon said, sweating bullets as she backed away from her teacher’s heated gaze.
“Really? Then enlighten me, Silver Spoon. What is it like?”
“W-Well-”
“Much better!” a voice shouted behind Cheerilee. She turned around to see Sweetie Belle approaching, looking much happier than earlier. “Oh, Miss Cheerilee! Good morning!”
“G-Good morning,” Cheerilee said, looking between the two fillies with a confused look on her face. Silver Spoon looked just as confused. She focused her attention on Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie Belle, are you feeling okay?” she asked. “You looked a little… Upset, earlier.”
Sweetie Belle blushed and turned her head away nervously. “I’m fine, I just…” Her voice lowered to a quiet mumble. “Had to go to the little fillies’ room.”
Despite her reduced volume, Cheerilee heard her very clearly, and her eyes immediately widened. “T-That’s all it was?” Sweetie Belle nodded, and Cheerilee breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, just as long as you’re all right,” she said, before turning back to Silver Spoon. “It seems I owe you an apology. I can’t believe I jumped to conclusions like that.”
Silver Spoon nodded. “It’s okay, Miss Cheerilee.”
“Well then, I’m going to go take my morning bath. If you need anything, please ask Ms. Hooves.”
The two fillies nodded, and watched Cheerilee leave them. Once she was out of earshot, Silver Spoon turned to Sweetie Belle. “Why did you do that?”
Sweetie Belle tilted her head at Silver Spoon’s question. “Do what?”
“Cover for me,” she said, annoyed that Sweetie Belle was still apparently playing dumb. “You were upset at me for what you saw, but then you came back to help me out, didn’t you? Why?”
After a few seconds of silence, Sweetie Belle started giggling quietly, and then loudly, unable to contain her laughter anymore. “A-Are you for real?” she asked once she had calmed down. Silver Spoon was bewildered, to say the least. “I wasn’t covering for you. I really did need to go to the restroom,” she said, blushing once she realised how casually she had said that to Silver Spoon.
Silver Spoon blinked a few times, and then turned her attention to the ground. “Then… What you saw earlier…”
“Well, I was surprised, but then, I’ve walked in on Rarity enough times that it doesn’t bother me that much anymore.” She leaned closer to whisper into Silver Spoon’s ear. “But, you shouldn’t do that kind of stuff when there are other ponies in the room. What if we had woken up?”
Silver Spoon quickly shook her head. “You’ve got the wrong idea! We were just playing!” Silver Spoon quickly said, once again unsure why she felt the need to explain herself to Sweetie Belle. Maybe it was just to protect her image? Yes, that must have been it.
“You were… Playing?”
Silver Spoon quickly nodded. “It was just a complete accident that we wound up that way. We’re not like that, we’re just good friends, honest!”
Sweetie Belle looked embarrassed as she turned her face away from Silver Spoon’s gaze. “O-Oh… Um, I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions,” she said. After some more awkward silence passed between the two, Sweetie Belle decided to speak up first. “Um, I’m gonna go back… You coming?”
Silver Spoon nodded, and followed Sweetie Belle silently to their tent. In her mind, one thought was repeating itself over and over: ‘Why didn’t she seem to mind when she thought that Diamond and I were… And why does that make me feel uneasy?’
Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle’s mind was in just as much a state of chaos as Silver Spoon’s. ‘Why did I get so upset from seeing them like that, and why does it mean so much to me that I was just misunderstanding?’
Group five’s bath went about as well as everypony had expected it to. Which is to say, it was a disaster. Five fillies, notoriously known for always being at each other’s throats, all in the same, small tub together? It was only a matter of time until one of them said something that ignited the spark of hatred filling the air.
Diamond Tiara ‘requested’ that Scootaloo stop flapping her wings, as the splashing water was a bother to her. Scootaloo pointed out that she couldn’t control it; random wing spasms are common for Pegasi her age, especially when they were bathing.
After an intentional splash of water in Diamond Tiara’s face by Scootaloo’s wings, the two started going at it in the tub, with Apple Bloom cheering for Scootaloo to win.
Silver Spoon was keeping her distance, not wanting to get close to Diamond Tiara when she was fighting. However, when Sweetie Belle jumped in to try and separate the two, and consequently got kicked in the eye by a stray hoof, Silver Spoon immediately ran to the filly’s side.
“Are you okay?!” she asked in a panicked state, trying to move Sweetie Belle’s hoof aside to check the damage.
“I-I’m fine,” Sweetie Belle bravely said between sobs. As her hoof was removed, Silver Spoon gasped at the sight of bruising around Sweetie Belle’s eye, and, more importantly, the blood running out of her nose.
“No you’re not!” Silver Spoon said, pulling Sweetie Belle away from the other three fillies, who hadn’t seemed to notice anything that had happened to Sweetie Belle. “Come on, we need to get that looked at.”
Sweetie Belle tried to protest, insisting that they needed to stop the fight before somepony got hurt, but when Silver Spoon pointed out that somepony had already gotten hurt, Sweetie Belle nodded and followed Silver Spoon to the bathing area’s entrance.
“Stupid… BLANK FLANK!” Diamond Tiara said as she pulled at Scootaloo’s mane with her mouth.
“Spoiled brat!” Scootaloo spat back as she kicked Diamond Tiara, attempting to make her let go.
“Ruffian!”
“Pompous mule!”
“Flightless pigeon!”
“GIRLS!”
The two fillies stopped fighting suddenly, and slowly turned their heads to the side to see Cheerilee standing over them, looking very, very cross.
“M-Miss Cheerilee,” Scootaloo said, sliding out from underneath Diamond Tiara. “W-We were just-”
“Save it,” she said, pulling the two ponies to their hooves. “All three of you, dry yourselves off and come with me.” She turned around and began walking. When she didn’t hear them following, she turned back to see Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara glaring at each other. “Now!”
The three fillies flinched, and immediately stepped out of the tub and began drying themselves off with their towels.
Silver Spoon took the icepack off of Sweetie Belle’s eye to check it. It was still pretty swollen, so she reapplied it.
“S-Sorry, Silver Spoon,” Sweetie Belle said. “I made things worse again, huh?”
Silver Spoon shook her head. “You were trying to protect your friend. I respect that.” Silver Spoon sighed, and lowered her head. “I wish I could be that brave. All I can do is stand to the side, while Diamond Tiara fights by herself.”
“It’s not about being brave,” Sweetie Belle said. “I’d rather be hurt myself, than have my friends be hurt. And… As much as I dislike Diamond Tiara, I wouldn’t anything bad to happen to her.”
A silence passed between the two.
“I don’t like seeing other ponies being hurt,” Sweetie Belle said softly, as she held back a sob.
Silver Spoon, seeing this, felt obligated to do something to calm the distressed filly. Almost without thinking, she raised her free forehoof, and moved it around Sweetie Belle’s back. However, before she could finish the hug, the tent door was suddenly opened, and she had just enough time to pull back and act casual as three fillies entered the tent.
“This is all your fault!” Diamond Tiara shouted to Scootaloo.
“My fault?! Get over yourself! You started that fight, and you know it!”
“Ah just don’t get why ahgot called away!” Apple Bloom complained, sitting herself down when she entered the tent. “Ah didn’t get into any fights!”
The two crusaders saw Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle staring at them, and immediately ran up to their friend with concerned looks on their faces.
Silver Spoon gave the icepack to Sweetie Belle, and backed away.
“What did you do that for, Silver Spoon?” Diamond Tiara asked, prompting Silver Spoon to turn around and face her. “There was no need to bring Miss Cheerilee into this!”
Silver Spoon frowned and looked over at Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie Belle got hurt, so I-”
“Are you forgetting? She’s the enemy!”
“Even so, she hadn’t done anything this time around, but she got hurt anyway! I couldn’t just leave her…”
Diamond Tiara huffed and turned away. Silver Spoon looked around desperately for something to help her out of this jam, and found Diamond Tiara’s brush. She picked it up, and began brushing Diamond Tiara’s mane.
Diamond Tiara didn’t object, and actually seemed to calm down from the interaction, too. “So,” Silver Spoon began, “What happened with Miss Cheerilee?”
“… We’ve been suspended from the first three activities. She wants us to do ‘lines’ in a separate room.” Silver Spoon stopped brushing for a moment, and had a horrified look on her face. What was she going to tell her father? She had always been a perfect student (grade wise, at least), but now… “Not you,” Diamond Tiara clarified. “You and the blank flank are free to go. It’s just us three.”
Silver Spoon let out a sigh of relief, but then remembered that the first activity was a group activity, and was separate for Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns. “That means I’m all alone for the first activity…” she said.
“Sorry,” Diamond Tiara mumbled, looking down at the floor. “She also said that, if we fight one more time…”
“Then it’s back home fer us,” Apple Bloom finished.
Diamond Tiara nodded. “This is why I told her not to put us with you three. What was she thinking?”
“What was I thinking?” Cheerilee asked herself as she rubbed her head. “I can’t believe I thought that grouping those five together would actually serve to lower their hostility towards each other.” She sighed and checked her watch. Fifteen minutes before she would have to go. “Was I just being naïve?”
“Yep!” Derpy answered almost immediately, which did not help the teacher to feel any better. “But it is working for two of them, at least.”
“… Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle,” she said, receiving a nod from Derpy. “Those two certainly have been making an effort, and they’ve even seemed to have gotten closer… Which makes this whole thing even worse!”
“How so?” Derpy asked.
“If the other three fight again, I’ll have to send them home. If I did that, I’d either have to send Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle, providing they don’t chose to go on their own, or they stay, and be at a clear disadvantage for Sunday’s final event!”
Derpy understood now, and put a hoof to her chin. “That is a problem…”
Cheerilee sighed again and got up. “I swear, being a teacher used to be so much easier…” She made her way to her tent’s door, with Derpy Hooves following. “I’ll lead Diamond Tiara and the others to the spare room, where they’ll have breakfast before doing ‘lines’. I’ll trust you to take care of the rest.”
Derpy saluted and followed Cheerilee outside. “Question: do they have muffins?”
After a rather peaceful breakfast, the foals were split up according to whether they were an Earth Pony, a Pegasus, or a Unicorn. The foals were now at the age where their bodies were developing, based on their race, and this activity was designed to help them along.
For foals like Sweetie Belle, who were slow developers, this was an especially helpful activity. Scootaloo was looking forward to this, too, but she had missed out on the chance. Fortunately, there would be another activity of this nature tomorrow, but of course, that would all depend on whether or not she could get to tomorrow without getting into another fight.
Sweetie Belle was one of three Unicorns in the class who couldn’t use her magic at all, so she was assigned to practice basic magical control exercises, the purpose of which would be to tap into the magic reserves within her. Before any spell could be performed at all, she would need to get a hang of this exercise.
“HNNNNNG!” Sweetie Belle focused hard, putting her all into focusing her magic into the tip of her horn… But nothing happened.
“Don’t try to rush things,” the advisor, a tall stallion, said. “I suggest you start with the base of your horn, and work your way up. It’s slow, but if you try to rush it, it’ll take even longer.”
Sweetie Belle nodded, and frowned as she turned her attention to gathering magic at the base of her horn, instead of at the tip. It took twenty-five minutes, but finally, she felt a warm, pleasant feeling at the base of her horn.
“Ah!”
“Good work!” the advisor said enthusiastically. “Keep it up! You’re getting the hang of it!”
Sweetie Belle nodded, and was about to continue her training, when a loud bang was heard on the other side of the room caught the attention of everypony present.
“Snips! Snails! I told you not to use too much force!”
The advisor ran off to deal with the issue, leaving the three foals on their own. Sweetie Belle heard the sounds of somepony breathing heavily, and turned her attention to the open door, where she saw Silver Spoon outside, struggling to catch her breath.
Sweetie Belle took advantage of the distraction to sneak away from the group, and approach Silver Spoon.
“Hey there,” she said as she approached the exhausted filly.
“… Hey,” Silver Spoon said, her breathing slowing down.
“Is the exercise a little rough?”
“… It’s stupid. Just because I’m an Earth Pony, they got me running a marathon, training my leg muscles.” Silver Spoon looked over Sweetie Belle’s body, and saw that she wasn’t the only one working up a sweat. “Is magic training really so tough?”
Sweetie Belle’s ears flattened and she looked a little sad. “Well, for me, it is…” Suddenly the Unicorn perked up a little bit. “Huh, I just realised…”
“… W-What?”
“Well, for all the grief you give me and Scootaloo for being slow developers, your leg muscles don’t seem as strong as an Earth Pony’s usually are.”
Silver Spoon blushed, both out of embarrassment, and out of fury. “T-That’s not true!” she said. “I just have better things to do than work my leg muscles each and every day!”
“Now that I think about it,” Sweetie Belle said, grinning from ear-to-ear, “Physical Education is the one subject you don’t do so well in, isn’t it?”
Silver Spoon’s face went from embarrassed and angry, to just plain angry. “Well, it’s not like you’re any better!”
“Actually, I am!” Sweetie Belle said, a devious grin on her face. “I rank above you in Phys. Ed., so that makes me better!”
Silver Spoon was at a loss for words, and decided to simply get back to her running… It had to be better than this.
“Y’know,” Sweetie Belle said, causing Silver Spoon to wait before running off. “I’m actually kinda glad… I’m not good at many things, and my grades are always below yours, no matter how hard I try… So to actually be better than you in one area, even if I’m still in the lower tier of students, makes me really happy.”
“… But, you’re still in the top tier for some subjects, like Math and History,” Silver Spoon pointed out. “Pretty impressive, for a blank flank.” Sweetie Belle glared at Silver Spoon, causing the latter to flinch. “T-That wasn’t meant as an insult… This time.”
Sweetie Belle’s face softened, and she let out a sigh. “… Um, I think we should probably head back to our activities,” she said. Silver Spoon nodded, but neither of them actually moved. They just stood there, looking at each other in awkward silence… And Silver Spoon felt her heart rate increasing quickly.
Sweetie Belle felt the same thing, and both were unsure of what this strange feeling between was.
“Um, did you… Want something else?” Silver Spoon asked, gazing into Sweetie Belle’s eyes.
Sweetie Belle felt her body stiffen as she gazed back, and it took her a few tries to finally form a coherent sentence. “N-No, I just…”
The two continued staring, losing all track of the world around them… Until a ball smack Silver Spoon in the back of the head, causing her to stumble forwards into Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle, in an attempt to prevent Silver Spoon from falling over, ended up wrapping her forelegs around the other filly… She was now giving the filly a hug. And she… Didn’t dislike it.
“Hey, Silver Spoon!” a colt shouted from behind said pony. “C’mon! We got twenty minutes left, and the coach wants us to play hoofball!”
Silver Spoon was fully aware of the situation that she was now in, but couldn’t let anypony see her in such an embarrassing state… Least of all Sweetie Belle. She quickly regained herself, and turned away from the Unicorn.
“Coming!” she shouted, quickly running away from Sweetie Belle. She spared one last glance back to find the filly still stood there, forelegs stretched out… And smiling.
It took Sweetie Belle a moment to realise that Silver Spoon was no longer actually there, and when the advisor asked her to come back into the building, she quickly obeyed.
“Alright kids,” the advisor said once Sweetie Belle was back in her position. “We’ve got twenty minutes left. Let’s see if we can-”
His motivational speech was cut off by Sweetie Belle. Or more specifically, by the bright green light being emitted from her horn. He stepped back, along with the other two foals next to her… And then panicked.
“S-Sweetie Belle! That’s too much energy! Tone it down a bit!”
“I don’t… Know how!” Sweetie Belle said, struggling to suppress the magic that she had built up.
The advisor wasn’t sure what to do next. From the foals’ performances, he hadn’t actually expected any of them to successfully focus their magic anytime soon, and especially not to this degree. He hadn’t told them how to control the levels of their magic.
The crisis was averted, however, when the other advisor, a short mare this time, helped guide Sweetie Belle into shutting her magic off, by using her own.
The male advisor sighed, and decided to dismiss Sweetie Belle for now, not sure how to actually proceed with her in the time left.
Sweetie Belle, elated by both having successfully focused her magic, and having been given a break, excitedly rushed outside, cheering “yes!” over and over again as she skipped along.
The two advisors watched her leave with strange looks, and when she was out of earshot, the male advisor leaned over to ask his partner: “What was up with that?”
“Hm?” was the mare’s reply.
“Y’know, suddenly being able to focus her magic like that. Nopony improves that much in such a short amount of time.”
The mare snickered, and looked over at Sweetie Belle in the distance, who was watching the game of hoofball being played by the Earth Ponies… And paying particular to one certain grey filly. “Clover the Clever theorised that magic is love, given true form… Many scholars also theorise that magic is powered by love.”
The stallion looked at the mare with a questioning look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The mare sighed, and walked off. “Figure it out,” she said, leaving the puzzled stallion to fit the pieces together.
“Hmmm… Ah! No way!”
The next two activities passed fairly well for Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon, as they didn’t have their friends constantly at each other’s throats in the background. The second activity that day was swimming, and since neither filly was very good at swimming, they spent most of the time just practicing in the shallow end. Well, Silver Spoon practiced, but Sweetie Belle soon dragged her into a game of ‘splash tag’.
The third activity was making wax candles, something which Silver Spoon was surprised to find she could do very well. Maybe it was because her special talent was also a type of crafting art, or maybe she just had beginner’s luck, she didn’t know. But Sweetie Belle certainly didn’t share whatever it was that made Silver Spoon’s candles turn out so well.
Silver Spoon helped Sweetie Belle make a second set of candles from scratch, since they had the time. She realised that Sweetie Belle was often being too rough, or too quick, whilst making the candles, and told her to take it more slowly, and use more care in her work. The second batch turned out pretty well.
All groups were given fifteen minutes to rest, and gather whatever they wanted, for their next activity: the scavenger hunt.
After arriving at their tent, the two excited fillies saw the gloomy atmosphere between Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Diamond Tiara.
“Hey, Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom said, trying to hide her annoyance towards the two rich fillies. “How’d yer magic trainin’ go?”
Sweetie Belle practically beamed at the chance to share her success with her two friends, and even though they didn’t really understand the significance of it, they still cheered for her and showered her with praise.
Silver Spoon made her way past the crusaders, and sat down beside Diamond Tiara. “Are you okay?” she asked, seeing the gloomy expression on her friend’s face.
Diamond Tiara responded with a harrumph. “Of course I am. As if I would allow those blank flanks to get to me,” she said, purposefully loud enough for the crusaders to hear. “Let’s go, Silver Spoon.”
Silver Spoon watched Diamond Tiara grab her bag and walk towards the tent’s door. “Wait, we still have fifteen minutes before-”
“If I stay with these cry-babies any longer, I think I’m gonna go insane,” Diamond Tiara said, earning a growl from Scootaloo and a glare from Apple Bloom. Thankfully, Sweetie Belle was able to stop another incident from occurring.
Silver Spoon picked up her bag, and followed after her friend. As she passed by Sweetie Belle, she cringed at the look of disapproval on the Unicorn’s face. But she decided to simply ignore it. Right now, Diamond Tiara needed to calm down, and that wouldn’t happen if Silver Spoon chose to stay and left her all alone.
When they were alone, the three crusaders got their things together. There were bonus points for sketching the areas involved in the scavenger hunt, and they would need their bags to carry the items they found back to the campsite. They also packed some snacks and some water bottles, since this activity involved a lot of walking.
“Alright, Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Scootaloo shouted, prompting Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to jump to attention. “This is where we’ll find our Cutie Marks, for sure! It’s time for Cutie Mark Crusader Scavenger Hunters!”
“YEAH!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle shouted in unison.
“Ah think detectives might be a better way tah describe it, since we have tah solve riddles an’ all.”
“That actually sounds a lot cooler,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Okay then. Cutie Mark Crusader Detectives!”
“YEAH!”
Once they were done with their little war chant, they each reached into their bags and pulled out their official Cutie Mark Crusader Capes, and put them on. Sweetie Belle saw something sparkly underneath hers, and found that it was the broach that she had gotten from Silver Spoon last night. She decided to try it on, and was delighted to find it fit rather nicely on her cape.
“Where’d ya get that?” Apple Bloom asked, pointing to the broach.
“Oh, um… A friend gave it to me…” Sweetie Belle answered, wondering just how accurate that statement was.
“Cool,” Scootaloo said, leaning in to examine it. “It’s… A spoon?”
Sweetie Belle nodded, and Apple Bloom looked as if she were trying to work something out. “Hmmm… Where have ah seen that before?” she asked herself, looking up at the ceiling as she tapped a hoof to her chin.
Sweetie Belle pretended to look at a watch that she wasn’t wearing, and quickly made her way to the door of the tent. “Oh my, would you look at the time? We should really be getting to the meeting area.”
“But we have ten minutes left,” Scootaloo said, giving Sweetie Belle a strange look.
“Well, better safe than sorry, right?” She gave the two a nervous grin, and prompted them to follow her. They eventually did, and the three made their way to the area where the scavenger hunt would soon be starting.
“Gotcha!” Scootaloo shouted as she grabbed the marble hanging from a tree branch. “That makes number three! We’ll be done in no time at all!”
Diamond Tiara wore a bored expression on her face, and let out an audible yawn. “Good. Then we can get back to the campsite and have some lunch.”
Apple Bloom frowned and turned to face Diamond Tiara. “You haven’t even done anythin’ yet! Yah keep leavin’ it all tah us!”
“Well maybe if you gave us the map, or the riddle sheet, we’d be able to do something!” Silver Spoon said.
“Yah think so?”
“I know so!”
Silver Spoon and Apple Bloom exchanged death glares with one another. Apple Bloom’s expression then softened, and she grinned at Silver Spoon. “Alright then, prove it,” she said, before turning to Scootaloo. “Scootaloo, give ‘em the sheet. Sweetie Belle, give ‘em the map. Let’s see how well they do on their own.”
Scootaloo wanted to argue at first, but decided it might be fun to watch the two rich fillies squirm, so she reluctantly gave the riddle sheet to Diamond Tiara.
Sweetie Belle was more happy to hand over the map to Silver Spoon, and the crusaders looked at the two with expectant looks… Though the ones from Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were more mocking than sincere.
“Hmph! Fine then, let’s just get this over with!” Diamond Tiara said, before reading the next riddle on the sheet in her mind.
“… Well?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Quiet!” Diamond Tiara ordered, before walking over to Silver Spoon. “Let me see that for a second.”
Silver Spoon nodded and held the map out so that Diamond Tiara to examine it.
“Alright, I’ve got this,” Diamond Tiara said confidently. “This way.” She led the way to the next location, with the other four fillies following silently behind her.
“We there yet?” Scootaloo asked, annoyed at how much they had walked compared to the rest of the clues.
“I don’t get it!” Diamond Tiara shouted. “It should be right here! I’m sure of it!”
“Riiiight,” Apple Bloom said, grinning from ear-to-ear. “Just admit it: you’re clueless!”
“What did you say?!”
“You heard me!”
“Girls…”
“Or maybe you girls have already found the marble and are hiding it!” Silver Spoon accused.
“Why would we do something like that?” Scootaloo asked.
“To make us look stupid!” Diamond Tiara explained.
“You do that all on yer own!” Apple Bloom shouted.
“GIRLS!” The group turned to Sweetie Belle, who was looking at the other members of the group very sternly. “Stop fighting! You remember what Miss Cheerilee said, don’t you?”
“You stay out of this, blank flank!” Diamond Tiara said.
“Don’t call her that!” Scootaloo threatened.
“ENOUGH!” Sweetie Belle screeched, causing the four ponies to immediately fall silent and stare at her with wide eyes. “Either stop this, or I’m going to tell Miss Cheerilee that you’ve been fighting again!”
“You wouldn’t!” Diamond Tiara said. “That would mean betraying your friends!”
For once in her life, Scootaloo agreed with Diamond Tiara. “Yeah! What’s up with that?”
Sweetie Belle didn’t lose her stern look. “If you’re only going to be fighting on this trip, then there’s no point of even having this trip!” Sweetie Belle said. “I’d rather just go home and miss the rest of the activities, than constantly go through this stupid back-and-forth with you guys!”
Silver Spoon was amazed by this new side of Sweetie Belle, and was somewhat in awe. She caught Sweetie Belle looking her way, and quickly averted her eyes. As she did so, she noticed something strange. “… What’s that?” she asked, pointing to an orange glow in the trees.
The other fillies turned their heads to see, and were just as curious about the glow as Silver Spoon… That is, until the gentle glow turned into a ferocious fire, which was quickly spreading towards them.
The fillies screamed and immediately bolted in the direction away from the fire, as fast as they could.
“W-What’s going on?!” Diamond Tiara asked.
“Looks like a forest fire!” Apple Bloom said. “Wait, we’re running away from the campsite!”
“It’s not like we have much choice!” Silver Spoon pointed out.
The fillies eventually came across a river, which had a rather fast current, leading towards a waterfall. Looking behind them, they saw that the fire was still catching up to them, and, after some squabbling, decided that their only chance would be to jump the river.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo jumped across first, soon followed by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Sweetie Belle was the last one to attempt the jump… And was very nervous about it, too.
“Hurry up!” Scootaloo said.
“You can do it, Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom assured her.
“But I-”
“Come on!” Silver Spoon said, panicking as the flames made their way closer towards Sweetie Belle. “You can do it! Just… Hurry!”
Sweetie Belle looked into Silver Spoon’s eyes, and saw the look of worry that was in them. Silver Spoon was worried about her… She was making Silver Spoon worry. She firmed her resolve, and prepared herself to jump.
“NO!” Silver Spoon shouted after Sweetie Belle had jumped. The jump came up a little short, and the Unicorn fell into the river below. The only thing that stopped her from being immediately swept up by the current was Silver Spoon grabbing her hoof, but even didn’t last long.
Diamond Tiara quickly grabbed a hold of Silver Spoon. Apple Bloom then grabbed Diamond Tiara, and Scootaloo completed the chain… None of it helped in the end, as the five fillies were simply too weak to fight against the river’s current. All five were swept down the river, and could see the waterfall fast approaching.
“GRAB A HOLD OF WHOEVER’S NEAREST!” Silver Spoon shouted, quickly grabbing onto Apple Bloom, who grabbed back.
Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all grabbed onto each other, and waited for their impending doom…
Sweetie Belle awoke with the worst headache she had ever experienced in her entire life, and groaned as the light from the sun offended her eyes. She slowly got up, and immediately felt like throwing up. “Is this a hangover?” she asked herself, remembering that her sister would often say that’s what she had whenever she was feeling groggy.
“You’re awake?” Silver Spoon asked, startling Sweetie Belle. “Oh, sorry. You should probably lie down for a bit.”
Sweetie Belle was very confused by this situation, but she also felt absolutely terrible, so she agreed, and lay down on her back. She tried to recall what had happened. She remembered the scavenger hunt, which was going well at first… And then Diamond Tiara taking over… And the forest fire!
“Now I remember!” she said as she suddenly sat up straight. A throbbing pain ran through her head, and Silver Spoon was quick to hold her to help her calm down. Sweetie Belle heard strange noises behind her, and wondered what it was. “What’s that sound?”
Silver Spoon released Sweetie Belle, and glanced behind her. “The others woke up before us,” Silver Spoon said, and Sweetie Belle quickly realised what she had meant by that. “They haven’t stopped bickering since, but at least they haven’t started throwing kicks yet.”
Sweetie Belle slowly rose to her hooves, and turned around to see her friends and Diamond Tiara arguing about whose fault this all is. Deciding it would be best to stop this before it escalated any further, Sweetie Belle stepped forward to put an end it, with Silver Spoon following behind her.
“Oh, look who’s finally awake,” Diamond Tiara said bitterly, glaring in Sweetie Belle’s direction.
“Lay off her, she’s just woken up!” Scootaloo said, flaring her wings.
“She’s the one who fell into that river and dragged us down here in the first place!”
“Diamond,” Silver Spoon said, stepping forward before anypony else could speak up. “Can’t we save this for later? For now, we need to figure out how to get out of here.”
Diamond Tiara looked at her friend in disbelief for a moment. Did she seriously just side with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, over her best friend?
“This area of the woods is outside of the fenced-in area,” Silver Spoon said. “That means there are wild animals living out here.”
Aaaaoooooohhhhh!
The group remained silent, and shivered as the unmistakable sound of wolf howling pierced the air.
“I-I see your point,” Diamond Tiara said, walking closer to her friend for comfort. “So, what do we do?”
“We should stay put an’ wait fer help!” Apple Bloom said, reciting what she had read in one of the books in the Golden Oaks Library about surviving in the wild… The reason why she had read that book in the first place escaped her at the moment, but she was sure there was a good (possibly Cutie Mark related) reason behind it.
“That could take forever!” Scootaloo complained.
“She’s right,” Silver Spoon said, surprising Scootaloo. “And there are things out there that would love to eat us… We need to get moving. At the very least, we need to find somewhere suitable to set up a camp. Here is no good; many animals probably come here to drink from the river.”
Sweetie Belle suddenly remembered something, and looked around for her bag. When she found it where she had woken up moments earlier, she dragged it over and dug through it.
“What’re ya lookin’ for?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Got it!” Sweetie Belle cheered, pulling out a compass. “I knew this would come in useful! Now we can find our way back!”
The two crusaders cheered and praised her, causing Sweetie Belle to blush as she studied her compass. “Now, let’s see…” A few seconds later, she turned to her two friends, and asked: “Do either of you know how to use a compass?”
The crusaders both facehooved and shook their heads in disbelief, and Silver Spoon struggled to hold back a giggle, something which didn’t go unnoticed by Sweetie Belle, who shot a glare at the grey filly.
Diamond Tiara groaned, and snatched the compass from Sweetie Belle. “You’re so useless! Give me this…”
“Hey-” Sweetie Belle began, but was cut off by Silver Spoon’s hoof stretched out in front of her.
Diamond Tiara studied the compass for a moment, and then frowned at Sweetie Belle. “Well, this is no good,” she said.
“Why not?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Well for one thing, there’s no needle,” Diamond Tiara explained, showing the compass to Sweetie Belle. “And also, the four direction are covered in… Paint?”
Sweetie Belle blushed and turned her head away in shame. “S-Sorry,” she said quietly.
“Hey, at least she’s trying!” Scootaloo said, quick to defend her friend.
“It doesn’t matter if she’s trying or not! She’s not making the situation any better!”
Aaaaoooooohhhhh!
The sound was closer than earlier, and the five fillies were completely alarmed by this.
“Fight later! Run now!” Silver Spoon said, picking up her own bag and fastening it to her side.
“No arguments here!” Apple Bloom said, and the five fillies quickly made their way through the trees, heading away from the river.
“Is everypony here?” Cheerilee asked as she looked over her class. She noticed that some foals were missing. “Where are groups five and eight?”
A filly near the front raised her hoof. “Group eight is explaining the fire to the police.”
Cheerilee nodded, and let out a sigh as she marked group eight as present. ‘This is so embarrassing… It’s one thing they snuck alcohol onto this trip with them, but they also tried fire-breathing in the middle of a woods?! What is wrong with foals these days?’
“And group five?” When nopony responded, Cheerilee started to grow concerned. She asked Derpy, but she didn’t know anything either. “Oh no…” She told Derpy to watch the foals, and quickly ran off in the direction of the ranger station.
The five fillies walked quickly through the woods, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon at the front, and the crusaders slightly behind them.
“Y’know,” Scootaloo started, “If you think about it, this is actually kinda neat.”
“Yeah, we might get our Cutie Marks in survival!” Apple Bloom said. “Ah wonder what that would look like?”
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, but smiled at her friends’ attempts to lighten the mood. She walked a little faster to catch up to Silver Spoon. “Silver, can we take a break soon? I’m kinda starting to get tired…”
Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara stopped immediately, followed by the three crusaders. Silver Spoon looked between Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle nervously. “D-Don’t call me by my first name like that, blank flank.”
Sweetie Belle frowned and silently apologized, and walked back to her friends, who were glaring furiously at Silver Spoon.
Diamond Tiara gave Silver Spoon a strange look, but the latter filly pretended not to notice. “Anyway, you do bring up a good point… We should probably stop and eat something soon.”
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. “You have food on you?”
Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara exchanged glances, and then opened their bags to reveal a few packs of sweets inside. Expensive looking sweets, at that.
“Whoa!” Apple Bloom said upon seeing how much they had with them. “You two really like sweet stuff, huh?”
For reason completely beyond her, Sweetie Belle was the first thing to enter Silver Spoon’s mind at Apple Bloom question, but she quickly shook that thought out, and set her bag down.
“I need to visit the little filly’s room,” she said. “Does anypony else need to? It would be a good idea not to wander off alone.”
Sweetie Belle timidly raised her hoof in the air. “Alright, you come with me, then,” Silver Spoon said, before walking towards the trees, motioning for Sweetie Belle to follow her.
The remaining three fillies sat down and began to distribute the sweets evenly amongst the five. Diamond Tiara glanced in the direction that Silver Spoon had gone off in, and rose to her hooves. “I think it would be for the best if I go with them,” she said.
“Why? They’ll be fine as long as they stay together, right?” Scootaloo asked.
“Silver Spoon, maybe. But the blank flank?”
Scootaloo narrowed her eyes. “Really? In this situat-”
“I’m being serious. You have to admit she’s clumsy, and not the best in stressful situations.”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom didn’t say anything, but admitted in their minds that Diamond tiara was probably right. “Besides, the alternative is the three of us sitting her together.”
After that, it didn’t take long for Scootaloo to agree. “Yeah, you’d better go,” she said, waving her hoof dismissively. “And please, take your time.”
Diamond Tiara growled, but let it go. With a final harrumph, she turned and began to follow after Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie Belle came out from behind the bushes near Silver Spoon, blushing fiercely as she approached the grey filly.
“All done?” Silver Spoon asked, receiving a silent nod in response. “Good. Let’s go back.” When Sweetie Belle didn’t start following Silver Spoon back, the latter turned around to see what was wrong. “Sweetie Belle?”
“… Why did you say that to me earlier?” Sweetie Belle asked, and, upon seeing the look of confusion on Silver Spoon’s face, decided to elaborate. “I was just trying to ask you something, and you…”
Silver Spoon realised what Sweetie Belle was getting at, and turned her head downwards. “That was…”
“I thought we were friends,” Sweetie Belle said, both surprising Silver Spoon, and also, filling her with a guilty feeling.
“… I never said we were friends,” Silver Spoon said, feeling her chest tighten up as she did so. “We may have gotten along the past two days, but that was only for the sake of getting through this camp peacefully. We can’t be friends!”
Sweetie Belle looked at Silver Spoon with a horrified look on her face, and seemed to be on the verge of tears. “Why not?” she asked weakly. “You’re not a bad pony… You’ve shown that you can be nice when you want to be, so, why?”
Silver Spoon didn’t say anything, but she wished that she could. The way Sweetie Belle looked right now… It was tearing Silver Spoon apart.
“Is it because of Diamond Tiara?” Sweetie Belle asked. Silver Spoon flinched, confirming the Unicorn’s suspicions. “Why? Why go so far for somepony so mean?”
Silver Spoon grit her teeth, and suddenly shot her head back up to glare at Sweetie Belle. “You don’t know a thing about her!” she shouted, startling the other filly.
Sweetie Belle gulped, and tried to regain her composure. “Then… Tell me about her. Tell me why you would be friends with her, even if it means you can’t be friends with anypony else.” Silver Spoon didn’t respond for a bit, and a tear rolled down Sweetie Belle’s face. “Please?”
That was it. Silver Spoon couldn’t stand it anymore. To see this filly crying, and knowing that it was all her fault. She swallowed the lump in her throat, and opened her mouth to speak, though it took a while for her to convert her thoughts into speech.
“Diamond Tiara… Doesn’t have any other friends besides me,” she said. “Probably not very surprising, I know. When I first met her, five years ago, I didn’t like her either. Our fathers set up a play date between us, and she quickly tried to befriend me.
“I don’t know whether it’s that we were both from rich families, or something else, but she treated me different from other foals… She still maintained that air of superiority she always carries, but she went easier on me… Made an effort to befriend me.”
“But you still didn’t like her?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Silver Spoon shook her head. “I saw how pompous she was around other foals… How she thought she was better, just because of her family name. I hated it, and I hated having to spend time with her. One day, I finally decided to tell her how I felt… But what I saw changed my mind.”
“What did you see?”
“… Diamond Tiara, alone in her room, playing with dolls. One doll was named Diamond. Another was Silver. There was a Sweetie, a Ruby, and a Snails. And a few more… They were named after foals from our class at school.
“She made them all get along with each other. They had a tea party, and exchanged pleasantries. And then, the Diamond doll had a birthday party, and celebrated with the other dolls. At first, I was confused. But then, I saw Diamond crying to herself. Holding herself, and violently throwing her dolls aside.”
Silver Spoon sighed, and lowered her head as she faced the ground. “She was so alone. She didn’t have any friends, and her parents were always working.” Silver Spoon lifted her head up, showing Sweetie Belle a determined look on her face. “Nopony deserves to be all alone like that. Not even Diamond. That’s why, I decided that I would be her friend… I would be there for her.”
“… Even with how mean she is to others? Didn’t you ever try to… I don’t know, change her?”
Silver Spoon shook her head. “The thought had crossed my mind, but I chose to become friends with Diamond Tiara. And part of being friends with somepony, I think, is accepting them, for all their good and bad points. If somepony has to change in order to become your friend, then it’s not true friendship. That’s how I feel, at least…”
Silver Spoon’s face softened, and she smiled gently. “Well, over time, I came to realise that Diamond isn’t so bad, once you get past her… Attitude. She’s very loyal to her friends… That is to say, me, and she’s a lot of fun, too. She may be easily provoked, and a little spoiled, but I wouldn’t change a single thing about her. She’s my BFF, and I’ll always be there for her. And that’s why, we can’t be frie-”
“Are you an idiot?!”
Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle jumped at the sudden voice that called out to them, and turned to see Diamond Tiara approaching them.
“I was wondering what kind of secret you were keeping from me. I thought it was something serious, like a family crisis, but now I find that you just worried about making friends with this blank flank?!”
“D-Diamond,” Silver Spoon started, trying getting in-between Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle, “It’s not like that. I told her I have no intention of being her friend, so-”
“And why not?” Diamond Tiara asked.
Silver Spoon wasn’t sure if she had heard correctly or not, but answered anyway. “W-Well… She’s the enemy, so…”
“Again, are you an idiot?!” Diamond Tiara shouted. “Yes, she’s the enemy, and yes, I don’t like the idea of you being so chummy with her!” She paused for a second, and looked down at the ground, her body trembling slightly. “But, you’re my friend, Silver. My BFF. And I want you to be happy… If that means you make friends other than me, then that’s fine.”
Diamond Tiara walked closer to Silver Spoon, and narrowed her eyes at her. “I might be “pompous” sometimes, or a “spoiled brat” at others,” Diamond said, letting Silver Spoon know how much of the conversation she had head, “But give me some credit. I’m not so stupid as to expect you to be as happy as I am with the idea of only having one friend in your life.”
“Diamond…”
Diamond Tiara leaned forward to nuzzle her friend’s check, an act of affection which was returned by Silver Spoon. “Remember what we promised each other, when we first became friends?”
“… That we would always have each other’s backs,” Silver Spoon said. “And that we would never lie to each other. We would never keep any secrets, unless it was a surprise.”
Diamond Tiara pulled back and nodded. “And yet, you’ve been keeping all this bottled up. And not only was it painful for me, knowing you were keeping something from me, but it was also painful to see you tear yourself apart over something, and not letting me help you with it.”
Silver Spoon wiped away the tear that had started forming in her eye, and sniffled. “I’m sorry, Diamond. I just…”
Diamond Tiara sighed, and then shot a glare towards Sweetie Belle. “You, blank flank! You’d better not be just setting Silver up, or I swear, my daddy will have your family evicted from Ponyville so fast, you won’t even have time to say your farewells!”
And with that, Diamond Tiara let out a huff, and walked back towards where Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were. Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle simply stared in the direction she had marched off in, both completely speechless and bewildered.
“That was… A side of her I’ve never seen before,” Sweetie Belle said, turning her gaze to Silver Spoon.
“Yes, well… I told you she’s loyal to her friends,” Silver Spoon said, turning and smiling at Sweetie Belle. “In case you had trouble understanding her, she was basically saying she doesn’t mind us being friends.”
Sweetie Belle giggled. “Yeah, I kinda got that,” she said. Both fillies started to giggle together, and when they stopped, they found themselves looking into each other’s eyes, and smiling at each other. “… Y’know, I-”
Aaaaoooooohhhhh!
The two fillies froze up suddenly, and slowly turned their heads to look behind them. That last howl sounded very close, but they had hoped it was just their imaginations playing tricks on them… It wasn’t.
Behind the two fillies, a large, ferocious grey-furred wolf could be seen approaching them from behind the trees. Once it took a step forward, they both simultaneously let out a loud scream, and bolted back to where the others were as quickly as possible.
Apple Bloom looked up at Diamond Tiara as she returned, and then looked around to see if the other two were with her. “Where’re Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon?” she asked.
Diamond Tiara and gave them the excuse that she had prepared. “I couldn’t find them, so I decided to simply come back.”
Scootaloo bolted upright, and looked off into the direction the fillies were last heading in with concern. “This is bad! What if something’s happened to them?”
“What I meant, was that they had already gotten too far into the woods for me to find them. If they don’t come back in five minutes, then we go and look for them.”
Aaaaoooooohhhhh!
“… That sounded mighty close,” Apple Bloom said quietly, getting up and looking around nervously.
Diamond Tiara was about to tell her that she was just being paranoid, but didn’t get the chance to before Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon came running from the behind some bushes, screaming something incoherent at the group.
“W-Wolf!” Sweetie Belle finally managed to say properly as she and Silver Spoon passed the group.
The other three fillies saw the wolf approaching, and didn’t waste any time following the two, screaming just as loudly.
Diamond Tiara felt her legs aching from as she ran, and started to slow down. Scootaloo grabbed Diamond Tiara’s hoof and dragged her along, forcing her to keep up.
“Where’s Fluttershy when ya need her?!” Apple Bloom shouted.
“Just keep running!” Silver Spoon said.
Eventually, the five fillies came across a large ravine, with only a flimsy-looking rope bridge connecting the two sides, as far as they could see.
“That doesn’t look stable,” Scootaloo said.
“I don’t think we have much choice!” Sweetie Belle pointed out.
The five agreed, and quickly began to run across the bridge, and they were halfway across before the wolf caught up, and also began to cross.
As they made their way to the other side, they felt the bridge start to give out beneath them. “Oh horseapples!” Scootaloo said as she saw the bridge collapsing before them. “LET’S GO!”
Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon were the first two to cross, and managed to get onto the other side just before the bridge disconnected. Diamond Tiara had to jump to make it, and was followed by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who both just missed the edge of the cliff.
“NO!” Sweetie Belle shouted as she saw her two friends begin to fall, but was amazed at what she saw when she looked over the edge. Apple Bloom was still in the air, being held by Scootaloo, whose wings were flapping hard.
“Scootaloo! Ye’re flyin’!” Apple Bloom shouted excitedly, despite the situation.
“Not… Quite!” Scootaloo said in a strained voice, clearly struggling to stay hovering. “I can’t… Keep this up…”
“Grab this!” Scootaloo looked up to see a tiara dangling just above her head. She strained her neck to reach forward and grab it into her mouth, receiving a disgusted groan from the pink filly above. “Wah!”
“DIAMOND!” Silver Spoon grabbed Diamond Tiara as she began to fall, and Sweetie Belle grabbed Silver Spoon to support her. Together, the three fillies managed to pull up Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.
Once they were all safe, with the wolf now at the bottom of the ravine, they took a moment to catch their breaths. Diamond Tiara looked at her tiara with a disgusted look, since it was now covered in Scootaloo’s saliva, and asked Silver Spoon to keep a hold of it for her, seeing as how she had left her bag on the other side of the ravine.
“Tha… Thanks… For savin’ us,” Apple Bloom said, looking at Diamond Tiara.
“… You should… Be more careful… Blank flank…”
Apple Bloom scowled at Diamond Tiara, but she was much too exhausted to be truly angry right now.
Once the five had rested long enough, and could now breath properly, they decided that they should probably get moving again. Silver Spoon pointed out that there was smoke in the distance, which could mean there were other ponies. They all agreed to go in that direction.
“You don’t think there are any more wolves around, do you?” Sweetie Belle asked Silver Spoon as the two walked side-by-side. In front of them, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shivered at the thought of seeing another wolf, and Diamond Tiara, at the very front of the group, was pretending to focus her full attention on leading the way.
“No, I don’t think so,” Silver Spoon said. She didn’t actually know if there or not, but for now, she wanted to calm Sweetie Belle down. Sweetie Belle leaned against Silver Spoon, looking around with a worried look on her, and Silver Spoon had to turn her head to hide the blush on her face.
“What about other dangerous animals?”
Silver Spoon looked at Sweetie Belle, still leaning against her as they walked together, and slowly inched her hoof closer to the Unicorn’s. She stopped just short of their hooves connecting, and began to pull back, but Sweetie Belle reached out and grabbed the grey filly’s hoof herself.
“I want to get out of here,” Sweetie Belle whimpered, tears forming in her eyes.
Silver Spoon gulped, and held on tightly to Sweetie Belle’s hoof. “D-Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll make it out of here just fine.” She raised her head and looked over to the three fillies in front of her. “Right?”
Apple Bloom turned her head and smiled nervously at the two behind her. “Er… Yeah!” she shouted back, before turning her attention back to in front of her. “What’s up with them?” she asked Scootaloo in a whispered voice. “When’d they get so close?”
Scootaloo glanced back for a moment, and caught Silver Spoon quickly turning her face away from Sweetie Belle, and pretending to have looking at the scenery. “I dunno,” she whispered back. “But it’s kinda creeping me out.”
Apple bloom walked a little faster to catch up to Diamond Tiara, along with Scootaloo. “Hey, why’re those two actin’ so friendly?”
“Don’t know,” Diamond Tiara said, sounding uninterested. “Maybe that blank flank just has good tastes?”
“That doesn’t explain why Silver’s hangin’ with her,” Scootaloo said.
“Silver Spoon,” Diamond Tiara corrected. “And I agree; I don’t see what she sees in that blank flank.”
“Will ya stop callin’ us that already?” Apple Bloom asked. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re kinda in a bad situation.”
Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo stopped suddenly, soon followed by Apple Bloom, and then the two fillies following behind them.
“A fork in the road?” Scootaloo asked as she looked at the two separate pathways in front of them. “Great. Now what?”
Diamond Tiara noticed that one of the paths sloped up. “… I’ll go check out this path, and see if it leads anywhere,” she said, walking forwards.
“Not alone you won’t!” Apple Bloom said, and she and Scootaloo started to follow after her. “You two stay here! We’ll be right back!” she shouted back to Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon.
“Shouldn’t we all stay together?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Scootaloo was about to agree, but Diamond Tiara spoke up first. “No. What if somepony comes down that other path?”
Sweetie Belle, finding no fault with that logic, agreed. Silver Spoon quietly assured her that everything would be okay, and the Unicorn tightened her hold on Silver Spoon’s hoof, smiling at her in the process.
“Why did you say that?” Scootaloo asked. “She’s right; we should all stay together.”
“Scootaloo… Look…”
Scootaloo turned her attention to where Apple Bloom was pointing, and almost gagged when she saw a dead rabbit on the path, rotting in the sunlight.
“The last thing we need is that blank flank breaking down into tears, and slowing us down more,” Diamond Tiara said.
Apple Bloom wasn’t sure whether she was being mean, or nice in her own way. She decided, for the sake of keeping things peaceful for now, that she would assume the latter.
“Come on. We’ll take a quick look down this way,” Diamond Tiara said.
The other two nodded, and the three fillies walked together down the path. Once they felt that they had gone down the path far enough, and found nothing but more trees in front of them, they decided to go back and try the other path.
However, on their way back, they heard a loud scream that was all too familiar to them.
“SWEETIE BELLE!” the two crusaders shouted.
Sweetie Belle decided to sit underneath one of the nearby trees whilst she waited. Her entire body was hot from all the walking she had done in the past fifteen minutes, and being so close to Silver Spoon for most of that time probably didn’t help much, either.
The cool shade helped a lot, and she took the time to appreciate the beautiful scenery around her, having been too scared earlier to admire it properly. The leaves on the trees were a lush green, there were butterflies fluttering through the air, and the ground was decorated with a variety of beautiful flowers.
“It’s kind of nice here,” she said to Silver Spoon, who was standing not too far from her.
“Yeah… It is,” Silver Spoon agreed, not taking her eyes off of the path that Diamond Tiara had walked down.
Sweetie Belle looked behind here, and there was something that caught her attention. “Wow!” she shouted as she quickly got up and ran through the trees, moving towards an apple tree that bore very delicious-looking apples. “Silver Spoon, come check this out!”
“Wait!” Silver Spoon shouted, chasing after Sweetie Belle. “Don’t rush off! It might not be safe!”
A loud scream from Sweetie Belle caused Silver Spoon to stop immediately, and examine the situation before her. Sweetie Belle was in front of her, fear spread across her features as she slowly sunk into the ground.
“What’s going on?!” Sweetie Belle asked in a panic.
“It’s quicksand!” Silver Spoon exclaimed. She quickly extended a hoof forward. Thankfully, Sweetie Belle wasn’t that far in, and could reach her just fine. “Grab on! I’ll pull you out!”
Silver Spoon pulled as hard she could, but just couldn’t find the strength to pull the Unicorn out. She cursed her legs for being abnormally weak for an Earth Pony, and started to feel herself slipping.
Sweetie Belle noticed this too, and started to panic. She shut her eyes tight. ‘Silver Spoon’s going to get dragged in, too, and it’s all my fault!’ Her horn sparked a little bit. ‘I have to do something… I can’t let Silver Spoon get pulled into this… I have to do something!’
Sweetie Belle felt her horn suddenly heat up, and a sharp pain ran through her head, causing her to let out a loud squeak of pain. Silver Spoon opened her eyes to see what was going on, and saw a green light surrounding Sweetie Belle’s horn and hind legs.
Sweetie Belle started to rise out of the quicksand, and Silver Spoon put all of her strength into pulling her out. ‘Just a little more!’ she thought to herself, as she saw one of Sweetie Belle’s leg leave the quicksand.
With one final tug, the trapped filly was freed, and was pulled through the air towards Silver Spoon.
Sweetie Belle groaned, and rubbed her temple when the pain had finished subsiding. “Ow…” She felt her horn return to its normal state, and then opened her eyes to see what had happened. She saw Silver Spoon in front of her… Looking up at Sweetie Belle with what was possibly the biggest blush either filly had ever seen.
“A-Are you okay?” Silver Spoon asked, not daring to move in the position that she was in.
Sweetie Belle joined her in blushing when she realised that she was propped over Silver Spoon, practically pinning the other filly to the ground with her forehooves. “Y-Yeah,” she said.
She knew she should have gotten up, but for some reason, she didn’t. She didn’t want to end this moment just yet… She wanted to keep this moment going for as long as she could, with the two fillies staring into each other’s eyes, their faces inching closer and closer to each other…
“A-hem!”
The two fillies snapped out of it upon hearing somepony clearing their throat, and turned their heads to see their friends standing next to them. It was Diamond Tiara who had cleared her throat, and she was looking down at the two with an angry look on her face.
“You know, I almost expected such inappropriate behaviour from the blank flank, but from you, Silver Spoon?”
Behind her, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were staring in wide-eyed astonishment. Scootaloo’s eye was twitching, and she wasn’t sure quite what to think of the situation. Apple Bloom looked almost thrilled with the situation, giving the two a coy look as she let out an “ooh”, as if reaching some sudden realisation.
Sweetie Belle quickly clambered her way off of Silver Spoon, and flailed her hooves about in front of her. “N-No! I-It was an accident! We weren’t doing anything, I swear!”
Silver Spoon also got up, and nodded quickly. “She’s right! I was just saving her from the quicksand!”
“Riiiiight,” Apple Bloom said, enjoying every moment of Silver Spoon’s ever-intensifying blush. “And you two movin’ yer faces closer together was also from the quicksand?”
The two fillies were now as red as tomatoes, and they stumbled over their words as they tried to explain themselves.
“Look, if you two want to get all lover-dovey with each other, that’s your own business,” Diamond Tiara, sending a wink towards Silver Spoon. “We can even go out to a restaurant together later, to celebrate. But, there’s a time and a place for that kind of thing.”
“I told you, it’s not like that!” Silver Spoon shouted, quickly rising to her hooves.
“Ooh, now I see why you two have been so close lately!” Scootaloo said, causing Apple Bloom to roll her eyes at how slow she had been to reach this conclusion. Scootaloo looked over at Silver Spoon, and then back at Sweetie Belle, this time with a strange look on her face. “Really, Sweetie Belle? Silver Spoon?”
Diamond Tiara scrunched her face in anger, and turned to confront Scootaloo. “That should be my line!” she shouted. “That blank flank isn’t good enough for somepony of such class and sophistication! The only reason I’m okay with it is because, for some reason, Silver Spoon seems to like her!”
“I told you-” Silver Spoon began, but was cut off by Apple Bloom.
“So, when’s the weddin’?” she teased, chuckling when Sweetie Belle suddenly got up and started glaring at her.
“Giiiirls!” she whined. “Stop it! There’s nothing going on between us! We’re just friends, right?” Silver Spoon didn’t answer straight away, so Sweetie Belle quickly nudged her side. “Right?!”
Silver Spoon jumped at the sudden nudge she felt by Sweetie Belle, and quickly nodded in agreement. “A-Anyway, shouldn’t we be getting a move on? Did you find anything down that pathway?”
Diamond Tiara turned around to face Silver Spoon. “You’re right,” she said. “We were going to check the other path next… I think we should all go together this time. It seems we need to keep an eye on you two.”
As they were walking down the second path, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo decided to interrogate Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon on their new ‘relationship’.
“How long’s this been goin’ on?”
“What do you see in her, Sweetie Belle?”
“Does this mean we have tah start getting’ along now?”
“Seriously, what do you see in her?”
Sweetie Belle groaned and rolled her eyes. “We’re just friends!” she shouted, turning her head to look back at her friends. “And Scootaloo, stop saying that! She’s a lot nicer than you think!”
Silver Spoon, now blushing from how Sweetie Belle was so passionately defending her, sped up her pace in order to catch up with Diamond Tiara.
“Yeah, well, I have a hard time believing that, considering all she’s put us through,” Scootaloo said.
Sweetie Belle’s ears flattened, and her expression fell, as she remembered all that Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara had done to them before. “But, she still deserves another chance, right?”
“Are you serious?” Scootaloo asked. “We should just forget everything she’s done and just… Be friends with her all of a sudden?”
“I never said we should forget,” Sweetie Belle said. “But, she is a good pony at heart. She-” Sweetie Belle was about to recite Silver Spoon’s story about her becoming friends with Diamond Tiara, but she stopped herself when she considered that Silver Spoon might not like it. “… She gave me this broach, after all.”
The other two blinked, staring at the broach on her cape, and their eyes suddenly shot wide open. “Oh mah gosh!” Apple Bloom shouted. “That’s why it looks familiar! It’s Silver Spoon’s Cutie Mark!”
“She gave you that?” Scootaloo asked. “For free?” Sweetie Belle nodded. “Well… I guess she may not be so bad, then, but she’s still a bully, y’know?”
“She never does anything so bad,” Sweetie Belle said, desperate to defend Silver Spoon.
“It’s mostly Diamond Tiara that’s the problem,” Apple Bloom admitted. “But she hangs out with her, and goes along with her whenever she gives us grief.”
“She… Has her reasons,” Sweetie Belle said.
“What reason?” Scootaloo asked.
Sweetie Belle shook her head. “I can’t tell you.”
“We’re you friends! What d’you mean you can’t tell us?”
“Because Silver Spoon’s my friend, too, and I don’t think she’d appreciate it if I went around telling all her secrets!”
Scootaloo flared her wings, ready to counter-argue, but was stopped by a hoof from Apple Bloom. “Scootaloo, c’mon now,” she said, grinning at the Pegasus filly. “Don’t be jealous. It’s not like we’re being replaced or anythin’.”
“J-Jealous?! Of that snotty little, spoiled-”
“That’s enough!” Sweetie Belle shouted, surprising her two friends. She quickly realised that she had raised her voice, and quickly calmed herself down again. “Um, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call her things like that…”
Scootaloo huffed, and turned her head to the side. “Fine… As long as she doesn’t start something first…”
Apple Bloom nodded in agreement. “Ah still don’t like her very much, but if you see some good in her, ah guess ah can put up with her.”
Sweetie Belle stopped for a moment to pull her two friends into a group hug, an action which earned a gag from Scootaloo. “Thanks, you guys!”
Silver Spoon caught up with Diamond Tiara, who was walking far in front of the others. “So, are we going to continue down this way?”
Diamond Tiara nodded, and pointed up at the sky, through the treetops. “The smoke is coming from that direction. We might find it if we follow this path.” She shot Silver Spoon an annoyed glance. “You sure you’d rather hang with me, instead of that blank flank?”
Silver Spoon rolled her eyes, and tapped Diamond Tiara’s shoulder gently with a hoof. “And leave my BFF on her own?” she said with a grin. Diamond Tiara smiled back, but quickly reverted to a neutral expression. “And about earlier… It really was an accident.”
“I know,” Diamond Tiara replied, surprising her friend. “What? Just because I copy your notes, it doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”
“Oh, I never said you were,” Silver Spoon said, though her mind was thinking something different. “It’s just… So, what was all that about back then?”
“The teasing?” Diamond Tiara grinned wickedly at her friend. “Come on, you know me. It was fun,” she said, giggling a little under her breath.
Silver Spoon looked at her in shock at first, and then in disbelief. “You were… Just having a laugh?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Silver Spoon pouted, and then turned her head to face away from Diamond Tiara. “You know I’m going to have get you back for that, right?”
“I’ll be waiting,” Diamond Tiara said playfully.
“… And, there really isn’t anything like that going on between me and Sweetie Belle, just so we’re clear,” Silver Spoon added, her face turning red.
Diamond Tiara didn’t immediately answer this time. ‘Oh, please. You can’t honestly expect me to believe that, can you? Your face turns red just from mentioning her name!’ “Sure, whatever you say.”
They heard a raised voice behind them, but didn’t quite hear what it said. They both turned around to see the three crusaders slowing down as they talked to each other.
“Maybe we’d better slow down a bit?” Silver Spoon suggested. “If Miss Cheerilee hears that we ditched them, we’ll never hear the end of it.”
Diamond Tiara sighed, and reluctantly agreed. The two slowed down, to make sure that the crusaders didn’t lose them. As she looked back again, she saw Sweetie Belle stopping to give her friends a big hug. She turned to Silver Spoon and grinned. “You might want to see this,” she said.
Silver Spoon looked over her shoulder, and then quickly turned back again, her face flushed. “W-Why would I have wanted to see that?”
Diamond Tiara’s grin was growing wider by the second. “Has she hugged you like that yet?”
“Why would she?!” Silver Spoon shouted, her voice cracking as she did so.
“Hmmm… So you’re losing to a couple of blank flanks…” Diamond Tiara giggled. “You’d better step up your game.”
Silver Spoon struggled for a witty retort, so instead, she decided to withdraw. She slowed her pace, allowing herself to fall between Diamond Tiara and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Now that it was quiet, and she had nopony to talk to, her mind started to wander… To images of Sweetie Belle running towards her, and wrapping her forelegs around the grey filly in a big hug.
‘Ugh. Dumb brain…’
It had been one hour since the fillies were declared missing, and Cheerilee was on the verge of having the biggest panic attack she’d ever had since her first day as a teacher, when a young colt hurt himself, and she thought that she would be fired immediately.
She left the class to Derpy, and told her not to mention that the crusaders were missing. Of course, most of the class realised that the crusaders weren’t there, and Derpy not being able to find a suitable cover story seemed to clue the smarter students in to the truth of the situation at hoof.
Cheerilee had arranged a few search parties to scout the woods, and was using a telescope at a ranger station to see if she could spot the fillies herself. With every second that passed that she hadn’t spotted them, or received word of their safety, another strand of hair popped out of place, and her teeth ground together over and over. Minuette was going to have a fit during her next appointment, but right now, she only cared about finding her five students, and making sure that they were all safe.
‘Knowing those three, they’re probably trying to make an adventure out of this, and the other two are probably just getting annoyed, and causing disputes between them!’ She let out a sigh, and turned the telescope to another portion of the woods. ‘I hope they at least stay together…’
The sound of clicking made itself present behind Cheerilee, and she quickly turned around to see a message coming through on the telegraph. The ranger beside her, who was viewing the woods through a pair of binoculars, rushed over to see what it was.
Once it had come through, he read it quickly, and then turned to the teacher with a smile. “They’ve been found!” he said excitedly. Cheerilee let out the breath she had started holding when she saw the message coming through, and asked where they were, and if they were okay. “They were found by two Scout masters, on the other side of the ravine. They’re currently being led to the Colt Scout camping site. I can take you there, if you wish.”
Cheerilee quickly nodded her head. “Yes, please!”
The ranger put the message down, and led the teacher outside. “Alright. It’s quite a walk, though. Will your students be okay?”
Cheerilee thought about that. Derpy was a good teacher’s assistant, but leading the whole class, by herself? But then, the students at the campsite were safe, and the five that were missing were still in the woods. Even if they were with adults, they were still her responsibility, and, above all else, she wanted… No, she needed to know whether they were okay or not.
“They’ll be fine,” she said finally. “Just take me there. Hurry!”
“Man, I’m so hungry!” Scootaloo’s stomach rumbled, as if to emphasis her point. “I can’t wait ‘til we get back! I hope they saved us some food from lunch!”
“Ah hear ya,” Apple Bloom said, panting as she struggled to follow her friend up the hill they were climbing. “Ah just hope they aren’t too mad at us for goin’ outside the fenced-in area…”
“How mad could they be?” Scootaloo asked. “I mean, it’s not like we did it on purpose or anything.”
“Just a little further now!” one of the Scout masters shouted, though it was the tenth time in what felt like half-an-hour to the fillies.
Apple Bloom looked over her shoulder, to see the other three in their group lagging behind a bit. “Ya’ll alright back there?” she asked, receiving nothing but strained groans from Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon. “Mr. Merit says it’s jus’ a lil’ father now.”
“Great,” Sweetie Belle said, before dramatically dropping to her stomach. She felt herself rise again, and found that one of her forelegs was now being draped around Silver Spoon, who was carrying the filly the rest of the way up the slope.
“He said that… Ten minutes… Ago…” Silver Spoon said in-between breaths.
Diamond Tiara glared at the four ponies leading them. “How… Do they… Do that?”
“It’s ‘cause we work out!” Scootaloo shouted, turning around to look at Diamond Tiara, a huge smirk on her face. “C’mon, you call yourself an Earth Pony?”
“An Earth Pony who can’t use her legs?” Apple Bloom asked sarcastically. “Gee, it looks like ye’re not so perfect after all, ‘Princess’.”
Sweetie Belle would have been more worried about a fight breaking out between Diamond Tiara and her friends, except she was just far too tired to care right now. Thankfully, Diamond Tiara was in much the same state.
When the group finally reached the top, the Scout masters offered the three exhausted fillies a drink from their water flasks. There wasn’t much inside, so they had to share it. Once Silver Spoon was finished, she handed the flask to Sweetie Belle, who drank from it quickly.
She wiped her mouth, and handed the flask to Diamond Tiara. She heard giggling next to her, and looked over to see her friends grinning her way, obviously finding something amusing.
“Y’know,” Apple Bloom started. “Silver Spoon’s lips touched that flask first… That’s kinda like an indirect kiss.”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened suddenly, and she quickly. “N-No it’s not!” she protested.
“Yuh-huh!” Apple Bloom said, nodding her head.
“Nuh-huh!” Sweetie Belle responded, her face turning red.
“Yuh-huh!” Scootaloo said, joining in.
“Just stop it already!”
“And what about you two?” Silver Spoon asked, facing Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who looked at her with confused faces. “You two have been pretty close this whole trip… I think it’s you two, who are hiding feelings from each other.”
Apple Bloom’s eyes shot wide open, and she quickly shook her head. “Are you kiddin’ me?! No way!”
“Hey!” Scootaloo shouted, feeling somewhat insulted.
“It explains why you’re always getting into trouble together,” Silver Spoon continued, causing both of them to blush even harder. “What, you two want to spend some detention time alone together?”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly started listing reasons why Silver Spoon’s deduction was wrong, and why they would never, ever have feelings like that for each other. As the two went off on their rant, Silver Spoon shot a quick smile and a wink at Sweetie Belle, who smiled back.
“Girls! Over here, quickly!”
The girls stopped what they were doing, and looked over at the Scout master’s curiously. Hearing a huff behind them, they quickly spun around to see a large wolf, even bigger than the last that they had found, staring at them with hungry eyes, its jaw slightly open, and drool leaking from between its sharp teeth.
The girls wasted no time in getting up, and running over to the Scout masters. They hid behind them, whilst the two older ponies stared the slowly approaching wolf down. One of them, Mr. Barbell, took out a folding knife from his jacket pocket, and pointed it at the wolf. He was quite a muscular stallion, but he wasn’t so confident in his abilities to fight a wolf one-on-one without a weapon.
“Girls,” Mr. Merit said, not taking his eyes off the wolf, as the group slowly backed away from the ferocious beast. “When I give the command, go right and hide in the bushes.” The fillies nodded, and the two Scout masters waited for the right moment. The wolf’s stance lowered. “NOW!”
All of the fillies quickly ran to their rights, and ducked into the bushes. Four curious heads poked up, and gasped in horror. “SWEETIE BELLE! THAT’S LEFT!” Apple Bloom shouted.
The Scout masters would have facehooved, if their attentions weren’t already drawn to the wolf as it charged forward, running towards Sweetie Belle, who was mid-way between the Scout masters and the bushes. She wouldn’t make it in time, and the Scout masters could only hope they could reach her before the wolf did.
Suddenly a blur of magenta shot through the air, past Sweetie Belle, and hit the pouncing wolf, sending it flying onto its back. Everypony stopped immediately to see what had just attacked the wolf. What they saw, when the dust had settled, was a magenta Earth Pony mare, with a Cutie Mark of three flowers with smiling faces.
“STAY. AWAY. FROM. MY. STUDENTS!” the mare shouted, in a voice that would give the Royal Canterlot Voice a run for its money.
The wolf growled at the mare on top of it, but then backed away upon receiving a terrifying glare, which caused its entire body to shiver. “Leave now, or I will be very cross!” She leaned in closer, pressing her nose against the wolf’s. “Do I make myself clear?”
The wolf quickly nodded, sweat running down its head as it let out a panicky whimper. The mare got up, and shot the wolf one final glare, before it bolted off back into the woods.
Once it was gone, the teacher turned around and ran over to Sweetie Belle, who was now sitting on her flanks, watching the scene with awe and wonder. “Are you okay, Sweetie Belle? That mean old wolf didn’t hurt you, did it?” Cheerilee asked, examining every area of Sweetie Belle to make sure that she was fine.
“I-I’m fine, Miss Cheerilee.”
Cheerilee let out a relieved sigh, and pulled Sweetie Belle into a hug. “Thank Celestia,” she said, a tear running down her face. She turned her attention to her other students, who had emerged from behind the bushes, and had approached their teacher. “You’re all safe… I’m so glad…”
“Miss Cheerilee!” the ranger shouted as he ran up to the group, panting as he tried to catch his breath. “Man… You can… Really run, huh?”
“These are all of my missing students,” Cheerilee said, rising to her hooves. “Thank you, for helping me reach them.”
“It was nothing,” the ranger said, blushing at the teacher’s smile. “More importantly…” He turned to the Scout master. “Are there any other ponies in the woods right now?”
Both Scout masters shook their heads. “None that we know of,” Merit said.
The ranger was relieved, but didn’t allow himself to relax just yet. “There aren’t supposed to be wolves out in this part of the woods… We’re gonna have to close it off, for now.”
Cheerilee told her students to stay close to her, and started to lead them down the path. The ranger and Scout masters followed, staying vigilant the whole way.
“Um… Miss Cheerilee?” Sweetie Belle asked. “We’re not in trouble, are we?”
Cheerilee shook her head. “No, of course not,” she said in a gentle tone. “I’m just so happy that you’re alright… When we get back, we’ll get you all something to eat, and then you can join the others in their activities… We should be able to make it back in time for the last two.”
The three crusaders smiled widely, and cheered amongst themselves, very loudly. So loudly, that Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara, and Cheerilee had to rub their ears afterwards.
“We might still get out Cutie Marks!” Scootaloo said.
“Yeah! We missed most of the activities today, but there’s still a chance!” Sweetie Belle added.
“Ah’m totally gonna ace the arts ‘n’ crafts activity!”
“Yeah, sure,” Diamond Tiara said sarcastically. “Or maybe you’ll just-”
“Maybe,” Silver Spoon quickly cut in, “You’ll get it in the final activity tomorrow. It’d be much more special then!”
The four fillies, and also Cheerilee, looked at her in total shock. Cheerilee turned her head back to the front of her, wondering to herself what in Equestria could have happened whilst they were lost in the woods together.
Silver Spoon motioned for everypony to huddle up. Whilst Sweetie Belle had no problem with it, the other three did so reluctantly. “I really don’t think we want to try Miss Cheerilee’s patience, you guys,” she whispered, glancing up for a moment to make sure that their teacher wasn’t listening in. “You saw how she handled that wolf… Do you really want to get on her bad side, after witnessing something like that?”
The other fillies gulped, and then, after exchanging glances, nodded their heads.
“Agreed,” Apple Bloom said. “No fightin’ until after we get back tah Ponyville.” She placed her hoof in the centre, and it was soon joined by Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Silver Spoon, and finally, Diamond Tiara.
“Agreed,” the other four said, before breaking up the huddle and following their teacher in silence.
Once they were back at their class’ campsite, the five fillies were led to the cafeteria, where some food had been set aside for them. Their stomachs growling, practically begging for some sustenance, the five fillies wasted no time wolfing the food down.
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, for the most part, remembered their table manners, but they were so hungry that they would occasionally slip up. They didn’t care, though; they were just happy to finally have some food in them.
Once their meals were finished, they were escorted to the arts and crafts room. The activity had already started, but they still had thirty minutes to participate.
Sweetie Belle was interested in bead weaving, and went to one of the instructors to receive some a help with it. Silver Spoon was more interested in the pottery making, and wandered to join the group that was making pottery plates.
Diamond Tiara was about to join her friend, when she received a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, both of which leaned closer so that they could whisper to her, an action she didn’t particularly care for very much.
“Hey, listen,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah know ye’re probably not interested, but me an’ Scootaloo wanted tah ask ya tah help us with somethin’.”
Diamond tiara raised an eyebrow at the two. “And that would be?” she asked, not caring enough to lower her voice to a whisper.
“We want to help those two get together,” Scootaloo said.
“Ah’m sure you see it too,” Apple Bloom continued. “Those two totally dig each other!”
Diamond Tiara, now somewhat more interested, also started whispering. “‘Dig each other’? Are you from the eighties or something? Anyway, what business of it is yours?”
“Because they’re so darn slow!” Apple Bloom said, her frustration starting to show. “An’ if we don’t give ‘em a lil’ nudge, they’re never gonna get past this whole “we’re just friends” thing!”
“You care too, don’t you?” Scootaloo asked. “For Silver Spoon’s sake?”
Diamond Tiara looked over her shoulder at Silver Spoon, and then back to the two crusaders. “… Well, maybe a little,” she admitted. “But what can we do? Isn’t it up to them?”
“Pfft, yeah right!” Scootaloo said. “We’re their friends! It’s our job to interfere!”
“… Are you sure?” Diamond Tiara asked. She wasn’t an expert, but she was sure that didn’t sound right.
“Worked for Miss Cheerilee an’ Big Macintosh,” Apple Bloom said. “… Kinda.”
“Look, if you don’t wanna help, just say so! But if not, then, at the very least, don’t get in our way, okay?”
Diamond Tiara thought about it for a moment. She didn’t particularly care if Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle got together, but then, she did want Silver Spoon to be happy. And she had to admit, whilst fun at first, it was starting to get tiring seeing Silver Spoon in constant denial like this.
“… Fine,” Diamond Tiara said. “What do I need to do?”
The other two fillies grinned, and started whispering their plans to Diamond Tiara. Their initial plan, their backup plan, and their backup backup plan. They had learned from personal experience: plans A and B don’t necessarily work well most of the time.
Once the day’s activities were over, and the foals had enjoyed their free time (which Apple Bloom and Scootaloo made a point of teasing Sweetie Belle about spending it with Silver Spoon), the class assembled at their campsite, and entered their tents, getting ready for ‘lights out’.
Silver Spoon had washed Diamond Tiara’s tiara earlier, and returned it to her after it had dried. “Thank you,” Diamond Tiara said to her friend, before placing the headpiece by her pillow.
Silver Spoon removed her glasses and lay down. “You’re welcome,” she said, before letting out a loud yawn. “Today was pretty tiring, huh?”
Diamond Tiara nodded, her eyes starting to feel heavy as soon as her head met her pillow.
“Alright, ah’m gonna turn the lamp off, guys,” Apple Bloom said, checking to make sure everypony was lying down.
“What, no ghost stories tonight?” Silver Spoon asked.
Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nah, we were gonna play a board game tonight, but we’re plum tired from today’s ‘incident’.” That was a true sign of how tiring the incident was; even the Cutie Mark Crusaders were worn out. ‘Not tah mention, we got a lot tah do tomorrow,’ Apple Bloom added in her mind, grinning deviously as she did so.
“Just so we’re clear,” Scootaloo said, turning on Sweetie Belle’s nightlight before Apple Bloom switch off the lamp. “We’d better not catch you in Sweetie Belle’s sleeping bag in the morning.”
Silver Spoon’s face flushed instantly, along with Sweetie Belle’s. Both fillies exchanged a wordless glance, before turning around so that their backs were to each other. “Idiot!” Silver Spoon shouted. “Why would that even happen?!”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo snickered, and high-hooved each other. However, their fun wouldn’t last for long.
“Just turn that darn light off already!” Diamond Tiara shouted, glaring at the two fillies. Her tiredness starting to take effect, causing her to enter ‘Cranky DT mode’ as Silver Spoon called it.
The lamp shut off, and the tent fell silent as the five fillies began to drift into sleep. Silver Spoon quietly rolled around to look behind her. Her eyes caught two big, green pearls staring back at her, and she quickly rolled back to face the other way.
Apple Bloom had to suppress the urge to giggle as she heard the sounds of two fillies moving about in their sleeping bags. ‘Tomorrow’s gonna be fun.’