I stared at my cutie mark in horror and relief. I lost everything but that, I thought, trying to figure out if keeping my cutie mark was a good thing or not. Yes, I finally had my cutie mark, and that was great; but on the other hoof, nopony else remembered it. How was I going to explain this to them?
“We were stuck in a time loop,” Life Bloom said. “By my count, we were there for almost a year, although I was unable to accurately keep a tally of our number of repetitions due to the nature of the loop. During the last loop, Sweetie Belle earned her cutie mark, and apparently it carried over.” Well, I guess the direct route worked okay.
“Really?” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom asked while Socket continued to stare at the remains of the mana engine in horror. Twilight and I nodded while I tried to keep myself from crying. I had finally gotten everything right, all my friends had a good day, and I showed everyone how much I cared for them. Everypony was happy, so why did I have to lose it?
“Essentially, yes,” Twilight said, turning from the mana engine to look at my friends. “I accidentally grossly overestimated the amount of mana the engine would need to get started and supercharged it. Adding to that the fact that it wasn’t properly calibrated, we’re kind of lucky the whole town didn’t blow up.” My eyes watered up as she spoke, and a second later I was completely sobbing.
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Melody moved over to comfort me, with Scootaloo and Melody patting me on the back. “What’s the matter, Sweetie Belle? I thought you’d be happy you got your cutie mark,” Apple Bloom said in her country drawl.
“Yeah, this is… You pretty much got what you wanted,” Scootaloo said as she ran a hoof down her back, “I figured you’d tell us all about it, I mean, what’s there to be sad about?”
“Ah, I believe I can answer that,” Life Bloom said when I didn’t respond. “Sweetie Belle spent almost seven months trying to plan the perfect day for you and her sister. Her cutie mark was the culminating event of that perfect day, and I believe her earning it was secondary to the joy she felt at making so many ponies happy. While she has her cutie mark, the event tied to it has been wiped from almost everypony’s memories.”
“So?” Scootaloo said, tilting her head at that as she stepped back from me and pulled out her umbrella to shield herself from my continual sobbing. “She got her cutie mark, does what she did to get it matter that much?”
“It matters to her,” Melody said, continuing to stroke my mane reassuringly, not bothered by my sobbing. Her touch even helped me calm down a little bit. Not enough to stop crying, but a little bit. “How could you even say that?”
“I have to agree with Melody,” Life Bloom said. “I earned my cutie mark after successfully identifying all the ingredients in an unknown potion. It took me several weeks of research, but thanks to rigorous study and application of the scientific method, I was able to identify all the components in it. My cutie mark symbolizes the epiphany that came with that moment, the realization that this is what I was meant to do, and my notes on the potion are of incredible value to me.”
“That still don’t explain why other ponies forgetting how she got her cutie mark is makin’ her cry like this,” Apple Bloom said, looking between me and Life Bloom. “She usually stops the big sobbing after a few seconds.”
Life Bloom sighed and shook her head. “One thing I learned about Sweetie Belle after spending almost a year with her is that making ponies happy is incredibly important to her. She spent a long time working to make everypony she knew happy, and yesterday, she finally succeeded. In her mind, she lost the incident that earned her her cutie mark, making it an empty symbol.”
“So… if time got reset, then how come she kept her cutie mark?” Apple Bloom asked while I kept crying. By now, the ground around me was getting muddy and Rarity would probably be super upset with me for getting my coat dirty.
“A cutie mark is a personal thing,” Twilight said. “Most scholars on the topic have decided that the epiphany is what prompts the appearance of the cutie mark, and since Sweetie Belle still remembers her epiphany, she still has her cutie mark, even if the event that caused her to earn it never happened.” She looked at me. “Maybe we should see about getting her into the clubhouse where she can rest or recover or… something. Sitting out here sobbing can’t be good.”
Melody nodded and helped pull me to my hooves. “Come on, Sweetie Belle, let’s go upstairs…” She glanced from me to Socket who was still staring at the mana engine and completely unmoving. “Maybe we should have somepony keep an eye on him as well.”
Twilight nodded at that. “Great idea. Scootaloo, can you stay here with Socket and try to get him to talk or do something? I am going to talk to Rarity and Applejack and let them know what happened. Here’s hoping they don’t get too upset with me.”
She looked between me and Socket for a long moment. “Yeah, I can do that,” Scootaloo said, giving me one last look before walking over to Socket and poking him on the shoulder. Sniffling, I followed Melody and Apple Bloom up to the clubhouse, where I collapsed on the beanbag chair and curled up into a ball.
“Excuse me,” Life Bloom said, looking between Melody and Apple Bloom, “would it be possible for me to have a word with Sweetie Belle in private?”
Melody nodded hesitantly and headed towards the door, but Apple Bloom stayed where she was. “I don’t know, yesterday, you made Sweetie Belle cry, and I don’t think she needs your brutal honesty right now.”
Life Bloom glared at her crush. “Apple Bloom, I spent the last year spending time with Sweetie Belle. What seems like it was only yesterday to you is a year away for us. I dare say that right now, I’m more familiar with her than you are. More importantly, I’m the only pony who can intelligently talk with her about the last loop’s events. Besides, she’s already crying.” She turned to look at me. “Sweetie Belle, is it alright if I talk with you alone?”
I sniffled and nodded my head. “There you have it,” Life Bloom continued. “I have no problem with you waiting outside so Sweetie Belle can call on you if she feels threatened, but right now, I think it’s best if we have a bit of privacy.”
“Alright,” Apple Bloom said, turning around and following after Melody. “Sweetie Belle, if you need anything, just call and I’ll be here in a second.”
“So will I,” Melody yelled from the base of the ramp. I think it was the first time I ever heard her yell.
“Now then,” Life Bloom said, sitting next to me. “You’re upset and I understand that. I even think you have a perfectly valid reason to be upset. However, I also think there are a few other things you need to consider.”
“Like what?” I asked, lifting my head up from the bean bag chair and looking at her, eyes still watering.
“Your epiphany,” she said. “While I can’t claim to read minds, knowing you, I would assume it has something to do with realizing that you could use your singing to make ponies happy.”
I nodded at her. “Like I suspected. Now, I agree with you that it’s terrible that only the two of us remember the frankly insane amounts of effort you spent to make your friends and other ponies happy, but I know for a fact that something besides your cutie mark survived yesterday.”
“And what’s that?” I asked, feeling my forehead wrinkle as I tried to figure out what she was getting at.
“You, Sweetie Belle,” she said, looking into my eyes. “You’re still the same mare who cared enough to spend months planning how to make everypony happy, and even if yesterday is gone, you are still here and I have no doubt you will continue to do what you can to make your friends happy. Nothing about that has changed. You have an entire lifetime to make ponies happy, and yesterday… last loop proved that you can do so. Don’t let one bad day make you lose your focus. You’re better than that.”
My lips slowly turned up, and I felt myself smile for the first time today. “You’re right… I got my cutie mark because my singing makes ponies happy. If I let myself get all sad and down now, then I forgot why I got my cutie mark as well. Thanks, Life Bloom.”
Before she could respond, I wrapped my forelegs around her in the best hug I could manage. “Thank you so much! I got so upset by what I’d lost I totally forgot what I gained. I discovered my calling last loop, and nothing can take that away.”
She smiled as I ended the hug. “I’m glad I could cheer you up. You see,” Life Bloom said, turning around to look at Apple Bloom and Melody who were standing at the club’s entrance, “there was nothing for you to worry about. I managed to become quite adept at advising Sweetie Belle during the loop, even if she didn’t always understand my advice.”
“I did too,” I said as I sat up. “It’s not like I’m dumb.”
“No,” Life Bloom said, shaking her head. “In the right circumstances, you’re quite astute, I just don’t think your brain works on the same wavelength as everypony else.”
“Don’t say that,” Melody said, running over to my defense. “Sweetie Belle is perfect just the way she is.”
“I’m not going to disagree with that,” Life Bloom said. “I suppose what I should have said was that her manner of thinking and mine are antithetical. I strive to be rational, while she prefers to think emotionally. There is nothing wrong with either approach, but it does lead to something getting lost when we communicate.”
My ears perked up as I figured out what she was trying to say. “Ooh! So that’s why you’re so good at calming me down and I’m good at giving you advice about what to do with you and–”
She swiveled her head around and glared at me. “Might I remind you that we are no longer in a time loop, so Apple Bloom and Melody will actually remember this conversation tomorrow.”
“Oh… right,” I said, happy she caught me when she did. “Sorry about that.”
“No harm was done,” Life Bloom said, shrugging as Apple Bloom and Melody took seats in the clubhouse, Melody choosing to sit right next to my bean bag chair.
“Hey,” Scootaloo said, entering the clubhouse with Socket following behind her. “So, Sweetie, you feeling better?”
I nodded at her. “Way better! Ooh! Who wants to hear about what we did in the time loops?” My friends all nodded and I started telling them all about what I did in the time loop. (Well… mostly, I kind of left out the bits about the love triangle because I thought it would just cause way more trouble.)
***
“Wow!” Scootaloo said, her eyes wide. “Can you tell me about the obstacle course again and how Rainbow Dash tackled me on stage and talked about how cool I am? That was so awesome, how did I not get my cutie mark doing all that?”
“I don’t know,” Life Bloom said, groaning, “but I would appreciate it if you didn’t have Sweetie repeat the story for the tenth time.”
“Fine,” Scootaloo said, sighing and sitting against the wall. “But it was such a cool part about the story, way better than the Sweetie learning to sing bit.”
“I don’t know,” Socket said, “while your stunts were definitely cool, I’ve got a lot of questions about how her cooking could wake up some ancient evil.”
“As do I,” Life Bloom said. “I eventually decided that no answer would be worth the tremendous cost to my sanity it would certainly incur.” That was probably smart, even I wasn’t sure how my cooking could’ve been that bad.
“Was… performing with me okay?” Melody asked, speaking up from her little corner in the clubhouse. I remembered the promise I made to get a piano in the clubhouse once I was out of the loop.
“Of course it was,” I said, smiling at her. “Thanks to you, I got my cutie mark.” I stood up and wiggled my flank to show it off to her. “That totally wouldn’t have happened without you.” I bounced over to her and wrapped her in a hug. “You were absolutely great in the last loop, Melody, why would you ever think you weren’t?”
“I just… I didn’t want to let you down,” she said, frowning. “I’m glad I could help you get your cutie mark though, even if it was in another timeline.”
“Time loop,” Life Bloom corrected, turning from her spot next to Apple Bloom to look at me and Melody. “We were stuck in a time loop, although I suppose based on the nature of the loops, it is conceivable that Sweetie Belle got her cutie mark in an alternate timeline.” She magically adjusted her glasses. “I suppose that if I wanted to get a more comprehensive answer, I’d have to study my chronology a bit more, and that is not something I particularly feel like doing.”
“Why’s that?” I asked as I pulled away from Melody. “After all the stuff we’ve been through, wouldn’t it be kind of cool to figure out why it happened?”
“It happened because the engine was improperly calibrated, and Twilight overcharged it by six orders of magnitude. The exact quantum mechanics are not something I feel inclined to investigate at this juncture, as I feel my time can be better spent furthering my knowledge of the life sciences.”
“Uhmm… okay,” I said, understanding maybe every other word of hers. “Do you think I could do some reading on it? I think it would be kind of neat to understand just what happened.”
Life Bloom raised an eyebrow. “If you’re sure, I can find a book on advanced theoretical temporal mechanics once the weekend is over.”
“That would be great!” I squeaked, bouncing up into the air as I said it. Okay, so it sounded a little complicated, but I didn’t need to understand all of it, just the basics, and I could probably do that. How hard could… that thing Life Bloom was talking about be?
***
“Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said as I walked into the shop that evening, “Twilight came and told me everything that happened. How are you?”
“Alright,” I said, shrugging as I took a seat at the kitchen table. “Still a little upset that nopony but Life Bloom and me remembers the last loop. I got everything right, and nopony else will ever know about it.”
She smiled as she followed me into the kitchen. “Would you like to tell me about it? It might not be as thrilling as actually experiencing it, but I’d like to know what I missed out on, especially if it ends in me hearing about how you got your cutie mark.”
I opened my mouth and paused. There was too much, I couldn’t just tell her about the last loop, not when there was so much other stuff that I wanted her to know about.
***
“Well,” Rarity said, frowning as I finished my story for the second time that day, “that is certainly more than I expected. You… I’m not sure if I should punish you for stealing from the boutique in an alternate timeline.”
“Come on,” I said, hoping she wasn’t seriously thinking about punishing me for something I didn’t technically do, “I only did it because I knew it wouldn’t matter. I wouldn’t actually steal from you. Besides, you were super mad when you found out about it in that timeline.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wonder why. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I lost an entire month’s worth of revenue. Considering how thin my margins are, I’d imagine that I would be absolutely livid when I found out what you’d done.”
“You were,” I said, nodding my head in agreement. “Like… I don’t think I’ve ever see you that upset. So… is the fact that I stole from you the only thing that stood out in my story?”
She laughed and shook her head. “Not at all, Sweetie Belle, there is actually a rather extensive list of things we need to talk about, most of them are… well, not bad, but I certainly believe you need my guidance on a few issues. However before we get into all that, I want you to know that I’m incredibly proud of you for earning your cutie mark. For me, it was just yesterday that I was telling you you should consider singing, and now you’ve… well, you’ve outdone yourself, Sweetie Belle, and even if nopony remembers it, I’m proud to have a little sister who cares enough to spend several months planning the perfect day for her loved ones.”
“Really?” I asked, feeling a happy tingle run up my back. “You’re proud of me?”
Rarity nodded at me and smiled. “Of course I am. I’m sure our parents will be as well when I write to tell them about your cutie mark. Now, on to Applejack and me. I trust I will have your… discretion in this matter?”
“Uhmm… of course,” I said, “although I don’t really know why you’re keeping it a secret, I think the two of you make a cute couple. It’s like that one story of yours I read, you know, the one where the sophisticated classy mare falls in love with the rough farmpony who possessed…” I tried to think of how the book described him. “‘A hidden nobility.’ Also, how come that book didn’t have a cover or anything?”
“That’s… I don’t really think that’s too important right now. I was just worried you would tell the whole town before we were ready to announce it. I’m still not sure how our friends will react, and she doesn’t want to announce it as her family is rather conservative when it comes to such things.”
“Really?” I asked, my ears perking up in curiosity. “Why wouldn’t they want her to date you?”
Rarity sighed and got to her hooves. “I have a feeling we will be talking for quite some time. Do you mind if I put some tea on?”
“Nope!” I said, shaking my head. “Although I think I’ll stay away from the oven. I still remember what happened the last time we made tea together.”
“Ah yes,” Rarity said, clucking her tongue as she poured water into the kettle. “That did sound particularly unpleasant, although… I wish I was there for the talk we had after.”
“Uhmm, you were,” I said from my spot at the table. “That’s how we could have a conversation. It would be pretty hard otherwise.”
“Fine, little miss pedant,” Rarity said as she put the tea on the stovetop. “I wish I could remember the conversation we had. It is one of those memories I would absolutely treasure.”
“Why?” I asked, frowning at that. We were both crying during that talk, and it just… “Why would you want to remember something so sad?”
“Hmm, that does sound like something Pinkie Pie would say,” she said, turning from the stove and trotting back to sit next to me. “But to answer your question, not all sad things are an evil. Some are, certainly, and I have more than a few memories I’d like to forget entirely, but there are others that I wouldn’t part with for all the gold in Equestria. Our conversation sounds like it would be one of those.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you can like something that’s so sad. It’s… don’t you prefer happy memories?” I asked, feeling like my sister was speaking in a foreign language.
“Because, Sweetie, this wasn’t a sadness born out of malice, it was born out of love, and I’m sure that had the loop endured, our bond would have been strengthened. Just because something is sad doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be experienced. Indeed, the sad can grant the good a beauty that is almost sublime.”
I shook my head in confusion. “I still don’t understand what you’re talking about, that sounds… wouldn’t a bunch of good memories be better?”
“Perhaps, but tell me, if all of your memories were good ones, what weight would they have? What would make them special or meaningful?”
“That’s…” I paused, trying to think of a good way to answer her question. “Well, you’d have to have some memories that were better than others, right?”
“Not in this exercise,” Rarity said, quickly glancing at the teakettle. “For our purposes, all memories and experiences will be equally good.”
“But then, if you didn’t have anything else to compare it to…” I frowned as I saw her point. “You’re saying that good needs the bad, kind of.”
“Indeed, although I don’t believe I did a good job of describing just why I found such a sad moment so poignant, and perhaps it’s not something I can accurately explain.” She smiled at me as the kettle whistled. “Perhaps I just have a weakness for the sentimental and maudlin, although now I’m curious, if you had the chance to forget about our sad little conversation, would you?”
I thought for a minute before shaking my head. “I guess not,” I said, “because even though it was about sad stuff, it was also kind of good hearing about how important I was to you and I felt kind of better after telling you all that stuff. How can something be sad and happy at the same time?”
She laughed as she poured the water in the kettle and pulled tea bags out from under the counter. “The word you’re searching for, Sweetie Belle, is ‘bittersweet,’ and I’m glad to hear that you’d keep that memory.”
“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head as she put the tea bags in our cups. “Although maybe I would forget about burning my head on the stove.”
“Even if that memory kept you from burning your head in the future?” she asked, reminding me of how I had stayed away from the stove this time because of what happened last time. Why did she have to be so good at making her points? Couldn’t I win just one of our… they weren’t arguments, but whatever they were, I wanted to win one. “Now then, I’m assuming you want at least three lumps of sugar in your tea?”
I nodded my head at her. “As sweet as possible, I can’t stand how you have your tea so bitter.”
“And I prefer to savor all the tastes in a cup of tea as opposed to just making it taste like sugar.” She levitated the cups and saucers over to me. “Now, I hope you don’t mind staying up too late tonight because I feel we have quite a bit to discuss this evening.”
***
The sun had gone down hours ago, and we hadn’t gotten through even half of the stuff Rarity had wanted to talk about. “Now then, Sweetie Belle, you’re… well, by almost all standards, you’re a teenager now. You’re thirteen, fourteen if we’re counting the time spent in the loop, you’ve started your growth spurt, and you have your cutie mark. That means there are some things you should be aware of.”
“Mom and Dad told me the difference between mares and stallions three years ago,” I said, looking at her from across the table filled with several empty tea cups. “They said you showed them why it was important to have this talk earlier as opposed to later.”
Rarity looked down at her current cup of tea. “That’s… good to know. However, the technical details about such things are not what I wished to discuss. I actually wanted to talk with you about Melody.”
“Why?” I asked, tilting my head at her in confusion. “What does she have to do with me becoming a teenager?”
My sister just sighed. “From what you described, the mare is clearly infatuated with you, and you are completely oblivious to that.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “That’s… that’s completely crazy. We met a week… well, for her a week ago, and she isn’t even… why would she be interested in me? I don’t even… Wait, I do have a cutie mark now, but I don’t get why she’d like me when there are so many other ponies that are better around.”
“And what makes them better?” Rarity asked, frowning and giving me a look of concern.
“I don’t know,” I said, “they’re probably smarter or prettier or something. I just like making ponies happy.”
“That’s… Sweetie Belle, I never want to hear you say something like that again. You are certainly good enough for a pony to take romantic interest in you, and more importantly, you are an exceptional filly. There aren’t many ponies who would do what you did in the time loop. That sort of selflessness is hard to come by.”
So I had done some nice things for my friends, that was only because I wanted to make them happy. I don’t think that made me selfless. “I just made ponies happy,” I said, “and my singing is really good at doing that, but that’s it, my singing makes ponies happy. That’s what I’m really good at. I’m not like Apple Bloom, who knows how to make pretty much any potion. That’s… I could totally get it if Melody was interested in her or Scootaloo.”
“Sweetie Belle, I will smack if you insist on being so obtuse and down on yourself. Not hard, mind you, just enough to let you know that this line of thinking is clearly and poisonously wrong. You are just as good as anypony else, and the only way somepony can be better than you is if you let them. Now, I want you to think about this story as if you weren’t a player in it. A socially-isolated mare moves to a new town where she knows absolutely nopony. She has never had a real friend before, and now she’s likely experiencing feelings she never felt before. I’m sure you’ve noticed such feelings as well.”
I had taken a bigger interest in setting my friends up with special someponies lately, that was true, and I really liked imagining what they’d do on their dates. Hopefully a lot of kissing. I nodded at her and Rarity started talking again. “So imagine you’re that filly; it’s your first day at a strange new school, you’ve never felt so utterly isolated before, and all of a sudden somepony walks up to you and offers you something you never had before: friendship. Can you see how she might develop a crush on somepony in that situation?”
“I guess,” I said, taking another sip of tea. “I mean, if I was reading that story, it’d totally make sense that the two of them got together, and… you’re saying she has a crush on me because I was nice to her?”
“There are stranger reasons to have a crush on somepony. I once had to fend off the overtures of a stallion who was attracted to me solely because I smelled nice. At least this crush of hers is more than physical,” Rarity said, smiling at me from her end of the table. “Now, I’m not saying you have to go out with Melody, I wouldn’t presume to tell you how to live your life, but what I will not see you do is string this poor filly along. The way you raised and crushed her hopes in the loop is absolutely deplorable, and the only reason I can excuse it is because you were obviously oblivious to her infatuation.”
“So… what should I do?” I asked, yawning and looking at the clock. It was almost time for the engine to reset… or it would be if the engine was going to reset.
“Be aware of her feelings, try not to lead her on too terribly, and most importantly, try to ascertain just how you feel about her before doing anything permanent. I would hate for you to do something and regret it the next day.” She smiled at me. “Now, while there are some other things I’d like to talk with you about, I don’t want to keep you up. Get some sleep and we will talk tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” I said, getting up on my hooves and heading to my bedroom in the boutique. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of tomorrow.
***
“Sweetie Belle, are you alright? It’s almost noon, I don’t think I’ve ever known you to sleep this late.” I screamed. This shouldn’t have happened, I was free, Twilight had told me I was free…
The door opened and I felt my sister wrap her forelegs around me. “Oh, I’m sorry, Sweetie Belle, I thought it would be funny to tease you. If I had known your reaction would be so drastic… Obviously my attempt at humor was in bad taste.”
“It’s… it’s okay,” I said, after I stopped screaming. “You just… I really liked spending time with you yesterday, and I didn’t want you to forget it.”
Rarity hugged me tighter. “It’s alright, Sweetie Belle, I’m sorry for upsetting you. Are you feeling better now?”
I gave her my biggest smile ever. “Of course I’m feeling better, today is tomorrow, I’ve been… It’s been a year since that’s happened, and let me tell you, tomorrow always being a day away gets old after a few months.”
She laughed and sat next to me on my bed. “I can only imagine. I apologize again for scaring you this morning.” Her horn lit up and pulled back my window curtain to show off the rising sun. “In reality it’s only a little bit past 8:00. Did you sleep well?”
“Great,” I said, nodding my head. “This is so cool, I haven’t…” I looked at the clock: 8:07. “There hasn’t been an 8:07 in a year.” I hugged her again. “Thank you for waking me up before 8:18.”
“You’re welcome,” Rarity said, returning my hug. “8:18 was the time the loop started, was it not?”
I nodded at her. “Yep, and since the engine blew up before around 1:00 in the morning, so I just… this is new. It’s all new and I have no idea what’s going to happen, and you can remember what we talked about yesterday, and it’s all just so great.”
“That’s wonderful to hear, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said as our hug ended and she pushed herself off of my bed. “Do you care to tell me what the plan for today is?”
“Well, I thought we were going to talk about more stuff that happened during the loop. I thought you had a lot more you wanted to talk about,” I said as I hopped off of the bed after her.
“Oh, I do,” she said as we headed out of my room. “Most of it focuses on why gambling is bad, but I feel that can wait. Of more import to me is the conference with Mr. Marelon on Monday. I believe I mentioned it to you in the loop?”
“You did,” I said, trying to think of when that conversation took place. “I think it was… No! Miss Octavia mentioned it to me, she said she looked forward to seeing me Monday and then I asked her what Monday was, so she told me about how you’d talked with her Friday, and I asked about what, so–”
Rarity raised a hoof to cut me off. “Yes, thank you, Sweetie Belle, I am aware of that particular conversation. I just wanted to make sure you were ready to speak with Mr. Marelon; Octavia and I’ll be there and we’ll do most of the talking, but only you know all of what happened in that class.”
I frowned at that and tried to think of what happened the last time I’d actually seen him. “What about Diamond Tiara? He made fun of her a lot too, and she can make sure what I say is right. It’s kind of been a year since I last saw him so I don’t exactly remember all of the details.”
“That’s…” Rarity paused as we reached the bottom of the stairs. “You and Diamond Tiara are agreeing on something? I thought you despised the filly.”
“She’s not… He made her cry in class. Well, he made us both cry in class, and I thought I’d really like to see her be humiliated, but instead it just made me feel bad. I think we even bonded Friday. Oh, I should have seen how she was doing in the time loop, instead I just completely forgot about her.”
“I’m sorry,” Rarity said as we entered the kitchen. “What do you want for breakfast?”
An idea popped into my head and I smiled at my sister. “Let me fix breakfast for you, I might not be able to plan out your perfect day, but I can still fix you a nice breakfast.” Before she could say anything, I was pulling the stuff I needed to cook Prench toast out of the fridge.
“Are you sure?” she said as I put all of the ingredients in front of me on the kitchen counter. “There’s really no need for you to–”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I learned how to cook in the loop, remember?”
“No, actually,” she said while I started mixing the ingredients to make the batter. “I heard the story you told me, but I hope you’ll forgive my skepticism. The last time you told me you knew how to cook, a giant blue box appeared in the kitchen and that mailmare from town burst out of the doors and stole the muffins you were baking. Just thinking about that incident makes my head hurt.”
I nodded. “Yeah, that was kind of weird. I still think those muffins looked pretty good though. They weren’t charcoal like most of the food I cook and nothing terrible happened while I was baking them. Anyways, don’t worry, this will go absolutely fine.”
***
Thirty minutes later, everything was fine and we were both enjoying a fruit bowl and Prench toast, and nothing was burnt or on fire. “Admit it,” I said, “this is pretty good.”
“Alright,” Rarity said, spearing one of the apples slices with her fork (she insisted on using two forks, one for the toast and one for the salad bowl to prevent “cross contamination,” even though she could’ve just used her magic to eat the fruit. Sometimes my sister is really weird about stuff). “You actually learned how to cook during the time loop, and I’m incredibly proud of you for doing so. Of course, now that I know this, I’ll be putting you to work in the kitchen much more often.”
“Great,” I said, before taking a big bite out of my french toast. “Ooh! I can’t wait to get out your cookbooks and see all the things I can cook for you. What do you want first?”
“We can discuss that later,” Rarity said, using her napkin to make sure there wasn’t any food on her lips. “For now, I’d like to go back to the topic of you, Diamond Tiara, and Mr. Marelon.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, “so he liked making fun of both of us a lot because he thought we hadn’t earned our place in his class. I guess we kind of bonded over that? Also, I kind of think being bullied made her realize how awful she had been to us.”
“Perhaps,” Rarity said, tapping a hoof on the table in thought. “Either way, it will be immensely helpful if we have somepony to validate your stories. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d appreciate it if you stopped by her house and informed her of the situation.”
“Okay,” I said as I finished up my breakfast. “So, I need to talk to Melody and Diamond Tiara today, I can do that.”
“What do you need to talk with Melody about?” Rarity asked, frowning as she finished nibbling on her fruit bowl.
“Well, if you’re right about her liking me–”
“I am.”
“Then I need to find out if I like her the same way. I mean, she’s cute, I really like her mane, and she’s really nice, but I’m still not sure if I like her romantically. How do you know when you like a pony?”
Rarity laughed at that. “I’m sorry, Sweetie Belle, but I’m not the best pony to ask that to. When I was your age, I dated anypony that didn’t look like a ruffian, and since then, my infatuations focused mostly on ponies who had no idea I existed.”
“But you’re happy with Applejack, right?” I asked. “How did you realize you liked her?”
“I suppose it was when I realized that I was jealous,” she said, nodding her head in thought. “I got so upset with the idea of her and Trenderhoof together, and once we had talked things out, I realized that the idea of her being in a relationship was far more upsetting to me than the idea of Trenderhoof dating her.”
“Isn’t that basically the same thing?” I asked, frowning at her. “I mean, her being in a relationship and Trenderhoof dating her, it sounds like they are both the same thing.”
She sighed and took a sip of her morning cup of tea. “In action, perhaps, but when faced with the prospect of losing Applejack, I… well, I realized how much I cared for her.”
“Okay,” I said, frowning at her, “but I care for all my friends and want them to be happy, so that doesn’t really help me out much. Unless… are you saying I should date all my friends?”
Rarity spat out her tea and spent the next few seconds coughing. “No, Sweetie, you shouldn’t date all your friends. Just trust your heart.”
“Alright,” I said, getting up on my hooves and moving to the boutique. “Thanks for all the help Rarity, you’re the best sister ever.” As I left, I heard her whisper something but couldn’t quite make it out. Something told me it wasn’t something I was supposed to hear.
***
The door to Filthy Rich’s mansion opened, and its owner, a brown stallion with black mane and several bags of money for a cutie mark, looked down at me. “Yes? Are you here for something?”
I smiled up at him. “Yep, is Diamond Tiara here?”
“She is,” he said, staying right where he was and not letting me in. “However, I’m not in the habit of letting strangers into my house.”
Okay, so that’s why he was kind of being… not mean, but not friendly, he didn’t know who I was. I could fix that. “I’m Sweetie Belle,” I said, still beaming at him. He continued to stare at me. “You know, I go to school with Diamond Tiara… I’m Rarity’s sister.”
His eyes lit up at those last three words. “Really? Well please, Sweetie Belle, come inside.” He stepped aside and let me walk into the house before pointing a hoof at what looked like the living room. “Please, make yourself comfortable, I’ll go get Diamond Tiara.”
“Okay,” I said as I took a seat on one of the seating pillows while he walked upstairs. That was really weird, he didn’t seem to care who I was until I mentioned I was Rarity’s sister, and then he was all friendly and smiley. I would’ve thought that would happen when I said I knew Diamond Tiara.
A minute later, I heard hoofsteps coming down the stairs and Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich were standing in the entrance to the living room. She frowned at me. “What are you doing here, blan–” She stopped as she saw my cutie mark. “When did that happen?”
“Uhmm… yesterday,” I said, smiling at her. “And I thought you said you were going to stop making fun of me and my friends for being blank flanks.”
Tiara grimaced as she walked over to sit next to me. “You’re right, I did. So, what did you get your cutie mark for?”
“Ooh! It’s a long story, but basically, I got it for realizing I could use my singing to make ponies happy. I always thought my singing was kind of a useless skill, but then after I sang for a bunch of ponies in town and I saw how much they liked it… Well, I got my cutie mark,” I said, standing up to better show off the pink heart with two eighth notes on it.
“Nice,” she said, “so what are you going to do with the rest of your friends?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, tilting my head at her in confusion.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Your friends still are looking for their cutie marks, right?”
I nodded at her and she continued talking. “But now you have your cutie mark,” she glanced back at where her dad was, to find he had vanished. “I’m not saying you should stop being friends with them, but I am saying that you should probably start more time practicing your singing and less time going on their silly crusades.”
“Actually, we don’t do all that much crusading anymore. It’s kind of funny I got my cutie mark before them, because they kind of know what their talent is, they just haven’t gotten their cutie mark for some reason,” I said, defending my friends as I sat down again.
“Cutie marks are weird,” she said, blowing air out of her mouth. “It’s… I didn’t do anything to get mine, you know? My dad got me this tiara on one of his big business trips, and when he gave it to me, I realized I deserved the very best. It’s great, but I don’t know what my talent is. At least you can actually do stuff.”
It was so weird seeing her act like a normal pony instead of just making fun of me. After all these years of making fun of us, she was just as worried that she wasn’t good at anything as we were. Maybe that’s why she needed to make fun of us in the first place. “You can do stuff too,” I said. “So… you’re talent is deserving the best of everything, but that also means you can identify the best of everything, right?”
She nodded at me. “Right, so maybe you could write reviews? You know, you can talk about why something is good or bad, and that could be really useful, because I know a lot of ponies could use help with that when they go shopping.”
Tiara tapped her chin. “That’s… It’s at least worth thinking about. So, was there any reason you came over or… did you just come over because you wanted to?”
“Well, I did want to talk to you about Mr. Marelon, but we can also just hang out if you want to,” I said, suddenly feeling bad that the only reason I thought of coming over was to ask for her help. She needed a friend just as much as anypony else. Maybe more because she had so few.
Her whole body went tense at the mention of his name. “Why do you want to talk about him? It’s… we don’t have to see him today, so as far as I’m concerned he doesn’t exist.”
“Because my sister and Miss Octavia and me are going to be talking with him about how he’s been mean to us, and I thought you might want to… I don’t know, my sister thinks that if the both of us talk about him, it will make Miss Octavia more likely to believe us.”
“You mean we can make him hurt?” Tiara asked, a familiar gleam entering her eyes.
“I don’t know… I don’t want to hurt him, I just don’t want him to hurt us anymore. If he could just be nice, I wouldn’t have a problem with him, but he’s not,” I said, frowning at that.
Tiara shook her head. “You know, Sweetie Belle, I don’t understand you. I’m nothing but terrible to you for years, but the second I apologize you forgive me and invite me to have lunch with you, and even after Mr. Marelon has made both of us cry, you still don’t want to make him suffer. How do you… Don’t you get mad at ponies?”
“Sure,” I said, shrugging at her. “I got mad at you tons of times when you were being mean to us, and I’ve had a few fights with my sister, but I’ve only lashed out at ponies a few times, and I realized hurting other ponies doesn’t make me feel good, it just makes them feel equally bad.”
“Like I said, I don’t understand you, but… I kind of like it. At least, I think I do.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, frowning at tilting my head in confusion. It was pretty simple, making ponies smile and be happy was way better than making them frown and be sad. Even I could understand that.
“It’s nothing,” Tiara said. “Anyways, yes, I’ll help you and your sister deal with Mr. Marelon, but I want you to answer a question for me.”
I laughed at that. “Uhh… we’re friends, I’d answer your question anyways. If I wouldn’t do that, I’d be a bad friend. So, what’s your question?”
She looked at me and gulped, the silence stretched out to almost a minute before she finally spoke. “You know what, it’s not important. I can ask you about it later. Silver Spoon and I had a fight Friday night.”
“That’s terrible,” I said. “You two are such good friends, what happened? Was she upset that you wanted to hang out with us? Because Scootaloo said she wasn’t that bad when she wasn’t around…” I stopped myself before I finished that sentence.
“When she’s not around me. I know,” Tiara said, sighing as her shoulders slumped. “Do you know why I’m friends with Silver Spoon?” I opened my mouth to say something, but she started talking before I could make a sound. “Because her dad works for my dad. That’s how I get everything: my dad. My room, my stuff, my friends, my tiara, even my cutie mark, all of it’s because of him. I’ve earned nothing, Sweetie Belle, and I thought… Friday I asked Silver Spoon if she actually wanted to be my friend or if she was just doing it because her dad was forcing her to. I gave her an out and she took it.”
There was only one thing I could do in response to that: I hugged her as tight as I could. “Hey, I’m your friend, and do you know why?”
“Because you want to be friends with everypony?” she asked, tensing up from my unexpected hug but not making any moves to push me away.
“Well, yeah,” I said, not letting her go, “but I only offered to be your friend because you apologized and showed me you could be a decent pony. You totally earned my friendship, and your dad didn’t even know who I was until this morning, so there’s no way he had a hoof in that.”
She pulled her head back and smiled at me. The pony who tormented me for four years looked so sweet and kind it was hard for me to think of them as the same pony. There was the Diamond Tiara that was mean and nasty, and then there was the Diamond Tiara who just needed somepony to make her smile and– She leaned in and kissed me.
Her lips faintly tasted like berry and the heat from her lips caused a weird tingle to run up my spine. It was– I jumped away from her as quickly as possible and wound up tumbling on my back. “What are you doing?” I squeaked as I stared at her in complete shock and confusion. Nopony had ever kissed me before and… Melody already had a crush on me, and now Diamond was kissing me, and why was she kissing me?
Tiara looked like I’d just slapped her. “What do you mean ‘what am I doing?’ I thought you wanted me to kiss you, you hugged me and looked into my eyes. What was I supposed to think?”
“I hug everypony,” I said, still laying on the floor in shock and not sure what I was supposed to be doing. She’d kissed me, and… I think I kind of liked it. Did that mean I liked her? What about Melody? She liked me too, and if I liked Diamond then… What was I supposed to do. “You looked like you needed a hug so I hugged you. It’s what I do.”
“Nopony’s ever hugged me before,” she yelled, her cheeks burning red. “Then you were being nice to me and you hugged me, and what was I supposed to think?”
“That I wanted to cheer you up and thought a hug would make you happy,” I said, still struggling to think of what I was going to do. I mean, I didn’t dislike Diamond Tiara, I just didn’t think about dating her, mainly because up until a few days or a year ago, depending on who was talking, she had hated me and I had really disliked her. Now she was kissing me, and that’s about as far away from hating as you can get.
“It did,” Tiara said, “that’s why I kissed you. If I didn’t want you hugging me, I would have pushed you away.”
Okay, so two ponies had a crush on me, and I really liked both of them as friends, this was… Why? Now there was no way I could make both of them happy. “Uhmm… I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said getting up on my hooves. “I’m not saying no, I just need to think. Okay?”
She barely nodded her head while I backed out of the living room, careful not to take my eyes off her. The second I reached the door, I sprinted away, heading to the clubhouse as fast as I could. Had I mentioned this was really bad?
***
“This is bad,” I panted as I ran up to the clubhouse. “I was talking to–” I stopped as I saw Melody was the only pony in the clubhouse..
“What is it, Sweetie Belle?” she asked, stepping towards me, concern in her eyes.
“Uhmm… where is everypony else at? Shouldn’t more ponies be here?” I asked, taking a step back towards the door. It’s… Maybe Rarity was wrong and Melody didn’t actually have a crush on me and this was all some big misunderstanding. I really hoped that was the case as she moved closer to me.
“Socket and Scootaloo are trying to convince Twilight to help them power the mana engine and I saw Apple Bloom and Life Bloom heading to Life Bloom’s room with their saddlebags full of ingredients,” she said, giving me a worried smile. “You look really upset though, is there anything I can do to help you? Who were you talking to that got you upset?”
It’s okay, I thought, trying to calm myself, just tell her the truth, and tomorrow when everything resets– Oh right. There weren’t going to be anymore resets, so anything I messed up on today would stay messed up. For a second, I wished I could go back into the time loop just so I wouldn’t have to worry about hurting my friends again.
I struggled for air. Why was it suddenly so hard for me to breathe properly? Melody seemed to tower over me, and I realized that I’d curled up into a ball on the floor at some point during the last few seconds. “It’s alright,” Melody said, cradling me. “Whatever’s hurting you isn’t here, right now you’re safe with me.” She started to sing a lullaby and I found my stress slowly draining away. Having her calm me down was nice, and pretty soon I felt so relaxed, I wasn’t even worried about… Oh right, she and Diamond Tiara both had a crush on me. I bolted away from her grip.
“What’s wrong?” Melody asked. “Did I do something to upset you? If so, I’m sorry, you just looked like you needed someone to comfort you and that’s how my mom always calms me down.”
“It… it’s fine,” I said, giving her my biggest smile. Just because she was touching me didn’t mean she had a crush on me, I hugged ponies all the time and that usually worked out alright. It didn’t today, but usually it did. “I’m just…” I looked in her eyes and all my thoughts on why she didn’t have a crush on me totally vanished. “I need to go,” I said, trying to keep my smile up.
Before she could say anything else, I had trotted out of the clubhouse in search of a pony who didn’t have a crush on me. As I headed back to the boutique to try to talk to my sister I ran into Scootaloo. “Hey,” I said, giving a sigh of relief. I could always count on a talk with Scootaloo to help calm me down, and she didn’t have a crush on anypony else in our group. “How was Socket?”
“Alright,” she said, giving a shrug as she turned to walk with me. “He’s pretty upset Twilight won’t help him rebuild the mana engine, and it would be pretty cool, but… I’d rather not have you get stuck in a time loop again, especially if you’re going to be super mushy when you get out like you were yesterday. Besides, it wouldn’t have been cool if something happened to you in the loop and I couldn’t help you. So, what’s up now that you have your cutie mark? Know what type of music you’re going to sing now?”
“Happy music,” I said, nodding my head. “And don’t worry, you were totally there to help me out in the time loop. You told me that things wouldn’t change between us when you got your cutie mark… We were both pretty sure you would get your cutie mark before me.”
“And it sounds like I should’ve. That show I put on in the loop sounded completely awesome. How come I didn’t get my cutie mark?”
“I don’t know,” I said, deciding to head to the park. Today was way too nice to spend it all inside. Besides, I didn’t really want to risk Rarity overhearing what we were talking about, making an open public place… Better somehow? “Maybe you didn’t have an epiphany.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked. “I already know I’m awesome at my scooter and going fast.”
“But… I think it’s more than that,” I said, heading to take a seat under a nearby tree. “When I was on stage I realized I could use my singing to make ponies happy, and I think that’s why I got my cutie mark. Something inside my head clicked, and now I can’t wait to practice my singing so I can do shows and cheer lots of ponies up.”
“So what do I need to realize?” Scootaloo said, groaning as she took a seat in the shade of the tree with me. “I found my talent, I know what I’m good at, so why don’t I have a cutie mark?” There was a pause in the conversation while she thought. “Guess I just need to practice and get better. If I keep going, I’ve got to figure it out.”
I nodded at that, I’d already made two of my friends sad today, I didn’t need to add a third. “Yep, I’m sure if you were stuck reliving the same day over and over for a year, you’d get your cutie mark too.”
She gave me a small smile, which for her was a lot. “Thanks, Sweetie Belle. Can’t get down on myself; I’m going to be the best stunt pony ever. So, what’s bugging you?”
“How did you know?” I asked as I rested my back against the tree trunk. “It wasn’t that obvious I was upset, was it?”
“Nope, but I’ve known you longer than pretty much everypony else except Rarity and your parents, I guess. We were best friends before there was a CMC. If I couldn’t tell something was wrong, I’d be a pretty bad friend. So spill, what’s eating you?”
“Promise you won’t tell anypony else?” I asked, reminding myself that stuff that happened today would carry over until tomorrow. Every since Diamond Tiara had kissed me, I’d kept thinking it was okay because it would all go back to normal tomorrow, even though I also knew it wouldn’t. I guess after a year, it’d just kind of become a habit.
Scootaloo nodded at me. “Of course. I’m not about to betray one of my friends. That’s… what would Rainbow Dash think?” she asked bringing up her idol, and again Pinkie’s words echoed in my head. Scootaloo would definitely be Loyalty if we were getting elements. Since that was Rainbow Dash’s element, I don’t think she’d even accept another element.
“Okay, so I know you know Melody has a crush on me,” I said, feeling a nervous flutter in my stomach. Why did things have to be so complicated? I wasn’t even looking for a relationship, and… it wouldn’t be bad if I was dating one of my friends, I really liked them all, I just didn’t want my other friends to feel left out. “You told me about it in the loop. I kind of didn’t believe you then, but now I’m pretty much completely positive she like likes me.”
“Well, she wasn’t being that subtle about it. Kind of weird how she got so into you the instant you met. I totally get why somepony might have a crush on you, but–”
“We already had that conversation in the loop,” I said, frowning. Something told me I’d be telling a lot of people about what they did and didn’t do in the loop over the next few weeks. “You and Melody actually bonded in that loop. You both had me as your first friend ever.”
“I guess I can understand that, then,” she said, shrugging. “Anyways, what are you going to do about it?”
“I figured I’d do it, you know, I like all my friends a lot, and if dating her would make her happy… It wouldn’t hurt me, and I’d probably really like it. She’s super sweet and kind and stuff.”
“So then… what’s the problem?” Scootaloo asked. “It kind of sounds you have a plan, although I kind of think dating somepony just to make them happy is a really bad idea.”
“Of course,” I said. “I don’t want to date somepony I don’t like, but…”
Scootaloo suddenly laughed. “You like everypony and want to make them happy.”
I nodded my head at her. Finally, somepony who understood. “It wouldn’t be so bad, but I also don’t want my friends to feel like I’m choosing a favorite, so if I date a friend–”
“And of course, you’ll date a friend because you like making ponies into friends,” she said, rolling her eyes.
I nodded at her. “Pretty much.”
“Right, so what’s the problem? I don’t really think anypony else in our group likes you that romantically. If you want to date somepony just because it would make them happy, then go ahead,” she said, her voice sounding like Rarity’s did whenever she was trying to control her excitement about my surprise remodelings of her inspiration room.
“Well, remember how I’m being nicer to Diamond Tiara?” I said, bracing myself for Scootaloo’s reaction.
“Yeah,” she said, flicking her wings in irritation. “I remember how you totally stronghoofed us into having lunch with her tomorrow. She tortured us and all she has to do is apologize and you’re treating her like your best friend.”
“I like making friends,” I said, frowning at her hostility. “It’s even better when you can turn an enemy into a friend, because then you have one less enemy and one more friend.”
Scootaloo shook her head and sighed at me. “Whatever, if you want to start being friends with her, go ahead, but I’m not going to start being all buddy-buddy with her. That’s your business.”
“But you’ll still let her have lunch with us tomorrow, right?” I said, giving her one of my happier smiles. (Not free ice-cream happy, but still pretty happy. Maybe… wait, do unexpected-hug smiles count as happier than free ice cream smiles or not? Because they are both so good. Anyways, it was three-quarters of whatever smile is happier)
“I’ll let her sit with us and I’ll say ‘hey’ to her, I’m not doing any more than that.”
“Thanks,” I said, smiling and tackling her in an unexpected hug. Unexpected-hug smiles were definitely better than free ice-cream smiles and free ice-cream smiles were great. Scootaloo just groaned and pushed me off her, leaving both of us on our backs staring up at the branches of the tree. “Anyways, I was talking with her this morning, and she started getting sad, so I gave her a hug to cheer her up.”
“Wait, Diamond Tiara got sad?” Scootaloo asked. “I didn’t think she could feel things except maybe anger and hate. She’s like a less-friendly shark.”
I jabbed her with my foreleg. “Hey! I know she hasn’t been nice to us, but she’s still a pony and she feels stuff. Once you get to know her, she’s actually not that bad. I actually felt sorry for her today.”
Scootaloo rolled over on the fresh grass to look at me and raised her eyebrow. “Really?” she asked, not feeling the need to say anything else.
“Yeah… that’s actually my problem. She started looking super sad, so I gave her a hug to cheer her up, and then she thought that meant I like liked her, so she kissed me. Now both Melody and her have crushes on me, and I don’t know what to do. I really like both of them, and if I choose one, the other will get hurt, and if I don’t any of them they will both have hurt feelings. See, this is why I don’t have crushes on ponies, it means I have to choose favorites, and I don’t want to choose favorites.”
I gave a groan and rolled away from her. “Everything’s changing and I’m going to hurt ponies and they’re going to leave me and I really don’t want that to happen.” I started sobbing again, although this one was really more of a wail than a sob, it was definitely louder and shriekier.
Scootaloo got to her hooves and trotted over to look down at me. “Look, Sweetie, I get that you like making ponies happy, and that’s totally cool, but you have to do stuff for you too. So you’re in a situation where you can’t make everypony happy, what would make you happier?”
“Making everypony happy,” I said after I’d finished wailing. “That’s what would make me happiest, but I can’t have that.”
“Alright,” Scootaloo said, flicking her tail at me. “So who would make you happier? Melody or Diamond Tiara. If the answer is neither, then you should definitely just stay on your own. Stop caring so much about pleasing everypony, it’s just not going to happen.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, looking at her in confusion.
“There are going to be ponies who don’t like you or your singing or whatever, and no matter how hard you try you can’t change that,” she said, causing the ground from under me to suddenly disappear and leaving me falling through the air. Two days ago I had everything figured out, I realized I could use my singing to cheer ponies up and all of my friends were happy (except Diamond Tiara, I’d kind of completely forgotten her during the loop). Now it was all wrong, my friends weren’t happy, I couldn’t figure out how to make them happy, and Scootaloo was telling me that no matter what, I couldn’t make everypony happy. I moved back to sobbing.
Scootaloo took a deep breath and ground her teeth. “Look, I don’t get this… at all, so maybe I’m not the best pony to ask for help. Is there anypony else who can help you?” Pinkie’s words echoed in my brain again and I nodded at her.
“There is,” I said, “but… uhmm… thank you for listening to me complain, I’m sorry for bothering you.”
“It’s fine,” she said, smiling at me as I got up on my hooves. “I wish I could help you out more, but I kind of just don’t get your problem. Still, it’s pretty obvious it bugs you, and I want to help you out somehow.”
“Thanks,” I said, hugging her again. “I think I know just who I can talk to.”
***
“Hey, Sweetie Belle,” Pinkie said as I walked into Sugarcube Corner, “how’s life? Ooh! How is being out of the time loop? Did you have fun? Did ya? Did I teach you how to cook in the loop? That sounds like something I’d do.”
I stared at her. Somehow, no matter how much I prepared myself for her craziness, she still managed to surprise me. “Yep,” I said, deciding that trying to figure out how she knew all that would would be way worse than not knowing. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about a conversation we had in the loop. Do you think you can take a break?”
She looked around the empty bakery and then back to me. “Yeah, I think I can do that. You’ll have to tell me about our conversation though, it’s not like I can just magically know what you did in the time loop.”
“... Right,” I said after a very long pause. “You… uhmm, you told me we both had a lot in common, you know, we both want to make a lot of ponies happy.”
Pinkie just nodded at that. “That sounds about right, so what did you want to talk to me about? Ooh! Did you want to work together and make everypony in town happy? I throw the party, you do the singing.”
“That actually sounds nice, but it’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. I have a problem with my friends and I don’t think I can make everypony happy,” I said, trying not to get distracted by the idea of singing at one of Pinkie’s parties.
“Oh, those are just the worst. You want to make your friends happy, but then they want different things, and so there you are trying to figure out what to do before remembering that parties solve all your problems,” she said, talking faster and faster with every word. “So that’s what I’d suggest, throw a party and everything will be fine.”
“I don’t think that will work,” I said, frowning. Maybe talking to her was a bad idea. “See, I have two friends who like like me, and I really like them, but I can’t date both of them, so that means that one pony is still going to get her feelings hurt, and I don’t want to hurt the feelings of somepony I like.”
“That is a problem,” she said. “Why don’t you– Wait, I promised Rarity and Applejack I wouldn’t tell you all about that.” She danced nervously behind her register. “Ooh, what do I do? I can’t break my Pinkie Promise, but… Oh! I know!” She pulled a book out of her mane with her forehoof.
“What’s that?” I asked as she flipped through the book super quickly.
“Nothing,” she said. “Just looking for a bit of advice.” She closed the book and put it back into her mane. She gave me her big everything’s-going-to-be-all-right smile. “Don’t worry, Sweetie Belle, it will all work out. I bet tomorrow this will all turn into some hilarious misunderstanding and everything will be friendship and rainbows.”
“I… I don’t think crushes are a misunderstanding,” I said, frowning at her. “Rarity seemed pretty sure that Melody had a crush on me, and Diamond Tiara kissed me. I could maybe understand Rarity being wrong, but Diamond Tiara kissed me. That’s really hard to misunderstand.”
“Just sleep on it,” Pinkie said, still smiling as somepony else walked into the shop. “If it’s not all fixed up tomorrow, come back and talk to me. Hello and welcome to Sugarcube Corner,” she said, looking at the newcomer. “What can I get for you today?” I spent a few seconds looking at her in confusion before sighing. It wouldn’t hurt if I gave it some time, I guess. Besides, I was meeting with Mr. Marelon tomorrow, so I wanted to have at least a bit of fun today.
***
The next morning came way too soon. After I left Sugarcube Corner, I headed over to the school to find Apple Bloom and Life Bloom and talk to them. Watching them do science stuff was kind of fun, definitely better than worrying about what to do with Melody and Diamond Tiara or my talk with Mr. Marelon. Nope, most things would be better than that. Unfortunately, time kept moving forward, and the next morning was actually the next morning. It still took a little getting used to, and I kept wishing I could go back to Saturday as I got ready for school. Compared to seeing Mr. Marelon again, reliving the same day forever looked pretty nice. Anything else looked pretty nice.
I let out a wheezy hacking cough as I walked downstairs where Rarity was waiting for me. “I’m sick,” I said, “I can’t go to school today.”
“That’s terrible,” Rarity said, “and to think you seemed so healthy yesterday. After our appointment with Mr. Marelon and Octavia I promise we will go to the emergency room to make sure you’re okay. Of course, I’d imagine there would be a fair amount of blood work involved, you can’t be too careful with such things, but if you’re feeling bad enough to miss school–”
“No, I’m really sick,” I said, cutting her off, “I can’t go to the appointment today, I don’t want to make you, Octavia, and Diamond Tiara sick.”
My sister smiled at me. “You’re too kind, Sweetie Belle, but if one of your teachers is making you upset enough to try playing sick, then I’m afraid we simply must confront him. Now come on, we must not dawdle, a lady is never late for a pressing engagement, and I can think of few engagements as pressing as speaking with the ruffian who hurt my sister.”
I groaned as I put on my saddlebags and followed her out of the shop. Why did she have to be so perceptive? It’s not like I played sick everyday, or really ever, I actually liked school and didn’t want to miss it unless I absolutely had to. Usually. I could make an exception for Mr. Marelon.
***
“Please, come in,” Octavia said from her desk as we entered her office. It was still a few minutes before school started, but Diamond Tiara and Mr. Marelon were already there. He didn’t even bother to look at me as I walked in and took a seat on the same cushion as my sister. For some reason, Diamond Tiara’s cheeks were a little bit puffy, like she’d been crying. Would Mr. Marelon be awful enough to make her cry in front of Ms. Octavia? If he was, then why would we still be here?
“Now then,” Octavia continued after we had sat down. “Friday Ms. Rarity came to me with allegations that Mr. Marelon had been inflicting undue emotional duress upon her sister. The well-being of our students is of the highest priority at this school, and so I’ve deemed it prudent that we get to the bottom of things as quickly as possible.”
She pulled a sheet of paper out from her folder and took a look at it. “Sweetie Belle, I have the statement your sister made right here. Can you confirm that Mr. Marelon referred to our students from Ponyville as ‘talentless and unfit to be here?’”
I looked at Mr. Marelon who still seemed pretty calm before nodding at Octavia. “It’s been a while, so I don’t know if he used those exact words, but he definitely didn’t think Diamond Tiara and I should be in his class.”
“A valid complaint, I should think,” Mr. Marelon said, causing everypony in the room to look at him. “This academy was sold to me as a place where the best of the best could congregate and hone their skills. A place where artists could teach other artists. Instead, I find I have to deal with ponies who either have no cutie mark.” He glanced at me, and for a second he actually looked surprised to find out that I did have a cutie mark, but his face went back to neutral pretty quickly. “Or have cutie marks that don’t in any way relate to acting. The great should not be encumbered by the mediocre.”
Octavia’s eye twitched. “And so your solution to this problem was to create a hostile classroom for two fillies who had the audacity to want to learn about acting? While I could understand your hostility if… No, I can’t understand your hostility, actually. You teach an introductory acting course, it’s natural that some of the ponies there won’t be familiar with the basics of acting, and your job was to teach them, to try to make it so they walked out of your class knowing a little bit more about acting than when they entered. Instead, you punished fillies whose only crime was wanting to learn.”
“Then they could read a book on acting, I’m not going to waste my time dealing with ponies who lack the skill and passion to be great,” he said, anger flashing in his eyes.
“But that’s your job,” Octavia said, matching his glare with her own. She wasn’t even looking at me and I wanted to run out of the room screaming. “I understand a desire to bring out the best in all your students – I expect nothing less than my students’ best efforts as well – but that’s not what you want, is it?” There was a moment’s pause as a cold smile grew on Octavia’s face. “You want to make ponies feel inadequate? Then allow me to try. You started your career as an actor who met with mediocre reviews at best. After a few years of middling performances and failed productions, you transitioned from acting to criticism, and quickly carved out a reputation as Equestria’s harshest critic.”
She continued staring down Mr. Marelon and he actually started to sweat. “One has to wonder if all this bile you spew is nothing more than an attempt to mask your own glaring inadequacy. Does it help? Does making children cry ever make the nagging knowledge that you’ll never be anything more than an adequate actor go away? Do your scathing indictments of ponies with far more talent than you help you in some way? Can you ever escape the fact that you just weren’t good enough to follow your passion and had to settle for criticism instead?”
He tried to open his mouth, but Octavia cut him off before he could say anything. “When I hired you, you assured me you would use your skill as a critic to bring out the best in your students, and instead you delighted in making students who didn’t meet your high standards suffer. How does that help them? How does making them fear coming to class bring out their best?” She sighed. “Obviously, hiring you was a mistake. Thankfully, it is one that can easily be remedied. You’re fired, Mr. Marelon. While I have to pay you until the end of the term, I don’t want to see you in my academy again. Is that understood?”
“I can assure you, I will be letting everypony know about this academy’s failure,” he said, getting to his hooves and trying to puff himself up. Octavia just smiled at him.
“Please do try it, I’d love to have Princess Luna let Equestria know that you’re nothing more than a pathetic sadist who delights in the suffering of others. What do you think of her publishing that in every paper in Equestria with her seal under it? I wonder how Equestria’s harshest critic would fare when his target of derision can actually fight back.” The blood drained from his face and he shuffled towards the door.
“I look forward to your letter condemning the school, Mr. Marelon, I hope to read it in my morning paper very soon. After all, it’s not like you have any other pressing concerns to distract you from the creation of your opus.”
He closed the door and Octavia’s smile vanished and she looked at me and Diamond Tiara. “I am sorry you had to witness that unpleasantness, but quite frankly, I wanted him out of this school as quickly as possible.” She sighed and slumped her shoulders. “Unfortunately, now I have the unenviable task of finding a long-term replacement and informing Princess Luna that I had to fire another teacher. Still, the well-being of the students is our highest priority, and I won’t abide ponies like him educating Equestria’s next generation of artists.”
“It… it’s fine,” I finally squeaked while reminding myself not to upset her in our Equestrian language class… or ever.
“Then if everything is settled, I will see you all later. Rarity, I trust I will see you for dinner Wednesday.”
My sister nodded as Tiara and I got up on our hooves and headed for our class. For a long time, nopony said anything until I finally got the courage to speak. “Look, I’m really sorry about yesterday. I… You put yourself out there, and I shouldn’t have just run off.”
“That…” she paused and ground her teeth. “No. You shouldn’t have, but I understand why you did.” She paused. “So, what are you going to do?”
I sighed. “I still don’t know. I tried to think about it, but it still seems so complicated.”
Tiara stopped and took a few deep breaths. “Whatever, if you don’t want to date me for some reason, I’m not going to be upset, so I guess just do what makes you happy. I’m not going to stop talking to you just because you said no to me.”
“Really?” I asked, my ears perking up. “You aren’t going to yell at me or be mad or whatever? I thought if I turned you down you’d get upset and go back to not being friends with me.”
“Oh, a part of me would love to, but I don’t want to be like Mr. Marelon anymore. I can be better than him, I can use my talent to help ponies be better and buy better and not just make them feel miserable. I still deserve the best, and things are better when you earn them, like my friendship with you.”
“Thanks,” I said, resisting the urge to hug her. Having a friend and not hugging her was going to be super hard.
Tiara frowned and lifted her diamond tiara off her head. “I want you to hold onto this for me. It’s not a gift, and I want it back someday, but I only when you think I’ve earned it. Deal?”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I grabbed the tiara with my magic. “I mean, this is a kind of big deal for you, I can’t remember the last time I saw you without it.”
“Well, I’m not sure,” she said, snapping. “That tiara is the most valuable thing I have, but I didn’t earn it. I was selfish and entitled and petty, and I’ve got a lot to make up for before I’m worthy to wear it. Once I do though, I want it back, you got that?”
I nodded at her as I put the tiara in my saddlebags. “You know, you’re making it really hard for me to not hug you right now. You’re just being so nice that I want to throw my forehooves around you and tell you how nice that is.”
She sighed as we started walking back to our class. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t hug me unless you’re going to follow it up by saying how much you like me.”
“But I do really like you,” I said. “I didn’t like you a week ago, but you’re trying so hard to be better, how can I be mad about what you used to be? Now let’s go see how they’re going to do our acting class without Mr. Marelon.”
***
Miss Octavia met with our class shortly after the bell rang to explain what had happened to the rest of the students before heading off and leaving the class on their own. The second the door closed it was complete chaos as most ponies gossiped about why Mr. Marelon was fired while I just sat in my little corner of the class and rested my head on my desk.
“Excuse me,” a powder-blue unicorn with a soft-pink mane draped over her shoulder said, as she tapped at my desk. “You… you know why Mr. Marelon was fired, don’t you? Everypony else is making guesses, but you and the pink girl are just sitting at your desks.”
“I have a name,” Diamond Tiara said, scowling at the other girl. “And how come you didn’t ask me? I was closer to you, and yeah, he got fired because he was being a massive jerk to us.”
“That makes sense,” the other girl said, while I tried to remember her name. It had something to do with lights, right? Night Light maybe? Neon Lights? Neon Lights kind of worked. “Listen, I know you probably don’t like me because he preferred me, I just wanted you to know I don’t think it was right how he made fun of you. Your acting might’ve been… not the best, but that didn’t mean he could make fun of you like that. I’m sure if you had some practice and constructive feedback, you’d be a good actress.”
“Thanks,” I said, smiling at her, “but I actually got my cutie mark Saturday for singing, so I guess I wasn’t cut out to be an actress after all. I’m way better at singing than I was acting.”
“Oh, well, if that’s what you want, that’s fine. If you still want to try acting, we always need more singers for musicals. You just have to remember your lines, say them like you mean them, know your choreography, and be able to sing songs… It’s not as hard as I just made it sound.”
“Maybe I’ll look into it then, but I still don’t really know how to act,” I said.
She tilted her head for a moment. “Actually, I don’t think that’s right. Your performance Friday was… it wasn’t great, but the main problem was your dialog and directing. You were actually able to remember your lines and if the dialog was less stilted, you might’ve been able to make them sound convincing.”
I shook my head. “So are you saying I’m not a bad actress?”
There was a long pause while she thought of her response. “I’m saying you’re very passionate, and with the right training, you could sing in a musical. If you don’t want to be an actress anymore though, that’s okay too, I just thought… I don’t know, there was a little bit of good in your performance Friday, and I wanted to let you know.”
“It’s fine,” I said as I took my seat again. “Honestly, Friday was so long ago I can hardly remember it. The weekend was just so busy.”
“I know,” she said, sitting between me and Tiara. “I’ve been so busy with my homework and acting practice, it feels like it’s been forever since we actually had the class. How much homework did you have this weekend?”
Oh right, homework. I’d completely forgotten about it during the time loop. Luckily I’d missed my last three classes Friday, so I guess that was a positive. “Not that much,” I said. “This class and my music class didn’t assign anything, and I was sick for my last three classes, so I don’t know what I missed.”
“That’s good, I guess I was just unlucky then,” she said. I looked past her to see Diamond Tiara was glaring at the back of Neon Lights’(?) head.
“Hey, I kind of forgot your name since last Monday, do you mind telling me it again?” I said. Something told me we were about to become friends, and that would go better if I actually knew what her name was.
She smiled at me. “Of course, it’s Bright Lights. You’re Sweetie Belle, right?” I nodded at her as she turned to look at Diamond Tiara who stopped glaring at Bright Lights the second she turned to look back at her. “And you’re… Crystal Tiara right?”
“Diamond, actually,” she said, working to keep the irritation out of her voice. “Anyways, it was really nice to meet you, but we should probably be getting ready for our next class.”
“Really?” Bright Lights asked, glancing at the wall clock. “We still have twenty minutes left until the bell, and I don’t think we’ll be doing anything actually useful. I guess I’ll just spend tonight reading through my Chekhov.”
“Oh, wasn’t that the engineer pony in those Mare Trek movies?” I asked, perking up at a pop culture reference I recognized.
“Not that Chekhov,” she said, sighing. “This one was a major playwright in Stalliongrad about two centuries ago and wrote extensively about how stories work. The term Chekhov’s Horseshoe comes from him.”
“That sounds fun, what’s that?” I asked, smiling at her while Diamond Tiara went back to scowling now that Bright Lights’ attention wasn’t focused on her. I don’t know why Tiara didn’t like Bright Lights, she was actually pretty nice.
Bright Lights took a deep breath and entered Twilight’s “Lecture Mode” position. All that was missing was the soapbox. “At its core, Chekhov’s Horseshoe focuses on the conservation of detail. As originally written, it states that ‘If a horseshoe is mentioned hanging over a door in the first act, it must fall and hit somepony in the second or third act.’ Of course, that doesn’t mean that every horseshoe mentioned in a story has to fall, but if a story spends a lot of time detailing something then it must serve some purpose in the story.”
“Oh, I get it,” I said. If we couldn’t find a replacement teacher, maybe we could just have Bright Lights teach the class. She seemed to know as much as Mr. Marelon did, and she was way nicer. “So it’s like when a story talks about how a bridge is rickety and then it collapses in the next chapter.”
“Yes, but that’s just the basics, every story adheres to that principle, can you imagine how you would feel if a book spent a paragraph describing every last detail of a pony and then never bringing her up again?”
“That would be kind of weird,” I said, nodding my head slowly. “So… how long have you been studying acting?”
“Since I got my cutie mark,” she said looking back at the other ponies in the class. Luckily she didn’t look to her right and see Diamond Tiara still glaring at her. “Before that, I spent a lot of time around actors and actresses. My parents were both stage technicians on Bridleway, so I pretty much grew up backstage, and that’s where I learned the basics of acting.”
“Ooh! What was it like growing up around actors, do you have any fun stories?” I said.
She smiled and nodded her head while Diamond Tiara just sighed. “Actually, I do have a few, if you’re interested.”
***
I spent the rest of the class listening to Bright Lights stories about growing up backstage. She was a really good storyteller, I guess that kind of goes with being an actress though. For her part, Diamond Tiara managed not to snap at her, so that was definitely kind of progress. I wanted to invite Bright Lights to our lunch table, but adding two new ponies to the lunch group on the same day would probably be bad, especially when one of them was Diamond Tiara.
A shiver of worry went up my spine as I walked into Vinyl’s class and saw Melody sitting next to my seat. “Hey,” I said, sitting next to her. “Sorry for running off yesterday, I had a lot on my mind, and I shouldn’t have freaked out on you.”
“It… It’s okay,” she said, swallowing nervously. “You know, I should be apologizing to you for making you feel so uncomfortable. I… didn’t realize you thought I had a crush on you.”
“Wait, you mean you didn’t?” I asked, my voice squeaking in confusion. “I knew everypony else was crazy when they were thinking you like liked me. We’re just good friends, right?”
Melody sighed and nodded. “Of course we are, Sweetie Belle. It would be silly for me to have a crush on you after only a week. You were just the first friend I ever had, and I wanted to show how grateful I was. Maybe I overdid it.”
“It’s fine,” I said, smiling and patting her on the back. “You don’t have to do anything special. I like you because you’re a really sweet pony; you don’t need to give me any special treatment to keep me liking you.”
“Alright,” she said, nodding her head as the bell rang and Vinyl walked into the classroom. “I’ll try to be better about that.” She gave me a tiny smile. “I’m sorry again for upsetting you by letting you think I had a crush on you.”
“Okay, everypony, so I guess let’s open our books to where we left off on Friday and–” She stopped and looked at me. “Oh, congratulations on the cutie mark, Sweetie Belle, what did you get it for?”
My ears perked up as everypony turned around to look at me. “I actually got it for singing for ponies. I guess you were right when you said I should focus on music.”
Vinyl laughed and shook her head. “Yeah, still, glad you got your cutie mark. You want to show off and sing a song for the class? I promise it won’t throw off my lesson plans too much.”
How could I say no to the chance to sing for everypony in class? I nodded my head and practically bounced to the front of the class, thinking of what song I could sing. It had to be something nice and cheery and catchy. After all, I didn’t earn my cutie mark for depressing ponies.
***
Everypony was smiling and stomping their hooves when I finished my song, and I felt the same warm tingle I felt the Saturday I earned my cutie mark. There was something about making ponies happy with my songs that just made me super happy, and I was beaming as I moved back to my seat. Vinyl started talking again, and I think she might have even said something to me, but I really wasn’t paying attention as my mind kept drifting back to the feeling I got when I saw all those ponies smiling at me.
The bell ringing pulled me out of my head and I realized I had absolutely no idea what we talked about in class today. It’s not like it mattered that much though, I was a singer and I’d already learned most of this stuff from my sister. At least the music class was related to my talent, unlike the rest of my classes. Why did I even have to go to them when I could be practicing my singing instead and trying to recreate that feeling I got when I sang for everypony in Ponyville?
“Hey,” Diamond Tiara said as Melody and I headed to the cafeteria. “So, are you sure you want me to sit with your friends? I mean, the rest of your friends.” She glanced from me to Melody. “Oh, she’s with you.”
“She also has a name,” I said, frowning at Tiara. “Melody, this is Diamond Tiara; Tiara, this is Melody.”
“Uhmm… we actually met yesterday,” Melody said frowning. “It… we didn’t say much, we just ran into each other.” My gut got all queasy as I found myself wondering just what the two of them talked about.
“Oh, what did you two talk about?” I asked, trying to keep my smile up.
“Nothing, really,” Diamond Tiara said, shooting a glare at Melody. “After you left, I followed you to the clubhouse and I ran into Melody there. We talked for a few minutes, but that was about it. Apparently, I got there just a minute after you ran off.”
“So… you didn’t talk about anything important?” I asked, looking between them. “No secrets about me or anything?”
“Of course not,” Melody said, frowning and taking a small step closer to me. “We wouldn’t be very good friends if we talked about you behind your back, would we?”
“Alright,” I said hesitantly. Something here was definitely wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what. Maybe I was just imagining it. “Well, I guess let’s get to lunch.”
“Sounds good to me,” Diamond Tiara said, sticking her snout up in the air. “Let’s go meet your friends so they can tell me what a terrible pony I am.”
“They won’t do that,” I said, frowning as I followed after her, Melody behind me. “They promised me they wouldn’t.”
“Well, Sweetie Belle, not everypony is as forgiving as you are. Believe me, I know.”
“Don’t worry,” I said as we entered the cafeteria, “I’m sure lunch will be fine.”
***
Lunch wasn’t fine. It was the opposite of fine. As soon as Diamond Tiara sat down, the entire table went quiet. Scootaloo just glared at Tiara, occasionally looking away from her to glare at Melody for some reason. What did Melody do to upset her? Every few minutes, Socket said something just to break the silence, but nopony responded. “Say something,” I whispered to Diamond Tiara.
“So,” she said, looking from me to Apple Bloom. “What are you all going to do now that Sweetie Belle has her cutie mark?”
“What do you mean by that?” Scootaloo snapped. “Are you trying to say she’s going to leave us now just because she has her cutie mark? Because Crusaders are friends for life.”
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom said, looking up from her lunch and nodding at that before turning to look at Scootaloo. “Wait, I didn’t catch anything in her question about Sweetie Belle leavin’ us. It sounded just like a normal question to me.”
“It’s the implications,” Scootaloo said. “She’s trying to trick Sweetie Belle into thinking that she’s being good so she can turn her against us.”
“I’m not trying to trick Sweetie Belle into anything,” Tiara said, raising her voice and glaring back at Scootaloo. “Besides, if I wanted to turn her against you, I’d just tell her about–”
“Fine,” Scootaloo said, slamming a hoof on the table and cutting Tiara off. “Maybe you’re not trying to mess with us, you still haven’t given me any reason to trust you. You haven’t even apologized to us yet. Do you know how many times you made us feel like trash? How many times I had to comfort Sweetie Belle after you made her cry? You tortured us for years, and now you think that we’ll forgive you just because? Sorry, but I don’t forgive ponies who hurt my friends easily.”
Tiara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You’re right,” she said, all the anger in her voice disappearing. “I was terrible to you all and if you don’t want to forgive me, I get it. But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry, and I’d like it if you at least gave me a chance to earn your forgiveness.”
“That sounds pretty reasonable,” Apple Bloom said, frowning. “You’re not gonna be made a Crusader or nothin’, but I reckon we can at least give you a chance, but only if you answer a couple of questions.”
“Fine,” Tiara said. She was definitely trying to be better, but it was still pretty easy to upset her. “What do you want to ask?”
“What happened to your tiara?” Apple Bloom asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without it since you got it.”
“Sweetie Belle’s holding it for me,” she said. “I didn’t really earn it, and I figure that until I can, she can take care of it. Is that all you had to ask me?”
“It’s true,” I said, nodding my head at my friends. “It’s in my saddlebags right now.”
“Huh,” Apple Bloom said, resting her head in her hooves. “Well, I guess that answers my question. You wanna ask anything, Scootaloo?”
“She already knows what I think,” Scootaloo said. “But as long as she doesn’t hurt Sweetie Belle or anypony else, I guess I can tolerate her for now.” She glared at Diamond Tiara. “But the second you mess up.”
“I’ll have you to deal with,” Tiara said, rolling her eyes. “Excuse me if I’m not exactly scared of a pegasus who can’t–”
I jabbed a forehoof into her flank to shut her up. Her fur was surprisingly soft and warm, and I found myself wanting to– Not important. What was important was making sure she didn’t upset Scootaloo and cause a fight just when things were going well. “Sorry,” she said, still glaring at Scootaloo. “It’s an old habit. I guess I’m just not used to rolling over and accepting it when ponies threaten me.”
“Scootaloo, I know you’re upset with Diamond Tiara, but ponies deserve a second chance,” Melody said, causing everypony at the table to turn and look at her in surprise. “Now, I don’t know what she did to make you dislike her so much, but from what I see, she’s trying to be better, so maybe instead of trying to upset her, you could try being kind to her.”
For a long time, nopony said anything. I don’t think I’d ever seen her talk like that before. She actually managed to say a few sentences without being prompted to or apologizing. That must’ve been a record for her. “Yeah… I guess,” Scootaloo said before turning to look at Diamond Tiara. “I’m giving you a chance. Don’t make me regret it.”
So we weren’t all singing songs together yet, but thanks to Melody, there wasn’t any actual fighting. It was a start, and in a few weeks, we’d all be best friends. Hopefully. Maybe.