Mean Girls' Night Out

The last sunrays of a warm Friday were shining upon Ponyville, as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stand in front of their favorite milkshake bar, both with their saddlebags on. The pink filly eyed her friend impatiently, tapping her hoof on the ground.

"Silver... you did tell Babs to be here at eight o'clock, right?" Tiara queried, narrowing her eyes. "Because she's already twenty minutes late."

"Of course I did!" Silver Spoon replied, looking around the streets. "Don't you already know... hey, isn't that her?"

She pointed at a moderatedly busy street, through which was galloping their friend, her own saddlebags bouncing as she kept running. Both fillies waved at her before she finally arrived.

"I... I'm here..." Babs Seed huffed, a few droplets of sweat going down her forehead. "Sorry, gals. My cousins insisted that I stayed for 'a little' after dinner and it took forever to convince them..." Finally catching her breath, she gave a weak smile to both fillies.

Babs noticed her grey-coated friend smirking for a second, with a clear 'I knew it' expression on her face before nodding.

"...hmph, fine." Diamond Tiara pouted. "I'll forgive you this time." She turned towards the door and pushed it open, motioning to her friends to follow her.

Once they entered the bar, which was slightly busy with other filles and colts drinking their milkshakes and chatting happily, the short-maned filly and her friends trotted towards one of the empty tables. Both Diamond and Babs seated at the table after leaving their saddlebags on the floor, next to them.

"I'll go order our shakes, girls." Silver stated. "Di, you want strawberry, right?"

The tiara-wearing pony nodded in response.

"How about you, Babs?" she added.

"Chocolate, please!" the red-maned filly answered with a smile on her face.

The grey pony nodded and made her way to the counter. After a very short while, the "Coming right up!" of the mare managing the bar was heard, and Silver sat back down at the table, promptly placing her own bag down. She gave Babs Seed a brief look, then her gaze moved to her best friend.

"I'm actually pretty glad that you agreed to hang out with us..." Tiara spoke up. "I missed you, and I'm sure this filly right here did, too!" She playfully nudged her silver-maned friend, who let out a lively "Yep!" in response.

"You know I would never want to miss any plan with you two, gals!" Babs said, with a huge smile on her face. "I bet this Friday night is going to be a blast!"

At that moment, an unicorn mare wearing an apron walked up to the trio, levitating a tray with three full milkshake glasses on it. Her coat was cream-colored and her ocean blue mane was tied in a bun. Her long-ish tail swung side to side with each step.

"Here you go, the best for my favorite customers!" the apron-wearing mare spoke in a sing-song tone, placing the three glasses on the table. "And who's your little friend, here? I like her style."

"Hey, thanks." the brown-coated filly boasted a little, flicking her bangs. "My name's Babs Seed."

"She's from Manehattan, but since she's staying a week with some relatives here, we thought it'd be nice if she joined us." Diamond broke in, with a proud look.

"Manehattan, huh? That's very nice!" the mare replied, smiling warmly at the trio. As she was about to say something else, she noticed another customer, an orange-maned colt, walking towards the counter.

"We'll have to sit down and chat one day, little ones, but this mare's gotta go back to work!" With those words, the unicorn left the three fillies alone, taking the empty tray with her.

Each pony grabbed her own milkshake and began sipping it, savoring the sweet and refreshing beverage. After a few silent seconds, Silver spoke up, putting down her vanilla shake.

"So, did you see this new necklace Tootsie got?" the glasses-wearing filly giggled as she talked. "Like, it's just so lame! I get that some ponies can't have jewelry this exquisite, but still, you've gotta have some tastes, girl!" She showed off her shiny pearl necklace, laughing.

Both friends joined her chortling, as the pink filly quietly cleared her throat and focused her blue-eyed gaze on Babs.

"Anyways, how's the stay at your cousins' going?" Tiara asked, sipping on her straw before continuing.

The brown-coated pony flicked her mane once again. "It's definitely not Manehattan, but I love these folks. And little Apple Bloom is as lively as ever, sure missed her too." she stated.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon chuckled at that last remark, as the tiara-wearing filly looked at her big city friend with a little grin on her face.

"And you're about to experience all sorts of fun, my friend!" she claimed, finishing what little remained of her milkshake.

As the two other fillies finished her drinks as well, they all got up and picked up their saddlebags. Babs began to pull her bit purse out of it, but Tiara placed a hoof on her bag and shook her head.

"Hey, it's all my treat, don't you worry." she smiled at her red-maned friend before trotting over to the counter.

As Tiara came back after paying and a little chitchat with the friendly mare behind the counter, the trio noticed a claw machine, full of bright and tempting little prizes.

"I've won a lot of stuff from those in the city, how about I get you a few presents, gals?" the green-eyed filly piped up, almost hopping her way to the machine with her friends following her steps.

As the Manehattan filly inserted a coin in the machine's lot and began to use the little joystick on it to maneuver the claw inside, the purple-maned filly's expression slowly turned into an expectant sneer as her glasses-wearing companion could not keep her eyes away from the machine, beholding the claw's movements, which looked quite precise as it lowered on an adorable Mare-Do-Well stuffed toy, grasping it and dropping down the prize chute.

"Not bad for a first go, huh?" Babs bragged, lowering her head to hold the prize between her teeth. Trying her best to articulate a "who wants it?" she saw Silver's beaming smile and Tiara's precious smirk turned into a slight frown.

"I-I admit it wasn't all that bad, Babs Seed," the blue-eyed filly stuttered, still not believing her friend would win a prize on her first try. "Spoony here sure looks like she wants that... nerdy plushie." she added as she looked away.

The brown-coated filly happily passed the toy to Silver Spoon, who squealed in an unbelievably cute way. "C'mon, Di, I'll get ya something too!" she continued, smiling at her tiara-wearing friend.

"Fine, let's see..." Diamond eyed all the prizes inside the brightly-colored machine, before focusing her sight on a shiny little bracelet with a tag around it, the accessory looked pretty cheap but dazzled the little filly nonetheless. "I want that bracelet, get it."

"Well, then!" Babs turned back to the claw game, slid another coin inside the slot and skillfully hovered the claw over the bracelet. Pressing the machine's button, the claw lowered towards it target, gripping on the accessory's tag, making it rise and travel just enough to drop down the chute. Promptly fetching the shiny trinket, the city filly offered it to Tiara...

...who was apparently lost in the armband's gleam, but shortly recomposed herself and accepted it with a wide smile on her face, unaware of Spoon's snickering.

Both fillies tightly hugged Babs shortly after, squeaking out a "Thank you!" before the embrace was quickly returned by the short-maned filly.

Placing their gifts in their saddlebags, both richer ponies began to trot their way out of the bar, her friend joining them. As they left, the trio noticed that it was already dark outside and the moon was high on the sky.

"That was fun, gals!" Babs exclaimed, stretching a little. "So, where are we going next?"

"You'll see when we get there, girl!" Tiara answered, playfully ruffling her friend's mane. "For now, follow us!"

With those words, the three fillies headed towards one of the moonlit streets of Ponyville...