//------------------------------// // Character Broken/Discussions // Story: Role Reversal // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// On the morning of the third day of Applebloom and Diamond Tiara's little wager. The two of them decided that they needed some time alone with their 'supervisors', to discuss the situation with Cut Above. Applebloom had gone with Silver to the local spa, whilst Diamond had gone with Sweetie Belle over to the CMC Clubhouse. "Are you sure he won't be here?" Applebloom asked as she met Silver Spoon inside the spa's entrance. There were a number of chairs to sit on, in case the line was too long. They were accompanied by magazines for other ponies to read, to pass the time. She took a seat next to Silver, since the line was rather long today. "He's got to deal with 'family issues' back at home. So there's a good chance he won't barge in on our otherwise peaceful relaxation." Silver explained, with a rather relieved face starting to show. She'd never even wanted to see Cut Above's face again after what had happened in school yesterday. "That's a relief." Applebloom said, sharing in Silver's content. The last thing that she wanted was to constantly be nagged into the side of the stuck-up, snobbish, jerk who nopony likes. "So. What do you want to have, Applebloom?" Silver said as the two of them got up from the chairs and walked over to the counter where Lotus was working. "Oh, and don't worry about spending Bits. I'm buying today." "Are you sure you can afford my treatment as well as your own, Silver?" Applebloom asked with curiosity starting to show. "Because I'm pretty sure that no one pony could possibly spend money on treatments for both themselves and a friend. And even if they could, it would have to depend on what that friend would like to have." "Applebloom. I've never told you this before, but my family is one of the richest in Ponyville," Silver began going on about how wealthy she and her family really were. "Ever since my father discovered that the silver prices had skyrocketed, he had so many new customers that he had to carefully choose who would get what deposits of silver." "How rare is silver to find nowadays?" Applebloom stopped the explanation for a brief moment to ask a question that more or so deepened the explanation at hand. "Usually, there were dozens of silver mines in Equestria. Now, whilst gold is rather flashy and much more rare, the town stopped believing in gold's true rarity when Bits came into circulation," Silver answered. "After the great collapse of '04, the Silver Family had a massive amount of new customers when news had leaked on a large quantity of silver mines caving in." "So, that's where you came in, right?" Applebloom asked, remembering what Silver's Cutie Mark truly meant. "Yes. At that time, I had just been born. And all my life, I'd been gifted with the blessing of wealth," Silver said, reminiscing on all the wealth and prosperity she saw as a foal, a younger filly and nowadays. "Yet for some reason, my Cutie Mark didn't show up until Diamond Tiara came into my life. Why that happened then and not sooner, I'll never know." "So that's where your talent comes into play..." Applebloom finally deduced what Silver's talent was. "Yes. Much like my name implies, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Which, ironically is who I am today." she finished. "Good morning, girls. How can I help you?" Lotus Blossom asked Applebloom and Silver once she'd finished some important paperwork she'd been filling out. "I'll have the whole package," Silver said, before turning towards Applebloom. "What about you, Applebloom?" "Well... Since you're paying..." Applebloom thought about it for a moment. She'd never had a friend who was actually willing to pay for her as well. Now she could see that Silver Spoon was a unique filly of her own intent, and not just some lapdog used by Diamond Tiara to cause mischief. "I'll have the whole package as well." "Very good, girls. That's 50 Bits," Lotus said, stretching out her hand towards Applebloom and Silver. She immediately received 50 Bits, all from Silver. She smiled once she'd taken Silver's money and put it into the register. "Step through the doors, girls. I'll be out soon with Aloe." "Alright then." they both said, letting Lotus go off and do her work. Once she'd departed fro their view, Applebloom and Silver walked through the nearby door into the main spa area. "Are ya sure this is such a good idea, Sweetie Belle?" Diamond asked, keeping up her country drawl rather well. She'd been under so much more pressure, now that Cut Above had sweetened the pot a little. If he was here and she showed any sign of character destruction, she and her reputation in Ponyville would be ruined. "Now that Cut Above's entered the game, ah'm startin' ta worry about whether or not he'll strike..." "Don't worry about it, Diamond Tiara. Cut Above wouldn't dare set foot on Blank-Flank territory," Sweetie Belle said, showing a more logical side to this little debacle. "He's got his Cutie Mark, has a beef with you and us and besides, he's at home now. Some big family meeting means that he can't go outside and cause mayhem." "Well, that's a load off mah toad." Diamond sighed in relief. Since Cut would be inside today, she wouldn't have to worry so much about breaking character. "So, what do you think we should do today?" Scootaloo decided to further the meeting. Even though Diamond Tiara had her mark, the bet meant she had a valid spot in the CMC until it had ended. "I was thinking we could try for Abseiling Cutie Marks today..." "Gee, I don't know about that, Scootaloo..." Sweetie Belle showed some worry of her own. Most of the stuff that the CMC did was insane, but she knew that that was rather dangerous. "Abseiling's a rather tough talent. One false move and you could end up falling to your death!" "Even so, it doesn't help to try. And besides, we tried out for ziplining and we only suffered some minor bruises and sap-coated manes. So I'm sure that Abseiling can't be any worse..." Scootaloo said, completely ignoring the words of worry emanating from Sweetie Belle. "Even ah have ta agree with Sweetie Belle here. Abseiling's a rather dangerous thing, even fer an Earth Pony," Diamond said, clearly on Sweetie's side in this little discussion. "Ah mean, ya'll are gonna be jumpin' down cliffs after all. If something goes wrong, ya'll could be falling much farther that time. And a fall from that height might just break all yer bones if yer not careful..." "Diamond? Are you finally showing some concern for us?" Scootaloo asked, seeing that Diamond showed a lot of signs of worry on her face. Of all the emotions she could have seen on Diamond's face, she'd never seen her show any concern for the CMC. "Yeah. If Abseiling goes wrong, ya'll might end up dead!" Diamond said, trying to get Scootaloo to stop thinking about the whole concept of Abseiling. "And if ya die, ya won't be able ta see Rarity or Rainbow Dash ever again!" "No more Rainbow Dash?!" Scootaloo now showed a massive amount of worry as well. She'd been too arrogant to notice that Abseiling was a potentially dangerous thing to do. "Count me out! If something that extreme is going to prevent me from seeing Rainbow Dash again, I'm out completely!" "Good to know you finally see it our way, Scootaloo." Sweetie Belle said, rubbing Scootaloo's shoulders to relax her. "So, what else do ya think we should do?" Diamond asked, wondering what could have possibly been done and what hadn't been attempted by the CMC before. "Something a little more safer would be nice for the two of you..." "Wait, so you're not coming with us?" Scootaloo said, shifting the worry back to Diamond Tiara. "If I don't does that count as breaking character?" she said, failing to notice that she'd actually broken character herself. "Oh no... I've already broken character, haven't I?" "Yep..." Sweetie Belle sighed in a conceded tone. She'd finally heard Diamond's actual voice again after all this time. "And you were so close as well..." "What are you gonna do with me now?" Diamond now panicked. She remembered that if she'd ever broken character, it meant that Sweetie could subject her to do anything she imagined. "What is this all about, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked, clearly confused by this little charade that Diamond had been pulling off. "What does she mean by what are you gonna do to her now?" "A part of our bet was for neither side to break character, under penalty of the supervisor of the pony who broke character to do whatever they want to them," Sweetie Belle explained to Scootaloo. "Since Diamond Tiara spoke in her regular voice, it means that I can force her to do whatever I wish to her." "No way! Really?" Scootaloo was clearly surprised at this little announcement. For once, Diamond Tiara, the tyrant of the schoolhouse was at their complete mercy. "That's awesome! Now she has to do whatever you think of! Go on, Sweetie Belle! Say something embarrassing for her to do!" "Scootaloo! And you were just starting to like Diamond as well!" Sweetie Belle scorned the flightless Pegasus by shooting her a death-glare. "And besides, it was just a little slip, nothing one teensy little thing won't fix..." "Well, what are ya gonna do ta me?" Diamond asked, curious to know what running through Sweetie's mind at this moment. She just wanted to get the embarrassment out of the way. "Since you've only slipped up in your accent, I think it's only fair to give you something a tiny bit degrading..." Sweetie Belle got a thought running through her head. "If it was something big like performing something a fancy pony would do, then I'd be as merciless as Scootaloo here." "So, I think that something like a few laps around the roller-skating course should to be enough to get the point across," Sweetie Belle said as she got up and walked over to the door. "But to really unnerve you, Scootaloo's driving." "Wait, driving?" Diamond had never heard or even thought of the concept of Scootaloo driving something. "Driving what?" "Driving my scooter with the two of you in the wagon at the back," Scootaloo said as the three of them walked out of the clubhouse and went over to the scooter around the back of the treehouse. She put on her helmet and showed the scooter to Diamond. "I call it the Flying Thunderbolt! Oh! One more thing, I'm a rather fast driver." "How fast?" Diamond Tiara asked, curious to know how talented Scootaloo was with a scooter. "Hopefully someday, I'll be as fast as Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo said as she hopped onto the scooter and stroked the steel bar holding the handles up. "Someday, I'll get there..." Whilst Scootaloo got a good grip on the handles, Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara hopped into the wagon attached to the back of the scooter and sat down. Once they were sat, Scootaloo put one of her hooves back on the ground. "Attention, fillies and colts. You're now riding on Air Scootaloo One. This is a non-stop ride going straight to the roller-skating rink for Diamond's embarrassment," Scotaloo said, mimicking a pilot of sorts whilst Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle clipped on their helmets. "Please keep your heads, hooves, legs and horns inside the vehicle at all times. Now then, if you're both ready, hold on tight!" "To what?" They both said, remembering that Scootaloo's wagon had nothing else for them to hold onto. "Fair point." Scootaloo said, using her hoof to get the scooter moving. At first, it was a rather slow ride, but that was because she wanted to surprise Diamond. "Hmm, ah guess she's not so fa-" the second had Diamond Tiara started, the wagon instantly accelerated at a crazy fast speed. It got Diamond Tiara to scream lightly and hold onto Sweetie Belle for dear life. She could hear what sounded like a motor noise as she now saw Scootaloo was using her wings to propel the scooter forward. "You were saying?" Sweetie Belle said to Diamond once she'd finally calmed down from her little outburst. "Ah stand corrected." Diamond said, holding onto the rim of the wagon so that she wouldn't fall out of it. The three of them soon made it out of Sweet Apple Acres and were now heading towards the town. From Diamond's looks of worry, she would not like where this was going to be going. As for Sweetie Belle, she showed some sympathy for Diamond whilst also looking at a rather enthusiastic Scootaloo. "So, how long have you and Diamond Tiara been friends?" Applebloom asked as the two of them walked inside a sauna and sat down on the stone benches. They were instantly overcome with a feeling of heat as the vapours of the sauna soaked into their skin "Me and Diamond Tiara have been friends for over two years now," Silver explained, going into more depth about the time she'd spent with Diamond Tiara. "At that time, we were both Blank-Flanks ourselves. And just like you and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we'd been bullied, teased, called Blank-Flanks, you name it." "So, you and Diamond Tiara became bullies when you'd finally snapped and received your Cutie Marks..." Applebloom said, seeing a more deeper side of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon she'd never even seen before. "You couldn't take it anymore so you wanted to vent your rage on those who'd bullied you..." "Yes. That's true," Silver said as a Lotus poured on what looked like herbal water of some descriptions, getting steam to rise up from what seemed like a heated rock formation. "We'd only tried bullying once, to get revenge on the ponies who'd bullied us. The weird part though, was that after we'd stopped taking it out on them, we actually started to like bullying others. We just couldn't stop ourselves after that once incident. It was as if we'd been cursed to bully others as if it was our life force." "Well, there's some time to reform yourself, Silver..." Applebloom said as she felt some new vapours in the air as she looked at Silver's rather sorry face showing. "After all, we were able to reform Babs. So if you're given some time, you can be a good little filly like us..." "Hmm... Yeah... I think that would be rather nice..." Silver said, thinking of how much better her life would be if she was a good little filly with some friends to play with. "After all the time I've spent tormenting others, I think it'd be nice to forget about that altogether and have some actual friends for once... After all, I can't just spend my whole life with Diamond." "That's what I like to hear," Applebloom said as she and Silver sighed together as their muscles relaxed with all the heated vapours starting to swirl around them. Sure, they were starting to feel like roasting marshmallows over a fire, but they were rather peaceful with the bliss they were now feeling. "I'm so glad to have spent all this time with you, Silver..." "As have I, Applebloom. I can see now that you're a rather courageous little filly with a heart as pure as my father's silver collection," Silver said as the two of them started to feel themselves getting a little parched as they relaxed inside the sauna. "I'm glad to have been spending time with you as well. After this bet ends, we could be really good friends..." "I know, Silver. I know..." Applebloom said as the two of them sighed once more. They saw Lotus adding another ladle of herbal water to the heated rock formation, getting another shroud of steam to rise up from it and cover them. Applebloom and Silver could see it in each other's eyes. They knew that neither of them were enemies anymore. Now that they'd spent some time together, Applebloom and Silver had really bonded a pact together. Their friendship would become rather strong once the bet had ended with Cut Above being shown up for the jerk he truly is. Once they'd had enough time in the sauna, they hopped down from the bench they'd been sitting on and made their way back to the rest of the spa, where there were loads of other stations for them to relax at. Once they did get out, they made sure to have a drink to rehydrate themselves after that rather lengthy period inside the sauna. After they'd drank their fill of the deliciously icy water, they walked over to the nearby hot tub. The two of them clambered in and allowed Aloe to activate the jet systems. Once this process was done, the two of them were relaxing in a rather nice soak. Their worries were long gone now as they let the jets do their work for them. And from the looks in their eyes, things were only going to get better for the two of them...