Silver Belles

The next day at school started out as mundane as it did yesterday. Sweetie Belle was desperately trying to keep her eyes open in her English class, but this proved to be incredibly difficult with each passing second. She was never really all that interested in English for she felt that the lessons associated with this course wouldn't be very useful after high school. Sure, knowing a few reading and writing devices here and there may help her if she were to pursue a career as an author or a poet, but they have little to no relevance outside of that job field. She looked around the room at the other students to see if they were paying as much attention as she was. Most of the others students were either falling asleep or already asleep. Pipsqueak was busy passing notes to Zipporwhill. She couldn't tell what the notes said but she was pretty sure that they pertained to asking Zipporwhill out. Even Silver Spoon had tuned out as her eyes scanned over the book she was reading. Not a single pony in class could care less what Leadwing was saying.

"I don't think Mr. Leadwing will mind if I rest my eyes for a little bit." She figured as her eyelids slowly shut.

She used her arms as a pillow while she drifted off into a deep sleep. Pretty soon, she could be heard snoring softly while she slept. A few minutes later, Silver Spoon looked over at her and saw that she was soundly asleep. A crooked smile formed across her face as she came up with a fiendish idea. She closed her book as quietly as she could and raised it in the air. She looked around to make sure the teacher wasn't watching, and fortunately for her he wasn't. She held the book in between Sweetie Belle's desk and her own. After turning her gaze towards the teacher and putting on the most normal disposition she could manage, she released the book from her grip, allowing it to hit the floor loudly. The sound was enough to make Sweetie Belle leap out of her desk and fall onto the floor. Everypony in class (including the teacher) looked at Sweetie Belle once this happened. Once she had recovered from her rude awakening, she sat up and rubbed her aching back. A few students whispered and snickered at Sweetie Belle's incident.

"Miss Belle." Leadwing addressed her. "I hope you have a good reason for interrupting my class."

Sweetie Belle picked up the book that had awoken her and immediately recognized it as Silver Spoon's. She shot a nasty glare at her as she stood up and put the book back on Silver Spoon's desk. Silver Spoon simply just smiled at her innocently.

"I would like an answer today Miss Belle." Leadwing said impatiently.

She took a moment to sift through her mind and find a good excuse. "I thought I saw a spider on my desk and freaked out." She lied while trying to sound as convincing as possible.

"Well, try to keep your freak outs to a minimum next time." He advised her before turning his attention back to the rest of the class.

"Yeah Sweetie Belle." Silver Spoon whispered to her. "Don't act like such a spaz next time."

Sweetie Belle flashed Silver Spoon an angry look as she sat back down in her seat. Silver Spoon silently laughed to herself as Sweetie Belle glared at her.

Sweetie Belle decided not to tell her friends of Silver Spoon's actions for fear that they might do something irrational that might cause them to get detention or even expelled. Plus, she was getting pretty tired of having them fight her battles for her. They were always quick in wanting to wail on Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, not giving her a chance to try and talk things out with them. She wasn't a violent pony and felt that confrontations could be eliminated by simply using words rather than fists. But even the most docile and easy-going of ponies had their limit. And Silver Spoon was getting closer and closer to breaking that limit with every prank she pulled on Sweetie Belle. But she had maintained her cool and brushed off the mishap that occurred earlier that day. She and her friends were moving through the lunch line, waiting to get their food. Sweetie Belle had just gotten her tray and was heading to a table with it when all of a sudden she stepped on something that caused her hindhooves to be swept from underneath her and she ended up falling onto her butt, spilling baked beans and potato salad onto her hair and dress. It turned out to be an orange that she slipped on. The ponies standing behind her in line all burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Her friends swiftly knelt down and helped her up.

"What happened, Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom asked her sincerely.

"I think I was tripped." She replied cantankerously as she looked out of the corners of her eyes at Silver Spoon, who was standing a few ponies behind her.

"By who?" Scootaloo questioned.

"I think you know the culprit." She said as she pointed behind herself at Silver Spoon.

"Did you do this?" Scootaloo asked Silver Spoon in a threatening tone.

"How could I?" She answered with a question of her own, feigning innocence. "I was standing back here the whole time. There's no way I could've gotten her from back here."

"Yes you could!" Sweetie Belle retorted. "You rolled it in front of me while I wasn't paying attention."

"Me? That's absurd." She said with a gasp. "Why, I would never use such a dirty tactic to cause you displeasure. Right, Tiara?"

"Of course." Diamond Tiara agreed in a mock hurt tone. "I can't believe you would accuse my friend of such deceitful behavior."

"Oh, you two are just cruisin for a bruisin." Scootloo said before she advanced towards them.

She stopped however when Sweetie Belle grabbed her by the back of her shirt.

"It's alright, Scoots." Sweetie Belle affirmed. "No real damage was done."

"Wow Silver Spoon, it must feel great having your own personal doormat." Diamond Tiara stated enviously. "You can just walk all over her and she won't do a thing to stop you."

Scootaloo bared her teeth as her wings flared in anger. The CMC then turned around and went to find a table, leaving Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to scheme in secret.

"How far are you planning on pushing her?" Diamond Tiara asked mischievously.

"Until I can get a reaction out of her." Silver Spoon confided in her friend.

"You're so good at being sinister." Diamond Tiara complemented with a wicked grin.

"I learned from the best." Silver Spoon replied, returning the compliment.

They both laughed to themselves as they went to take a seat somewhere in the lunch room. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle and her friends had already taken their seats and were eating their lunch (somewhat) peacefully.

"Those two jerks. What I wouldn't give to knock those shit-eating grins off their faces." Scootaloo remarked indignantly.

"Darn right." Apple Bloom agreed. "Ah'd give mah left hindhoof just to get a few minutes with them alone."

"I may have a lot of self-control, but that doesn't mean that I don't have a breaking point." Sweetie Belle said with a malicious expression as she attempted to wipe the beans and potato salad off of herself.

"How long are you gonna let them get away with this, Belle?" Scootaloo asked.

"I'm going with the 3 strikes: you're out rule." Sweetie Belle informed her. "She's already messed with me twice. So if she does it again by the end of this day, I'll make her sorry."

"And you'd be justified in yer actions too." Apple Bloom concurred. "She started it, and you're endin it."

"Hopefully I won't have see her again for the rest of this day." Sweetie Belle reasoned as she balled up all the napkins she had used to clean herself up and got up to throw them away.

"You gotta be kidding me?"

This was the first thought that ran through Sweetie Belle's mind as she entered the gymnasium. She had picked P.E. as one of her electives this year. The reason for this was that she wanted to stay in shape since she didn't exercise at home. Unfortunately, the school had forgotten to stock up on gym equipment for the year. So it would be a while before they actually got to do something other than basketball or kickball since it would take about a week before more equipment arrived. Regardless, it was the one class that she was sure that she wouldn't possibly see Silver Spoon taking. But lo and behold, who just so happened to be seated in the bleachers but Silver Spoon herself as she talked with two other fillies. Sweetie Belle could feel her blood boiling for fate had blessed her with another opportunity for Silver Spoon to provoke her. But she remembered her 3 strikes rule, and maintained a calm demeanor. She walked over to the bleachers and sat down on the first row. Sweetie Belle didn't even have to look at Silver Spoon since she could feel Silver Spoon's eyes focused on her. She was no doubt jumping for joy on the inside considering that she had yet another chance to bully Sweetie Belle. Despite all this, Sweetie Belle kept her eyes forward and waited patiently for their teacher to arrive. A few minutes later, the gym doors swung open as a pegasus stallion with a dark gray coat, amber eyes, and a blue-silver mane trotted inside.

"Sorry I'm late class. I had to bust a few clouds before I got here." He apologized as he stood before his students.

"Thunderlane!?" Sweetie Belle said with a look of shock upon her face.

"That's Coach Thunderlane to you." He corrected her. "But yes, I'm your gym teacher."

"How?" She asked. "I thought you already had a job as a weather pony."

"Maintaining the weather isn't as lucrative as you would think." He informed her. "So I'm using this part-time teacher gig as a way to help rake in more money."

It was then that he heard a familiar voice call out to him. "Hey big bro." Rumble called to him from the top of the bleachers.

"Hey Rumble." Thunderlane replied as he waved to him.

"So what are we going to be doing today?" Sweetie Belle persisted with another question.

"Well, since we're still waiting on more equipment to come in, you'll have to play basketball and kickball until we get more stuff. So for today, I want all of you to grab a basketball and start playing."

Other than a few groans in response to his request, the students were compliant and went over to the basketball rack and grabbed a basketball. They then scattered all around the gym and began to do their own thing. Some of the students got in a group and started up a game of gotcha/knockout. Others merely chose to just shoot hoops while talking amongst each other. Rumble and a small group of colts started trying to score some trick shots, like turning their backs to the goal and throwing the ball over their head or standing behind the goal and arching the ball over the goal and into the net. Silver Spoon and the same group of fillies she was talking to earlier just dribbled the ball around and pretended to look productive. Sweetie Belle, on the other hand, was working on her shooting as she attempted to score 2 and 3 pointers. As all this went on, Thunderlane just stood off to the side and watched them to make sure they were actually doing something rather than just standing there. Things were going smoothly until Silver Spoon thought up a nasty plan.

"Hey girls, wanna see something funny?" Silver Spoon asked with a villainous smirk.

They thought about it for a minute and then nodded their heads in agreeance.

"Watch this." She instructed them as she pulled out a hand-held mirror.

She waited until Sweetie Belle was about to shoot the ball and used the mirror to reflect the sunlight into her eyes. Sweetie Belle threw the ball at the goal recklessly as she covered her eyes from the sunlight. The ball bounced off the backboard at such an angle, that it was propelled towards the lights that hung high above the gym. The ball then ricocheted off one of the lights, shattering it on impact, and divebombed straight at Thunderlane. Thunderlane heard the light break and immediately looked around the room to find the culprit. This proved effective in distracting him as he didn't even hear the basketball that was speeding towards him.

"Bro, look out!" Rumble attempted to warn him once he saw that the basketball was getting close to landing on his brother.

"Huh?" Thunderlane asked, curious about what his brother was trying to warn him about.

A spilt second later, the basketball found its target as it nailed Thunderlane in his groin. Thunderlane let out a loud "oof" as excruciating pain shot throughout his pelvic region. He soon dropped to his knees while clutching his stallionhood. He lowered his head in hopes that the students wouldn't see him crying (not that anyone would have blamed him considering what just happened). They all gathered around him and looked on with concern.

"Are you okay?" Rumble asked with a worried expression.

"No." Thunderlane shook his head. "I just took a basketball to my basketballs."

All the male students in class cringed for they knew exactly what it felt like to get hit in your downstairs area.

"Who was the one who threw the ball?" He asked stoically, not taking his eyes off the floor.

"It was Sweetie Belle!" Silver Spoon blurted out.

Sweetie Belle turned to Silver Spoon and gaped at her, clearly not expecting Silver Spoon to put her on the spot like that. She was about to argue Silver Spoon's claim when Thunderlane cut her off.

"Well Sweetie Belle, since you made it plainly obvious that you didn't want to play basketball today, then maybe you'd be better off running laps around the gym for the rest of the class period." He suggested belligerently.

"But I didn't do that on purpose." Sweetie Belle averred. "It was Silver Spoon's fault."

"Right. Cause she was the one who threw the ball at such angle, that it would bounce off the backboard, ricochet of one of the lights, and hit him in my nuts." He stated analytically with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

When he said it like that, he did make a fair point. Even if Silver Spoon had sabotaged her mid-shot, the chances of it behaving the way it just did to cause all these events are pretty low. Yet, Sweetie Belle was still 99% certain that this was all Silver Spoon's doing.

"Well get moving Sweetie Belle." Thunderlane commanded, derailing Sweetie Belle's train of thought. "Those laps aren't gonna run themselves."

"Seriously?" She asked with genuine confusion.

"Do I look like I'm joking?!" He asked with hostility plastered across his face.

Sweetie Belle sighed loudly as she got up and started to run around the gym in a clockwise direction. Silver Spoon and her posse laughed at Sweetie Belle's misfortune.

"Your ball control could use some work Sweetie Belle." Silver Spoon jested as she continued to laugh giddily.

Sweetie Belle turned to Silver Spoon and shot her a look of pure hatred. Her anger faded momentarily as she looked at floor and noticed her basketball right next to her hindhooves. She then put on a malevolent smile of her own as she picked up the ball and turned towards the goal she was shooting at earlier. It was time for Silver Spoon to get a taste of her own medicine. After firing up her horn, she shot the ball and used her magic to guide it through the air. It bounced off the backboard at an angle and flew at Silver Spoon. Without warning, the ball slammed hard into the side of Silver Spoon's head, knocking her glasses off her face in the process. They landed on the floor face-down, cracking her left lens as it made contact with the gym floor. Her friends gasped once they saw what happened. After rubbing away the pain in her left temple, she looked in horror at her broken lens. It wasn't necessarily the fact that her one of her lenses broke that pissed her off, it was more the pony who caused it to happen. Silver Spoon shot Sweetie Belle a wrathful look as Sweetie Belle grinned at her wickedly.

"You're right Silver Spoon. I do need to work on my ball control." She said arrogantly as she went back to jogging around the gym.

"You may have won the battle, but the war is far from over." Silver Spoon said to herself profoundly as she put her glasses back on.

"Are you gonna alright?" Rumble asked as he helped his brother up off the gymnasium floor.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." He replied confidently. "After about 10 minutes and an ice pack." He muttered to himself.

After this, the students went back to what they were originally doing before the incident occurred. Thunderlane grabbed a chair and sat down since standing up was proving to be too painful for him. Sweetie Belle continued to run laps around the gym, staring daggers at Silver Spoon each time she passed by her. Silver Spoon returned the angry looks at Sweetie Belle every she went by. They did this up until the end of class.

Sweetie Belle shut the door harder than she wanted to when she entered the boutique. She had quite a day today and wasn't in the mood for any more nonsense. She headed straight for her room so that she could crash on her bed and sleep this horrible day away. Once she got to the base of the stairs, she heard her sister greet her as she did normally.

"How was school today, Sweetie Be-ooooh my goodness!" She said casually but freaked out by the end of her sentence due to her little sister's appearance.

Sweetie Belle's dress was still covered in baked beans and potato salad stains.

"What happened today, darling?" Rarity asked, placing her hands on Sweetie Belle's shoulders.

"Silver Spoon happened." Sweetie Belle replied coldly.

"I may have to step in and intervene because this bullying is starting to get out of hand." Rarity said sternly. "You, Scootaloo, and Applebloom have been butting heads with those two for years now and I think it's finally time to put a stop to it."

"It's okay Rarity, I've got this." Sweetie Belle assured her. "Besides, I'm not a filly anymore. I'm old enough to fight my own battles."

"Well...alright then." Rarity replied. "As long as you have everything under control."

"Thanks for understanding sis." Sweetie Belle said as she hugged her older sister.

She then climbed the stairs and entered her room. Rarity turned around and went into the kitchen so that she could start the preparations for making dinner.