When a doubtful Tangerine is chosen to be the school's new hall monitor, her cousin Babs and their new friend Featherweight help her to try and overcome her insecurities. Will it work and will it be for the better?
When Tangerine is chosen to be the school's new hall monitor, she feels that she cannot live up to the task. Her cousin Babs however, with the help of their new friend Featherweight, is determined to help her by toughening her up a bit. But there might be consequences after the lessons...
It was another bright Monday morning with Celestia's sun shining radiantly from above, with few clouds in the sky. It was the time of day where fillies and colts make their way to school, most of the having their parents accompany them.
Orange Sherbet was one of the parents, walking her daughter Tangerine who had a saddlebag with books and pencils inside it to Gallopsworth Elementary. It takes some minutes to walk from home to school but since it was a straight path to their destination, the trip was easy to make.
"Mother, may I ask you a question?" Tangerine asked.
"But of course, sweetheart." Sherbet said. "What's on your mind?"
"I have always wondered how you and father own the hotel. How do you two work with everypony else?"
Her mother paused, thinking how to answer the question. "Well...I'll have you know that it's not as easy as it seems. Running a business is no small feat. You have to make sure that everything is done right and on time, keep your stock in check, among many other tasks. Not to mention that authority is a very big responsibility. You have to know how to use it."
"I think I understand a little better now." Tangerine nodded.
"Hey, Tangerine! Auntie! Over here!"
Sherbet and Tangerine looked over to the other side of the street to see Babs with her own saddlebag waving to them and her uncle Redwell alongside her. The Oranges joined their relatives to walk to school together. After the last Apple Family Reunion, Sherbet had invested her money to Redwell's new orchard at his offer. Ever since then, Tangerine and Babs got together whenever they could to look for their Cutie Marks together and searching for more members for their club, the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"Hello Babs! Hello Uncle Redwell!" Tangerine greeted back. "Are you both doing well?"
"Yes Tangerine, me and Babs are doing just fine." Redwell chuckled. "In fact, my little filly here was looking forward to talk with you about something."
"Uncle Redwell, I'm not a little filly!" Babs groaned in annoyance and embarrassment. "Would ya please stop calling me that?"
"No can do, Babs. It doesn't matter how much you grow, you'll always be my niece. You understand, right?"
"I guess..."
"I have been meaning to ask Redwell, how is your sister doing lately?" Sherbet asked her cousin. "Is the orchard doing well with you both running it?"
"Yep, me and Apple Dumpling are doing a-okay!" Redwell nodded. "I'll admit that we're starting a bit slow, but we seem to be keeping things together. Some small problems here and there, but that's normal when starting from scratch. So all in all, no real complaints."
After a few more minutes of walking, the group of four had made it to the school's front steps, some students already entering the front door.
"Well, so long you two." Redwell said ruffling his daughter's mane.
"We hope that you both enjoy your day at school." Sherbet added, kissing Tangerine on the forehead.
"Goodbye, mother." Tangerine replied, returning the kiss to her mother's cheek.
"Yeah, later Uncle." Babs grinned, playfully punching his foreleg.
After the fillies said their goodbyes, they walked up the stairs to Gallopsworth School, passing by the fountain. The school was a white and blue three-story tall building stretching out, making it look like a square with one side missing from a view above. In the center was the playground and field where P.E. classes took place.
"Babs, your father said that you wanted to talk to me about something." Tangerine spoke to her cousin. "What is it?"
"Get this, cuz, I think I know wut else we can do to get our Cutie Marks!" Babs said in excitement. "Ice sculpting! It doesn't have ta be fancy, we can start small and make somethin' awesome! So, whaddaya think?"
"Um Babs, I am sorry to tell you that school started not too long ago, and it is still Summer." Tangerine sheepishly pointed out. "We would have to wait until Winter to try that."
The redmaned filly frowned a bit upon the realization. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Darn, I was so looking forward ta that...so what next? Shoul' we try a Cutie Mark in sports?"
The rich filly bit her lower lip, looking unsure. "I do not know...the last time we tried that playing Hoofball, I accidentally broke a window with the ball."
"Oh yeah, I remember...that stallion sure wasn't happy when da ball smacked him right in the kisser." Babs recalled the accident from last week. "But hey, dat was just one honest mistake! I'm sure it won't happen again!"
"I hope so..."
Suddenly, a flash appeared in front of them, causing the fillies to briefly rub their eyes to see what caused said flash.
In front of them was a pegasus colt with a camera strapped around his neck. He had a cream-colored coat, chestnut hair, short tail, light brown eyes ans skinny legs that he could surprisingly stand on just fine. He had also yet to earn a Cutie Mark.
"Oh, was that a bit too bright for you? Sorry about that." he apologized. "I'm just taking pictures of everypony around the school so I can get in the Newspaper Club."
"Uh, who are you?" Babs blinked. "I don't think I've seen you around school before."
"Oh right, my name's Featherweight." the colt introduced himself. "I'm a new student from Corona Park. And what are your names?
"My name is Tangerine, and this my cousin Babs Seed. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Tangerine politely answered.
"Yeah, same here!" Babs replied before whispering in Tangerine's ear. "Hey cuz, do ya think he could join our club? We really need more members, jus' us two together ain't much of a club."
"I think that is a great idea!" Tangerine approved. "But we should ask if Featherweight wants to join us first. We should not force anything on anypony."
"Sure, sounds good to me!"
"Uh, not to butt in or anything, but what were you two talking about?" asked a curious Featherweight.
"It was actually about you. Ya see, we-"
"Hey! You three!"
The loud, authorative voice that had interrupted Babs came from the end of the hallway. It had come from a light blue pegasus colt with brown mane and a yellow sash over his chest. The colt had a smug smile on his face, making Babs groan in annoyance.
"Great, it's Chip Mint again..."
The colt marched over to the three foals whilst keeping his arrogant smile.
"You know the drill, show me your hall passes." he sneered at them.
"Yes, sir." Babs said sarcastically, taking her hall pass out from her saddlebag with Tangerine following suit.
Chip inspected both hall passes and nodded in approval. Upon coming to Featherweight however, he narrowed his eyes. "Didn't you hear me? I said show me your hall pass!"
"But I'm still waiting for-" Featherweight tried to explain, only for the other colt to cut him off.
"Aha! So you don't have a hall pass, do you? That's one demerit for you buster!"
"What!?" Featherweight cried in shock. "Wait, let me explain! My hall pass isn't finished yet! I'm still waiting for it to be ready!"
"Excuses won't help you out of this, so don't try to pull that one on me." Chip snorted.
"Would you cut him some slack!?" Babs snapped at the unicorn. "He already told you why he doesn't have a hall pass, Hall Moron!"
"Talking back to the Hall Monitor! That's one demerit for you, young filly!" he smirked.
"Why you little..."
"Babs, please calm down!" Tangerine pleaded to her angered cousin before turning her attention to the colt. "Chip, may we please go? We will be late for class if we do not hurry."
"Not so fast, missy!" Chip exclaimed. "I'm still talking to you three, and you can only leave when I say so!"
"But..."
The school bell rang throughout the school, signaling that class had begun.
"And now you're late for class! One demerit for each one of you!" Chip smirked, writing on his notepad. "Move along now! Get to your classroom!"
The three foals quickly walked away from the overbearing colt, wanting to get as far away from him as possible.
"Gosh, who was that jerk?" Featherweight muttered.
"That's Chip Mint. He think's he's soooooooooooo important just because he's Hall Monitor." Babs rolled her eyes, blowing away a stray fetlock of her hair.
"Our last Hall Monitor Ginger Snap was not so bad, though. She was fair in her duties and made sure that everything was in order." Tangerine said.
"Really? So what happened?" Featherweight asked.
"Her time ran out. You're only allowed to be Hall Monitor for a month or so." Babs answered. "All I know is dat when I become Hall Monitor, I'll be doing things the right way!"
Tangerine became lost in thought for a while, remembering the conversation she had with her mother not too long ago. Was Chip Mint the example of somepony wrongly using his authority? Tangerine hoped that she would never be like that.
My Little Pony, My Little Pony
Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh...
(My Little Pony)
I used to wonder what friendship could be
(My Little Pony)
Until you all shared its magic with me
Great discoveries!
Tricks galore!
A rich slice of life,
And a heartfelt score.
Budding courage
It's an easy feat
And magic makes it all complete!
You have my little ponies
Do you know you're all my very best friends?
Sometime has passed ever since Tangerine and Babs met the new student, Featherweight. During recess, the two fillies offered to show him around the school in classrooms like history, chemistry, english, art, gym, biology, gardening, music, theatre, cooking, shop, photography (which was Featherweight's favorite), geography and math while avoiding the watchful eyes of the Hall Monitor. They even managed to find his locker. The young colt enjoyed the tour, taking pictures whenever he could.
"Wow, this school's awesome!" Featherweight grinned. "No wonder it was rated four stars!"
"I know, right? This place has jus' about anything you want!" Babs agreed.
"Yeah! So uh, was there something you guys wanted to talk to me about?"
"Hmm?" Tangerine perked up her head, before realizing what he was talking about. "Oh, right! We were going to tell you something before we got interrupted!"
"Crud, we almost forgot about it!" Babs exclaimed. "Anyway, me and my cuz have formed a club for foals without Cutie Marks."
"Really?" Featherweight asked, looking back at his blank flank.
"Yup, and we were wondering if you'd like to join the club! We will do many thing together to get our Cutie Marks!"
"Wow, that sounds cool!"
"So does that mean you'll join us!?" Tangerine asked excitedly.
Featherweight's stopped smiling, looking down at the floor. "Um...I'm not sure. I do like your club, but will it be the best thing for to get my Cutie Mark? I don't know...can I have some time to think about it?"
"Of course you can! Our offer is always open to you!"
"Guys, I'd hate to break this short but we'd better get back to class before Chip chews us out." Babs warned her friends.
"Speaking of Chip, I don't think we've seen him again for the rest of the day..." Featherweight wondered. "Were we really that good at staying away from him?"
The brown filly just shrugged, blowing a tinge of her hair away. Their next schedule was history, their teacher being a green-coated and blue maned pegasus mare named Jane Starr, her Cutie Mark being an open book with light shining from it. Joining their class were Specs, Cutup and a pink unicorn filly with light blue mane and tail having a yellow heart and lipstick as a Cutie Mark, Gloria.
Gloria was a nice filly and friendly to everyone she met, although she did obsess over her looks a lot, cringing and panicking over even the slightest flaw in her coat and mane. She even kept a make-up kit in her saddlebag, ready to pamper herself whenever she felt like she needed to. And although her antics did annoy Babs at times, they were friendly with one another, even when the unicorn insisted on giving the earth pony a better look, to which the answer was always 'no'.
After the students took their seats, Jane went to her desk to begin the class.
"Class, may I please have your attention?" she called, silencing the colts and fillies. "Thank you. Now before we begin I have an announcement to make. You may have not heard of this, but our current Hall Monitor Chip Mint has recently left to Ponyville for some urgent family business, and will not return for another month."
Although the classroom was was quiet, every student was cheering and celebrating in their heads, glad to be finally rid of unbearable, smug colt. And they also knew what that meant: a spot for the position of Hall Monitor, something that almost every foal in the room was eager for. All but one filly.
"So, as you might know, this means that we will be choosing a new student to take his place as Hall Monitor." Jane continued. "Does anypony want to fill in the role?"
Many hooves immediately spang up along with excited shouts begging to be Hall Monitor. Only Tangerine, who was seated in the middle, did not have her hoof raised, looking nervous around all of her fellow classmates.
"You'd have to be crazy to say no!" "Who would actually not want to be Hall Monitor!?" "Only a mad pony would refuse this!"
"Now, now. Settle down, everyone." Jane said, calming her students. "Now, for how the new Hall Monitor shall be chosen..." she reached under her desk to pull out a small hat with folded scraps of paper inside it. "I will be taking a piece of paper from this hat from somepony who has not been Hall Monitor yet. And the student's name I draw will be our new Hall Monitor."
Some students moaned, probably those who have already been Hall Monitors before, while others were impatiently waiting for their teacher to pull a name out of the hat.
"Oh boy! If it's me, I can stop bad guys just like Superstallion!" Cutup thought in excitement.
"Watch out, Ethquetria! Soon, Atomic Thpecs'll be here to sthave you from evil doers everywhere!" Specs dreamed.
"Please let it be me! I want to wear that sash, just to see how it looks on me!" Gloria pleaded.
"Wow, imagine me as a Hall Monitor! Can you believe how awesome that'd be?" Featherweight said in amazement.
"What if me and Tangerine could get our Cutie Marks for this? It'd be so awesome!" Babs excitedly thought.
"Please let it be anypony but me, please let it be anypony but me..." Tangerine pleaded, the only student not enthusiastic over this.
"And our new Hall Monitor is..." Jane reached into the hat, pulled out a name and read it before revealing it to the class.
"Tangerine!"
Despite not getting the position of Hall Monitor, everyone else applauded for the shocked filly.
"Congratulations, dear! Come up here and get your sash!" Jane smiled, holding the yellow sash with her wing.
Tangerine slowly walked through the still-applauding students to the teacher.
"Um...Ms. Starr?" Tangerine nervously spoke.
"Yes, Tangerine?"
The rich filly was about to decline being Hall Monitor and give the sash to someone else, until she remembered what the students were shouting when they volunteered to be Hall Monitor. She didn't want anyone to think that she was too scared to take on the role of Hall Monitor. She sighed before reluctantly muttering "I accept."
After school was over for the day, many students in the class went to congratulate Tangerine for getting to be Hall Monitor, who was now wearing the yellow sash over her chest.
"Tangerine, this is so cool! You, the Hall Monitor? You could get a Cutie Mark out of this!" Babs cheered for her cousin.
"Wow Tangerine, you could be exactly like Batfilly, an awesome superhero!" Cutup grinned.
"Nuh uh, sthe's more like WondtherMare, what with thying up crooks here and there!" Specs disagreed with his friend.
"Oh, what do you know!? Batfilly does practically the same thing!"
"Please ignore those two for now." Gloria suggested, leading Tangerine away from the arguing colts. "But anyway, congratulations once again on being named Hall Monitor! I kind of envy you, Tangerine. I've always wanted to wear that sash, just to see how I look with it. Oh well, there's always next time."
"My first day in school, and I'm already friends with the Hall Monitor! I can't believe my luck!" Featherweight beamed. "So, what's it like being Hall Monitor?"
"Um..." Tangerine trailed, not sure how to answer.
"Tangerine, are you all right?" Gloria asked, noticing her uneasy look.
"I am, it is just that...I do not know how to be Hall Monitor..." Tangerine admitted.
"It's okay Tangerine. I'm pretty sure that's how it's like for many ponies!" Featherweight consoled the filly.
"No, I think I know wha' she means." Babs said in realization. "You're not exactly the aggresive type, are you?" the green-maned nodded to her cousin's question.
"Oh...that might be a problem..." Gloria said in understanding.
"I agree. I just can not make myself appear forceful to others." Tangerine agreed. "I do not think I will ever be a good Hall Monitor..."
"Hey, don't say dat! You can be great Hall Monitor! All you need is some help!" Babs encouraged. "And Featherweight and I will be happy to help ya!"
The pegasus colt widened his eyes in surprise. "Hey wait! Why are you dragging me into this?"
"It's just so you can see how our club works! By watching and working with us, you can decide whether you wanna join or not. So, how 'bout it?"
"Well..." Featherweight paused. After some seconds, he nodded. "Okay, I'll come along."
"I can see that you three are going to be busy these days." Gloria smiled. "So Babs, can I join too?"
"Uh, no offense Gloria, but you'll just be giving fashion tips to Tangerine, which I'm sure she already knows of since she lives in a really expensive hotel." Babs said, making the pink filly frown a bit.
"It never hurts to know a bit more though!" Gloria then sighed. "Oh well. Feel free to call me if you ever need me. Good luck, I hope everything works out!" Packing her saddlebag, Gloria walked away to meet up with her parents.
"Babs, you do not really have to do this." said the nervous rich filly.
"Of course I do! Anything to help my cuz!" Babs grinned, putting a foreleg over Tangerine. "Just you wait Tangerine! We'll make you da best Hall Monitor this school could ever have!"
After Babs had sworn to help Tangerine in her dilemma, she led her cousin and their new friend Featherweight through the city of Manehattan, catching glimpses of a few of its landmarks along the way. After a bit of walking, the redmaned filly showed their destination, the Manehattan Library.
"A library?" Featherweight asked. "Do you want to find some sort of book to help Tangerine?"
"Yup, I got a good feeling dat da book we need to help my cuz is in dat library!" Babs nodded.
"But what if it is not in there?" asked an uncertain Tangerine.
"Then I'll think o' somethin' else. I ain't lettin' my cuz down!" Babs proclaimed. "Now c'mon, let's get goin'!"
Waking inside the library, the trio of foals saw some books scattered across the tables. It seems as if the library was being cleaned, yet no one could be seen inside.
"Huh, where is she?" Babs wondered before taking a deep breath. "TWILIGHT! ARE YOU IN HERE!?"
"Babs, you can not shout inside libraries! You could get in trouble!" Tangerine nervously shushed her cousin.
"Please no yelling inside the library!"
"Too late for that." Featherweight sighed.
"Who's down there?" came the voice from the second floor. Eventually, an annoyed Twilight Sparkle walked downstairs, her face softening once she recognized the foals. "Babs! Tangerine!"
"Hello, Miss Twilight." Tangerine smiled in greeting.
"And hello to you two as well. It's nice to see you girls inside the library." Twilight said. She then took notice of the colt alongside them. "And who might you be? Are you a new friend of theirs?"
"Yeah, the name's Featherweight! Nice to meet you!" the colt grinned.
"Likewise! I'm Twilight Sparkle, the owner of this library. So, is there anything I can help you with?"
"We're lookin' fer a book that builds confidence, you got anything like dat in your library?" Babs replied.
"Yes, I should have some at the moment." Twilight nodded. "But may I ask why you need it?"
"I believe the book is meant for me, Miss Twilight." Tangerine said.
"Yeah, she's been picked for Hall Monitor duty and she's kinda nervous about it." Featherweight continued for her. "Then Babs came up with the idea of making her tougher for the role."
"A Hall Monitor? That's wonderful!" Twilight smiled. "They do everything to keep the order balanced at school and to make sure everypony follows the school rules!"
"Hey Twilight!" called a voice from the other side of the library. It was Spike near a table with some books scattered across it. "What do I do with these books again?"
"Just put them in alphabetical order and I'll help you put them back on the proper shelves." Twilight called back. "Now come along, and I'll show you what we have."
Tangerine and Babs followed Twilight to another shelf while Featherweight, stunned and amazed to see a real dragon, went to Spike.
"Whoa! Are you real!? Are you really a dragon!?" the pegasus colt spoke excitedly.
"Uh...yeah, pretty much. I'm Spike." Spike blinked, already feeling weirded out. 'It's Fluttershy all over again...'
"That's so cool! I'm Featherweight! A talking dragon, that's so awesome!" Featherweight's smile disappeared as a thought crossed his mind. "Hey, how old are you anyway?"
Spike scratched his head. "Uh, around your age I guess..."
"So how come you're not at school with all the other foals?" Featherweight asked.
"Believe me, when you live with somepony like Twilight, you don't need to go to school." Spike rolled his eyes.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Twilight questioned with narrowed eyes at the baby dragon, having heard what he said.
"Nothing."
"Featherweight, come over here! I think we found it!" Babs called.
The colt complied and flew over to the others, scattering some papers around a bit due to his flight.
"Ack! No flying please!" Twilight cried. "Oh, now I'll have to sort these all over again..."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that..." Featherweight apologized, looking down.
"It's fine, I can organize these later I suppose...so anyway, I assume you three found what you were looking for?"
"Dat's right! We gots it right here!" Babs grinned, holding up the book she was looking for.
"'Iron Will's Iron Methods of Assertiveness'." Tangerine read the title of the book, already feeling uncomfortable by it.
"Babs, are you sure you want this book?" Twilight said in concern. "I wouldn't say it's bad but it has some questionable advices. I have others beside this one."
"No, it's cool! I had dis book to help me against bullies who made fun of me all da time, so it should also help Tangerine on being a Hall monitor!"
"All right, if you insist. Would it be all right for me to advice that you at least borrow more than one book with you?"
"I do not see why not. More information should help us a lot." Tangerine said.
"Ok, we'll take dis along with wut else youse got." Babs shrugged.
"All right, come with me everypony." Twilight said, leading them to the front desk. There, the three foals had checked out the book Babs had been looking for along with one that Twilight recommended, 'Confidence-Building 101'.
"Thank you, Miss Twilight." Tangerine smiled.
"Yeah, maybe these books could help Tangerine out a lot!" Featherweight nodded.
"See ya later, Twi! Thanks again!" Babs grinned. "Okay you two, let's go!"
After bidding the foals farewell, Twilight went over to Spike to help him reorganize the papers that Featherweight had accidentally scattered around. "Well, here we go again..."
"Hey, Twilight?" Spike called.
"Yes, Spike?"
"I think I found some weird book that has your name on the title."
"Really?" Twilight perked her head up. "I never heard of a book like that before. Maybe I'll read it later when I have the time."
Spike said nothing, looking at the black book he was holding in his claws. 'I don't know why, but I got a feeling that this is one book that Twi won't like...'
The next day at school during recess, Babs had Tangerine and Featherweight listen to what she had to say at one of the tables with one of the books they had borrowed from the library; specifically the one Babs had been looking for, 'Iron Will's Iron Methods of Assertiveness'.
"All right guys, I think we have wut we need to help my cuz be a great Hall Monitor!" Babs said eagerly. "Dis book will solve all of her problems!"
"But what about the other book Twilight let us borrow?" Featherweight reminded her.
"We'll look at it later. Right now, Iron Will is gonna give ya all da help ya need, cuz!"
"I am not so certain about this..." Tangerine bit her lip. "What if I do this wrong?"
"Ease up cuz! No one does it right da first time!" Babs comforted her cousin. "Jus' keep practicing, and you'll get better at it!"
"Just what kind of advice does Iron Will give anyway?" Featherweight asked.
Babs responded by showing Tangerine and Featherweight the book. The pegasus colt and earth filly read some rather odd sentences in the book.
"'Don't be shy, look 'em in the eye'? 'Treat me like a pushover, and you'll get the once over'?" Featherweight raised an eyebrow.
"'When somepony tries to block, show them that you rock'...'You laugh at me, I wrath at you'..." Tangerine looked to her cousin with doubt. "Cousin Babs, I mean no offense, but how is this supposed to help me?"
"Oh no, dose are just his catchphrases he likes to shout." Babs explained. "The guy is kinda weird, but his advice really helped me to stand up against bullies. Wut we're looking for in here is to build up your confidence. Dat way, you'll have no problem being a Hall Monitor, right?"
"I suppose so..."
"So what's our first step we should take? Featherweight asked.
"I think I got some ideas." Babs said after packing away the book.
"Really? Like what?"
"Iron Will says dat you have to practice being assertive wit your family and friends so you can have an idea on how to do it right. Me and Featherweight here will pretend to fight one another, and then it's your job to break us up Tangerine. Got it?"
"I think so..." Tangerine slowly nodded.
"Cool." Babs grinned. "Featherweight, I want you to hit me."
"WHAT!?" the pegasus colt and earth filly cried in shock.
"Babs! I can't do that!" Featherweight protested.
"Featherweight is right! It is rude for a colt to hit a filly!" Tangerine agreed.
"Calm down, you guys. I meant it as in pretend hit." Babs clarified, rolling her eyes a bit.
"...oh. That does sound better than a real hit."
"Besides, I don't think that Featherweight can really hit that hard."
"Oh come on. Do I really look like a spoony bard to you?" Featherweight pouted.
"Relax, I'm just teasing a bit." Babs chuckled. "Now c'mon, pick a fight with me so Tangerine can put a stop to it."
"But how? What do I do?"
"Tell me to give you my lunch money."
"O-Okay..." Featherweight cleared his throat and put on the most menacing face he could. "Hey you! Where's my lunch money!? ...was that good?"
"Yeah, that was perfect!" Babs whispered back before getting into character. "What business is it of yours, jerk!?"
"Shut up and give me what I want!"
"And what if I don't!? Are you gonna beat me up!?"
"Sounds tempting!"
"Oh now you're asking for it, punk! I'm gonna..." Babs paused to turn at Tangerine, who was watching in concern. "Uh, cuz? You're supposed to stop us, remember?"
"Oh, my apologies! I forgot!" Tangerine said sheepishly.
"It's fine. Just get in between us." Babs continued back to her act with Featherweight. "I got a lunch for you all right! How about a hoof-sandwich!?"
"Um, excuse me..."
"Oh ho, a funny one, huh?" Featherweight sneered, keeping up the act. "Let's see how funny things are after I grind you to a pulp!"
"Hello? I am trying to talk to you..."
"I'd like to see you try!" Babs challenged the 'bully'.
"Please listen, I have something important to say..."
"You want to fight me? You're making a big mistake!" Featherweight smirked to his 'victim'.
"Are two listening to me...?"
Babs blew a lock of her hair away, narrowing her eyes. "We'll see about that! I'm gonna-"
"Please stop fighting..."
Babs and Featherweight both blinked, turning to Tangerine who was looking at them with pleading eyes.
"Please stop. I do not want you two fighting..." she begged.
Babs ears fell flat when she realized that her cousin was sincerely hurt. "Hey, it's all right Tangerine. Me and Featherweight aren't really fighting, it's jus' pretend. We're not mad at each other."
"But it looked so real..."
"Um, maybe we should try something else." Featherweight suggested in concern.
Babs agreed, for her cousin's sake.
The three foals were now at another part of the playground, sitting on the swings.
"What should we do now Babs?" Tangerine asked her cousin.
"Well, Iron Will also says dat experiencing your problems head on without hesitation is also a good way to build your confidence." Babs spoke in thought, reading the book. "All we gotta do is find someding a Hall Monitor can take care of."
"But it could take forever for an opportunity to come up." Featherweight argued. "Are you even sure that Tangerine is ready to confront the other students already?"
"Don't worry, we'll be backing her up. It's not like she'll be alone."
In front of them, a white pegasus filly with a blue mane and a blue cloud Cutie Mark was finishing a candy bar she was eating and threw the wrapper away before walking off.
"Dere's our chance!" Babs eagerly exclaimed. "Tangerine, go tell dat filly to clean up her mess!"
"Yeah, you can do it!" Featherweight encouraged her.
"All right, I'll try..." Tangerine gave in, walking to the white filly. "Um, excuse me."
The filly turned her head back to the earth pony. "Yeah?"
"I hate to be a bother, but you littered that piece of candy wrapper to the ground. Maybe you should take responsibility and properly throw it away in a garbage bin?"
The pegasus filly looked to where Tangerine was pointing to the candy wrapper she had thrown away. "Oh, sorry about that. I would go pick it up, but my geography class will start soon and I can't be late. Can you put it away for me please?"
"I suppose so..." Tangerine complied. "You should hurry to your class then."
"Thanks, I really appreciate it!" the white pegasus filly smiled before walking away.
Tangerine did as the filly requested and put the littered candy wrapper away in a trash bin. When looking to her cousin and friend, she saw them frowning a little, much to her concern.
"Babs? Featherweight? What is the matter?" Tangerine asked them. "I solved the problem, did I not?"
"Cuz, dat's not how Hall Monitors are supposed to act, dey have to say 'no' for an answer and order others to do da right thing." Babs explained.
"But is that not mean to others?"
"Think of it more as 'Tough, but Fair', like Iron Will would say."
"So now what do we do?" Featherweight asked.
"We try again." Babs said in determination. "We just have to look for something else dat Tangerine can solve."
"Like what?"
"Like dat!" Babs pointed to a line on the playground at a slide where one green earth pony colt cut in front of the others. "Tangerine! Put dat line-cutter in his place."
"Ok..." Tangerine nodded, mustering up what courage she had as she walked to the colt who had cut in line. "Excuse me..."
"What's up?" he responded.
"I saw you cutting in front of the others. I am going to have to tell you to go to the back of the line and wait like everypony else."
"Oh, that. I can explain. My friend here was reserving my spot for me so that I could get here with no problem."
"Oh, my mistake then." Tangerine apologized.
"Hey, it's fine." he waved it off, moving along with the line.
Seeing that everything was fine, Tangerine walked back to her cousin and friend, who have sighed deeply.
"Tangerine..." Babs groaned.
"What? It was just a misunderstanding, his friend had reserved his spot for him." Tangerine explained.
"No Tangerine, students aren't allowed to do that." Featherweight shook his head. "It doesn't matter what your excuse is, reserving spots in lines aren't allowed."
Realizing her mistake, she saw that it was too late to correct it as the green earth colt had already slid down the slide. "Oh no..."
"Tangerine, you can't let others take advantage of you like dat. You gotta stand up and let dem know dat you ain't falling for any of their tricks, like Iron Will would say."
"Wow, you sure like this Iron Will guy." Featherweight commented.
"Yeah, his advice really helps! I've seen lots of bully victims fighting back because of him!"
Tangerine pondered on that. Sure, Iron Will probably means well with his methods of assertiveness, and it did seem to help ponies, but is it right to change them into the personalities of the very ponies they are being tormented by? Is it worth it in the end?
"Tangerine? Are you ok?" Featherweight asked in worry.
Tangerine snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh yes...yes, I am fine."
"So Babs, anymore ideas?"
"I still got some things in mind." Babs said. "I'll show you at the hallways. Follow me!"
Complying to the red-maned filly's words, Tangerine and Featherweight followed after her inside the school into the hallways.
"I think you better hurry with this, Babs. Recess is almost over!" Featherweight warned her.
"Don't worry, it'll be quick!" Babs assured the colt, and then turned to Tangerine. "Now cuz, as we all know, running and flying around the hallways ain't allowed. So me and Featherweight will be goofing off around here, and you're supposed to stop us. You got it?"
"Yes, I understand." Tangerine nodded.
"Good. Let's get started."
At once, Babs and Featherweight began to run, jump, bounce and fly around the hallways.
"Wheee! Playing around here is so much better than dat dumb playground!" Babs cheered as part of her act.
"Yeah! Screw the rules, I got wings!" Featherweight also cheered.
"You two should stop." Tangerine firmly spoke, but since she spoke too soft she was not heard by her cousin and friend.
"Woohoo! Nopony's here to stop us!" her cousin shouted and rattled the lockers along her way.
"We're going to do this all day long!" the pegasus colt cried, flying around doing some tricks.
"I said for you two to stop." Tangerine tried again with no success.
"Do a barrel roll!" Babs shouted to Featherweight.
"Piece of cake!" Featherweight grinned, spinning around a few times.
"I won't ask again. Stop now." Tangerine tried a third time, but her soft voice could not reach the two 'troublemakers'.
"Okay, stop!" Babs shouted, telling everyone to stop the act. Sighing in frustration, she walked to her richer cousin. "Wut happened cuz? You was supposed to stop us."
"But I was!" Tangerine insisted. "I was telling you both to stop, but you would not listen!"
"Tangerine, how exactly did you tell us to stop?" Featherweight questioned her.
"By asking both of you politely."
"Cuz, I hate to break it to you, but Hall Monitor don't play nice." Babs sighed. "After all, Iron Will didn't make it big by playing nice. You gotta show 'em dat you mean business, and not hold back."
Suddenly, the school bell began to ring, meaning that it was time for the students to return to class.
"Well, that's it for now." Featherweight mulled as walked to their classroom. "Are there any ideas left, Babs?"
"Jus' one, but we'll have to wait until school's almost over." Babs answered.
"Really? What is it?" Tangerine asked in curiosity.
"Um, C-Cousin Babs? I-I am n-n-not so sure about this..."
Tangerine trembled on the middle of the hallway as Babs and Featherweight watched from the corner.
"I agree with her Babs!" Featherweight spoke in worry. "Don't you think that it's too early for her to try this?"
"Don't worry guys, that's wut me and Featherweight are here for!" Babs assured them. "Now let's go over the plan again: as we all know, all the foals come running out of their classrooms to da front door when school's over. Tangerine, your job is to shout at dem at da top of your lungs for them to stop and leave da school properly. In case that don't work, you run up to me and Featherweight at this corner here and we'll keep you safe. You got all dat?"
"But Babs, I am not sure if I can..."
The school bell interrupted Tangerine making her gulp, knowing that meant that school was over for the day.
"Dis is it, cuz! Get ready!" Babs told her.
As nervous and scared as she was, Tangerine did her best to steel herself for the upcoming stampede of students, taking a deep breath and waited for them to come. Few seconds later, many cheering students came running down the hallway right towards Tangerine. Her eyes widened and she froze in place at the sight.
Seeing this, Babs quickly motioned to Tangerine to come over to her and Featherweight. "Hey, Tangerine! Come over here!"
However, it looked as if the filly did not hear her, for she was more concerned about the big wave of students coming at her.
"Tangerine! Hurry, get over here!" Featherweight desperately cried.
It seemed that Tangerine had forgotten about Babs and Featherweight, for she began screaming and running to the front door, running away from the stampede.
"TANGERINE NO!" Babs shouted in concern, attempting to run after her only to get pulled back just in time by Featherweight before the students had ran over her.
After the last of the students had left, Babs and Featherweight immediately ran outside the school to find Tangerine. However, she was nowhere in sight.
"Tangerine!?" the pegasus colt called out to her in concern. "Hey, Tangerine!"
"Cuz! Cuz, where are you!?" Babs shouted to her, fearing the worst.
"Babs! Featherweight! Up here!"
The two foals looked up and were surprised to find Tangerine hanging on the school flag.
"Tangerine? How did you get up there?" asked a baffled Featherweight.
"I do not know, but now I can not get down!" Tangerine cried. "Please help me!"
"Hang on cuz, we'll get you down!" Babs called to her.
She and Featherweight ran to the flag pole and pulled the ropes down, slowly lowering the school flag until Tangerine was safely back on the ground.
"Hey, are you all right!?" Was the first thing that Babs asked Tangerine.
"Yeah, you're not hurt, are you!?" Featherweight asked in equal concern.
"I am fine, but I was very scared..." Tangerine whimpered, and Babs immediately hugged her to calm her down.
"It'll be all right, Tangerine. We're here for you. It'll be fine." she comforted her cousin.
"Ok..."
"So...what do we do now?" Featherweight began. "I don't mean to be a moodbreaker or anything, but today was a complete bust."
"We'll try again tomorrow." Babs answered in determination. "I ain't giving up. We will help Tangerine no matter what!"
Tangerine looked down in uncertainty. While she does appreciate Babs' determination, support and willingness to help her but after today, the rich filly is seriously doubting that she could be a Hall Monitor after everything that has happened. Maybe she just wasn't suited for the role...
After the unsuccessful attempts today on her hall monitor duties, Tangerine immediately went home to earn some rest, while Babs sworn to come up with better tactics for her tomorrow, consulting the Iron Will book for advice and Featherweight promised to help however he could. Tangerine appreciated their support, but now she wanted nothing else but to relax after such a tough day.
During the evening, the Orange family were eating orange-sesame coleslaw for dinner. Tangerine was slowly nibbling at her food, still thinking about the duties she was supposed to do as a hall monitor, yet doubting herself a lot. If she couldn't do anything right today at school, how could she ever be a good hall monitor?
Her silence was noticed by her parents, who grew concerned for their daughter.
"Tangerine, is something the matter?" Sherbet asked their daughter.
The filly slowly turned her eyes to them. "Why would you say that, mother?"
"I agree with your mother, dear. You have barely touched your plate and you look like as if something is bothering you." Mosley pointed out. "Please, tell us what's on your mind."
Tangerine wanted to keep quiet because she did not want to worry her parents. However, she was taught not to lie, and couldn't find herself keeping a secret from her parents. And so Tangerine told Sherbet and Mosley everything: from being chosen as the new hall monitor, her doubts, Babs' support along with Featherweight, her failed attempts at performing her duties, everything. Her parents listened to every last word she said.
"Well...this is quite the situation you're in..." Mosley muttered in concern.
Tangerine put her forehooves over her eyes. "What do I do? I do not feel like I am meant to be hall monitor but I do not want to let Babs down, not when she is doing so much to help me..."
Sherbet wrapped one of her forelegs around her daughter in a soft yet tight hug, comforting her. "There there my sweet citrus blossom...there is nothing to be ashamed of..."
"Your mother is absolutely right, sweetheart." Mosley joined in the hug. "You don't have to go out of your way to prove anything."
"But what do I do? I do not know what I am supposed to do..." Tangerine whimpered.
"Well...how about you try for one more day being a hall monitor? Perhaps there might still be a chance for you to prove yourself." her father suggested
"And if you truly feel that it is not for you, it is all right to say so to your cousin and your new friend. I'm sure they'll understand." Her mother added.
"Is...is it all right to be bad at something?" Tangerine asked her parents.
"Of course it is my little seedling. Nopony is perfect. Why, you should hear about the time your father tried to herd the cattle back in our younger days. He was absolutely hopeless. Why, he actually tried to..."
"Now now dear, I thought we promised not to talk about that again..." said an embarassed and sheepish Mosley.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself." Sherbet giggled.
Tangerine giggled along with her mother. "Thank you, mother! Thank you, father! I'm feeling a bit better now!"
"That's good to know, kiddo." Mosley smiled. "Now eat up, you should getting ready for bed soon."
Tangerine nodded and began to eat her dinner normally, her mind put at ease for now.
Next day at school, Tangerine met up with Babs and Featherweight in the hallways early before school began.
"Hello Featherweight. Hello Babs." she greeted them. "Have you found out anything new that could help me?"
"Yup! I read through Iron Will's book some more, and I found wut he calls exercises to harden your attitude!"
"I'm not sure I like the sound of that..." the pegasus colt frowned in concern.
"Relax Featherweight! I'm sure that dese exercises will help my cuz once and for all!"
"What have you found Cousin Babs?" asked Tangerine.
"Da first one should be easy: ya jus' have to keep a tough face on all da time."
"A tough face?"
"Yeah, like dis!"
To show an example, Babs' eyes scowled and she bared her teeth, looking very intimidating.
"Uh, how is that going to help Tangerine?" Featherweight questioned her.
"Iron Will says dat if ya keep a tough face on all da time, you'll eventually grow tough, not to mention you'll scare others away!" Babs explained.
"But Babs, I do not want to scare everypony around me..." Tangerine frowned.
"Don't worry cuz, it'll only completely work if ya also talk tough to anypony else around you, which we'll also practice later."
"...come again, Babs?"
The school bell rang, signaling the start of school for today.
"We'll talk later, we gotta go to class." said Featherweight.
Wanting to try and follow her cousin's advice, the green-maned filly put on the most aggressive look she could. However, she looked more nervous than aggressive. Tangerine hoped that today would at least be better than yesterday.
The three foals met up with one another again during recess after math class.
"Babs, where are we going?" Tangerine asked her cousin.
"Da school's gym!" Babs answered.
"Are you sure we can do that? Another class is taking place there, you know." Featherweight pointed out.
"We'll stay outta their way so they won't complain."
"But how will going to the gym help me?" Tangerine questioned.
"Trust me, da things we need to help ya are all in da gym." Babs grinned.
"Well, if you say so..." Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind. "Say, Babs?"
"What's up?"
"What if you or Featherweight happen to break some rules?" Tangerine stuttered a bit, looking flustered. "I-I mean, not that I am saying that you will, but what if it does happen? What do I do?"
"...well, if it did happen, then you'll have to throw da book at us." Babs replied honestly.
"Throw the book? What book?" Tangerine asked in confusion.
"No Tangerine, she means that you'll have to report us, even if we're your friends." Featherweight clarified, making her gasp.
"What!? But I do not want to get you two in trouble! Is there not another way?"
"Cuz, I really hate to break dis to ya, but if you do have to report us to something we did, den we probably deserve it." Babs grimaced.
Featherweight thought for a while before speaking up. "Think about it this way: do you think it will be fair for other colts and fillies if you just keep letting us go?" Seeing his point, Tangerine shook her head. "So there you go. Look, from the off-chance if me and Babs do get in trouble, we promise that we won't be mad at you."
"Even so, we'll work really hard to not cause trouble so you won't have to do anything to us, okay?" Babs promised.
Tangerine nodded, thankful by their promises. "Okay...thank you..."
Seeing their destination close, Babs ran ahead of her friend and cousin to open the doors. "Well, here we are!"
Opening the doors to the gym, there were students training inside, true to Featherweight's words. Most of the floor in the center was covered by a blue mat, and there were stands on both sides of the gym for when competitions took place in the school. There was also a door on the other side that lead to the locker rooms of the gym. Currently the students, with a dark grey earth pony wearing a cap watching over them. The students were doing warmup exercises, such as wing-ups from the pegasi, trotting around the gym, jumping jacks, stretching their limbs and other things as well.
"So how are we supposed to begin with all these guys around here?" Featherweight motioned to the students.
"Easy. We'll just go up to da stands." Babs pointed to the empty stands. "We won't be bothering anypony up dere."
"I guess it will be all right, as long as we stay out of the students' way." Tangerine conceded.
With everyone in agreement, the three foals climbed all the way up the stands to the very top and they took their seats on the stands.
"So cuz, how are you doing with your tough face? Did ya get a lotta practice?" Babs inquired.
"Um...I think I did..."
"Can we see it?" Featherweight asked.
"Yeah! Show us how tough ya look!" Babs encouraged her cousin.
"Ok..."
Tangerine cleared her throat, took a deep breath, preparing the toughest face she could, and...
"Squeeeee!"
Tangerine's 'tough' face turned out to be more adorable than intimidating, with her cheeks puffed out, her eyes shining and it looked like she was smiling. And her squeak didn't help. Babs and Featherweight raised their eyebrows at this, completely not what they were expecting. Sure, they weren't expecting for her to be absolutely spot-on, but...
"...so, how was I?"
"...I think that'd be the kind of face you make for when you want ponies to do things for you." Featherweight commented.
"Oh. Sorry Babs..." Tangerine apologized.
"...eh, don't sweat it, I'll give you some pointers later." Babs waved it off. "Right now, I think I can give ya practice on how to talk tough."
The green-maned filly looked a bit nervous at hearing this. "Talk...tough?"
"Yeah. You know, something like 'What are you looking at, chump?', or 'Are you talking to me?'." Featherweight explained. "Just to name a few."
"Right, but we're only gonna have you say what hall monitors would say, sound good?" Babs said.
Tangerine nervously nodded. "I suppose so..."
"Ok!" Babs grinned. "Now, I want ya to shout, as loud as ya can, 'You, stop right there!'. Show me what you can do!"
Tangerine once again took a deep breath to get herself ready, and then...
"You, stop right there!"
Both Babs and Featherweight had wide eyes upon hearing her, clearly impressed by the filly's shout. Tangerine was a bit shaky in her shout, but she did do well enough.
Noticing their silence, Tangerine sheepishly rubbed her forehooves together. "Um...was I too loud?"
Shaking off her stupor, Babs smirked and wrapped a foreleg around her cousin. "No way! Ya did great! Dat was an awesome shout!"
"R-Really!? Do you really mean it!?" Tangerine asked excitedly.
"Yeah! You did a great job just now!" Featherweight piped in. "Sure, you sounded a bit shaky, but that doesn't matter! You did really good!"
Tangerine smiled at both of their praises. With at least one success now, Tangerine felt a bit more confident in herself. In fact, she was so confident that she wanted to try again.
"Babs, what else should I shout?" she asked.
"Right! Try 'Stop dat right now!'." Babs suggested
"Stop that right now!" Tangerine repeated, doing well once again.
"Now try 'Silence!'." Featherweight brought up.
Smiling confidently, Tangerine shouted without hesitation. "Silence!"
"Shout 'Move along!'." Babs spoke excitedly.
Complying, Tangerine shouted once again. "Move along!"
"Now shout 'You're under arrest!'." Featherweight was answered by the two fillies staring at him quizzically. "What?"
"Featherweight, I am a hall monitor, not a police officer." Tangerine pointed out.
Seeing her point, the pegasus colt scratched the back of his head, chuckling sheepishly. "Whoops. I guess I got too much into it..."
"Ya just had to kill the mood, didncha?" Babs sighed.
"Sorry..."
"Ah, fuhgeddaboudit. Anyway, at least one thing went right for us! And I got a good feeling our next one will be jus' as good!"
Her excitement calming down, tangerine looked to her cousin. "Really? What will we do next?"
Babs began to walk down the stands, since the students went outside to the field now, and went to a kicking bag in the corner with a grin. "You're gonna be kicking dis kicking bag!"
"What!?" Tangerine cried in shock.
"Babs, have you gone nuts!? Tangerine isn't supposed to hit anypony! She could get in trouble, hall monitor or not!" Featherweight protested for his friend.
"No no, it's not like dat at all! Lemme explain!" Babs said to them. "I read in a section in Iron Will's book dat hitting something again and again increases your assertive determination. So if you keep hitting this cuz, you'll be ready for anything!"
"I dunno, I'm beginning to think that this Iron Will guy is crazy in the head." The cream-coated colt frowned.
"Yeah, I'll admit that he can be a big weirdo at times, but his advice really helps! Trust me on dis!"
As much as Tangerine did not feel like kicking the kicking bag, she had complete trust in Babs. Mustering up her confidence she built from the shouting earlier she walked up to the kicking bag, only to look at it in confusion.
"How do I hit it?" Tangerine asked with uncertainty.
"Just think of it as if it were an apple tree, like at de Apple Family Reunion when we first met!" Babs suggested.
"Okay..." Tangerine nodded as she got in position.
Facing away from the kicking bag, she reared up on her forelegs and kicked the bag. It shook slightly before standing still again.
"That wasn't too bad..." Featherweight said.
"Try again cuz, but a little harder this time." instructed the red-maned filly.
Tangerine followed Babs' intructions and put more strength in her next kick, making the bag sway a bit more than last time.
"Good, now kick it as hard as ya can!"
Gathering up all of her strength, Tangerine kicked the bag with all of her might, knocking it all the way back.
"All right! You got it-"
Before Babs could finish what she was about to say, the bag swept back up, striking Tangerine and sending her flying into Babs and Featherweight. Fortunately, it was a soft landing since they all crashed on the blue mats in a heap.
"Uh Babs? Can we call it off now?" Featherweight spoke from inside a rolled-up mat.
"Uh, yeah. I think dat was good enough." Babs agreed, slowly getting up. "Maybe too good...we all got clocked right across the gym..."
"I'm sorry..." Tangerine apologized. "Did I kick too hard?"
"Er, I'm gonna go with 'yes' on this one. You kicked that bag way too hard." Featherweight replied, getting out of the mat.
"Heh, you may be an Orange, but ya still got da strength of an Apple." Babs chuckled, making Tangerine blush at the compliment.
"So what do we do now?" asked Featherweight, helping Tangerine up.
"Let's try and see of we can find anymore students making trouble around school. At least things will be better than yesterday, right?"
"I hope so..." Tangerine frowned a little. "I do not want to be chased by a crowd of foals again..."
"What are we exactly going to be looking for anyway?" Featherweight asked Babs as they left the gym. "Have you thought of something?"
"Yeah, we'll go easy dis time." she answered. "We'll look for something dat somepony is doing dat's clearly breaking da rules. If Tangerine calls dem out on dis, it should be a piece of cake."
"Like what?"
Looking around the playground flow a while, Babs smirked when she found what she was looking for. "Something like dat!" She pointed her hoof to a group of foals playing hoofball on the street. "We're not allowed to play outside da school! What those guys are doing ain't right!"
"So all I have to do is tell them to get back inside the school?" Tangerine surmised.
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Featherweight shrugged.
"Go on, cuz! Show 'em what you're made of!" Babs cheered.
Looking determined, Tangerine marched up to one of the players and spoke up. "Excuse me."
She caught the colt's attention and he turned to face her. "Yeah?"
"Why are you and your friends out here? Should you not be inside the school?"
"All right Tangerine! She's doing great!" smiled Featherweight.
"Yeah, I think she'll make it this time!" Babs smirked.
"That's because the older colts wouldn't let us play in the field. They kept kicking us out just because they were having P.E.!" the colt explained. "Tell you what, if you can deal with them, then we can come back, all right?"
Tangerine stayed silent, not knowing what to do and looked back to her friends for advice. They both shook their heads, meaning no. Tangerine knew that this was the time for her to be tough, but did not know how. Still, she had to at least try.
"I am sorry, but rules are rules." Tangerine firmly spoke. "You and your friends have to come back right now."
"Oh come on! Just talk some sense into the colts on the field for us! Please?" he begged.
"But I-"
"HEY, WATCH OUT!!!"
Before she knew it, a ball hit Tangerine on the face, knocking her down.
"TANGERINE!" Babs and Featherweight cried in shock, running up to her.
"Oh horseapples! We accidentally hit a filly, guys!" one of the other colts cried in panic.
"Hey, are you all right?" they asked in concern to the filly on the ground.
"Don't you touch her!!" Babs snapped to the colts, scaring them a bit.
"H-Hey, calm down. It was an accident. We didn't mean to hit her..." one of the colts tried to explain to her.
"Yeah, well if you guys just played somewhere inside da school, then maybe dis wouldn't have happened, huh!?"
The colt that had been talking to Tangerine looked down in shame. "I guess you got a point there..."
"See!? Now get outta here or I'll tell the teachers on you!" Babs threatened the colts, who all ran away back to school. Having dealt with them, she checked up on her cousin. "Hey, Tangerine. Are you all right?"
Poor Tangerine was crying due to the ball that hit her on the face. "It really hurts..."
"It'll be okay. We'll get you to the nurse's office." Featherweight comforted her, leading his friend back inside with Babs' help.
The three foals immediately went to the nurse's office to take care of Tangerine's small injury. The nurse's office had two beds for ill or hurt students, one of which Tangerine was sitting on right now, a cabinet full of medicine, a sink for the nurse to wash her hooves, a refrigerator, some medical instruments on the sink and a stool for the nurse.
Nurse Carewell, the school's unicorn nurse with a red coat, blue mane and a pink cross for a cutie mark, treated Tangerine's wound with some disinfectant and a band-aid.
"All right, this should do it." said the nurse. "Now try to be more careful you three. I'd not want to see any of you hurt again."
"Yes, Nurse Carewell." Featherweight replied. "Thank you for taking care of Tangerine."
"Think nothing of it, dear. I'm just glad that she'll be all right. Off you go now."
The three foals left the nurse's office with Tangerine now having a band-aid on her forehead.
"Hey cuz, are you feeling okay?" Babs asked in concern.
"It still hurts a little, but I am better now." Tangerine responded, rubbing her head a little.
"Dat's good to know! First, I'll let ya rest for a while, then we can try again next time to catch any rule-breaking foals around the school."
Tangerine bit her lip, and spoke the next words sadly. "Babs...I am afraid that there will not be a next time. I do not want to do this anymore."
Babs and Featherweight looked at the green-maned filly in stunned silence, surprised that their friend was giving up.
"You want to call it quits?" Featherweight slowly said. "But why? You were doing good at some points today."
Tangerine lowered her eyes, unable to look at any of them in the eyes. "Yes, but I am always terrible at speaking to other foals for them to stop. Even when the colts playing outside were in the wrong, I could not get any of them to listen to me. Babs was the one who drove them away in the end."
"Aw, but dat wasn't your fault! You still can..."
"Babs, I truly appreciate you working so hard for my sake, but I can not do this anymore. I am sorry, but I am not meant to be a hall monitor. I hope you understand..."
Although Babs looked sad at Tangerine's proclamation, she gave an assuring pat on her cousin's shoulder. "Hey, it's fine. It ain't up to me if ya want to be hall monitor or not..."
"Well, at least we can say that we tried, right...?" Featherweight said, trying to bring an upside to this.
"I am sorry for putting you two through all of this, but I can not take this anymore..." Tangerine sniffled, fiddling with her sash. "I will have to give this sash back to one of the teachers so they can choose a new hall monitor..."
And with that, Tangerine slowly walked away from her cousin and friend, their attempt to turn her into a full-fledged hall monitor failed.
"Shoot...and I worked so hard..." Babs sighed. "Did I force her into all this? I didn't want to force her into anything she didn't wanna do, I was jus' trying to help her..."
"I'm sure she knew that, Babs." Featherweight comforted her. "It's not your fault."
"I-I guess..."
Tangerine walked down the hallway with her head down and her ears flat against her head. Who was she kidding, trying to become a hall monitor? This wasn't meant for her. She could never be assertive or aggressive if she needed to. All she'd do is fail again and again in her duties. And that was not the kind of hall monitor this school needed. It should be somepony who was reliable and strong. Perhaps Babs if she lucky enough to be chosen. She didn't feel worthy to wear the yellow sash.
In another corner of the hallway, Tangerine heard crying and laughing. Wondering what it was, she took a peek from her corner and she gasped at what she saw.
A tearful Gloria was trying to get her make-up kit back from an older pegasus filly who was flying in the air laughing at the pink unicorn.
"Stop that! Give me my make-up kit back!" Gloria cried as she jumped to try and get her belonging back.
"Come on, use your magic! Aren't you a unicorn?" the pegasus filly taunted her.
"I can't! I'm not that good at magic yet!"
"Well then it's time for you to learn! Come and get it!"
And beside the two fillies was a bigger, older colt holding Cutup in a headlock playfully hitting him again and again. However, it was clear from Cutup's expression that he was not enjoying this.
"Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" laughed the bigger colt. "My bad! Oh, did that hurt?"
"Yes it hurt, so knock it off!" Cutup snapped. "This is the only head I have!"
"Knock it off? Okay, since you said so!"
"Ow! That's not what I meant, you jerk!"
The two bullies kept laughing at their victims, having fun at picking on them. And it didn't look like they were going to stop anytime soon...
"YOU TWO STOP THAT AT ONCE!!!"
Everyone turned to see a green-maned filly wearing a yellow sash, fierce determination sketched on her face.
"Well lookee here. This little filly wants to play hero." the colt laughed. "Come and try to stop us if you can."
The older filly however, widened her eyes when she recognized the sash that Tangerine was wearing. "You idiot, don't you know who that is!? That's the hall monitor!"
All of the colt's smugness vanished at the mere mention of that title. "Hall monitor!? Horseapples..."
Tangerine marched right up to the two older foals, making them back up a bit. "What were you two doing to that poor filly and colt!?"
"We were just...playing with them." the filly laughed nervously.
"Yeah, all in good fun, honest." th colt quickly agreed.
"Is that so?" Tangerine narrowed her eyes. "Because it seems to me that they were not having fun!" the older foals winced at her sudden rise in volume. "Tell me what truly happened!"
"She stole my make-up kit and she wouldn't give it back!" Gloria spoke up from behind.
"And this jerk just kept pounding me just because he likes it!" Cutup added.
"Picking on younger foals!? You two should be ashamed of yourselves!" Tangerine scolded the older filly and colt. "Apologize to those two right this instant!"
"What!? You mean now?" the colt exclaimed.
"Yes, now!"
After making the two bullies apologize to Gloria and Cutup, Tangerine glared at them once again. "Remember, if I see you two picking on anypony else again, there will be consequences, am I clear!?"
"Y-Yes m'am!"
"For your sakes, that should better be true! Now get going!"
The bullies didn't need to be told twice, running away as fast as they could. With the two bullies now dealt with, Tangerine turned her attention to Gloria and Cutup. "Are you two all right?"
Gloria nodded, happy to have her make-up kit back. "Yes, I think we are, but..."
Tangerine tilted her head. "But what?"
"It's just that, I never expected you to be so assertive like that."
"I was...being assertive?" Tangerine asked in surprise.
"Heck yeah! You were like a superhero fighting the bad guys to save the victims!" Cutup said in excitement before muttering to himself. "Although honestly, I'd rather be the hero than the victim...if Specs hears about this, he's never going to let me live it down..."
"Hey, Tangerine...?"
Tangerine turned to see Babs and Featherweight staring at her in silent surprise.
"We...we saw you standing up to the two bullies earlier." Featherweight slowly spoke.
"Oh. You did?" Tangerine asked sheepishly.
Babs slowly nodded. "Yup. And it...was...AWESOME!!!"
Both of her friends ran up to her and hugged her together.
"See, Tangerine!? You can be a great hall monitor!" Babs laughed in delight.
"Yeah, you just needed a push in the right direction!" Featherweight agreed.
Tangerine was absolutely speechless. "I can...? I did...?"
Looking back, when she saw Gloria and Cutup being picked on by the two bullies, a side she believed that she never had before rose up. A side that was ready to pounce at any given moment. Was this the assertive side that Tangerine had been trying to gather through all the training she had gone through? Realizing this, Tangerine smiled, now having complete confidence in herself that she can be a great hall monitor. And she has two ponies to thank for that.
"Babs, thank you for helping me and never giving up on me!" Tangerine hugged her cousin before doing so Featherweight. "And Featherweight, thank you for always standing by our side no matter what! Both of you, thank you so much!"
"Think nothing of it! I'm jus' glad to help family!" Babs grinned.
"Come on, Tangerine!" Featherweight exclaimed excitedly. "It's time show this school what it's new hall monitor can really do!"
With a new air of confidence surrounding her, Tangerine was doing a stellar job as a hall monitor. While patrolling around the playground, she noticed a colt mindlessly throwing away some crumpled up paper on the ground. Knowing what to do, Tangerine instantly walked up to the colt and said "Excuse me, but you are not supposed to throw garbage on the ground. It should be tossed inside a trash can!"
"Ok, sorry about that." the colt complied and went back to pick up his discarded junk and threw it inside a trash can.
"Good work. Carry on." Tangerine said in satisfaction, letting him go.
Babs and Featherweight, who were watching from afar, cheered for her success.
"All right, Tangerine!" Featherweight applauded.
"You're doing great!" her cousin cheered loudly.
Next, while having her lunch made by her mother at a table with her friends, she noticed somepony cutting in line for lunch at the cafeteria.
"Dat's your cue, cuz!" smirked Babs.
"Go get 'em!" Featherweight smirked as well.
Nodding, Tangerine walked right to the line-cutter with no hesitation. "Pardon me, but I believe that I saw you cutting in front of the other ponies. Is this true?"
"Yeah, but my friend was saving my spot, so it's all good, right?" said the line-cutter.
Tangerine shook her head. "I am sorry, but no. It is not 'all good'. You should go to the back of the line or I will have to demerit you."
"But my friend was saving my spot!" the colt insisted.
"I am sorry, but I do not make the rules. Go to the back of the line like everypony else."
"Oh all right..."
And with that said, colt reluctantly went to the back of the line. Featherweight and Babs pumped their forehooves in the air in celebration.
It has been a few days after Tangerine became confident in her new duty as a hall monitor, and she was doing a great performance in her job at the hallways, always asking for ponies to show the their hall passes, giving demerits to students when she had to and breaking up fights that occasionally happened. It truly seemed like she was the best hall monitor the school had.
And today, she was eager to prove herself even more. She stood in the middle of the hallway to face the onslaught of the stampeding students like she did last time. But this time, she was ready.
"So cuz, are you ready for dis?" Babs asked from the corner along with Featherweight to avoid the student here that will rampage out soon.
"Yes, I am prepared!" Tangerine nodded eagerly.
"Okay, they're about to come. Get ready..." Featherweight warned her.
Few seconds later, the cheering students came running down the hallway right towards Tangerine. This time, she stood her ground, not letting herself be intimidated by the fearsome sight for a foal.
"HALT!!!"
All of the running students almost immediately stopped at the loud command from the filly wearing the yellow sash.
"Please leave the school slowly and quietly."
All of the students obeyed, now walking outside of the school to their waiting parents. Featherweight and Babs bumped their forehooves together before joining up with Tangerine.
"I gotta say Tangerine, you've come such a long way! I'm impressed!" Featherweight commented.
"Yeah, I bet dat you're putting every hall monitor dis school ever had to shame!" Babs grinned. "Dere's no doubt about it! You're da best hall monitor ever!"
"The best hall monitor?" Tangerine looked to the side. "Do you truly think so?"
"I know so! You're da best of da best!"
"That might be exaggerating it a bit, but you really are a great hall monitor, that I can guarantee!" Featherweight smiled.
Tangerine smiled from all the praise she was receiving. Looks like being a hall monitor wasn't so bad after all...
After coming home with her parents, they let their 'little trooper', as they called her once they found out how she was admirably performing as a hall monitor, up in her room so she could focus on her homework. While she was concentrating, pencil in her mouth, she couldn't help but think back to all the praise she had gotten when she became competent in her work.
'Everypony respected me...they all answered my orders without a second thought...'
She had to admit, it felt good to have a level of authority over others. She could tell the ponies if what they were doing was either right or wrong, and they would listen. It felt good to have ponies pay attention to you.
'But...there was a time when they were not listening to me...'
Indeed, she remembered the time she had with the students before she stood up to the two bullies. They treated her like as if she was just another student, as if she wasn't such a big deal. Those were not pleasant memories to think of again.
'What if...what if they do that...again?'
Tangerine did not like the sound of that. Not at all. Even then, there were still some students who questioned her before they reluctantly followed her orders. Everything she had worked so hard for, only for it to fall all the way down again? Only to have the students disrespect her once more? To treat her...as just another student?
'No! I will not let that happen!'
Pushing her homework aside, Tangerine tore up another sheet of paper and began scribbling into it. Few minutes later, she was done and looked at the title she has written for this paper.
'New Rules for School'
Tangerine giggled sinisterly at her new set of rules meant to change the school. "With this, nopony will dare to question me again..."
Babs found it a bit odd that she did not meet with Tangerine on her way to school today. She looked just fine the other day, so Babs ruled out illness, and Tangerine didn't seem the type to be late at school without good reason, so she assumed that Tangerine must've arrived early for some reason. Even then, Babs still thought that it was strange for her cousin to come to school early.
Finding Featherweight at his locker, she decided to ask him if he saw Tangerine around the school.
"Hey, Featherweight!" she called, getting his attention. "Have ya by any chance seen Tangerine anywhere? I didn't meet up with her today."
"Yeah, I did." Featherweight nodded. "Although she was acting a bit strange..."
Babs perked her ears up at this. "Strange? Whaddaya mean?"
"Well, when I called out to her, Tangerine didn't answer. She didn't even look at me. Just kept going as if I wasn't even there."
"Are ya sure you called her loud enough?"
"Yeah, I'm sure! Do you think something's going through Tangerine's mind lately?"
"Wid da way she's acting, I guess so." Babs said in concern, worried if Tangerine would break down about being hall monitor again. "We should ask her about it when we see her, find out wut's going on."
"Right." Featherweight agreed. "We'll talk to her during recess though. It's almost time for class."
While making their way to geography, they found a rather odd sight: it was Specs wearing some kind of red card around his neck, and he didn't seem too happy wearing it.
"Uh, Specs? Wut's wid dat thing around your neck?" Babs asked the glass-wearing colt.
"...I forgoth to bring my hall patth today..." Specs replied, fiddling with his card. "When Tangerine caugth me without ith, she made me wear this so thath everypony else knows whath I did wrong..."
"Whoa, wait a minute!" Featherweight exclaimed. "Tangerine did this to you!?"
Specs nodded, much to their shock.
"No way! Dere has to be some sorta mistake!" Babs denied the colt's claim. "Dere' no way dat Tangerine, my cuz, would do something like dat!"
"Thorry Babs, but my glatthes don't lie. I know what I thaw, and Tangerine made me wear this card."
Babs glared right into Specs, making him back away. "You take dat back right now!"
Featherweight pulled her back and away from the colt. "Babs, we'll worry about him later. Right now, we'd better get going to class, or we'll be late."
"Yeah, all right..."
Continuing on their way to class, Babs and Featherweight encountered another weird sight: this time, it was a trembling trash can. A foal was obviously hiding inside it.
Curious, Featherweight walked up to the trash can and lightly knocked on it. "Uh, hello?"
"ACK! Please don't book me, I've been good!"
Cutup sprung from the trash can with his forehooves up, as if he was surrendering. Opening one eye, he relaxed when he saw Babs and Featherweight staring at him I confusion. "Oh, it's just you guys."
"Do I even wanna know why you're hiding in the trash can?" Babs flatly spoke.
"Easy, hiding." Cutup went back inside the trash can, closing the lid. "Now get going, or you're going to give me away."
"Cutup, come on. Just get out there." Featherweight smacked the trash can. "You'll get in trouble, not to mention you'll start to smell if you stay in there."
After hearing a sigh of defeat from inside the trash can, Cutup opened the lid and jumped out. "Fine, I'll, go. I just hope I don't get caught."
"Wut are you talking about?" Babs asked him.
Cutup froze, realizing his slip-up. "Uh, nothing! Gotta go!" And with that, he sped away before either Babs or Featherweight could say anything.
"What was that all about?" Featherweight wondered after a moment of silence.
"Beats me." Babs shrugged. "C'mon. Let's get going."
The two friends chose to forget about what happened and move on to their class, having already encountered too many distractions on the way.
Meanwhile, Cutup was making his way to class, tip-hoofing away and peeking around corners, being cautious to not encounter the villain who has caught his friend.
Once the school bell began to ring though, he immediately began galloping, not wanting to be late. Turning a corner just where his class was, he skidded to a halt so he wouldn't bump into something on his way. When he took another look however, the 'thing' was actually a foal. And not the one he wanted to see.
He gulped as the foal glared at him. "Uh...hi?"
After geography was over for recess, Babs and Featherweight went to have fun at the swings, both foals swinging away on their seats.
"Hey Babs." Featherweight called.
"Yeah?" she answered, turning her head to face him.
"You didn't happen to see Tangerine in class by any chance, have you? I looked around, but I saw no sign of her."
"Nope, I couldn't find her either..."
"But we know that she's around here somewhere since Specs already told us that he met up with her. Did she actually skip class?" Featherweight thought aloud.
"Hall monitors are allowed to stay outta class time, as long as dey ask permission from a teacher and not skip out on too many classes." Babs explained. "Maybe Tangerine's getting a bit more confident in dis hall monitor business."
"I guess, but what about what Specs told us about her?" the feathered colt reminded her.
"Don't tell me ya actually believe him!" snapped the red-maned filly. "Tangerine wouldn't hurt a fly!"
"I never said that I believed him. I'm just saying that we shouldn't forget what he told us. Maybe it could help us somehow."
Babs kept quiet, not sure how to answer. Turning her head to look around, she saw something that made her groan in annoyance.
"What is it, Babs?" Featherweight asked his friend.
"It's Cutup, inside a trash can again." Babs replied.
"Boy, looks like Cutup really loves the trash can these days, huh?" Featherweight sighed. "Let's get him out of there."
Jumping off the swings, Babs and Featherweight went over to the colt inside the trash can and knocked on it.
"C'mon Cutup, get outta dere already." Babs told him. "You're starting to look like a grouch, wut wid you being in de trash can all day."
"I can't. I'm being forced to stay here." Cutup grumbled.
"What do you mean you're being forced to stay in the trash can? What's going on?" Featherweight asked.
"I was on my way to class right when the bell began to ring. Just before I could get to my classroom, Tangerine stopped me and punished me for throwing some junk on the ground, which was an accident by the way, running away from her, and being late for class. And now she's making me stay here."
Babs smacked the trash can hard, making the colt yelp in alarm. "Don't you dare say dat about Tangerine! She's de nicest filly I know, and she would never do something like dat!"
"Hey, you don't need to take my word for it. Just look for her in the hallways." Cutup said to her. "You'll see that I'm telling the truth."
"I don't need to see anything! I don't believe you!" Babs snarled before storming away.
"Hey Babs! Wait!" Featherweight shouted, flying after her.
Babs ran all the way to the water cooler and have a drink to try and calm her nerves. She couldn't stand what the two colts were saying about Tangerine. Why were they picking on her!? Her cousin would never do something so mean to anypony!
"Babs, are you going to be all right?" Featherweight asked in concern.
Having satisfied her thirst, Babs heaved a sigh out. "I'll be fine, Featherweight. Sorry I snapped earlier. It's just dat I can't stand it when ponies badmouth my cuz."
"Yeah, I know how you feel." nodded the cream-colored colt. "But why would Specs and Cutup say those things about Tangerine? They wouldn't do it without a good reason."
"I dunno...and honestly, I don't wanna know. Let's just git back to de playground and forget about all dis."
Featherweight complied and began following her back to the playground, both foals wanting to put behind what they've heard.
"Now what is this!?"
A sudden shout from behind them sounded throughout the hallway.
"Well, I admit that it's mine, but..."
"Silence! Let me finish!"
"Dat voice...it can't be..." Babs uttered in disbelief.
""We'd better see what's going on back there." Featherweight said, flying back to check out the commotion, Babs not far behind.
Upon turning around a corner, they saw Tangerine rummaging through a bag with a stern look on her face while Gloria stood scared on the side.
The green-maned filly then pulled out a small wrapper partially filled with gum. Tangerine inspected it before turning her attention to the nervous unicorn filly. "Gloria, this is gum inside your bag!"
"But I wasn't chewing it!" Gloria protested nervously.
"But you had it in your possession!" Tangerine then scribbled on her notepad, tore the page off and put it around Gloria's neck. "Now, you will have to wear this to show everypony your shame! Am I clear!?"
Gloria shivered from Tangerine's tone. "Y-Yes ma'm!"
"For your sake, I hope so! Now move along!"
Gloria quickly walked away from the hall monitor past Babs and Featherweight, who were shocked and horrified at what they have seen. Tangerine, the nicest filly they had ever met, just ruthlessly punished somepony in front of them. Babs ran up to her cousin and quickly nudged her to get her attention.
"Tangerine! Wut's gotten into you!? Why did you do dat to Gloria!?" she cried in shock.
"Gloria had broken a school rule, cousin Babs. It was only fit to punish her for not following my rules." Tangerine coolly replied.
"Wait, your rules?" Featherweight exclaimed in shock. "Tangerine, I don't think you can just make up rules for the school like that, it's not right!"
"I can if it benefits the school. And I intend to have every student follow my rules without fail, and I will keep punishing if I have to until they do."
Every word that Tangerine spoke was like a beating to their hearts, seeing their friend speak such cruel words.
"But Tangerine, dat's not wut a good hall monitor is supposed to do!" Babs tried to snap her out of it.
"She's right! Remember the times before all of this, everything was just fine!" Featherweight agreed.
"No, it was not!" Tangerine snapped, startling the two foals. "Even after my success of being a hall monitor, there were still students who did not take me seriously as a hall monitor. But now, they will think twice before ever crossing me again. This is for the greater good."
"But Tangerine-"
"But nothing! Do not think that just because you two are my cousin and friend that you are safe from my rules. This will be your only warning: break my rules, and you shall pay for it." Adjusting the sash around her chest, Tangerine walked down the hallway, her stern face ever present.
"Uh,wow..." Featherweight muttered. "Looks like Specs and Cutup were telling the truth all along. Now what do we do, Babs?" He was met with silence. "Babs?"
Looking at his friend, he saw her staring at the floor in shock. Babs recalled on all of the advice and tips she had told her cousin. It was because of them that Tangerine is acting like this. Because of her. She turned Tangerine into this. "Sweet Celestia...I created a monster..."
Tangerine walked down the hallway, keeping an eye out for any rulebreakers. Meanwhile, every colt and filly who heard her walking either ran or hid inside their lockers, the janitor's closet, the restrooms, anywhere safe from Tangerine, afraid that they unknowingly broke a rule she had made and would get in trouble for it.
All: These new rules are no fun Here she comes, time to run run run New Tangerine is never, ever done This means trouble for everyone
Cutup and Specs were running as fast as their not-so-athletic legs could run, really late for school. Cutup, who was in the front, skidded to a halt, resulting in Specs bumping into him and both of them crashing to the floor. When Specs gave a questioning look to Cutup, the stubbier unicorn colt pointed to the entrance, where a very stern Tangerine stood watch, making them gulp.
Cutup: Let her catch you and you get detention Specs: I've even heard she might give suspension! Specs: New rules here, there and everywhere Cutup: Be sure to be prepared for a scare
Cutup then motioned for his friend to go around to the back door, away from Tangerine. Cautiously making their way around, they felt relieved at evading the changed hall monitor. Upon reaching the back door, Specs slowly opened it...
Both: You'd better watch your back For when you least expect it...
Only to their fright, it revealed Tangerine glaring at them, expecting for somepony to try and use the back door. She forcibly dragged them away to their punishment.
...she attacks!
Tangerine walked around inside a classroom nearly full of scared students, observing and glaring all of them. Tangerine's reign of terror grew worse and worse, since now she is giving detention to anyone who breaks her rules. She didn't show mercy to anyone, not even to her cousin and newest friend, much to their sadness.
All: These new rules are no fun Here she comes, time to run run run New Tangerine is never, ever done This means trouble for everyone
Featherweight played by himself with a blue ball, accidentally hitting it too hard into a tree. He nervously looked around to see if Tangerine was nearby, since he knew that it was against the rules for pegasus foals to fly too high. After making sure that the coast was clear, he quickly flew up and tried to get the ball free from the branches.
Featherweight: One two three strikes, and you're outta here Our friend is now the school's new puppeteer
While still struggling to free the ball, his eyes widened when he saw Tangerine walking towards his direction. He knew that she'd catch him if he flew back down, so he had no other choice but to hide inside the tree.
Tangerine walked up to the tree and began to inspect it in suspicion, making Featherweight nervous. After a few seconds, she began to walk away, making him think that he was in the clear...
Now ruling our school with an iron hoof Better not act around her like a goof
...until the kicked the tree with her hindlegs, making him fall down first, followed by the ball which landed on his head. Looking up, he was met with Tangerine's steely gaze, making him chuckle sheepishly.
Her yellow sash is our sign of fear Making us wish we could just disappear
Gloria quickly stuffed away all of her make-up kit into a bag, hoping to keep it hidden until she could return home ever since she had heard of another rule from Tangerine that no tools of make-up were allowed inside the school.
Gloria: She never used to be like this, not Tangerine What happened to make her really mean? She used to be so fair and just She was a pony everypony could trust
Making her way to her locker to hide her make-up kit, she stopped when a firm voice called out to her. Gloria froze when she saw that it was Tangerine. When the hall monitor motioned to give her the bag for her to inspect, Gloria had no choice but to let Tangerine look at it. Tangerine warily rummaged through its contents.
With Tangerine, everything seemed so unified But now we're all...
Shortly, she had found some lip gloss. Tangerine stared hard at Gloria, who gulped in fear.
...terrified!
The students couldn't even have fun anymore as Tangerine kept watch over the playground, looking for anyone who had even barely stepped out of line. Everyone stopped when Tangerine came around in fear of her busting them for whatever reason she could come up with.
All: These new rules are no fun Here she comes, time to run run run New Tangerine is never, ever done This means trouble for everyone
Babs watched from a distance as Tangerine shouted at some scared fillies and colts, both saddened of her cousin now behaving like this and from the possibility that she was possibly responsible for what happened to Tangerine.
Babs: This is not what I had in mind What caused my cuz to be so unkind? What happened cousin, please I want to know What caused you to stoop so low? Was it me that caused you to change? Is that why you're acting so strange?
She had thought back to the Apple Family Reunion where they had first met, the forming of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, all of their time they spent hunting for their Cutie Marks, all of the games they played, al of the good time she and Tangerine had. Babs didn't care about Tangerine being a hall monitor anymore, now she wants her cousin back.
Please come back, this is not the cousin I know Please come back, just stop this dumb show Please come back, please come through Please come back...
When Tangerine did catch Babs unintentionally breaking a rule which was no cutting in line, although she was only trying to get through and not cut it, and sent her to detention for it, Babs felt like crying.
...I'm begging you...
All: These new rules are no fun Here she comes, time to run run run New Tangerine is never, ever done This means trouble for everyone
The next few days always ended up with almost every student going to detention for whatever rule they had unknowingly broken. It had gotten worse as Tangerine kept making more rules, not even allowing foals to drink from the water cooler for more than three seconds.
Lunch was now quiet ever since the new rule of to not speak too loud was added, forcing the students to talk in whispers.
In one table, Babs was brooding over what happened to her cousin, Featherweight was reading a book, and Cutup and Specs were eating their meal silence, occasionally stopping to see if Tangerine was nearby.
Gloria joined a seat next to them, also wary not to make too much noise. "So, what are you guys doing?"
"Thrying not to break any rules..." Specs muttered.
"I hear that..." Cutup sighed. "It's just like what happens in comic books, remember?"
"Yeah...firth, the hero helps everypony and then for whatever reathon turns evil."
"Come to think of it, there are a lot of comics like that, arent't there?"
"I think there are...do you think that the writers enthoy thowing thuperheores turning bad?"
"Will you guys shut up about your superhero talk! It's not helping!" Babs hissed, not in the mood to listen to their banter.
"Babs, keep your voice down! Tangerine might hear that!" Gloria shushed the earth pony.
Babs stood quiet, not sure how to respond.
"Hey, Babs?" Featherweight spoke up. "I don't want to hit you while you're down, but I really think that you should read this." The pegasus colt showed Babs the book he was reading.
"Wut book is it?" Babs asked him.
"The other book Twilight let us borrow from the library. Confidence-Building 101."
"Oh yeah...I totally forgot about dis book. But why are ya giving it to me now?"
"Read this part of the page here." Featherweight pointed at the corner of the open book. "I think there's something there that you have to read."
Babs didn't entirely understand what Featherweight was getting at, but she nodded and read the book slowly.
'Remember, after you have gained enough confidence to face up against what you have previously doubted before, make sure that you do not overdo your actions. Too much confidence can be dangerous, causing you to be arrogant or possibly hurt your friends emotionally.'
Babs was speechless after reading that statement from the book. "I...I never read anything like dat in Iron Will's book..."
"Yeah...I guess that guy doesn't know everything, does he?" Featherweight grimly said.
"I guess not..." Babs admitted with a sigh. She had never realized that Iron Will's advice was so flawed. Was this the reason why she never had many friends when she followed his advice? Were they too scared of her? And now the same thing was happening to her cousin, Tangerine.
"Well we can't just sit here and do nothing. We gotta snap Tangerine outta this!" Gloria said in determination.
"Yeah! We'll be like the corrupted hero's friends who make him-uh, her see the light!" Cutup said in excitement.
"Yeah!" Specs agreed.
"Not exactly the way I'd put it, but I'm ready to snap Tangerine back to her senses!" Featherweight joined with the others. "You in Babs?"
Babs thought over everything that had happened. She knew that she was partly responsible for what happened to Tangerine, and moping about would not bring her back. It was time to take action. She will do anything to save her cousin. Babs looked up, her eyes burning with determination. "So, does anypony have any ideas in mind?" she asked.
"Well, you're her cousin right? Maybe you can talk some sense into her." Gloria suggested.
"Sorry, but the last time we tried that, Tangerine threatened to bust us if we were caught breaking any rules." Featherweight shook his head.
"Maybe you guyth didn't thry hard enough. Just thry talking to her again." Specs said.
"Yeah, sorry to butt in, but that' not gonna work anymore." Cutup interjected.
"How come?" Babs questioned him.
"Lately, Tangerine is seeing bad guys all around her inside her head, always thinking that somepony is out to get her."
As if to prove his point, they heard Tangerine shouting at a group of foals not too far from them.
"What is it that you fillies were talking about? Are you attempting a conspiracy!? Trying to oppose the hall monitor!?" Tangerine accused them.
"W-what!? No! We-We were just talking about Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom from The Best Young Fliers competition from Cloudsdale!" one of the scared fillies protested.
Tangerine took a menacing step forward, making the filly wince in fear. "Do not lie to me! What were you conversing about!?"
"B-But it's the truth!"
"Okay, so we can cross that out..." Featherweight sighed, seeing that paranoia was also consuming his friend. "Any other suggestions?"
"How about we tell her mom what happened? She'll definitely fix things up!" Cutup piped in.
"No! We can't do dat!" Babs cried in panic.
"Why not? It lookth like the eathieth way to tholve our problemth." Specs asked, adjusting his glasses.
"I know, but...it's my fault dat Tangerine turned into wut she is right now. I was da one who kept telling her advice on how to be tough and all...I trained her de wrong way to do dis...I don't want for her to get in trouble for dat, not when it was my fault..."
"I understand Babs, but we have to do something! I don't want to last the whole month with Tangerine as the hall monitor like this!" Gloria exclaimed.
"Hey guys..." Featherweight called softly, fiddling with his camera. "I think I might have an idea..."
"Wut is it, Featherweight?" Babs asked him.
"I was thinking that maybe...if I took pictures of Tangerine attacking the students and then show them to her, it might snap her back to her senses."
"Hey, thath a great idea!" Specs smiled.
"I agree!" Gloria also approved of the idea. "Let's all get cameras so we can show Tangerine what she's doing wrong!"
"No, it'll be easier to track Tangerine down by myself, not to mention that developing the film from many cameras will take too much time." Featherweight explained. "I hate to say this, but I'll be working on my own."
"No fair! Then how are we supposed to help?" Cutup frowned.
"I'm sure that if something comes up, I'll let you guys know." With a sigh, Featherweight jumped off his seat with his trusty camera strapped around his neck before walking away. "Well, wish me luck."
The others remained quiet at Featherweight's departure, hoping that he would succeed. Especially Babs, feeling a bit guilty for dragging Featherweight into this mess.
'If he won't want to join the Crusaders by dis point, I can't really blame him...'
Tangerine was now shouting at a group of some very afraid colts at the school yard, a ball next to them.
"I believe I made myself clear the other day: no stepping on the grass!" she reprimanded them.
One of the colts, a black earth pony, had the courage to speak to her. "Uh yeah, we knew that, but..."
"But what?" Tangerine glared.
"You see, the ball that we were playing with here landed on the grass! And since you also put up the rule that didn't allow pegasus ponies to fly, we had no choice but to walk!"
"Are you saying that this is my fault!?"
"No no! That's not what I meant!" the colt trembled from her tone of voice. "We were just going to get the ball and leave, that's it!"
"I do not believe you!" Tangerine began scribbling on her notepad many times, forcing each page onto a colt. "Now all of you will wear these so everypony knows what you have done! And I will also take this ball away so that you may learn your lesson!"
Unnoticed by any of them from a distance, a white pegasus colt poked his head out of the bushes, frowning at what he had seen. Shaking his head, Featherweight brought up his camera, zoomed in and took a picture of Tangerine and the group of colts. It was a good shot, but he would be needing more to bring the old Tangerine back.
"Almost there, almost there...!"
A brown pegasus filly was running in the hallway with a small stack of papers tucked underneath her wing, in a hurry to wherever she was going.
"You, halt!!!"
Her eyes widened when she recognized the voice. Having no choice but to stop, the pegasus obeyed, hoping that this would be quick.
Tangerine walked up to her with sharp eyes, forcing her back a bit. "You were running down the hallway. You know that is against the rules."
"I'm so sorry miss hall monitor, but I'm in a big hurry! I need to turn this book report in soon before it's too late!"
"Then maybe you should have thought of walking! You would get to English class anyway!" Tangerine countered.
"But you don't understand! I-"
"Do not talk back to me!" Tangerine snapped, making the poor pegasus nearly cry. "You will be serving detention today for your misconduct of the rules! See me after class!"
While Tangerine kept yelling at the filly, Featherweight slowly and carefully peeked from around the corner of the hallway and took a quick picture of the two fillies before hiding to avoid being seen by Tangerine.
Sometimes, the only thing that would save a student from Tangerine was their hall pass. Whenever she demanded for somepony to show it to her, she usually just observes it intently before returning it to the student and dismissing them. Unfortunately, even hall passes could do so much to protect them.
While Tangerine was inspecting an orange unicorn colt's hall pass, she noticed something on the edge of the hall pass.
"What is this?" Tangerine showed him the hall pass with a deep glare.
"Uh, what is what? I don't get it." replied the confused and nervous colt.
"This!" Tangerine pointed at the corner of the hall pass, showing what looked like a scratch from something. "Your hall pass is damaged!"
"B-But you can barely even see it!" the colt stuttered from her gaze. "Can't you let it slide just this once?"
"No!" she shouted, making him flinch. "You will not be worming your way out of this! Detention!"
Hiding inside a locker, Featherweight snapped another photo that should help him get Tangerine back to her senses.
It did not take too long for Featherweight to get what he needed. Now he was sure that he had enough pictures to help Tangerine and his friends. Babs was happy to know that Featherweight made it back without getting caught by Tangerine, and at the possibility that this would be enough to make Tangerine see that what she is doing is wrong.
"So where can ya get dose photos developed?" asked a hopeful Babs, anxious to get her cousin back.
"It's at a place called Snap Cam." Featherweight answered. "Funny enough, that's where I also got my camera."
"Will it take long to develop de photos?"
"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that we can get them today." Featherweight opened his locker and flew up to get his camera that was on the upper part of his locker.
"Hey, Featherweight." Babs called, adjusting her saddlebag.
He looked down, still in midair with his camera on his hooves. "Yeah?"
"Thanks for doing so much to help me and my cousin. I'm happy to have you as a friend." Babs smiled softly.
Featherweight returned the smile. "Yeah, I am too."
However, the touching moment was interrupted by a shout from across the hall.
"You, Featherweight!"
Whether by instinct or fear or some other reason, Featherweight clung onto Babs as they both looked with wide eyes at the stern Tangerine, who was glaring daggers at Featherweight.
"No flying is allowed inside the hallways, and you know it!" Tangerine called. "Now get over here!"
Featherweight however, had another plan in mind. He only had one shot at this. He can't screw up now.
"Babs, run." he whispered to friend before flying away.
"Where are you going!?" Tangerine shouted, less than pleased that a student had ran away from her. She snarled as she began to give chase. "Come back here right now!"
And the chase was on.
Featherweight gritted his teeth as he flew as fast as he could away from the filly chasing after him. Although he had the advantage of using his wings, they could only take him so far before he began to tire. Knowing this, Featherweight began to take as many turns in the hallways as he could, hoping to lose Tangerine's tail on him. However, her determination to catch him proved to be strong, showing no signs of slowing down and the turns barely delayed her, as if she knew the school by the back of her hoof.
Unfortunately, after a few minutes of flying, Featherweight's wings began to tire and he was forced to run on foot. He galloped down the hall, apologizing to anypony he had pushed aside, while Tangerine ordered for them to move aside. This gave Tangerine the upper hoof on the ground, not to mention that as an earth pony, she had little to no trouble running.
Featherweight skidded to a halt as he realized that he had hit a dead end. Now getting desperate, he quickly looked around, hoping to find someplace to hide from the hall monitor. Taking his chances, Featherweigh chose one place to hide himself, and hoped for the best.
As Tangerine caught up to him, she paused once seeing that he was out of sight. She knew that he was hiding somewhere, and she would not leave until she had found him. She opened the trash can and looked inside. Nothing but junk. Tangerine opened the door to the janitor's closet. No Featherweight there. She looked at the top of the lockers to see if he had flown up there. Still no sign of him.
Tangerine admitted that Featherweight was a good hider, but she swore to find him no matter what. Thinking about where the pegasus colt could be hiding, a thought crossed her mind when she eyed the classroom door.
'Maybe in there...' she mulled, opening the door.
Walking inside the classroom, Tangerine checked under the students' desks. No Featherweight under any of them. She opened the teacher's closet. He wasn't there either. Under the teacher's desk. Empty.
Tangerine sighed and walked in front of the teacher's desk as if she stopped to think about where else he could hide. Then, her acute ears had picked up a slight muffle, and she immediately knew where he was. She reared up her hindlegs and kicked the teacher's desk, opening the drawers accompanied with a yelp.
Turning back, she had found a groaning Featherweight who had been hiding inside one of the drawers, a possible feat for his small size.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in?" Tangerine hissed, forcing him away to detention, to be with anypony else she had busted earlier.
Featherweight struggled from Tangerine's firm grip, trying to get away. However, she proved to be quite strong, plus his small shape didn't really help him. Soon, the hall monitor finally made it to the room she made detention and forced him in one of the seats. While recovering from the aggressive force, he looked around the detention room to see that it hasn't changed a bit from all the times he had been here. It was always dark from the closed door and shut blinds from the windows, the only source of light being the lit lamp on the teacher's desk where Tangerine sat. The seats were set far apart from each other so that the students could not whisper to each other, and all Featherweight found on his desk was a pencil and paper to write what he should not do, like every other student who ended up in detention had to. He sighed, hating being in a place like this. Soon however, he found that he wasn't alone.
"Guys?" Featherweight asked in surprise upon seeing Cutup, Specs and Gloria along with him. "How did you end up in here?"
"Thangerine thought that we were conthpiring to thrip her from being hall monitor, and threw uth in here." Specs explained to the pegasus colt.
"Which, funny enough, is kinda true in a way..." Cutup thought aloud, earning a smack in the head from Gloria.
"Quiet! Don't get us in more trouble than we already are!" she hissed.
"Silence! All of you!"
Tangerine's shout took immediate effect, silencing everyone in detention. She then slowly walked over to the nervous Featherweight, glaring at him deeper than any other student.
"Featherweight." Tangerine began. "You were the first pony to run away from me when I told you to stop. Why did you run? You knew that I would have caught you eventually, right?"
"Whoa, you ran away from her?" Cutup asked in surprise.
"Silence!" The stout unicorn flinched back from Tangerine's shout. She then turned her attention back to Featherweight. "Well? Answer my question."
Featherweight scratched his head as he tried to think up an excuse. "Uh...well..."
"Well, what?"
"I just thought that I might have a chance, what with me being a pegasus and you an earth pony. I thought that maybe I could fly away from you. Guess I thought wrong..."
"Is that really true?" Tangerine asked suspiciously. "Wait...you are part of the conspiracy, are you not?"
Featherweight raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Conspiracy? What are you talking about?"
"Do not fool around with me! I know that there are students around the school that are jealous or fearful of me and wish to overthrow me as hall monitor so that they can take my place!"
Everyone looked at Tangerine in disbelief, wondering how she came to that conclusion. It seemed as if her paranoia was getting worse as time passed.
"Tangerine, there is no conspiracy to try and get rid of you!" Featherweight assured her. "Nopony is trying anything!"
"Do you think that I am a fool? Do you expect me to let my guard down at the most critical moment ever?" Tangerine frowned. She walked away, still talking. "Everything that I have done, I have done for the good of our school, to stop the troublemakers and bullies..."
"Hey, guys." Featherweight whispered to the others while Tangerine had her back turned. "You want to help, right? Well, how's the time."
"Really? Awethome!" Specs grinned.
"So what are we supposed to do?" Gloria asked the pegasus colt.
"We need to keep her talking for as long as we can. Stall for time." Featherweight answered.
"Huh?" Cutup tilted his head in confusion. "You're not making sense. What's that supposed-"
"Trust me."
Everyone immediately stopped before Tangerine caught them as she turned to face them again during her speech. "But no! Ponies left and right are ungrateful for everything that I have worked hard for! So of course I punish them! To show them that they are wrong!"
"Uh, Tangerine?" Gloria called her. "I don't mean to offend, but hasn't the thought ever crossed your mind that you somehow made a mistake? Nopony's perfect, right?"
"And what sort of 'mistakes' have I made, Gloria?" Tangerine questioned the pink unicorn.
"Um..." Gloria bit her lip, thinking of an answer. "Did you ever listen to other's side of the stories to see if they truly did do something wrong?"
"Why should I? Every troublemaker is a liar, and liars will say anything to get themselves out of trouble. I will not let my guard down to let a guilty pony get away from the punishment he deserves!"
"But what if you are wrong?" Featherweight piped in. "What if that pony is innocent? Then you've just punished somepony who didn't deserve it."
"Are you questioning me!?" Tangerine glowered, startling everyone. They all knew that they needed to tread lightly, careful to not truly anger her.
"A-All I'm saying is that m-maybe you should think things over." stuttered the cream-colored pegasus.
"Like I said before, I can not trust any of what the students claim, for they could easily be lying! And so, I do not need to think that they are innocent."
"But Tangerine, we're friends, right?" Cutup said hopefully. "Should you really be doing this to your friends?"
"I can not let my emotions get in the way of doing my duty." Tangerine answered cooly. "Friend or no, cousin or no, you will regardless face the consequences."
"But Tangerine...why?" Featherweight frowned, sad that the nice filly he met from his first day at school is acting like this. "Why go and do all of this? Was it really necessary?"
"Yes, it was! There were students who did not respect me and the school rules before everything. Now, all the students will respect me!"
"Tangerine, that's not respect. That's fear!" Featherweight corrected her. "Everypony is afraid of you ever since you changed the rules! Is this how you want things to be like? With every student scared out of their wits when they come to school?"
"They will learn to respect me and the rules in time, Featherweight. This I am sure of."
"But Tangerine, what about the teachers? And Jane Starr, the one who made you hall monitor?" Gloria reminded her. "What will they think when they hear about this?"
"I have made a rule to prevent any conspirators to tarnish my good name." Tangerine answered evenly. "If I so much as catch or hear about one student talking to a teacher in the hallways, they will be suspended for a period of time from school."
Every foal gasped in horror upon hearing that Tangerine actually put up such a rule in the school.
"Tangerine, you can't do that! Hall monitors don't have that kind of power!" Cutup protested, him and every foal in the room thinking that her increasing paranoia has gone too far.
"Perhaps I would not have to take such drastic measures if there were not conspirators plotting to get rid of me!" Tangerine countered, believing her action to be justified.
"For the last time Tangerine, nopony is conspiring to get you out! It's all in your head!" Gloria protested, now getting angry at what the earth filly had done.
"That is what the conspirators want me to think! I am not falling for it!"
"And who do you even think the 'conspirators' are anyway!?"
"I do not know, which is why I can not trust anypony!"
"But Tangerine, what about the students that did respect you before? Do they also deserve the same treatment from those that didn't respect you?" Featherweight reminded her.
"They would soon be influenced by the ones who did not respect me, and I could not risk letting that happen. So yes, it is necessary to punish them as well!" Tangerine remarked harshly.
Featherweight found it rather scary how Tangerine could change so suddenly into the opposite from her kind self into this stern and frightening pony, all from attempting to be a more assertive hall monitor. He began to think of something else to say to distract her until Specs, who had been quiet the whole time, eagerly spoke up.
"Hey, Thangerine! Have you read the latetht itthue of Iron Mare? And her fight againth the Mandarin? Not the fruit, like you knowth, but the villain? It was awethome! The figtht they have really blew me away! Iron Mare wath like 'POW!' with her punches, and then Mandarin wath like 'KAPOW!' rigtht back ath her, breaking a bit of her armor, and then she thot thonic blasts at him like 'PEW PEW PEW' buth Mandarin thumped out of the way, and then he began thooting a dithintegrathion beam ath her like 'WEEEEEEEWW' and Iron Mare barely dothed it, burning a bith of her armor off, and then they began tho tharge towarth each other in a big clath, and then..."
Specs stopped when he noticed that Tangerine was unamused by his big story, staring flatly at the unicorn.
'I probably should've told Specs to stay quiet...' he groaned in his mind.
"That is enough!!!" Tangerine shouted, her patience at an end. "I do not have to put up with all of you asking me questions and listening to nonsense! I am the one who asks the questions! Why are you even asking me questions!? ...wait a minute..." Tangerine paused, now glowering at the students harder than ever. " I know why! You are all with the conspiracy!"
"WHAT!?" Everyone shouted at the accusation. Now Tangerine was really going too far.
"What would make you think that!?" asked a shocked Featherweight.
"Why else would you keep asking me questions? To report back to your superiors! You have all been sent as spies to get to me!" Tangerine madly accused.
"Tangerine, that makes no sense! Why go through the trouble of getting in detention when we could ask you personally out in the halls or the playground!?" snapped an angry Gloria.
"Simple, it would be too obvious!"
"But that doesn't make sense either!" Cutup remarked.
"Everypony quiet!" Tangerine shouted, silencing everyone again. She slowly walked to the teacher's desk and shined the light on the lamp at the students, as if she was interrogating them. "Now, here is what we will do. You will tell me who is leading the conspiracy against me. If you do not answer in ten seconds, all of you will be suspended for the whole month!"
"SUSPENSION!?" They shouted in shock and disbelief.
"I gueth she wath theriouth about thuthpenthion..." Specs muttered in fear.
"I will start counting now! One...two..."
"Tangerine, you have to believe us, there is no conspiracy!" Gloria desperately cried, but was ignored.
"...three...four..."
"Tangerine, don't do this! My parents will ground me for a week with no comic books!" Cutup pleaded, to no avail.
"...five...six..."
While the others begged for Tangerine to stop, Featherweight prayed that all this time stalling her would pay off. But what if it wasn't enough? What if it was too late? Then all of his efforts would have been in vain.
"...seven..."
Could he have done more? Could he have completely escaped from Tangerine earlier?
"...eight..."
'It wasn't supposed to end like this!' he thought to himself.
"...nine..."
Everyone shrunk back in their seats as Tangerine was about to finish the countdown...
SLAM!
The abrupt sound of a door opening interrupted her, and in came who Featherweight was hoping for to come.
"Babs! You made it!" he smiled, happy to see the red-maned filly carrying a saddlebag with her.
"Yup, sorry if I took a while, but I got de job done." Babs smiled back.
"Babs, do not interrupt their detention!" Tangerine snapped at her cousin. "I was about to get them to confess who their leader of the conspiracy was!"
"Look Tangerine, I got pictures here that I developed just today! You really oughta see them!" Babs said, opening her saddlebag.
Tangerine looked mad upon hearing that Babs left school just to develop some photos. "You have left the school properties!? I should punish you along with them!"
"Tangerine, dis is really important! Just look at dem and you'll see wut we were talking about de whole time!" Babs said, tossing the pictures from her saddlebag on Tangerine's desk.
Thinking that this was some sort of trick, Tangerine refused to look at them. However, one small glimpse on one of the photos caught her attention. She saw herself shouting at a group of scared foals, one of the fillies crying of fear. The next one was herself ordering another group to get down on the ground, treating them like criminals. Slowly looking to another, Tangerine saw her picture self forcing the cards she wrote on a filly and colt. Now with her eyes widened, she saw herself again giving detention to her friends and cousin in one picture. And she realized that she was giving them another detention now to them. Every other picture she looked at always showed her shouting at the foals, glaring at them, and punishing them.
Tangerine fell back on her seat in shock and horror. She did all of those terrible and cruel things and now every student is afraid of her. She didn't want to scare anyone or turn into a bully, she was only trying to help the school be a better place! She had then remembered the talk she had with her mother some time back, that authority was a very big responsibility. And she had abused it.
"Is this...me?" Tangerine whispered in horror, looking at the pictures again. "Is this...what I have been doing...?"
"I'm afraid so, cuz." Babs grimly nodded. "I dunno why, but you just went and...snapped."
Realizing that she was about to actually suspend her friends from school, along with every other act she had done, Tangerine began shaking, the full weight of her actions now dawning upon her. And then, she cried. Crying from what a monster she had become to the students, her friends and her cousin.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Tangerine wept on her desk. "I didn't mean it! I didn't mean to be so cruel!"
Babs walked over to her cousin, putting a comforting hoof on her head. "Dere, dere Tangerine...it's ok..."
"No it's not! I was so horrible to everypony! How could I do such a thing!?"
While Tangerine was weeping and Babs was comforting her, the other relieved foals still had one question left unanswered on what happened.
"Say, Featherweight?" Gloria began, catching his attention. "I have question: how did Babs get those photos developed in the first place?"
"Yeah, I thought that you were the one with the camera?" Cutup added.
"Well, I was going to get those photos developed myself." Featherweight explained. "But after Tangerine caught me, I knew that I had to change plans quick."
"You, Featherweight!"
Featherweight's eyes widened upon hearing tangerine's voice directed right at him.
'No, no, no, no...I'm so close...'
All he had to do next was to quietly leave the school without anyone noticing, develop the photos from his camera at Snap Cam and come right back to show the pictures to Tangerine. But now with her attention fixed on him, that would be impossible.
'I guess I have to improvise...'
Moving quick, he flew over to Babs and stuffed his camera inside her saddlebag, without Tangerine noticing. She glanced behind her at Featherweight, knowing that it was now up to her to finish the job.
"No flying is allowed inside the hallways, and you know it!" Tangerine called. "Now get over here!"
Featherweight's new plan was now to stall for time, give Babs as much as she needed to to develop the photos before Tangerine does something drastic.
"Babs, run." he whispered to friend before flying away.
"Where are you going!?" Tangerine shouted, less than pleased that a student had ran away from her. She snarled as she began to give chase. "Come back here right now!"
As soon as Tangerine was out of sight, Babs began to move. Looking left and right to make sure no one was around, she quickly left through the front door and ran as fast as she could to get the photos developed.
"Tho thath what happened?" Specs asked.
"Yeah, and that's why I asked you guys to keep Tangerine talking, to give Babs more time to develop the photos and bring them to her in time." Featherweight said.
"Wow, that was really awesome!" Cutup grinned. "It was like you were a spy or something!"
"You worked so hard...my hero!" Gloria cried in joy, kissing Featherweight on the cheek, making him blush.
"Um, uh...y-you're w-welcome..." he stammered, not expecting the kiss.
"Hey guys..." Babs called, with a sniffling Tangerine alongside her. "I gotta tell ya, it's not over yet. We gotta deal wid de other students now."
"Oh yeah." Featherweight agreed with Babs. "I never really thought that far yet..."
"So now what do we do?" Cutup asked. Now that Tangerine has come to her senses, they now have to deal with the rest of the students somehow.
"The right thing." Tangerine sniffed, wiping away her tears. "I must apologize to everypony for what I did."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Gloria asked in concern. "I don't think that the students will be so forgiving after everything that's happened."
"She won't be alone." Babs declared with determination. "I'll stick wid my cuz, and defend her from anypony dat badmouths her!"
"Me too! I'm not going to just lay back now after I've worked so hard to get us here!" Featherweight spoke.
"Tho what are we thupothed to do?" Specs asked, not wanting to be left out again.
"You guys tell everypony to meet us at de playground, and den Tangerine will apologize to them dere." Babs instructed. "Youse got dat?"
"Loud and clear!" Cutup saluted. "Come on Specs, let's go! And watch your mouth this time, you almost got us in trouble!"
"Thorry! I wath jutht trying to help!" Specs answered, both unicorns continuing their banter in the hallway.
"Good luck, guys! I hope all goes well!" Gloria smiled before leaving to also tell the students to go to the playground.
"Babs...? Featherweight...?" Tangerine spoke softly, almost unheard from the two foals. "I want to say...thank you, for stopping me from making a big mistake...thank you for making me see that I was wrong..."
They both responded by hugging the remorseful filly, happy to have her old self back.
All of the students were gathered at the playground after hearing from Cutup, Specs and Gloria that their hall monitor had an announcement to make. None of them were eager to hear it, afraid that she was going to announce another rule that would hound them around the school. As Tangerine walked forward with Babs and Featherweight, they were surprised. Instead of seeing her stern and glaring expression, she looked sad and a bit nervous.
"Everypony, may I please have your attention?" Tangerine called, surprising everyone even further since she always shouted at them. "I have something that I would like to say. I have realized that I have not been treating you well. I abused my position as hall monitor to what I believed, to make our school better. Instead, I have only worsened it. I now see that my actions were cruel and unjust. I was not fair to any of you. I created unfair rules for the school. I punished you when you did not deserve it. I want to apologize. I am sorry for everything that I have done. I know that this will not fix the mistakes that I have made, but I still feel like I need to apologize to all of you."
However, true to Gloria's statement from earlier, the students were less than pleased to hear Tangerine's apology now.
"You're sorry!? After everything you've done to us!?"
"Do you really expect us to forgive you just like that!?"
"My parents grounded me for a week because of you!"
"You're the worst hall monitor ever! At least Chip Mint didn't give out detentions!"
Tangerine was about ready to cry again from all the insults she was getting. While she couldn't blame them for being mad, it still hurt.
"All of you stop dis right now!!!" Babs shouted, silencing all of the students. "I know you're all mad, but Tangerine feels really bad about wut she did!"
"She should be! I almost always got in detention because of her!" retorted a red pegasus filly.
"Why are you standing up for her anyway!? She said it herself, she abused her position as hall monitor to rule the school!" scoffed a grey earth colt, all the other foals agreeing with him.
"Yeah, well I bet dat you were all gonna do de same thing if youse were hall monitor, weren't you!?" Babs snapped back. This time, all of the students were silent, not sure how to respond.
"Yeah, that's right! I bet that's the only reason you all wanted to become hall monitor, so you could do whatever you wanted!" Featherweight accused them all.
"Dat's right! See now how it feels to be treated like dis? Not very fun, huh?" Babs questioned, knowing that they were on the right track.
"W-well, that still doesn't change the fact that she still did what she did!"
"True, but before all of this, Tangerine proved to be a wonderful hall monitor!" Gloria said, walking up to her friend. "She followed every rule and was fair to everypony she met. Why, I still remember the day she saved Cutup and I from some bullies. I'm still thankful to her for that."
This resulted in Specs laughing at the embarassed Cutup. "No way! You were a victhim!?"
"Shut up, Specs..." grumbled the stout unicorn.
"Anyway, I know for a fact that none of you would have done this for anypony. Chip Mint is the sole proof of that!" Gloria finished.
Now the students have considerably calmed down. Some still looked a little angry, but no one was insulting Tangerine anymore.
"Well, I guess you do have a point there..."
"What a wake-up call..."
"Ok, we get the point..."
"I don't exactly forgive her, but I'll leave her alone..."
Tangerine cleared her throat to speak again. "Th-Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. You may go now."
Every student left, now relieved that the days of terror in the school are over. After everyone was gone, Tangerine released a sigh she didn't realize she was holding. It wasn't easy, but she had done it.
"Well, that's that I guess." Featherweight sighed, relieved that this was over.
"So is it over now?" Gloria asked them.
"No, not yet." Tangerine shook her head. "After school is over, I will tell my parents what I did."
"But Tangerine, if you do dat then you'll get in trouble!" Babs protested, not wanting to see her cousin grounded.
"I can not lie to my parents, Cousin Babs. It does not feel right. They deserve to know the truth."
Babs saw that there was no way of convincing Tangerine to not tell her parents about what she had done. She sighed, giving in. "All right, but at least lemme come wid you. I'm also part of de reason dat made you change."
"Of course, Babs." Tangerine nodded, before turning to the winged colt. "Featherweight, will you be coming with us?"
"Like I said before, I'm with you until the end." Featherweight smiled.
Tangerine softly smiled, glad to know that she had such a loyal cousin and friend with her.
After school was over, Babs and Featherweight went with Tangerine and her parents to their hotel to break the news. Tangerine told Sherbet and Mosley everything she could recall: the unfair punishments she gave out, the unjust rules she created, her cruel treatment on the students, scaring every foal in school...she made sure that her mother and father knew everything that she had done.
"...and that is what happened." Tangerine finished her confession.
Her parents were surprised to hear what Tangerine has told them, not expecting to ever hear her act in such a cruel and unforgiving manner.
"Oh my..." Sherbet whispered, a hoof over her mouth.
"This is...rather some shocking news to take in..." Mosley shook his head, stunned from what he had heard.
"Once again, I am deeply sorry. I am not proud of what I have done." Tangerine lowered her head in shame.
Babs, Featherweight and Tangerine nervously awaited the answer from the two wealthy adults as they weighed it all in.
"Well, we must say that we're not too proud of your...aggressive behavior to the students at school." Mosley remarked, making his daughter lower her ears. "But all in all, we're glad that you decided to tell us the truth."
"Yes, it is not easy to admit something such as this to your parents." Sherbet smiled before looking stern. "Nevertheless, you still did wrong to your friends and students. For that, you will be grounded."
"Wait, Auntie Orange!" Babs cried, standing in front of her cousin. "It ain't completely Tangerine's fault! I was de one who pushed her into becoming a tougher hall monitor! It was my fault! Please don't ground her!"
Sherbet only shook her head. "Babs, I admire that you are willing to stand up for my daughter, but Tangerine's actions were her own. And she needs to learn that such actions have consequences."
"It is all right, Cousin Babs. I must carry out my punishment, after everything I did." Tangerine assured her cousin. "And I did learn something valuable from all this...
I have learned that authority is not something to be taken lightly. It is something that can mean the difference between a fair and just friend or a cruel and unforgiving tyrant. You should only be assertive if you need to, without being too forceful. Following into the path of the latter will not only hurt your friends and everypony around you, you will also hurt yourself. That is why one should be responsible with their power and not abuse it. It feels much better to know that you are doing good and that ponies are loving you for it."
"I'm proud to see that you learned from all of this, my little sweetie." Sherbet nuzzled her daughter.
"We probably should remember to tell Twilight about this later." Mosley suggested to his wife.
Tangerine noticed that her cousin looked down, sad that they will not be able to play together for a while. She went over to comfort Babs. "Do not worry Babs. It will be all right."
"I guess, but it'll be pretty lonely crusading without you..." Babs sighed, guessing that a part of her cousin's punishment would be to not let her leave her home for a while.
"Who says that you have to be alone?" Featherweight smiled. "I can go with you!"
Both of the cousins grew excited hearing the colt's words. The first time they had met Featherweight, he was unsure about joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders, wondering if it would truly help him. But now...
"So does dat mean...!?" Babs shouted excitedly.
"That's right!" Featherweight smirked. "Consider me a part of your group!"
"You're joining us! That's wonderful!" Tangerine cried in glee, jumping in joy.
"Oh boy! Jus' wait 'till we write to Applebloom about dis!" Babs also shouted in joy.
"Well, it's nice to see that you have both gained a new member for your group." Sherbet smiled at the foals, happy for their newest addition to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "How about we have some ice cream together to celebrate this joyous occasion?"
"YAY!!!" the three foals cheered, following the adults, eager for sweets, to celebrate the joining of their newest recruit and to put everything that had happened behind them. The Cutie Mark Crusaders have gained one member today, and hope to gain more in the future.
