Caught in the Act

by Doom Trot

Epilogue.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Everypony has their own interests. Although some ponies may not always be fond of those interests, going so far as to persecute and degrade you for them, you can't let that stop you from pursuing what makes you happy. If you're always afraid of what everypony else thinks of you, then you can never have anything to call your own. It took a lot of help from our friends, but we've learned not to let our fear get in the way of our pursuits.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash

Rolling up the scroll, Spike ignited it, the cinders scattering with the breeze and vanishing without a trace.

He looked to Rainbow Dash and Applejack with a smile, smug as he said, "I just have one last question for you guys."

"Shoot," Applejack responded.

"Why pair those two?" he pointed to the figurines they held.

Rainbow Dash shrugged, asking, "Why not?"

Spike shook his head, saying, "I still think Twilight would blow a gasket if she ever saw those."

"Really?" Applejack said, holding up her Twilight Sparkle figurine. "Personally, ah figured she'd be tickled pink."

Spike laughed at this, waving as he turned to depart.

"I'll see you guys around!"

"See ya!" the two shouted back.

When Spike was out of sight, Applejack looked to Rainbow Dash with a sly grin. Bouncing Twilight Sparkle across the ground, as one would move a doll across a surface, she asked in a very high voice, "Ah hope ya enjoyed mah most recent letter!"

Moving her Princess Celestia figurine towards Applejack's Twilight Sparkle in a similar fashion, Rainbow Dash responded in a tone of exaggerated regality, "It was a wonderful read, my faithful student."

"Oh, that's so good t' hear!" Applejack said, stifling a giggle and adding, "Ah trust that yer well pleased in me?"

"I am," Rainbow Dash said with a snicker, clearing her throat. "Come give the Princess some sugar."

The two of them pecked the snouts of their figurines against one another, making mock kissing noises and laughing to their hearts' content.

"Applejack!" called Big Macintosh from out of the blue. "Applejack!"

"Aw, horse apples," Applejack muttered, setting down her figurine and standing. "Be back in a jiff."

She ran toward the sound of Big Mac's voice, shouting, "What is it, Big Mac?!"

Rainbow Dash smiled as she held aloft her Princess Celestia figurine, admiring it for a minute or so. Then she picked up the Twilight Sparkle figurine Applejack had left behind, holding it beside her Princess Celestia. She grinned as she moved them close together, then sighed as she lowered them, her ears falling and her eyes becoming sorrowful.

"Oh, Applejack..." Rainbow Dash whispered to herself, her eyes glistening as she looked over the pair of dolls. "You'd never go for it. I guess a mare can only dream..."

---

"Guess who got a C+!" Scootaloo shouted, bounding through the library doors with a paper marked with a red "C+" held in her mouth.

"Nice work, Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom congratulated her friend, offering a highhoof, which Scootaloo gladly slapped.

"What did you get?" she asked, holding the paper with her hoof to speak more clearly.

"Oh, just a lousy old A-," Apple Bloom said with a shrug, Scootaloo's ears drooping and her smile fading. Apple Bloom cleared her throat, nodding to Scootaloo's paper. "But that don't matter none! Ya did great!"

"Hehe... yeah," Scootaloo muttered, eyeing her paper with disappointment.

"Don't feel so bad," Spike said in a consoling manner as he made his way down the stairs, his now ripened sapphire held in hand. "I've never been good with history either."

Scootaloo shrugged, grabbing the corner of her report in her teeth and setting it on a nearby table, saying, "Well, at least I passed."

Apple Bloom nodded, slapping Scootaloo's shoulder and saying, "Now that's the spirit!"

"Not to interrupt," said Twilight without looking away from her microscope, "but would either of you happen to have any remaining samples of Pinkie's giant cake?"

Confused, Apple Bloom answered, "Neither of us ever ended up gettin' any cake in the first place. So no, we don't got no cake."

"Shoot! I suppose I'll have to make do with only these," she mumbled, turning a dial on the device with her magic.

"Are you seriously studying cake?" Scootaloo asked, eyeing the crumbs that laid in the tray of the microscope.

"Well, I was studying cake," Twilight answered angrily. "Now I'm studying crumbs, because someone decided to chow down on my data."

Twilight glanced to Spike with a scowl.

Spike crossed his arms, looking away from Twilight and muttering, "Well, you did just leave it laying out."

"I thought you were going to eat your sapphire," Twilight said, looking back into the eyepiece.

"I was, and I am," Spike said, presenting his gem with a smirk.

"Then why so hungry for cake?" she asked, growling with annoyance as she spun the dial once more.

"Well, it was gonna go to waste, so I-"

"Salutations!" announced a sputtering, braces-wearing stallion with a dorky manecut and countless pimples on his face.

Spike, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo looked to him with befuddlement, but Twilight looked to him with a beam.

Teleporting to stand before him, she offered a hoof, which the stallion gladly shook, then said, "Bright Bulb! So glad you could make it!" She teleported over to the door leading to the backroom, gesturing to it and adding, "Right this way, gentlecolts!" Bright Bulb nodded, leading a procession of two other similar stallions as he started towards the backroom.

"And I thought we were the only ponies in Ponyville interested in this kind of thing!" said the stallion at the back of the line, laughing a laugh riddled with snorts.

"Well, I've always wanted to give it a try," Twilight said, opening the door with her magic to allow them to enter. Once the three were inside, she stood in the doorway, looking to Spike as she said, "Even if this goes without saying, I'll say it anyway; don't bother us."

She backed inside and shut the door.

Spike furrowed his brow, taking a step toward the room, then froze, shaking his head and taking a step away.

"Nope. Not happening," he said, taking a bite out of his sapphire and walking away. Through bits of gem, he muttered, "Don't even want to know."

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo exchanged glances, then looked to the backroom with curiosity.

With a sniffle and a weak cough, Sweetie Belle walked into the library, greeting her friends with a stuffy, "Hi guys."

"Oh, hi Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom said, turning to her. "Haven't seen ya since this mornin'."

Sweetie Belle gave her a perplexed look, asking, "When did you see me this morning?"

"Very funny, Sweetie," Scootaloo said, jostling her friend by the shoulder. "You ever track down Diamond Tiara?"

Sweetie Belle sniffed, cocking her head.

"This is the first time I've been out of bed in a week. I haven't seen Diamond Tiara once. Why would I want to, anyway?"

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo now took on confused expressions.

Scootaloo asked, "You mean you didn't need to catch up with her?"

Sweetie shook her head.

"Then... why did we hear that scream?" Apple Bloom asked, putting a hoof to her chin in thought. "What actually happened t' her?"

---

Earlier that morning...

"Stupid Pinkie Pie!" Diamond Tiara yelled, stomping through the muck of the Everfree's forest floor. "Stupid Snips and Snails! Stupid Silver Spoon..."

With a mighty roar, she smashed her head against a nearby tree, angrily grumbling, "This is all her fault. She's the real traitor."

She drew back, then smacked the tree with her forehead once again.

"She sided with them! She screwed me over and sided with them!"

Diamond Tiara made a significant dent in the tree's bark with her relentless head smashing. Huffing in her rage, she stumbled away, muttering profanities to herself.

"You there. Little filly," spoke a white unicorn as she stepped into sight.

"Well, look who it is!" Diamond Tiara yelled, scowling at Sweetie Belle. "The dimmest of the Loser Mark Crusaders!"

Sweetie Belle smirked, saying aloud, "Oh, I'm so going to enjoy this."

Diamond Tiara spat at her, yelling, "Just what are you babbling about?"

Sweetie Belle pursed her lips, then donned a toothy beam. Except the teeth she revealed weren't normal pony teeth. Amongst her standard teeth, Sweetie bore a pair of menacing fangs. Diamond Tiara studied these for a moment, then met Sweetie Belle's eyes. The filly's eyes flashed green, and Diamond Tiara gasped, immediately turning to run.

An earsplitting scream could be heard from deep within the Everfree. Then there was nothing. Only silence.

Hopeless Romance

Comments

[Free Bird]

HAHA

Nice job with the story, dude. I enjoyed reading it!

[Doom Trot]

1460104 To be fair, not all of them grabbed their pitchforks and torches when they were told RD, AJ, and Scootaloo were witches.

[Swashbucklist]

Ending was a little dark. If you ask me, the perfect way to end Dash and AJ's scene would have been having both ponies grinning wickedly at each other, then breaking out their Spike figurine and piling all the mares on top of it.

[GeodesicDragon]

Sequel?

I sure hope so. That ending just sets the scene for one.

[Jake8765]

THANK YOU!! JUST THANK YOU!!! You finally killed Diamond Tiara!!! And great use of the bloodthirsty Sweetie Changeling!

[The Great Derpsby]

Please don't have Diamond Tiara killed off. At least not like that. That just makes me root for the pitchfork guys, for some actual monster hunt.

[Mavis]

Ha! my 1st guess was playing iwth dolls ! :D

[Doom Trot]

1536076

Omagosh, your avatar is just adorable!

(Relevant reply is relevant)

[bahatumay]

Now, I'm not saying she deserved it....
but she totally deserved it.

[Gutovi]

I just know that "Sweetie Belle" was Rarity taking vengeance of Diamond's insolense. You can't fool me!

Well, apparently you CAN fool me by putting a password on the story... pretty please, tell me what is it!

[Doom Trot]

1679318
No!
Is no ready yet!

[Gutovi]

1680092 But my assumptions about "Sweetie Belle" were right?

[Sinful Pickle]

first i was like but then i was all and then i was like and then i was all like but after that i was all and at the end i was like holy fucknuggets and now i'm like

[Prince Laviere]

ooooohhh yyyeeeeaaaaahhh... *micheouvis gigle* *michevious laugh( (my evil cackle I do whenever I have evil thoughts, or think about pisisng osmeone off*

[All of the Above]

Please, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE, make diamond tiara die. I just can't think of a character in any cartoon that I hate more than her. Other than that, I like this story.

[Coco-loco]

My guess at what's happening next:
Diamond Tiara was killed by a changeling sweetie or something like that. Rainbow is head over hooves for AJ but when she was telling her chickened out and said 'playing with dolls'. The cake is a crazy pinkie magic and silver spoon witnesses diamonds death or what ever happens and is dramatized.

Did I get it right?

Best part about a cliffhanger guessing what happens next!!!

[Phoenix Archangel]

3042107 Precisely. She's a good villain-in-the-making, but killing a child is not something to talk lightly about. If she was an adult, I'd be all for seeing her in pain. No, I'm not sadistic - I just seriously hate rumourmongers.