//------------------------------//
// The Eleventh Bell Rings- And It Was Such A Lovely Day Too... 
// Story: The Serenade of Silver Belles 
// by Your Antagonist 
//------------------------------//


The Serenade of Silver Belles



By: Your Antagonist



Edited By: Starwind Dood, Aziraphael, TheWattsMan, Brony2893, Cpl. Hooves, Chuck Finley and (The Great and Powerful) Plyxe






Chapter 11- And It Was Such a Nice Day Too…


It was the embering light of the afternoon sun and the caress of a rolling evening breeze that greeted Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle upon their departure from Sugarcube Corner. The earth pony shielded her eyes with a hoof and squinted, adjusting to the drastic change in light as she and Sweetie Belle trotted away from the bakery with no particular destination in mind. They had only left under the advisement of their former tablemates, who had addressed strong concern towards the girls being in the presence of hard cider and the slightly more risqué performances that had a tendency to follow after consumption of said beverages. Despite their encouraged departure, there was still a solid amount of daylight at their disposal and —due to a recent revelation à la karaoke— a dozen mysteries surrounding Sweetie Belle for Silver Spoon to burn it with.

With a nervous, creeping grin brought about by an unspoken excitement tugging at her lips, Silver Spoon stole a glance at her blissfully trotting companion, who had decided somewhere along the lines that personal space between the two while walking was no longer a necessity. There was just so much that she wanted—nay—that she needed to know, so many inquiries to be pressed, and yet, she couldn’t bring herself to break the barrier of silence that had encompassed the two since the confession. It wasn’t that she was deathly afraid to come right out with what she wanted to say—although she definitely was—she just had no idea where to begin or what to say. After all, this was the first time anypony had ever expressed some form of affection towards her and she didn’t want to make a fool of herself or ruin the moment by saying the wrong thing. Fortunately for her, it seemed like she wouldn’t have to; Sweetie Belle’s tolerance for the silence was decidedly lesser than Silver Spoon’s.

“Hey,” Sweetie Belle called, just loud enough to catch Silver Spoon’s attention.

“Yes?” the earth pony practically gasped, relieved that the overbearing silence had finally been broken.

 “So… what did you think of me?” Sweetie Belle asked, timidity evident in her tone. She averted her eyes to the ground as her face began to adopt a bright pink coloring.

“O-of you?” Silver Spoon paused to scratch her nose, abashed, as she tried to sum up the wealth of trepid, fuzzy feelings she’d been harboring in her belly ever since Sweetie Belle’s rendition of the gryphon vocalist Mini Rip-Talon’s ‘Lovin’ You’. “Well, I…”

 "I-I meant of the performance,” Sweetie Belle hastily corrected. “I wasn’t too bad on stage, was I?” she whimpered softly. For as much of a strong front the filly put up on stage, her ego became a very fragile thing the moment she opened herself up for criticism. 

“No, no, you were amazing!” Silver Spoon quickly assured. The outright flattery, piled on top of the embarrassment caused by the earlier misunderstanding, caused Sweetie Belle’s already carnation pink cheeks to flush a royal shade of red with each compliment Silver Spoon’s tongue imparted. “I’d have never guessed that you could sing like that, I mean, I really was blown away. You were beautiful… on the stage! You were beautiful on the stage! Not that you aren’t beautiful now, or before then, I just— well, I mean—”
 
“I know what you meant, Silvy,” Sweetie Belle giggled, indulging in the clumsily-worded praise. “And thanks.”

“Heh, no problem.” The pervasive silence was beginning to settle back in, and even though they hadn’t said anything of any relative significance, Silver Spoon couldn’t bear to be enveloped by the wordless atmosphere for a second iteration. “So, what are we going to do next? Got any more secret society meetings that nopony else knows about?” 

“Nope!” Sweetie Belle chirped in response.

“Oh…” Silver Spoon sighed in dejection. She’d been hoping for a few more to top her evening off, though it seemed that, like all good things, the greatest day of her life was fated to meet a swift and untimely end.

“Well, not tonight anyway. I figured we could just talk for a while, if that’s alright with you?” Sweetie Belle turned her kind, almost expectant gaze to Silver Spoon, awaiting the earth pony’s near predictable response.

A small pang of anxious excitement, mixed with relief that the evening wasn’t even close to being over, surged through Silver Spoon’s mind as she realized just how close she was to figuring out what made the unicorn tick. “That sounds great, actually! Might I suggest a café?”

“I don’t see why not,” Sweetie Belle beamed. It was a relief to see Silver Spoon getting into the rhythm of things and out of whatever slump she’d been in just before that fateful performance.

“There’s a little place not too far from here that Di—” Silver Spoon cringed as she almost allowed the name of her former friend to slip from her mouth. “I mean, that I usually go to after school… well, I used to anyway…” she finished, her tone significantly less rich with enthusiasm than when she’d started.

Sweetie Belle took note of her companion’s dejected demeanor and bit her lip in dismay. She couldn’t just stand idly by and let Silver Spoon slip back into that pit of melancholy she’d been wallowing in earlier. Luckily, she had planned for this little contingency far in advance. “Nah, we can go there some other time.” Sweetie Belle waved Silver Spoon’s suggestion away before resuming with a sales pitch. “Besides, I know somewhere we can go that’s way cheaper than any old café.”

“Money isn’t really a problem, Sweetie. I could pay for—”

“Did I mention it’s quieter and probably emptier too?” Sweetie Belle interrupted, trying twice as hard in the hopes that she could change Silver Spoon’s mind.

“Where did you have in mind?” 

Sweetie Belle turned to the earth pony and flashed an all too familiar cat-like smirk.

“I’ll find out?” Silver Spoon surmised.

“Yup!”

Silver Spoon sighed and shook her head. She really should have seen that one coming, yet she still fell into Sweetie Belle’s little game. “I don’t see why not,” she shrugged. “Lead the—”

“Race you there, Silvy!” Faster than the earth pony could blink, Sweetie Belle had taken off like a gunshot, a trail of dust and the bright yellow afterimage of her dress the only markers of how far she’d gone in that short time.

“—way,” Silver Spoon concluded flatly as she watched the dust cloud grow ever more distant. “Oh come on, you could have given me more of a heads up than that!” Silver Spoon snapped —verbally and physically— after the speedy unicorn. 

The two raced through the Ponyville streets, one laughing from sheer elation, the other panting and dying from exhaustion coupled with poor physical conditioning. “Slow down a little!” Silver Spoon would gasp periodically between strides and pained gasps for air. But despite Sweetie Belle’s insane advantage, she didn’t quit. Silver Spoon soldiered on, even as her sore muscles began to falter and give out, causing the out of shape filly to hobble along like an awkward, itchy sloth crawling through a tar pit. After what seemed like a small eternity of cardiovascular torture, Silver Spoon noticed that the yellow and white blur of a pony she’d been chasing had finally stopped—much to her relief— next to a massive tree that she recognized as the Ponyville Library. 

Huffing and heaving, Silver Spoon slogged forth, closing the remaining distance one clumsy plod of her hooves at a time. As she drew nearer she could see a cocky grin adorning the victor’s face. “I—gasp— don’t—gasp— want to—pant— hear it,” she said, resting her side against the tree’s gigantic trunk.

“Hear what?” Sweetie Belle fluttered her eyes innocently. “I wasn’t going to say anything at all… besides that I totally won!” she teased, garnering an annoyed look from the recovering Silver Spoon. “Come on, Silvy,” Sweetie Belle chuckled at the expression, simultaneously taking her exhausted friend’s hoof and draping it over her neck. “I’ll help you inside, so just lean on me.”

To Sweetie Belle’s surprise, Silver Spoon followed her instructions without protest, although given the pair’s point-blank proximity to each other, she could feel Silver Spoon’s face growing hot, and out of the corner of her eye she could swear she saw a certain pony’s glasses fogging up. The two pushed open the door and trotted inside the bookery. Not two steps in, they found themselves almost immediately intercepted by the shorter and scalier of the establishment’s resident pair of purple-palleted proprietors. 

“Oh, no, no, no, no,” the little dragon said, holding out a claw to halt the pair. “There is no way in Tartarus I’m letting you in here! Especially not after last time. We still haven’t gotten all of the molasses out of the reference section, you know,” he snapped at Sweetie Belle. 

“Oh come on, Spike, it was an accident,” she said.

“If that was your idea of an accident, then I’d hate to see what you three can do intentionally. Speaking of which, where are the other two?”

“Grounded,” Silver Spoon explained.

“Hmph, serves them right,” Spike muttered.

“Come on, Spike,” Sweetie Belle pleaded.

“No.”

“Just this once?”

“Nope.”

Sweetie Belle sighed as she realized just what it would take to gain access to the library. She didn’t want to resort to using that on just anyone, but Spike’s stubbornness had forced her hoof. Sweetie Belle turned her gaze away from the dragon for only a split second. When she turned back to him, she’d successfully transformed her face into a pouting mask of innocence. Her green eyes gleamed and glistened with fresh, unshed tears while her lower lip quivered ever-so-slightly, ever-so-slightly. She had developed this siren-like power for the sole purpose of bending ponies as strong-willed as her sister to her desires, so she had no doubts that Spike would succumb to its effects. As if only to embolden the unicorn’s confidence in the technique, Silver Spoon gasped and felt all the blood in her body rush to her face as she was stunned by the excessive adorableness emanating from Sweetie Belle. “Pleeease?” 

Spike locked eyes with Sweetie Belle and felt his resolve weakening in the face of apocalyptic-level cute. His will started to crumble like a wall of salt in the wake of a rainstorm, but he wouldn’t give in. His desire to protect the library, Twilight’s library that he labored to maintain day and night, was by far stronger than Sweetie Belle’s soul-piercing gaze. “Nice try, but that won’t work on me: I’m filly-proof,” he snorted, averting his eyes as quickly as he could so as not fall back into her hypnotic stare.

Sweetie Belle ground her teeth in frustration, but didn’t let her face reflect it. She couldn’t let Spike realize that she was nearing the bottom of her bag of tricks. She had to admit, the dragon’s bastion-like stance on the issue was commendable, remarkably so, in fact. But that didn’t change the fact that she still had one more cold, refractive trump card in her bright yellow blouse. “Alright. You win, Spike.”

“I said there’s no wa— wait, what?”

“You win,” she reiterated.

Spike raised an eyebrow at his adversary’s sudden lack of conviction. Usually it would have taken something between a tongue lashing and a beehive on a stick to chase any of the Cutie Mark Crusaders away, yet Sweetie Belle had given up so easily. Something was amiss. “Wait a minute, you’re just giving up? What are you planning?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” 

“Then why don’t I believe you?”

“Who knows?” Sweetie Belle reached into her dress and pulled out a finely cut, vibrant blue gemstone the size of Spike’s fist. “C’mon Silvy, I guess we’ll just have to take this lovely sapphire that Rarity gave me to some other dragon who lives in a library. Oh well, such a shame…”

“Uhh…” Spike twiddled his digits anxiously as he took in the huge, honking gemstone in the unicorn’s hoof. To any other Ponyvillian it would have been nice to have, not quite a necessity, but just something to trade for a few bits or goods in the marketplace. To Spike, however, it held a beauty grander than the rising sun over the ebb and flow of a sky blue ocean, triggering something deep within his biology: a need, a hunger that clouded his judgement and wouldn’t allow him to turn away. That is until Sweetie Belle started to turn away instead. “Whoah, whoah, whoah, let’s not be too hasty,” he said, sweeping in front of the two retreating ponies.

“Hmm? Why the sudden change of heart, Spike?” she practically hummed. 

“Oh, heh, no real reason, you know. I just thought that I might have been too…” Spike’s sentence trailed off as Sweetie Belle began waving the sapphire back and forth playfully, captivating every fiber of the drake’s attention span. “…rash in my decision to kick you out.”

“Oh, were you now?”

Silver Spoon couldn’t help but be impressed by this side of Sweetie Belle. She was just learning all sorts of things about the unicorn who seemed so reclusive and sheltered by her friends only mere days ago. Turning her attention to Spike, Silver Spoon could see an almost hound-like craving in the dragon as every part of his body practically radiated his hunger for the gemstone.

“So, can we come in?” Sweetie Belle asked, gently balancing the gem on Spike’s nose.

“Yeah…” Spike licked his lips in anticipation of the gem that would soon be resting in his belly.

“I thought so… thanks Spike!” Sweetie Belle took her date by the hoof before leading the earth pony into the library. It was far emptier than Silver Spoon would have expected it to be on a Sunday afternoon. That is to say, there was nopony else in the building save for Sweetie Belle, herself, and Spike, who was still drooling over the sapphire like a satisfied goon in the doorway. Even that intellectual busybody of a Head Librarian was absent on this particular day; they practically had the bookery to themselves. It caught Silver Spoon off guard when Sweetie Belle let go of her hoof and began trotting towards the rows of bookshelves behind the staircase. “Come on Silvy, there’s a little spot I want to show you over here.” 

Curious, Silver Spoon followed her date down rows of particularly thick, dusty tomes that would take a normal pony two lifetimes to read through. However, Sweetie Belle wasn’t so much interested in the books as she was what lay hidden within them. “Oooh, where was it, where was it?” she whined, pushing against all the books on one particular side.

“Where was what?” Silver Spoon asked.

“This… ngh… little—that’s not it—roo— waugh!” Sweetie Belle cried as she fell through the seemingly solid wall the bookshelf was resting against.

Silver Spoon’s body reacted before her brain could process what was happening. She darted to the spot where Sweetie Belle had fallen through only to find a filly-sized gap in the books. “Sweetie Belle, are you alright?” she called into the hole.

“Ughh… yeah… anyways, I found what I was looking for. Come on in.”

Silver Spoon gave one last look around her surroundings to make sure nopony else was present before slipping into the darkened crawl space. Just as she pulled her tail through, the entrance was quickly sealed by the same books that had fallen in. “Sweetie Belle? Where are you? It’s surprisingly dark in here.”

“Just a minute, Silver,” said Sweetie Belle. 

As Silver Spoon waited in the darkness, she could hear Sweetie Belle mutter something to herself and inhale deeply. A moment later, there was a short burst of green sparks that fizzled and died just as quickly as they appeared. There was a small strained grunt from Sweetie Belle that was followed by another small burst of dying sparks, which in turn was followed by an almost exhausted panting.

“Are you alright?” Silver Spoon’s question was ignored as Sweetie Belle was lost in her persistence to make the spell work.

“Come on you dumb horn, work for me, just this once…” Sweetie Belle took another deep breath and focused until she was blue in the face. For her efforts, she was rewarded with a small, steady stream of sparks that slowly grew in intensity. With another push of her willpower, the stream of sparks began to solidify, forming a shimmering, fluorescent-green glow around her horn. The pale-green light quickly filled the crawlspace, allowing Silver Spoon to see the strained but proud expression on her friend’s face. “Whew, it finally worked.”

“Wow, it’s beautiful, Sweetie Belle.” Silver Spoon marveled at the faint emerald light.

“It’s nothing really,” Sweetie Belle giggled. 

A silence had fallen between the two as they settled closer to each other in the small, cozy space. However, unlike earlier, there was no rush to rid themselves of an awkward atmosphere. They were comfortable, content to just watch the cool green light wash over them. The words would overflow like a fountain soon enough, and they’d happily drown in the ensuing flood of dialogue, but for now, their bodies would say everything that their mouths would not. Sweetie Belle’s fluffy tail swayed from side to side, conveying an unspoken, yet mutually understood, excitement. Silver Spoon started to paw at the wooden floor absentmindedly, debating on whether or not she should be the one to say something first. Sweetie Belle reached out, resting her hoof on Silver Spoon’s, offering the earth pony a comforting smile, which Silver Spoon nervously returned in full. 

“Sweetie Belle…” Silver Spoon finally managed to say, her voice almost a whisper, as though she were afraid someone from outside might chance upon this particular aisle as she was speaking and discover them. 

“Yes, Silvy?” Sweetie Belle replied in the same hushed, breathy tone.

 “You know, I’ve been thinking about you ever since Friday, and then this afternoon… it just blew my mind that, you know… that you felt that way about me.”

“Mmhmm,” Sweetie Belle nodded, sensing there was more to come.

“And I’m really glad you feel that way, I mean, you have no idea how happy that makes me, but…” Silver Spoon’s tone fell, along with her gaze, as she searched for the right words to convey the depths of her glee-ridden confusion. “… but something’s been bothering me about all this, and I just can’t go any further without some closure.” Silver Spoon shifted her gaze, staring directly into Sweetie Belle’s unfalteringly optimistic eyes. “We’ve been friends for all of two days, and… and before that, I was so terrible to you and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. I mean, you don’t even know if I’m like that, so why?” Silver Spoon, in a fit of role reversal, seized Sweetie Belle abruptly by the hooves, and held them firm as she finally heaved that burden-like load of a question from her back. “Why go through all this trouble for somepony like me? ”

Had the lighting been brighter, Silver Spoon would have seen the light blush crawling across Sweetie Belle’s cheeks, or that the unicorn’s fluffy, swaying tail had gone stiff and straight, or perhaps she would have noticed that the magic encompassing Sweetie Belle’s horn had begun to falter and fluctuate wildly. But the lighting wasn’t any fairer. It flickered feebly against the foreboding darkness, casting upon Sweetie Belle a mask of wild shadows that faded and reformed as quickly as the light could chase them away. A strange tension had begun to knead together in her belly as she finally scraped up enough courage to whisper her response with shaky confidence. “Oh, I… I just… I mean…” Sweetie Belle struggled to guide her train of thought back onto its metaphorical tracks, but the words would not come easily for her. She already knew that if she were to continue talking, she’d spill her secret, but she’d already come this far, and backing down was no longer an option for her at this point. After all, she had already made one confession this afternoon, so where was the harm in making one more? “Silvy,” she started hesitantly. “Do you really want to know?”

Silver Spoon, as one would have expected, merely nodded, patiently awaiting her counterpart’s response.

Chewing on her lower lip, Sweetie Belle averted her eyes and pulled her hooves away from Silver Spoon’s. “I… I know this might sound weird, but I’ve sort of been…” Sweetie Belle swallowed back any remaining regrets in her throat before continuing. She had no idea how Silver Spoon, much less anypony else, would handle this admission, but she was certainly about to find out. “… watching you for a little over a year now, trying to figure out the best way to approach you.” 

Sweetie Belle paused to see how Silver Spoon was taking this. From the looks of things, she had effectively shocked the listening party into a stunned silence. So far, so good. “I know it sounds silly, but that’s just what I did. You know, at first, I was just sort of hoping I could catch you without Diamond Tiara around, and maybe by some stroke of luck I could talk to you, maybe even be friends, but…” Sweetie Belle glanced up. “… I never got the chance. You and Diamond Tiara were almost inseparable, and the few times that you weren’t with her, it was like you were a completely different pony. So I kept watching and waiting for my opportunity, and as time passed, I just started to notice more and more about you.” Sweetie Belle’s lips curled into a nervous smile as she recalled her time shadowing her companion. “I got to see how kind you could be whenever Diamond Tiara’s back was turned, how generous you were to anypony who was having a bad day, but before I can tell you the most important thing I learned during that time, you have to promise that you won’t be mad.”

“Why would I be—”

“Silvy, please just promise me that you won’t be mad.”

“I promise.”

“Pinkie Pie promise?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, peaking out from beneath her mane.

Silver Spoon smirked faintly at the cute display. It was a little off-putting to see Sweetie Belle acting in such a timid manner. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Okay.” Half relieved, Sweetie Belle heaved out her held breath, and by the same token, the wid flickering of her horn balanced out. “The truth is… I was… kind of… watching you last Hearts and Hooves Day,” she finished, scratching her cheek in an attempt to sound as nonchalant about the admission as possible.

“You were there?” Silver Spoon gasped, to which Sweetie Belle merely nodded. A moment of painfully awkward silence passed between the two before Silver Spoon finally found the ability to speak again. “I guess there’s no point in pretending like I don’t know what you saw, is there?” Her question was met with a shamefully sheepish grin that spoke volumes in the place of its bearer’s tongue. Silver Spoon pushed her glasses up and dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a hoof as she tried and failed to suppress memories of that day and the crushing rejection that she had forever associated with it.

Sweetie Belle looked away, her face absolutely burning. If she were to look in a mirror at this moment, she’d have sworn that a raspberry with a horn was blushing back at her. In the interest of maintaining her focus, she began to click her hooves together nervously as she spoke. “I know it sounds wrong, but when Dinky turned you down that day, I was sort of… glad, I suppose.” Unaware of the tears starting to form in her partner’s eyes, a dopey grin began to take root upon Sweetie Belle’s lips. She was relieved to be rid of the larger of two burdens at long last, but a quick glimpse at the soundlessly sobbing Silver Spoon made her realize the fatal ambiguity her words wielded. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean it like that!” Sweetie Belle immediately clasped her teary-eyed friend’s hooves and quickly went to work trying her best to calm down the crying filly. “It’s just… it’s just that when she turned down your confession, I felt like I was given a chance by Princess Cadence herself to tell you how I felt.” The unicorn could feel Silver Spoon’s hooves trembling terribly and began to fear that she had blown her shot at the confession. Heart heavy with trepidation, Sweetie sought to take what she felt was the safest, if equally selfish, port in this potential malestrom. “Silver Spoon… you’re not… mad at me, are you?” she peeped in a pitiful octave.

A moment passed and Sweetie Belle’s question went unanswered, as it would continue to do for a spell longer. In place of a response, the unicorn was provided with more of the suffocating silence as consolation. Sweetie Belle couldn’t determine how Silver Spoon was handling the situation, as the only indicators of the earth pony’s emotional state were soft, worrisome tremors resonating from her hooves. Whether she held nothing but resentment towards her admirer or was simply too far gone in her memory-induced melancholy was indeterminate, and at the same time, quite disheartening. 

“So, I guess you are pretty upset then,” Sweetie Belle concluded at long last. She had anticipated this outcome far in advance, but it still didn’t make the tears any easier to fight back. “I guess I can’t really blame you,” she sniffled. “I knew I shouldn’t have brought Hearts and Hooves Day up, but stupid me, always finding a way to make things worse.”

 Sweetie Belle’s grasp on her crush went limp as the self-realization settled over her. Where her grip had gone, the light from her horn followed its suit, growing dimmer and dimmer. “I should’ve just been happy with being friends, but I’ve gone and ruined that too. I—” she fought to keep a sob from escaping, but quickly found that her attempts were in vain as a single tear streamed down her cheek. “I’m sorry, Silver Spoon, I think I should go.” As a slow stream of tears began to well, Sweetie Belle completely released her grip on Silver Spoon’s hooves and started trotting to the exit, until she found that something was tugging on her dress, impeding her movement. Curious, Sweetie Belle blinked back the stream of tears as best she could before turning around to find Silver Spoon clutching her dress. “Silver Spoon?” 

“Don’t just decide things for yourself,” Silver Spoon said through a fit of tears. “I mean, sure I’m upset, but don’t just take it out on yourself when… when you don’t even know why I’m upset!” With her free hoof, Silver Spoon pushed her glasses up and wiped her eyes. “That’s just stupid…” 

Sweetie Belle could feel Silver Spoon’s grip on her dress tighten with each uttered word, but had no idea how to respond. 

“So, yeah, I’m pretty mad, but not because of anything you said. I’m actually glad that you brought that day up. I’ve been trying to forget about it ever since it happened, but I’ve realized that I can’t just do that. I’ve got to accept that it happened and that no matter how hard I try, that fact will remain.” Silver Spoon seized Sweetie Belle’s dress with her other hoof. “And sure, what happened between Diamond Tiara and I hasn’t exactly been helping matters any, but she had that coming for long time, and even though it hurt, I had plenty of time to accept that it had to be done. But that’s not why I’m upset.” 

“So, why are you—”

“I’m mad because you didn’t say anything sooner!” Silver Spoon shouted. With that admission and no further words, Silver Spoon yanked Sweetie Belle towards herself, capturing her in a tight, heartfelt embrace. It took Sweetie Belle a moment to realize what was happening before she wrapped her forelegs around Silver Spoon’s neck and allowed her constrained tears to cascade freely down her cheeks and onto Silver Spoon’s, her watery emissions now voicing blissful joy as opposed to the sorrows of heartbreak. Shuddering and simpering, Sweetie Belle nuzzled deeper into the cuddle, allowing the small smile that she’d lost to find its way back onto her lips.

 In contrast, Silver Spoon held the little unicorn as tightly as she dared, her emotional strife numbing with each contented teardrop of Sweetie Belle’s that trailed along her neck. For months, this moment was something she couldn’t have even imagined; finding friends outside of that obsessive, controlling Diamond Tiara, meeting somepony who would look past her history and bother to pick up the pieces of her broken heart, and an honest to Celestia smile that she didn’t have to force for the first time in years. She finally had a very special somepony to call her own, and she had no intention of letting that somepony go anytime soon; not that the other party had any objections.





Two hours had chipped away at the evening sun before the fillies decided that it was time to call it a day and departed from the library, stopping only to issue a rushed farewell to Twilight Sparkle, who had taken Spike’s place at some point in their absence. At Silver Spoon’s request, they walked as close to each other as socially appropriate down the busy Ponyville streets. While Sweetie Belle had shown on multiple occasions how free-spirited and open she was to the idea of hoof-holding, no matter who was watching, Silver Spoon was still wary of how the bustling throngs of older ponies would view any further closeness between them. After all, the prospect of having a special somepony was still new to her. She wanted to ease into it as smoothly and painlessly as possible, and the judgemental opinions that she had learned to worry about as the second most popular filly in school would only serve to discourage her, hindering the transition. Fortunately, Sweetie Belle understood her date’s plight, but couldn’t resist carelessly brushing her tail against Silver Spoon’s every so often, or shooting coy, knowing smirks at the earth pony when no one else was looking. 

Despite their limitations in public, the two carried on joking and teasing each other, making notes of places to try out on their next outing, and before they knew it, they’d arrived at the junction between Silver Spoon’s homestead and Carousel Boutique far too quickly for their liking.

“I guess this is where we part ways.” Silver Spoon sighed, clearly disappointed that their short time together had finally come to an end.

“Cheer up, Silvy,” Sweetie Belle said, gently nudging her not-just-a-friend-anymore. “We’ll see each other tomorrow.”

“I suppose,” Silver Spoon said, brightening up a bit.

“And hey, maybe Apple Bloom and Scootaloo finished de-taffying that tree too! We can all go to Sugarcube Corner and start planning for the next crusading day.”

“As long as you don’t suggest bungee jumping again.”

“Oh, I’m sure Scootaloo’s got something even crazier in mind, like ostrich jousting, or cliff-diving!”

“Heh, sounds like fun.” Silver Spoon smiled at what she hoped was an over-exaggeration, but couldn’t shake the feeling that there was some frightening validity to those words. Silver Spoon scuffed the ground. “So… I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?” she asked shyly.

Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to respond, but noticed Silver Spoon’s dropped guard and the vacancy of the area around them. Needless to say, a much better idea popped into her head. Acting quickly, she darted forward and planted a soft peck on Silver Spoon’s forehead. “Definitely,” she said softly before turning and galloping as fast as her little legs could carry her.

 Silver Spoon had once again been left speechless and in the dust by the unicorn who had effectively stolen her heart. This day, no, this weekend, had been beyond perfect, and though she never wanted it to end, she knew that her tomorrow, and every day to follow, would hold more exciting and fulfilling experiences just waiting to be discovered with none other than the very pony who had restored something she’d lost years ago: hope. After picking her jaw up off the ground, Silver Spoon would conclude her evening by trotting back home and into a warm bath before curling up in her nice warm bed, dreaming away the hours before she’d get to see Sweetie Belle again. 

However, where Silver Spoon’s evening would conclude, Sweetie Belle’s was far from over. The elated unicorn galloped and skipped to her sister’s boutique feeling emancipated, lighter than air even. There was nothing in the world that could stop her from feeling this level of incomparable joy. After all, she’d finally won the heart of the pony she’d been pining after for almost a year. Even as she slowed to a trot to wind down and catch her breath, nothing short of a fire breathing land-kraken or a sudden changeling invasion would prove sufficient enough to crush her spirits. She was practically untouchable.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Blanky-Belle.”

Practically untouchable.

“Hey, check you out,” dripped the unmistakably plastic voice of Diamond Tiara as she slinked towards Sweetie Belle, seemingly from the shadows. “I really like your dress,” she said, running her hooves along the material, much to the dismay of the one wearing it. “What’s the occasion?”

Had Sweetie Belle been any bolder outside of her small circle of friends, she might have have made some sort of snappy comeback, or perhaps just outright turned away from the bully. But she didn’t. Or rather, she couldn’t. After a year of being constantly singled out and harassed by Diamond Tiara, solely because the cruel filly had determined her to be the emotionally weakest of the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, if not their whole class, Sweetie Belle had instinctively learned to clam herself up and tune out everything that would happen to her, be it physical or verbal. Unfortunately, she knew from experience that it would only take around five minutes of pretending like she couldn’t be bothered before her tormentor would lose interest and move on, leaving Sweetie Belle to find some quiet corner to sob her heart out in. All she had to do was outlast Diamond Tiara’s relentless stream of insults and she’d be free to trot on home and finish what had been an otherwise wonderful day.

“Oh, this silent treatment again?” Diamond Tiara slurred like a boor, circling Sweetie Belle as a vulture might circle a dying possum. “Don’t you ever get tired of pretending like you can’t hear me? I already know that you just go and cry like a foal whenever I leave, so you may as well break down for me right now.” The earth pony flicked her tail at Sweetie Belle’s nose in a failed attempt to garner a reaction from the pensive filly.

 It stung, but Sweetie Belle did not break form. All she had to do was outwait her.

Diamond Tiara scowled in frustration due to her failed attempts before turning away to continue her pacing. “It doesn’t matter to me anyway. I just need you to be a good girl and listen, think you can handle that Blanky-Belle?”

Still no response.

“Good. Who knows, maybe your special talent is sitting like an obedient dog?” Diamond Tiara chuckled. “Anyhow, I noticed that you and Silvy—” 

Sweetie Belle could feel a pang of irritation in the back of her head at the venomous speaker’s use of Silver Spoon’s abbreviated name, but kept her cool. All she had to do was outlast this.

“—have been getting along together quite nicely this weekend. I for one think that it’s nice, I really do, but don’t go getting too attached to her, now. The only pony good enough to be her friend is moi. After all, she was the only one who wasn't jealous of my brilliance and grace and I, being the wonderful filly that I am, stood by her when all of her other friends just up and 'abandoned' her. Sure, we have our little spats every now and then like any good friends do, but sooner or later she’ll come around again, just like she always does.”

Beneath her immaculate pokerface, Sweetie Belle’s teeth were grit hard enough to crack a gemstone. That spoiled brat of an earth pony was getting to her by talking about Silver Spoon as if she were a piece of property, and the unicorn was doing everything in her power to keep it from showing. 

“But I didn’t come here to talk about Silvy; I came here to warn you.”

That little outlier caught Sweetie Belle’s attention, her ears perked up signifying as such. Unfortunately, that miniscule amount of movement did not go unseen by Diamond Tiara, who grinned like a raptor in the face of the vulnerability.

“See, the thing is, really bad things tend to happen to ponies who get too close to Silvy for their own good. The funny thing is it always starts out small and snowballs out of control from there. Somepony complaining about a missing diary one day might suddenly find themself the subject of some awful, vicious rumors the next. Whenever she’d join a club, it would always mysteriously shut down a few days later. The club president would always give the same reason for ending the group, too: they needed to devote more time to their studies. It’s almost like she’s cursed or something, you know?”

 Diamond Tiara reared up and leaned her weight against Sweetie Belle’s statue-stiff body. “You wouldn’t want to become that nasty old curse’s next victim, would you, my little blank-flank?” Diamond Tiara began to mockingly pat Sweetie Belle on her head. “My advice to you? Keep your distance from Silver Spoon, or else something bad might just happen to you too. Understand, Blanky Belle?”

There comes a point in everypony’s life where one must realize that enough is enough, and Sweetie Belle had been long overdue to reach hers. She had heard enough of Diamond Tiara’s treacherous tongue and relentless antagonizing, and had finally been pushed over the edge. Suffice it to say, the slope of said hill was very steep, and Diamond Tiara of all ponies just had to be standing right at the bottom of it. 

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Sweetie Belle screamed, absolutely livid. She had surprised even Diamond Tiara with the tenacity in her voice. “Just shut up! So what if Silver Spoon’s cursed and bad things happened to her other friends? Why should that stop me from being her friend, huh? What makes you think I care? Day after day I’ve taken more than a fair share of name-calling and rumor spreading from you, so what more could I possibly have to worry about from some stupid curse? And why should I listen to you anyways? You’re nothing but a big jerk!”

Diamond Tiara blinked thrice before regaining her senses. Had Sweetie Belle, poor, defenseless, damsel-in-distress always needing to be rescued by her friends Sweetie Belle, actually just said that to her? And with that much force? “What did you just say to me you little—”

“You heard what I said! I said you’re a jerk who needs to shut up and leave me alone! I’m not afraid of you or any kind of curse! I’m not going to let you push me around anymore, and I’m definitely not going to let you talk about Silver Spoon or any of my other friends! So just buck off, you… you…” Sweetie Belle was far too angry to formulate an insult, so instead, she compromised. The filly quickly reared up on her hind legs and drove her hooves into the ground with such force that she cracked the street with an audible crunch.

Taken aback, and slightly afraid of her hyperventilating former victim, Diamond Tiara backed away slowly. “You’ll be sorry about this, Blanky-Belle, just you watch.” Diamond Tiara turned away from the heavily breathing unicorn, and began the trek back to her homestead, smirking to herself all the while. The pieces had been placed on the chessboard and all she had to do was wait for them to ignorantly move themselves into checkmate. Tomorrow was going to be delicious, and she didn’t want to miss a single moment of it. 

Chapter Eleven End