> I Hope you're Happy with Her!
>  by Soniclink137
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright Rumble, are you ready?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Rumble said. “How about you? Are you sure about this?”

“Try to have some confidence Rumble!” Scootaloo said, knocking Rumble a bit with one hoof. “We’ve been practicing this trick for a few days now. I’m sure we’ll be able to do it just fine.”

“Alright then if you’re so sure,” Rumble said with a smirk. “Let’s get started.”

Scootaloo and Rumble both jumped on their hind hooves. The half flew/half walked to a point where they were back to back, wings outstretched. They both then squatted as best as they could and jumped into the blue air together with as much force as they could. For a few seconds while in the air they flapped their wings in unison before they broke off and flew in opposite directions.

Scootaloo and Rumble then did several arcs and flips in exact mirror of each other making sure not to break formation. They would fly far away from each other and then in a long flowing arc they would go so close to the middle to the point where there was only an inch away from each other and the slightest movement back would cause them to collide and if their wings weren’t perfectly in sync they would crush wings against each other. They were both facing downwards and heading straight for the ground. Their hearts started beating faster as the green ground started rushing up to them.

“Alright Rumble, this is it!” Scootlaoo yelled above the noise of the wind. Rumble uselessly nodded even though Scootaloo couldn’t see it right now.

When they were still some distance from the ground Scootaloo and Rumble put a bit of distance between themselves and started doing several front flips. Then while they were still spinning they managed to touch their hind hooves together and proceeded to kick off from one another sending their momentum in a different direction and causing them to arc to the ground—just barely missing it—before they start angling and go upwards using the airflow they gained from the front flips they did.

They continued arcing in the air until they once again met each other in the middle, in which they went back for the ground. Once they reached back on the ground Rumble stated taking several deep breaths from the work they just did in the air. Scootaloo on the other hand looked for the only spectator they know that they had at the moment.

“Hey Sweetie Belle, how was that?” Scootaloo asked as soon as she found her friend.

The white unicorn looked at her friend and said “Well I was worried you guys were going to crash on several occasions and you didn’t so I guess that’s something.”

“Oh come on,” Scootaloo said, flapping her orange wings triumphantly. “You should have known me and Rumble would make it through.”

“Rumble and I,” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“You weren’t the one in the sky,” Scootaloo said. She then got down into a ready position once again. “And this isn’t even the last thing I have planned.”

“Scootaloo what are you…?” Rumble asked as he finally walked up to where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were talking. But before he was able to finish what he was asking Scootaloo took off for the right where her scooter was lying against a tree. She grabbed it and flew to the top of a hill in the distance.

Scootaloo, now an orange spec within Rumble and Sweetie Belle’s eyes, got on her scooter and started riding down the steep slope of the hill. She continued using that to go faster and faster until she reached the bottom of the hill she jumped of her scooter and snapped open her wings. She moved them faster and let the inertia she gained from the hill give her the strength to fly as fast as she could.

“10 bits says she’s going to hurt herself,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I really don’t want to take that bet,” Rumble replied. 

Scootaloo started flying closer to the point where Rumble and Sweetie Belle were standing at as high speeds as she could manage. She flew faster and faster towards them to the point where a cone stated forming around her due to the air pressure. The cone started going narrower and narrower as she reached closer to the speed she wanted to break.

“She’s going to try and break the sound barrier again,” Rumble redundantly noted, his eyes fixed on Scootaloo.

“I’ve noticed,” Sweetie Belle said. “Looks like she is still trying to be Rainbow Dash.”

“Well that is why we’re training together,” Rumble said. “I want to be as good as Thunderlane someday and Scootaloo wants to be as good as Rainbow Dash. I think I have the easier goal though since I don’t have to do that.”

“Well if she does it she’ll be the first teenager that managed to break the sound barrier,” Sweetie Belle said, “and since there is no technical ‘proof’ that Rainbow Dash caused the Sonic Rainboom when she was a filly and she didn’t do it again until she was a mare anyways she would technically be the youngest.”

“I wouldn’t tell that to Scootaloo though,” Rumble said. “She might feel glad she is technically the youngest pony to break the sound barrier, but she would hate having that title when it should belong to Rainbow Dash.”

Scootaloo got close to the speed she wanted to break, but eventually she was stopped and ended up bumping against the air pressure she was trying to pass. The cone then pushed her back into the air and caused her to lose momentary control of her wings. She was falling headfirst into the ground with no way of stopping it.

Rumble, acting without thinking, rushed over to where she was landing so that she would land on something other than the hard ground. He jumped and pushed his wings forward and after that push he started sliding on the ground to the point where Scootaloo would land. He closed his eyes and braced himself for impact, but the impact he was expecting never came. Instead when he finally opened his eyes he saw Scootaloo over him by a few inches, being hung by her purple tail which was suspended in the air by a green aura. Sweetie Belle walked up to them, her horn glowing with the same green aura.

“T-thanks Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo grunted. “C-can you let go of my now? It’s sort of painful being hung by my tail.”

“Uhh no wait,” Rumble said but it was too late. Sweetie Belle let go of her magic causing Scootaloo to fall on top of Rumble.

“Ow!” both Rumble and Scootaloo both said on impact.

“Hey you told me to let go,” Sweetie Belle said.

“You could have waited until I was out from under her,” Rumble said.

“Now why would she want to do that?” asked a voice that immediately snapped Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s attention. Rumble looked up as well, but much more slowly since he didn’t recognize the voice and was more interested in seeing what Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were looking at. Walking up to them was a light pink earth pony wearing a silver tiara. 

“Diamond Tiara, what the hay are you doing here?” Scootaloo asked.

“I was just standing here waiting for you to fail just as I knew you would,” Diamond Tiara said. “After all, as much as you would like to think you are Rainbow Dash’s kid, you aren’t. You might want to do break the sound barrier, you might want to get into the Wonderbolts, but we all know you’re not going to.”

“You wanna bet?!” Scootaloo said. She got off of Rumble and got ready to stand her ground against Diamond Tiara should she need to.

“Woops, sorry Rumble,” Diamond Tiara said. “Looks like I ruined the closest think you will ever have to a romantic moment with her. Is what I’ve heard true? I’ve heard that you two haven’t even kissed each other yet.”

“Who asked you?!” Scootaloo said angrily.

“It’s too bad Rumble,” Diamond Tiara continued. “You actually get a mare and of course it has to be a mare that you can’t even date. I guess that’s too bad for you. Maybe you should go looking for some other mare that you can actually have your way with.”

“Yeah so what?” Scootaloo asked. “We don’t do all of the dating romancing stuff that most couples do. Rumble doesn’t care.”

“Really, is that what Rumble thinks, or is that just what you think?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Why don’t you let Rumble speak for himself?”

Diamond Tiara looked at Rumble who was finally getting up himself. As he got up he got the eyes of both Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara looking at him. The only pony right now that wasn’t giving him a look was Sweetie Belle, who was instead looking angrily at Diamond Tiara.

“Yeah, I’m uhh fine with it,” Rumble said unconvincingly.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sweetie Belle said. “Diamond Tiara is just jealous.” Sweetie Belle walked forward and started going on the offensive herself.

“What do you have to say about jealousy?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Who has Pipsqueak decided to date this week huh? You or Dinky?”

Sweetie Belle blushed in frustration at the memory, but she didn’t let Diamond Tiara gain any ground. “Neither,” she said. “He’s going to wait and think about it before he starts dating one of us again. And if he decides to date Dinky, I’ll be perfectly fine with it.”

“Are you sure about that?” Diamond Tiara asked tauntingly. “Because I’ve heard how you reacted when he first started dating Dinky instead of you. And something tells me you weren’t ‘perfectly fine with it.’ What’s stopping you from reacting the same way next time?”

Sweetie Belle’s horn started glowing so Rumble and Scootaloo immediately hit the ground and covered their ears. They were expecting an ear splitting sound to come from Sweetie Belle’s mouth, but before the sound came Sweetie Belle shook her head and stopped her magic. She then looked back at Diamond Tiara, still with an angry expression.

“Yeah well at least we have friends,” Sweetie Belle said. “You don’t even have that ever since Silver Spoon transferred schools.”

Silver Spoon’s transferring was a day that goes down as one of the greatest days in the lives of the former Cutie Mark Crusaders. They had already gotten their Cutie Marks at this point so Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon already lessened their bullying due to the fact that the insult ‘Blank Flank’ could no longer be used, and on that day when Silver Spoon transferred, the bullying became non-existent. The bullying still happened every once in a while, as it was today, but nowhere near as much, and it didn’t really bother them since they would take the offensive as well.

“I have plenty of friends!” Diamond Tiara said in her defense. “And just because Silver Spoon transferred doesn’t mean we don’t talk! We just…send letters to each other most of the time.”

“Well maybe if you were, I don’t know, nicer,” Scootaloo said intensely “you would have some more friends. Did you ever think of that?”

“Now why don’t you leave us be?” Sweetie Belle asked. “You can go home and be jealous somewhere else.”

“Fine I’ll go for now,” Diamond Tiara said as she closed her eyes and turned around to leave. But before she got more than two steps away she heard a somewhat familiar, but quite different, voice.

“There you are Diamond Tiara. I was wondering where in Ponyville you were.”

Diamond Tiara opened her eyes. “Silver Spoon is that you?” she asked as she looked in the direction of where the voice was coming from. As soon as she looked around and her eyes locked on Silver Spoon, her mouth dropped open.

Scootaloo, Rumble, and Sweetie Belle all noticed Diamond Tiara’s reaction so they all moved to either the left or right to get Diamond Tiara out of their sights so they could see what she was looking at. And as soon as they caught sight of Silver Spoon, their mouths opened up out of shock as well.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Silver Spoon…what happened to you?” Diamond Tiara asked.

Silver Spoon gave her friend a nice pleasant smile. “Do you like my new look?” she asked.

The biggest and most notable change was the earth pony was no longer wearing the glasses that she usually had over her pink eyes. Instead she was wearing a white hat with a black ribbon over her mane. However what was also noticeable was her mane, while it was in the same style that it usually was, seemed to be much shinier and her coat seemed to swap colors entirely, becoming a darker gray. Otherwise she still had her white pearls around her neck and still had the red ribbon around her ponytail behind her head.

“What…what happened to your glasses?” Diamond Tiara asked.

Silver Spoon blinked. “I got some contact lenses,” Silver Spoon said. “They’re a pain to get on and off, but thanks to them I can see without needing to wear any glasses. And plus the contacts I’m wearing help bring out the pink in my eyes.”

“And…and your mane and coat?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Heh, a while after I transferred to Manehattan I made a new friend, and she gave me a lot of tips,” Silver Spoon explained. “She’s the one that told me I should try out contact lenses in the first place and gave me all these neat tips. But while we were trying something new with my coat, a sort of combination of magic and conditioner…it sort of went wrong. My friend, who is a unicorn, enchanted a bottle of conditioner that I used when taking a shower and it caused my coat to change color into this. I was freaking out at first, but then after looking in the mirror, I realized I like this look. She could have easily changed it back for me, but I told her not to.”

“Wow I’m…impressed,” Diamond Tiara said. “You look…amazing Silver Spoon.” 

She looked back over at Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and more importantly Rumble. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both lost their surprised expressions and instead continued with their slightly annoyed expression. Rumble on the other hand, still had his muzzle open with amazement and surprise. And after seeing that, Diamond Tiara put a wicked smile on her face.

“Hey…Silver Spoon,” Diamond Tiara said as she turned back to look at her friend. “Why don’t you walk with me around Ponyville and let’s catch up. It’s been a while since we’ve talked face to face.”

“Sure, that’s what I’m here for!” Silver Spoon said. “Let’s go.”

Diamond Tiara walked up to Silver Spoon and they both started walking off back in the direction of the main town of Ponyville. But before they both walked off Diamond Tiara stopped for a few seconds to give Scootaloo, Rumble, and Sweetie Belle another wicked smile before walking off.

Rumble continued staring in the direction of where Silver Spoon walked off with his mouth open until a hoof slamming into his right side snapped him out. He looked over in the direction of where he was just hit to see an angry Scootaloo a bit too close to him, and Sweetie Belle also giving him a look in the part of his vision that wasn’t blocked by Scootaloo. Rumble took a quick step back out of surprise of how close Scootaloo was to him.

“What?” Rumble asked.

“You were staring at her,” Scootaloo pointed out.

“Technically he was gawking at her,” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“Same thing!” Scootaloo said back at Sweetie Belle before turning her attention back at Rumble. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“What do I need to say about myself?” Rumble asked. “I was looking at her. So what? Are you jealous or something Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo gave Rumble another annoyed looked before walking to where her scooter was off in the distance at the foot of the hill she rode down. She put it back off the ground and after wiping all the grass off her scooter she got on it. Scootaloo erected her wings and started flapping them to move her forward. She passed by Rumble and Sweetie Belle, giving Rumble one last annoyed look before riding off.

“What was…that all about?” Rumble asked. “I never thought Scootaloo would be the jealous type.”

Sweetie Belle walked closer to Rumble. “Well I wouldn’t know, since she never really started dating until she finally admitted she liked you, but I don’t think it’s that she’s jealous,” Sweetie Belle told him. “Remember, you were gawking at me that same way when Pip…” Sweetie Belle swiftly stopped before she reached that memory and instead told it in a different way, “when Rarity had me all dressed up for my first date. I could see Scootaloo’s face and she didn’t look jealous at all.”

“Then what’s up with that filly?” Rumble asked. “Yeah I was staring at her, but that’s just because she looked pretty and…her colors sort of reminded me of Thunderlane. I guess I sort of thought of Thunderlane as a filly, because of you know, the same colors and all.”

Sweetie Belle facehoofed. “Rumble…like most colts you’re an idiot,” Sweetie Belle said bluntly.

“Don’t hold back,” Rumble said.  “Geez, for somepony who’s name is Sweetie Belle you can be really bitter sometimes.”

“Sorry Rumble, but it’s true,” Sweetie Belle said. “Can’t you honestly think of why you gawking over Silver Spoon’s looks would make Scootaloo angry?”

“Because…she’s friends with that Diamond Tiara filly?” Rumble asked. Sweetie Belle gave him an annoyed look. “What?!” Rumble asked. “I don’t know anything about those two. I’m a year younger then you guys and have never met either Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon before today.”

Sweetie Belle sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell you,” she said. “Back when we were much younger and still blank flanks, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would constantly insult us because of it. They tormented us all the time until we got our Cutie Marks since they were the first ones in our class to get them. Because of that, we’ve hated them for a long time now. So do you get what’s wrong yet?”

Sweetie Belle didn’t wait for Rumble to figure it out and instead blatantly told him. “You just basically were gawking at the looks of the enemy. If you really want to go that far.”

“Oh…” Rumble said, finally getting it.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle said. “Scootaloo basically just saw you admiring the looks of somepony who she doesn’t like, and the worse part, at least probably in her mind, is that you gave her a look, you’ve never given Scootaloo before. You have never admired Scootaloo’s looks before.”

“B-but…Scootaloo doesn’t care about her looks,” Rumble said. “She’s never worrying about her mane when it’s windswept from flying quickly or crumpled up within her helmet. As far as I know she doesn’t do anything special for her mane or coat. So she should expect that a lot of ponies look better than her. And I’m going to end up liking other ponies’ looks more than hers.  Being honest I like your looks better than hers, but we’re not a couple.”

“That’s not the point,” Sweetie Belle said after she rolled her eyes. “You need to remember Rumble, not matter how tomboyish Scootaloo is, she is still a filly.”

Now it was Rumble’s time to roll his eyes. “I know she is a filly,” Rumble said. “And…I should just let you continue before I miss the point again shouldn’t I?”

Sweetie Belle nodded before continuing. “One thing you should know is fillies are really possessive even if they don’t look like it or act like it. Scootaloo, while she wouldn’t admit it, feels somewhat threatened when she sees you gawking at Silver Spoon like that. It’s something she wouldn’t feel with you gawking at me, because she knows if you break up with her for me, I’d break something of yours.”

Rumble gulped, since he didn’t doubt Sweetie Belle was telling the truth. His earlier sentiment about Sweetie Belle not being very sweet for her name was more than justified with how she usually acts lately. That filly is not somepony you want to cross anytime soon, something that plenty of ponies around school have learned very quickly according to what Rumble has heard. She was also becoming somewhat of a diva, though Rumble—out of his relationship with Scootaloo, and her friendship—wouldn’t be the one to tell her that.

“And to make matters worse, this isn’t just some random filly,” Sweetie Belle finished up. “It wouldn’t be so bad if you were gawking at somepony like Dinky or Tootsie Flute, but this is somepony that’s been taunting us since we were in Elementary School. The possibility of her losing you to Silver Spoon hit her, and I know how crushed she would feel if that actually happened.”

“But why would she really be that threatened?” Rumble asked. “I like her, not somepony that I just met. We’ve been friends for the longest time, and even though we haven’t been dating that long, it’s not like I’m going to just drop that for a filly who I saw for all of five seconds. Especially if she tormented you guys.”

“And why are you telling me that?” Sweetie Belle said. “I’m not the one who needs to know that. Scootaloo is. When Scootaloo was accusing you of staring at Silver Spoon, you did nothing to assure her that you’re all hers. You just said you were looking at Silver Spoon and asked if she was jealous about it. How would that not make her feel threatened?”

To put it into a better perspective Sweetie Belle said, “How would you feel if Scootaloo was admiring a colt that you really hate, and when you asked her about it she asked if you were jealous? You’d probably feel as angry with her as she probably feels with you.”

“I…really can’t imagine Scootaloo doing that,” Rumble said. “She never seemed like she was interested in looks.”

Sweetie Belle facehoofed once again. “You know what, never mind,” Sweetie Belle said. After shaking her head with disbelief she started walking off but Rumble quickly rounded her and stopped in front of where Sweetie Belle was going.

“Wait, yeah I get it,” Rumble said. “If Scootaloo was admiring some other colt’s looks I would feel angry, especially if I didn’t like them. I can’t imagine that happening because I don’t think Scootaloo cares about looks, and the only colt I hated was Pipsqueak a long time ago, and we grew past that to be friends now. But I do get it.”

Sweetie Belle cringed at the mention of Pipsqueak but otherwise looked satisfied. 

“So what do I do about it?” Rumble asked.

“Go find Scootaloo and explain yourself,” Sweetie Belle said. “She should be somewhere around Ponyville, on her scooter blowing off some steam. Put those wings you have to good use and go flying around to find her. You’ll be just fine if you tell Scootaloo what you just told me.”

“Alright thanks,” Rumble said. The pegasus turned around, spread his gray wings and was about to take off, but before he did he remembered something. With his wings still erect he turned around to look back at Sweetie Belle.

“You know, if you’re so good with relationship advice, then why is it you’re having so much trouble with your relationship with Pipsqueak?” Rumble asked.

Sweetie Belle’s face fell into an angry expression, she clenched her teeth together, and her horn started glowing a light green. Rumble took a few steps back with a nervous smile on his face. He eventually turned back around in the opposite direction and started rapidly flapping his wings.

“Uhh…ok then I’ll see you later,” Rumble said as he flew off quickly before Sweetie Belle decided to lash out at Rumble.

After Rumble was far enough Sweetie Belle lost her angry expression and instead closed her eyes and sighed. “Rumble, you’re walking on shaky ground right now,” Sweetie Belle said. “I really hope you’re careful.”
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond Tiara walked Silver Spoon near the Ponyville High School. Ponyville High School was situated near Ponyville’s park which was the perfect place for the students to play around, have group events, and anything else that the students thought of. As such, it wasn’t that long of a trek for Diamond Tiara to show Silver Spoon the High School.

The High School was the same color as Cheerliee’s elementary school, and was almost the same design, only it was slightly larger to fit in the more classes that the Elementary School didn’t have. Also instead of the playground that the elementary school had, the high school had a track behind it and a few fields for games like hoofball. And it was that track that Diamond Tiara was bringing Silver Spoon to in order to check something.

As they both reached near the track and the hoofball field they noticed a few colts running across the track, and a couple mares on the other side of the track. Eventually as they continued trotting closer to the track those colts noticed the two fillies out of the corner of their eyes. A forest-green unicorn with an aquamarine mane and a yellow earth pony with a navy blue mane both stopped to look at the two fillies, while another earth pony and pegasus both continued onwards after giving their friends a look for breaking practice just to stare at the two fillies. That’s not to say they weren’t impressed with her looks as well, however they found practice more important than staring.

“So this is what the field you guys have looks like,” Silver Spoon said, completely oblivious to the fact that the colts were staring at her. “It’s not as fancy as the one in Manehattan, but I kinda like it.”

“Pfft, if you want to trade I’ll be fine that,” Diamond Tiara said. She was looking at how the two colts were looking at Silver Spoon and smiling about it. “I wish our field was fancier, but no matter how much I bri…I mean ask the principal he never listens to me.”

“Well maybe it’s because I see that field every day, but I kinda miss the country feel of this field,” Silver Spoon said. “But if you want, maybe someday I can show you the field if you’re ever in Manehattan sometime. I’d be more than happy to.”

“Is it just me, or have you become peppy since going to Manehattan?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Well a lot happened to me since I transferred there,” Silver Spoon said. “Actually Diamond…I really wanted to talk to you about that. You see…”

But Silver Spoon was interrupted as the two colts that were at first looking at her walked up to her and the yellow earth pony waved his hoof right in front of Silver Spoon’s face in order to get her attention. Silver Spoon wanted to talk to Diamond Tiara first and then talk to the colts, but they were persistent in getting her attention. And Diamond Tiara put her attention to the two colts as well so Silver Spoon wasn’t given much of a choice.

“Relay Race,” the yellow earth pony said to Silver Spoon.

“Hey, names Discus Toss,” the green unicorn said. “And you’re name, is All Mine.” 

Silver Spoon was silent out of surprise at the forthcoming of the two colts, but Diamond Tiara just smiled all the more because of it. The earth pony filly walked around the colts and put herself in-between Silver Spoon and the two colts, mostly by pushing the two colts away from her. She looked over at the two colts with the smiles still on her face.

“Stay back you two,” Diamond Tiara said. “I need to talk to my friend alone for now. You two can bug her later.”

“Out of the way Tiara,” Discus Toss said as he took a swing with his right forehoof to show getting out of the way. “We’re here to talk to…”

“Silver Spoon, my friend,” Diamond Tiara reminded him.

“Fine, but you two owe us dates later,” Relay Race said. To Silver Spoon he said “Or at least you owe us a date later.”

“Maybe if you’re lucky,” Diamond Tiara said with a smirk. “But if she’s going on a date then so am I.”

“Alright, I’m good with that. See you both later,” Discus Toss said. He gave a smirky half smile towards Silver Spoon, “Especially you beautiful.”

Both the unicorn and earth pony colt turned around and walked away back to the track. They happened to get there just as their earth pony and pegasus friend passed, which got them another disbelieving look from the two. They both chuckled before the four of them continued on their run around the track. 

“What exactly was that about?” Silver Spoon asked Diamond Tiara as soon as the two were far enough away. “Who are those two?”

“Nopony important,” Diamond Tiara said as she turned to face her friend. “Some ponies that happen to be in track, and I think they’re both going to be juniors next year. But the best part, is they both couldn’t keep their eyes off you.”

Silver Spoon blushed. “Are you…are you trying to get me a date or something? You know I’m only here for a few days to visit you right?”

“I know that,” Diamond Tiara said. “I just needed them to prove something for me, something that you can help me with. And also, if this happened to get you a coltfriend then that’s just another win for you. Just imagine what the ponies in Baltimare will think when you come back taken. You’ll get popular fast.”

Silver Spoon wasn’t sure whether to respond to the date part first, the fact that Diamond Tiara had some sort of plan that she needs help with, or her thoughts on actually getting popular in Baltimare. So she decided to get her priorities straight and go for Diamond Tiara’s plan. Diamond Tiara didn’t usually plan anything unless it was big, and if Silver Spoon remembered anything from her friend then it involves Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle somehow.

“What exactly do you need help with?” Silver Spoon asked. “What are you planning Diamond?”

“It’s easy,” Diamond Tiara said. “I’m going to get Rumble to stand in town square where everypony can see him. As for you, you’re going to put those new looks of yours to good use. Rumble already was gawking at your new looks, so all we need is a little push. You get right up in front of him and start flirting with him while I bring Scootaloo to town hall. Finally, when the time is right, you plant a nice kiss on him right where Scootaloo is able to see it.”

Silver Spoon took a few steps back out of surprise. “Wait what?” she asked. “First off, who is Rumble?”

“He was that colt that was hanging around Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle before,” Diamond Tiara explained.

Through that, and how Diamond Tiara talked about Rumble before, Silver Spoon was able to figure out the next part. “Rumble…is Scootaloo’s coltfriend isn’t he?” Silver Spoon asked. He could have just possibly been a crush of Scootaloo’s or something, but because they were both hanging out together Silver Spoon doubted that.

“That’s the point,” Diamond Tiara said. “We’re going to get Scootaloo so jealous. That’ll teach her for showing off her coltfriend. And if I can get Sweetie Belle there that’ll be even better. Those two will regret the day they ever met me.”

“But…” Silver Spoon was just about to start, but Diamond Tiara cut her off.

“And also thanks to your new looks, after this we both are going to have coltfriends of our own,” she said. “Whether you get Rumble, or if we get those two colts that are in track it doesn’t matter, either way we both will have coltfriends and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle won’t.”

“But Diamond…” Silver Spoon said. “I…I’m not going to do that. It’s not right! I didn’t come here to break up anypony, or get a date. I just came here to hang out with you. And Diamond I need to tell you…”

“Well then don’t think of it as breaking up those two,” Diamond Tiara said in an exasperated tone. She was starting to lose patience at her friend. “If Rumble breaks up with Scootaloo to date you then he isn’t ‘loyal’ anyways. I don’t even know why I have to persuade you on this anyways. I thought you were my friend. I’m helping you get yourself a coltfriend so why can’t you help me?”

Diamond did you have to play the friendship card? Silver Spoon thought. I came here to start our friendship back up after so long, but not like this. I didn’t want to end up doing this.

“Alright fine,” Silver Spoon said reluctantly. “I’ll use my looks to try and charm Rumble. If he stays and doesn't object…then I’ll go through with your plan. But if he walks or flies away then I’m not going to pursue him or force him to do anything. I’m not going to force any breakup or anything.”

Silver Spoon turned around and started walking in the direction of Ponyville. She sighed out of disappointment from what she was about to do, but didn’t let Diamond Tiara see it on her face.

I…promised her that I wouldn’t use my looks for my own purpose again, Silver Spoon thought as she walked around the high school. Rumble, I don’t know anything about you but I hope you’re smart enough to fly away when I come to you.

Diamond Tiara watched as Silver Spoon walked farther and farther away, becoming increasingly smaller in size as she goes. Eventually, as soon as Silver Spoon was out of ear shot, Diamond Tiara looked back at the track behind her. She waited for a few more minutes until the forest-green unicorn finally rounded the track again.

“Hey you!” Diamond Tiara yelled at the unicorn.

The unicorn stopped to look at her for a few seconds. By the look of things he was tempted to continue onwards and ignore Diamond Tiara, but he decided better of it because of her connection to Silver Spoon. So grudgingly, Discus Toss got off the track and trotted across the grass to Diamond Tiara’s location.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I need you to do something for me,” Diamond Tiara said.

“What’s in it for me?” Discus Toss asked.

“Do you want to get lucky?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Alright I’m listening,” Discus Toss said as he took a step back to listen.

“There is going to be a pegasus colt that will be standing at the center of town hall later today,” Diamond Tiara said. “Silver Spoon is going to be flirting with that colt and just to make sure he doesn’t go away I want you to use your magic and hold him in place. Silver Spoon will go on for a while until she finally gives him a kiss. After she does that, you can feel free to let him go.”

“So I’m supposed to watch as the filly I’m trying to get is flirting with another colt and watch as she kisses him?” Discus Toss asked.

“Don’t worry, it won’t matter afterwards,” Diamond Tiara said. “I’ll have already won then. Afterwards I’ll help you get Silver Spoon.”

“Hmm…you know magically holding somepony against their will is against the law,” Discus Toss said. “I could get in a lot of trouble for helping you with that.”

“My father is Filthy Rich,” Diamond Tiara reminded him. “Guess what that means I have access to a lot of?”

“Alright deal,” Discus Toss said as he extended his hoof.

“Good,” Diamond Tiara said as she shook on it. “Head over to town hall later. I’ll make sure to give you the money after you are done helping me.”

“I was hoping for before, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers,” Discus Toss said. He then ran off back on to the track.

Diamond Tiara smiled in anticipation for what she knew was going to be a good day later. Everything was in place for her plan to come into fruition. All she needs to do now, was go find that gray pegasus and get him to stand in town square where Silver Spoon was waiting.   
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rumble was flying several feet over the tallest buildings in Ponyville, which wasn’t actually that high because it was a small town. He was keeping a constant eye on the pathways looking between each pony that happened to be walking along that path in hopes of finding some flash of orange or purple anywhere. He figured he would eventually see Scootaloo somewhere on the road, scooting around on her scooter.

Unfortunately for him though, Rumble didn’t see a spot of orange anywhere as he flew along for an entire hour. And the only purple that he managed to see was Berry Pinch in the market place buying grapes. He passed over Shady Daze and Featherweight at one point in time holding their cameras out as usual, and he even saw Snips walking around looking like he was searching for somepony as well, but he saw no sign of Scootaloo. Eventually Rumble found a good beyond the boundaries of Ponyville to land in some soft grass with only a few buildings a few yards behind him.

Ugg…this is getting me nowhere, Rumble thought after landing and sitting down on the soft grass. I’ve been searching for an hour and haven’t seen Scootaloo anywhere. I never knew how hard that filly could be to find when I want to. Where in Ponyville could she be? I looked over all the spots I’ve seen her ride around on her scooter at…well except for there but I know for sure she isn’t there. I even looked pretty much throughout the entire town, but I still didn’t see her.

Rumble shook his head and got back up. “Well I guess I should maybe check back at the park. Who knows, maybe she came back some time after I left? Not like I have many other options left.”

Rumble turned around and spread his wings out to get ready to fly when he noticed the pink earth pony filly from before was standing right behind him. She was looking at him with an annoyed and impatient look, like she had been waiting for him to notice her for a while even though Rumble was pretty sure he was only there for a few minutes at most. Though just a few seconds after she noticed Rumble noticed her she got that expression of her face.

“Hey you’re Diamond Tiara right?” Rumble asked coldly. “What exactly are you doing here?”

“A little cold are you?” Diamond Tiara pointed out. “Do you greet everypony like that?”

“Sorry but…you were just picking on Scootaloo before,” Rumble pointed out, “And well anypony who picks on her isn’t exactly a fast friend of mine.”

“Well sorry about that but…I’ve just been so jealous of Scootaloo lately,” Diamond Tiara said. “I mean, she has lots of friend, she is a really good flyer, and she even has you. And I guess I still have a few bitter feelings from that. But I want to make it up to her. Which is why I’m here. You’re looking for Scootaloo right now aren’t you?”

“Yeah I am,” Rumble said.

“Alright, well I know exactly where Scootaloo is right now,” Diamond Tiara said. “So if you want, I can tell you where she is.”

“Well that’d be nice but…Scootaloo will have probably ridden her scooter away before I manage to get there,” Rumble said pessimistically. “Heck, she probably rode away by the time you managed to get here.” Though I didn’t see any trace of her there while I was flying over Town Hall. But I guess that was one of the first places I looked so she might have ended up there after I checked.

“Well when I saw her she wasn’t on her scooter, so if you go quickly you might be able to fine her,” Diamond Tiara said. “Just head to Town Hall quickly Rumble if you want to find her.”

“Well…wait, why should I trust you?” Rumble asked. “I’ve heard about you from Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle and they haven’t said anything good about you.”

Diamond Tiara lowered her head and feigned sadness. “I guess…that shouldn’t surprise me. You shouldn’t have any reason to trust me. Not after everything I did to Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle.”

“Well I guess everypony deserves a second chance,” Rumble backtracked. “So I guess I’ll check there. Even if I don’t see her I can ask around to see where she went. Thanks for the help Diamond Tiara. If this works I’ll be sure to help you make it up to Scootaloo.”

Rumble then started flapping his wings rapidly and flew off into the sky bound back towards the buildings of Ponyville. Diamond Tiara watched as he flew farther away, putting a mischievous smile on her face.

“And the winner for ‘best actress in Ponyville’ goes to Diamond Tiara,” Diamond Tiara said to herself. “Keep flying Rumble. I’m sure you’re fillyfriend will really appreciate were you’re going. Speaking of which, it’s time for me to go and find her. And thanks to Rumble, I know exactly where to look.”

~

Rumble was once again flying over the buildings of Ponyville, only this time he had a specific destination. Standing at the center of Ponyville he could see the white round building with two stories and a balcony on top which happened to be Town Hall. From where Rumble was, a few yards away from Town Hall, he couldn’t see anybody that looked like Scootaloo yet, but he continued on hoping that he could find her there.

Rumble put on one last burst of speed in order to go past the next yards he needs to reach Town Hall as quickly as possible, going at a downwards angle. He also closed his eyes to help avoid wind whiplash in his eyes holding him back. By instinct a few seconds later he swooped upwards at a small ark and opened his eyes. He managed to get where he wanted to land, however he was a few feet more into the air then he wanted to be. But either way he managed to land quickly and started looking around for any trace of Scootaloo.

Unfortunate for Rumble as he was rotating counterclockwise around looking he saw no trace of purple or orange that would have indicated Scootaloo was there. In fact there were a lot less ponies around Town Hall then would normally be there on a bright sunny summer day, but that wasn’t what surprising to Rumble. The gray pegasus just guessed that Scootaloo rode off before he got there.

I guess I’ll just have to ask around and see if anypony happened to see her, Rumble thought. Hopefully somepony here knows where she went.

But before Rumble was able to go find somepony asked he heard a voice behind him say “Hey Rumble!” in a peppy yet somewhat sad voice.

Rumble turned around to see who was talking to him when he came face to face with the pink eyes of a dark gray earth pony filly. Rumble took a step back out of surprise from seeing Silver Spoon right in front of his face and Silver Spoon took a step forward. 

“Oh hi uhh…Silver Spoon right?” Rumble asked nervously. He took a breath in and the nice pleasant smell of a field wafted into his nose. It wasn’t as good as the smell of rainwater to the pegasus but it still smell a little pleasant.

“Yeah that’s right,” Silver Spoon said. She gave a wink and a pleasant smile to Rumble which caused his pulse to increase. 

Wow, she looks really good. She looks and smells even better up close, Rumble thought for a few seconds before he realized what he was thinking. Come on Rumble, you don’t need to be staring at her right now, Rumble thought to snap himself out of it. Just…quickly ask her where Scootaloo is and then get out of there.

“Uhh…hey have you seen…?” Rumble tried to ask but Silver Spoon lifted up a hoof and caressed his ear causing him to lose what words he was about to say.

“I’m right here,” Silver Spoon flirted. She continued to caress Rumble’s ear as her face moved closer to his.

Ahh…that feels nice, Rumble thought nearly giving in to Silver Spoon’s attempt at being romantic with him. But then her remembered Scootaloo and he snapped himself out of it. No Rumble, you don’t know her and besides, you’re Scootaloo’s coltfriend! Yes she looks good but you know next to nothing about her, and looks never mattered to you before! Come on Rumble, back away from her before you do something stupid! But even though he tried to move his muscles he couldn’t move them anywhere. He couldn’t get any of his leg muscles to move where he wanted them to. Come on Rumble, move away from her! Rumble commanded himself. Just…move…away!

“Would you…would you mind backing up a little,” Rumble said in a squeaky voice to try and stall until he was able to move. “You’re…kinda close.”

Silver Spoon looked strangely relived as she turned around to walk away a bit. Rumble was also relived for a few seconds but that relief went away when he got a face full of silver tail. Silver Spoon moved her tail around in a circular pattern across Rumble’s muzzle somewhat tickling him and causing his face to heat up. Rumble was sure that his face was bright red right now.

“You know Rumble, you’re one nice piece of colt,” Silver Spoon flirted. “Flying around all the time really gives you a nice body. I bet you…” she strangely enough softened her voice “haven’t…heard that before have you?”

Well no…I haven’t exactly heard that but…Rumble said. But then again I never complemented Scootaloo on her looks either. And that’s probably what caused this whole mess in the first place. I didn’t appreciate what I had. I let my eyes wander to where they didn’t need to, and that gave the wrong idea. Now I have Scootaloo mad at me, and Silver Spoon thinks I like her. But it needs to stop. And I need to stop staring at her and move!

Rumble once again tried to move his limbs with all of his might but no matter how hard he tried to move he couldn’t move anywhere. His body didn’t obey his will at all. He even tried to move his wings which were still placed at his sides, but he wasn’t able to accomplish that. Rumble also couldn’t move his head away from starting at Silver Spoon no matter how hard he tried. 

Great, could this get any worse? Rumble thought.

~

“I still think you’re lying,” Scootaloo said.

Diamond Tiara was walking on a path that leads directly to town hall while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were both following closely behind. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were both giving Diamond Tiara angry and unfriendly looks while Diamond Tiara had a confident smirk on her face. There was an obvious untrusting tension as they walked along, to the point where the ponies they pass by immediately noticed then and scooted away a bit.

“If you think I’m lying then why are you following me?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Because I want to see your face when I prove you’re wrong,” Scootaloo said. 

“Just think about it,” Diamond Tiara said. “Rumble was already gawking at Silver Spoon before. He seemed to really like her looks. So what makes you think that Rumble wouldn’t cheat on you?”

“Because Rumble isn’t like that!” Scootaloo yelled. “He wouldn’t just go for a filly because of her looks. He likes me. He even told me why he…” Scootaloo’s voice trailed off. She remembered that a while ago when they first agreed to be a couple, she told Rumble why she liked him, however she cut Rumble off before he told her.

“He already told you what?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“N…nothing,” Scootaloo growled.

Sweetie Belle decided to take the initiative to help her friend. “Rumble told me that he wasn’t just about to dump Scootaloo for Silver Spoon. I don’t think he is a liar so I don’t think he is cheating on Scootaloo.”

“Yes, because you’re a great judge of colts,” Diamond Tiara said sarcastically.  “You were great at judging Pipsqueak’s character now weren’t you? Which is why you’re still dating him?”

“Shut up before I do something we both are going to regret!” Sweetie Belle said. Scootaloo took a quick step to the left to put a bit more distance between her and Sweetie Belle after that outburst.

“Anyways, we’re here,” Diamond Tiara said as she stopped just after where the pathway splits. “Watch and weep Scootalooser.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both walked around Diamond Tiara on opposite sides of her and looked over in the direction of town hall. Standing a few feet away from town hall was Silver Spoon and Rumble standing quite close to each other. Silver Spoon was rubbing Rumble in the ear and Rumble’s face was redder then a tomato. Rumble looked like he was surprised right now, but he wasn’t doing anything to get away. All he was doing there was stand there and let her do that.

As Scootaloo watched what was going on, her mouth dropped open and her heart fell. A mixture of emotions all boiled inside of her, the most prevalent being anger…and some sadness. Scootaloo closed her eyes for a second and then looked at the two of them, letting all her anger out as she opened her mouth.

~

Rumble’s heart fell as he saw her. Silver Spoon once again walked up to him and this time it looked like her head was coming in for a kiss, but the worst part was this time, out of the corner of his eye, Rumble saw Scootaloo walking up along with Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara. And then she stopped to look at him, right in the worst position possible.

Come on now Rumble! Rumble thought to himself. Scootaloo is right there watching you. She is right there. If you can’t move, then at least yell! Scream at the top of your lungs! Tell her that you’re not in control right now! Tell her that she is your fillyfriend and nopony else! Just…scream!

Rumble tried. He could feel the strain of his vocal cords within his throat as he tried to yell as loud as he could. He could feel the air passing through his mouth and out of it as he attempted to voice his opinion for everypony watching to her. But no matter how hard he strained himself, only one sound managed to resound around the area. And it wasn’t Rumble’s voice that was making it.

“So this is really what you want Rumble?!” asked Scootaloo in an angry but somewhat chocked voice. “Are you seriously doing this? You’re cheating on me for a filly you don’t even know?! You know what, fine. Go ahead. I hope you’re happy with her!”

Scootaloo gave Rumble once last annoyed look before walked away. Sweetie Belle also gave Rumble a look that sent daggers at him before walking off to comfort her friend, and if anything it was an even angrier look than what Scootaloo gave him. Finally Diamond Tiara had a satisfied look on her face.

No… Rumble thought. He knew that if he could move his head he would have slumped down, but his head was still stuck in place. I…couldn’t do anything. I’m…sorry Scootaloo.

Rumble felt Silver Spoon’s lips coming closer towards Rumble’s muzzle and all he could do is stand there, paralytic, waiting for the moment when he would get a kiss from the wrong filly.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you happy now?” Silver Spoon asked. She still had her muzzle quite close to Rumble’s to the point where Rumble could feel her breath as she spoke, however it was still far enough so that they weren’t quite kissing yet.

“…Why would I be happy?” Rumble asked. “I just broke my fillyfriend’s heart.” 

It was at that moment that Rumble finally realized he could move and talk again. He first off backed up to get some distance between himself and Silver Spoon. Next he snapped out his wings first, because they were giving a cramp. Finally he noticed Silver Spoon’s entire face and noticed that she was looking at him with surprise and she strangely enough had tears in her eyes.

“So you’re getting cold hooves now?” Silver Spoon asked. “After you’re fillyfriend catches you cheating?”

“After Scootaloo saw us?” Rumble asked. “If I had my choice I would have been out of here before Scootaloo got here. If I had a choice I would have been out of here as soon as you started flirting with me. But I didn’t. Because…I was too weak.” Rumble closed his eyes and slammed a hoof into the ground out of anger.

“Dang it!” Rumble yelled. “Why couldn’t I move?! Why couldn’t I scream?! Why couldn’t I do anything except for hurt her?!”

“You…couldn’t move?” Silver Spoon asked. Thinking about it now, he didn’t move a muscle while I was flirting with him. He just stood there completely still.

At that thought Silver Spoon noticed Diamond Tiara walking suspiciously into Town Hall through it’s entrance. On her side was a saddle bag that looked like it was full of something and when Silver Spoon squinted, she thought she saw some gold in there. After a few moments Silver Spoon eventually saw the glint of sunlight reflecting on something on the balcony of town hall.

Diamond, what did you do? Silver Spoon asked herself. Her thoughts however were interrupted by Rumble starting to flap his wings.

“Where are you going?” Silver Spoon asked.

“I don’t know,” Rumble said. “I guess I’m…going to find Scootaloo…say I’m sorry…and then after that,” Rumble shook his head “I…I’m not sure what I’ll do. She probably hates me so much now that she won’t take me back, and I don’t blame her. If the shoe were on the other hoof I wouldn’t. And besides…if I can’t be loyal to her, than I can’t be loyal to anypony.” 

Rumble gave Silver Spoon one last sad look, without any attraction in his purple eyes, before he flew off leaving Silver Spoon wondering what just happened.

~

Rumble intended on going to find Scootaloo first before doing anything else, but the more he thought about it the more stupid that plan became to him. Where the pegasus filly was right now, Rumble didn’t know, but if he had any guess it would be at Sweetie Belle’s house since Rainbow Dash’s house, where Scootaloo lives, wouldn’t be an option for anybody that wasn’t a pegasus and Rumble knew for sure neither of them would be anywhere near Sweet Apple Acres. So it wouldn’t be difficult to find her at all. The problem was he would have no chance of getting around Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo would probably chew him out before he would be able to apologize anyways.

So instead Rumble decided to find somebody that he knew would be able to listen to him and maybe even help him.  And in order to do that Rumble landed on a street in front of a small light tan house with a yellow roof just like most houses in Ponyville and walked up to it. He knocked on the wooden door with his right forehoof and waited for a few seconds until the door opened.

“Aye Rumble, what are you doin here?” asked a white earth pony with brown spots over him and a brown mane in a Trottingham accent. 

“Pipsqueak?” Rumble asked. “I could ask you the same question. I’m here to see High Score. What about you?”

“Same,” Pipsqueak said. “And if I’ve heard right we both have the same problem right now.”

“We both…what?!” Rumble asked. He didn’t think Pipsqueak could have possibly heard what happened so soon. They both were at town hall, and Rumble was sure a few ponies besides Scootaloo, Diamond Tiara, and Sweetie Belle saw him and Silver Spoon, but he couldn’t believe word traveled that fast.

“High Score and I both heard you got a kiss from Silver Spoon today,” Pipsqueak explained. “What ever happened to Scootaloo?”

“I’ll…talk about it when we get inside,” Rumble told him as he walked in the doorway. “But how did you even hear that anyways? That only happened a few minutes ago.”

“News always travels faster than you do,” Pipsqueak said as he followed Rumble inside. “Trust me, I learned that well from when I got that chance to sail Maneterranean Sea thanks to Luna.”

They both continued into the light tan house until they reached the area where their friend was. Sitting on a brown couch with a hand held gaming device was a brown earth pony with a mane that’s two different lighter shades of brown and a red/white hat with a green propeller on it. The colt seemed to have a fierce look of concentration on his face as he played whatever it was that was on his handheld.

“Hey High Score,” Pipsqueak said. “Rumble’s here.”

“Just a sec, I’m busy,” the colt nicknamed High Score by his friends said. His hooves were mashing buttons like it was nopony’s business to the point where the clicking sound was resounding all across the small room.

“Busy mashing buttons Button Mash?” Rumble asked, trying his best attempt at humor using Button Mash’s real name. Unfortunately his joke was only half voiced because he didn’t really feel into making the joke now.

“I don’t think you should really be making jokes right now,” Button Mash said. He sighed, “Why is it that I’m the only one here that hasn’t ended up cheating on somepony?”

“I didn’t ‘cheat’ on Scootaloo by choice,” Rumble said.

“So you and Silver Spoon snogging right in front of Scootaloo’s eyes is not you cheating on her?” Pipsqueak asked.

“I said by choice,” Rumble said. Rumble walked over to the couch Button Mash was sitting on and sat down on it next to him. “What happened was I was just going to ask Silver Spoon were Scootaloo was, since we sort of had a fight before, but then Silver Spoon started flirting with me. I wanted to get away, but I just couldn’t. And I wanted to scream when I saw Scootaloo walking up, but I wasn’t able to. There was nothing I could do.”

“You…couldn’t move?” Pipsqueak asked. “How is that possible exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Rumble said. “I was just completely stuck there. I couldn’t move my head, I couldn’t move anything…”

“You don’t need to repeat yourself,” Button Mash interrupted. He still had his eyes on whatever game he was playing, but at least he was listening.

“I feel so weak right now,” Rumble said. “I couldn’t do a thing to stop Silver Spoon from flirting with me, even though I tried. I was just stuck there. I wish I knew why I couldn’t move. Is it my fault somehow that I couldn’t move?”

“You’re not going to spontaneously get paralysis out of nowhere,” Button Mash told him. “Something must have caused it.

“So you don’t like Silver Spoon?” Pipsqueak prodded for self-reference. “I’ve heard she looks like a real beauty.”

“Well she does looks good, and she definitely smells good, but that’s pretty much it,” Rumble said. “I don’t know a thing about her. And when it comes to looks versus personality, well you know which one I’m going to pick.”

Rumble looked up to stare Pipsqueak in the eye and even Button Mash looked up from what he was doing to give Pipsqueak a look. Pipsqueak took a step back knowing exactly what the looks his friends are giving him and the words Rumble told him mean. “Yes I get it guys,” Pipsqueak said. “I know exactly how you both feel about my situation. But this is my choice, not yours.”

“Anyways, what are you going to do now Rumble?” Button Mash asked as he went back into looking at his game.

“I don’t know High Score,” Rumble said. “I want to go and apologize to Scootaloo and try and explain myself, but what is there to explain? ‘I’m sorry I hurt you Scootaloo but I was completely frozen in place and couldn’t stop Silver Spoon from flirting with me?’ Yeah I’m sure that’s believable. Plus Sweetie Belle probably took her over to her house, and I highly doubt I’ll make it past her.”

“Knowing Sweetie Belle as much as I know here you have no chance at that,” Pipsqueak said.

“So you’re just going to give up then?” Button Mash said.

“No I’m not giving up I just…I just don’t know what to do now,” Rumble said. “I wish I knew why I couldn’t move.”

“Do you think a unicorn would have anything to do with it?” Button Mash asked.

“I…don’t know,” Rumble said. “I couldn’tt tell if there was a magical aura around me, but I doubt there would have been if Scootaloo didn’t see any. Is it possibly to hold somepony with magic and not have a magical aura surround them?”

“Don’t look at any of us,” Button Mash said. “We’re not unicorns. You could try asking Twilight, but with the situation that’s going on with her she’ll probably be too busy to help you.”

Pipsqueak sighed. “I’ll…I’ll ask Dinky if she knows anything.”

Both Button Mash and Rumble looked up at Pipsqueak at the same time with surprise evident on their faces. “Are you sure about that?” Rumble asked. “You know she probably isn’t happy with you. And that’s even if you get to her. I’m sure that Time Turner is even less happy with you.”

“Yeah I know but…well she’s the only unicorn I know besides Sweetie Belle so…if you want help it’s the best I can do,” Pipsqueak said.

Button Mash put his handheld on the small table to his right, perfectly putting it on even though there was a lamp on the table. “I’ll ask around town hall as well.”

“Thanks you guys,” Rumble said. Both him and Button Mash got off the couch at the same time. “Let’s see if we can find out what happened.”

~

What did I do? Silver Spoon asked as she sat in front of Town Hall, completely confused. I…told Diamond Tiara that I would only continue flirting with him if he didn’t do anything to stop me. I thought that would be a good way to stay friends with Diamond Tiara, and not force a breakup that didn’t need to happen. But something happened, and I’m guessing Diamond Tiara has something to do with that, and now it all fell apart.

Silver Spoon walked into Town Hall to see just what Diamond Tiara was doing up there. She quickly went through town hall to the back side of it where the staircase to the balcony on top is. After a quick trot up the stairs and around the balcony she eventually reached over to where Diamond Tiara was.

“So how did you do it anyways?” Silver Spoon heard Diamond Tiara ask.

“It wasn’t that difficult,” Silver Spoon heard from a voice that she could tell she heard before today. “All it took was a paralyze spell and a silence spell so that nopony notices my magical aura around him. That colt couldn’t do a thing even if he wanted to. I’ll admit though, he definitely fought it. I had to cast the spell a few times just to make sure that kid didn’t break free of it.”

“Should I ask why somepony who specializes in throwing disks knows a paralyze and a silence spell?” Diamond Tiara asked but at that point Silver Spoon was no longer listening.

The dark gray earth pony ran up to see Diamond Tiara holding up a bag of bits and giving it to the unicorn they meant earlier at the high school track, Discus Toss. They both turned around when they heard the sound of Silver Spoon’s hooves on the wood approaching them. And when they both turned over they got to see the angry face of Silver Spoon.

“You bribed somepony behind my back?!” Silver Spoon asked. “You seriously did this Diamond?! I thought I told you I didn’t want to flirt with Rumble unless he agreed with it! And now look what happened! Scootaloo is hurt and Rumble is blaming himself for hurting her even though it wasn’t his fault!”

“Why do you care?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Do you actually like Rumble now or something? Well if you do then I did you a favor by breaking him and Scootaloo up.”

“Like him?” Silver Spoon asked. “I’ve known him for like half a day, and even in that I know next to nothing about him. Yeah sure he seems like an ok guy, but I don’t know enough about him to suddenly like him. I care because I didn’t like the fact that I hurt both him and Scootaloo. I hated every second of flirting with him, and I hated it even worse when I heard Scootaloo yell!”

“Since when did you care about what Scootaloo feels? Didn’t you help me torment her before you transferred out of here?”

“Yeah before I knew what it was like to feel tormented!” Silver Spoon said with as much force as she could muster. “Before I knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of the bullying!”

Silver Spoon turned around and started walking away. “Where do you think you’re going?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“To find some way of fixing this mess,” Silver Spoon said without looking back.
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With Pipsqueak going to find Dinky and with Button Mash asking around town hall to see if there was anypony suspicious there, Rumble really had nothing he could do. So instead of doing something productive he decided to go against all logic and try getting though Sweetie Belle to talk to Scootaloo. He knew this would probably fail badly, he knew that he would probably get nowhere even if he succeeded, and he didn’t care. The pegasus colt wanted to at least try and hope that maybe he was lucky that day.

So Rumble flew over to Sweetie Belle’s white riverside house with the waterwheel at the side and landed right in front of it. As soon as he landed he looked over at the wooden door and took a deep breath. Then, with confidence in his eyes, Rumble walked up to the door, lifted his right forehoof, and knocked on the door.

After a few seconds of waiting, the door opened up revealing Sweetie Belle on the other side. Rumble opened his mouth to talk to her, but before he could even get a word out Sweetie Belle slammed the door in his face. The impact of the door caused Rumble to stumble backwards a few feet.

“Well that went well,” Rumble said. “I was kinda hoping that I would at least be given the chance to explain myself, but I apparently can’t have that. Well…maybe I can try again?”

Rumble walked over to the door and once again knocked on it. Sweetie Belle one again opened up the door only this time she walked outside of the door before closing it. She gave Rumble a furious look, one that could possibly rival Fluttershy’s stare, which caused Rumble to take a few steps back.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” Sweetie Belle asked coldly. 

“I’m here to see Scootaloo,” Rumble said without flinching at all through Sweetie Belle’s gaze.

“Why? So you can rub in how great your new fillyfriend is?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I don’t think so. You’re going to leave my house now, and if I don’t see you again, it’ll be too soon.”

“Silver Spoon is not my fillyfriend!” Rumble said.

“Which is why you kissed her,” Sweetie Belle pointed out. “You can go now.”

“Listen, she isn’t my fillyfriend!” Rumble repeated. “I don’t have any feelings for her.”

“Then explain what I saw,” Sweetie Belle demanded. “Because to me, it looked like you were just standing there letting that filly get in your face without bothering to try and stop her. And I saw you look at both of us, while you were doing that. If you weren’t intentionally hurting my friend, then what were you doing?”

“I couldn’t do anything!” Rumble said. “I was stuck there, completely still! I couldn’t move if I wanted to. I couldn’t push Silver Spoon away, and I couldn’t go away. I just wanted to ask her where Scootaloo was, since I was told she was in town hall, but Silver Spoon started flirting with me and I wasn’t able to do a thing about it.”

“And do you know why?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Last I remembered you don’t have a habit of getting sudden paralysis out of nowhere. And I doubt a medical condition like that would suddenly appear. So can you explain why you weren’t able to move? Because if you don’t, I can sure think of one.”

“Well…I’m not completely sure,” Rumble admitted. “I…we think that a unicorn might have used a spell on me or something, which stopped me from being able to move or talk.”

“A unicorn?” Sweetie Belle asked, disbelief well in her voice.

“Y-yeah,” Rumble said his voice becoming nervous at her disbelief. “A…unicorn.”

“Mm hmm. And you do know a unicorn is standing right in front of you now, right?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Rumble looked at Sweetie Belle’s horn. “Yeah…I know,” he said.

“Good. So then you know that I know how impossible what you said is,” Sweetie Belle said. “Whenever a unicorn uses magic they give off a magical aura, around their horn and around whatever they are using magic on. If you were being held down by a unicorn everybody around would see a magical aura. We would all know.”

So then…how was I stuck? Rumble questioned. High Score thought that it was possibly a unicorn that did it.

“Is it possible for a unicorn to use a spell without any aura showing?” Rumble asked.

“Not that I know of,” Sweetie Belle told him as bluntly as possible. “So your ‘unicorn’ excuse falls flat now doesn’t it?” Sweetie Belle huffed. “Seriously Rumble, can’t you at least try and give a good excuse? Instead of a halfhearted one? A unicorn did it? Yeah right.”

“Rumble you are horrible,” Sweetie Belle continued. “Not only did you cheat on Scootaloo, but you also had the audacity to make up a stupid excuse, that I can tell you didn’t even fully think out yourself! Let me guess, Pipsqueak told you that excuse? Maybe the colt should have paid more attention when he was dating me.”

“Sweetie Belle I’m not lying,” Rumble said.

“You can leave now,” Sweetie Belle said as she turned around.

“But wait!” Rumble called out.

Sweetie Belle looked back at Rumble, her horn glowed, she opened her mouth wide, and an earsplitting sound resounded around the area. The high pitch of the sound sent Rumble to the ground with his forehooves doing their best to cover his ears, completely immobile because of the sound. After a few seconds Sweetie Belle decided to give the poor colt a break and stopped the sound.

After giving Rumble an annoyed look, Sweetie Belle walked into the house and once again slammed the door behind her. She wanted to grunt in an annoyed tone at Rumble’s presumptuous behavior but she had better things to do then let him bother her. Like go back upstairs and check on Scootaloo, since she probably heard Sweetie Belle screaming and is wondering what happened out there.

Sweetie Belle walked over to her room—a room Scootaloo didn’t usually like hanging out in because it is too girly for her tastes—and as she expected she found Scootaloo how she last left her. Practicing fighting moves on a pillow to get out all the anger she had for what Rumble did. Scootaloo was really going to home with that pillow, knocking it into the air then doing a few hoof chops before flying quickly above it and kicking it to the ground. Every impact Scootaloo did on the pillow caused feathers to fly out from it, and by now the floor of Sweetie Belle’s room was covered in them.

“Rumble was outside,” Scootaloo said as she landed, not looking at Sweetie Belle. It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah he was,” Sweetie Belle said.

“What did he want?” Scootaloo asked.

“He tried ‘explaining’ to me what happened, but I could tell her was lying,” Sweetie Belle said. “I don’t know what he wanted, but I wasn’t about to let him in."

“How do you know he was lying?” Scootaloo asked.

“Because he gave me an excuse that involves a unicorn, forgetting that I am a unicorn and could see through his lies,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Rumble…isn’t like that,” Scootaloo said. “He wouldn’t lie like that.”

“That’s what I thought with Pipsqueak,” Sweetie Belle said. “I thought Pipsqueak would never cheat on my. That he would never go for that…unicorn. But I was wrong, and you were wrong.”

Scootaloo was silent and she continued to pound her anger out of the poor pillow. Whether she believed Sweetie Belle or not was hidden within the same angry face that kept on since she got to Sweetie Belle’s house.

“So anyways I have a plan,” Sweetie Belle continued through Scootaloo’s silence. “We’re going to the Carousal Boutique and I’m going to help give you a makeover. We’ll make you look irresistible and then when Rumble sees you next…”

“No,” Scootaloo said softly. She turned her head over to finally look at Sweetie Belle. “I’m not going to dress up just to make him jealous. If Rumble wants to date Silver Spoon that’s his problem. He doesn’t know what he is missing.”

“Alright fine,” Sweetie Belle said. “I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”

Sweetie Belle turned around and left the room through the door. Scootaloo sat there without doing anything for a few seconds waiting for Sweetie Belle to go far enough. After she figured Sweetie Belle went far enough Scootaloo looked towards the window, but not really at it, thinking about Rumble.

What is up with you Rumble? Scootaloo thought. I never thought you would kiss somepony else. This is something I would maybe expect from somepony else but not you. Why did you do it?

She then remembered something that was said earlier in the day.

“It’s too bad Rumble. You actually get a mare and of course it has to be a mare that you can’t even date. I guess that’s too bad for you. Maybe you should go looking for some other mare that you can actually have your way with.”

~

Ouch, Rumble thought as he groggily got up off the ground a few minutes after Sweetie Belle knocked him down there with her voice. I don’t know what hurt worse: her screaming, that insult, or the fact that I’m once again reminded how much I hurt Scootaloo.

The pegasus looked over at the house once again and his thoughts continued. I know this would be a bad idea, but I didn’t expect it to go over this badly. And if this is how angry Sweetie Belle is, then I can’t imagine how furious Scootaloo must be at me right now. Great, I’m going to have a tough time trying to convince her it wasn’t my fault, especially since I have no proof.

“Rumble, there you are!” said a female voice that Rumble found unfortunate familiar. Rumble turned around to confirm that Silver Spoon was behind him, with a serious look on her face.

Rumble stood there for a few seconds before spreading his wings out and taking off, completely ignoring Silver Spoon. He flew over Silver Spoon and in the direction to Ponyville, though not that quickly. Silver Spoon watched him fly over before running along the ground in order to follow him.

“Rumble wait!” Silver Spoon cried out into the sky.

“Silver Spoon, listen,” Rumble said from the sky. “I don’t need to be seen around you right now. I’m already going to have a tough time when I talk to Scootaloo and I don’t need any more rumors about us floating around.”

“But I have something I need to tell you!” Silver Spoon yelled.

“I don’t care!” Rumble said. “I’m sorry Silver Spoon, but you’ve caused me enough problems as it is! And I really need to fix those problems now.”

“That’s what I’m trying to help you with! I have something to tell you that will help you! I know why you weren’t able to move! I even told that to your friend Button Mash, the colt you call High Score, who told me where to find you!”

At the mention of Button Mash’s nickname Rumble slowed down and looked towards the ground at Silver Spoon. He then trained his eyes on the ground and found a good spot to land on the cobblestone streets of town. As soon as he landed he waited for Silver Spoon to catch up with him.

“You talked to High Score?” Rumble asked. “How did you actually manage to do that? Did he not figure out that the filly with the silver spoon on her flank was Silver Spoon?”

“No he knew exactly who I was,” Silver Spoon said. “And believe me, it took a lot of convincing to finally convince him I wasn’t out to get you. Apparently your friend is better at not getting entranced in my looks then you are.”

Rumble gave her a very annoyed stare, telling her exactly how much he liked her joke.

“Sorry,” Silver Spoon apologized. “I guess it’s a bit too early to be making that joke. Anyways after I explained myself Button Mash told me to go find you, telling me you were probably at Sweetie Belle’s house even though it would be really stupid of you to go there, and if I needed to convince you just tell you High Score. Why High Score by the way?”

“Well…just look at any arcade machine in Ponyville and you will almost always see the initials B.M on the high score slot and sometimes even on all of the scores. High Score is the best gamer in Ponyville, and Pip and I decided to give him that nickname. High Score told you to tell me that, because while that is what we always call him, it’s not exactly known around town that we call him that, and there would be no way you and Diamond Tiara would know that without one of us telling you.”

“Diamond Tiara and me…” Silver Spoon said ponderously. “Why do you mention us together?”

“Because Sweetie Belle told me about what you and Diamond Tiara did to her and Scootaloo years back,” Rumble pointed out. “You two apparently tormented them a lot back when they were still in Elementary School and didn’t have their Cutie Marks yet. In fact if it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t know you or Diamond Tiara I probably would have flown off as soon as I saw you before. I almost wish I did since I wouldn’t be in this situation now.”

“Yeah, I know what I did but…” Silver Spoon said. “That was before I transferred to Manehattan. You see…” Silver Spoon nudged to the side of the road where there happened to be a bench and Rumble followed her to sit down on it.

“Alright fine, but I still don’t want to be seen around you,” Rumble said. “If you want to sit down that’s fine, but I’m going to stand over here. If ponies see us sitting together then I’ll hear no end to it, and that’ll make it even more difficult to convince Scootaloo I like her and not you.”

“Alright, I can understand,” Silver Spoon said as she walked over to the bench and sat down on it. “Anyways, I know I used to pick on them all the time, but then everything changed when I moved to Manehattan. I guess it’s sort of ironic what happened there. You know how I used to insult the Cutie Mark Crusaders for being Blank Flanks?”

“Yeah, I told you that already,” Rumble said. “You used to pick on Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle all the time.”

Silver Spoon gave Rumble a strange look but decided to press on with what she wants to say and ask about what was confusing her later. “Well anyways, when I got to Manehattan, everypony happened to have their Cutie Mark in my grade, so nopony would make fun of you for that. Instead they would make fun of the new filly with glasses and a useless Cutie Mark.”

“You?” Rumble asked.

Silver Spoon nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “All it took was one look at my flank and I was insulted because it was only a silver spoon. ‘What good is a spoon?’ they would ask or ‘is you’re special talent eating?’ I was called useless and sometimes behind my back they would call me a waste of pony life. And the insults weren’t even the worse they did. Some of the things they did…” Silver Spoon shuddered “I never thought it would be so bad. Even we weren’t that bad to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“What does you’re Cutie Mark represent anyways?” Rumble asked. “I mean yeah it’s a spoon but that could mean anything.”

“My Cutie Mark…my special talent is crafting silverware,” Silver Spoon said. “You see, within my estate’s basement we have a workshop where my family makes silverware. My father made his living off selling high value silverware made from precious metals. My father gave me a chance to try it out, even though my mother didn’t exactly approve, and even though I had never tried before I managed to make myself a Silver Spoon. And well…after making that my Cutie Mark appeared on my flank.”

“So you can craft silverware,” Rumble said. “I don’t see how that is a useless talent. If you just told that to somepony then you wouldn’t be picked on so much.”

“Well I would but…there was a reason my mother wasn’t really interested in me trying it out,” Silver Spoon said. “Fillies don’t normally do any of that sweaty work. Fillies aren’t normally supposed to do hooves on work unless it’s sowing. So I never told anypony because I didn’t want to be embarrassed by it. Heck, I was lucky that Diamond Tiara when I first met her only cared that I had a Cutie Mark and didn’t care what it meant.”

“I don’t think that’s embarrassing,” Rumble said.

“Yeah well you’re dating a tomboy,” Silver Spoon pointed out. “If Scootaloo made the world’s loudest burp you wouldn’t care how unladylike it is. But I do. And even though I was being tormented by it, I thought it would only be worse if I told them the truth. So I kept it to myself for more than year and a half. At least until I finally managed to make a friend.”

“The same friend that gave you the tips and accidently caused your coat to darken?” Rumble asked.

“Yeah exactly,” Silver Spoon said. “But that wasn’t for a while. At first she was just a friend to go to and talk with. It was thanks to her that I was able to get through the day and without her, I don’t know what I would be doing today. Being honest, my new look was just because she wanted to help me not be bullied as much. I didn’t get these looks for any dates, to manipulate anypony, or anything.”

“Which is why you did that to me,” Rumble pointed out, getting back on track.

Silver Spoon lowered her head. “I’m…sorry about that,” Silver Spoon said. “You see, I came back to Ponyville to meet up with Diamond again. I wanted to come here and tell her what happened to me in Manehattan. Sure we sent letters between each other all the time, but this is something I wanted to tell her in person. I was hoping that I could tell her and we would see how wrong we were all those years ago. And to tell you the truth…after that I wanted to go over to Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom,” 

Silver Spoon looked up at Rumble hoping for some reaction but got none so she continued “I wanted to go up to those three and apologize for what I did, and I was hoping after Diamond heard what I had to say she would apologize to them too. But…then Diamond threw me into her scheme to make Scootaloo jealous and…if I wanted to tell her then I thought I would have no choice to follow along.”

“Glad I got a say in this,” Rumble said. “And this is how you were supposed to apologize to Scootaloo?”

“Sorry but what I wanted to do, is I only wanted to flirt with you so long as you weren’t opposing it,” Silver Spoon told him. “I was hoping you would fly away or push me away before Scootaloo even got there, that way I could do what Diamond wanted and I wouldn’t cause any drama.”

“Well that worked out so well,” Rumble told her. “I would have flown away, I would have pushed you away, but I couldn’t. I wanted to scream out when I saw Scootaloo come up, but I couldn’t.”

“And…I know why,” Silver Spoon said. “Diamond bribed somebody behind my back. There was a unicorn we met before that she bribed to keep you still while I flirt with you. He even used a paralyze spell and a silence spell on you so nopony could see a magical aura.”

“Are you sure that’s what happened?” Rumble asked. “Because I talked to Sweetie Belle and she said that there was no way anypony could have used magic on me without an aura around me.”

“That’s what that colt said, and I doubt he was lying,” Silver Spoon said.

“Well thanks,” Rumble said. “Hopefully that will convince Sweetie Belle.”

“Hey! Rumble,” Shady Daze called out from Rumble’s right. The light blue earth pony colt with a darker blue mane walked up closer to Rumble using his hind hooves, and was holding the camera he usually had around with his other hooves. It was an awkward and unbalanced walk but a walk nonetheless.

“Spending some time with your new fillyfriend?” Shady Daze asked. “I heard you already got a kiss. Dang, you work fast! But I guess I should expect that from the brother of Thunderlane.”

“She is not my fillyfriend!” Rumble yelled. “Scootaloo is! And we haven’t kissed!”

“Yeah sure Rumble,” Shady Daze said, disbelief obvious in his voice. “Whatever you say. Anyways, I’ll see you later.”

Shady Daze dropped his camera down and finally put his four hooves on the ground. He then walked off after giving Rumble a wink and waved at Silver Spoon. That did nothing to help Rumble’s mood right now.

“That’s strange,” Silver Spoon noted. “You mentioned that you and Scootaloo are a couple, yet Shady Daze didn’t say anything on you cheating on her. He didn’t even mention her.”

“Yeah…” Rumble said, his head lowering. “That’s…sort of both of ours fault. Scootaloo’s and mine. You see, first off my brother has sort of a reputation within this town with the mares, so it wouldn’t honestly surprise anypony that I would do something like this, even though I’m not like that. But that’s for anypony that actually knows Scootaloo and I are a couple. You see…we’re not really the most romantic couple in the world.”

“Define ‘not the most romantic couple’,” Silver Spoon asked.

“We…haven’t even kissed yet,” Rumble said. “Usually when we’re together all we do is practice flying. I mean, we have had a few personal talks, and we have hugged twice, but we have never been on a date, and we have never kissed. Being honest, not much has changed between Scootaloo and I since we became a ‘couple.’”

“So to anypony that passes by you guys are pretty much good friends right?” Silver Spoon asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Rumble said. “And yeah, I can understand why we haven’t, Scootaloo isn’t the most romantic type, but…” Rumble shook his head. “Never mind. It’s something I have to talk to Scootaloo about and not you.”

Rumble looked over to his right where Sweetie Belle’s house was. “Well I guess I better head back and try to get through Sweetie Belle. That…should be interesting.”

“Well I can help,” Silver Spoon said as she hopped off the bench. “It’s the least I could do for causing this mess in the first place.”

“Thanks,” Rumble said as he gave her a half smile.
> Finale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright, so let’s go over this again,” Sweetie Belle said in an exasperated voice. “You’re telling me that you both are not dating, that Rumble really was tied down because of some sort of paralysis spell and wasn’t able to speak because of a silence spell and you seriously expect me to believe this?”

“Well…yeah,” Silver Spoon said. She was standing on Sweetie Belle’s doorstep, Sweetie Belle was inside the house, and Rumble was a few feet farther back and to Silver Spoon’s right.

“Uggg…I told this to Rumble, and I’m going to tell it to you too,” Sweetie Belle said as she facehoofed. “I am a unicorn. So if you’re going to use magic as an excuse, it’s going to fail. There was no magical aura around Rumble, which would have happened if somepony was really using a spell on him.”

“But that’s what I heard from the colt Diamond bribed!” Silver Spoon said. “He said in order to avoid having his magical aura seen he used those two spells on Rumble!”

“Well first off, why should I believe anything you said?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I haven’t forgotten how much you and Diamond Tiara tormented Scootaloo and I. How far you guys would go to make us miserable. There is no reason in Equestria that I would possibly believe you.”

“It’s been what, around four or five years since we’ve seen each other?” Silver Spoon asked. “What makes you think that I haven’t changed within that amount of time?”

“Yeah I can totally see you’ve changed,” Sweetie Belle said sarcastically. “Which is why you were flirting with Rumble. You must have known that he was with either Scootaloo or me, so you must have known that it would make one of us jealous. And I’m pretty sure Diamond Tiara told you exactly who it was.”

“Yes I flirted with Rumble, but I was hoping that Rumble would have pushed me away before I made anypony jealous,” Silver Spoon said. “I didn’t want to hurt Scootaloo nor did I want to take Rumble away from her or anything. I wanted Rumble to fly away while I was flirting with him, and if he didn’t then he shouldn’t have been dating Scootaloo anyways.  But that didn’t work out because as we said before, Rumble was being held in place by a unicorn, a colt named Discus Toss.”

“Do I need to remind you what I said?” Sweetie Belle asked. Her horn glowed light green, and that same aura surrounded Rumble. After holding it for a few seconds she let go. “All spells that I could use on Rumble will cause my aura to surround him. It’s the same with any other unicorn.”

“Have you ever used a paralysis or a silence spell?” Silver Spoon asked.

“No I…haven’t used either of those spells,” Sweetie Belle admitted, “but every other spell that I could use would do that. So why should those be different?”

“I don’t know, I’m not a unicorn,” Silver Spoon said. “But it must be.”

“It isn’t,” Sweetie Belle said. “So you can stop lying now. I didn’t believe Rumble before and I’m not about to believe you now.” Sweetie Belle looked at Rumble. “Rumble, you must be feeling guilty about cheating on Scootaloo or something if you’re so persistent with this lie, but it’s too late. You made your choice, you showed your loyalty or lack thereof, and that’s it. You should have thought of that before you and that filly kissed.”

“Actually…they aren’t lying.”

Sweetie Belle’s head snapped to the right and Silver Spoon and Rumble turned around. Walking closer in a group of three was Button Mash, Pipsqueak, and a teal Unicorn filly with a blond mane. They continued walking up until they reached about the same distance Rumble was from the house.

“Dinky,” Sweetie Belle acknowledged. “What do you mean they aren’t lying?”

“Pipsqueak told me the situation that’s going on,” Dinky said, which naturally got Pipsqueak a glare from Sweetie Belle, “and Button Mash told me about the paralysis and silence spell. So while I don’t technically have any proof, I don’t think they are lying.”

“And what makes you so sure about that?” Sweetie Belle asked. “You should know as well as I do that any spell we use on somepony will cause our magical aura to pour on them.”

“Because what they came up with sounds too good to be a lie,” Dinky explained. “First off, you are right, every spell we use exhibits a magical aura on whatever we use it on. However, if I had my guess the paralysis spell that was used on Rumble happened to be one that affected the muscles within his body. So while the magical aura was still exhibited, and a talented unicorn could use that to detect the spell and who used it, it was exhibited around the muscles, which are inside his body and wouldn’t be seen from the outside.”

“Same thing with the silence spell. It was probably used on his vocal cords so you wouldn’t be able to see it from the outside. It’s a complicated spell, but a good way to avoid getting seen if you want to do something mischievous. Of course just like all spells it’s easily detectible so it isn’t a surefire way of avoiding getting caught.”

Silver Spoon had her muzzle wide open in surprise and fascination. “Wow that’s…impressive Dinky,” Silver Spoon said. “You’re really smart now. Where did you learn all this?”

“After my magic started growing, mom asked Twilight to give me magic lessons,” Dinky said. “She was technically at first only supposed to teach me basic magic, but as I grew better at it Twilight continued teaching me more and more advanced magic’s. My mom is really proud about what I’ve managed to accomplish, since it gives me more options than she had.”

Silver Spoon then remembered that she used to pick on Dinky, and would use her mother as ammunition to insult her. “Uhh by the way I’m sorry about…” 

“Yeah I know,” Dinky said. “I heard about what happened to you from Button Mash. Don’t worry; I’m not still mad about what you used to do to me. I don’t like to carry grudges. That’s why I’m helping you.”

Dinky turned her attention back to Sweetie Belle. “So anyways, if they are lying then it is a pretty well thought out lie for a pegasus and an earth pony that don’t even know a thing about magic.”

“And none of us think Rumble is lying so why should you?” Button Mash asked. “Do you think Rumble would intentionally cheat on Scootaloo and then lie to all of us saying he didn’t?”

“Finally Sweetie Belle, this is Rumble we’re talking about, not me!” Pipsqueak chimed in. “Yes I know what I did to you; what I did to both of you,” Rumble looked at Dinky and Sweetie Belle, glancing between the two before looking back at Sweetie Belle, “but that’s not the point right now. This is Rumble we’re talking about, not me. So can you please let go of your anger of me when dealing with Rumble. You know, like what Dinky just did?”

At that Sweetie Belle was completely defeated. She knew she was down, and she lowered her head in shame. “Alright I get it,” the white unicorn said. “Fine Rumble, you can talk to Scootaloo.”

Sweetie Belle lifted her head up to look at Rumble, but when she did she noticed he wasn’t there. Everybody else also looked to their right where Rumble used to be and noticed he was gone. As soon as everybody noticed Rumble was gone they all looked around the area to see if they could figure out where he went.

“Where did Rumble go?” Dinky asked. “I wouldn’t think he would just leave before talking to Scootaloo.”

Realization hit Sweetie Belle’s face. “No, he didn’t,” she said.

“What did he do?” Pipsqueak asked.

Sweetie Belle didn’t answer him and instead looked back towards her house. She burst in causing everybody to follow her, running as fast as they could to catch up with her. Sweetie Belle continued at full speed up the stairs of her as soon as she reached her bedroom she made a sudden stopped. Unfortunately for her, nobody else knew she stopped so they all ran into her, and into the door. The door itself did not open so everypony piled close to each other, squishing those that are in front.

After a loud sound and a bunch of groaning in pain, everybody pealed themselves backwards and away from Sweetie Belle, who was in-between an earth pony and a hard place. After finally being able to move Sweetie Belle gave everybody behind her an annoyed look before turning back to the door. Slowly and quietly, using her magic, Sweetie Belle pulled open the door to look inside.

“…Dinky even said that there is a spell that’s able to do that,” Rumble said as the door opened enough for sound to come out. “So I didn’t mean to just stand there and let Silver Spoon flirt with me, and I would have done something if I could have.”

The door opened up fully to reveal Rumble talking to Scootaloo. Rumble was standing at the right side of the room, beyond the window that happened to have its windowpane removed, which showed exactly how Rumble got in. Scootaloo was on the left just a few feet away from Rumble, and was looking at him with some anger still in her face but much more surprise and interest.

“So…there was really nothing you could have done?” Scootaloo asked in a soft voice that was barely audible by the bystanders on the other side of the door.

“No but that’s not to say he didn’t try,” Silver Spoon said as she walked into the room, much to the surprise of everybody around her. Both Scootaloo and Rumble’s head snapped to look at her, and Scootaloo’s face naturally became angrier at the sight of her. Of course Silver Spoon expected that, but she didn’t let it deter her.

“According to the conversation I heard between Diamond and the unicorn that held Rumble down, Rumble really fought against the spell,” Silver Spoon said. “The unicorn had to use the spell on Rumble several times in order to keep it from breaking. Rumble really wanted to do something to stop me, because he didn’t want to hurt you.”

Scootaloo gave Silver Spoon a ponderous expression before turning back to look at Rumble. “So you’re not cheating on me for her. Even though you can actually have a romantic time with her? Even though you have somebody to flirt with?”

Rumble sighed. “Well I was hoping this would come up later, but I guess we can talk about this now.” Rumble looked Scootaloo directly in the eye. “Scootaloo, I really like you. I like how loyal of a friend you are, and how I know you will always be there for me no matter what happens. I actually like how you pay attention to more important things then your looks, even though you should probably brush your mane every once in a while. And I like the feeling of flying through the skies with you, or even racing with you on your scooter and me in the air. Your somepony I can connect to and out of everypony in the world, I’m glad I found you.”

Rumble closed his eyes, and took a deep breath preparing for the hard part. While he was doing that, unnoticeably by the crowed a while unicorn left back for down the steps. 

“But…you could stand to be a little more romantic,” Rumble continued. “Scootaloo, it’s been a few months and all we’ve done is stuff that we’ve done before we became a couple.  Very little has changed between us since we called each other a couple. Yeah, I knew beforehoof that we wouldn’t be the most romantic couple in the world; I knew beforehoof that we wouldn’t be kissing every second and going on dates every night. I knew that but still…

“It wouldn’t hurt if we kissed every once in a while. It wouldn’t hurt if we went on a few dates. It wouldn’t hurt if we maybe cuddled up together a bit every once in a while, our hooves around each other. I highly doubt Rainbow Dash didn’t kiss plenty of times before she tied the knot so it’s not like you can’t do it.”

Scootaloo was silent and looked away from Rumble. Rumble felt his heart seize up in his chest, the many things that Scootaloo could possibly be thinking right now going through his head. Otherwise there was silence as everypony waited for Scootaloo’s response.

“How…how was it?” Scootaloo asked, her head still facing away from Rumble.

“How was what?” Rumble asked

“Your…kiss,” Scootaloo said. “With…her.”

Rumble was surprised at the question, not knowing where this is going, but answered it anyways. “We didn’t kiss Scootaloo. Silver Spoon was inches away from my mouth, but we didn’t actually kiss.”

“…you didn’t?”

“No we didn’t,” Silver Spoon said for conformation.

Scootaloo finally lifted her head up to look at Rumble. “…Good. Because I want to make sure nopony takes this from me.”

Suddenly Scootaloo closed the gap between her and Rumble, closed her eyes, tilted her head, and cupped her lips around his. She gave him a kiss, an inexperienced kiss since this was her first one, and a forceful one as well, but a kiss nevertheless. Rumble’s eyes opened up with surprise at first but after a few seconds he closed his eyes to enjoy it as well as he felt his pulse speed up. Rumble walked up a bit closer and lifted up his right forehoof to wrap it around Scootaloo’s head, and Scootaloo followed suit. Together the two stood like that for half a minute, which was one of the longest half-minutes they ever had in their life.

Eventually a bright light flashed causing the two to snap open their eyes and break apart. They looked over in the direction of the flash to see everybody else also noticed that flash and started looking in that direction. Eventually they noticed a camera being held by a light green magical aura, one belonging to a certain white unicorn that was currently obscured to Rumble and Scootaloo because Button Mash and Dinky were in the way.

“Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo yelled, knowing it was her from the green aura. Button Mash and Dinky parted revealing the white unicorn filly giving Scootaloo something to glance at while yelling. “What was that for?!”

Sweetie Belle lowered the black camera down and wrapped the strap around her neck. “I figured you guys were going to make up, and it was going to result in a kiss eventually, so I grabbed the camera,” Sweetie Belle said. “Now after the picture develops I’m going to give this to Shady Daze and all the rumors of you dating Silver Spoon will be done and instead they’ll talk about you two.”

“I didn’t ask you to…” Scootaloo started but she didn’t get very far before Sweetie Belle interrupted her.

“So how was it?” Sweetie Belle asked, meaning their kiss.

“Well if I have anything to say about it, it was great,” Rumble said.

All eyes turned to Scootaloo. “Well…” Scootaloo started. She looked at Rumble. “I…guess we could stand to do that more often.”

“And see a movie tonight?” Rumble asked. “Together, without any of our friends around?”

“Fine, but it better be a good movie!” Scootaloo said. “No sappy stuff or anything. Even if we are going on dates it won’t be anything fancy or sappy. I know for sure Rainbow Dash never did anything fancy for her dates”

“Heh, fine then,” Rumble said. “But I’m still going to wrap my hoof around you while we watch it.”

“…Alright,” Scootaloo groaned. “It’s a…date.”
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that Scootaloo and Rumble made up and shared their first kiss together, everypony went back downstairs into the living room. Naturally since there was only a two pony couch and two chairs the group of 7 weren’t all able to sit on all the seats. Out of an executive decision Rumble and Scootaloo both took the couch, Sweetie Belle took one of the chairs because this is her house, and Dinky took the other couch because Button Mash, Pipsqueak, and Silver Spoon both told her to.

“So now that we’re done with Scootaloo and Rumble’s situation,” Silver Spoon started.

“You know, we’re right here,” Scootaloo interrupted. “You don’t need to talk about us like we’re not here.”

Silver Spoon ignored Scootaloo and continued as if she wasn’t interrupted. “What exactly has been going on between you three?”

Silver Spoon glanced at Pipsqueak, Dinky, and Sweetie Belle respectively.

“Well it’s sort of ridiculous,” Button Mash explained. “A while back Pip and Sweetie Belle started dating. They were dating for a while but eventually Pip broke up with Sweetie Belle and instead started dating Dinky. And that lasted a while before Pip once again dated Sweetie Belle. But since Pip still had feelings for Dinky and even nearly cheated on Sweetie Belle with her, he stopped dating them altogether until he makes a decision about who he really likes.”

“Didn’t she ask us?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Yeah, but I figured I’d give the unbiased explanation of what’s going on here,” Button Mash said.

“Well…why do you want to help anyways?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I want to help because I want to make up for how I was before,” Silver Spoon said. “I used to be horrible to you guys and made you guys miserable, so now I want to help you instead.”

“…Well you don’t need to because I already made my decision,” Pipsqueak said. He looked to his right where Dinky was and to his left where Sweetie Belle was before looking straight and to the floor.

Everybody turned their attention to Pipsqueak. He sighed knowing that what he decided would be the harder decision and the one that would probably get him the most hated, but it was his decision nevertheless. So after a pregnant pause of a long minute, Pipsqueak turned his head to look over at Sweetie Belle.

“Sweetie Belle, you look like a real beauty,” Pipsqueak said. “Every time I look at you I can’t help but be entranced by your looks. And when we first went out I really like you. You were sweet, innocent, and really cute. But…as time went on…I’m sorry Sweetie Belle but you’ve lost a lot of that sweetness that first made me interested in you. You’ve become so possessive and more short-tempered with everypony. And while I do like you the times you aren’t annoyed, those don’t happen often enough. Now all that’s really keeping me attracted to you is looks and well…that’s not enough. So I’m sorry Sweetie Belle, but I chose Dinky.”

Sweetie Belle’s expression fell to one of complete surprise which was all Pipsqueak got before he moved his head towards Dinky. “Dinky, you helped me help Rumble, even though you are probably just as mad as Sweetie Belle is at me. You were actually able to put your feelings aside to help me. If we were out to sea, I know that whatever happens I’ll be able to come to you. I know you probably still hate me right now, but I’m willing to wait until you can trust me again.”

“Pip…thanks,” Dinky said. “I still want to wait before we start dating again, just to be sure, but thanks.”

“…So that’s it then?” Sweetie Belle asked in a quiet, but still audible, voice. She had her head down, looking towards her lap. “Well fine.” Sweetie Belle looked up directly at Pipsqueak. “I hope you’re happy with her.”

~

Now that everything was said and done, and it was now later in the afternoon, Silver Spoon walked back around town, this time alone. She still had a few things left that she wanted to do before the day came to its end, one of which was find Diamond Tiara and have one last talk with her, but of course first she had to find those things she wanted to do first. And it wasn’t Diamond Tiara she happened to run into first.

While turning left on a corner in the streets of Ponyville Silver Spoon noticed a somewhat bulky gray unicorn colt with a pair of scissors for a cutie mark. The colt seemed to be looking around for something, and Silver Spoon had a good guess of exactly who he was looking for. She smiled a pleasant smile as she walked up to then colt.

“Hello Snips!” Silver Spoon said to get his attention.

“Ahh!” Snails said out of surprise as he looked directly at Silver Spoon. And of course as soon as he saw her his mouth dropped and his eyes widened. “I…I…” Snails gulped. “You wanted…to see me?”

“Don’t worry Snips, I’m not here to pick on you,” Silver Spoon said. “Actually I’m sort of here for the opposite. First off, I want to say I’m sorry for what I did to you. I know what it feels like to be picked on now, so I know how bad it must have felt.”

“It’s…alright,” Snips said, his words still stuttering over each other.

“And also…I wanted to thank you,” Silver Spoon continued.

“T-thank me?” Snips asked. “F-for what?”

“For having such an awesome family,” Silver Spoon said. “You probably already know, but I met your cousin in Manehatton, and it’s thanks to her that I am who I am today. She was so great to me even though everypony else wasn’t, and I’m sure she knew that I used to pick on you. You know, when I first met you I didn’t think you would have such a great family, but I guess you shouldn’t judge anypony by their looks.”

“W-well you’re welcome.”

“Well I’ve got a few more things to do,” Silver Spoon said, “but I’m still going to be around Ponyville for the next week. So I’ll definitely see you later!”

“Y-yeah see ya,” Snips said.

Silver Spoon turned around and walked away, though she did turn her head back to smile at Snips while she was leaving. And Snips gave an awkward smile back before waving her goodbye. Silver Spoon kept walking, her eyes still watching as Snips grow smaller because she went farther away. Of course, the problem with her facing away was she wasn’t watching where she was going, and ended up running into another pony.

“Ow!” Silver Spoon said as she rubbed her head after the impact. “Oh, sorry about that. I wasn’t really watching where I was going.”

“So…” a familiar voice responded. “You have changed haven’t you?”

“Diamond?” Silver Spoon asked as she looked forward to get a better look at the pink earth pony. Diamond Tiara was trying to give as neutral of an expression as she could possibly give, but Silver Spoon could tell that there was some sadness in her eyes.

Diamond Tiara nodded her head to the left. “You dropped your hat when you ran into me,” she said.

“Thanks,” Silver Spoon said as she walked a few feet to pick up her hat and put it back on her head. “And yes, I have changed. I know what it feels like to be picked on, so I don’t want anypony to feel how I felt.”

“How did it feel?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“It felt horrible Diamond,” Silver Spoon said. “To know that each day I would go back to school, only to be picked on, degraded, tormented, and sometime even worse. Hoping each day that maybe the bullies would leave me alone that day, hoping that each day passes by quickly so the weekend comes and I won’t have to go there for a whole two days so I can stay at my only sanctuary. It was even worse for me then Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, or Scootaloo because I didn’t have any friends to help me through it at first. I was alone and nopony cared about me.”

Diamond Tiara was silent as she looked upon her friend. Her expression stayed to one of somber making Silver Spoon feel like saying something to her friend, but she wasn’t exactly sure what to say. The dark gray earth pony didn’t even know exactly what Diamond Tiara was thinking right now.

“So then…I guess you’re probably not going to be friends with me anymore,” Diamond Tiara said as she turned around to leave.

“Who ever said that?” Silver Spoon asked. “Diamond…I’m not going to help you anymore. If you have any schemes that could hurt somepony I’m not going to join you. If you continue being a bully then…I will stop. But…I don’t want to stop being friends with you. Diamond, have you gotten any other friends since I left? And I mean actual friends, like what we were.”

“…Why would you want to be friends with a bully like me?” Diamond Tiara asked after turning back to look at Silver Spoon. “You seem to be making plenty of friends already. It’s not like you need me.”

“It was thanks to my friends that I made it through the bullying I had to go through,” Silver Spoon said, “and it’s probably thanks to the Cutie Mark Crusaders being such good friends that they made it through our bullying. So I want to be here to help you go through whatever happens to you. We’ve been friends since preschool, and we both got our Cutie Marks close to each other. I don’t want to have to end that if I don’t have to.”

“Just think about it Diamond,” Silver Spoon finished. “If you were nicer I’m sure you’d be able to make more friends. You remember Apple Bloom’s cousin, Babs Seed? I’m friends with her again too, even though we’re on opposite sides of the city.  If you just be nicer you can get some more friends, and you might even find a coltfriend for yourself so you can stop being jealous of Scootaloo.”

“Jealous?!” Diamond Tiara asked. “I…I’m not jealous of anypony.”

Silver Spoon rolled her eyes. “Diamond, I’ve known you for too long. I know you’re jealous of Scootaloo. You wanted to break her and Rumble up because you can’t stand seeing her with a coltfriend, reminding you that you’re alone, though that didn’t work since their back together again, and closer than ever. And that’s also why you were so interested in getting one from Discus Toss or Relay Race…by the way whatever happened to Discus Toss.”

“After you ran off and he figured he wouldn’t see you again the jerk decided to just ignore me and leave with the bits I gave him,” Diamond Tiara said. “I was shocked by what you said and instead of helping me the jerk went away. Why is it Scootaloo, the filly that doesn’t have any good looks, or any money, or anything can get a perfectly good colt and I’m stuck with nopony?”

“I don’t know Diamond, but I’m sure you’ll find somepony someday,” Silver Spoon said. “Remember I don’t have anypony either.”

“Yeah but you could get somepony easily,” Diamond Tiara pointed out. “You could have a coltfriend at any point in time if you wanted to. Discus Toss and Relay Race both seemed to be interested, and you even managed to get Rumble to gawk at you.”

“Actually…to be honest I almost have it worse than you,” Silver Spoon pointed out. “Yeah I could probably get any colt I want, but which of those colts actually like me and not my looks? It’s probably going to take me a while to find somebody because I would never know if they really like me, or just like my looks. And trust me; I already made that mistake once. But if you’re willing to change and be nicer, just like I did, then I’ll help you find somebody if you’ll help me find somebody.”

Diamond Tiara turned away. “I…still need to think,” she said.

“I’m here all week,” Silver Spoon told her. “If you need somepony to talk to, I’ll be here.”

Diamond Tiara didn’t answer her. She instead gave Silver Spoon one last look before slowly walking off towards her manor. Silver Spoon watched her walk away, hoping that Diamond Tiara would see the error of her ways, and that they both could make a much better friendship out of it.

~

Afternoon turned into evening as Silver Spoon finished apologizing to everypony that was in their class. It took her a while to find everypony, but she managed to eventually, save for one. Some took it better than others, and some didn’t believe her at all, but she expected that. Though Silver Spoon still wasn’t sure how Shady Daze and Featherweight took it since they seemed they were still traumatized from an earlier encounter with a particularly angry Sweetie Belle.

Now all that was left was for Silver Spoon to apologize to one pony. And that pony happened to be on the forefront of her mind for a while now. Silver Spoon hadn’t seen that pony all day, even though she expected to. She had mentioned that pony to several others before, sometimes even intentionally, but had not been given a response. And everypony else seemed to avoid mentioning that pony for some reason.

But now Silver Spoon would be able to figure out just what was up with that pony. She noticed in front of her as she was walking Rumble, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all walking right in her vision to the movie theater. Before they reached the movie theater however, Silver Spoon quickly ran up to them.

“Hey you guys!” Silver Spoon called out as she ran towards them, causing them all to look at her.

“Silver Spoon, you seem like you’re suddenly in a hurry,” Rumble noted. “Something wrong?”

Silver Spoon came to a halt (after skidding a few feet) right before the three. “No, I just wanted to catch you guys before you saw the movie,” she said through pants.

“Before they see the movie,” Sweetie Belle corrected. She was obviously still mad about what happened with Pipsqueak by her tone of voice and expression she looked at Silver Spoon with. “I’ll be leaving as soon as those two get in.”

“Why are you here then?” Silver Spoon asked.

“Nothing really,” Sweetie Belle admitted. “I…guess I’m just here to blow some steam off.”

“Anyways…” Scootaloo said, showing her amazing amount of patience, “why did you need to catch us?”

“I want to know,” Silver Spoon said. She looked mostly at Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, not really focusing on Rumble. “Where is Apple Bloom?”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened and they both looked at each other. Rumble looked on those two with a knowing glance, but decided to let them explain to Silver Spoon instead of him. After having an internal conversation between each other Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both looked back at Silver Spoon.

“Well…you see,” they both said at the same time.