Tag Never Changes
Teeth yanked Silver’s tail. “Run!”
She barely heard it through the screams. In the center of the schoolyard, Miss Sterling Silver Spoon, student council secretary and deputy manager of the Project X campaign, stood frozen in the grass. Her mouth parted slightly, trying to form a question, but she could find no words for the madness crashing down upon them.
The grass trembled under trampling hooves. Dozens of buzzing little wings kicked up dust tornados, grit whipping through the winds.
Shrieks and screams and squeals ripped through the air. The voices of her classmates built and built into a great cacophonous cry of rage and sorrow and terror. Stampedes of rushing colors pulsed on every side.
Silver Spoon stepped back in bewildered horror. Another sharp tug snapped her out of her stupor. “Ow!”
Scootaloo spat out Silver’s tail. “What part of ‘run’ don’t you get?!” She smashed her head into Silver’s flank. “Come ON, move!”
“I—ow, quit it!” Silver stumbled into a clumsy trot before she got hit again. “Wait, but what’s going—eep!”
Something white—Cotton?—whizzed inches from her nose.
Okay, fine. Questions later. Run now. She spat out a white feather and jumped into a skittering gallop, fast on Scootaloo’s hooves.
Cotton Cloudy landed hard behind them. Sod and dirt ground under her hooves as she pivoted in a U-turn. “Oh, no you don’t!”
Cackling, the pegasus reared and flew after them. Strings of blue mane ribboned behind her, tangled in leaves and twigs and cloudstuff. Grass stains marred her white coat. Her gaze pierced straight through the schoolyard, flint-hard and fire-bright, dancing with all the drooling and sinister wildness of a manticore. When she caught the alarm in Silver Spoon’s eyes, the filly grinned with all her teeth.
An orange blur swung through Silver’s line of sight, kicked a mud clod in Cotton’s face, and banked hard left. Scootaloo cut her speed to fall in at Silver’s shoulder. “Don’t look back, just go!” Her tail whipped at the grey flank beside her. “Go, go, go!”
“But—” Silver leapt aside to avoid Shady Daze careening through her path. He glanced over his shoulder to meet her gaze; he had the same crazed look to his eyes. “But where are we going?”
She couldn’t resist one more look back. Shady Daze narrowly missed Tornado Bolt’s dive-bomb, only to be tackled to the ground under Pipsqueak’s hooves. Both colts tumbled through the dirt in a knot of flailing legs and curse words.
Tornado Bolt kicked back into the air. She swooped up and over to meet Cotton Cloudy. The fillies traded grins and fanned out.
Scootaloo tossed another mud clod over her shoulder. “Great, now it’s both of them. C’mon, follow me.” She paused, sniffed the air, and flicked her wings out. Catching a cross breeze, Scootaloo skimmed over the grass. “Hey, watch your left!”
In the corner of Silver’s eye, Berry Pinch and The Dink raced past. Pinch stopped and twitched her ears with interest, no doubt weighing the risk of catching a slow earth pony with an agile pegasus bodyguard. She whispered something in Dinky’s ear.
Nodding, The Dink balled up a chunk of mud and wet sod with her magic.
Silver gulped a breath. She pushed faster. “Scootaloo!”
“I see ‘em.” Without breaking speed, she shifted from air to land, wings still buzzing. Clouds of dust threaded in her wake.
The mud clod exploded at their hooves, showering Silver’s tail in mud and slime. She shrieked.
“Don’t sweat it,” called Scootaloo. “It’s a distraction, it doesn’t count, just keep going!”
They broke to the right, towards the swings. Silver flattened her ears and ducked low to weave between the seats and ropes.
Metal clanged above them. Tornado Bolt cantered along the top bar of the swing set. Right on top of them, she shadowed her quarry, matching them hoofstep for hoofstep. Her muscles braced to pounce the second either one crossed into open playground.
Silver took shelter beneath a swing, pressed back-to-back with Scootaloo. “She’s got us trapped.”
“Sure do!” Cotton Cloudy slammed onto the swing above them, grabbing at Scootaloo’s tail.
On instinct, Silver Spoon bucked, lashing out with her back legs. Both hooves hit the swing dead center.
Cotton went sprawling in a commotion of feathers.
Silver stumbled backwards into the grass. A streak of grey and purple swept straight up and dive-bombed.
Scootaloo shoved Silver backwards. “Go for Base!” She tucked and rolled as Tornado’s hooves hit the dirt. Her wings buzzed frantically at her back as she righted herself, struggling to find the air. “I’m right behind you!”
A white hoof stomped Scootaloo’s tail. “But who’s behind you?”
Scootaloo turned. “Aw, horseapples.”
Cotton Cloudy bopped her right between the withers. “TAG!”
“And no tagbacks!” Tornado Bolt climbed skyward with Cotton right behind her. Cupping both hooves to her mouth, the cry rang from schoolhouse to sandbox. “Scoots is It!”
The chaos froze. Ears and heads turned towards the swing set. Crowds fanned out. Slowly, then frantically, then hysterically.
“Everypony run! I repeat: Scootaloo is It!”
Abandoned swings drifted in the wind without a rider, squeaking a high and lonely song.
Silver Spoon frowned. “Scootaloo?” The question echoed. “Um, now what?”
The muddy pegasus shook out some loose orange feathers. She straightened her back, cracked her neck, and stared dead-on with round violet eyes. Scootaloo smiled. “It’s like I said, Silver Spoon…”
Silver took a cautious step back.
Scootaloo matched it.
Silver took three more.
She matched those, too. “Go for Base.” The smile pooled across her face. Slow. Dangerous. Predatory. “I’m right behind you.”
Uh-oh.
Silver bolted. “Okay, Base.” Her eyes ricocheted foal to foal, landmark to landmark. “Base, Base, Base… what the hay even IS Base?!”
A lifetime of teaspoons and small talk flashed before her eyes. How had it come to this? It had all started so fast.
Her delicate network of connections within connections, of clubs, cliques, and concords. The interlocked rivalries, alliances, and apathetic neutralities. The pillars of student government.
Gone. All gone.
Law and order withered and died underhoof. With a single war cry, every treasured structure in Silver Spoon’s meticulous balance of schoolfoals and social circles buckled and collapsed like a house of cards.
Friend hunted friend. Council pony clobbered council pony with sod grenades. The air sang with sweat and betrayal.
On Silver’s right, Twist pelted after The Dink, hot on her yellow tail. No sign of Berry Pinch anywhere; they must have split up in the chaos.
Dinky swerved around the teeter-totter. Too slow.
The goofy nerd with lopsided glasses clenched her teeth in a vicious grin and pounced. She caught the unicorn with two hooves in the back of the head. “GOT-cha!”
Knocked off balance, Dinky yelped and went tumbling. Twist streaked away before she even peeled her face off the grass.
“Twist!” Silver tottered after her. If she tagged The Dink, that meant she wasn’t It anymore. That meant safety…ish. “Hey, Twist!”
Councilpony Twist narrowed her eyes behind muddy lenses, but didn’t turn her head.
Silver Spoon risked a glance at the sandbox, where Scootaloo stood deadlocked with Boysenberry, Carrot Crush, and Bubblegum Brush in a standoff. It wouldn’t stay that way. Either they’d escape and Scootaloo would be after Silver again, or there’d be a new It.
She pushed into a gallop. Trustworthy or not, Silver needed allies. “Twist!”
Eyeing Silver at her flank, Twist strafed to the right—close enough to talk, but well out of tagging range. “Make it quick, Thilver.” She kicked a dirt clod in Button Mash’s face before he got within three yards. “I’m buthy.”
“I need to know where Base is.” Silver Spoon ducked Button’s counterattack. “And who else is It, besides Scootaloo?”
“Apple Bloom, Rumble, ‘n’ The Dink.”
Twist jumped through the fence, picking up speed as she approached her target: a picnic table by the bushes, shaded by a flowering dogwood. In the chaos of the playground, the tree stood in eerie serenity. Its drooping branches drifted sweetly in the breeze.
Not a bad place to hide; Twist’s mane and tail blended in perfectly with the leaves. Yet she didn’t move like a pony running to safety.
Silver angled her head higher.
The red curtain of dogwood leaves twitched and flowed like a matador’s cape. Too much movement for the breeze alone. Silver traced the leaves up the branch, where Rumble crouched in the shadows, lying in wait.
Beneath the picnic table, a stubby brown tail gave a twitch. Truffle Shuffle. Rumble had him trapped. Hearing approaching hoofbeats, the pegasus pricked his ears and turned.
Twist screeched to a stop and hopped into a nearby bush, Silver on her tail. She pushed against the leaves, trying not to rustle them while she made room for her new roommate. Not that she had a choice; letting Silver stick out would give away their position. “What? I already told you who’th It.”
“You never told me where Base is.” She kept one eye on Rumble, who’d shifted his attention to the bush. It didn’t look like he knew who hid in here yet, and was weighing his options. Silver’s tail wound in thought. If Diamond had been telling the truth about him before...
The makings of a plan knit together. Silver Spoon felt her breathing settle, and for at least a moment, the chaos around them untangled. “Okay. You help me, I help you, how’s that sound?”
Twist flicked her tail suspiciously.
“I can get him out. Guaranteed.”
“You’d risk gettin’ tagged jutht for thome obviouth information?”
“If it were obvious, I wouldn’t be asking,” Silver countered. “Besides, Truff’s my friend too. I don’t want to see him get picked off.” Especially not with such a lowdown tactic for an easy tag. “I know what I’m doing. Trust me.”
Twist flicked mud off her bargain bin glasses and turned to her. “You were Thcootaloo’th partner a couple minuteth ago. How do I know you’re not tricking me tho she can tag me again?”
“Come on, Twist.” Silver pointed both hooves at herself. “Do I look like the kind of filly who plays Battletag? Or any kind of tag? I don’t know how this game works and I don’t care. All I want is to make it home with a clean coat.”
Actually, where had Scootaloo gone? Silver couldn’t see her on the playground. Maybe she’d moved out of range.
“How about I tell you after we get him out?” Twist held out her hoof. “Deal?”
They hoofbumped. “Deal. I’ll go first. You get him soon as I’m out.”
Rumble whirled at the rustle of bushes, ready to spring.
Silver Spoon stepped up to the picnic table, blinking up at him with interest.
Rumble froze, the tips of his wings fluttering in the wind. He stared at her approach like an oncoming train. “Hi, Silver.”
A whirl of red and cream shot beneath the table. Rumble turned to see it, but Silver’s head popped up to block his view.
“Hello, Rumble.” She hopped onto the table, tail curled high behind her. The tips of their noses sat inches apart. “Liking the game so far?”
“You too, thanks!” He visibly winced. “I mean—yes, thanks. Um.” All of Rumble’s feathers fluffed and fluffed while his eyes got bigger and bigger. He looked more dust bunny than pony. “U-um.” His wings twitched once, twice.
Silver Spoon smiled at him. “Yes?”
“Okaygoodtalkseeyouinclassbye!” Rumble zoomed so fast, he stripped half the leaves off the dogwood.
Vice President Truffle Shuffle crawled out from under the table, flanked by Twist scouting the perimeter. “Thanks, Madam Secretary.”
“You’re welcome, Mister Vice President.” Silver tensed at the edge of the table, ears up. “Quick, Twist. The next one won’t let me go that easy.”
“It’th Project X.” Twist bobbed her head toward the towering structure across the field. “In the watchtower.”
“Of course!” Silver jumped down and broke away into the field. “Thanks—good luck, guys!”
They called something in return, but Silver Spoon had already gone too far to hear it. She hopped through the fence, taking the long way around the thick of the Battletag.
Yards away, a golden flag flapped against the blue. Her heart swelled at the sight.
Raised in the tradition of honorable young ladies who understood the polite speeds for running and proper volumes for shouting, Silver Spoon held no real love for jungle gyms. They supplied high perches to monitor classmates and hold private discussions, but no more than that. Too much exertion on the playground led to stains, sweating, and low grades in etiquette class.
Still, the daughter of an art appraiser knew a masterpiece when she saw one. Project X arced over the horizon, its labyrinth of slides and tunnels glinting in the sun to welcome the young warriors of Ponyville Schoolhouse.
Silver sprang onto a rope net and climbed. She traced the net to the bridges, rope ladders and climbing walls that mapped the path to salvation. A haven of peace. A harbor of reason, free of dirt and muck. A place… abandoned.
Nopony competed for her spot on the rope net. Nopony fought for the climb to the top. The shouts and wails of struggle, victory, and mud bombings rang above her, behind her, below her, and on the opposite side of the jungle gym.
But nothing here. Silver gulped.
“Peachy Pie’s It!” Scootaloo’s shout rang high from the watchtower. “Repeat: Peachy Pie is It!”
Project X thundered. Hoofbeats pounded from all sides. Foals rained down stairs and slides as if the jungle gym caught fire and cooties at the same time. The ones too impatient to fight the crowds jumped headlong into the sand pits below.
Silver Spoon flattened her ears and clung to the rope net for dear life as it banged and jostled against her belly. A shadow breezed overhead. She looked up.
Two levels up, a yellow and orange shape clung fast to a rope swing, screaming in outrage as the rope violently whipped back and forth. Her back hooves waggled to get leverage on a monkey bar, but the movement only swung her harder.
Only a pegasus or a madmare would risk a jump from that high up, and Peachy Pie was neither. There was still time. Slowly, Silver reached for the vibrating rope above her.
A blue eye blinked through a crack in an overhead bridge. The very bridge at the end of the rope net. “Hiya, Silver Spoon!”
Silver mouthed a word unfit for polite society.
Sunny Daze giggled with a razor blade's edge. “Peachy, lookit who I found!”
The shadow slid down the rope swing and jumped. Hooves hit the sand. Peachy Pie wobbled side to side, shaking off the dizziness and rope burn. “Wow, great job, Sun-Sun!”
The rope net still shook too hard for fast climbing. She could barely keep her balance at a crawl. Silver shook wet bangs out of her eyes and pulled herself up. Slow would have to do.
Peachy Pie’s hoof burst through a gap in the net. “I gotch—HEY!” She screwed up her face as Silver swept her tail out of reach. The hoof waved and stretched, but stuck on the ground, Peachy had to jump to even get close. “Hey, hold still, you butt!” She shot a nasty glare at Silver Spoon and darted for the bottom of the net.
The vibrating ropes finally settled. Silver Spoon climbed for her life.
Behind her, ropes twitched with Peachy’s approach. The gap closed between them with alarming speed, but Silver had a head start and better leverage up in the high section.
She’d beat her to the bridge easily. And they knew it.
“She’s coming your way, Sun-Sun! Hold onto her ‘til I get there, ’kay?”
“Kay!”
Silver gritted her teeth. Two against one wasn’t fair at all, especially when Sunny technically wasn’t even It. She could always risk jumping to the bottom, but even if she landed on her hooves—which she wouldn’t—Peachy would only grab her faster.
Okay. Worst case scenario, if I end up It, my chances are... Glancing about, Silver judged her current position, the position of everypony else, her average speed versus everypony else’s. …about as good as a breezie’s chance in a blizzard.
That left one option: up. She glanced up at Sunny, who stared after her with twitching hooves and an eager grin.
Pulling herself up onto the wooden bridge, Silver shook herself off and kicked the net bridge hard. Peachy Pie squeaked as it jostled and bumped.
Sunny Daze rushed her.
Silver Spoon turned and faced her with a calm cold eye. She didn’t run.
The yellow filly paused a moment. She shook it off and pounced, locking Silver Spoon in a tight hold. “I got her, Peachy!”
Silver relaxed in the crook of Sunny’s foreleg. The grip loosed a little. “So, I guess we’ve got a little while before she gets here.”
“Yep.” Sunny smiled against Silver’s ear. “And we’re gonna sit and wait.”
Silver fake-smiled back. “Wonderful, and I know a great way to pass the time. It’s weird, I’ve known you for—what, like, two and a half years? We really don’t spend enough time together.” She tilted her head up and whispered, “Sunny, you want to know a secret?”
The rope net bucked and shook. Silver Spoon trained her gaze on the filly above her, not below.
“What secret?” Sunny Daze’s eyes bounced from her bestie to her captive. She squinted hard, wrinkling her face. “…You don’t have a secret. You’re just trying to mess with me.”
Good. Keep her talking.
A month’s worth of blueprints, sketches, notes, and footnotes from the Project X binder flipped through Silver’s mind. Her eyes drifted over the network of tunnels, slides, and bridges beyond Sunny’s squinty face.
Maybe Silver ran like a snail in a tar pit, and maybe she didn’t know how Battletag worked, but she’d been practically living in this jungle gym before the construction crew broke ground. She knew this structure better than almost anypony here.
The corners of Silver Spoon’s mouth quirked in a half smile. She shrugged. “Okay.”
Project X had only one rope net. It stretched from level two to the ground level, and sat right below them. That meant they stood on the southeast bridge, near the twisty slide. Silver traced the slide up a pole and to the left.
“I just thought you might want to know that Peachy Pie…” Silver shrugged again. “But you’re not interested, so it’s whatever. Doesn’t matter.”
So, the tunnel leading to the watchtower’s got a secret entrance right about… Her eyes landed on a rope handle embedded in the wall, about half a foot away from Sunny Daze. There.
Silver waited.
One second.
The rope net creaked under Peachy’s weight.
Two seconds.
“…What’s your secret?” When Silver Spoon didn’t answer right away, Sunny’s whisper got high and squeaky, like a rubber duck crushed underwater. “C’mon, tell me!”
Silver’s tail waved gently over the bridge. “But I thought you didn’t want to know.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Well, alright, but…” Silver glanced at the bouncing rope at the edge of the bridge. “I can’t say it too loud, or it won’t be a secret anymore. Maybe I can whisper it in your ear?”
Sunny smirked—she really didn’t have the face for smirking, but it was a good try—and tightened her grip. “Nice try. I’m not letting you go that easy, Sneaky Spoon.”
Slither Spoon’s still better. “You don’t have to.” Her heart beat fast. The rope net had settled, and she could see brief orange flashes of Peachy’s mane through slits in the bridge. “I can reach from here if you lean down a little bit.”
Sunny’s neck leaned down.
“Little more.”
When the yellow ear came within whispering distance, Silver stretched to meet it halfway. Her muzzle brushed the tips of Sunny’s white mane. “Peachy Pie’s going to betray you. As soon as she gets on this bridge, she’ll tag you instead of me.”
The grip loosened. “You’re a liar. She’d never—”
“It’s Battletag, Sunny. You think that matters out here?” Silver placed a gentle understanding hoof on Sunny’s fetlock. “Think about it: who easier to tag than your best friend? You’d never even—”
Peachy Pie burst over the edge, blazing towards them.
“—see it coming!” In one smooth motion, Silver Spoon slipped out of Sunny’s grip.
Too quick to catch.
Too late to turn.
Peachy’s hoof bopped Sunny’s nose.
Before either of them turned around, the tip of Silver’s tail had slipped into the tunnel.
“SILVER SPOOOOOOOOOON!” Outrage rocked Project X to its foundation.
Silver galloped up.
Little rubber grips lining the tunnel flew underhoof in a glow-in-the-dark blur. As much as she’d love to, there was no time to gloat. The second Sunny calmed down, she’d be out for blood.
She galloped up.
Blood roared in her ears.
She galloped up.
Her heaving breathing echoed in the tunnel.
A second set of hooves rumbled, and she felt it in the depths of her stomach.
She galloped up.
And up.
And up.
Silver’s head bumped the ceiling, face to face with a dead end. She’d found the end of the tunnel, but where was the door? Her hooves waved along the smooth walls, searching for a crack, a handle, a point of light in the dark.
Nothing.
“That’s a dirty, dirty trick, Silver!” The tunnel walls transformed Sunny’s wimpy little squeak into a deafening echo. “You’re gonna pay for that!”
Where was the door?!
“You’re gonna pay BIG!”
That stupid door had to be here somewhere!
The bright yellow of Sunny’s coat came fast through the darkness.
Silver yelped, huddled against the cold unfeeling tunnel walls.
So this is how it ends. Tagged in the dark, trapped like a snake in a pit. She closed her eyes and leaned against the dead end. I guess I had a good run. Made class secretary, got some good teapots, scored good connections… Not that those connections meant anything at the business end of Battletag.
Hoofbeats thundered closer. Sunny’s eyes flashed blue in the dim light.
“So,” Silver sighed to herself, “that’s that.” Nothing left to do now but hold her head high and accept oblivion with the proper dignity of—
“Whoa!” Silver tumbled through the wall, head over hoof. She landed hard in a wide circular platform. Silver shook her tail out of her face, blinking against the brightness. A conal roof and the puffy clouds solidified through her blurred vision. The watchtower.
Sunny Daze exploded through the trap door.
Scrambling backwards, Silver yanked her tail from the opening. All four hooves hit the wood floor with a solid clack. “Base!”
“Sheesh, took ya long enough.” Scootaloo nodded and waved from her perch on the tower wall.
Diamond Tiara lounged below her, cleaning clumps of muddy grass out of her tiara. “Yeah, but still the third one to Base. Told you she’d make the first five.” She reached up with a grabby motion. A bag of jawbreakers dropped into her hoof. With every hoof too muddy to handle food, Diamond drew her lips back and grabbed a piece with her teeth.
Silver Spoon coughed. She wiped strings of sweaty tangled mane over her shoulders and shook the sand off her flanks. Every step trembled.
Diamond rolled the jawbreaker in her mouth, watching her approach.
Silver Spoon collapsed. A clutch of rainbow orbs sparkled under her nose.
“Hi, Silvie.” Diamond’s hoof pushed the sparkling orbs closer. “Jawbreaker?”
Silver spat out mud. “I. Hate. This. Game.”
After a moment, she took a candy. To Silver’s utmost annoyance, it was absolutely delicious.
Sunny Daze stomped out of the tunnel, eyes blazing and chest heaving with the great and terrible fury of the slighted tagger. “You won’t get away with this, Silver Spoon!” She crossed the watchtower, waving her little hoof at the sky. “You just wait—next time, me and Peachy are gonna tag you so hard you’ll wish you didn’t get tagged so hard! You’re gonna get so many dirt clods you’ll… um…”
“Have to open a mud pie bakery?” offered Scootaloo. “Spit out worms for a month?”
“Yeah! Yeah, that! You better—” Sunny peered down the long slide spilling out of the watchtower, then back at Silver. “Hey, a little help?”
Silver Spoon rolled her eyes. “Fine.” Without getting up, she kicked Sunny down the slide.
“You better watch your back next time Silver Spoon! I’ll get you next tiiiime! Wheeeeeeee!”
“…okay, then.” Silver gathered herself and turned to glare at Diamond Tiara. “I want an explanation.” She jabbed a hoof at the chaos outside. “You call this a ribbon-cutting ceremony?”
Diamond blinked at the herd of muddy foals thrown clear across the sand below. “I think they call that a roundhouse kick, actually. Good leg, Apple Bloom! And technically, this isn’t the ribbon ceremony.”
Scootaloo buzzed across the tower to sit by Silver. “Yeah, that was last week, remember? Twilight came to see it, and Cotton’s mom put the flag on top of the tower. I dunno how anypony could forget; that’s the same day Diamond thanked me and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom for helping out with her cutie mark problem, and we felt so great about it we…” A rapturous grin split her face ear to ear.
Diamond and Silver exchanged knowing glances. This made the ninth time this week.
Before Silver could duck away, Scootaloo swung her rump in her face to show off the tricolored shield that literally everypony and their dog’s fifth cousin had already seen by now. Her short tail flapped against Silver’s poll as she bounced. “And then we-we FINALLY GOT OUR—”
Silver shoved her off. “I know. I was there, thanks.”
If certain young ladies didn’t have decorum and felt exhausted from a schoolyard-wide sprint, certain young ladies would have firmly pointed out the rudeness of smushing butts into faces.
Celestia’s Summer, I didn’t get this obnoxious when I got my cutie mark, did I? If so, Silver owed a lot of ponies an apology.
Diamond leaned over the edge of the tower wall, grinning at the chaos she’d wrought. “Think of it as Ribbon Cutting Part Two. Or a Project X warming party.”
She gestured across the battle-torn playground where Twist currently held off a small army of jocks on the merry-go-round. Truffle sheltered beneath her, supplying artillery from an honor student’s ransom of mud balls, dirt clods, and sod grenades.
Somepony who may or may not have been Sweetie Belle sailed past the window, trailing arcs of dust behind her. She waved at them.
Diamond waved back. “I mean, what better way to warm up a new playground than to, like, play on it?”
“And we haven’t had schoolwide Battletag since I don’t even know when!” Scootaloo spat out a (baby?) tooth with a satisfied sigh.
Diamond thought about it. “Uh… two years, maybe two and a half? That’s the game that got Cheerilee to ban it after Truffle got stitches and tattled on everypony.”
“Right, ‘cause back then nopony had their…” Scootaloo’s eyes got soft and gooey again. Her face melted into another besotted sigh. “…cutie marks…”
Meaning that the last game happened before Silver’s time, though she’d heard plenty of stories. Mostly horror stories from Truffle Shuffle himself.
“Wait, did you say ‘banned’?” Silver Spoon clutched her pearls. “We’re playing an illegal game?!”
Diamond waved her off. “When the president does it, it’s not illegal.”
Treasurer Tiara motioned to the east slide, where President Pipsqueak rode headlong into victory, tagging Featherweight on his way down and laughing like a supervillain.
“Besides, the student council voted on it, and Twist says that means it’s an official student government sanctioned activity.” A rainbow of jawbreakers dripped in Diamond’s grin. “Totally legal.”
“What vote? When?” Though exhausted, Silver found the strength to draw herself up in a huff. “I never voted on this.”
“Yeah, but you would have voted no, right? Right. And Truffle also would have voted no and told Miss Cheerilee, so we motioned to vote without you, and it passed three to two.” All the gunk had been cleaned out of the tiara tiers, though the steel badly needed a shine. Diamond frowned at it, shrugged, and placed it back on her head. “Even if one of you voted in favor, it’s a majority vote no matter what.”
Silver Spoon clutched her pearls. “You made me an accessory to hooliganism!”
Scootaloo lifted an eyebrow. “Is she always like this?”
“Pretty much,” Diamond said.
There could be nothing done about it now. And Silver had to admit her classmates did seem to approve of the council’s decision. “You could have at least warned me it was coming.”
“We did!” Scootaloo crossed her forelegs. “What’d you think ‘one-two-three-not-It’ meant?”
“I don’t know! I never even heard of regular tag before I came to this school! I still don’t know how it works; I just ran when you told me to and tried not to get hit.”
Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo blinked in synch. They looked at each other, then at Silver.
“Uh, yeah? That’s pretty much it.” Scootaloo laughed. “It’s tag, it’s not that complicated. There’s no real rules to it or anything.”
Silver rubbed a raw spot on her chest. She must have scraped it in the bush or in the chase up to the watchtower. “Yeah. That’s what’s so complicated about it.”
How could Battletag even count as a game without any rules? That didn’t make any sense at all.
She flicked an ear in thought. Run for Base. No tagbacks.
And it also wasn’t true.
Battletag did have rules, but from a list that everypony memorized years ago and never wrote down. A game you learned on the fly, and if you weren’t a quick study, have fun with the sod grenades and good luck being It. (Silver Spoon still had no idea how many foals could be It at once; it apparently range between one and… everyone.)
No nets, safety or otherwise. No balls, no rackets, no referees, no scoring system, no teams. Alliances perhaps, but they could break in a blink and had to be judged by the millisecond. The few rules Battletag had stood vaguely at best and liable to change with the wind.
The game had no real structure whatsoever, and in the end, nopony really won or lost, so what was even the point?
“How do you know when Battletag’s over, anyway?”
“When nopony’s playing anymore, I guess.” Scootaloo buzzed up to the roof with both hooves cupped over her mouth. “Go get her, Apple Bloom! Smash her like a berry in your potion grinding thingy!”
Shots of lime green magic ricocheted off the base of Project X. Two-thirds of the Cutie Mark Crusaders had fanned out to chase down Berry Pinch, with Bloom quick on the unicorn’s flank and Sweetie Belle veering starboard to cut her off at the rock wall.
Pinch rolled under Bloom’s tackle, kicked her into the sand, and ran up the slide, hooves scrambling on the slick metal. Her pursuers tried to follow, but every time they touched the slide, Pinch shot sparks of magic at their hooves.
Silver Spoon curled on the floorboards, watching Diamond whistle her support—for whom, Silver didn’t know—and stared at the mud on her friend’s hooves. Dirt caked on grass speckled in mud dusted in sand to form thick socks of earth that stretched from hoof to stifle. Spare streaks of pink shot through the browns, blacks and greens in her coat and mane and tail. Diamond’s eyes and the shining tiara on her head were the only things untouched.
With seven solid months of dressage training every year, no wonder Diamond got to Base first. The eight-time national pageant champion—a record for an earth pony, Diamond once said—was more earth than pony at this point. Every first prize had its price, and this was Battletag’s.
Silver wondered what else Diamond had done to get here first. Had it been a blind charge straight for Project X, or a rapid-fire montage of betrayals, violence, and psych-outs? If so, would anypony remember what she’d done by next Monday? Would they care?
In fact, would any of this battlefield drama follow them into the classroom? Did everypony just brush it off with the dirt after the game, or would Silver Spoon have to rewrite all her alignment charts?
For the first time since that first week in town, Silver had no clue what Ponyville Schoolhouse had in store for her. She curled her tail around her hooves to hide her ruined designer horseshoes. “I seriously hate this game.”
Diamond glanced down at her, filthy mane flying free in the breeze. “Why?”
Silver volleyed a flat stare.
“No, seriously, why?” Gently, Diamond pulled Silver to her hooves and turned her toward the schoolyard.
“I mean, I know it’s loud and dirty, but you see stuff in Battletag you’re never gonna see anywhere else. It’s the great equalizer: everypony gets to play, so nopony gets left out.” She pointed to the sandbox. “Look: Twist and Truffle have half the class on the ropes, and Rumble’s flying for his life. Rumble. Running from Twist!”
Scootaloo’s head swung upside down from the roof. “Right? When else are you going to see something that cool?”
“It’s an awesome way to de-stress. Think of it like a super intense mud bath.” Diamond tried not to laugh at Silver’s disgusted expression. “Okay, bad example. It’s… a chance to try being somepony else for a little while. Like Nightmare Night without the costumes.”
Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah, and besides, you’re pretty good at it for a filly who never played before. You didn’t get tagged once!”
“Forget getting tagged, she didn’t even get mud pied or dirt bombed.” Diamond pulled Silver into a side hug and winked. “Like Silvie’s gonna let a little thing like grenades mess up her coat. You still look like a trillion bits.”
Silver looked. “Feels more like half a million to me.”
“Hey, half a million bits still buys a four-star airship. Oh, and Scootaloo, did you see how she slipped out of Sunny and Peachy’s trap on the bridge? She didn’t even break a sweat!”
“No, but I sure heard it.” Scootaloo snickered. “Peachy Pie screamed so long I thought she was gonna pass out. I bet they heard her all the way in Canterlot.”
“Or Manehattan.” Diamond mimed drinking a teacup. “I bet Silvie’s old friends are all like, ‘I say, it sounds as if our dearest Silver Spoon’s caused somepony the utmost of misfortunes’.”
Silver smiled at that, though not for long.
Diamond Tiara sighed. “Okay, I’m sorry the student council shut you out of the vote. I didn’t think it’d bug you this much.”
“It doesn’t.” Backdoor deals came with the political package. She may as well complain about grass in her garden salad.
“I just wish I knew it was coming so I could like…” Silver’s back pressed against the wall, her tail twitching at her hooves. “Prepare or something.”
In one smooth sweep, Scootaloo flipped off the roof and into the watchtower. “That’s dumb. I told you, Silver Spoon, you don’t prepare for tag, it just happens.”
Silver lashed her tail with a snort. As if that explains a single bit of it.
Scootaloo’s wings flapped at her sides. “What is your problem?” She looked Silver up and down as if she could find and snap the stick up her butt. “Nothing even happened to you. You didn’t get hurt, barely got dirty, and got to Base without getting tagged in your first game ever. So what if you’re not ten steps ahead of everypony for once? That’s how the game works.”
“Maybe,” said Silver, “but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“But it’s fun! Don’t you like fun?”
“It’s not fun for me, Scootaloo!” Silver stomped and turned away. “It’s loud and dirty and too noisy and everything’s happening on top of everything else, and I never know what’s happening, and…”
Silver Spoon pulled her tail close and sniffed. In the corner of her eye, the schoolyard teemed with dozens of foals: filthy, screaming, bruised, bleeding, scarred, and having the time of their lives.
“…and I’m the only one it bothers.” After months perched on the pulse of Ponyville Schoolhouse, Silver couldn’t even find the vein. “Everything’s weird and different now.”
Diamond glanced at the slide, where Berry Pinch still fought her way upwards. “Yeah, but it’ll be back to normal tomorrow.” She twitched her ears in thought, then turned back to Silver. “…You’re not talking about Battletag anymore, are you?”
“You said it’ll be back to normal tomorrow, but, like…” She shook her head, trying and failing for the right words. “I mean… what even IS normal anymore?”
Diamond Tiara looked around the watchtower. She shrugged.
Silver bent her head, embarrassed with herself. This was ridiculous. Things had changed, but almost entirely for the better. No drama with the Crusaders looming on the horizon, no hurricane watches, no damage control to plan. No political battles. No struggles for trophies, honor, or justice. Now what?
Project X opened to enormous success. The next project on the Council docket was the bake sale in spring, but that wouldn’t be for three months, and Silver and Truffle could do that in their sleep.
“When does this year’s pageant season start?”
Diamond’s ears pricked high. She stared a moment, her expression unreadable. “Officially? The first week of March... the third, I think? The Running of the Leaves is in a couple days, so I should start training in three or four weeks. I think. I still need to get my schedule together and stuff.”
“That makes sense,” Silver thought aloud. Normally, the pageant cycle would have been locked in well before now, but all the election stuff probably threw it off.
Diamond nodded with a small smile. “Mom’s gonna help me plan a yearlong routine set when she comes down for Hearth’s Warming—oh, and did I tell you? Apple Bloom says I can use their rodeo paddock to practice my jumps. I really need to work on those; I’m entering the older divisions this year, and they’ve got a lot more jumping courses. Applejack’s going to help me train since there’s not that much work to do in winter.”
Scootaloo, who’d barely been listening, flipped around. “Applejack knows beauty pageant jumping?”
“No, but she’s got blue ribbons for rodeo jumping. It’s not the same thing as dressage, but the fences are the same height. Coach says a jump’s a jump; it’s just the journey to it that’s different.”
Suddenly restless, Diamond hopped to her hooves and paced the watchtower, still watching Berry Pinch’s epic journey up the slide. “Plus, Dad will relax if I’ve got an extra trainer living nearby.” She pawed the floor with her cracked hoof. “He gets kinda weird about my jumps, sometimes.”
“Oh, I see,” Silver said. “That’s good—uh, the extra training I mean. Not the part about your dad being weird.”
“It’s okay, I know what you meant.”
“Okay.” Silver rubbed the back of her neck. “So, um. Guess you’ve got all the help you need to get ready, then.”
“Yeah. Unless… unless you want to help, too.” Diamond stopped pacing. “Do you want to?” She glanced over her shoulder, not quite looking Silver Spoon in the eye. “I didn’t know if you would after… you know.”
A panting Berry Pinch flopped into the watchtower. “After you decided to be the biggest butt trumpet in the universe every time you competed for anything, ever?”
Diamond sat down again, studying her hooves. “Yeah, that.”
The unicorn barreled past her and smacked the center pole with both hooves. “BASE! Eat it, suckers! Third one here and not even a scrat—”
“Excuse me?” Silver Spoon waved. “Fourth one here.”
Berry Pinch boggled. “What?” She blinked a few more times. When Silver didn’t magically evaporate, Pinch crowed in disbelief. “What?! Ha-ha, how’d YOU get here so fast, Silver Snob? Did you get an escort or pay a taxi?”
Silver swept her tail with a flourish. “Natural talent.”
Diamond Tiara stepped up, patting Silver between the withers. “That's right! She got here all on her own. Not bad for a first-timer, right?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Pinch kept eye contact with Diamond all of two seconds. She tossed a nod to Silver Spoon. “Guess you finally got your Ponyville stripes, huh?”
Silver nodded back. “Guess so.”
“Cool, cool.” Berry Pinch clicked her tongue, pointedly looking in any direction besides Diamond’s. “Me and The Dink said we’d explore the underground section, and I wanna find the epicenter before she does. See you, Scoots. Later, Silver.”
Scootaloo and Silver Spoon both waved.
Diamond waved, too. “Bye, Pinch.”
Berry Pinch flicked an ear. “Yeah, bye.” She held her nose and fell backwards down the slide.
Diamond watched until the unicorn hit the sandpit at the bottom. “I think I know what you mean about the new normal, Silver.” Her ears drooped.
Scootaloo sat beside her and offered a wing pat. “Yeah, but every day’s kind of like a new normal—that’s what my aunts say. It’s like an adventure.”
The east wall of the watchtower shook on impact. A hoard of wiggling hooves erupted from the tunnel, grasping for purchase on the slick wood floor. No telling how many foals had crammed in there—no less than four—but Silver thought she recognized Apple Bloom’s bow and Featherweight’s dinner plate ears within the writhing knot of mud.
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon exchanged glances, then turned back towards Scootaloo.
After a moment, the gloom faded from Diamond’s face. “Yeah. That’s a good way to put it.” She smiled.
Silver didn’t. “Yeah...”
Somepony broke from the traffic jam to hit the wall and officially declare Base. Filth coated the foal head to hoof, their voice so raw from screaming it’d become unrecognizable. Silver watched the pony, searching for a familiar mane style or body type, maybe a telltale accessory. She found nothing.
“Yeah,” Silver said again. Her gaze lifted from the mystery foal over the watchtower wall, to the wide expanse of the playground and Ponyville beyond. “I guess so.”
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Well this was an intriguing chapter. Very interesting to see the change in dynamics and yet continuation of almost the same. Its going to be interesting to see what your plans for the Finale are.
I have truly enjoyed this story and consider it to be one of the greatest character pieces I have ever read. If you ever write something to be publish please inform me.
An absolutely brilliant use of the line, and perfectly in character for Diamond.
Overall, a really fun chapter, with a great mix of action and character stuff. I can imagine Silver wanting to write an official set of rules for Battletag now! And yeah, Scootaloo's line about new normal... so very good. (Also, I like how you kept the Crusaders' big moment off-screen entirely!)
I think this chapter has the feel of an ending; if you ended the story right here, I'd be left wanting more, obviously, but I couldn't deny that this would be a very good, and very fitting, place to stop. I hope you've got more planned, but if not, I won't be sad.
Chaos reigns, and Silver finds herself without an umbrella. Change may be inevitable, but that doesn't mean it comes easy. The new normal will take some time to find, but Silver has a much more robust support structure behind her as she looks for it.
Also, Scootaloo's getting some impressive air. I approve.
Great way to lead into the denouement. Here's looking forward to whatever's left.
ooooh nice update. as always, worth the wait. we shall wait agin
Does what happens in Battletag stay in Battletag?
Hmm... at least you did something with it almost immediately after. It's hard to know how long the CMCs were sitting around admiring their flanks before they figured out what they were supposed to be doing with their talents.
I can't tell you how pleased I am to see this story update!
I love your writing style and sense of humour, and am still amazed that you have taken what might be the most uninteresting pony in the show and made her the protagonist of an utterly intriguing and addictive tale. Very very well done.
honestly dunno if scootaloo's attitude in this story well ever stop bothering me.
It just hit me to say something about it, but by the time I read the chapter, I had completely forgotten about the title. Those first few paragraphs read like an invasion of some sort of threat to Ponyville, or even Equestria. Turns out it's something much worse: A threat to cleanliness and decorum!
Now when was the last time I played tag? Had to have been before high school...
You know, the perfect background music for this chapter would be a metal cover of "Yakkety Sax." Played by a horse.
Of course that'd never--
...what's that, Internet?...
...Oh. Well, thank you. Thank you very much:
I dont quite get what silver is so sad about - her relationship with diamond is restored, she's no longer at the crusaders necks, she got project x, she's still on the school government... what's wrong?
Probably appropriate for Diamond, despite her reformation.
pole
ranged
You got to act like you're not abandoned
The times they are a changin', and that's sometimes a scary spot to be in. The great battle won, an unknown future laying ahead, rife with possibilities, both wonderful and horrible. Soon the new normal will settle in, and then Silver will have more to go off of for a gameplan.
Nice chapter, it's good to see the uncertainty in such times represented.
Hey, listen, you seem to be a pretty good fanfic writer. I was wondering if you could write a fanfic about one or more of the new Friendship School Students. Think of it as a sort of challenge. You'd be really testing your skills.
zsewqthewolf
needs your help! he's writing a story and he needs someone to edit it.
8823433 8824430
I appreciate that you thought of me, but my comment section is not the place to request fics or seek editing assistance. There are specific forums on this site to seek help and advertise; I suggest using those instead.
Do not do this again, please.
I've been where Silver Spoon is.
One afternoon, the boyscouts wanted to play a particular variant of tag. I didn't know the rules, but I wanted to play. I ended up being the one to tag—but it wasn't regular tag, so I had no idea what to do. Nobody explained anything. Indeed they were rather pleased with having someone so easy to win against. Lots of laughter at the stupid guy who thinks he can play when he has no idea how it's played.
If nothing else, it taught me to be wary of joining a game I don't know the rules of.
8803166
I think it has to do with things being more unpredictable now. Silver likes following rules and set plans and feels uncomfortable without them. With the social dynamics of the class in an unpredictable state, she can't really make any plans to follow. I think the game itself is supposed to represent this: no rules (that Silver knows of in the beginning, at least), chaos, but she still has to do something, to make choices without rules to guide her. The fact that she's playing a game without rules where nobody wins shows she's willing to give it a try, at least, which is a big change from how she was at the beginning of the fic. But she's still not comfortable with it.
And I was the champ at tag when I was a kid, and I totally got lost on how this battle tag works. But I guess that's just kudos to you as the author for placing us all squarely behind Silver's eyes.
I got a very “Charlie Brown on the Wall” feel from this chapter, and I love it! Nothing I’ve has ever been able to capture that dialogue of kids talkings like Peanuts!
9348918
They had a number of firsts including being the first to use actual children to do kid character voices.
I am really in the same position as Silver Spoon in my adult life. There is so much change and new things, it all feels daunting, but once you begin to roll with the punches and see the chaos for what it is - opportunity, you will really appreciate it. Silver is part of Ponyville now, and now she's really realizing it, two years later, she's finally starting to fit in - but still struggling. The battles have ended, but the real battle is - what will she do with herself and how will she change? It's up to her. This has really hit home for me.