“You’ve got this.”
Rumble swallowed. The sun was high in the sky signaling it was around noon. His best friend Button Mash stood right beside him, even it should have been an absolutely wonderful day, but it was a horrible day.
Rumble and Button stood on the hill that over looked Ponyville. The cool breeze that blew down from Canterlot and into Ponyville every Wednesday was now a strong gust that threatened to blow them away. Even so Rumble stood overlooking the town and his coming doom. Button looked down on the town with a grin on his face as though he imagined that the ponies below them were ants and he carried a magnifying glass.
Rumble could feel his whole body shaking in nervousness and fear. He had tried to calm himself, but he couldn’t. Button stood at his side. He was attempting to smooth back Rumble’s mane but it wasn’t working. All of Rumble seemed to nervous today including his mane.
“Why didn’t you use enough hair gel?” Button complained as his mane just kept springing back into place every time Button tried to flatten it. His black mane wouldn’t budge and finally Button gave up with a sigh.
“I-I d-didn’t want to smell like hair gel.” Rumble stammered. His voice shook with fear.
“Well, how do you feel? Confident?” Button asked Rumble who seemed to be having a nervous breakdown.
“Awful,” Rumble replied and swallowed. “My stomach is in knots and I want to vomit.”
“I bet. I’d feel bad too if I was in your shoes.” Button said while he trotted around to each of Rumble’s sides to straighten his feathers to make sure there was no feather out of place. “But this is all your fault. You had to go and kiss Scootaloo.”
“I was excited!” Rumble said defensively. “I didn’t realize what I was doing.”
“Yeah, well, you made it even worse by telling her that you liked her afterwards. Well, done,” Button said and trotted in front of Rumble so he could face him. “Not only did you confess your feelings to another mare in the heat of the moment, she just so happened to be your other best friend and your girlfriend saw you.”
“I am not having the best week.”
“Duh,” Button said and rolled his eyes. “However, maybe your girlfriend will let you off easy if you explain the situation.”
“Let’s face it, this is going to go horribly.” Rumble sighed and slumped onto the ground. “Why’d Diamond Tiara, of all ponies, have to be the one girlfriend that's scary when she's angry?”
“I’m still not sure how you two ended up together,” Button said absentmindedly. He tapped his chin and walked around to face Rumble. “Either way, you’re about to get it. Scootaloo’s expecting an answer about the kiss and Diamond Tiara wants to know why you kissed her. Man, you’re in the deep end.”
“I wish I could run far away from here and never come back.” Rumble said dreamily and stared at his hooves.
“Running away from your problems won’t solve anything. That’s at least what I learned from watching The Trotting Dead!” Button said enthusiastically. “At least you look nice. The worse you’ll have is Diamond Tiara to deal with … oh wait, that’s bad.”
“Doesn’t your girlfriend have any advice?” Rumble asked. Button shrugged.
“No. She said she wasn’t great with relationships.”
“Aren’t you in a relationship with her?” Rumble asked in confusion.
“Yeah, but we’re stumbling through it. Besides, it’s better described as a gaming relationship. Now get out there!” Button said and gave him a shove. “They want to meet you at the school house. I’ll be there in case things get messy. Like bad messy. Good luck!”
“Ok…” Rumble said and made his way down the hill and towards the school house.
***
The school house was a place that Rumble went back in elementary school. He eventually left the place to move on to middle then high school, but something about this place always drew him back here. It was though he was being pulled by a giant magnet to come and pay his respects to the old place. He wasn’t the only pony who felt like that however.
On weekends and Wednesdays, the school house was empty. The elementary fillies and colts got a day off that day, leaving the entire place empty. On those days, ponies from high school and older were drawn here mysteriously. The reason that they came? The place was empty and therefore was a good kissing spot for all the local young couples. Rumble didn’t even have a special somepony at the time he found out the place was being used as a make out spot, but he naturally came anyways to remember old memories.
Rumble met Diamond Tiara here, who seemed to be drawn here just as much as he did. Though she denied it, it was obvious that she had come here without reason too. Rumble always came on Wednesdays and so did Diamond Tiara who always brought her bad attitude and a magazine that she claimed the have stolen from her daddy’s secret shelf though they were just regular fashion magazines.
Rumble often attempted to stay away from Diamond Tiara, but Diamond always found him. At first she claimed that the sun was burning her face or that it was too windy on her side since Rumble always managed to stay on the other side of the outer wall of the school house. Then she claimed that she heard him call her name though he never did and that she ‘might as well stay’ because she was mostly too lazy to move again.
Then she claimed that she always wanted to only talk to him about some of the horrible fashion tastes of the Canterlot nobles in her magazines, but he was starting to feel as though there was a different reason she always came to him.
He always felt comfortable talking to her. It was as if they were meant to be the best of friends. Diamond always seemed patient with him when he didn’t understand what she meant and over the weeks that they met up there behind, she began to get nicer and he began to come to like her.
Then there was the kiss. Rumble had showed up on a normal Wednesday as always and Diamond Tiara brought her magazines. She talked to him about how the nobles had no taste. Then she pointed out that there was something on his lips. He tried licking his lips and wiping his mouth on his foreleg, but Diamond claimed that it still stayed. Finally she said that she’d get it for him since he kept missing the apparent tiny crumb that stuck to his face.
Then she kissed him.
Rumble froze in shock when their lips connected. He knew what kissing felt like, but this was something whole and new. Maybe there was something different about today or perhaps he was just in shock, but he enjoyed this kiss with Diamond. She pulled away just as quickly and muttered something about getting the crumb and needing to leave. She did, leaving Rumble in shock.
The next few Wednesdays were the same. Diamond would show up, show him a few things in her magazine and kiss him. It was magical, wonderful and just plain awesome. Rumble loved it. There felt like there was something missing though. So one Wednesday, Rumble filled that missing feeling. He asked her out on a date.
She accepted.
That was how they came together. That was how he ended up with a beautiful and kind girlfriend and how this place had truly brought them together. Diamond became a nicer to pony to everypony, mostly because Rumble insisted that she should stop being rude to everypony.
Now Rumble stood in front of the old school house once again, but this time, feeling a sense of dread. He knew when Diamond got angry, she really got angry. This time, instead of somepony else being in the way of wrath just like how she was before she grew out of her elementary bullying days, her anger would actually be directed on somepony who deserved that wrath. That somepony was him.
Only something truly horrible would have caused her to be extremely upset. What Rumble had done was very horrible. He had basically cheated on her.
Rumble would never intentionally cheat on his girlfriend. He loved her. It was an accident. Diamond Tiara had not seen it that way.
It happened one day when Rumble scored them two tickets to a hoofball game. Diamond never liked hoofball, but she went because she knew he loved it. Their seats ended up being next to his other best friend, Scootaloo. She was excited for the hoofball game and Diamond, who never particularly liked Scootaloo despite the fact that they had made amends, sat on the other side of Rumble. That put him in a middle seat between the two.
Right around the end of the game, Diamond left to use the bathroom. Rumble didn’t exactly remember her leaving, he just looked over to see that she was gone. He knew she had left to use the bathroom because she was squirming around throughout the game and had drunken a lot of punch.
When she left, the team that Rumble was voting for, scored a touchdown and won the game. In Rumble’s excitement, he turned and kissed Scootaloo who had jumped out of her seat in happiness. Right at that exact moment, Diamond came back.
Rumble turned around to find tears in Diamond’s eyes. She let out a loud sob and raced out of the stadium. Rumble chased after her but found her nowhere. He immediately left and went home to think what he had done.
The next morning, he found a letter at his door. The hoofwriting was that of Diamond Tiara’s and it told him to meet her inside the school house the next day and that Scootaloo would be there too. Rumble knew there he would have to face her. He hoped Diamond would feel understanding of the situation. As for Scootaloo, he didn’t know what he would do.
He knew that Scootaloo used to have a crush on him when he was younger, but he didn’t know how she felt now especially when he was dating her old school bully. He wasn’t sure what he would tell Scootaloo. Maybe he would apologize and hope for the best.
Rumble stared up at the old school house. Even while thinking, his hooves knew the exact route to the old school house every day. He sighed deeply one last time before he walked inside, towards his doom.
Rumble hadn’t actually gone inside the school house for years. He always stayed outside it with Diamond, but never inside. It hadn’t changed since he was little. It still seemed of fresh pine. Everything was still here. The windows were cracked, the walls were a little torn and the old desks were neatly in the place that had always been in since he was little.
He heard a light cough and looked up to see the two mare waiting for him. Scootaloo leaned back against the chalkboard with her eyes shut. Diamond stood beside her. She was neatly dressed up and her mane was in a bun. Her face was wrinkled up in a horrible frown of disappointment.
She coughed again into her hoof and Scootaloo opened her eyes and looked directly at him as her small smile faded. He looked at both of the mares and weakly smiled.
“Hello,” He said weakly, hoping his punishment wouldn’t be too bad. “About the incident at the stadium…”
Diamond put up a hoof. He paused. She kept frowning at Rumble.
“You,” Diamond finally said. “Rumble… I can’t believe you.”
She didn’t even yell. That made this all even worse.
“I would like an explanation as to why you kissed Scootaloo,” Diamond said tightly. “Please.”
Rumble was happy to have been given a chance to explain himself. He cleared his throat and began.
“I was happy that the Ponyville Thumpers won the game,” Rumble said as he thought back to the night before. “I was so happy.”
“And?” Diamond asked, signaling him with her hoof to go on.
“And Scootaloo was right next to me and she was so happy too. So I kind of just… kissed her.”
“Out of happiness.” Diamond said calmly. She walked a couple of steps towards Rumble before stopping. “You kissed her because you were happy.”
“Pretty much,” Rumble mumbled. He looked her in eye and continued, “I’m not proud of it. I’m really sorry that I kissed her. I know what it looked like, but it was sort of a spur of the moment thing. I was just incredibly happy and I didn’t think about it.”
“You really upset me, you know.” Diamond went on angrily. “Do you always kiss random mares when you’re happy?”
“No!” Rumble shouted, “It just sort of happened!”
“Well, it better not happen again. I’ll give you another chance, Rumble,” Diamond said and gave a smile. “Only because I love you.”
“Thanks.” He said and nuzzled her nose. He gave her another smile then trotted around her and up to Scootaloo. Scootaloo was staring at the floor but looked up at him when he walked up.
“Hey.” He said.
“Hey.”
“I… um… want to apologize for what I did back at the stadium. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Ok.”
“Are we still cool?” Rumble asked. Scootaloo grinned at him.
“Yeah.” She said and gave him a small shove. “Duh.”
“It’s just that, in the past, you liked me and-”
“The past is the past. I’m over that now,” Scootaloo interrupted as though she didn’t want to talk about the past. “My feelings are gone like dust in the wind.”
“Ok. Cool.” Rumble grinned. Scootaloo gave him one last smile before leaving. Rumble sighed and spun around to leave with Diamond, when he noticed she was gone. She probably went outside to wait for him. He began to leave, but stopped when he heard whispering. He turned towards where the sound was coming from. It was the teacher’s desk. He trotted towards it when Button Mash sprang up from behind the desk.
“That went so well!” Button said happily as he set a pair of binoculars on the desk. “I knew you wouldn’t need my help!”
“H-how long where you behind there?” Rumble asked nervously as his friend shrugged. “Why did you think I would need help?”
“I don’t know. Your girlfriend is scary sometimes,” Button said stretched his foreleg. It made a cracking sound and Button sighed. “Either way, you made it through alive. That’s good.”
“How long were you back there?” Rumble asked again.
“All day.”
“You got here before me?”
“You took your time.”
“Ok. Wait, how did you not get bored?” Rumble asked, knowing his friend’s short attention span.
“Hello!” Star’s head popped up from behind the desk. “I see your girlfriend thing worked out well.”
“You two were under there… together.” Rumble said with a slow eyebrow raise. Button and Star nodded.
“Well, duh.” Button said. “She knows all the neat tricks to make a stallion like me happy.”
“So you two-”
“It’s not what you think.” Star said quickly and looked at Button who was staring at her dreamily. They both reached down to grab something then held up the objects in the air proudly.
“We were playing video games!” They both said together. Rumble rolled his eyes as they held up their new Pii Us.