NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales

by Fluttercheer

Day 7: The Pond Fairy and the Golden Helmet

Today was one of the worst days in Scootaloo's life.

Just thinking on all what has happened today, or what did not happen, made her so angry that she felt like she could rip something into pieces. She kicked a stone in front of her and watched how it hit a tree.

First, Rainbow Dash told her that she had to cancel her plans to spend the day with her. They wanted to snatch the newest Daring Do book at the Ponyville book store and then read it together in Rainbow Dash's cloud house. It should have been a nice evening together with her idol and big sister, but then Rainbow Dash got the message that the Ponyville weather team had surprisingly scheduled a big storm for today. Her help was needed for preparing everything and for checking if the citizens of Ponyville had made their houses storm-proof, as well as for the necessary clean-up after the storm. She promised that she will still go to the bookshop and buy the book today and that they will make up for the lost time a few days later, but Scootaloo was sad about it nonetheless. She didn't get much time to spend with Rainbow Dash anyway between her work for the weather team and her training for the Wonderbolts.

This would have already been enough to ruin Scootaloo's day, but when she arrived at school it got worse.

Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle did not come to school today and as Cheerilee entered the classroom and she asked for them she was informed by her that both of them were sick with the flu and couldn't visit school for some time. Which also meant that they couldn't do anything together for a while, neither crusading nor playing any games with each other. It also made her an easier target for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who took great advantage of it that she was alone today and there was no reason to think that this would become any better in the next days. No, knowing those two fillies, it would only become worse over time.

And if that wouldn't be already bad enough, her helmet was broken, so she couldn't drove around with her scooter.

She was doing a little stunt after leaving school, one that she did very often already and that she knew inside out, but it went wrong anyway. Scootaloo guessed that she was just too anxious today to concentrate enough to perform the stunt properly. She was falling so hard on her head after she was thrown from her scooter that a big hole gaped in the material. She wasn't hurt, but she suffered from headaches now and it would not have taken much more for her to end up in hospital with a life-threatening injury. And now her helm was completely ruined and she couldn't afford a new one. All the bits she had saved were spent by her on some necessary repairings of her scooter.

She kicked another stone, harder this time.

Now she was in the Whitetail Woods. After her stunt had gone wrong and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, as well as some other foals, laughed about her, she just wanted to be alone. So she retreated in these woods to sort her thoughts and to hopefully calm down a little. She hoped that the beauty of the nature around would soothe her and make her feel better and besides, she didn't have to do anything better than that anyway, with her friends sick and Rainbow Dash unavailable. But it didn't help so far. For one hour she was already in these woods now and she still did not feel any better. Her thoughts circled around the events of this day over and over again and made her even more angry. If at least Rainbow Dash would be here. Then she could talk with her and this would help. It always cheered her up when Rainbow Dash was there and simply by talking to her she could let go of all of her problems. But Rainbow Dash wasn't here, because of some stupid last-minute decision by the local weather team!

Scootaloo furiously snatched off the broken helmet from the steering rod of her scooter and threw it behind some nearby bushes. “Take that you dumb, old thing!”, she shouted out frustrated.

She leaned against her scooter, panting and gasping for breath after her raged outburst. Then she trotted over to the bushes to look where her helmet landed, leaving her scooter where it was. It was not between the branches, so she worked her way through the bushes.

What she found behind them was a big pond. His water looked dirty and his surface was generously covered with thick algae. Wafts of mist that wavered in the air above and around the pond gave it a mysterious aura. The pond looked beautiful and looking at it eased Scootaloo's distressed mind a little. But her helmet was nowhere to be seen. She searched the pond's shore at her side rigorously, even checked every spot twice, but she couldn't find it. There was only one reason for it why; she threw it so hard that it was falling into the pond.

Scootaloo sweared.

As if she hadn't already enough problems today, her helmet was lost completely now! She could have tried to fix it by herself, but now this chance was gone!

Scootaloo lifted up a stone and threw it angrily in the pond. Big ripples appeared around the spot where the stone hit the surface.

Scootaloo was so desperated that she decided to dive into the pond and search for her helmet. It was risky and the water was murky, so her chances of success weren't high, but Scootaloo wasn't keen about the imagination that this day would get any more worse than it already was and getting dirty was something she was familiar with anyway.

She set a hoof in the water as suddenly a green, eerie light emerged from the pond. It was blinding Scootaloo and she stumbled back, covering her eyes with one hoof. “What happens now?”, she asked, both surprised and agitated. As the light was gone, Scootaloo put her hoof back down on the ground and looked carefully up.

A fairy was floating gracefully above the pond.

She had a beige-colored coat and a long, blonde mane that fell elegant over her shoulders. Two light pink flowers adorned her beautiful mane and she wore a pearly-white dress. It was graced with a red ribbon, that clasped around her waist. What Scootaloo astounded the most, though, was that she was holding her helmet in one of her hooves and a golden helmet in the other one. Scootaloo looked at her in awe, her mouth wide open. Was this real?

An enchanting melody was ringing through the air as the fairy began to speak to her.

“What was it that you dropped? Was it this precious gold helmet?”

Scootaloo shook her head, speechless from the manifestation in front of her.

“Perhaps it was only this broken plastic helmet that you dropped then?”

“Uh-huh.” Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah.”

“Ah, I have finally found a truly honest pony!”, the fairy replied cheerfully.

“In return I will give you the golden helmet to keep.”

Scootaloo's helmet and the golden one left the hooves of the fairy and floated over to her. Hesitantly, Scootaloo reached out for them and picked them out of the air.

“Thanks”, she said, still awe-struck.

The fairy gave her a warm smile and then she disappeared in the same, green light.

After the light was gone, Scootaloo continued to stare for some seconds at the spot where the fairy was. She still could not believe what just happened. A fairy was something she only read about in books and she had never thought that fairies could really exist. But the proof was in her hooves. She looked down. The golden helmet was still there, right next to the one she threw away so furiously. It was no dream and neither an imagination. What she just saw really happened.

With slowly realizing that the fairy and her gift were real, she also realized that her day had took a turn for the better now, at least slightly. Now she had a new helmet! Scootaloo didn't care for it that it was a helmet made of gold, but now she didn't have to worry about buying a new one or fixing her old helmet anymore. She put the golden helmet on and smiled. Finally something good happened today!

She turned around and made her way through the bushes, back to her scooter. Now that she had a new helmet, she was really in the mood for racing around with it. She hung her old helmet on the steering rod and then she jumped on it, pulled it around, flapped her wings and raced through the woods, back to Ponyville, and that all in one, fluid movement.

The trees became a blur around her and Scootaloo was filled with joy. “Wooooooooohoooooooooooooooo!”, she shouted. She was happy and everyone should hear it! Due to her fast speed, it did not take her long to arrive in Ponyville again. She reduced her speed a little, but not too much, and then looked up to the sky. It began to become dark, despite that it was still afternoon. Black clouds were gathered around by the Ponyville pegasi and the sky was covered with them. Having reduced her speed, she could also feel that the wind had picked up pace. It tugged at her and her scooter and she had problems to steer the scooter in the direction she wanted to. The storm would start soon and she better hurried home before it became too dangerous.

As she rode over the Ponyville Plaza and past the townhall, she saw a familiar pony in some distance in front of her: Diamond Tiara.

Scootaloo clenched her teeth.

Having her noticed, Diamond Tiara was pointing at her flank and then in the direction of Scootaloo. Then she laughed. Scootaloo could not hear what she said over the loud, howling wind, but she knew it anyway. Why did she have to meet Diamond Tiara now? She was in such a good mood since she met the fairy in the woods, she did not want that it became destroyed again by that cruel bully! She tried at her best to ignore Diamond Tiara and raced past her. Out of her sight, she breathed out in relief. She wouldn't have to deal with her anymore today! Scootaloo was not far away from her house anymore, so she lowered her speed and brought the scooter to a halt in front of it.

She removed her new, golden helmet from her head and hung it on the steering rod too. She was about to roll her scooter inside, as she noticed a movement in the corner of her eye. When looking in the direction where it came from, she froze. It was Diamond Tiara again. Scootaloo couldn't believe it. The bully was following her! Today, Diamond Tiara was more active than ever before. So far, she had never followed her home. She really took advantage of it that she couldn't stand up against her bullying together with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle!

Scootaloo looked away from Diamond Tiara, who had a smug grin on her face while slowly approaching her, and rolled her scooter inside She hoped that she wouldn't go so far to come into her house and to invade her privacy. The last thing she would need today was her nemesis breaking into her house and bully her there.

“I wished she would loose her cutie mark! Maybe she would stop to make my life miserable then!”

Suddenly, it began to rain. Scootaloo opened the door and hurried inside. She didn't wanted to get wet now after it was just spared from her to having to dive into a dirty, unknown pond. After she closed the door behind her, a white spark glimmered on the roof of her house.

Discord appeared. He looked at the door Scootaloo just disappeared in and then across the square to Diamond Tiara, who was hurrying home too now. Satisfied, he put his fingers together.

“This is going to be interesting”, he said.

~*~

As Scootaloo awoke the next day, she felt much better. Yesterday was a bad day mostly, but somehow she had the feeling that today would be better. How much she was right with that, was something she didn't knew. She rolled to the side and stretched out her limbs to get fully awake. The sun was shining through her window. She got up and took a look outside.

The sky was clear, not a single cloud was floating across it. Some of the houses she could see were a little damaged from the storm, but it could be worse.
Scootaloo turned round and galloped down the stairs. She went to sleep soon yesterday and now she felt that she was full of energy. And she still had the feeling that today will be a very good day. She jumped down the last few stairs and headed into the kitchen for a quick breakfast. She knew that it would be time for school soon, but her stomach was grumbling.

Scootaloo opened the fridge and pulled out a small plate with a cupcake and some apple pie that was left from dinner yesterday. She quickly put it on the table and then opened one of the cupboards and took a out a glass. She filled it with some milk from the fridge and then carried it to the table and sat down. While she hastily gobbled up the cupcake and the apple pie, occasionally taking a sip from the milk, she thought about the upcoming day.

She could visit Apple Bloom and Scootaloo after school to see how they felt and then, maybe she could see Rainbow Dash. Who knows, maybe she did have time for her today? The storm was over, after all, and cleaning up the town wouldn't need much time!

After she had finished up the pie and the cupcake, she quickly drank the rest of her milk, put the glass and the plate in the sink, washing them up could wait until the evening, and then quickly proceeded to get ready for school. Heading up to the front door, she realized that she had forgot her saddle bags. She turned around at the spot, rushed upstairs, put her saddle bags on her back and rushed down again. She did not need more than ten seconds for it.

“Done in ten seconds flat, just like Rainbow Dash!”, she chimed out and then took her scooter, opened the door and rushed outside. She closed the door and waited a moment to put on her helmet and strap it to her head. Then she jumped on her scooter, her wings flapped and she was away. She was especially fast today and so it took her not more than a few minutes to reach the school house.

As she brought her scooter to a halt, she heard the bell ringing. She quickly parked her scooter right from the entrance and headed inside. As she entered the class room, she recognized that the fillies and colts around her were all very excited. The foals seemed to talk about something interesting. On the way to her desk, she could catch some scraps of the conversations.

“Can you imagine that?” “Is that really possible?” “My mom said something like this never happened to a pony before!” “Maybe she just never had one!”

Scootaloo took seat at her desk. There, she noticed that she still had the golden helmet on her head. In her rush, she forgot to remove it and to leave it out at her scooter. She shrugged. It was too late to go outside again before the first lesson began now and so she just placed it at the edge of her desk. Scootaloo wanted to ask her classmates what they were talking about, but before she could, Cheerilee entered the room.

She walked up to her own desk in front of the blackboard. Scootaloo noticed that she had not closed the door of the classroom. Cheerilee cleared her throat. The chatting stopped and the fillies and colts paid attention to her.

“Before we begin with our lesson today, there's something I need to tell you”, she began. Cheerilee pointed to Diamond Tiara's desk.

It was just now that Scootaloo realized that she was missing. What happened? Was she sick too? Scootaloo remembered how she met Diamond Tiara in front of her house yesterday, just minutes before it began to rain. Maybe she got a cold because she had to walk home in the rain?

“I'm sure you noticed that Diamond Tiara has not come to school yet”, Cheerilee continued. “She is here, but she asked me for it to explain something to you before she enters the classroom.” Cheerilee paused a little to make sure that everypony was listening to her. Then she continued. “As Diamond Tiara woke up today, her cutie mark was gone.”

The whole class started to whisper excitedly. Scootaloo's mouth went open suddenly. How was that possible? Had she done this? She immediately had to think on it what she wished for yesterday, before she entered her house. These were just some hastily spoken out words and she did not even mean it really serious. Could it be? Had she really caused it that Diamond Tiara's cutie mark disappeared? Or maybe.....

“Diamond Tiara was at a doctor this morning, but he could not find out what let her cutie mark disappear”, Cheerilee interrupted her thoughts. “Until she has gotten her cutie mark back, I want that all of you are especially nice to her!” Her voice became a little stern as she spoke out that last sentence.

Cheerilee knew that Diamond Tiara had the habit to pick on other classmates who haven't gotten their cutie marks yet and she feared that some could do the same to her out of revenge, so she wanted to make sure that no fighting amongst the foals started.

“One last thing”, she began again. “If anyone of you does not feel good or looses his or her cutie mark please tell it to me immediately. It's possible that we have to deal with a disease and we need to know if it's contagious”, she said.

“Wrong. This was no disease!”, Scootaloo thought. Unlike her class members, she knew the real reason.

A worried whispering rose up in the class.

After Cheerilee had made sure that everypony understood what she said, she looked aside to the still open door. “You can come in now, Tiara!”, she said.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, a visibly timid Diamond Tiara entered the classroom, slowly and hesitantly, looking rapidly from side to side. She wore a dress to hide her blank flank from the other foals. Many eyes were directed at her, including Scootaloo's, some of them trying to get a peek under her dress to see if it was true. But nopony dared to say anything, even though some would have liked, still remembering what Cheerilee just said. As Diamond Tiara had reached her desk, she climbed on the chair, carefully, to make sure her dress did not get pulled up so that her flank would have become revealed. After Diamond Tiara sat down, Cheerilee began with her lesson as usual.

Scootaloo only listened with one ear. Her thoughts circled around what happened. There was only one way to explain all of this. The golden helmet that she got from the fairy was responsible for this. Cutie marks appear through magic and if they disappear suddenly, there can only be a magical reason behind that. And Scootaloo couldn't use magic. The golden helmet was the only explanation for what happened. She wished yesterday that Diamond Tiara's cutie mark would disappear and the helmet read her thoughts and fulfilled that wish for her! Did that mean that she could do everything with it? She decided to try it out. But what should she do?

Scootaloo looked around. Just something simple. She did not want to cause any havoc for other ponies, after all. At least not unwarranted. She looked at Diamond Tiara and a smile flashed over her face. Then she had an idea. She noticed that the door of the classroom was still open. Both Diamond Tiara and Cheerilee forgot to close it.

Scootaloo concentrated herself on the golden helmet and imagined how the door closed. A bang sounded and the door was shut. It worked!

Cheerilee and the rest of the class looked at the door, unbelievingly. Their teacher trotted up to the door and looked outside and as nopony was there, she closed it again and proceeded with her lesson.

The experiment proofed it. The golden helmet made Scootaloo able to do everything she wanted. Looking at Diamond Tiara again, a thought hit her. She would bring back Diamond Tiara's cutie mark eventually, but there was no reason why she couldn't have some fun first. Diamond Tiara tormented her since a long time, but she never got any real comeuppance for her behavior. It was time to change that.

The first thing Scootaloo wanted to do was to let the whole class see her blank flank. She could not just let Diamond Tiara's dress disappear, that would draw too much attention and she did not want that a unicorn classmate got accused of having done that. But letting her dress disappear was not needed anyway.

Cheerilee was currently facing the class, explaining a complicated, mathematic formula, so Scootaloo waited. When she turned to the blackboard again, the pegasus took her chance. She concentrated and envisioned in her head how the lower part of Diamond Tiara's dress moved upwards and stayed there. She looked over to Diamond Tiara again and saw how her dress moved, revealing her blank flank. Scootaloo grinned. It was good that Diamond Tiara could feel for a while how it was to be a blank flank. Before Diamond Tiara could notice what had happened to her dress, a filly behind her already pointed at her flank and brought to the attention of the whole class what she just saw.

“There, look everypony! Her flank is really blank!”

Immediately, every pair of eyes in the classroom was looking at Diamond Tiara's flank. Some ponies from the backmost row, who could not see well from there, even stood up and trotted to her side, to take a look at her flank. And the ponies, who didn't have their cutie marks yet, like Scootaloo and her fellow Crusaders, immediately set up a well-known chant.

“Blank Flank! Blank Flank! Blank Flank!”

Cheerilee was right. The other ponies who were bullied by Diamond Tiara were up for revenge and they did not wait long. After a moment, even the ponies who already had their cutie marks tuned in, motivated by their classmates. Only Scootaloo did not participate. She was more than content with pulling the strings from the background with the help of her magical artifact. But she couldn't resist to laugh and she didn't saw a need for holding herself back in that regards, so she at least joined in on the laughter that surrounded Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara couldn't move since the first “Blank Flank!” was ringing into her ear. She was frozen from shame. The whole class was in an uproar now. Everything just happened over the course of a few seconds, but to Diamond Tiara, it seemed like hours. Cheerilee had turned around in the meanwhile.

“Class! Class!”, she said, without success. The foals had way too much fun to laugh about Diamond Tiara and to call her a blank flank, like she used to do so often.

Scootaloo smiled. The only thing that was sad about it was that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle couldn't witness this. But then again, if they wouldn't have become sick with the flu, she probably wouldn't have been in such a bad mood yesterday and thus, never entered the Whitetail Woods, never met the fairy and never got the golden helmet, that was so useful for her now. She definitely had to tell them about it when she visited them today. Telling them about these events were sure enough entertainment to distract them from their sickness and to cheer them up. And who said it had to end soon? Scootaloo could let reappear Diamond Tiara's cutie mark whenever she wanted and so she decided to wait with that until Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were at school again.

Cheerilee continued to try to calm the class down as the school bell took this job over for her. It rang and suddenly everypony stopped to chant and laugh. Giving Diamond Tiara something back for her mean treatment and the bullying was fun, but nopony wanted to relinquish their break for that. So, they let go of Diamond Tiara and got outside to get some fresh air. Only some of them stayed in the classroom and sat together at one of the desks at the back end of the classroom to talk. Now that the teasing was over, Diamond Tiara finally found the strength to pull down her dress and to cover her bare flank again. She sniffled while she did that.

Normally, Scootaloo would have been touched when seeing one of her classmates like this, but not now. Diamond Tiara had never shown any regrets for treating her, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle so miserably and not even after she picked on her for her disabled wings. It was just fair when Diamond Tiara got a taste of her own medicine. And who knows? Maybe she would even learn something from this experience and become a better pony. But this was something Scootaloo dared not to hope for.

Scootaloo was joining the majority of her classmates and went outside of the school. The helmet was something she took with her, just in case. She doubted that somepony could find out about it's powers, but she did not wanted to take the risk and so she lifted it up from her desk before heading outside. There she thought about what she could to next to embarrass Diamond Tiara in front of the class.

Scootaloo leaned against a wall a bit aside from the school house. Technically, she could do anything. She could let her grow different body parts that weren't there before, she could replace parts of her body with other ones, she could change her coat color or the style of her mane into something ridiculous or, even better, let cutie marks on her flank appear that stand for an embarrassing talent! She especially liked the last idea. Scootaloo giggled. The next hours will be even more fun, that was sure.

It was only a short recess and so Scootaloo headed back inside. Most of her classmates already sat at their desks again, but Cheerilee wasn't there yet. She was probably still getting some material for the next lesson and so Scootaloo decided to have some fun now. She concentrated her thoughts on the golden helmet, she had put at the edge of her desk again when returning, and suddenly, Diamond Tiara's ears disappeared. A second later, they were replaced with the ears of pigs. The whole class began to giggle behind Diamond Tiara. The troublesome bully could hear it. As she couldn't bear it anymore, she moved round, facing her giggling classmates. “What is so funny?”, she asked.

“Just..... look at your ears!”, a filly pressed out between it's giggles.

Unsure, Diamond Tiara turned to her desk again and pulled out a little hoof mirror. She looked into it and was shocked. “What in Equestria is wrong with me?”, she asked out aloud. This made the whole class bursting out in laughter.

“What have I told you about not making fun about Diamond Tiara today?” Cheerilee entered the classroom suddenly.

Scootaloo hastily imagined Diamond Tiara's ears reappearing and before Cheerilee could see anything, they had returned to their normal look.

Cheerilee began her second lesson. She was facing the class for a long time, but as soon as she finally turned around, Scootaloo prepared her next trick. Scootaloo knew that the bully was proud of her tiara, so this was her next target. She concentrated again and seconds later her silver tiara was replaced with a few rotten apples. This time, Diamond Tiara did not have to wait until the other foals behind her began to giggle. The stench of the apples could not be missed. She sniffled. Then she reached up with her hoof and as she put it down again, she had a rotten apple in it. The whole class broke out in laughter suddenly. They did not know how this was possible, but they also didn't care. Nopony, except Silver Spoon, really liked Diamond Tiara and so they just enjoyed the mysterious events involving her.

Cheerilee turned round as she heard the laughter. This time, Scootaloo didn't reverse what she had done to her. In the worst case, Cheerilee could think that somepony threw those apples on her head from behind, but since nopony did it, nopony would admit it and so Cheerilee couldn't punish anypony. Instead, she just let her tiara reappear on her desk quickly, before Cheerilee could notice that it was missing. That way, it looked like it was fallen from her head when she was hit with the apples.

Cheerilee asked the class who had done it and it happened exactly as Scootaloo expected, nopony admitted it, of course, because nopony had done anything. When Cheerilee's eyes became a stern expression after some seconds, one of the more angsty foals, a colt, in the last row answered her question.

“Nopony did it, the apples just appeared on her head!”

“Then I guess one of your unicorn classmates did it”, Cheerilee answered.

“No”, he answered, “there was no magical aura!”

Cheerilee sighed. It was clear to her that the colt was lying to conceal that he has thrown the apples on Diamond Tiara's head. Though, she could not proof it and so she spoke out the threat to give the whole class an hour of detention if something like that should happen again and left it at that.

Scootaloo regretted her decision to let the apples on her head as Cheerilee faced the class again, after it almost ended in detention for the whole class. She would not make this mistake again.

Cheerilee sent Diamond Tiara to the school's toilet, so that she could clean her mane. When Diamond Tiara returned, the lesson was almost over. Only three minutes left until the school's bell rang and the main recess started. Not enough time to play another trick on Diamond Tiara, so Scootaloo gave her a break for now. Though, she was sure the long recess would give her another opportunity for that. She had twenty long minutes, after all.

The bell rang. Cheerilee packed her things together and headed outside of the classroom, eager to get a break herself. It was an exhaustive day today, more than usual. This time, all the fillies and colts headed outside, only Diamond Tiara stayed. The long recess was perfect to hang out and chill on the school's playground, so nopony wanted to miss that chance. But Diamond Tiara did not dare to go out. “She's probably too embarrassed and knows that she will get picked on if she's heading outside”, Scootaloo thought. But she was not worried. There would be plenty of new opportunities in the remaining two lessons of the day. And until then, she would have some other fun with the golden helmet the fairy gave her. She removed it from the desk again and followed the other foals outside.

Arrived at the playground, she sat down on a bench and thought about what else she could do with it. She noticed that she was already hungry again. Usually, she didn't eat something during school on a short like this, with only four lessons, but today her breakfast was not so opulent as on the other days, because she did not have so much time as usual. Letting appear something delicious to eat would be the right thing now! And she knew what. Scootaloo looked around to check if her classmates did not watch her and then she concentrated on her new helmet and her desired food appeared beside her.

It was a hayburger, with some horseshoe fries and a cup of haysoda. The portion of food was so big that she wasn't even sure if she could eat all that until recess was over, but she was so hungry that she found herself eating faster than usual and so she made good progress with her large meal. As she had almost finished, about half of recess was over, she saw Diamond Tiara coming out of the school building, directly heading to the playground.

Scootaloo was surprised. She had not reckoned with it that Diamond Tiara would be brave enough to do that and to face all the inevitable picking that awaited her here. Diamond Tiara was moving towards the swings and Scootaloo immediately had an idea what to do. She imagined that Diamond Tiara would fall of the swing every time she sat down on it. While trotting up to the swings, many hooves were pointed at Diamond Tiara and many laughs were aimed at her. As Diamond Tiara sat down on the swing and fell down from it again immediately, the quiet laughs turned into an uproar. Everypony on the playground laughed loudly over her misfortune and Diamond Tiara felt like she was about to sink into the ground from shame. Her face turned red from anger and shame alike. The bench Scootaloo was sitting on was not far away from the swings and so Diamond Tiara could hear Scootaloo's own laughing the best. For Diamond Tiara, this was the last straw, seeing the blank flank she used to make fun of, now making fun of her.

She got angry and walked up to Scootaloo. First, she just posed menacingly in front of her and then, as Scootaloo didn't stop laughing, she slapped the cup with hay soda, whose last remains Scootaloo just wanted to drink, out of her hooves. “Why are YOU laughing, blank flank?”

Scootaloo stopped to laugh. She couldn't believe it.

There she was, without a cutie mark on her own, and she still insulted her with calling her a blank flank? Scootaloo decided that another lesson would be good for her after that insult. She concentrated, and suddenly, Diamond Tiara's dress, that she used to cover her blank flank, disappeared. The rest of the class hadn't noticed yet. Scootaloo gave her a smug grin, the same kind of grin Diamond Tiara gave her yesterday in front of her house.

“Hey, Diamond Tiara, where is your dress suddenly? I thought you were wearing it to hide your blank flank from us?” she asked her loud enough for the whole playground to hear.

She immediately was the center of attention again. Mere seconds later, every filly and every colt in the playground was chanting “Blank Flank” again. This time, Scootaloo joined in. Tiara looked behind her, desperately trying to cover her flank, while the chant rang into her ears. But it was useless. Her bare flank was exposed to everypony in her class and since she could not explain how her dress disappeared or where it went, she had to stay like this for two full lessons! Some tears appeared in Diamond's eyes, more from anger and embarrassment than from actually feeling hurt, and she turned around, furiously stomping back into the schoolhouse, without saying another word.

After she had entered the building, the bell rang, indicating the end of recess and the start of the next lesson. Scootaloo let the rest of the food disappear and returned back into the classroom and to her desk. One or two minutes later, Cheerilee showed up and the lesson really started. In this lesson, Scootaloo spared Diamond Tiara from the magical artifact's power. She had another surprise for her in mind in this lesson, but exposing her by letting her dress disappear seemed to be already enough for this lesson.

Occasionally one of the foals in the class was quietly whispering “blank flank” into her direction and some of the unicorns let small pieces of paper with the same phrase written on them appear on her desk, every time Cheerilee didn't look. The class was already doing a good job in embarrassing Diamond Tiara in this lesson, so Scootaloo just leaned back and enjoyed it. The thing she had in mind could wait until the last lesson and it would be the grand finale.

Since Scootaloo was concentrating on Cheerilee's lesson mostly this time, because she did not play tricks on Diamond Tiara, the lesson was passing faster than she expected. Suddenly, the school bell pulled her out of her concentration and she realized that the lesson was over. For this last recess, Scootaloo stayed in the class. Instead of heading outside again, she was busy with thinking over the trick she wanted to play on Diamond Tiara in the last lesson for today. For the big finale, she wanted to give Diamond Tiara several silly cutie marks. And now she was thinking about which cutie marks she could give her. She had just decided on some cutie marks, as the bell rang again and Cheerilee returned.

At the first opportunity, when Cheerilee turned her head to the blackboard for the first time, Scootaloo concentrated and then the words “I'm the boss!” appeared on Diamond Tiara's flank.

“Hey, your cutie mark is back!”, one of the foals whispered over to Diamond Tiara.

Her grumpy face suddenly lightened up and she looked happily at her flank, thinking that the horror was finally over now and that nopony could call her a blank flank anymore. As she saw what kind of cutie mark it was, it immediately returned back to the old expression. The other foals were wisecracking about it how much this cutie mark fit to Diamond Tiara and told her that she should keep it, because she acts like she's the boss all the time.

As Cheerilee proceeded to turn around, Scootaloo let the cutie mark quickly disappear, making her flank blank again.

The next picture she let appear on her flank was the picture of a clown, who had two “X” instead of eyes. Her intention behind that was to symbolize that Diamond Tiara was the class clown today and to her delight, that was exactly the way the rest of the class interpreted it. Some of the foals even called her “Ponyacci”, referring to the famous circus clown. Scootaloo giggled. She was sure that this nickname would be associated with her for a long time now.

Before the last lesson, and with that, today's school day, was over, Scootaloo let exactly one more fake cutie mark appear on her flank. This last time, it was a picture of Diamond Tiara herself. After the fillies and colts saw that, a lot of nasty questions followed like “What's your special talent, Diamond? Are you good in swooning over your own face?” One colt even asked her if she had a crush on herself. It was perfect!

Diamond Tiara pretented that she didn't hear anything in this last lesson, but Scootaloo saw how the teasing was nagging at her, as she was constantly clenching her teeth and sweating.

Then, the school bell rang. Scootaloo let the cutie mark disappear, before Cheerilee turned round. Cheerilee wished her students goodbye and then everypony was leaving class. Scootaloo stood up and pulled out her saddle bag from under the desk. She quickly packed her stuff for school into it and hung it over her back. Then she grabbed her helmet and proceeded to leave the class with the other foals. Almost outside, she stopped and looked behind. Diamond Tiara was still sitting on her desk, packing her things only very slowly. She clearly was playing for time in hope she would not meet any other foals on her way home when she left the school as the last one.

Somehow, Scootaloo felt not completely satisfied yet. It was a great day and she managed it to let Diamond really feel how it was to be bullied, but she felt the need to do one last thing. At least for today. And she had a brilliant idea. She would personally bring Diamond Tiara home today, although not in the way she would expect.Scootaloo smirked. This would really be the perfect finale for today.

Having done these thoughts, Scootaloo went outside. She positioned herself at the side of the entrance and waited for Diamond Tiara. While waiting, she put the golden helmet on her head, knowing that she would soon need both of her hooves. Then she concentrated on the helmet and suddenly, she disappeared. She had made herself invisible. Scootaloo giggled. Diamond Tiara would not even see what will grab her. Then she concentrated on something more specific. She imagined that she was able to float through the air, similar to the way the fairy who gave her the golden helmet was floating. She did try it out a little and noticed happily that it worked when she did a quick flight around the school building. She returned back to her spot just in time. Diamond Tiara went out of the school.

Scootaloo waited a few seconds, then she trotted after her. As she had reached the other filly she began with her plan.

“Hey, Diamond!”, she whispered in her ear. Diamond Tiara stopped and looked behind her.

As she couldn't see anypony, she froze in fear. Scootaloo took this opportunity, grabbed Diamond Tiara and pressed her tightly against her with a firm grip. Then she concentrated on floating through the air again and took off into the sky with the bully. Her plan was to fly with her over the town, showing her bare flank to everypony on the streets, no matter if foal or adult pony. She wanted that everypony in Ponyville could see her like that. Diamond Tiara was well-known in the little town for her disgusting bullying behavior and so Scootaloo was sure that she would get many laughs at her expense. That and the fear from floating through the air against her will by an unknown, mysterious force would be the ultimate lesson for the vile filly, Scootaloo thought.

And she was not wrong with her prediction. As she flew Diamond Tiara across the town, the ponies pointed up at her and laughed heartily. Many parents of foals she had bullied were among them. Diamond Tiara was screaming at first because she feared the height, but as she saw how literally the whole town laughed about her, she stopped to not drawing even more attention to her. The embarrassment of being exposed like that felt unbearable to her, but she could do nothing against it. She had to go through all of this until Scootaloo was satisfied. Scootaloo flew her all over the place for half an hour and then she deemed it enough. She changed the direction and aimed for Diamond Tiara's giant house at the edge of the town.

Having arrived there, she safely landed Diamond Tiara. Then, she trotted away and hid herself behind a bush, where she turned off her invisibility. She appeared compactly again and watched Diamond Tiara standing in front of her house from between the branches.

Scootaloo had decided something. She would give her back her cutie mark for today, but letting it disappear again on the next morning. She knew that this would be an even better lesson for her, because it would hit her twice as hard to be happy about having her cutie mark again and then having to see that it was gone again unexpectedly, than getting just used to it that it was not there anymore.

Having made that resolution, Scootaloo concentrated on the helmet that was still on her head. Diamond Tiara was still standing outside, being dumbstruck over what just happened and not moving one inch. Scootaloo would be able to see how her cutie mark returned. She thought on the familiar symbol of a silver tiara on her flank, but nothing happened. She tried it again. No result.

Scootaloo took off the helmet and held it in her hooves. Was it broken? She inspected it closely, but she couldn't find any damage. Was the maybe not able to concentrate enough on what she wanted anymore after she did that so often in the last hours? Suddenly, the helmet began to glow brightly in Scootaloo's hooves. A message was projected into the air. Scootaloo could not believe what she read there.

“The date of expiry has been reached. This magical helmet is not working anymore.”

Scootaloo's eyes became tiny. That meant she could not use the helmet anymore to do what she wanted and also that she could not let Diamond Tiara's cutie mark reappear. The filly who bullied her was doomed to be a blank flank forever now. Scootaloo did not really feel sorry for this, but nonetheless, robbing her off of her cutie mark forever was something that seemed too cruel to her and this was not what she had intended for the bully.

While Scootaloo was hit by this realization, she could feel a vibration in the air behind her. Before she could turn round to check what it was, she heard a familiar voice.

“I hope you liked my little present, dear Scootaloo!”

Scootaloo looked over her shoulder and saw Discord. “What? Your present? Wait, you were this fairy who gave me that helmet?”

Discord nodded approvingly. “Indeed I was.”

Suddenly, everything made sense for Scootaloo. A magical artifact that could literally do everything. Who else could have created something like that if not Discord?

“Why have you gave me that helmet?”, she asked him.

“Well, I was, you know.....” Discord hemmed and hawed for a moment. Then he shook his head, remembering himself on it to keep his composure. “It came to my attention that you were very sad yesterday, so I made you this present to lighten up your day!”

“But why have you pretended to be a fairy?”, Scootaloo asked him baffled.

A big question mark appeared in the air beside Scootaloo. “This is a very good question, but I'm afraid the answer is simple.” The question disappeared with a loud “Pop” again. “It was just more fun this way!”, Discord answered her question.

Discord was right. It was indeed funny to mess with Diamond Tiara today and she was happy about it that Discord also had his fun with it. Scootaloo gave him a hug to thank him for his present. She already thanked him of course, yesterday, at the pond, but there she did not know that it was him and so she thought she should thank him again.

“But what should we do with Diamond Tiara now?”, she asked after releasing her hug. “The helmet you gave me isn't working anymore.”

“Oh, don't worry about that”, the draconequus answered. “I created this artifact and so it had the same powers as me.”

Scootaloo smiled.

Discord ruffled her mane. “But now I have to go”, he said. “There is a lot of business in the life of a reformed draconequus and I can't allow myself to waste time while these important issues are waiting for me.”

The way how he pronounced “important” indicated for Scootaloo that these issues weren't that important and probably included some sort of chaos or other nonsense, but she wasn't saying anything.

“But don't worry, I will give that little brat that makes you problems her cutie mark back soon!”

He ruffled her mane again. “Maybe”, he added then, which was answered by Scootaloo with a big smile. Then he disappeared in a white flash, heading off for other shenanigans elsewhere.....

Author's Note:

The pond fairy is a reference to the sewer fairy in Silent Hill 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pck4Y1zPXqk

Comments

[Olden Bronie]

This was just a fun romp with Discord having all the fun in the background and living it vicariously through Scootaloo. I really liked the pond fairy depictions; I could really see how she looked and moved. Loved that DT bore the brunt of the mischief, too! This would make a nice little two or three chapter story if you ever wanted to see how things turned out the next day!

[TheDepravedEntity]

I'm a big fan of Discord and Scootaloo so this was a great story.