Cruelty
A blissful sigh emanated from the wide grin that had taken hold of Twist’s lips since class was dismissed an hour earlier. She lay on her back in a field of grass just behind the schoolhouse and stared dreamily into the sky at nothing in particular. She had read the words on the small folded piece of paper that was pressed against her racing heart plenty of times; forty-nine, by her count. It hardly sufficed as a reason not to open it up once more and read it for a lucky fiftieth time.
Dear Twist,
I’m not very good at talking about my feelings – especially with fillies – so I took the easy way out and wrote you this letter instead. I hope that this doesn’t make what I’m about to tell you any less impactful. So, anyway, Hearts and Hooves Day is coming up and I’ve never had a very special somepony to celebrate it with. I’d really like that special somepony to be you, Twist. I think that you’re nice and sweet and if it’s okay with you, I would really like to be your coltfriend. I don’t know how good I’ll be at it since I’ve never been any filly’s coltfriend before but if you were my marefriend, I’d promise to learn everything there is to know about being the best coltfriend ever so that I can make you as happy as you’ve made me by just being yourself.
I really, really, really hope that you’ll give me a chance. Please meet me under the bridge by the train tracks after school if your answer is yes – only please don’t take too long because I have to be home in time for supper.
Yours truly,
Rumble
P.S. If you could, please meet me with your best dress on. I’d like to see you at your most beautiful.
When Twist finished reading the note, she squealed with joy and giggled as she pressed the note back against her chest with her forehooves. She wriggled giddily from side to side and kicked at the air with her hind legs. Laying still once more, she gave another contented sigh and resumed her earlier sky gazing. She might have been imagining it but the sun seemed to shine brighter than it had before she read the letter. Colors appeared more vibrant and even the air smelled sweeter. A colt thought she was beautiful. But not just any colt – it was Rumble, who was, without a doubt, the cutest colt in class. The fastest one, too, apparently. She didn’t even see him walk past her desk or slip the note inside it but she supposed that that was the whole point.
Twist was under the impression that Rumble didn’t like receiving Hearts and Hooves Day cards from other fillies, calling the whole practice “mushy stuff”. Now, Twist knew why he was so opposed to it. The pegasus colt was actually a shy romantic gentlecolt at heart who had secretly admired her from afar and wanted her as his very special somepony, too much to give any other fillies false hopes by accepting their Hearts and Hooves Day cards. Naturally, she would forgive his shyness. How could she not? He was about to make her life infinitely more enjoyable.
Admittedly, Twist wasn’t the most fearless pony in class, either. She was selective about the colts to whom she gave Hearts and Hooves Day cards. She didn’t want to be the only pony in class who gave no cards out at all and so she had devised a simple strategy: if she could bear having her card rejected by a colt, they received one from her. Snips, Snails and Truffle Shuffle were among the go-to card recipients. They could always be counted on to accept the innocent gesture for what it was and not read any further into it. And Miss Cheerilee always accepted cards from her students so Twist also gave her one. But Rumble? She didn’t even dare to dream of giving him one because he was way out of her league.
Or so she thought.
Twist closed her eyes and giggled as she imagined doing all of the romantic things on dates that she had seen other couples do, such as taking a leisurely stroll in the park, watching a movie at the picture house and her personal favorite: sharing an ice cream soda with two drinking straws while staring dreamily into one another’s eyes. Then there was the matter of their eventual first kiss – which would be her first ever. Who would have guessed that hers would be with the cutest pegasus colt ever? Certainly not Twist. Would Rumble ask for that kiss under the bridge? Or would he be a gentlecolt and postpone that first kiss until the end of their proper first date? The prospect was so enticing that she had to laugh at herself for wondering if she had the patience to wait that long.
A pair of pegasi flying overhead crossed Twist’s line of sight and it snapped Twist out of her daydream, causing her to realize that she had lost track of time.
“Oh, no!” she squeaked as she scrambled to her hooves. “Rumble’s waiting for me! I’m gonna be late!” Twist galloped at top speed toward the edge of town where Rumble awaited her arrival. Suddenly, she gasped and quickly planted all four hooves into the grass as she slid to a halt. Once she had stopped, she headed in the opposite direction.
“Horse apples!” she shouted as she ran back to her house. “I’ve gotta put a dress on first!”
Once again, she put on the brakes and ran back to the spot on the grass where she had been enjoying her daydream earlier. Using her teeth, she picked up Rumble’s note which she had carelessly left behind like a dunderhead and ran back home.
“Guess what,” said Diamond Tiara.
“What?” asked Silver Spoon.
“Chicken butt,” replied Diamond Tiara with a smirk.
Silver Spoon smirked at her friend’s silly remark. The two fillies sat beside one another on the stone bridge with their backs against the bridge’s wall. Against the opposite wall of the bridge was a garbage bag that Diamond Tiara swiped from behind the smoothie shop back in town. It contained post-juicing fruit residue and since it had been sitting in a compost trash can for a few days, it had taken on a horrendous odor.
“Guess why,” said Silver Spoon.
“Why?” asked Diamond Tiara.
“Chicken thigh,” replied Silver Spoon.
Both of them were glad that no one was around to hear this bizarre exchange that was only entertaining to them.
“Guess where,” said Diamond Tiara.
“Where?” asked Silver Spoon.
“Ummm... Chicken bear! Hee hee ha ha ha ha!”
Both fillies giggled at the direction that this ridiculous yet undeniably amusing back-and-forth game of theirs had just taken. Since a chicken bear was definitely not a chicken body part, all bets were off as to what answers would be given next.
“Gueeeeess... who,” said Silver Spoon.
Both fillies gasped and looked at one another in amazement as the answer which made the most sense came to them simultaneously.
“SCOOTALOO!” they shouted as they pointed a hoof at one another. Diamond Tiara tipped over on her side and squealed with laughter. Too besieged with laughter to sit up, Silver Spoon sank to her belly with all four legs sprawled out as she convulsed. Tears streamed down her face and her mouth hung open as a wheezing laughter whistled out of her lungs. It was a sight that was always enough to make Diamond Tiara laugh even harder.
As their laughter subsided, Diamond Tiara wiped the tears from her eyes with her hoof. Silver Spoon removed her glasses and did the same.
“Ohhhhhhh... that was too funny,” said Diamond Tiara. “Aheh-heh... I swear, Silver Spoon, I never laugh harder than when I’m with you.”
“Same here,” said Silver Spoon with a gentle smile as she put her glasses back on.
“I don’t know how I would have made it this far if you hadn’t been enrolled at the Ponyville schoolhouse,” said Diamond Tiara. “Geez, how long does it take to put on a lousy dress, Twist? Ugh! We’ve been waiting here for an hour and this bag isn’t smelling any fresher.”
Silver Spoon rubbed her forehooves together as she gathered the courage to speak her next words. She was certain that they wouldn’t be well received but they needed to be said.
“Uh, Diamond Tiara,” she said. “I’m... having second thoughts about doing this.”
“Afraid of heights, are we?” asked Diamond Tiara. “Don’t sweat it. We’ll switch places. I’ll scale the bridge wall and you can pass the bag up to me.”
“That’s not the problem.”
“Are you worried that Twist will get hurt by the bag? It’s only about an eighteen foot drop down to the tracks. And the bag’s only got spoiled veggie juice and soft fruit mush inside. She’ll be fine apart from the putrid smell.”
Silver Spoon shook her head.
“That’s not the problem, either” she said.
“Then what is the problem?” asked Diamond Tiara.
“It’s the way that you’ve lured her out here.”
“The note I wrote? What about it? It’s brilliant! No filly would turn down a chance to be Rumble’s marefriend. I know I wouldn’t. Although I guess you would since you’re...” Diamond Tiara smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Well, you know.”
Silver Spoon rolled her eyes at Diamond Tiara’s glib reference to her orientation.
“So what is it about the note that’s bothering you?” asked Diamond Tiara.
“When Twist finds out that Rumble isn’t really in love with her,” said Silver Spoon, “it’ll... hurt her feelings.”
Diamond Tiara’s mouth hung open in disbelief over Silver Spoon’s uncharacteristic concern over a nopony like Twist.
“Her feelings?” she asked. “Who the hoof cares? She’s not special like us. And we’ve hurt other ponies’ feelings before. We’ve even had fun doing it.”
“I know that,” said Silver Spoon. “But it’s different this time. We’re targeting a different set of feelings. It’ll hurt really bad.”
Diamond Tiara got up from her spot on the floor and stood in front of Silver Spoon, looking her square in the eye.
“How... is this any different... than what we’ve always done?!” asked Diamond Tiara.
“Different enough for me to decide not to help you do this,” stated Silver Spoon. “I’m sorry but my mind’s made up. You should have told me how you got her to come to the bridge before dragging me all the way out here. I would have said no on the spot and saved you the trouble of hauling the bag.”
Diamond Tiara caught herself losing her temper at the one pony whose help she needed to pull off this prank. One facehoof and a count to ten later, Diamond Tiara was calm enough to use reason to obtain Silver Spoon’s crucial assistance.
“Silver Spoon, listen to me,” she said in a normal tone. “Twist is no different than a turd. Think of her feelings as the corn kernels inside a turd – nopony cares if they’re inside them or not.”
Silver Spoon covered her mouth with her hoof to hide her grin lest Diamond Tiara think that this crude analogy was winning her over.
“We’re just going to give Twist a fragrance that’s better suited to her turdliness, that’s all,” said Diamond Tiara. “As far as the note goes, it’s not like we’ve made Rumble hate her. Technically, she has the same chance of being his marefriend as she ever did: zero. And she’s way too timid to snitch on us. Trust me. Nothing bad will happen. Okay?”
“No,” said Silver Spoon shaking her head resolutely.
“Oh, come on, Silver Spoon!” Having lost her patience, Diamond Tiara started hopping up and down. As she watched her friend bounce about like a ball, Silver Spoon wondered what it was about hopping up and down that made much younger foals think it was an act that would get them what they wanted. “I can’t scale this wall by myself! I need to climb on your back to get up there safely and I need somepony to hoof me the bag when I’m up there! You have to help me!”
Silver Spoon stood up and looked Diamond Tiara in the eye, giving her presumptuous friend an angry stare.
“I ‘have’ to?” asked Silver Spoon rhetorically. “Tchah! As if! I’m not your workhorse, you know. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to... and I don’t want to do this.” Having spoken her mind, she turned up her nose and closed her eyes.
Diamond Tiara sneered and grunted out of frustration at her friend’s weird behavior. Without Silver Spoon’s help, all the effort she put into having a laugh at Twist’s expense would be wasted. Her features slowly relaxed as she remembered that she had at her disposal an alternate means of convincing Silver Spoon to do her bidding.
“Hey...” said Diamond Tiara in a soft sultry tone, breathily whispering into Silver Spoon’s left ear, making it twitch once. Silver Spoon turned her head to the right to avoid further whispers.
“Not this again...” whined Silver Spoon as she lowered her ears. Her grey cheeks were now rosy pink as Diamond Tiara walked around her slowly, rubbing her body against her as she went over to her right side.
“Sillll-ver Spoo-OO-oooon...” cooed Diamond Tiara, this time into Silver Spoon’s right ear. Silver Spoon quickly turned to her left side. In Silver Spoon’s opinion, her name never sounded any sweeter than when it was spoken by Diamond Tiara.
“Come onnn, Diamond Tiaraaa,” groaned Silver Spoon. “Cut it out, already.”
Diamond Tiara stood up on her hind legs and playfully hooked her forelegs loosely around Silver Spoon’s neck, resting her upper body weight along the gray filly’s back with her left cheek pressed against Silver Spoon’s right cheek. Silver Spoon grimaced nervously at this invasion of her personal space because she knew it wasn’t motivated by genuine affection – much to her chagrin. Diamond Tiara used the tip of her right hoof to rotate Silver Spoon’s pearls about her neck, one pearl at a time.
“Do you remember what I found out when I... accidentally read your diary?” asked Diamond Tiara, speaking slightly above the tone of a whisper.
“‘Accidentally’, my plot,” muttered Silver Spoon as she averted her eyes. She fidgeted again but stood in place since Diamond Tiara wasn’t doing anything particularly inappropriate – yet.
“I can’t help where you leave your diary lying around anymore than I can help reading diaries that are left lying around,” said Diamond Tiara. “That day, I found out that you like having your hair pulled. It’s pretty grownup of you to have a kink at such a young age, even if it is weird. You get excited when somepony pulls your hair. That’s why you’ve always got your mane braided, so that somepony in class will sneak up behind you and mischievously pull on it... like this.”
Diamond Tiara took Silver Spoon’s braid in her mouth and gave it a few tugs. Silver Spoon closed her eyes and squeaked as her forelegs alternated from left hoof to right hoof and her hind legs trembled.
“Or... do you like it when it’s pulled harder?” said Diamond Tiara as she bit down firmly on the braid, planted her hooves into Silver Spoon’s shoulders and leaned backward, stretching the braid out at a distance that would have caused any filly great pain.
Silver Spoon felt that pain.
And she thought it was great.
“Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh,” she squeaked. Her narrowed pupils and wide toothy smile would have been enough to frighten off an Ursa Major with their intensity. Every second that Diamond Tiara kept her braid pulled back filled Silver Spoon with a euphoric sensation that she couldn’t begin to describe and that only a pony who shared her fondness for hairpulling could understand. She had allowed Diamond Tiara to experiment on her once before when the pink filly first discovered this fetish upon reading the relevant diary entry. It had amused Diamond Tiara to watch Silver Spoon writhe and moan from something so easily executed but arousing her friend made her feel uncomfortable and so she had ceased that activity altogether. When she last tried it out, she hadn’t tested Silver Spoon’s pain threshold as much as she was right now and the duration of that pull was far shorter.
“I wonder what else you’ve written about what gets you going,” said Diamond Tiara, “and who gets you going.”
Diamond Tiara didn’t actually wonder who it was that got Silver Spoon going. She knew even before she read the diary that her best friend’s feelings went deeper than mere friendship. Diamond Tiara only posed this query to further tease her friend into a state of compliance and to reestablish the one absolute truth: no one says no to Diamond Tiara. She released the braid, allowing Silver Spoon a moment to catch her breath.
“Is your tail as sensitive to being pulled on as your mane?” asked Diamond Tiara as she slid off of Silver Spoon and stood on all four hooves again. She extended her tongue, placed it against Silver Spoon’s trunk and walked beside her, running her tongue along Silver Spoon’s body starting from her withers and slowly working her way down to her dock. Silver Spoon shivered from the stimulation yet didn’t move away from her friend. Having returned her tongue to her mouth, Diamond Tiara now stood behind Silver Spoon and examined her plot, deciding where the best spot to bite her tail might be.
“Maybe I’ll just pull on your tail and your braid at the same time and see what happens,” said Diamond Tiara.
Silver Spoon’s eyes shot open upon hearing the proposal.
“EEEEEE! NO! Don’t you dare!” warned Silver Spoon as she swiftly spun around and sat on her own tail. If the experimental dual hairpulling that Silver Spoon had done in private was any indication, the results of a combined mane and tail pulling by Diamond Tiara would be extremely embarrassing, even if she was the only other pony watching.
Diamond Tiara quickly placed a hoof on Silver Spoon’s chest and pushed her, causing her to tip backward and lie on her back. The pink pony quickly climbed over her fallen friend and lay on top of her so that they were now belly to belly. Silver Spoon tilted her head forward to look down at her body and found that by doing so, she was now nose to nose with Diamond Tiara. She gulped and turned her head, grimacing as she trembled.
The warmth of Diamond Tiara’s body against her own so soon after the hair pulling was almost enough to drive Silver Spoon wild. She had shared this position with Diamond Tiara in her dreams – and the fantasy didn’t come close to matching the genuine article. Her heart pounded in her chest so furiously that she had no doubt that Diamond Tiara could feel it beating. If only her friend could be receptive to the feelings within it, Silver Spoon honestly believed that she would have need for nothing else ever again. Tears began to well up in Silver Spoon’s eyes as her body betrayed her heart’s desire by resisting the urge to wrap her forelegs around the back of Diamond Tiara’s neck and pull her in for a kiss. However, she knew that by taking such a liberty, delightful as it would have been, she would betray the trust that Diamond Tiara had placed in her and that was something neither of them wanted. All Silver Spoon could do was accept whatever bittersweet crumbs of physical contact Diamond Tiara threw her way.
Diamond Tiara grinned down at her malleable comrade and took pride in the new shape that she had just crafted. This was exactly where she needed Silver Spoon to be psychologically. She didn’t even care that she had to get so touchy-feely with another filly to achieve her goal. This wasn’t about homoeroticism. This was about asserting her dominance, something at which she happened to excel.
“I dare anything,” said Diamond Tiara, batting her eyelashes and flashing a smile at her bewildered friend. “I could dare to do that... or... you could just help me with the bag. Whaddya say?”
Silver Spoon let out a melancholy sigh.
“Okay, okayyyyy,” she groaned as she used all four hooves to launch Diamond Tiara a short distance into the air. “I’ll do it; anything to get you to stop teasing me.”
Diamond Tiara landed safely on her hooves and stared vacantly into space for a moment, startled by both the vertical distance she achieved and the deceptively strong legs that Silver Spoon possessed to have propelled her that high.
Just then, Diamond Tiara’s ear rotated toward the Ponyville side of the bridge, having heard the faint sound of galloping hooves approaching.
“I think I hear Twist coming!” said Diamond Tiara with a smile and a squee. Both fillies ran to the far end of the bridge toward their hiding place behind some bushes. “Don’t make a sound or move a muscle until we hear her hoofsteps stop.”
As Silver Spoon remained still behind the bushes, she flirted with the idea of blowing the whistle on Diamond Tiara’s prank and warning Twist of the fate that awaited her. She quickly put the thought out of her head. One way or another, somepony would be angry with her by day’s end and, given the choice, she vastly preferred Twist’s anger over Diamond Tiara’s.
Twist saw the bridge off in the distance and she smiled gleefully as her memorable first meeting with Rumble was almost upon her. She slowed her gallop down to a trot and then reduced her speed even further to a casual walk. She may have accepted Rumble’s feelings but that was no excuse for looking desperate or sweaty.
The outfit she selected for her meeting with Rumble was a simple yet flattering white gown that she wore just once for her great aunt’s wedding in Fillydelphia late last year. She especially liked the shoulder straps which were designed to look like twin lengths of blossoming flowers. There was an equally flattering flowered headdress that accompanied the outfit but Twist decided against wearing that because it made the gown look exactly like it was worn just once for her great aunt’s wedding in Fillydelphia late last year. She didn’t want to scare Rumble off by making him think that she was chomping at the bit to get married, although being Rumble’s wife was a thought that Twist found to be most pleasant.
When she arrived at the bottom of the hill, Rumble was nowhere to be found.
“Rumble?” called out Twist. “Yoo-hooooooo. Did I keep him waiting too long?”
She walked on the tracks and through the train tunnel to check the other side of it and he wasn’t there, either. What she did find were several piles of flat stone slabs that looked as though they were left behind by a construction crew. Three of the slabs had been stacked on top of one another in a deliberate fashion and a folded sheet of paper that matched the one used for Rumble’s note was held in place atop the highest stone by a small rock used as a makeshift paperweight. Certain that this paper was another one of Rumble’s notes, Twist used her teeth to pull it out from under the rock. She knocked the rock off with her hoof, took a seat on the slab stack and opened the note.
“‘Dear Twist’,” she read aloud. “‘I’m so sorry but my big brother needed my help with something and I had to go with him to Cloudsdale but I’ll be back as soon as possible. Please have a seat and wait for me here until I return. Yours truly, Rumble’.” Twist folded the note closed and tucked it away inside her dress as a memento. “Gosh, I hope it’s nothing serious.” Twist took a seat on the makeshift stone chair and sighed.“Oh, well. I guess I’ll practice what I’ll say to him.” She held a hoof to her muzzle and cleared her throat as she began to collect her thoughts.
“Hi, Rumble,” said Twist. “So, yeah, I got your note today,” she said. “I never would have guessed that a super foal like you would ever fall for a plain old filly like me but oh, that sounds awful!” She held her head in her hooves and shut her eyes, repulsed by her monologue. “What is wrong with me? Be more confident in yourself, Twist! He already likes you for who you are! Where’s the sense in putting yourself down in front of him?” Twist stopped lecturing herself and took a few breaths before starting again.
“Hey, Rumble,” she said as she nonchalantly inspected her hoof. “So... you wanna go out with me, huh? Well, I’m not dating anyone right now sooooo I guess that would be cool.” Twist opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out in disgust. “Ugh, what the hay was that? I went from not confident enough to Rainbow Dash. I need to find a middle ground.”
Twist shut her eyes and scratched her chin as she wondered how best to approach Rumble with her feelings. She thought of her friends, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and how they would handle this situation.
Her good friend Pinkie Pie embodied the spirit of laughter. Twist only knew a few gross jokes that she had overheard Snips tell Snails so handling this the Pinkie Pie way was definitely out. Princess Twilight Sparkle wielded the element of magic but, as an earth pony, Twist had trouble performing even the simplest of card tricks. Applejack represented the spirit of honesty...
Bingo, thought Twist as she grinned. She decided to let her honest feelings for Rumble pour forth and allow love to attend to itself. She imagined Rumble standing before her with a smile on his beautiful face and that in turn made her smile.
“Rumble,” said Twist. “I’m gonna be honest with you. When I read your note this afternoon, I was knocked for a loop. My mom told me when I was growing up that one day some colt would wanna be my very special somepony. But that’s what any parent would tells their filly to boost their confidence so I didn’t really put any stock in it. Grownups don’t go through what we kids do so they don’t know how hard it is to make friends and keep them. Or maybe they did know once and just conveniently forgot about it after becoming grownups. That would explain a lot of things about grownups, actually. But then along came your note and whaddyaknow? It turned out that my Mom was right all along! I was super happy to find out that you liked me because as it turns out, I like you, too. I’ve actually liked you since the day that you first transferred here from Cloudsdale Elementary. At first, I didn’t think that you liked fillies. Oh, n-not that I thought that you liked colts or anything... Gah! And n-n-not that there’s anything wrong with that! Uh, I-I mean...”
Twist snickered as she listened to herself.
“And there’s your first lesson in Twist 101," she continued, "Twist can be a total spaz sometimes. I hope that won’t be a deal breaker, will it? Good! Oh, and please don’t feel bad about being too nervous to tell me face to face that you liked me because I’m just as guilty as you were of not being honest with myself. So now that everything’s out in the open and we both like each other, I would be very happy to be your very special somepony. Hm? What’s that? You... you’d like to... kiss me? Oh, you! Hey, why the long face? I didn’t say that I wouldn’t kiss you, silly. I’m just a little nervous because it’s my first one... but I couldn’t be any happier that it’s with you. C’mere. Hee hee! Look at you. You’re shaking like a leaf on a tree! Aw, don’t be embarrassed. Well... maybe it’s okay for you to be a little embarrassed, if only because you look so cute when you’re blushing. Ready for your kiss now? Me too.”
Twist removed her glasses, closed her eyes and puckered her lips but then quickly reopened her eyes and glared suspiciously at the imaginary Rumble.
“But if you slip me the tongue, I swear I’ll scream," she said. "Got it? Good.”
As she prepared to lock lips with her dream foal, something large and black had struck her over the head, creating a distinct pop upon impact and obscuring her vision completely. She immediately smelled what she assumed was rotten food and she gagged, nearly losing her lunch. She held her breath and shook her head as vigorously as she could to free herself from whatever had ensnared her. Light mercifully returned to her eyes as she successfully removed the unknown object which turned out to be a garbage bag.
She coughed and spat repeatedly until the brown juices on her muzzle stopped running down into her mouth. She breathed through her mouth to spare herself the terrible smell. Strewn about her hooves were piles of wet, mashed decomposing fruit and soggy hay. Judging by the strength of the stench, there were most likely chunks of the stuff elsewhere on her body. She hopped over the mess around her and trotted a few paces away as she shook her head repeatedly to rid her hair of any fragments of gunk that might have remained in her hair. Her glasses had been knocked out of her hooves when the bag first landed on her and she reluctantly returned to the sludge piles to look for them. Their purple frames made them easy to spot against all the brown, black and green. Holding her breath, she whimpered as she extracted them with her mouth. She quickly transferred them to her hooves and resumed her spitting. She put them on her face and couldn’t see much due to the lenses being covered with a brownish green liquid. She wiped the lenses on a clean patch of grass in an effort to clean them. Deciding that they were as clean as they were going to get, she placed them back on her face and examined her dress. White was no longer the dominant color on it.
“YYYYESSSS!! WOOHOOOOOO!!” shouted a voice that came from up above. Twist looked up and saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walking down the hill toward her. Believing them to be her assailants, she walked up the hill toward them, meeting them halfway.
Diamond Tiara couldn’t hold back a smile. Her plan worked out exactly as she knew it would.
“Nice fashion statement there, Twist!” said Diamond Tiara. “I wouldn’t wear it myself but on you it looks fab! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon!” squealed Twist as she removed her dress and shook herself free of juice. “Your timing couldn’t have been any worse! You’ve ruined the dress I put on for Rumble! He’s supposed to meet me here any minute!” Twist ran in circles, panicking like a mad pony.
“Is he, now?” asked Diamond Tiara. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I’m guessing that you’ve never seen Rumble’s mouthwriting before... or mine.”
“What are you talk-”
Twist felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she gathered the meaning of what Diamond Tiara just said.
“Did you actually think that a colt as cute as Rumble would give you the time of day much less a love letter?” asked Diamond Tiara. “What color is the sky in that dream world of yours?” She pointed at the stained dress on the grass with her hoof. “And was that supposed to be your best dress? Pfft! I’ve seen burlap sacks in my daddy’s store’s hardware department that are better looking than that frock! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
As Diamond Tiara laughed at her own comment, Twist hung her head and closed her eyes. The notes were fakes. It had all been an incredibly cruel hoax designed to humiliate her. The high she had experienced was dwarfed by the low she was now experiencing.
“Why?” asked Twist. Her voice was froggy and her vocal projection was so low that she sounded as though she might have been talking to herself.
“Hm? Why what?” asked Diamond Tiara.
“Why would you do something so mean to me?”
“Hmm... I guess there are a couple of reasons. Becauuuuse we had an afternoon to kill… annnnd because we felt like it… and in case it isn’t painfully obvious – because we’re better than you are.”
I didn’t feel like it, thought Silver Spoon.
“I don’t care if you want to pick on me because you think I’m weak,” said Twist, “or different... or an easy target. That’s on you guys, not me. Miss Cheerilee told me how to deal with being bullied and it’s always worked for me. I’ve been picked on before – most of the time by you two – and I’ve never let it bother me... but this?” Twist lifted her head and it ate Silver Spoon up inside to see the sad expression on Twist’s face. The cream-colored pony’s eyes were wide and glossy with tears and her lower lip trembled uncontrollably. “Sweet Celestia, this is the meanest thing anypony’s ever done to me!” Twist’s voice rose in pitch as her weeping was adversely affecting her speech. “I thought Rumble really... How could you play with my feelings like that? Don’t you have a heart? Haven’t you ever dreamed of being loved by your very special somepony?” She sniffled and wiped her runny nose with the cleanest area of her hoof that she could spot.
The quiver in Twist’s voice caused Silver Spoon to feel a sharp pain in her chest. It was exactly what she was afraid she’d feel for her: sympathy. She wanted to apologize to Twist but the wound was too fresh and, as the co-prankster, it may have come off as insincere.
“Could you repeat that?” asked Diamond Tiara sarcastically, holding a hoof beside her ear. “My Loser-ese is a little rusty.”
“SHUT UP!” screamed Twist. “I AM NOT A LOSER! At least I’ve got better things to do than pick on ponies! You two have gone beyond being bullies... You’re-“
“Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” interrupted Diamond Tiara. “Tell it to somepony who cares, okay? I’m done with you now.” She turned her attention from Twist to Silver Spoon. “Oh, hey, Silver Spoon, do you want to have supper over at my house tonight? We’re having quiche. That’s, like, a staple in gay diets, right?”
“A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha... as if I would know that... or even be remotely interested in knowing something like that,” giggled Silver Spoon nervously prior to giving Diamond Tiara a glance that suggested that this subject be dropped.
Twist’s mouth hung open in disgust. She was appalled by how casually Diamond Tiara had dismissed her, as though she mattered less than a horsefly. She felt the muscles in her face contract, drawing her brow lower and wrinkling her nose. She had never felt such seething hatred toward a pair of ponies in her entire life. She trembled with rage and despite her heart being broken, blood was coursing through her veins as quickly as it would have been had she been running in a race. Air whistled between her clenched teeth as her anger reached its boiling point.
“You’re evil,” growled Twist between clenched teeth. “And I hate you. I HATE YOUUUU!!”
“We’re not evil,” said Diamond Tiara as she primped her hair with her hoof. “We just do what we want to whomever we want whenever we want, regardless of the consequences; it’s a rich girl’s prerogative... but I suppose you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? And so what if you hate us, Twist Tie? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Do you see what I did there? Because twist ties go together with garbage bags?”
Twist wasn’t laughing. Diamond Tiara turned to face Silver Spoon and saw that she wasn’t laughing, either. Clicking her tongue, Diamond Tiara frowned at her audience’s lack of appreciation for improvisational humor.
“Well, I thought it was clever,” said Diamond Tiara. “Anyway, feel free to hate us all you want, Twist Tie, because, quite frankly, we totally don’t care. Why should we? It’s not like you have the guts to do anything about it.”
There was a limit to the amount of taunting that Twist could endure. Unbeknownst to Diamond Tiara, her words had caused Twist to exceed that limit.
Silver Spoon saw the wild look building in Twist’s eyes and was about to ask Diamond Tiara not to egg her on.
But it was too late.
The sustained rage-filled whinny that blasted from Twist’s mouth startled both Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and they froze in place out of shock.
Since the dawn of Equestrian culture, ponies had learned to use their speaking voices to communicate. The bestial sounds of their primitive equine ancestors could be produced vocally by anypony but since doing so was considered uncivilized and somewhat taboo, the practice was looked down upon, outside of letting an occasional one slip while in the throes of a heightened emotional state.
Everypony knew this.
Twist didn’t care.
All she cared about was expressing all of her suppressed negative emotions in a manner befitting her state of mind. Rearing up on her hind legs, Twist raised her forehooves and deftly brought them down upon Diamond Tiara’s head, delivering a punishing blow.
“OW!” blurted Diamond Tiara as her legs gave out from under her. She sank to her belly on the grassy hill. Her head throbbed from the blow and she felt dizzier than the first time she spun on the playground’s spinning platform for thirty seconds straight. She had never become so disoriented in such a short a span of time and she was now very frightened.
Silver Spoon shrieked as she watched Diamond Tiara collapse from the attack and silently cursed herself for not foreseeing this.
Twist reveled in the satisfying clunk that her hooves had made against Diamond Tiara’s thick skull. She felt somewhat ashamed of herself for allowing her classmates to get under her skin and drive her to violence despite Cheerilee’s insistence that no good ever came of violence. However, the spoiled would-be princess had done far more harm than good in her time at the Ponyville Schoolhouse and would surely continue to do so unless she was taught a lesson that she would never forget, right here, right now. This was about more than Twist simply standing up for herself. This was about justice for every filly that had ever been picked on when grownups in their infinitely superior wisdom did nothing other than recommend that the bullying be ignored, a strategy that did more to encourage bullying than to discourage it. Once Twist had finished justifying her actions as being righteous, she belted out another throaty high-pitched whinny and brought her hooves up again to continue her assault on the downed pony. If Twist was going to get in trouble for fighting, she would make her first offense count by trampling Diamond Tiara to her satisfaction.
“Keep your hooves OFF of her!!” screamed Silver Spoon.
Lowering her head, the gray earth pony charged Twist, ramming her in the ribs with enough force to send Twist tumbling down the hill head over hooves. Silver Spoon quickly recovered from her counterattack and was glad that she hadn’t lost her glasses or her own balance as a result. She turned her attention toward Diamond Tiara and took a seat in front of her. She held her friend’s face in her hooves and looked into her glassy eyes with a great deal of concern for her welfare.
“Say something, Diamond Tiara,” pleaded Silver Spoon. “Are you okay?”
“Is my tiara crooked?” asked Diamond Tiara with a woozy slur to her speech.
Silver Spoon grinned and shook her head, both amused and relieved to see that Diamond Tiara was more concerned about her most cherished fashion accessory than the condition of her own skull.
“Yeah, you’re okay,” she said.
Once Twist reached the bottom, she quickly scrambled to her hooves and glared at her classmates, her chest expanding and contracting rapidly with each frantic breath she took. She no longer smelled the rotten fruit juice that had soaked her mane and coat. Her adrenaline rush was so high that she didn’t even feel any of the after effects of her fall despite having received a number of small scratches and bruises from it. Even the loss of her glasses wasn’t enough to quell her fury.
She didn’t need to see her enemies in great detail in order to beat them up.
She saw that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon now had the high ground. This was not a good thing. Not only would she be at a disadvantage reachwise but defending against counterattacks would be next to impossible now that the element of surprise had been lost. Twist cursed herself for not having thought this assault through as properly as she should have. With great haste, she turned around, crossed the tracks, climbed up the opposite hill and began to run across the bridge so that she might regain the high ground and continue her attack. This time, Diamond Tiara’s lackey Silver Spoon would be her target.
Silver Spoon saw the blood lust in Twist’s eyes as she approached and was nearly scared out of her wits. Despite antagonizing numerous classmates alongside Diamond Tiara, she had somehow avoided having to defend herself against a physical assault. She certainly didn’t fancy the idea of starting here and now.
“This way! Hurry!” said Silver Spoon to Diamond Tiara who, in her frazzled state of mind, was too stunned by her injury to do anything other than follow her friend’s lead and hope that she could run straight.
Twist had completed her trip across the bridge and turned to go down the hill after her classmates. She found that they had crossed the tracks and were already halfway up the other hill.
Silver Spoon stopped running and as Diamond Tiara ran past her, she caught her tail in her teeth to get her to come to a stop. Both fillies turned around to see what Twist was going to do. Silver Spoon knew that she had to put an end to this fight. If Diamond Tiara was as stunned as she believed her to be, she couldn’t run much farther without falling over and getting hurt, either from falling down a hill or another hit from Twist. There was nopony nearby so calling out for help would have done her no good. With a nervous gulp, Silver Spoon stood in front of Diamond Tiara, blocking her from Twist’s sight and gambling on the possibility that she would be viewed by Twist as the lesser of two evils long enough to listen to reason.
“Calm down, Twist!” shouted Silver Spoon. “Think about what’s going on!”
Twist held her ground and listened to Silver Spoon, though without her glasses, she couldn’t make out her facial features from this distance.
“You’re outnumbered!” continued Silver Spoon. “You can’t get past both of us and we can always get the high ground again by running up the other hill while you’re crossing the bridge! We don’t want to fight you! Please... just leave us alone and go home! We won’t tell on you if you don’t tell on us, okay?”
Twist neighed, sputtered and stomped at the ground angrily with her right hoof, mostly because Silver Spoon was right. The bridge and the two hills on either side of the tracks formed a large triangle that allowed her targets to stay out of her reach almost indefinitely. Additionally, the train tunnel underneath the bridge just gave them even more evasion options. When Silver Spoon’s assessment of this situation appeared to be accurate to her, Twist’s features slowly lost their scowl and she lowered her head. She didn’t want to run herself ragged chasing Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to the ends of Equestria.
She wanted what she thought she was getting: Rumble as a coltfriend.
Her anger had subsided and she was once again faced with her grief. She inhaled deeply, opened her mouth, reared her head back and let out a woeful bawl from the bottom of her soul that could probably have been heard all the way from Cloudsdale. It was a ballad of pain that told the tale of a heart dashed to pieces over the loss of a colt’s heart that was never really hers and a cruel insult added to that injury.
Silver Spoon recognized that ballad for she sang a similar one on the day that she confessed her love for Diamond Tiara last Hearts and Hooves Day – and was gently yet unequivocally turned down.
As Silver Spoon watched Twist turn around and walk away, she shed a tear for her sister in unrequited love. She looked at Diamond Tiara and saw that while she was sneering angrily at Twist and appeared to have recovered, she wasn’t pursuing her attacker, which was probably for the best.
“We’re sorry, Twist!” shouted Silver Spoon. It was the only thing she could think to say to alleviate her guilt.
“No, we’re not!” shouted Diamond Tiara who seemed to have recovered from her earlier dizziness. “But you’ll be sorry when we see you at school tomorrow, Twist! You think you can tag me with a completely unprovoked attack and get away with it? You’re a dead pony! Do you hear me?! A DEAD PONYYYYYY!!!”
Twist heard neither the apology nor the threat over her own sobbing and hoofsteps. She made it down the hill and over the tracks to head back home for a shower to soothe her aching wounds as well as her broken heart.
Tragically, the sudden arrival of a train prevented Twist from ever going home again.
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Little girl makes teacher cry....kill little girl.
Great logic, there.
Wow... I think theres a mistake in the placement of "tragedy" i dont think that "taking a classmate's life because the classmate made the teacher cry" classifies as a tragedy... Im not sure what brought you to write this story, but i wont yell at you to take it down... I just wont read the story; this just isn't the type of story i read. Anyway, as skeptical as i am, good luck on the story.
3194830 that's not an eye for an eye, that's for damn sure.
3194830 That's what the North Koreans call cruel and unusual punishment.
Interesting, although the description (the shorter one) is a bit misleading (unless what Diamond Tiara will do to Cheerilee is worse than what she did to Twist).
Also, I think there should be an empty line between the paragraphs, to make the text easier to read.
And one more thing: shouldn't Twist be on characters list?
anyway good chapter mister , so sad for Twist
Holy... Oh my god. That waso much better than I expected!!! Oh my gosh that was so wonderfully written! Just, wow. Amazing.
The short summary is a bit misleading, but damn I didn't expect this. Wow, poor Twist.
Oh but Twist isn't included in the character list, I think she should considering she's the topic of the first chapter. But whoa, I wonder how Silver Spoon will react to the fact that she's partially responsible for Twist's death :o poor filly. Poor Twist. May she rest in peace
3194830
Heh, well, as you might imagine, it's not quite as simple as that. My story will have multiple chapters but as it is currently happens to be only one chapter old, I can understand how one could read its short synopsis and see it as extreme. The CMCs have yet to appear so I ask that you please remain patient while I write the rest of the story and reserve judgment until their motives have been depicted.
Also, thank you for reading.
3195716
I decided to take your (and Samey90's) advice. Twist is now in the character list. I held off initially because I felt that she was simply relevant to the plot rather than an active participant to be seen throughout the entire story. Diamond Tiara will be a tenured character in the story whereas Twist, who is now deceased, has very few options left to her. I may exercise one of those options later, if only to justify her inclusion in the character list. :)
And, hey, thanks for all of your encouraging words! I just hope the sadness yet to come will be as well received by you as this chapter was.
Wow... This work provoked so many emotions out of me... Anger, sadness, surprise, appreciation, the list goes on!
I was quite surprised though about the uh... "love" scene that transiref but seeing how sly was of DT to think of using that metheod... Clever.
Finally, after Twist finally started her mental breakdown into her bloodlust all I could say was 'Retribution'. I felt they both deserved it however, SS shouldn't have taken as much guff as she collected as she didn't provoke or egg on the teasing... R.I.P. Twist...
6 / 5 stars... Very well made.
3194841
What are you talking about? Diamond Tiara murders Twist in this story.
This is actually a huge surprise that Diamond Tiara is actually the cruelest pony of them all, but I knew Silver Spoon was dragged into her schemes. I could say this, but this is too much, but this plot got me more interesting. Thank you
3195040
I have to say, your choice of words paint a pretty picture, and it works so well with any premise. However, when it comes to characterizations, Twist is a tough filly to write because she barely has any personality in the canonical show.I've yet to get far in this story, but with such colorful vocabulary, it's hard not to turn this down considering other fictions I've read couldn't even paint a stick figure! And believe me when I say, I can be very picky when I want to.
Spike approves!
That was a hell of a chapter. Poor Twist. Poor Silver Spoon. And damn, DT, you don't even care about your own well-being if all you cared about was if your tiara was crooked, you could of died.
Currently enjoying the next chapter with Pinkie and Rares, I'm loving the silly argument on song lengths xD
P.S. Loved the characterizations on Twist. She went out with a bang. DT and Silvy moment... that all too Dom moment. Great job with these three fillies. I hope the later chapters will be this good and less of what I'm sadly used to seeing everywhere else.
fucking ouch.. thats all I really got to say to this.
Oh dear. This could have gone much better. This is the first time I don't want to finish a story not because of how bad it is, but because I'm scared of what will happen if I go on... What have you done?
...
Impeckable.
Sentence is really poorly written, otherwise good chapter :)