Hail Storm

by Brass Polish

Rating: everyone
Tags: Silver Spoon, Comedy, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Random, Adventure, Daring Do, Cake Twins, Diamond Tiara, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 4975

Sweetie Belle is outraged at how much praise Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon get for an act of heroism.

Sweetie Belle is outraged at how much praise Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon get for an act of heroism.

Published 2014-12-06 18:30:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-12-06 18:30:03 UTC

1 Snow Alicorn

The weather team were a bit behind with Ponyville’s next snowfall, and now there were large patches of grass among the snow in town. And these green patches were only getting bigger because the Cutie Mark Crusaders would not abandon the plan they’d made yesterday to try making a large snow sculpture. Dozens of citizens were taking advantage of the decent winter weather to stroll in the park, so the three fillies had plenty of passers by to watch them work. It wasn’t easy sculpting a life-size alicorn out of snow; especially wet snow.

“Apple Bloom, try to add more snow to the mane,” Sweetie Belle said when they were nearly finished. “It’s gonna fall off.”

Apple Bloom clambered gingerly onto the snow alicorn’s back and promptly sunk into it.

“Little help?” she asked from within.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo weren’t sure how to proceed. They didn’t want to climb onto their sculpture as well. It would surely collapse.

“I’m gonna try and use my magic,” decided Sweetie Belle.

Her horn glowed green. Apple Bloom felt herself begin to rise out of the hole in the snow alicorn’s back. But she was moving slowly, and Sweetie Belle was already exhausted. Scootaloo chose to contribute by hovering up and grabbing Apple Bloom by the shoulders as soon as she saw her appear. She was immediately wiped out as well with the effort, but the combined efforts of Apple Bloom’s friends succeeded in freeing her without damaging their artwork.

“Thanks, gals,” Apple Bloom smiled once she was back on the ground.

The sculpture’s mane fell off as Sweetie Belle predicted.

“Why do you even bother?” groaned an agonizing voice.

Sweetie Belle bared her teeth when she turned and saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon standing close by, Diamond carrying a Daring Do book on her back.

“You know why,” said Sweetie Belle. “We’re trying to find our special talents.”

“And look how far you’ve gotten,” Diamond Tiara said derisively. “You’re learning magic, just like every other unicorn. Scootaloo’s learning to fly, just like every other pegasus.”

“And Apple Bloom’s not getting anywhere,” taunted Silver Spoon. “She’s even lost her hide-and-seek skills.”

Diamond Tiara blocked a snowball by shielding her and her friend with her book.

“Play nicely, girls!” called a voice.

The five fillies saw Mr and Mrs Cake walk up pushing a stroller with their twin foals in it.

“Oh, it’s OK, Mrs Cake,” Silver Spoon lied. “We were just watching those three work.”

“And giving them some constructive criticism,” put in Diamond Tiara.

“Criticism?” repeated Mr Cake. “What’s there to criticize? Just give it a mane and it’ll be perfect.”

“Look out!”

Pound and Pumpkin bounced up and down in their stroller and cooed excitedly.

“Run!”

“Looks like they love it,” Mrs Cake smiled.

“Look out!”

Everypony looked up.

“Runaway hail cloud!” shrieked Silver Speed’s voice.

A large, dark grey cloud was tumbling down through the sky above Ponyville, and chunks of rock hard snow the size of eggs started spewing from it.

“Hurry, girls!” cried Mrs Cake as she and her husband began pushing their stroller away.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo ran alongside the Cakes. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had just begun to follow when they heard the twins cooing again. It wasn’t coming from the stroller. They looked frantically around and gasped. Pound and Pumpkin had left their stroller and crawled onto the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ sculpture while everypony had been looking to see what the trouble was. The runaway hail cloud came barrelling down. A downpour of ice was shooting down towards the snow alicorn. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon leapt towards the two yearlings and grabbed them, one each. The raining hail demolished the CMC’s snow sculpture in seconds. A nearby tree was pelted until some of its bark was stripped and some of its branches had fallen to the ground with the hail. The cloud itself hit the ground and burst loudly. More large snow chunks tumbled out and rolled all over the park grass. Benches, garbage bins and drinking fountains were punched and battered.

Silver Speed and several other pegasi dived down to the ground. Cup Cake and Carrot Cake were wailing.

“Where are our babies?!”

Panting, Silver Speed approached the spot where she’d seen several foals and the snow sculpture. Her heart leapt when she saw movement amongst the mess. Scrambling over the hail, she approached the spot and dug. Suddenly, she came across the beaten up, slightly shredded cover of a copy of “Daring Do and the Griffin’s Goblet”. She lifted it up. There was Diamond Tiara with Pound in her hooves, and Silver Spoon with Pumpkin in hers. All four were very wide-eyed.

“I’m so sorry, girls!” Silver Speed cried. “I overcompensated and added too many ingredients to my snow cloud. Are you hurt?”

Diamond Tiara stood up, her dented crown in danger of falling off her head. Pound Cake remained in her clutches, hugging her chest.

“We’re OK,” she said. “What about you two?”

Silver Spoon, both lenses in her glasses cracked, didn’t stand up. Pumpkin was hugging both her hooves.

“I think we’re OK, too,” she said.

Mr and Mrs Cake were over the moon.

“You saved them!” Mrs Cake said at the top of her voice.

“You two are heroes!” Mr Cake babbled.

“Oh, it was nothing really,” Diamond Tiara said with a wide smile.

Rainbow Dash, who’d been amongst the pegasi chasing the runaway hail cloud, seized Diamond Tiara’s wrecked book.

“Haha! A rescue worthy of Daring Do herself!” she chuckled.

Nearly hundreds of other ponies were walking over the spilt hail to crowd around the scene of the rescue and offer kudos to the heroes of the hour. Sweetie Belle hadn’t moved since the hail cloud had ejected the last of its snow chunks. She’d been watching everything going on where their snow alicorn once stood and her mind seemed to be jammed. As the crowd grew larger, Sweetie Belle finally looked to her friends. But Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were nowhere near her. She looked around. She heard their voices amongst the chatter.

“That was real brave!”

“I can’t believe you pulled that off! Way to go!”

Sweetie Belle’s bewilderment intensified. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, her best friends in Equestria, were also congratulating Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, the two ponies they hated with all their hearts.

“But… but… but…” she kept repeating.

Sweetie Belle had been there when the crowd had eventually broken up and the weather team was cleaning up the mess of hail from the park, but she hadn’t really witnessed anything. Morning turned to afternoon rapidly for her.

“Sweetie Belle, where have ya been?!”

Sweetie Belle looked. There were Apple Bloom and Scootaloo running up to her.

“The ceremony’s gonna start soon,” Scootaloo said.

“But… but…”

“Come on, let’s go watch!” Apple Bloom tugged Sweetie Belle’s hoof.

Sweetie Belle followed her friends to the town hall, still not quite completely present.

“Mares and stallions,” the Mayor took the podium, “we are here today to pay tribute to two brave fillies who risked their lives to rescue Pound and Pumpkin Cake from this morning’s hail storm!”

Applause broke out. Sweetie Belle looked up at the stage. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were smiling broadly at their admirers. Diamond Tiara’s bent crown had been replaced, and Silver Spoon now had new glasses on. In fact, just as Sweetie Belle had looked at them, someone standing behind Silver Spoon has tossed the old cracked pair of glasses away into the nearby garbage bin. Sweetie Belle quickly realized that it was Silver Spoon’s dad. Both of the praised fillies had their parents standing proudly behind them. All four of the Cakes were also on stage, clearly enjoying every moment of this. Twilight Sparkle was there as well, standing close to the Mayor as she continued her speech.

“The accident this morning might have caused a great deal of damage to our park and led to the suspension of a weather crew employee without pay, but thanks to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, there were no victims of the hail storm.”

More applause.

“But…” Sweetie Belle said again. “But…”

Twilight took the podium.

“It has been decided that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon may chose a reward for their actions,” she said before turning to the toasts of the town. “So what will it be?”

There was no hesitation.

“We want to meet A K Yearling,” Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon said together.

There was interested chatter in the crowd, but Twilight faltered a bit. Diamond Tiara seemed to notice this.

“That won’t be hard, will it?” she asked. “We know Rainbow Dash did.”

“Yeah. She won some kind of contest we’d never heard about and had a character based on her in the last Daring Do book,” Silver Spoon added. “Isn’t that right?”

Many eyes turned to Rainbow Dash, who looked as uneasy as Twilight.

“Uh, yeah, right, a contest,” she stammered.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon mistook Rainbow’s uneasiness as remembering her excitement over meeting her favourite author, which only made their desire to meet her stronger.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Alright. We’ll make the arrangements.”

The crowd cheered. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon glowed.

“But they’re the biggest jerks in the world!”

Sweetie Belle had finally said what she’d been struggling to get out for hours. Sadly for her, after rescuing two yearlings from being pummelled by hail, no one in town would hear a word against Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Ponies around her began to glare at Sweetie Belle and mutter disapprovingly.

“They are!” Sweetie Belle persisted. “They treat anypony who doesn’t have a cutie mark like dirt! They don’t deserve any of this!”

Silver Tuna stepped forward from behind his daughter.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Sweetie Belle, is it?”

“Yeah.”

“I think you’ll find I’ve raised my Silver Spoon better than that,” Silver Tuna insisted.

There were mumbles of agreement among the crowd. Filthy Rich didn’t look as indignant as Silver Tuna. He had an expression that seemed to say even though Sweetie Belle had a point, he couldn’t hold it against his little filly.

“Sweetie Belle,” Rarity had made her way to her sister, “please don’t take their moment away from them.”

Sweetie Belle looked at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

“Don’t you two agree?” she asked.

“Well, yeah, they’re jerks,” nodded Scootaloo, “but saving Pound and Pumpkin’s still worth something.”

Apple Bloom didn’t protest. Sweetie Belle scanned the crowd for Gilt Eyes, who she was sure couldn’t possibly think Diamond and Silver deserved all this praise. When she finally spotted him, he didn’t look too bothered. When he caught her eye, he shrugged. Sweetie Belle fell silent again. Eventually, the matter was put aside and the hero ceremony carried on in front of the outraged unicorn filly’s eyes.

Later that week, Discord was mucking about with a glacier in the middle of a large ocean. His fun was interrupted by a scroll dropping out of his left nostril.

“Oh, which one’s writing to me now?” he asked himself.

He made a bet with himself that this letter was from Fluttershy, but found that Twilight had written it. He wasn’t disappointed though. Twilight was calling for a favour that he could easily honour. There was however a condition that Twilight imposed that he had to send another scroll explaining why she wanted this favour to Fluttershy. Once he’d finished reading, another scroll dropped out of his nose.

“For Fluttershy’s eyes only,” he read the writing on the outside of the scroll.

He smirked and magically changed his eyes to resemble Fluttershy’s. He began to open the scroll, but he quickly spotted an additional disclaimer stating that Discord was not allowed to alter his appearance in order to read the secret document.

“Ha! You’re too smart for me, Twilight,” he chuckled, restoring his eyes to normal.

He stuffed the letter to Fluttershy up his other nostril without reading another word of it.

By now, Sweetie Belle was beginning to think that nopony could see things her way. Fluttershy, having received and read the letter from Twilight, informed the Mayor, who made a public announcement that A K Yearling had agreed to make an appearance in Ponyville to meet Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Sweetie Belle felt like the worst thing to happen in Equestrian history was about to happen. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo on the other hoof were quite willing to let Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have their moment in the sun.

“We ain’t forgiving them for all their teasing or nothing,” Apple Bloom assured Sweetie Belle. “But this is separate from that.”

“You don’t get it,” Sweetie Belle said. “If they get to meet A K Yearling, they’ll get big heads and they’ll never let it die.”

“That’s probably true,” Scootaloo agreed. “But if you try to convince everyone they don’t deserve their reward again, you’ll just embarrass yourself more.”

“I wasn’t embarrassed,” insisted Sweetie Belle. “I was shocked. Why doesn’t anyone know how rotten those two are?”

“No idea,” said Apple Bloom. “I think some ponies think of them as youngsters who haven’t matured yet.”

“They’re the same age as us!” objected Sweetie.

“I think they think of us the same way,” Scootaloo frowned.

Determination to discredit Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon absorbed Sweetie Belle.

Author's Note

Inspired by the Thomas the Tank Engine episodes Heroes, and Bill or Ben?.

2 Mixed Reaction

Twilight returned to Ponyville on the evening the Mayor made her message public. A K Yearling was due to arrive at Ponyville Station aboard a private train the following day. The regularly scheduled trains wouldn’t be delayed, but security had been hired to keep onlookers from crowding the platform. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had been allowed to wait in the station house to wait for A K’s arrival. Passengers were coming and going, but the platform was devoid of ponies and luggage almost all morning.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were in the middle of the crowd.

“I wanna see what they’re doing in there,” Sweetie Belle said.

Before her friends could react, she jumped onto Apple Bloom’s back.

“Ow! Watch it!” snapped Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle looked into the station house window and could see that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were talking a lot.

“I’ll betcha they’re gloating,” she said moodily. “If only everypony could hear them. Look. The stationmaster’s totally ignoring them.

She watched the stationmaster stride past Diamond and Silver and turn on his intercom.

“The next train will not be stopping at this station,” he announced, his voice echoing from the loudspeakers. “Please stand well away from the edge of the platform.”

This announcement seemed pointless. No one was on the platform. As the 11:30 from Vanhoover to Dodge City passed the station, Sweetie Belle had an idea.

“Can ya get off me now?” pleaded Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle took no notice. She watched closely, waiting until either Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon or both were close to the stationmaster’s intercom. At last, Silver Spoon was close enough to satisfy Sweetie Belle. She focussed hard. Her horn lit up like a dragon’s fire. She could see a green aura around the intercom switch for a moment before it clicked on.

“One in the eye for those useless blank flanks,” Silver Spoon’s voice echoed from the loudspeakers.

Sweetie Belle finally jumped off of Apple Bloom’s back as murmurs broke out amongst the crowd.

“Excuse me, please,” came a firm voice.

Silver Tuna was gently but forcibly making his way through the crowd towards the platform. The guard closest to him recognised him as Silver Spoon’s dad and allowed him to come onto the platform. Silver Tuna knocked on the station house door. Silver Spoon and the stationmaster poked their heads out.

“What is it, Dad?” asked Silver Spoon.

“What did I just hear you say?” Silver Tuna demanded.

Sweetie Belle suddenly climbed back onto a very annoyed Apple Bloom’s back. She wanted to watch this.

“Uh… what did you just hear?” Silver Spoon asked.

“Useless blank flanks?” her dad repeated what he’d heard over the loudspeakers. “Is it true? Was Sweetie Belle right? Have you been insulting anypony in your class that doesn’t have a cutie mark?”

Silver Spoon didn’t answer. She couldn’t think of a satisfying answer.

“Come with me,” Silver Tuna ordered. “You are not meeting A K Yearling.”

“Dad, no!” cried Silver Spoon.

There was a mixed reaction to Silver Tuna’s quick decision. Some, like Sweetie Belle, thought this was warranted. Others thought it was harsh.

“Oh, you’re not gonna take her away from meeting her favourite author, are you?” asked Carrottop.

“Of course he is,” said Octavia. “What she said was horrible. She doesn’t deserve this reward.”

“Doesn’t deserve it?!” exclaimed Blossomforth. “If it weren’t for her and Diamond Tiara, that hail situation would’ve been a million times worse.”

“Oh, just let her be happy with being a hero,” insisted Pokey Peirce. “Being allowed to meet A K Yearling will only make her attitude worse.”

Embarrassment filled Silver Spoon as ponies argued whether or not she was a brat, and Sweetie Belle was loving every second of it. Silver Tuna found he had to agree that taking Silver Spoon away after all the build-up to meeting her hero would be demoralizing.

“Alright, alright,” Silver Tuna said, causing the arguing crowd to stop. He turned to his daughter. “You can still meet A K Yearling. But since you’ve insulted blank flanks, you will meet her as a blank flank.”

“What?!”

Silver Tuna looked around the crowd. “Where’s that friend of yours who used to cover up his cutie mark?”

Silver Spoon was about to correct him, but he’d already located Gilt Eyes.

“You! What exactly did you use to hide that mirror on your flank when you first came to Ponyville?” asked Silver Tuna.

“Uh, it was some kinda makeup I found for sale at the spa in Walton on the Neighs,” Gilt Eyes answered.

“Do you think it would be available at the spa in this town?” asked Silver Tuna.

“I dunno. Maybe,” Gilt Eye’s shrugged.

“They should have a variety of multi-coloured make up kits,” Rarity spoke up.

“Are Aloe or Lotus here?!” Silver Tuna called out.

Neither of the spa ponies was in the crowd.

“Excellent,” nodded Silver Tuna.

He asked the stationmaster for a sheet of paper and wrote down a note to the spa ponies that requested that his daughter be given priority so she could have her cutie mark hidden, adding that he was willing to pay handsomely.

“Take this to the spa and don’t come back until your cutie mark is covered up and one of the spa ponies has signed that note,” Silver Tuna gave the note to his daughter.

Silver Spoon chose not to protest. With the glummest expression she’d ever worn, she stepped off the platform and headed towards the spa. Diamond Tiara frowned as she watched her friend walk away from the station house window. She looked at the clock. Silver Spoon had half an hour before A K Yearling’s train arrived.

Once again, Sweetie Belle got off Apple Bloom’s back.

“There,” she smirked. “Everything’s fine.”

Scootaloo had to admit that it felt good to have Silver Spoon’s bullying attitude exposed for all to see.

“Too bad Diamond Tiara got off scot-free though,” she said.

“Oh, well,” shrugged Sweetie Belle. “One is enough. I can’t wait to see that brat come back. I haven’t seen her as a blank flank in forever.”

“Neither have I,” Apple Bloom said.

Scootaloo noticed that she hadn’t stopped frowning since Sweetie Belle had gotten off her.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“I dunno,” sighed Apple Bloom, looking at the ground all of a sudden.

Scootaloo looked where Apple Bloom had been staring.

“Diamond Tiara looks just as bummed as Silver Spoon did,” she said.

Sweetie Belle snorted. “I’ll bet she’s not looking forward to having to meet A K Yearling with her best friend looking like a blank flank. That’s even better!”

Apple Bloom waved her hoof to indicate that Sweetie Belle should shut up. Some ponies turned to look at them.

Sweetie Belle might not have said anything to embarrass herself again, but her grin when Silver Spoon returned fifteen minutes later was plain for all to see. There was now very little to suggest that her name was Silver Spoon. Silver Tuna beckoned her to the platform.

“Good. You look just like you did before your cute-ceañera,” he said with a slight smile. “Let’s see the note.”

Silver Spoon gulped.

“You didn’t get it signed, did you?”

“I’m sorry, I forgot,” Silver Spoon stammered as she showed her father the paper. “Aloe said she needed to get back to the customer she was dealing with and left before I could tell her to sign it.”

Silver Tuna took the note, looked at it for a second, and crumpled it before dropping it onto the platform.

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” he said. “You clearly have had your flank painted over.”

He and Diamond Tiara looked at where Silver Spoon’s cutie mark used to be. Silver Spoon caught Diamond Tiara’s eye. She hated the tense look on her friend’s face.

“The A K Yearling Special will arrive in fifteen minutes,” announced the stationmaster on the intercom system. “Also, please do not litter on the platform.”

“Oh, sorry,” Silver Tuna replied as though the station master could hear him from inside the station house.

He bent down to pick up the crumpled note, but Diamond Tiara snatched it up first.

“I’ll throw it out,” she said quickly before darting away from the station.

“Uh, there’s a trash can here on the platform Di!” Silver Spoon called. “Di?!”

Diamond Tiara carried on running towards a garbage bin close to the town hall. Some of the watching ponies, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders, watched with confusion as she dived into the bin.

“Diamond Tiara, you could have just thrown the paper into the garbage!” Filthy Rich called from the crowd.

The next thing the onlookers saw was Diamond Tiara dashing out of the bin and running into town.

“Where are you going?!” Filthy Rich called. “A K Yearling’s coming in fifteen minutes!”

Sweetie Belle couldn’t help herself. “She’s embarrassed!”

Silver Spoon watched Diamond Tiara disappear amongst Ponyville’s buildings and felt sure that Sweetie Belle was right.

“She doesn’t want to meet A K Yearling if she has to be with a blank flank,” she groaned to herself as the crowd chattered about Diamond Tiara’s departure.

A train whistle was heard fourteen minutes later. Silver Spoon and the crowd watched as smoke and steam showed up at the end of the line. Only Apple Bloom and Scootaloo noticed a pink blur shooting towards the station.

“Hey! She came back!” cried Scootaloo as Diamond Tiara raced past them.

Apple Bloom heard a soft clunk and saw that Diamond Tiara had dropped something on her way back to the platform.

“Are those Silver Spoon’s old glasses?” she asked. “The one’s that got wrecked in the hail storm?”

Scootaloo nodded, but Sweetie Bell hadn’t noticed. She saw Diamond Tiara clamber back onto the platform and confusion took over her vindictive enjoyment of Silver Spoon’s punishment.

“Where did she go? What did she do?” she asked, taking a step towards Apple Bloom.

“Don’t you dare,” Apple Bloom warned.

The locomotive was only pulling one coach.

“What were you doing?” Silver Spoon asked as an out of breath Diamond Tiara ran up to stand beside her.

“Not now,” Diamond panted.

When the train clanked into the station, the conductor exited the coach.

“A K Yearling, mares and stallions!” he called.

Cheers broke out as A K Yearling stepped onto the platform. Silver Spoon shifted, still uncomfortable not displaying her cutie mark in the presence of her favourite author. Her nervousness at seeing A K walk towards them was relieved for a moment when the locomotive let off steam without warning and caused a draft to waft over the platform. Silver Spoon’s glasses nearly came off her face, and A K Yearling’s cape flapped. Diamond’s tiara didn’t almost fall off her head though. Silver Spoon noticed that she wasn’t wearing her tiara.

“Sorry,” said the driver from the engine’s cab.

Silver Tuna, who’d left the platform since his daughter had returned, looked to make sure the paint on Silver Spoon’s flank hadn’t gotten wet from the engine’s steam. In doing so, he noticed somepony else’s paint hadn’t come away.

“Am I wrong?” he whispered to his wife. “Or are there two fillies with no cutie marks there?”

A K Yearling patiently rearranged her cape and walked up to her two fans.

“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?” she asked.

“That’s us,” Diamond Tiara smiled perkily while Silver Spoon merely waved.

“It’s nice to meet you both,” A K said, shaking Diamond Tiara’s and Silver Spoon’s hooves one at a time.

“We both really love your books,” Diamond Tiara said brightly, gesturing to the pile of novels sitting by one of the station benches.

“Would you like some autographs?” A K asked.

Diamond Tiara bounced up and down. “Yes, yes, yes!”

Silver Spoon watched half-heartedly as Diamond gabbed her hail-beaten copy of “Daring Do & the Griffin’s Goblet” and opened it in front of A K Yearling, who pulled a quill out from beneath her cape.

“Make it out to both of us,” said Diamond Tiara. “We always split the cost whenever a new book comes out.”

“Just out of curiosity, how many new books of mine have you bought?” A K asked, quill in mouth.

“Well, three,” Diamond shuffled. “We know you started this series before we were born. We both bought a lot of books after we read your first one.”

A K looked at Silver Spoon. “You’re a quiet one.”

“She’s just shy,” smiled Diamond Tiara. “She’s probably more of a Daring Do fan than me.”

A K Yearling smiled and began to write on the inside cover of their battered book.

“To my young fans Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon,” she dictated as she wrote. “Congratulations on your recent act of heroism, and good luck in earning your cutie marks.”

Silver Spoon jolted. “Marks?”

That was when she saw that Diamond Tiara’s flank was utterly pink. No silvery crown could be seen at all.

“Where’s your tiara?!” Silver Spoon cried.

“Oh, I guess it fell off my head while I was throwing that piece of paper out,” smiled Diamond Tiara.

Silver Spoon didn’t bother to correct her. She looked at the crowd. The majority of the observers had noticed that Diamond Tiara was now a blank flank as well. This included the Cutie Mark Crusaders, one of whom was staring wide-eyed and mouth agape at the three ponies on the platform. A K Yearling did spot her during this exclusive autograph session, but she just assumed that the young unicorn was another fan.

No one said a word about cutie marks for the next twenty minutes, and all too soon for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, the conductor announced that they had to leave to make way for the next train to arrive.

“I was a thrill and honour to meet you, Miss Yearling,” Diamond Tiara vigorously shook the famous author’s hoof one last time.

“I was happy to meet you too,” A K smiled. “And you.”

She shook Silver Spoon’s hoof and at last, the surprised filly said something to her hero.

“Thank you for coming to Ponyville,” she said shakily.

“Happy to visit,” A K nodded before boarding her private train.

The crowd cheered before A K Yearling shut her coach door. With a whistle, a puff of smoke and a screech, the train steamed away. Silver Spoon started on Diamond Tiara right away.

“Did you do that for me?” she asked.

“Well, I couldn’t let you be the only blank flank to meet the A K Yearling,” Diamond Tiara shrugged. “That’d be so embarrassing for you. I was just lucky Aloe didn’t see while Lotus was working on me.”

“Thanks, Di,” Silver Spoon smiled as she and her best friend hugged.

“Don’t mention it,” Diamond replied. “No let’s go wash this paint off. I don’t wanna be a blank flank for any longer than I have to. Plus, I gotta fish my crown back outta the garbage.”

Eventually, the crowd disbanded and regular business resumed at Ponyville Station. However, there was one pony in the group who hadn’t budged an inch since A K Yearling’s train left.

“Sweetie Belle, come on. It’s not that weird,” Scootaloo insisted.

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom agreed as she continued to wave in front of Sweetie Belle’s astonished face. “Those two may be jerks and bullies, but they still care about each other. They have got their good sides.”

Sweetie Belle didn’t respond.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but there’s gotta be a teensiest, tiniest bit of good in every pony,” Apple Bloom pressed on.

“Oh, just leave her there,” Scootaloo sighed. “She’ll snap out of it eventually.”

Little did anyone know that there were three ponies with something to hide on that platform that day. After the train left, Twilight shoved a note to Discord she’d prepared up her nose. Moments later, A K Yearling felt a tingling on both her sides. She lifted her cape to inspect. She had her wings back.

Good, she thought. I’ll need these for when I get back to Ahuizotl’s stronghold. I bet he still thinks he’s got me shackled up in that stupid cell.

Author's Note

Unless you've seen Home Alone, you might not know what the name I made up for Silver Spoon's dad means.