Friday had come all too soon for Tiara's liking. She stared up at the edifice of Canterlot High with trepidation. The statue to her left was supporting all of her weight as she leaned on it, tapping her foot on the concrete below. She was as jittery as Fluttershy was before her entrance exam to veterinarian school. The school seemed much more imposing now than it ever had been. Even when it was infested with three she demons it hadn't felt this wrong. Heck, even seeing the school at night didn't feel this bad.

Taking a deep breath, Diamond Tiara took a single step forward. She didn't get much more than that before a pair of fingers jabbed her in her sides, making her screech, and launch off of the pavement like a rocket. When she came back down, she heard jittery laughter. Turning around, she rolled her eyes when she saw Silver Spoon with her hand covering her mouth, vainly trying to hide her giggles. "Hey there, spacer," she sing-songed.

Tiara tilted her head. "Spacer? What are you talking about?"

Spoon scoffed, placing a finger on Tiara's chest, and flicking upwards. "You had your head so high up you had to be an astronaut."

Tiara batted the offending digit away from her face with a scowl. "I'm just... thinking."

"Oh wow," Spoon crossed her arms. "Stop the presses, she's trying to think for once."

Diamond already felt the sweet tinges of a migraine, tickling the edges of her temples. She brought up two fingers to massage the ache away. "Just stop, please," she begged. "I'm not in the mood,"

Silver Spoon raised an eyebrow. When that didn't work, she lost her smirk, and actually unfurled her arms, stepping up to her longtime friend with a concerned look. "Alright." She nodded. "I'll bite. What's eating you?"

Diamond Tiara looked around, as though watching for any offending ears. She flicked her head to one side, moving away from the statue, as though even it might have ears. Once she was far enough away, she stuck her hands into the pockets of her skinny jeans, gnashing her teeth while she thought of how to broach this subject with her long-term friend. "Have you ever had a crush on someone?" she finally asked, snapping her head up towards Spoon.

The other girl blinked, leaning back away from her slightly-manic friend. "Of course." She spoke as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

"Have you ever had a crush on three guys at once?" Diamond asked, her voice flat, and monotonous.

"Three?" Spoon took a deep breath, exhaling in a long, drawn-out whistle. "Wow," Spoon said, poking Diamond in the ribs. "That's a little bit greedy, isn't it? There's barely enough to go around as it is."

"I can't help it." Diamond Tiara shrugged in helpless apology. "They're just so..."

Clasping her hands together, Spoon nuzzled her head onto Diamond's shoulder, batting her eyelashes up at the lavender-haired girl. "Dreamy?" she answered in a sing-song.

"Hot!" Diamond stomped her foot in frustration.

"Ah." Silver Spoon stepped away. "So, it's purely physical?"

"Yes," Diamond answered on reflex, before backpedalling. "No!" she lied. Then groaned, then ran a hand through her hair. Her distinctive diadem came away in one hand, and she thumbed it with a nervous brush of her thumbs over the largest jewel. "I don't know..." she trailed off. "It certainly doesn't help that they're the hottest guys in school!" Tiara said, her mind conjuring images of perfect, Adonis-like bodies, and perfect pecs and stunningly smooth skin. Flushing a deep crimson, she shook her head.

Spoon was watching her, a knowing smile splitting her face.

Tiara put her distinctive diadem back onto her head, affixing it to her hair with a small 'harumph'. "They're my friends," she said, in a brusque tone. "I love them all as friends. But I can't help but think; what if we became more?" Diamond's eyes travelled upwards, and away from Spoon. Thoughts invaded her mind again, but instead of their bodies, it was their smiles. Their kind eyes, their laughs. Deep, powerful, but never mean-spirited. All the good they did for the school, all the clubs they used to run at the cost of their grades. Tiara chuckled as she thought of their misguided attempts to find a suitable area of study for their Canterlot High Cutie Marks. They were so proud when they got them, and they always wore them proudly; emblazoned on the front of their bags. "They're so sweet, and kind, and nice, and quirky."

"So now," Spoon held up a hand, "you're standing here dreading going in, because you're gonna have to choose?" She snapped her fingers, confident she had guessed correctly. "Right?"

"No." Diamond shook her head, clutching her bag a bit tighter, and gazing at the entrance to the school. "I'm dreading going in because I'm gonna confess to all three of them, and then let them choose."

Spoon's face fell into a wince. "Ouch. That does sound hard."

"You're not helping." Diamond Tiara scowled.

Spoon rested a hand on Tiara's shoulder, leaning on her much like she would an arm rest. "Well, if it's any consolation, I don't think the Crusaders will hold it against you," she idly said, inspecting the pristine manicure on her other hand.

Tiara stepped away, a deep flush colouring her cheeks once again. "Who said anything about it being them?"

"Oh, please, girl!" Spoon waved a hand, adopting a coquettish look, and raising her voice to a high-pitched facsimile of Tiara's. "'Oh, they're my friends. They're the three hottest guys in school! I couldn't keep my eyes off of them at swim class!'" Smiling cruelly, Spoon looked back at Diamond.

"Shut up!" Tiara hit her friend in the shoulder, just enough to sting.

Spoon laughed, but got it under control rather quickly. "Seriously though, what's stopping you?" she asked. "Like you said, they're sweet. They won't hold a little three-way crush against you,"

Diamond clenched her jaw, a tingle shooting up her spine, rushing through her head with some very alluring, and provocative images. She held up a hand. "Please," she paused, feeling the shiver run back down from her head to her stomach, settling there in a pleasant, thrumming warmth. "Please do not mention three ways, or four ways, or holding against me."

Spoon drew back, her mouth slightly open, and her eyes blinking slowly. "Wow. You've got it real bad, haven't you?"

Diamond tried to retreat into her jacket. It didn't do much to hide her from anyone, especially not the girl next to her. "Little bit," she admitted.

Before either girl could say anything more, the bell rang, signalling that the students had all but five minutes to get to their next class. Diamond and Spoon both looked up towards the bell tower

"Come on. You can't do anything until lunch."

Of course now she stood at the foot of a statue, watching the three of them sitting on of the outside benches, eating lunch. Together. Of course they're together, they just love making my life difficult, don't they? She sighed, and brushed her fingers through her hair. She took a moment to watch them; Scoots was sitting on the tabletop, with his feet down on the bench behind Silver Belle, while Applebuck was sitting across from him. They were all laughing, smiling, and having a good time. Diamond smiled as well, feeling a warm fluttering in her chest. steeling her nerves proved to be the second most difficult thing she had ever done, right behind taking the first lurching step towards the trio. Every step was as agonizing as a trip to the dentist; it wasn't the act she knew was coming, it was the fear. The apprehension and anxiety roiling in her gut, alongside the very distant memory of her dream. A lecherous part of her mind hoped they would be angry, or hoped that they would cast her aside, so she could make it up to them somehow.

Shivering, she sidestepped off of the pavement, and onto the grass with a stumble and a wave of her arms. The act gained the attention of the three guys at the table, who turned to face her with worry on their faces.

Diamond righted herself, and froze under their stares. "Hey guys," she said, waving at them, and continuing her arduous trudge. It was worse now that they were looking at her.

"Good to see you, D," Scoots flashed a warm smiled. When Diamond didn't return it, his disappeared. "What's going on?"

"Yeah, you look a might nervous." Applebuck tilted his head, a soft and inviting smile on his face. The kind of smile that gently encouraged someone to spill their darkest secrets, while conveying that he would never ever spill them to anyone else.

Diamond could have gotten lost in that smile.

"Is everything okay?" Silver Bell asked.

She almost said no, right then and there, but something held her back. Diamond took a deep breath. It was now, or it was never. "I..." she trailed off, gulping around a parched throat. "I just want to apologise," she finally said, turning her head down. If she looked at them, she would never go through with it.

The three crusaders shared looks of varying confusion and concern.

"For what?" Silver Bell asked, tilting his head in confusion. A few strands of his hair dipped low across his eyes, and he tucked them back in the expertly-maintained hairstyle of his.

"For everything," Diamond replied, shaking her head. She could barely think when she was around these three. "For who I used to be."

"Where did this all come from?" Scoots leaned forward off of his perch atop the picnic table. He swung his legs around to face her, dangling them off of the table, where the tips of his shoes just barely brushed the grass.

"Yeah, we thought you'd've moved past that, we've already forgiven you," Applebuck added. His deep baritone made her bones quake.

"I know," she closed her eyes and shook her head, balling her fists. She had to maintain her courage. She was committed now. "It's just... I've been having some feelings lately, and I just can't seem to move on. I thought this would help."

The three Crusaders seemed shocked once again. They looked between themselves, each one nervously twitching. "What kinda feelings?" Scoots asked.

"Well, uh," Tiara faltered, stumbling over her words, and rubbing the back of her head with a hand. "Just, you know, feelings," she ambiguously stated.

"Okay,"Scoots rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You're acting strange now, what exactly is the problem?" He hopped down from the table, and the other two stood up.

Diamond groaned, and balled her fists in frustration. "You guys are!" she erupted, then brought a hand up to her lips.

"Us?" they all chorused at once, sharing confused glances.

"What did we do?" Applebuck asked.

"You acted nice to me!" Tiara continued through her fingers. The levy was broken, and everything she kept bottled up came rocketing out. "You befriended me! You forgave me without a second thought, and now you're acting all caring and sweet! I don't know if I'm just attracted to your bodies or your if I'm just crushing on your personalities, or both, but I just..." she trailed off, collapsing to the bench. She didn't know when she had gotten over there, as she was too focused on their faces morphing from confusion, to worry, then realisation when she all but admitted her crush on them all. Tiara simply sniffled, and wiped at her misty eyes. "I don't know!"

"You're attracted to us?" Silver Bell asked, with a blush tinging his white cheeks.

"That's, uh, not exactly what I was expectin' when I got up this mornin'." Applebuck admitted.

"I'm not really sure what to say." Scoots sat down next to her.

Tiara avoided their eyes. "Just say you never want to see me again."

"Whoa," Scoots held up his hands. "Why would we say that?"

"Because I've ruined our friendship." Tiara choked back a sob. "I'm saying all these weird things, and I'm apologising for the past even though I know you've forgiven me."

"You haven't ruined our friendship," Silver Bell assured her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You've just taken it to a place we've not considered before."

"Yeah," Applebuck rolled his eyes, jabbing Silver in the ribs. "It's not like we've ever talked about who we would date if we could, especially not at the clubhouse before, or anything."

Silver seethed under his piercing gaze. "That was different. We had a few drinks."

Applebuck nodded at him, mumbling his words back at him. "It's exactly the same and you know it."

Tiara blushed a hot crimson. Her entire face felt like it was on fire.

Scoots groaned, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Don't call it a clubhouse, dude," he complained, shaking his head. "We're not kids anymore,"

"Oh," Silver Bell retreated, holding a pinky finger up to his lips in mock thought, "that's right, what was it again, Scoots? Our 'hideout'?" He accentuated his last word, with a sarcastic brand of venom that Tiara had never seen. His smug grin, and the way that Scoots narrowed his eyes, told her that this was a common occurrence between them.

"Shut it," he growled.

"So, you don't mind?" Tiara meekly asked, getting all of their attentions again.

"Well, it'll probably be a little weird at first, but we can either go past it and let our friendship go back to normal, or..." Applebuck trailed off.

Tiara watched him expectantly as he gazed at the other two Crusaders. "Or, what?" she pressed. They nodded to each other, some silent understanding passing between them.

"Or," Scoots shifted, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "We talk about it more, say, tomorrow at six? Movie? Your place?"

Tiara blinked in shock. Did she... did she just get asked out?! By Scoots?! Internally she was jumping for joy, but externally she was rooted in place like an oak tree.

"Hey, that ain't fair!" Applebuck said.

Scoffing, Scoots waved a dismissive hand his way. "Why?"

Stuttering, Applebuck made vague hand gestures at the pair of them sitting on the bench. "You used your proximity to ask her out," he said.

"Proximity? What are you, Twilight?" Silver chided him.

All alone with Scoots, in her house, on the sofa; a bad romantic comedy, or, more likely for Scoots, a kickass action flick, both of them huddled under a blanket, a bag of popcorn between them, laughing and joking. She smiled at the thought. "A movie sounds nice," Tiara whispered, "but, I don't like just one of you," she continued.

Silver Bell sat down on the bench and placed a hand on top of hers, smiling at her. She could see hope, and a small hint of excitement in his eyes. "Then, we could go out for dinner on Sunday, Rarity has a friend that works at Le Café Rouge," he hummed at Tiara's shocked expression, "we could easily get reservations."

Tiara's mind wandered once again; this time, Silver Bell was in a freshly pressed suit that hugged his slim, sculpted frame. Sitting across from her, Diamond could wear a dress, they would order their meal, they would take, and laugh at the stuffy upper-class people at the other tables, she shook her head, and came back to the present. "That could be nice," she said, clearing her throat and wringing her fingers.

"Oh great," Applebuck folded his arms. "And what am I stuck with? 'Oh, Diamond, would a high-class gal like you wanna take a walk through our apple orchard for the fiftieth time'?" He scoffed.

Tiara thought about it. The orchard, at sunset, with her hand entwined in his, they would stop to admire the view, he would turn, brush a strand of hair out of her eyes, and lean down to steal a kiss under an apple tree. "Don't sell yourself short, Buck." Tiara reached forward and slapped his thigh jovially. "I wouldn't mind that, especially at sunset. Your orchard has always been beautiful."

"Oh." Applebuck cleared his throat. "Well, alrighty then, it's a date."

"As for the whole apologising thing," Silver chimed, sparing Applebuck from further embarrassment, "no one really stops feeling guilty about stuff, you just have to learn to deal with it, I suppose."

"Yeah, I still feel guilty for putting itching powder in Rainbow's wondercolts uniform," Scoots said, snickering as he did so.

"When was that?"

"About three weeks ago. Buck dared me to do it!"

"I did not!" Applebuck drew back at the accusation.

"You totally did!" Scoots pointed at him. "You even got the powder from Silver Bell!"

Thinking about it a little more, Bucks eyes rolled up slightly. He appeared to find the memory, because he chuckled to himself. "Oh yeah, that was great."

"The point is we've all done stuff we regret." Bell brought the conversation back on track. "What's important is that we don't let it control us." he picked up her hand, and gave it an affirming squeeze.

"But I don't know if I really like you like that," Tiara looked down at Silver's hand as she spoke, mentally chiding herself for her poor use of words. "I don't know if it's just a mixture of guilt and gratitude making me want to... make it up to you somehow."

Silver Bell sighed, letting her hand go while he thought about it.

Each crusader seemed to be in the same boat, until Scoots snapped his fingers. "Wait!" he said. "I have a way we could check,"

"What—mpf!" Tiara was cut off by a pair of lips pressing against hers. The shock of the touch made her eyes go wide, and her body go rigid like a board. She shuddered as Scoot's lips moved with hers in a sensual dance, his tongue lightly pressing at her lips. The sweet taste of sugar filled her mouth.

When she didn't move, he pulled back, smiling at her in that damn confident, sexy way he always did when he won. "Anything?" he asked, one hand still cupping her chin.

Tiara blinked. One of her eyes went lazy, and she shook her head a little to catch up. Her brain was still fogged, and she could only muster a few noises that barely counted as words. "I don't—"

"Maybe she needs another," Applebuck said, his rough, calloused hand gently cupping her cheek, turning her face towards him. His lips mashed against hers roughly, and Tiara squeaked at the raw power behind it. His hand swept back into her hair, pushing her ever closer. This time, when a tongue asked for entry, she parted her lips. His tongue snaked into her mouth, roughly wrestling with hers for dominance; a fight that she quickly lost. Her eyes fluttered, promptly closing as the electric sensations ran up and down her spine. Cinnamon she thought. He tastes like cinnamon.

He pulled back, tilting his head. "Well?"

She continued to say nothing. Her eyes finally opened, clouded and glazed over. Was this really happening?

"One more, just to be sure," a third voice said. Tiara was too out of it to notice porcelain white skin, or an almost chaste peck on her lips. When she did notice Silver Belle's lips on her own, she closed her eyes once more, and melted into the embrace. Whereas Scoots had been equal to her, focused more on the act itself, and Applebuck had been the more dominant, Silver Bell was gentle. He was loving—he was everything she imagined. His lips, his almost-anxious probing tongue, the minty taste he left behind, all of it was perfect.

When he tried to pull away, Tiara followed his movements until she stumbled, forced to break the kiss by gravity. Roughly snapped back into reality, she pulled back, settling back down on the bench, with a hand up to her lips. She could still taste each and every one of them.

Bell smiled. "Still think it's just guilt? Or is there a little something else there, too?"

Tiara swayed in place, her eyes staring off into the distance. "Diamond Tiara isn't in right now, would you like to make an appointment?"

Scoots laughed. Silver Bell waved his hands in front of her eyes. "I think we broke her," he said.

"W-wait," Tiara shook her head, licking her lips. Mint, Cinnamon and Sugar shouldn't have tasted so good. "You're okay with me dating all of you?"

"It doesn't bother us," Applebuck said, nodding at the other two in confirmation. "I definitely like you enough to see where this could go."

"I'm not great with the whole mushy romance stuff, but," Scoots sighed. "I'll give it a try,"

"I've always sorta had a crush on you anyway." Silver flushed red.

Tiara looked down at her hands. "Am I still dreaming or something?"

Scoots pinched her cheek.

"Ow!" she yelped, hitting his shoulder. "Jerk!"

"Well you're not dreaming," he said.

Before she could say anything else, the bell rang behind them. Students from all over the field and the campus began walking back towards the building.

"Come on," Silver said to everyone. "If we're late again, Miss Cheerilee will have us all in detention."

Applebuck offered Diamond his hand. She took it, and felt his powerful muscles pulling her up. Scoots walked close to her, one hand around her hips, while Silver Bell was content to hold her free hand. Diamond allowed herself to be lead back into the school, a goofy grin on her face.

Things were starting to get interesting.

Author's Note

Pop-quiz!

What's white, thick, and creamy?

That's right!

Cream filler. As in, filler chapter, yeah?

... Shut up.

See, the problem with writing is that it is very much based on motivation. All within the span of one month, my computer broke, my cat died, and my family was struck with financial issues. That being said, do enjoy. I didn't plan on this becoming a longer story, but methinks each one of the Crusaders deserves his own chapter. Followed by something special at the end.