//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: Alula and Diamond Tiara's Adventures in Romance // by Yukito //------------------------------// Today is Thursday. And usually on a Thursday, the three of us – Silver Spoon, Alula and myself – all meet up in the park so we can practice our respective club activities before splitting off to club meetings. I practice my martial arts, Silver Spoon practices her flute-playing, and Alula practices her high jump. Alula is key to my practicing; I need a sparring partner and Silver Spoon is just too delicate and bruises way too easily. Therefore, I have no choice but Alula, and right now, she isn’t here! “Where is she?! It’s way past the time we’re supposed to meet up here!” “She probably got distracted, again,” Silver Spoon says. I swear if Alula’s off chasing butterflies again… “Want to go check her house?” “We might as well,” I say. “I can’t really start without somepony to hold up my kicking bag.” Silver Spoon and I pack up our things and leave the park. There seem to be an awful lot of Pegasi flying about today… in circles… “What’s going on?” Silver Spoon asks. “What’s with all these Pegasi flying around, not even doing anything with the weather?” “Who cares?” I answer. “Come on, Alula’s house isn’t that far.” We walk through the unusually crowded street, staying close together so that we don’t get separated as we push our way through everypony. Is it just me, or is everypony here a Pegasus? Oof! I just bumped into something! “Are you okay?” I hear a voice ask me as I rub my muzzle. I open my eyes to find an orange filly glaring at me. “Oh. It’s you.” Oh. It’s the chicken. “Never mind, I don’t care if you’re alright or not.” “Same here,” I respond. “You should really watch where you’re going, blank flank. Just because you can’t fly, it doesn’t mean you should live with your head in the clouds.” “I can too fly!” Heh. What a laugh. “No, you can hover, and fall down into mud,” Silver Spoon says. Nice one. “And come up with stupid ideas for Cutie Marks that you inevitably mess up anyway,” I add… Wait, something’s not right here. This is around the point where her loser friends come to her defence. “Where are your friends today? Could it be they finally realised what a loser you are and decided to leave you on your own?” “Of course not!” she shouts. Oh this is fun. “I’m on my own today because of the tornado!” The tornado? “What tornado? You Pegasi aren’t scheming some kind of attack against Ponyville, are you?” “Are you an idiot?” Coming from you? I find that offensive. “Whatever, I’m already getting sick to my stomach just listening to you speak.” “That makes two of us then.” This is getting boring, and I have better things to do with my time anyway. “Come on, Silver Spoon. Let’s leave Loserloo to her… whatever lame thing it is she’s doing.” “Yeah,” Silver Spoon says. “You just continue whatever dorky thing it is you’re doing over here, while the cool kids go and have fun.” Scootaloo shouts something back to us as we leave, but I don’t hear it because I don’t care. I simply continue walking alongside Silver Spoon. Finally, Alula’s house has come into view, and thankfully there isn’t as big of a crowd here as there was back there. I raise a hoof and knock on the door. “Coming!” Alula’s mum calls out from the other side. The door opens and Alula’s mum looks down at us. “Oh, good afternoon girls! Alula’s in her room practicing right now.” “Practicing?” Silver asks. “For what?” “For the rainy season,” Alula’s mum says. “Would you like to come inside?” Silver and I walk into the house together. It’s still as small and bland as always. “Like I said, Alula’s up in her room right now if you’d like to go and play with her. I’ll bring you three some juice just as soon as I finish my ironing.” “Thank you,” Silver Spoon says as we start to make our way up the stairs. “What’s the ‘rainy season’?” “How am I supposed to know? Besides, all that matters is Alula didn’t say anything about this to us!” “Feeling upset that Alula ditched you?” Silver asks. “No! I’m just annoyed that I waited for her only to find out she was doing something else and didn’t bother telling me!” We reach Alula’s door and I push it open, making sure to use enough force that it slams into the wall on the other side to make sure Alula jumps out of her skin. Instead, she drops down from air and lands face first onto her bedroom floor. Last year, my wingpower clocked in at three-and-a-half, just short of what fillies my age should be achieving. This year, I should be flying at a full four wingpower! The problem is that I’m not much of a flyer… I use my wings to give me a boost in the high jump (during Pegasus-only events, where that’s allowed) and to reach high places, but that’s all. I’ll admit, I’m actually kinda worried. I don’t think my wingpower is going to measure up to the other foals this year, which is bad because this year, Ponyville will be creating the tornado to carry the water up to Cloudsdale! That’s why I’m currently in my room, flapping my wings to exhaustion so that I can train them up ready for the big day! I need to focus. I need to keep my mind free of distractions. BANG! Wah! Who the? What the? Where the? Who slammed my door open- Diamond? “Ow… What’s going on?” “We should ask you the same thing,” Diamond says as she walks up to me, not looking very happy. What did I do now? “Have you forgotten that today is Thursday? We were supposed to meet up at the park, remember?” Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that. “What were you doing in here?” Silver asks. “Why were you flying in the middle of your room?” I pick myself up off of the ground and dust myself off. “I was training.” “Training for what?” Diamond asks. “World’s biggest faceplant into the ground?” “No,” I giggle. “The rainy season is coming up, and you know what means.” “Actually, we don’t,” Silver Spoon says as they both shake their heads. “You don’t?” Seriously? I’m sure Miss Cheerilee covered this in class some time ago. “Well, the rainy season means that Cloudsdale needs a ton of water to make lots of rainclouds to send all over Equestria, right?” “We know that much,” Silver says. “Uh, yeah,” Diamond adds with a cute little blush. “Of course we know that.” Heh. I’m sure you did know that, Diamond. “Yeah, well, the water has to come from somewhere, right? And where it comes from is water reservoirs on the ground-” “Waitwaitwaitwait!” Diamond says, interrupting my explanation. “Water what?” “… Uh…” How do I explain this when I myself barely understand it. “A place where water is stored for a later date,” Silver Spoon says. “Ooooh.” Diamond turns back to me and nods her head. “Okay, carry on.” I clear my throat and continue my story. “So, the water comes from these reservoirs on the ground, and they’re lifted up to Cloudsdale by a powerful tornado.” “… Seriously?” Diamond asks. “You go through the trouble of making a tornado to lift the water up?” “Well, we need to lift it up somehow.” “Why not use drainage pipes?” Diamond asks. “Or lift it up little by little in containers?” Silver Spoon asks. “Or lift it up with magic? I’m Princess Celestia alone could lift all the water up in one go, if she can move the sun!” “Look, I didn’t make the rules!” Sheesh, these two just have no creativity, do they? “Besides, it’s tradition.” “But what’s it got to do with you?” Silver Spoon asks. I’m so glad you ask, my dear Silver Spoon! “This year, the tornado is being made in Ponyville!” “It seems everything is being done in or by Ponyville lately,” Diamond says. “What do you mean?” “The Summer Sun Celebration, Princess Celestia visiting twice for just a casual visit, Princess Luna visiting for Nightmare Night, which I totally missed thanks to that stupid cavity! Then there’s the Hearth’s Warming play, and now this.” “Maybe it’s because our town is awesome?” I suggest. “True that,” Silver Spoon says. “Wait, don’t tell me you’ll be taking part in creating the tornado.” “Yup!” I was hoping to spring on them as a surprise, but I guess the cat’s out of the bag now. “All foals capable of flying are allowed to join in if they wish, but only at the bottom.” “That’s crazy!” Silver shouts. “What if something bad happens?! What if the tornado breaks apart and you get flung away at a high speed?! You could seriously hurt yourself!” “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Wow, I didn’t think Silver Spoon would be so worried about my safety. What about Diamond? What does she think about all this? “Like I said, the foals will be at the bottom, so even if the tornado does break apart, we’ll just fall right into the water below us. We’ll also be wearing helmets, too, just in case.” “Even so, it’s way too dangerous! Isn’t that right Diamond?” “Huh?” Diamond looks between both me and Silver Spoon for a bit. “Uh… Well, it certainly is dangerous-” “See?” Diamond clears her throat. “But, I don’t see how it could be that dangerous if they let foals in on it every year. And besides, it’s not like Alula hasn’t got hurt before doing something crazy. So I don’t see what the big deal is.” “Oh hey, since you two are here, I was wondering if you could help me with my training.” Oh, wait. Wasn’t the reason they came here in the first place because I skipped out on our weekly joint-practice session? I should probably apologise for that. “And, uh, sorry for missing out on our usual meet-up today.” “… Well, I guess you had a good reason,” Diamond says. “And what do you mean by helping you with your training?” I smile as I turn my head to the corner of my room, where a pile of items for training, such as weights, a stopwatch, an anemometer, a treadmill… which is more for running, not flying, but still. “Well…” “I’m telling you, a montage would make this go so much faster,” I say to Silver Spoon as we sit by the ane-whatsamjiga in Alula’s back garden. “And like I said, real life doesn’t work that way,” Silver Spoon says as she pokes the thingy a few times. “Is thing on? How are we supposed to know?” “Well, when Alula passes by we’ll see if there’s a reading or not. If there isn’t, we’ll assume it’s not on.” “But we didn’t even flip a switch. I don’t even think there is a switch.” “Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one here? Shouldn’t you know how this anawhosawhatsit works?” “‘Anemometer’, and I haven’t ever researched anything about them before. It never seemed important enough to do so.” “Hey guys!” I turn to see Alula flying towards us. “Incoming!” She’s not really moving fast enough that we should jump out of the way in the dramatic fashion she seems to be suggesting we should. She passes the anethingy and it spins. “How’s that?” “Uh… Three-and-a-half.” I turn to face Alula. She’s now sitting on the ground again, looking down at the ground with lowered ears, and looking pretty pathetic. Was that a bad reading? “Uh, I’m sure it was just a mistake. Maybe the machine’s broken, or maybe you just did it wrong this one time?” “Yeah,” Silver Spoon adds, “I’m sure you’ll get double that easily next time! Maybe even triple.” Now she’s giving us a confused look. “The average for ponies my age is four wingpower.” Wait, what? Then what’s her problem? “So you got just a little below the average?” Actually, now that I say that I can understand why she’d be sad. Less than average is pretty bad in anything you do. “Just, work a little harder and you’ll-” “You don’t get it!” D-Did she just raise her voice at me? “Oh! Uh, sorry. It’s just… my wingpower reading last year was also three-and-a-half. It means I haven’t improved one bit, despite all my hard work.” Did she just raise her voice at me?! “Oh. Well, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about…” Silver Spoon nudges me. “Right, Diamond?” “Huh?” Alula looks over at me with a pitiful look on her face. “Uh, yeah. I mean, if you just try harder you’ll do better, right?” “I don’t know…” I stomp a hoof onto the ground. “Hey! No lackey of mine is going to give up so easily!” I look around the yard and my eyes land on the pile of weights near one of the flowerbeds. “Try putting more weights on.” “But I’m already having enough trouble with the weights I’m using now.” “Then what are you doing resting? Keep flying until those weights of yours feel really light!” “I dunno…” Silver Spoon leans over and whispers into my ear. “What?!” “Just do it,” she says. But it’s so… I mean… Come on! “Do you want her to cheer up or not?” Do I really care?! “… Alula…” I can’t really be considering this. “If you work really hard… I’ll… let you sleep over at my house…” I’ve only ever let Silver Spoon stay the night at my house before. I don’t really feel comfortable with the idea of another pony sleeping in my room with me, but I guess if it gets her to stop moping… Besides, it’s only Alula. What’s the worst that could happen? “I… I understand!” Alula shouts as she suddenly jumps to her hooves. “I’ll do my best!” Pain! PAIN! Diamond Tiara is pushing me so hard! I don’t know if I’ll survive this or not! “Come on! Fifty more push-ups and… You’ve gotta be… Fine! Fifty more push-ups and I’ll give you a hug…” That’s all the motivation I need! Fifty push-ups coming right up! Well, I’ve got to hand it to Silver Spoon, these crazy ideas of hers work. But seriously, offering hugs, and cupcakes personally baked by me? “Come on Alula, run faster!” And why is she on a treadmill now? Will this really help her with her flying? Silver Spoon whispers into my ear again. Ugh, I swear she’s losing her mind. “Survive three more minutes and I’ll let you wear my tiara for five seconds.” What the? Since when could she run that fast?! Unfortunately, running faster only makes you tired more quickly. So theoretically, this should be having the opposite effect… right? Ten more sit-ups! Just ten more sit-ups, and Silver Spoon will give me a picture of Diamond Tiara sleeping like baby! That was the deal! Nine more sit-ups! Hey, this isn’t actually so hard after all. Eight more sit-ups. That Iron Will dude was right; practice does make perfect! Okay, now for the moment of truth! We’ve spent an entire weekend on this ridiculous training of hers, and it better have paid off! “The anablablehbleh is ready!” I shout over to Alula. “Fly whenever you’re-” Alula suddenly takes off, dashing towards us much faster than the last time she did. I quickly leap out of the way as she passes the machine-thingy, and read the result. “… Four-and-a-bit!” Alula gasps and leaps onto me from behind, crushing me against the floor. “Four-and-a-bit! I did it! I did it!” “Get off of me!” “You sure did,” Silver Spoon says, instead of HELPING ME OUT HERE! “And not a moment too soon. Isn’t the tornado thingy supposed to be today?” … Alula, you idiot! “Oh no! I’ve gotta hurry! I need to eat breakfast and brush my teeth! Wait, should I eat if I’m going be in a tornado? But if I don’t eat, I might not have enough energy. Maybe just a little nibble? But will I have enough time to decide what I want to eat anyway? What if-” “Alula.” Silver Spoon drags me out from underneath the panicking Alula above me. Took you long enough. “Relax. I checked it out, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll start for another few hours. Which gives you plenty of time eat something and let it settle.” “I do?” Alula sighs and wipes her brow. “That’s a relief. Hey, you guys are gonna be there to cheer me on, right?” I wasn’t exactly planning on it. “Of course we will be.” But apparently Silver Spoon was. “Yeah, sure. So make sure you don’t mess it up, okay?” Alula leaps forward again, but this time I’m read- No I’m not! She’s somehow faster than she was before! And stronger! “Don’t worry!” she says while she crushes my ribcage. “I’ll make sure these last few days of training weren’t in vain!” Here it is. The moment of truth. The time to see if all of my training has really amounted to anything after all. I don my helmet, pull my goggles over my eyes, and take one last look over at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. “Good luck!” Silver Spoon shouts. Diamond simply waves, and I wave back. “I’ll do my best!” “Everypony!” Rainbow Dash shouts as that dragon-kid gets ready to blow the big horn thingy. “Go!” The horn blows. I join my classmates in flying around just above the lakes surface, creating the base of the tornado for the older ponies to work with. “This is awesome!” I shout as the winds around us start to get stronger. “I know, right?!” Rumble shouts from my left. “Too bad my brother had to miss this!” I look up and notice something strange. Somepony falls back way too quickly, and crashes into another pony. “Hey! What’s going on up there?!” Suddenly, the tornado stops, and everypony at the top start to fly off in every direction. As for us down here… Well, I look down at the lake below me, and gulp as I feel myself slowing down. “Oh no…” I still don’t get why I have to be here. It was Alula’s stupid idea to risk her neck making that crazy tornado thing, why do I have to give up my precious time visiting her at her house because she caught a dumb cold from falling in that cold lake? “I hope you get better soon Alula,” Silver says as she gives Alula the fruit basket we bought for her. “Thanks guys,” Alula says. She sniffles and takes the basket. “Sorry you had to come all this way for me.” And so you should be. “Oh, we don’t mind at all. Right, Diamond?” Of course I mind. I had a full day planned out today! “Uh, yeah. Right.” Stupid Alula, catching a cold and getting to take time off from school because of it. I look to my left and find a tray with an empty glass and two pills. “Hey, aren’t these the pills your mum gave you?” “Ah. Um… maybe,” Alula says. “I’m feelin’ tired, I think I’ll be going to sleep now.” I reach over and pick the pills up, then turn back to Alula. “Oh no you don’t! If you’re going to get better, you need to take your medicine!” I’m not having you miss school on your own, you selfish filly! “But it tastes baaaaaad!” Stop being such a baby! “Maybe you should feed her mouth-to-mouth,” Silver Spoon stupidly suggests. “That’ll work,” Alula says. “No,” I say. “Just… no.” “Awwww…” “Look, just take this medicine and get better already!” Alula cringes, and then takes the pills from my hooves and stares at them for a second. “But I don’t have any water to wash them down with…” “Too bad!” I say. “That’s what you get for trying to avoid it in the first place!” “Aw, come on Diamond,” Silver Spoon says. “Isn’t that a little strict? Think about if you were in her place.” But I’m not, and that’s the problem. But, I see where you’re coming from… I guess. “Ugh, fine! I’ll get you some water. You should be grateful you have such a caring friend like me around.” “You should be grateful you have such a caring fillyfriend like me around!” Oh trust me, Diamond. I’m grateful for that every day. “So did anything new happen in school today?” I ask while Diamond picks up the empty glass. “Actually, it did,” Silver Spoon says. “Get this: Diamond here has volunteered to take over the position of chief editor of the school’s newspaper!” “Editor-in-chief,” Diamond corrects. “I figured it would make daddy proud to see me turn such a failing business into something big and successful. And possibly boost my allowance a little bit, too.” “Cool! I can’t wait to-” I start coughing, and Silver Spoon quickly pats me on the back until I finish. “Thanks. I can’t wait to see what you do with it. Maybe the papers will actually be interesting from now on.” “Well, we’ll see,” Diamond says as she walks towards the bedroom door. “The current ponies working on the paper don’t seem like the most competent type, but that’s where my magnificent skills as leader come into play.” “I’m sure you’ll do great,” I say as Diamond leaves the room. I stare at the door for a few seconds… and then my ears droop as my head starts to hurt. “Owww… I really should have taken those pills…”