"Hey Diamond Tiara, what are we gonna do this recess?" The grey filly said as she bound across what passed for the school playground to the jungle gym, upon which her pink friend stood proudly.
"The same thing we do like, every recess Silver Spoon," she spoke down to the quickly approaching filly. She turned on her heels and delivered a buck to the flank of colt who dared to try climb as high as the Queen of the Schoolyard, sending the poor foal crashing into the burning sand of shame below.
"Try to ruin Applebloom's life!"
She leapt down and gracefully landed on the back of an unfortunate blonde unicorn filly who happened to walk by. It cried out as its backbone shattered under the weight of four pink hooves weighed down by the pride and smugness that only a child spoiled since birth could have attained.
Damn, Diamond Tiara thought, maybe I should lay off the cream tarts
Like most other ponies in her life, she spared the crippled filly only a passing thought as she stepped off the crumpled wreck of a pony she had created. A hoarse cry of "mommy" escaped its mouth when her hooves finally stopped crushing its lungs.
"Are we gonna do the thing you talked about yesterday? I brought the glue!"
"Excellent. Go tell Tootsie Flute to get ready, then meet me by the tire swing. I've got some stuff to set up first."
With a quick nod, her grey friend turned and headed for the school building.
It was the first recess after morning classes, so that gave her at most twenty minutes to enact her plan. She mused over the details of it as her little manicured hooves stepped across the dew laden schoolyard lawn with purpose. Unbeknownst to Appleblank and her two pets, she had already turned one of their new friends, the fat grey one, into an informant. Wasn't that hard either, he was willing to spill the beans on all of their little conversations for the measly price of one chocolate bar. As such, she knew that the trio were planning on playing on the tire swing this recess. They always take turns on the swing, and Applebloom's turn was due next.
The glue was only one half of her plan. For the other half she needed something from somepony else.
Her little hooves guided her to a group of ponies playing together with a yellow-striped blue ball. She gave a subtle nod to one of them, a yellow pegasus filly who returned the gesture. The next time the ball was thrown the yellow filly positioned herself underneath it and bucked it with such force and calculated direction that a keen observer would clearly distinguish it as intentional. A keen eye lacking in most schoolyard fillies.
"Aw, Alula! You hit the ball too hard!"
"S-sorry girls, I'll go get it" the filly replied, running off to where she had successfully kicked the ball to; the withered old tree at the edge of the schoolyard. For now Diamond Tiara ignored the scene, continuing ahead without another glance at the group. Her upturned nose led her to a brown earth pony kid playing with a ball-and-paddle.
"Hey Lickety Split," she said in casual acknowledgment. Lickety Split wasn't on her payroll, so she needed to work her natural talent on him to get what she needed. Fortunately, Lickety Split wasn't the shiniest ball in the ball pit, so she found it easy to maintain a perceived relationship of friendly acquaintance with him.
"Hey DT" he replied. A nickname normally reserved to only her closest friends. A look of apprehension quickly washed over him.
"I-it's not your birthday again is it? You don't have like, more than one birthday a year cuz you're rich, do you?"
What's his problem? Why is he always scared of other ponies birthdays?
"No," she replied flatly, restraining herself from calling him a myriad of different insults."Just bored is all."
"Oh" he replied, brightening up from the alleviation of his ongoing phobia.
"Well, I got a paddle ball! It's pretty fun!" he said, holding up said toy and the ball on a string a few bounces to demonstrate.
"That's nice" Diamond Tiara replied while absent mindedly observing her hoof. In truth, the paddle ball was the entire reason she was even talingk to him at this moment.
When the hay is that featherbrain going to be done yet?
Behind her, on the other side of the yard, Alula reached the old tree. The blue and yellow ball was there behind it, but instead of taking it she discretely kicked it into a nearby bush. She reached a hoof into a hole in the tree and retrieved a ball of slightly different coloring, just as Diamond Tiara said.
Unlike most of the other foals, she wasn't being paid (or blackmailed) to help Diamond Tiara. Alula genuinely liked the wealthy filly. She admired her beauty, her poise, her confidence and her lovely voice. She... loved Diamond Tiara. She didn't really know why, she didn't know when, but she knew what she felt. Her heart had soared when the pink filly accepted her Hearts & Hooves Day card. How lucky she was to have bought the only rose red card left in the shop, Diamond Tiara's favorite color. Maybe. She wasn't entirely sure, she heard the pink filly say "I like the red ones" on the day, but they might've been talking about saddlebags. Or dinosaurs. It didn't matter, her secret crush had looked at her little offering, a ten bit candle to a million bit flame, with honest surprise before accepting it with a heartwarming smile. She was finally accepted into Diamond Tiara's posse of close friends and perhaps one day, be accepted by the filly as something more.
"I've got it!" yelled a voice from behind Diamond Tiara's head, projected loud enough to reach where she was standing at the other end of the yard.
About stamping time she thought, tilting her head just enough to see a yellow pegasus filly and confirm that she was holding a blue-striped yellow ball.
Alula was a surprise for her. She didn't even know her name when the yellow filly suddenly called out from the seat behind and gave her a Hearts & Hooves day card. A red one too, just the ones she liked. The color matched her red saddlebag and red tyrannosaurus. At first she thought it was just some random filly trying to be friendly to everypony, but there was an unmistakeable glimmer in that filly's eyes that spoke out with crystal clear sincerity.
It said I am an utter tool, please use me like the dirty wrench that I am. And that suited her just fine.
"Hey," she said, turning back to the brown earth pony once the group began playing again. She motioned behind her and pointed with a perfectly manicured hoof.
"Isn't that, like, your old ball?"
It took the brown foal a few seconds of squinting before he recognized it.
"Hey yeah, it is! I thought I lost it!"
"Better go tell them that's yours then" the pink filly said with feigned disinterest. Actually, she had gotten Silver Spoon to quietly steal the ball while the foal was playing with something else. She hid the ball in the old tree knowing that anypony who stumbles across it would assume it as one of Pinkie Pie's emergency balls. It wasn't technically stealing; she was planning on giving it back anyway.
The distraction had its effect. Lickety Split dropped his paddle ball and rushed to Alula and the group. With a quick look to make sure nopony was watching she grabbed the toy in her mouth and stuffed it into her mane. With the second component of her plan in hoof, she quickly trotted to where Silver Spoon was waiting by the tire swing, glue bottle at the ready.
It was time for the Appleblank to get Applespanked.
---
"Ah'm tellin' y'all, Diamond Tiara had a real live dinosaur!"
"That's impossible!" Scootaloo cried out as the cutie mark crusaders made their way to the school playground.
"Ms Cheerilee told us dinosaurs all died out a billion years ago! I don't care how rich she is, she can't bring back something that's already dead!"
"I dunno..." Sweetie Belle began. "What if she hired out a really good necromancer to create zombie dinosaurs!"
"Sweetie Belle, there's no such thing as necromancers! Besides, she probably just paid somepony to build a realistic-looking dinosaur robot! With laser eyes!"
"It was a real livin' breathin' dinosaur! It had huge teeth and terrible breath, it even ate a live goat!"
"Well that's just silly, I don't think even somepony like Diamond Tiara could hide a horrible flesh eating dinosaur," Sweetie Belle replied, just as they approached the tire swing.
"Right, so who's turn is it?"
"It's mah turn, y'all owe me fer messin up our science project."
"That wasn't us! I swear I saw a pony messing with our paper mache volcano before we got there!"
"Oh just let her have a turn Scootaloo, we only got ten minutes of recess left." Recess only went for twenty minutes, but the three of them had to stay behind and clean up the mess they made in art class. It was really weird, almost everything they used ended up spilling or bursting open, and towards the end of the class Sweetie Belle knocked over a paint can that hadn't been there before. Still, they had enough time for at least one of them to get a quick turn on the swing, and the rest of them could go during lunch. Applebloom eagerly ran up to the old tire and clambered in through the center hole.
"Alright gals, I 'aint gonna push myself here!"
The two fillies trotted up behind her and was about to give their friend a push when the sound of another filly stopped them.
"Hey! Scootaloo! Sweetie Belle!"
A light blue unicorn filly with a deep purple mane and a horseshoe cutie mark ran up to the trio before motioning the school building with her horn.
"Cheerilee wanted to see you two, right now."
"Huh? What for, why didn't she tell us when we were cleaning up?"
The blue unicorn filly looked around before leaning in a conspiratory manner.
"I think she didn't wanna mention it while you were with Applebloom"
Sweetie Belle gasped. "Do you think she found out about the time we went behind the school and practiced ki-" an orange hoof slammed into her mouth before she could continue.
"KICKING! Yes! We were practicing kicking! I was giving Sweetie Belle pointers on kicking for the... um... soccer game that we're gonna play! Yes!" Scootaloo explained quickly, an awkward grin plastered on her face.
"Yeah, well, you better get going."
"Yeah yeah-"
"Hey! What about mah turn on the swing!?" Applebloom yelled, waving her hooves around like a beached seapony.
"Oh, right. Hey Tootsie, you mind giving Applebloom here a push?"
"Yeah sure, now go!"
The two fillies ran off towards the school building at the unicorn fily's urging. Once she was sure they were gone, Tootsie Flute slowly approached Applebloom, head curiously turned away.
"Right. Just gimme a few strong pushes, ah really wanna fly!" Applebloom said, spreading her hooves out in her practiced 'Super Pony' pose. She broke her posing when she noticed the unicorn filly walk away from her.
"Tootsie? Hey, where ya goin?"
"That'll be all, Toots."
Applebloom spun her head around in shock. That voice, oozing condescending arrogance and gilded with cruel malice, could only belong to one other pony.
"Diamond Tiara!?"
"Applebloom." she replied with a patronising bow. The proud pink filly walked out from behind the tree the tire swing was tied to, leaning close to whisper to Tootsie Flute as she passed.
"He's all tied up in the toolshed. I slipped a little something into his chocolate. He should be waking now."
The unicorn filly gave a silent nod before galloping off to the toolshed behind the school, eyes blazing with determined fury.
"Tootsie Flute how could you!? How could y'all sell me out like this!? I thought we were friends!" Well, she was one of Twist's friends, but a friend of a friend is still a friend. Like that chubby gray colt. He was quiet, but seemed nice. Especially to Twist.
"It's too late Applebloom. There's nopony around to fight your battles for you. It's just you. And. Me."
She punctuated the last few words by grabbing the yellow filly's cheek and shaking her head in a mocking way. It was a lot of work setting up for this; spying on the crusaders, sabotaging their science project and art class. But now that it was paying off she intended to relish every moment of it.
Applebloom managed to push the pink hoof away. "S-stay back! I ain't afraid of you no more!" She yelled, but the prowling pink filly sensed the lack of conviction behind it. Seeing the social predator advance, Applebloom desperately tried to remove hersef from the tire but found her midsection to be stuck fast to the center.
"Where do you think you're going in such a hurry?" Diamond Tiara taunted, laughing at the other pony's feeble struggle against the adhesive that held her.
"There's no need to rush. You're going to be here for a while..."
"About 'nother five minutes ah reckon!" The trapped filly yelled in defiance.
"You can't keep me here forever! Once the bell rings Ms. Cheerilee is gonna notice us missin' and come out her to find you trussin' me up like this!"
"Oh, I'm sure she would..." Diamond Tiara spoke teasingly as she walked around to the other side of the tire.
"If she were still here."
Applebloom yelped as she felt a pair of well kept hooves grab on to her flank and turn her around to face the path leading to the school, a magenta mare galloping down the path and towards Ponyville.
"Huh!? Where's she goin?"
"To the Ponyville General Hospital, where her sister is in critical condition after an unfortunate accident late last night."
The young farm pony couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"You-you didn't! That's just horrible, even for you!"
"Yeah, you're right. That's why I paid somepony to lie about it instead."
Diamond Tiara could be considered many things, but 'truthful' would not be one of them. Even this admission wasn't the entire truth. She didn't pay anypony per se, but made a deal with a filly who was working there as an apprentice nurse. The filly would make a call to the school and tell the fake story to Cheerilee, and in return Diamond Tiara would put in a good word for the filly with her aunt, Nurse Sweetheart who worked at the same hospital. She managed to convince the little nurse that they were on thin ice after a certain incident she had heard about involving a slipper thief.
"By the time she finds out that the truth it'll be too late to save you."
"B-but she wouldn't leave our class without a teacher! Mah friends are gonna know ah'm missin' and tell whoever they got subbin' for her!"
"Ms. Artichoke is on sub duty."
"Aw, seriously?"
"Yeah,"
"That ol' bat is the worst substitute teacher ever!"
"I know, right? This one time, Silver Spoon was like five minutes late for class because she had to walk from her uncle's home or whatever, and Ms. Artichoke made her wait outside the class because the stupid old mare doesn't want to interrupt her stupid lecture which she's just reading off a piece of paper!"
"No kiddin'. Last monday she wouldn't let Sweetie Belle go to the toilet fer the same reason, but she was readin' from a huge book! Poor filly darn near wet herself."
"Oh, so that's what was going on."
"Yeah, and she gave Scootaloo detention fer lettin' Truffles borrow a pencil 'cuz she thought they were passin' notes."
"Harsh. Wait, Truffles?"
"Fat kid."
"Oh."
"Yeah..." Applebloom sighed as she relived the horrible memories of suffering under Mrs. Artichoke's suffocating field of ruthless apathy, before her thoughts returned to her current situation.
"So, um, you were gonna do somethin' to me?"
"Oh yeah,"
Diamond Tiara gave the other filly's flank push, sending it spinning around. She took a moment to compose herself and put on her best "tormenting Applebloom" face before retrieving the now ball-less paddle from her mane.
"Hey, remember that time you made me dress up in a stupid bunny outfit and dance with your stupid friends?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Well I think payback is well passed due on that."
"Ah didn't force ya to do that. 'Sides, it never would'a happened if ya didn't tell Cheerilee 'bout mah Granny!"
"True, but my daddy always taught me never to take responsibility for something when you can blame it on somepony else."
"...really!?"
"Nah, I just like to think he would if he actually bothered to spend time with me."
"...Ah'd feel sorry fer ya, but by this point ah'm pretty sure ah'm an orphan. Applejack keeps tellin' me our parents are away fer work, but ah think she just doesn't want to tell me the truth."
"Spoiled brat. Don't care."
"Right..."
"Well it's been fun chatting with you, Appleblank, but my time is precious and I'd like to make a start. So if you'll excuse me," she said, stopping the tire spinning with one forehoof while holding the paddle in the other. She leaned in close to Applebloom, now nervous at the sight of the wooden paddle in the pink filly's hooves.
"I'm going to do my stuff."
"W-what are you gonna do with that paddle?"
"I'm gonna do the best I can."
The malicious filly spun her victim around to face her blank yellow target. Gripping the bat with two hooves, she reared up on her hind legs and pulled back like she was ready to hit a home run.
*SMACK*
"AAAAAAHH!"
Applebloom cried out from the sudden pain from her hindquarters.
"How do you like those apples you little weanling!"
"Ah-ah don't like it! AH DON'T LIKE IT AT ALL!"
She continued to spin, and managed to glimpse through developing tears the image of the pink demon winding up for another swing before her flank was once again returned to the firing zone.
*SMACK*
"YAAAAGH! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?"
"I do it only to feast on your delicious apple-scented tears!"
*SMACK*
"AAAAHH! MAKE IT STOP!"
"Look at it his way Applebloom, at least your blank flank will have something on it after this!"
She braced herself when she saw the bully reeling back for the hardest strike yet.
*SMACK*
*SNAP*
*THUNK*
"OW!"
Surprisingly, the voice hadn't come from her. Applebloom managed to open her eyes as she continued spinning to see a shocked pink filly clutching her head, a broken piece of wood below her. She sighed in relief when no strike came on this rotation.
"What the hay!?"
Diamond Tiara rubbed her forehead and looked down at the snapped wooden handle at her hooves, the round head of the paddle landing next to the tire after bouncing off her head.
"It... it broke? IT BUCKING BROKE!?"
She looked down at the snapped piece of wood at her hooves, then back up to Applebloom's only mildly abused posterior. Three months of planning, one hundred bits in bribes, a stolen bottle of chloroform and one chocolate bar, all wasted on only a mere half of a spanking session. This would not do.
She wasn't wearing her "Tantrum Throwing" tiara, but her "Tormenting Applebloom" tiara could double as her "Throwing A Fit Because My Tormenting Applebloom Plan Failed" tiara.
"That cheap-ass son of a broodmare! How dare he buy something so worthless for me to steal!?"
She threw the useless wooden handle at Applebloom's bruised hindquarters, eliciting a grimace from both of them. Applebloom for having yet another wooden object strike her saddlesore cheeks. Diamond Tiara for noticing that the object barely left a mark compared to the previous damage she had inflicted.
"I can't believe I spent all that time being nice to that bed-chewing barnsour! I'll have his HEAD for this!"
Her hooves met aged wood as she bucked the tire swing tree in blind rage, tearing off an impressive chunk of bark.
"Arrgh! Bowed-hock crib-sucking glue fodder!"
At this, Applebloom's other cheeks turned red in shock. She had no idea the normally prim and proper filly of wealth and class was such a disgustingly filthy pottymouth. She wondered where any filly could possibly learn such vile language.
"H-hey now," Applebloom began hesitantly. The other filly's increasingly rude swears were actually beginning to scare her. Diamond Tiara sounded like a mare two beats away from a family murder-suicide massacre by chainsaw.
"W-why don't we all calm down a bit an' think things through?"
"WHY DON'T I GIVE YOU A CASLICK WITH A SWEAT SCRAPER!?"
Scratch that. The filly was now well and truly family-killing mouth-frothing mad. Suddenly, her sore flank was now the least of her worries.
"Easy there girl! It- uh, ain't no problem yer money can't fix right? Ah mean, ya could just go buy another paddle yerself!"
At this, the rich filly calmed down somewhat. The blank flank was right, she could still salvage the situation. She noticed that the other foals had already left- the bell probably having rung while she was attempting to paddle her target into a teary-eyed oblivion, so that meant she couldn't scam anypony else out of a makeshift paddle. She'd have to run to the town square to get a replacement (or more accurately, get somepony else to do it for her). She could just glue the broken paddle back together, but it probably wouldn't hold for very long. The glue wasn't particularly strong, and only stuck to her target's skin because she used almost the entire bottle. She could try to find something in the playground, but anything she could use would be in the shed, and it was probably best not to disturb Tootsie Flute in the midst of taking revenge. All this flew through her mind fairly quickly, and without much weight. It wasn't until she went over what the blank flank blankly stated that her mind suddenly latched onto something, as if it were a key that unlocked a whole new train of thought.
Why the buck did she steal the paddle in the first place? Why didn't she just get one herself?
"Oh bloody bastard strangles..." she leaned her head back and slammed a hoof to her face. She knew the real reason why she stole a paddle instead of just getting her own. She was trying to prove something. Prove that she could still do what she did best, prove to herself that nothing had changed. But in the end, things went wrong again. Sure it was only a small setback, but after everything else she had been through this just felt like the final insult on her injury. Her rage was spent, and suddenly she found herself not really caring about the battered filly she had spent so long trying to ensnare.
Applebloom sighed. At least her captor no longer sounded like she was ready to sodomize a filly with a rusty coat-hanger.
"Well, if yer done fer now 'n all, would it be alright if ya got me down from-"
"Get yourself out blank flank, I don't care anymore."
With that, the pink filly turned away in a huff and trotted down the road leading out of the school, muttering further obscenities under her breath.
