Prism picked up the pace as she neared the old treehouse. Thanks to their Aunt Applebloom, it was newly renovated and painted, this time with a rainbow roof and pink walls. When she reached the entrance, she found the Tri-Pies on the floor, huddled around a book.
"Ooh!" Cherry piped, pointing to a picture in the book. "Is that Mommy?"
"She's so pretty!" Raspberry marveled.
"And she's in a giant lettuce!" Blueberry exclaimed. "Cool!"
"What are you guys looking at?" Prism asked.
The triplets looked up and replied in unison, "The Cutie Mark Crusaders Memory Book!"
"There's a lot of cool stuff in here!" Blueberry declared. "Look!"
She held up the book to Prism's face. On the page was a group photo of four fillies in red capes: two earth ponies, a pegasus and a unicorn. They were all standing in front of the clubhouse, their hooves on each other's shoulders.
"See?" Blueberry said, pointing to the yellow earth filly with the big red bow. "That's Auntie Applebloom, the unicorn's Auntie Sweetie Belle and the pegasus must be Auntie Scootaloo! I don't know who the other filly is, but she looks familiar."
Prism squinted and read the caption underneath: "The Cutie Mark Crusaders welcome their newest member: Babs Seed. Oh, I know who that is! I saw her at the last Apple Family Reunion! She's Aunt Applebloom's cousin, I think."
Blueberry turned a few more pages. "And look at this!"
The picture on that page showed a bunch of new foals wearing the same capes and standing in front of the clubhouse. Four were fillies, two were colts. Prism recognized the two pegasi in the middle as her brother and sister. She figured that the yellow filly standing shyly next to Thunder Dash was Apple Blossom, his current girlfriend. She also spotted their unicorn friend Dinky and Cinnamon Stick, Cinnamon Roll's older brother. There was no guessing who the earth pony with spiral purple eyes and propeller hat was.
"I was thinking," Blueberry announced, "that since we're Cutie Mark Crusaders now, we could take a group photo and add it to the memory book!"
"That's a great idea!" Prism declared. "That way generations of Cutie Mark Crusaders can look back and see how awesome we were!"
"Ooh!" Cherry chimed, bouncing up and down. "That'll be fun!"
"Let's go tell Gemstone about it!" Raspberry insisted.
The pegasus filly's face fell. "Gemstone?"
"She is joining us, isn't she? I mean she's a blank flank too! Besides, she's our friend!"
Prism stomped her hoof. "No! No way are we letting that Canterlot snob join our club!"
The triplets blinked at her in confusion.
"Why not?" Cherry asked.
"Because...because...because she'll just act like she owns the place and treat us like dirt like she always does! Besides, some pony of her background is obviously too important to be part of our group!"
When the bell rang for recess, Prism felt some pony tap her on the shoulder. She turned and, much to her discontent, saw the white unicorn with the blue, shiny, curled mane.
"What do you want, Gem?" the pegasus groaned.
Gemstone glanced down at her hoof and watched it draw circles into the floor. "I...I heard you and the triplets started a club. The Cutie Mark Crusaders?"
Prism folded her hooves. "Yeah? What's it to you?"
The unicorn looked up at her with pleading eyes. "I...I was wondering if I could join you, since..."
She glanced back at her flank, not wanting to say it.
"Sorry," Prism grunted, turning to leave. "Invitation only."
But Gemstone caught up to her side in persistence. "Then invite me! Please?"
"Sorry. The club's strictly for Ponyville folk!"
The unicorn glared at her. "That's just racist!"
"No. Racist would be if there were no unicorns allowed. We just can't allow Canterlot snobs like you!"
Gemstone stepped in front of the pegasus. "Snobs?! I'm not a snob! I'm just...more privileged."
Prism snorted angrily. "Like I said. Snob!"
"But you have to let me in! My Auntie Sweetie Belle started this club! I'm a legacy!"
"I have no idea what that means, but you're not allowed in the club and that's final!"
The pegasus pushed the unicorn aside and stomped away. Gemstone watched her back with sadness and fury. She clenched her hoof as the blood boiled inside her.
"Fine!" she shouted. "I don't need your stupid club! I'll make my own! That'll show you!"
"Yeah, yeah," Prism grumbled.
When Scootaloo dropped her off the next day, Prism spotted Gemstone across the playground, surrounded by colts and a few fillies. She approached the group to see what was going on.
"So you just rinse, lather and repeat three times, get the curling iron and voilà! You'll have a mane as fabulous as mine!"
"Your hair is so pretty, Gemstone!" one of the colts sighed.
"Look at your hooves!" a filly exclaimed. "How'd you get them to be so shiny?"
"I polish them every day!" Gemstone declared. "And I get a hooficure every week at the spa! You should really try it. It's simply luxurious!"
"What's this all about?" Prism demanded.
Every pony turned to the pegasus. Gemstone looked down on her with disdain.
"Oh, hello, Prism," she said flatly. "Have you met my new friends? This is the Fabulosity Club!"
"The Fabu...is that even a word?!"
The Tri-Pies zipped over.
"Ooh!" Cherry uttered. "Sounds like fun!"
"Can we join?" Raspberry begged. "Can we join?"
"Sorry," Gemstone replied. "Only ponies with an IQ over twenty are allowed."
She and the foals surrounding her laughed. The triplets gazed up at the unicorn with wide, disbelieving eyes. They whimpered as tears started to form.
"Not cool, Gem!" Prism said, standing defensively in front of her friends.
"No flightless pegasi allowed either," Gemstone said, turning up her nose. "So off with you, Prism! Or should I say...Penguin?!"
Her posse laughed again.
"Good one, Gem!" Kicks declared. "I knew you were cooler than those lame blank flanks!"
Prism scowled at the unicorn as she hustled the triplets away. "Come on, guys. Let's get out of here. This spot stinks."
Gemstone stopped laughing. "Excuse me?! Are you saying I smell?"
The pegasus turned back to her. "Yeah! Yeah, you smell! Smell of heel! And dirty double-crossing!"
The unicorn stood up. "Why, you..."
"Cool it, Gem," Kicks said. "They're just breathing hot air! They can't do anything! They're a bunch of losers!"
Prism sent them all a dirty look before turning back to her friends.
"She..." Blueberry uttered. "She just called us...dumb."
"Don't worry, guys," Prism assured them. "It's just Gemstone being more of a snob than usual. It's nothing we can't handle."
Blueberry yelped as she felt something nick the back of her neck. She turned around to find the source, but could not pinpoint it. That is, until she saw Kicks whistling and holding something behind his back. Prism mouthed the words "pea shooter" and Blueberry understood. Then the pegasus tilted her head towards Gemstone, who was smiling in triumph.
Raspberry cried out as the colt behind her yanked at her hair. Cheerilee turned from the blackboard.
"Is something wrong, Raspberry?"
"I..."
She trailed off when she saw Blueberry out of the corner of her eye, shaking her head.
"No, nothing's wrong, Mrs. Cheerilee," Raspberry calmly replied.
From the back of the room, Prism sighed in disappointment.
The bell rang, but as the triplets rose from their seats, they tripped and fell face first to the floor. Their classmates laughed as they stepped over them.
"Birds of a feather," Gemstone smirked as she passed them, "flop together!"
Cheerilee knelt down to help the Tri-Pies up. They were all on the verge of crying. Prism rushed to assist the teacher.
"However did this happen?" Cheerilee asked as she examined the shoelaces tied around the triplets' hooves.
"It was..." Prism started to say.
"I guess we're just clumsy," Blueberry said.
"Yeah," the other two said, nodding their heads.
Prism looked at them in disbelief.
"But you three aren't even wearing shoes," Cheerilee observed.
"You know us," Blueberry shrugged. "We do crazy stuff for no reason whatsoever."
"Are you sure the three of you are alright?"
"Yes!" Cherry said unsurely. "We're fine!"
The teacher did not believe them, but if they were not going to come out with their problems, there was nothing she could do. So after untying their hooves, she sent them off to recess.
"Why didn't you tell her it was Gemstone and her goons?!" Prism whispered harshly.
"Mommy told us to be nice to Gemstone," Blueberry explained.
"But she's being a jerk! That's worse than a snob! You can't take this mockery! You can't..."
She trailed off when she heard the snickers behind her.
"What are you all laughing at?!" she demanded.
"Nothing," one colt admitted.
She caught his eyes wandering to her flank and turned to see a piece of paper attached to her tail. She tugged it off and saw that it was a drawing of a penguin. It was signed with the initial "G."
"That does it!" Prism cried, crumpling the paper. "This means war!"
"Why is she being so mean to us?" Cherry asked when they were all back at the clubhouse. "I thought we were friends!"
"She was never our friend!" Prism declared as she paced around the room. "And even if she was, she's certainly not our friend now! We gotta get back at her somehow!"
"But Mommy said revenge doesn't solve anything," Raspberry said.
"Unless it's on a mean-meanie-pants!" Cherry reminded her. "And Gem's been one big mean-meanie-pants!"
"It's settled then!" Prism exclaimed. "Any pony have any ideas?"
"Maybe the memory book can give us something!" Blueberry suggested.
The blue filly opened the leather-bound book and flipped through the pages.
"Look at this!" she cried, pointing to a picture of Applebloom, Sweetie Belle (covered in gold glitter) and Scootaloo in front of a giant golden apple. "It says: Getting revenge on Bad Seed. And on the next page is a diagram of how they built this! It's a float of some sort, designed to go all haywire when the timer goes off, causing the driver to crash! Ingenious design!"
"That's it!" Prism announced. "That's what we'll do!"
"Build a parade float?" Cherry asked.
"Yea..." She smacked herself in the forehead. "No! We'll get Gemstone back with an elaborate, ingenious prank that is so ingenious that no pony will figure out it was us! But what sort of prank?"
"We could swing by The Party Palace," Raspberry suggested. "Daddy always has lots of material for pranks."
"Yeah, but we need to plan what we're going to do before we get the equipment."
She stood in the thinking spot and started tapping her chin. Then she gasped and leapt into the air, her head hitting the lantern, causing it to light up.
"I've got it!"
She glanced down at the target.
"This really is a good spot for thinking up ideas."
When the fillies and colts entered the classroom the next morning, the Tri-Pies and Prism were already in their seats, sitting up straight with their hooves folded on their desks.
"Hey, losers!" Kicks whispered. "What are you all smiling about?"
"What's not to smile about?" Blueberry replied.
"We should all smile!" Cherry piped.
"And be a group of happy friends!" Raspberry exclaimed.
"Like pudding!" they said in unison.
Kicks stared at them in confusion, but then shook his head and went to his seat. Gemstone smirked at Prism as she sat beside her.
"Hello, Penguin," she mocked. "How are you? Is it too warm for you today?"
Prism smirked in return. "I was about to ask you the same thing, Ice Princess."
Gemstone raised her eyebrow at this comment and was about to respond when Cheerilee entered the room.
"Class, take your seats," she said. "Pass your homework to the front of the room."
As Prism passed her paper to Kicks, she glanced at Cherry and winked. Cherry looked over to Blueberry and did the same thing, as she did with Raspberry. Raspberry nodded and glanced down at her hoof. It was attached to a string, which she tugged on. The string climbed up the wall, across the ceiling to the spot above Gemstone's seat. It opened a latch, the only thing keeping the water contained in the bucket.
The water came cascading down on the unicorn and she cried out once she felt its stinging coldness on her head. The classmates turned around to see her hair drenched and flat. She shivered as she glanced around at them.
Prism started laughing. She was joined by the Tri-Pies and soon, the rest of the class.
"Wow, Gem!" the pegasus filly guffawed. "I knew you were a snob, but I didn't realize you were such a...drip!"
Gemstone stared at Prism and then at her mocking classmates. Even the ones she had thought her friends were laughing at her. Then she started crying, making her even wetter.
Cheerilee grabbed her coat off the rack and rushed to the filly's side.
"Children, stop it!" she commanded, wrapping the coat tightly around the filly.
The teacher glanced up at the mechanism on the ceiling. Her eyes followed the string to Raspberry's desk.
"Raspberry?"
The magenta filly stopped laughing, as did the rest of the class. She shrunk in her seat as Cheerilee walked up to her.
"Did you do this?"
Raspberry gulped as she looked up at her teacher's disappointed face.
"I...I..."
Prism could not see her friend take the fall for this, so she stood up in her seat.
"It's my fault, Mrs. Cheerilee!"
All eyes turned to her in surprise.
"It was my idea! I convinced Raspberry to go along with it! She didn't want to, I swear!"
"No," Raspberry sighed. "I...I wanted to."
Blueberry stood. "Me too! I was in on it too!"
Cherry followed her sister's example. "Me three! We were all in on it!"
Cheerilee scowled as she glanced between the bunch. "All of you, stay after class. I want a talk with your parents."
"They did what?!" Pinkie Pie shouted.
Scootaloo hung her head in shame, while Sweetie Belle's eyes were still wide in shock. Since Rarity and Fancy Pants were in Canterlot on business, she was left to watch Gemstone.
"I don't understand!" the unicorn mare said, turning to her best friend. "Why would your niece do this to my niece?"
"I don't know!" Scootaloo cried. "All I know is that those two never seem to get along!"
"Humph!" Sweetie Belle huffed. "Maybe it would help if Prism was nicer to Gemstone!"
"Don't give me that! It's Gemstone who acts like she's better than every pony!"
"Enough!" Cheerilee shouted, silencing all of them. "From what I've witnessed, it seems that Prism and the triplets have recently been bullied."
"Bullied?!" the three mares gasped.
"My poor little fruity pies!" Pinkie cried.
"Yesterday," Cheerilee explained, "the triplets were tripped out of their seats because their hooves were tied together, and I saw a drawing of a penguin pinned to Prism's tail at recess."
Scootaloo put her hoof to her head. "Oh, RJ..."
"What about Gemstone?" Sweetie Belle inquired.
"Well," the teacher said slowly, "my guess is that Gemstone was the one bullying them."
"What?! Not my Gemstone! She would never act so vulgarly! Wow. I'm sounding a lot like my sister."
"But why?" Pinkie pleaded. "Why would your niece want to pick on my sweet little cutie pies?"
"Cutie..." Scootaloo muttered. She narrowed her eyes. "I think I have an idea of what's going on here. Pinkie, go get Applebloom and tell her to meet us at the clubhouse. We'll take care of this problem. Sweetie Belle, we need to have a talk with our nieces."
The entire time, Prism, Gemstone and the Tri-Pies had been waiting outside on the steps, neither of them saying anything. When the grown-ups came out, they faced them, prepared for a long lecture. They were all glaring down at them.
"Prism," Scootaloo said sternly. "Why did you dump ice water all over Gemstone?"
The pegasus filly glanced down at her hooves. "She was being mean to me and my friends."
"Is this true, Gemstone?" Sweetie Belle asked, turning to her niece.
The unicorn filly hung her head. "Yes. But only because they wouldn't let me into their club!"
"What?" Blueberry uttered.
"We never said you weren't allowed in our club!" Raspberry proclaimed.
"Yeah!" Cherry agreed. "You didn't even ask us!"
"And Prism said you didn't want to join!"
"Um," Prism laughed nervously. "I kind of said..."
Scootaloo shook her head. "Come with us, girls."
When the group approached the clubhouse, Applebloom was standing at the entrance.
"There y'all are!" she exclaimed. "Now what's this I hear about excludin' some pony from the Cutie Mark Crusaders?"
"They wouldn't let me join!" Gemstone declared.
"Only because she's so prissy!" Prism argued.
Applebloom sighed. "Come up here. We've got somethin' to show y'all."
When they reached the top, Applebloom was holding open the rule book.
"Didn't y'all read this thing?" she inquired. "Rule 16 states that no blank flank is to be discriminated based on their species, gender or background!"
"I didn't let her in because she's a pest!" Prism proclaimed. "And I'm certainly not letting her in now after the way she treated us!"
"You didn't treat me any better!" Gemstone insisted. "You would never let me play with you!"
"Because you always made a fuss and acted like you were better than us! We don't care if you were a big shot back in Canterlot!"
Sweetie Belle scrunched her nose. "Big shot? Gemstone hated her school in Canterlot, what with all the ponies..."
"Stop!" Gemstone cried.
Prism tilted her head as she saw the tears form in the unicorn's eyes.
"What's she talking about?"
Gemstone looked up towards the pegasus and sighed.
"The truth is...no pony really liked me in Canterlot. Sure, Fancy Pants is my father, but my mother...the country mare. They kept saying I wasn't a real Canterlot pony, and when my cutie mark didn't show up when it should have...things got worse."
She turned away to hide her tears.
"Is that why you were always such a snob to us?" Prism asked.
Scootaloo poked her in the side. "Prism!"
"No, she's right!" Gemstone exclaimed. "I...I didn't want to be ridiculed like I was back in Canterlot. Though...honestly...the four of you were the only fillies who were ever nice to me, even you, Pen...err, Prism. I wanted to be your friends. Really, I did. But I didn't know how to make friends. After how I've treated you, I doubt that will ever be possible."
Prism had never seen this side of the unicorn before. She had cried, but it was always overly dramatic and over something insignificant. The tears she shed now were sincere. It was ironic how Gemstone had always gotten on her nerves, when in truth, they were a lot alike.
"I guess I'm the one at fault here," Prism said, laying a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm the one who wasn't willing to give you a chance. I thought giving you a taste of your own medicine was the answer, but that only got me into trouble. What's worse," she glanced at the triplets, "I dragged my best friends into it. Well, no more. I'm willing to give you a second chance if you'll give me one. So what do you say? Friends?"
Gemstone turned to Prism and smiled. "Friends."
The Tri-Pies sniffed as the two embraced each other.
"Aw!" they uttered.
"But wait a minute," Prism said, looking up at Scootaloo. "The memory book said that the best way to take care of a bully is to get revenge!"
"What?" Scootaloo said, raising an eyebrow. "Where does it say that?"
"Here!" Blueberry said, flipping through the memory book. "Right here! It shows you getting revenge on some pony named Bad Seed!"
The three mares glanced over at the photo and then laughed.
"You girls didn't look at the next page!" Applebloom said, turning the page over.
There was a clipping from The Foal Free Press which included a photo of the three of them covered in mud, the golden apple float sinking in the pigsty behind them. Scrawled underneath were the words: Revenge: stupidest idea ever.
"Revenge is never sweet," said Sweetie Belle.
"And you should know," Applebloom said, "that 'Bad Seed' was my cousin Babs and after the parade, we made up, because we found out she was bein' bullied for her blank flank back in Manehattan." She turned the page to their group shot. "Then we made her a Cutie Mark Crusader!"
"Wait a moment!" Cherry said, scratching her head. "This story sounds familiar..."
The others laughed and Prism looked to Gemstone.
"I guess we've both been acting pretty stupid, huh?"
The unicorn nodded. "Indeed. Though...I think I was much worse."
"No, I think I was more of an idiot."
"No, you weren't."
"Yes, I was."
"No, you weren't!"
"Yes, I was!"
Gemstone giggled. "No, you weren't!"
"I was!" Prism declared, laughing along with her.
"Well," Scootaloo said, putting her hooves around the two fillies. "I'm glad to see that you two are friends. And Prism, you must remember, if you guys are going to be Cutie Mark Crusaders, you have to live by the code." She handed her the rule book. "So study it."
The pegasus filly grunted. "Homework."
Her aunt grinned. "And I don't want to hear anything else about excluding other ponies, understand?"
The two nodded.
"Good. Now, I believe you gals are due for an initiation."
"Right!" Prism held up the rule book. "Who wants to read the pledge?"
"Ooh, ooh!" Cherry chimed. "Can I stand at the judging table?"
"I will wear my cape with pride," Cherry read while standing at the podium, "and keep the secrets of the Cutie Mark Crusaders within the walls of the clubhouse until the day I earn my cutie mark."
"I will wear my cape with pride and keep the secrets of the Cutie Mark Crusaders within the walls of the clubhouse until the day I earn my cutie mark," Gemstone repeated with her right hoof raised.
"And I will stand on my head and do the Pony Pokey."
"And I will stand on my head and...what?"
Cherry snorted. "Just messing with you! Welcome to the Cutie Mark Crusaders!"
Blueberry and Raspberry cheered as they draped the cape over Gemstone's shoulders.
"Now we can take the group photo!" Blueberry exclaimed.
The five fillies hurried outside to where Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Pinkie Pie were waiting with a camera.
"Say 'pickles!'" Pinkie shouted.
The Crusaders huddled together and put their hooves around each other.
"Pickles!"
The pink pony snapped the photo that would be placed in the memory book, a photo that marked the end of a rivalry and the beginning of a life-long friendship.