"So... now what?"
"Ah dunno. Guess plan R's a bust then."
"That's plan D! D for Rainbow Dash! Get it right!"
After leading the new kinda cool for adult pony to the Weather Patrol office, Cutie Mark Crusaders were once again out of ideas on what to do. If Lightning Dust was to be believed (and she seemed trustworthy to three fillies, one especially), Rainbow Dash would be busy for the rest of the day, meaning their crusading was stopped to a halt. Until they heard an alternative from a familiar voice.
"How about plan S?"
The fillies hummed, rubbing their chins, considering pros and cons of said solution. They came to a simple conclusion at about the same time.
"Wait a second, do we even have a plan S?"
"Plan S stands for going to school, like all good fillies are supposed to." the voice explained.
Simultaneously, the three fillies opened their eyes wide and covered themselves in sweat. They slowly, carefully turned their heads back and smiled at the mare.
"H-hi misses Cheerilee!" Sweetie Belle started, but ended saying nothing else, stopped by the smile of a particular magenta mare. Teachers glare, even the nice and kind types like Cheerilee, was enough to stop any foal from pretending they had anything but doom waiting for them. Cheerilee, being a kind and nice teacher that she was, escorted three fillies to the school safely, glad they were too distressed with their own fates to notice that she was late herself. Glad she dodged the bullet herself, she let them go with only a verbal warning.
"Well, so much fer crusadin' today." Applebloom lamented over their fates, especially hers, since she had so much chores planned for today that any crusader related activity was out of question. Especially since Applejack banned the sleepovers after the incident with the robot.
"Don't worry about it," Scootaloo waved her hoof "we'll just have to wait until tomorrow. And I bet, tomorrow will going to be legen--..."
There were three fillies sitting at the table outside the school grounds. One was a white unicorn, supporting her head with her hoof, staring blankly at the trees in the distance. Next to her, was a yellow earth pony, laying her head on the table, staring into the sky. The third one, an orange pegasus, stared at the pencil she was messing with. All three of them were unnaturally silent.
"I can't think of anything -dary!"
A collective moan could be heard all over the entire schoolyard. Foals and fillies still playing around after the school stopped their business to identify the source of the sound, but quickly went back to their own once they realized it was just Cutie Mark Crusaders. Again. Only two foals were left watching the trio from the sandbox. Incidentally, the two were the only other blank flanks left in the entire class. Unlike the trio, they were much busier building a new fortress for their next epic battle, taking place in future times, after Princesses were gone and ponies were all about war in the post-apocalyptic setting, which Rumble read up in a comic book he loaned from one of his brothers friends. Soarin was a bad role model for foals, but for completely different reasons than anypony expected.
"Here they go again," Rumble shook his head, looking at the cutie mark crusaders "we do the usual?" he asked his partner.
"Yeah, sounds good." Dinky nodded and both foals got off the sandbox and walked towards the table.
'The usual' was a short version of 'let's invite them so they'll cheer up after not getting their cutie marks, again'. It was their obligation to fill as Honorary Cutie Mark Crusaders, a compromise they reached between joining full time and rejecting the offer completely. It made little sense in the long run, but it sounded much cooler than just 'being friends'.
"Hey girls," Rumble greeted the trio "wanna play with us?" He asked, pointing at the sandbox, unfinished fortress and bunch of pony miniatures. The girls in question looked at the sandbox, then at Rumble and Dinky, finally at each other and shrugged.
"Sure," Scootaloo put the pencil away and left her seat "not like we have anything else to do, since Rainbow Dash is too busy for plan D." she mumbled. The last statement made Rumble raise his brow.
"Rainbow Dash? Busy?" He asked, trying to comprehend these two (three actually) words in the same sentence. "With what? Napping and doing nothing?"
"Hey!" Scootaloo turned to Rumble to face him a little too close "Rainbow Dash is the manager, she does all the important stuff so Ponyville can have a good weather. Without her, the whole town would have a drou... drow... droug... umm..."
"Drought." Sweetie Belle added.
"Yeah, that."
"Uhh, no she doesn't," Rumble's eyes narrowed "all she does is laze around and push the work to others."
"Well yeah, that's because she's too..."
"...cool for work, I heard that." he rolled his eyes.
"Exactly!" Scootaloo smiled proudly "She's way too busy being awesome and training to become the coolest Wonderbolt ever!"
Rumble raised his hoof and opened his mouth, until he realized that there was no arguing this statement. As much as Thunderlane complains about her and wishes she would grow up, she really was that good at flying and there was no questioning that she'd become a great Wonderbolt one day. He could continue arguing over nothing (and he was pretty sure Scootaloo wasn't the one to stop either) or just let it slide and avoid any further problems. He looked over at the other fillies. The bored, unamused looks on their faces told him that it wasn't time or place for petty arguments. He had to resort to the ultimate fight-breaker.
"Okay, whatever," he said the magical words, instantly segueing into more important issue "we're playing Equestrian Fall. Which side do you want?"
"Rebels!" Scootaloo was first to raise her hoof.
"Rebels!" Applebloom was the second, bumping hooves with her partner in crime. This pretty much meant that Rumble and Dinky were probably stuck as royals in this one.
Sweetie Belle took a while longer to pick her side.
"I dunno... are we playing before or after Melodious was backstabbed by his wife?" she asked, provoking a very negative reaction.
"SWEETIE BELLE!" all four ponies screamed at the same time "Spoilers!"
"Oh... oops?" Sweetie Belle shrugged and smiled sheepish "You still haven't read the latest issue?"
"No!"
"Oh... sorry. But it's okay, he survived and she was under mind con--..." she started, but suddenly stopped, realizing full well that she wasn't doing anypony favors. Also, she had for vicious glares all pointing at her. "...never mind." Sweetie Belle's ears drooped and she covered herself in blush. She eventually picked royals, if only because Dinky and Rumble handled spoilers a little better.
The battle was fierce, full of blood and spared nopony, as each magical bullet shot and each spear thrust, there was at least one rebel, seeking freedom and justice for their oppressed brethren, or one royal, trying to keep the world under control by iron hoof and discipline, misinterpreting the teachings of the Princesses in their own, twisted way, dead. In the end, nopony was alive to see the end of it.
"Wow, war sucks," Scootaloo admitted and others agreed with her, nodding "what was it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing!" Dinky answered, as she started packing the miniatures back to the box. "But it was kinda fun to play!" And everypony nodded in agreement, fully admitting that war and bloodshed was good only when fictional.
They couldn't see Miss Cheerilee from their point of view, so they missed her single tear of pride for her students, and one more for herself for a job well done. What she didn't take a pride in, were her two worst students. Not in terms of academics, though. One of whom, the smarter, but at the same time meeker, observed the group of five foals from around the corner. Her hoof grabbed the edge of the wall hard enough, she could rip it off if she wasn't a small filly, and only that same grip kept her body from shaking uncontrollably. Back in the sandbox, Cutie Mark Crusaders and Dinky shuddered uncontrollably, feeling a hostile glare looking at them, though none of them realized what it was, or that others felt the same. Rumble had a strange feeling as well, though his felt less hostile, but at the same time just as dangerous. He looked around and could swear that he saw somepony around, but in the end waved it away as imagination. Too much very graphic comic books were indeed making him paranoid.
The figure behind the wall breathed heavily, almost gluing herself to the wall, her heart beating so hard, she could swear that he heard that. Seconds passed, sweat poured from her forehead and she swallowed before taking a small peek. The foals at the sandbox acted normally, hiding the plastic ponies back in the box and chatting happily, no sign of detection noticed. She growled quietly at them. Cutie Mark Crusaders she wasn't afraid of in the slightest- they were too busy looking for their special talents to even comprehend who they were playing with. It was that grey unicorn she was most worried about. Every single time she tried to get close to Rumble, she was always there, shadowing him and not leaving his side, like, ever. They were together at the Summer Sun Celebration (she wanted THAT plush ursa SO badly), always hanging out after school, even staying overnight at each other’s houses. She was a threat, an obstacle, a... rival. Her. A blank flank. She was a danger to...
"Silver Spoon?"
"MEEEP!"
The filly in question jumped, along with her heart, desperately trying to get outside her chest, but she calmed down fast enough to prevent it. She fixed her crooked glasses and turned to the filly that called her.
"Oh, uh, hey Diamond Tiara?" She smiled sheepish. Silver Spoon's hair was a mess, the long, perfectly braided mane had stray hairs poking out and beads of sweat could be seen on her face as she faced her friend. Thankfully for her, empathy was not Diamond Tiara's special talent.
"What are you doing here? I was waiting for you for, like, almost an hour!" She lamented, rolling her eyes. "Do you know what happens when you spend an hour, alone, waiting for somepony in Sugarcube Corner?" she asked. That question was a rhetoric one, the answer was simple. Pinkie Pie and 'Not lonely with me' song. She shuddered just remembering it. "You didn't forget we were meeting, were you?"
Silver Spoon looked around, anywhere that wasn't questioning and thankfully oblivious look from her friend.
"Umm, no I just... I... uhh... well, you see..." She finally gave up and decided that telling the truth was the only option. Just not the important truth. "...yes, I forgot. Sorry..." He ears drooped and eyes went away from facing her friend. Diamond Tiara, for all the flaws she had, couldn't hold a grudge on her best (only) friend.
"Ugh, like whatever!" She waved her hoof. "Come on," she started walking towards the road, which also happened to pass by the sandbox "I don't wanna bump into any of these blan--UGH!"
The pink filly fell on the ground, her golden tiara falling from her head, rolling on the ground before stopping when it collided with an opened, recently dropped box, with over a few dozen pony soldiers desperately trying to run for their freedom. The only thing stopping them from escaping, was lack of sentience, moving parts and the fact that they were made out of plastic. One soldier in particular had a really bad luck of finding himself squashed under relatively small, yet still gigantic for him, orange hoof.
"Oww!" Scootaloo lamented over her aching head, but soon after her concern reached the tiny, non-living pony wannabe, or what was left of it. "Oh no!" She turned to Diamond Tiara, frowning. "Watch where you're going!"
"YOU watch where you're going, Chickenloo!" Diamond Tiara got off the ground, with help from Silver Spoon. "You better hope my tiara's not broken, or you'll pay for it, dearly!"
"What? Who cares about your stupid tiara, like it'll break from this!" She grabbed the piece of the soldier and showed it. "Look what you did to one of Rumble's soldiers!"
'Wait a second,' Silver Spoon panicked 'HIS soldiers?'
"Pfft, that old piece of junk? You should throw that to trash anyway and get a better one!"
'No, Diamond Tiara, please!' Silver Spoon begged her friend in her mind, 'Don't!'
"Hey, it ain't no trash!" Applebloom interjected, defending Scootaloo along with Sweetie Belle and Dinky "His brother gave it to him 'cause they were important!"
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle and Dinky nodded.
"Bah, he gave it to him because they're poor and can't get new ones!"
Silver Spoon was trembling in her hooves. Her best friend was insulting her (she faced it long ago and wasn't afraid to admit it, but only to herself) true love, not to mention other fillies which she didn't care for either. She cursed herself for living in a cruel world like that, and cursed herself for being too weak to say anything, to try and fix the problem. This was officially starting to become the worst day of her entire life, all because Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara (to lesser extent) couldn't be bothered to watch where they were going. She was too afraid to speak and even look at the colt in question.
Rumble on his part was being strangely quiet. His eyes were stuck on the remains of Seargent Iron Wing, Thunderlane's favorite pegasus scout. He took a deep breath and finally walked in between both fillies.
"Okay, that's enough both of you, stop fighting!" He turned towards the evil one. "Is your tiara broken?"
"Well, it's..."
"Is. It. Broken?" His eyes narrowed and even Diamond Tiara, the iron hearted filly of the town, had to stand down and comply.
"N-no."
"Then it's all fine. I'm not mad for what happened to my toy, it was an accident. Sorry for that. I don't expect you to apologize, so at least leave us alone!"
Diamond Tiara rarely interacted with Rumble, especially outside the class, so his sudden, confident and actually dignified outburst was something that caught her by surprise, rendering her shocked and silent for a while. She shook her head and eventually reacted.
"Hmpf, whatever!" She pouted and turned away, avoiding any further eye contact from the colt. She wasn't afraid of him, not at all. But she was worried that she might actually start to... respect him? The thought alone made her shudder.
"Come on girls," Rumble turned to his actual friends, right after picking up the remains of his old comrade "I don't want to stay here, with them, any longer." He received a few nods and the group left the schoolyard, leaving their two morally defeated enemies alone.
"Pfft, who needs them? We were wasting time anyway. Come on, Silver Spoon, let’s just go." She shrugged and walked a few steps forward. She stopped, turned back and retraced the steps she just took to rejoin her friend, who hasn't said or done anything, instead blankly just looked at the ground "Silver Spoon?"
"He hates me, he hates me, he hates me, he hates me..." she quietly murmured to herself, as the drops of tears started falling on the ground. Diamond Tiara waved her hoof before her face, having absolutely no effect. She gulped, not sure what to do at moments like these.
"Ooookay..." She scratched her head and thought "...so, wanna go hang out in my house?"
"..."
"We can have makeovers? You know you love those!"
"..."
"I have ice-cream?"
"...chocolate?"
"All you can eat!"
"...ok." She wiped her tears and allowed to be guided to her best friend’s house.
After saying goodbye to Dinky and Cutie Mark Crusaders, Rumble had to take a deep breath and face the truth, as he opened the door to his home. The smell of fried eggs with dandelions filled the entire room, for the first time making Rumble realize that he haven't eaten anything since lunch break back in school, which was good few hours away. Time sure flew fast when he was playing with his friends. A perfect day, too bad it ended with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon breaking, this time literally, their fun, even if it was an accident. Though to be honest, it was mostly Diamond Tiara, as the other didn't actually say anything. Not that she ever talked to him, even when they were paired in the class for a project. As far as he knew, he never did anything bad to her to earn her spite. In fact, when they first met, he complimented her glasses and helped her with one problem in class, but she insisted on avoiding him from that point on. He blamed Diamond Tiara and her obsession against blank flanks. Like she wasn't one of them just not too long ago.
He finally entered the kitchen, with box of soldiers under his wing. He saw Thunderlane by the frying pan, already finishing up the dinner, with two plates and jug of juice already placed on the table nearby.
"Hey bro!" Thunderlane greeted his little brother, barely looking away from the stove.
"Hey Thunderlane." He greeted him back.
Thunderlane was by no means a difficult pony to decipher and Rumble had no problems figuring out his brother. In between the sizzling eggs, he could hear a loud sigh, not to mention the smile was gone from his face. This usually meant two things: Rainbow Dash and Blossomforth, supported by the fact that there were only two plates on the table, as opposed to three on Tuesdays, whenever Blossom joined them. He wouldn't admit it to his brother's face, not at these times at least, but he missed her. Especially her cooking, which was a little more varied than his brothers. He loved his brother's cooking and it was delicious, but he longed for something different once in a while.
"How was school?" Thunderlane asked, dividing the content of the frying pan onto the plates.
"Good. We stayed a little longer and played with CMC's."
"Equestrian Fall?" Thunderlane asked, raising his eyebrow and donning a sly smile. As with every big brother, there was no hiding it from him.
"Y-yeah... how did you know that?"
"Guess what inappropriate material for foals I found when I was cleaning under your bed?"
"Uhm... oops?"
"Seriously, I really need to talk to Soarin about this. I'll teach him to show my lil'bro something this indecent."
Busted. Rumble gulped and tried to think of anything to get away from consequences. He once heard some line that worked fairly well against him. Might as well give it a shot now.
"Thunderlane? When you were my age, did mom and dad found something under your bed, that you weren't supposed to have?"
At the sound of that, the big, black pegasus went completely stiff, his eyes wide open, twitching, while his face turned red. Rumble had no idea why that was such an unpleasant topic, but it did the job, so he was glad for it. Soon after, Thunderlane coughed and scratched his head.
"Okay, you got me there... I won't mention the comics, if you don't mention... that. Deal?" He extended his hoof forward.
"Deal!" Rumble happily obliged and hoof bumped his brother.
After the meal, it was time to face the truth and be honest. Rumble shifted a little on his seat before gathering enough courage to say something.
"Thunderlane?"
"Yeah?"
"...umm, you see, this morning, when we were playing..." and then he confessed everything. From inviting CMC's to play, Diamond Tiara being, well, herself, to accidental and completely unintentional fall of his favorite pegasus scout.
"Oh no," Thunderlane's ears dropped "not Sergeant Iron Wing! He was the best!"
„I know, I'm sorry, we didn't mean to, I mean, Scootaloo didn't mean to, but I was supposed to take care of them and..."
"No no, it's alright. It happens."
"You're not mad?"
"No, not really. Sad, mostly. I mean, Iron Wing was the best!" He sighed, recalling the memories from his childhood. All the battles he had won, all thanks to one, small pegasus with barely a short hoof-blade as his only means of protection. He was a hero that abolished tyrants, slain dragons and rescued about five princesses, marrying each (now that he thought about it, it was a little messed up) and getting a bunch of half kingdoms as rewards, yet never stopping his heroics. Good times. "You know what we need to do now, Rumble?"
His brother blinked and tilted his head. He had no idea, but should've seen it coming...
"... and for all the other deeds he performed, proving his bravery knew no limits, we thank you, sergeant Iron Wing, you deserve your rest!"
The two pegasi, one a tall, well built black coated with a big white Mohawk, other smaller, gray coated with black mane, saluted, while standing still in the safe distance from a small bonfire burning in their backyard, inside which remains of a plastic toy pegasus became one with the ashes, melting into the burning wood. A few buckets filled with water and sand waited nearby, along with a lone cloud, just in case, ready to end this primitive, yet noble funeral. It was a simple burial, with no fanfares, no publicity, but with utmost respect, just as Iron Wing would have always wanted.
"Rumble," Thunderlane patted his brother on the back, as both shed a tear for their old friend "I know you feel guilty, but you shouldn't. You did your best, but life sometimes gets the better of us. All we can do is go on and remember those who passed as they lived, not how they died."
"I will." Rumble nodded and the two fell silent, instead gazing into the fire, or the sky, where first stars started to appear. They both noticed two falling stars and closed their eyes to make a wish. Rumble had all he ever needed- the best big brother, friends, nice house, he didn't feel the need for anything (maybe aside from that cool action figure set of Power Ponies for his birthday), so he asked the stars to make Thunderlane's life a little easier, just so he could smile more often. That was when their life was at its best.
Moments passed in silence.
"Thunderlane?"
"Yes?"
"Is that a snow cloud?"
"... don't ask."