Gabby Gums Strikes Back.

It was a warm, sunny day in Ponyville and Twilight Sparkle was out enjoying the sunshine. She was sitting in a cafe with her good friend Pinkie Pie, enjoying a lunch get-together that the two of them had been planning for a long time.

"Isn't this the best Pinkie?" said Twilight before she took a bite of her daffodil and daisy sandwich.

"It most certainly is!" said the excited pink pony. "I love hanging out with one of my best friends in the whole world!" Twilight swallowed her bite of sandwich.

"We really need to do this more often Pinkie, I look forward to these lunches every time we plan one."

The waiter came around with the check and Twilight placed eight bits on the table before the two friends left the cafe.

"So, are we going to the spa to see Rarity now?" asked Pinkie excitedly. Twilight nodded.

"We most certainly are," said Twilight. "Rarity said that this particular spa outing is her treat in celebration of a new line of dresses that she's selling to Hoity Toity. He seems to be buying a lot from her lately." Pinkie nodded.

"Yes indeedy doo!" she said. "Hey! I should throw her a 'you sold a lot of dresses to Hoity Toity' party!"

"Maybe you should wait a tad on that one," said Twilight. "She needs some down time after all of the effort she put into the new line of dresses." Pinkie seemed slightly put out by the idea of waiting to throw a party but she still had way more energy than Twilight did at the moment. She was most certainly looking forward to hanging out with more of her best friends.

"Is everypony going to be here?" asked Pinkie as the spa drew closer.

"Yep, although I think Rainbow is just going to hang out and talk. I don't see her going for another hooficure anytime soon," said Twilight. Pinkie gave a happy nod as the two of them entered the spa.

The bell over the door gave a delicate ring which alerted everypony in the room of the entrance of Twilight and Pinkie.

Twilight saw that everypony was already there, including Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight, Pinkie, so glad the two of you could make it. Did you have a good lunch?" asked Rarity.

"We most certainly did," said Twilight happily. "Or at least, I enjoyed it. I can't speak for Pinkie though."

"I thought that it was super-duper awesome to have lunch with one of my best friends in the whole world!" said Pinkie. "All six of us are still on for Wednesday lunch right?" The group gave an affirming nod before the spa workers led them into the main spa room and started their session.

Twilight remembered why she liked going to the spa with her friends.

True, she went often at the insistence of Rarity, but she always enjoyed herself. She was currently getting a hooficure while Applejack and Rarity were getting back rubs. Pinkie and Fluttershy were sitting in the hot tub while Rainbow lounged around on a bench.

Despite what Rainbow thought, hooficures actually were quite relaxing. It was like getting a hoof massage with a file. It was a pretty awesome feeling. Still, after the Gabby Gums Incident, Rainbow Dash refused to let the spa workers anywhere near her.

Ah yes, the Gabby Gums Incident. She chuckled to herself. It was one of those stories that was, to her anyway, amusing in hindsight, especially now that a year had passed.

To her surprise, Rarity picked up on her chuckle.

"Why, what's so funny Twilight?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing really, I was just remembering Gabby Gums."

Immediately a decent amount of the happiness was sucked out of the room. Clearly her five friends did not find Gabby Gums funny in hindsight.

"I fail to see what is so amusing about Gabby Gums," said Rarity stiffly. "Those three deserved to be punished for what they did!"

"Rarity, I'm surprised at you!" said Twilight. "They were really sorry about it but it was just a situation that got outside of their control. They didn't know any better and when they did learn they couldn't stop it. Besides, they were being blackmailed, remember?"

Rarity seemed slightly mollified, as did her other friends.

"Those must have been pretty nasty photos if they were feeling so guilty but they decided that they had to keep going," admitted Applejack.

"Yeah," said Pinkie Pie with a nod. "As much as I hate it when ponies are sad, the one pony who didn't get punished enough was Diamond Tiara! I mean, blackmail is illegal no matter how much money your parents have."

"I'm just glad that the whole thing is over. I doubt that those three would ever even consider doing something like that again," said Twilight. The other five nodded in agreement.

* * * *

Twilight walked out of the spa with her friends. She felt as relaxed as she always did when she left the spa. She knew that she was too relaxed to do any work today and she felt like possibly taking a leaf from Spike's book and taking an afternoon nap.

"Well girls, today was wonderful and we must do it again. However, I must get back to the shop. I have a very important client coming in and commissioning a dress and I want to be there to greet her," said Rarity.

"Well, good luck," said Twilight. "I know you'll do--" Twilight's sentence was cut off by a piercing shriek. The six friends looked at each other and bolted towards the source of the noise.

They didn't have to look for very long. They saw Bon-Bon and Lyra on a bench together. Bon-Bon was being hugged by Lyra and she was sobbing uncontrollably into her shoulder.

"Bon-Bon, Lyra, what's going on here?" asked Twilight.

Lyra looked up at the six of them and Twilight was surprised to see fear in her eyes. She wasn't merely uneasy; she was legitimately scared, almost as if she had been told that she only had days to live.

"Lyra," said Twilight nervously. "What's going on?"

Lyra didn't answer, she merely pointed towards a newspaper that was lying on the ground next to the bench.

Twilight used her magic to bring it over to her and examined it. Her heart dropped into her stomach and her veins ran cold at what she saw.

"No," she said in horror. "No, this can't be happening again! This was supposed to be over! This wasn't supposed to happen again!"

"Twilight, what is it?" asked a very scared Rarity.

Twilight turned around to face her friends and held out the newspaper so they could see what was wrong.

They all gathered around and saw an article about Lyra and Bon-Bon on the front page. Applejack read the article aloud.

"Lyra and Bon-Bon, are two of the closest friends in Ponyville...or are they? Sources say that the two of them were seen arguing in front of the schoolyard last Tuesday morning. Lyra was heard to say "I hate you Bon-Bon and I wish that you were dead so that I wouldn't have to see you again," to which Bon-Bon reportedly replied with a phrase that I shall not print as it is not appropriate for younger readers. At this time, nopony knows what the fight was about but it seems that their friendship is over and that they have turned from wonderful friends into mortal enemies. More details will follow as I receive them," said Applejack.

"It's all lies," said Lyra. "We didn't fight at all, much less in front of the schoolyard. Besides, when was the last time you heard Bon-Bon say anything the least bit profane?"

"I still don't understand who would write somethin' like this. It's almost like somethin' that--" Applejack scanned the bottom of the page and gave a gasp of shock.

The article had been written by Gabby Gums.