If only they knew.
Diamond Tiara grinned at her target, who was passing by her. The sticks and prickly bits she had stepped on, and which had spread out by all her body, and which she knew in the morning would itch like crazy, all seemed worth it, just to get this advantage point over her target.
She formed the snowball in her hooves, while it was still early in the year and therefore it was winter, it hadn’t snowed or rained in sometime and so she had to scramble to find the amount of snow required. Task done, she only had one snowball, one perfect little shot which would frighten, and possibly make them jump into the air, she had to decide which one of the three to hit, and she decided on the target, the “Chicken” of the three, Scootaloo.
Zoing! With a satisfying thud the snowball hit her target, which immediately turned. Tiara tried to hide herself under the bushes, but misjudged just how sturdy the structure could be. She was unable to.
With the advantage of having more space to find snow, and the advantage in numbers, things had taken a grim turn for Tiara, She knew she was caught, and as she tried tugging her legs off the situation, she knew she would be hit by the snowy bits in seconds.
The three little fillies grinned, just as Diamond had seconds before, before hitting her with a quantity of snow balls that was somewhere between “One” and “A zillion”, but probably in the lower numbers.
Scootaloo approached the defeated filly with an air of gratification, to contrast with Diamond’s chagrin. She spread the remains of the muddy snow in the muzzle of the other filly before stepping out.
To Diamond this could only mean one thing – she decided as she spit out bits of grass and other debris that had hit her alongside the snowball – that meant war!
But first....cleaning her mouth.
The rivalry had started out as no more than four fillies playing tricks on one another but, now, that she had tasted the sour taste of defeat (and literal dirt), Diamond knew she had to bring the heavy guns. She looked at the item in question with glee, and swiped her father’s credit card over to pick it up, the relatively high price not bothering her one bit.
She was going to win this war because she had THAT, the Super Hydraulic Italicized Energised Double Ultra Mega Breaker (deluxe edition) of the water gun, or the SHIELD DUMB, the ultimate tool in water based warfare. Diamond reckoned the pony power proudly displayed on the cover was enough to knock the cmc around a little bit, but not one company would make a gun powerful enough to seriously hurt little kids, or the lawsuits would come flying in. But, with her Shield Dumb in hoof, she was ready.
Unless she was attacked from behind, which she was. Apple Bloom had seen her enter the toy store and had figured out Diamond was up to no good. Even though her sneaking skills were similar to those of a box painted in bright pink, in a forest, (not that good), Diamond was so distracted, that when she felt the hit on her back, she fell over, surprised.
The gun was powerful but didn’t come loaded, Diamond couldn’t do much more than powerlessly shake her hoof at Apple Bloom, who was laughing at her.
Next time – she swore to herself – she would use her SHIELD that was an offensive rather than defensive gun (so the acronym didn’t make sense) and win the battle.
It was day 3 of her offensive, the group had avoided her so far, having known she could hit at a ranged distance, and not trusting the power of their hooves. Diamond had looked for them everywhere, but since she couldn’t do anything in school, and they ran as soon as they got out, she couldn’t attack them. That was about to change. Clouds loomed over them as if the pegasi had predicted the fight and were muddying up the trenches to it. She was in the park, where they were bound to pass sometime, and she was willing to wait....well, willing for as long as she had quarters to push that Button kid of the arcades and distract herself....which she had plenty. She hadn’t recruited anyone for her battalion but she was sure there was no need for that, in sheer terms of fire power she was in a tactical advantage. The clouds roared and small drips of rain started to fall – the weather not cold enough for snow - and she looked up. Seeing the rain. Ponies were starting to take shelter, running away from the cold water, but she kept her position, the park, being between an edge of town and their clubhouse, was as much of a shot for where they might pass, as any other. She watched the puddles form, they were mesmerizing, but at the same time she kept an eye out for the fillies.
She shot some water to what appeared to be a shadow, but was only a small animal, which swore at her in its animal language. She knew the arcade to be water proof but she was getting bored, and the style of her mane, carefully styled, was ruined already.
Then she saw them, appearing behind a corner, chatting while walking slowly. Even with how slow they went she threw some water at them, but failed miserably. Her aim was a bit off.
They saw her and did a run for it, splitting in three, she didn’t know which one to shoot so she shot the first one she saw, Apple Bloom, she totally wet the filly, but that didn’t even break her stride, she was already wet from the rain, she shot another set of water torrent to another one of them, but the results were the same.
She started following them, and found them in puddles, jumping up and down in them, spreading water everywhere.
She didn’t know if it was a trick but she tried it. It was pretty fun, she was pretty much soaked already so what difference did it make?
A small stiff laugh came out of her mouth, she couldn’t avoid it, that was pretty fun, the cmc looked at her before shrugging off and jumping in, the puddle emptied itself and they jumped at another.
The SHIELD DUMB forgotten in the mud, they waddled from puddle to puddle, enjoying their afternoon. All hostilities forgotten.
And while this wasn’t the end of their bitter rivalry, over the next few years, in rainy days, they’d leave it over in a side to play together, and, as they grew older, they eventually grew closer.
All thanks to the power of puddles.
