It was getting late in the evening, and the game of spin the bottle persisted. The reactions from all the mismatched pairs who were forced to enter the closet was entertaining in a morbid way. Sometimes the filly would look happy with the one whom the bottle of destiny had chosen for them, while the colt looked horrified. The other times the situation was in vice versa.
The most entertaining part was when Scootaloo spun the bottle, and it pointed to a chunky colt with a burger on his flank. The poor boy looked terrified. "I-I need time to mentally prepare!" he pleaded as Scoots dragged him by his tail to the closet, closing the door behind her. Seven minutes later, the door flung open, Scootaloo confidently striding out with a big grin on her face. The poor colt was left on the ground, curled up in a little ball, babbling requests for his mother as he shook uncontrollably in a fetal position.
"Dang, Scoots!" Said Apple Bloom. "What'd ya do to the poor guy?"
"I made a stallion out of him!" Scootaloo chuckled with an almost sadistic grin.
Most eight year old kids simply didn't seem mature enough for a game like this. Most of the time when the seven minutes were up, the pair would storm out of the closet - and it was obvious that they did just as Silver Spoon and Button Mash did: Just sit on opposite ends of the closet as far away from each other as possible, while awkwardly trying to avoid eye contact.
This game was a stupid idea, and all because Diamond Tiara wanted to have her little nuzzle session with Rumble! It was becoming more and more suspicious to Silver Spoon as to why the bottle would never point to Rumble. There were a few times when Silver could have sworn the bottle was about to land on him, but it would always some how pick up a bit of last second momentum, and the neck would pass him. Something about this didn't smell right.
Silver Spoon was unable to relieve herself of the indignent frown on her face. She would look at Diamond Tiara, scowling as she drank deeply from her punch cup. Diamond always seemed to have some clever remark, or insult prepared for the couples leaving the closet, then she'd look at Silver Spoon, as if to await her contributory insult, or maybe she was expecting her to laugh at her cruel muses. Whatever the case was, Silver Spoon said nothing. She had nothing but sour looks for her. Diamond Tiara didn't seem to care. In fact, she seemed to be quite the little expert at feigning innocents.
Out of curiosity, Silver searched around the room for Button Mash. She wondered what he was up to. It wasn't like she cared; it was just slight curiosity.
That was when she noticed him for the first time without his face buried in his Joyboy. He was no longer with the circle of colts. Since his turn had already came and gone, he was free to move about the party at his own whim and socialize with whomever he wished. Which, oddly enough, was Sweetie Belle.
Did Sweetie Belle even have her turn yet? Silver Spoon wondered to herself as she surreptitiously scrutinized the two from the corner of her vision. She leaned ever so slightly toward them in an attempt to eaves drop on their conversation, but she was not able to hear them over the chatter from the party guests all around her.
Button Mash had a smirk on his face. He made queer gestures with his hooves as he spoke, and he kept making odd facial expressions. Every time he said something, Sweetie Belle would giggle. If Silver didn't know any better, she'd swear he was flirting with her.
At least the little weirdo isn't flirting with me anymore, Silver Spoon told herself. She watched them for a while and, for reasons that she could not understand, she was beginning to feel agitated. Sweetie Belle's stupid little bubbly girly giggles were getting on her nerves. What was Button Mash saying to her that could possibly be so darn funny? The colt wasn't even that clever with anything he said, he was just random and bizarre, and most of all, annoying! Come to think of it, Button Mash mentioned Sweetie Belle when they were in the closet together. What was that about, anyway?
Silver Spoon frowned bitterly, shrugging the riddle off. She continued to be annoyed at how the little twerp was just hitting on her an hour ago, only to start flirting with Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle! A filly that was so below Silver Spoon's level, it was pathetic. Maybe the dork was finally grasping the concept of his place in the pecking order of society. He belonged with the Otakus, and the blank flanks, and the other social outcasts. Those two bottom feeders could just go elope right here and now for all she cared.
Button Mash and Sweetie Belle suddenly looked at Silver Spoon. Then Sweetie Belle giggled again, and the two shook hooves, as if they had come to some sort of agreement.
Silver Spoon furled her brow in bewilderment. What the hay was that about? Were they talking about her?
Sweetie Belle then hopped out of her seat and scampered back her friends. Button Mash, of course, drew his Joyboy and resumed his game.
"We only have time for one more round, everypony," announced Diamond Tiara. "And I think, as the birthday girl, it is only right that I should have a go at this fun little game. After all, it would be unfair to force you all to play this game while I sit back and have all the laughs, wouldn't you all agree?"
The colts. The fillies. They all looked at each other, murmuring, shrugging. Diamond Tiara? Being fair? Silver knew better. She wasn't going to buy into it.
"Oh, and for my round," Diamond declared, "everypony has to play, so whoever has already gone, get back in the circle."
The colts seemed to be amused by this. Their "host" had spent the entire time making them all miserable with this game. Everyone at the party thought that Diamond Tiara wasn't intending on playing. They all traded smirks and began to nod in agreement as they all met back in the circle. The fillies seemed just as thrilled by this new rule.
Silver Spoon didn't care, however. She just sat in her stool with her back against the counter top, nursing that same old cup of punch. She knew who the bottle would land on. It didn't matter that she bringing all the other colts back in the game. Heck, she could add the fillies to the circle as well. In fact, she could add everyone in all of Ponyville to this game, and she knew who the bottle would end up pointing to. Silver Spoon knew Diamond Tiara better than anyone. She could tell the filly had something up her sleeve. But what?
Diamond Tiara strutted to the center of the circle of boys and inspected the bottle before her face contorted with disgust. "Ew!" she suddenly squealed. "I am not touching this bottle! It's been sliding around on the ground the whole time! It's probably all dirty!"
The fillies and the colts murmured to each other.
"Fear not!" said Diamond Tiara, raising a placating hoof. "In the interest of fairness, I still intend to play. But, I will need a new bottle. Excuse me for a moment, won't you? Oh, and Sil? Would you mind pressing the little button on the counter top? I'll have our butler carry this filthy bottle away for us. I don't want to touch it!"
"I can just throw it away for you," Featherweight offered from within the circle.
Diamond whirled around, eyes burning. "Don't touch it!"
Featherweight withdrew to himself in shock.
Diamond Tiara composed herself and cleared her throat. "I-I mean, it's okay Featherweight!" said she, smiling. "I will not have one of my party guests reduced to servitude. That kind of work is for the help."
"Uhm... Sure?" Said Featherweight with a shrug.
"There's a good boy." Diamond spun around and continued toward the kitchen.
Silver Spoon watched her friend trot away, then she cast a suspicious glare at the bottle. *She did do something to the bottle!" she thought. Now she's doing away with the evidence. Filthy bottle, indeed! Without a word, Silver hit the red button on the counter that would alert the butler, then immediately hopped down from her stool and made a Bee line toward the center of the circle before the family servant could come take it away.
Everyone around her seemed to be curious as to what she was doing. But she ignored their prying gazes. She picked up the bottle and inspected it thoroughly. Nothing. Silver suspected that magnets had been placed in the neck, but that didn't seem to be the case. And to think that she was actually proud of herself for thinking she had figured her friend's trick out.
Silver rolled the bottle over in her hoof, closely examining every centimeter of it, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"May I?"
Startled, Silver Spoon looked up. Sweetie Belle was standing right in front of her. Could she, too, have known the game was rigged in some way? Nah, couldn't be. Blank flanks weren't the brightest bunch.
"Knock yourself out." Silver Spoon held the bottle out for Sweetie Belle to take, but the ivory unicorn just stared at it, her eyes narrowed, as if she could see something that Silver Spoon could not.
"Hmm," she wondered, keeping an astute gaze fixed on the glass vessel. "I knew it," she soliloquized with a crooked grin.
"Knew what?" Silver Spoon demanded. "What's wrong with it?"
Sweetie Belle put on the most fake innocent smile that Silver Spoon had ever seen and said, "What's wrong with what?"
"Don't you play dumb with me!" Silver snapped. "Something's fishy here, and you know it."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sweetie Belle squeaked before twisting around, approaching Button Mash in the circle, and whispering something in his ear.
He said something back to her, but it was too low to be audible. Sweetie Belle nodded before she about-faced and returned to her friends. "I'll take care of it," was her parting words to him.
Silver glared at Sweetie Belle, hating the fact that there was some kind of conspiracy in the room that she wasn't a part of - when all of the sudden, an aged, raspy voice emanating form behind her commandeered her attention.
"I'll be taking that, Miss Spoon."
She turned around to see the family butler standing before her, a hoof extended toward her, his old grey eyes gesturing at the bottle.
"Oh... sure." She placed the bottle in the butler's hoof and, upon obtaining the item from her, he withdrew posthaste to and out of the front door of the living room.
Where is he going with that bottle? Silver Spoon puzzled, placing an attentive hoof on her chin. Could Diamond Tiara have ordered him to run off with it like that? Or, perhaps, hide it? Perhaps even destroy it?
"I'm back~" Diamond's musical voice rang out as she entered the room, a freshly drained cider bottle in her hooves. "I'm sorry for making everypony wait on me," she chuckled nonchalantly, "but I'm a total germaphobe. You know how it is."
Germaphobe my plot! Silver Spoon scowled as she watched the manipulative little party host enter the circle.
"Who's ready?" She said. "I give my personal guarantee that whomever this bottle lands on, this shall truly be a night for them to remember!"
The fillies cheered in excitement. The anticipation of not knowing who it was that Diamond Tiara would be stepping into that horrible closet with seemed to thrill them.
Some of the colts looked nervous. Some of them looked thrilled. Diamond Tiara was the prettiest girl in the class. Even at such a young and tender age, Diamond's elegant, petite little muzzle was a generous prize. Whoever walked into that closet with her would most likely feel like an adult does when they win the lottery.
None of that mattered to Silver Spoon. She knew who the bottle was going to land on. Her heart began to sink. She was supposed to be Rumble's first nuzzle. Her! It wasn't fair! Diamond Tiara was a cheater, a backstabber, and liar! And she was stealing the very first nuzzle that Silver Spoon had always dreamed of having for herself. She drank her punch down and took one last longing look at Rumble, who seemed none the wiser as he busied himself with the preening of his feathers.
He was so cute... The way he nibbled on the edges of his wings like that... So adorable...
Silver Spoon sighed in defeat.
He was supposed to be her's...
No longer able to bear the image of the one for whom she pined, she twisted around on her seat, and reached for the ladle within the punch bowl. She was depressed. She wanted another drink... Of punch.
Suddenly, an uproarious cheer startled her. She turned around in shock, looked at the bottle, and her jaw dropped when she saw who the bottle was pointing to: Button Mash.
The fillies were laughing hysterically. The colts were in an uproar.
"How in the hay does a goober like Button Mash get both Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara in the same freaking night!" one of them exclaimed over the rioting voices.
Silver Spoon turned her head toward Sweetie Belle and noticed the tip of her horn glowing. The light, however, was quickly snuffed out before anyone other than her could notice.
]She used telekinesis to guide the bottle! She then looked at Button Mash, half-smiling in disbelief. But why?
Diamond Tiara, at this point, was looking utterly flummoxed. She bit nervously on her lower lip as she looked around at the ponies who were now chanting in unison.
"DIAMONDMASH!"
"DIAMONDMASH!"
"DIAMONDMASH!"
"No!" Diamond screamed over the ruckus. "Th-that was just a practice spin!" She seized the bottle and spun it again, much to the protestations of the party guests. None of the other fillies got a re-spin. Why should she?
The bottle came to a slow stop, pointing once again at Button Mash.
The crowd erupted into hysterical laughter.
"Woohoo, I gueth ith meant to be!" Shouted Twist.
"Jaja si, bueno!" Howled a very enthused Zipporwhill in her exotic South Equestrian accent. "Chika, you best in the closet, or we gonna lock you in, honey!" Her little Trottish Terrier, who accompanied her wherever she went, yipped in agreement.
Feeling the surge of energy from the crowd, and the relief that Diamond Tiara was actually getting her comeuppance for a change, Silver Spoon could not resist the urge to add her own little contribution. "Yeah. You think seven minutes is bad?" She said with a sassy little bob of her head. "How's an hour sound?"
She then looked at Button Mash, who was already in the closet. That was when Silver Spoon realized that the events that had just transpired were through his machinations. That candid little conversation he had with Sweetie Belle. The way they shook hooves. He must have convinced her to help him with this plan of his... But why? A cheap laugh on Diamond Tiara, perhaps? Payback for the years of taunts, insults, and snide remarks? That couldn't have been it. He was always too in his own little world to even notice all the times Diamond had made fun of him at school. Either that, or he was just really good at pretending not hear her.
Button Mash looked triumphantly at Silver Spoon, an impish little smirk plastered on his face. He turned his head and looked at her sideways with a wink. He then produced his Ocarina so that she could see it in all its annoying, nerdy glory, his devilish smirk insuring that he intended to make the next seven minutes with Diamond Tiara the most miserable moments of her life.
Silver Spoon bit her bottom lip, trying so hard not to smile. Not because she didn't want to smile - she just suddenly felt embarrassed for some reason.
Button Mash playfully raised his eyebrows at her and brought them back down.
Silver Spoon quickly looked away to hide the smile that forced itself across her face. She had to focus on her breathing to keep from giggling out loud.
The crowd of party guests surrounded the reluctant Diamond Tiara and approached her, herding her into the closet with Button Mash.
"I don't want to play this game anymore!" she shrieked. "This wasn't what was supposed to happen!" Before the distraught filly knew what was going on, she had been backed into the closet. Button Mash smiled at her as the door was slowly closing, trapping them together.
"So," said Button Mash, "I have one important question for you."
By this time, Diamond knew that no amount of pleading was going to get her out of the situation in which she now found herself. She sighed, looked at Button, and said, "W-what is it?"
"Empire, or Stormcloaks?"
Diamond sniffed. "I don't know what that means..."
"That a fact?" Button Mash smiled ammusedly. "I'll tell ya all about it... With a song!" He blew a single note on his Ocarina and began to sing in a voice that sounded so off key, and so horrible, it was deliciously comical.
♪Our hero, our hero, claims a warriors heart. I tell you, I tell you the Dragonborn comes — With a voice wielding power of the ancient Norde art. Belie-heve belie-heve the Dragonborn comes♪
The last thing that any of the ponies could see before closing the door on Diamond Tiara, was her pouty, pleading eyes beckoning to be rescued.