Whorrible

With her plan nixed on the behest of her friend the only thing she had achieved now was getting Rumble laid. She was back to square one but at least she had a solid proof of concept for her mom's capabilities. She would figure out something but at the moment her thoughts returned to punishing her mother or at least deriving some sort of pleasure from her mistreatment and degradation whether she was conscious of it or not. Pimping her out to someone for their own sexual gratification produced its own vicarious catharsis but what she really wanted to see was Spoiled getting railed at both ends by a long line of well endowed stallions. It just didn't seem feasible though. While Diamond was crafty and brazen she didn't know how to go about arranging something like that.

Dealing with colts was one thing but prepositioning adults seemed like a good way to get busted quicker if she spoke to the wrong one. Colts were stupid and desperate and were happy to get what they got and didn't like to snitch. A stallion, while they could certainly be enticed by free or cheap pussy as well, would be more likely to spot and flag suspicious behavior especially when it involved a minor like herself.

The idea came to her at lunch that day when she was looking over the crowded tables of chattering foals. A party. A big party. One with all the off limits shit that teens wanted but couldn't get, all right there on a silver platter. She could do that but how could she do it without getting in trouble? She'd need a venue, a disguise and plausible deniability. If she could pull this off it would be epic.

The gears in Diamond's head only stopped turning when they were interrupted by silver as they were walking home at the end of school.

“Did you hear?” asked Silver excitedly. “Sweetie's gone for two days this week. Some singing tryouts in the city. I need your help. It's the perfect time to strike.”

Diamond screwed up her face in wonder. “For what?”

“For… getting a date with Rumble.”

Diamond scratched her ear incredulously. “A- a date with Rumble? You want a date with Rumble?” She had to repeat the words twice because they sounded just as ridiculous the first time. “Actually the best time to strike would be when he's not dating anyone and when his market value as a significant other has cratered which is what we could have had right now if you would have let me just do my thing.”

“No, this way is better, don't you see? Rumble will voluntarily leave Sweetie for me once I show him how much better I am. She'll be sad, we'll be happy and there won't be any collateral damage.”

Diamond's lips crinkled as she fought off a smile at her friend’s borderline delusional plot. “So do it, she shrugged supportively, even though she had serious doubts about Silver's ability to close a deal like that.

Silver rubbed her hooves together anxiously. “I can't. That's why I need your help. You're better at talking to boys and coming up with schemes. You convinced him to meet with your mom while he was dating Sweetie, you could convince him to go on a date with me while she's out of town. Just one date, one time to try me out and if he still wants Sweetie then we'll leave him alone and you can do some other plan.” Then her eyes narrowed with conviction. But he won't say no by the end.”

“It's weird to have someone negotiate a date for you.”

“But isn't that kind of what a wingmare is?” insisted silver. “If I just do it alone it won't work.”

Diamond sighed. “This isn't a dirty trick on Rumble?” She asked. “You're actually aiming to be his serious, committed, long term fillyfriend here?”

“Yes,” she replied emphatically, her eyes sparkling.

“After I showed you pictures of him cheating on Sweetie Belle with my mom?”

“Sweetie brought this on herself,” she glowered. “She doesn't even deserve him.”

“I think you're missing my… you know what, okay. I will do my best to get you one date with Rumble while Sweetie is out of the picture. One shot and we'll set up one amazing date night.”

Silver grinned ear to ear. “Thank you diamond!” - - -

Silver was right about one thing: Diamond was good at schemes. By the end of the next day when Sweetie was gone from Ponyville she had thrown together a complete plan that might even give her friend’s pie in the sky fantasy a shot at success.

In a moment that felt very much like deja vu Diamond caught Rumble alone as he was leaving the school the next day.

“Hey, Rumble, got a minute?”

Rumble turned around and eyed her nervously. “No, I'm not going to do that again,” he shook his head.

Diamond waved her off. “No no no, this is something else. Wait, you're not? Why don't you want to do it again?”

“Because it was wrong.”

She's stifled a titter. “Well aren't you sweet. Listen, forget about that. You see my friend over there?” She turned and pointed to the gray filly in glasses standing some distance away out of earshot. She blushed under his gaze and twiddled the end of her braid with one hoof.

“You mean Silver Spoon?” he groaned, obviously recognizing the filly classmate that he'd known for half his life.

“Yeah. Well it turns out that she likes you.”

“So?” he shrugged apathetically.

“So she wants to go on one date with you.”

He shot her an exasperated expression. “Are you kidding? I'm dating someone else, we're not in the same social class and she's a dork.”

“Valid points all,” she agreed. “But look at how excited she is. If you don't like the word, you don't have to call it a date. Just call it ‘doing something fun with a classmate.’ Sweetie won't know and she can't just expect you to sit around doing nothing while she's gone. It's not like it's some kind of betrayal. It's certainly not up to the level of what you've already done with my mom.”

Rumble blushed with shame.

Diamond lowered her voice. “Unless you want it to be of course because confidentially she's guaranteed to put out if that's the direction you want to go but that's between you and her. Just go with her and eat some food, watch a movie, maybe walk and talk somewhere and… whatever else but you don't have to do anything you don't want to do.”

“You mean besides the entire thing?” He scoffed.

“You eat and watch movies all the time. What difference does it make if Silver Spoon is there with you when you do it? You're just getting to know a classmate that you've more or less ignored your whole life while getting free stuff. You don't have to pay for anything.”

He had to admit that actually did sound good but with someone else.

Silver Spoon furrowed her brow as she watched their extended back and forth conversation. “Why is this taking so long?” she murmured anxiously.

“No, I can't,” concluded Rumble bluntly.

Diamond sighed frustratedly. “Okay Rumble, I didn't want to have to do this but you leave me no choice.” She surreptitiously pulled out a folded up photo, flattened it out and held it up on her hoof to him making sure to block Silver's view.

His blood ran cold as he recognized the illicit moment recorded in the image. “What the fuck?” he whispered angrily.

“I have more and they get much worse… or better depending on how you look at it.”

“You took pictures of me?" he hissed.

“No, I took pictures of my mom, you were just in them.” That sounded a little better then what she really did, she decided and maybe it salvaged the tiniest bit of good faith.

“You're blackmailing me over this?”

“If I have to.”

“You said Sweetie would never find out.”

“And she won't if you're not stupid about this.”

“If you put those photos out there your mom would be in a lot more trouble than I would be.”

“Yes you're probably right but I don't really see that as an issue. I think you might be underestimating how much I hate my mom.” It was a bluff. She wouldn't expose him now that she had promised Silver to play nice but he didn't know that.

Rumble’s mouth hung open in defeated shock.

“For once I didn't want to come in being a bitch about this so let's find a solution that works for both of us. If you say yes to one outing with Silver I'll give you all the negatives right here and now. And after your date, or whatever you want to call it, I'll give you all of the photos I have and then we won't bother you again about this.”

The force driving her aggressive hardball approach on selling a night out with her friend eluded him at the moment but it was also far too overwhelming to scrutinize.

“Okay, fine,” he agreed resentfully.

“Great,” chimed Diamond. “How's tonight at six to ten?”

“Whatever, fine,” he shrugged apathetically. “My curfew is at ten.”

“Meet in front of the movie theater. Just go and enjoy it for what it is. Be nice and don't tell her that I had to extort you into doing this; it would make her sad and I hate having to deal with sad ponies. Now smile and wave at her like you're excited to go out and do something fun with her.”

Rumble slowly turned to look at the bashful earth pony and waved and smiled compliantly. Silver's face brightened immeasurably and she waved back. - - -

The next few hours were quite the flurry of activity for Diamond and Silver whose heart was all a flutter with an almost euphoric nervousness.

Rumble didn't style his mane, put on cologne or do anything to indicate that this was a special event. Because it wasn't, unless one viewed being manipulated into doing something as special.

At the prescribed time and place the young Pegasus swooped down from the sky landing on the sidewalk in front of the Cinema 8 movie theater. Silver was already there waiting for him, smiling and fidgeting anxiously. Rumble tried to mask his disdain for the situation as he approached her.

“H- hi, uh, Rumble. Thank you for coming.”

Thank you for coming, he thought. It was difficult to separate the two of them in his brain but her demeanor was a stark contrast to Diamond’s dirty tactics when arranging the outing. While it was still a breach of etiquette to ask him out knowing that he was already dating someone, the disconnect between her and Diamond made him think that maybe she deserved the benefit of the doubt on some level. She probably just asked Diamond if she could ask him out for her not knowing that she would put him in a chokehold over it.

“Hi,” he greeted cordially with a half smile. “So what are we going to do first? A movie?” he guessed, looking up at the marquee.

“Well I thought maybe we'd go to a movie first and then do dinner,” she explained. “I got us tickets to Hardwire but we don't have to go if you don't want to. We can just go see whatever you want.” She spoke quickly and louder than usual as if terrified that he'd lose interest at any moment.

He blinked in surprise. “You got us tickets to an R-rated action flick?”

“Y- yeah?”

“Cool… I mean… yeah, that works.” He turned toward the door.

“Want to get snacks?” asked Silver, pointing at the snack bar as they walked into the lobby.

“Sure.”

“Um… you haven't seen this one yet, have you?” asked the filly.

Rumble shook his head absently. “No, the only pony I could maybe get to take me would be my brother.”

“I haven't seen it either,” she added.

“I think your family would be even less likely to take you than mine,” he mused.

“They would be,” she agreed.

“How did you get tickets then?” he prodded suspiciously.

She pushed up her glasses. “I have connections.”

They got popcorn and soda at the snack bar. Rumble felt weird about letting her pay for everything. Was it wrong in that it felt like tacit approval of the situation to accept her offerings and not pay for himself or should he view it as a sort of compensation for the unorthodox arrangement? The ticket taker side-eyed them dubiously before tearing their tickets and directing them to the theater. They looked a little too young but they had the tickets.

The two found seats in the middle, two thirds of the way back and sat down. Silver immediately noticed their close proximity to one another, the closest they had ever been in her memory. They were sharing a foreleg rest.

The movie was a revenge story about two friends in a big city crime syndicate. One betrayed the other in order to climb the ranks and left him for dead in a burning building. The betrayed friend survived narrowly but with serious injuries. He recovered slowly and years later, after leaving the game and settling down, had an encounter with his old syndicate, now controlled by his ex friend, which rekindled not just a lust for vengeance but a desire to free his city from the dark forces he once stoked.

Using a hooful of old contacts and allies he proceeded to disassemble the entire syndicate as a one pony army employing sabotage, guerrilla warfare and at times combat against seemingly insurmountable numbers. The gore was visceral, leaving the two foals with wide eyes and slack jaws at times.

After piles of bodies the two old friends finally faced off. The reformed pony edged out a victory but succumbed to his injuries in the end.

Rumble looked at Silver to find her wiping away a tear. He couldn't believe it, she was actually crying at an action movie. Though it was objectively very sad, he admitted. He was pulled back to the movie as the animated end credit sequence began and Erasure by Scream in the Dark blared through the theater. The driving electric guitar triggered something inside him and he had to sing the lyrics albeit mumbled under his breath.

“I can't face the sun again with an emptiness inside. There's a certain kind of fantasy in the places that you hide.”

As he continued into the chorus he heard Silver's voice over his own. He turned curiously in his seat to see her singing too as she watched the credits.

“How do you know this song?” he asked.

She turned to him as if startled to be pulled out of her mind. “Oh, Scream in the Dark is one of my favorite bands.”

He gasped in disbelief. “No way. Mine too. It's impossible to not sing this song.”

“Yeah,” she smiled.

They kept watching and singing even louder until the white on black credits began to roll and then they stood up and stretched.

“That was a good movie,” concluded Rumble as they headed out the lobby door into the night.

“Yeah, I'm glad we went to see that one,” she agreed. “Even though it was sad at the end.”

“Why is it called Hardwire though?” pondered Rumble.

“Maybe it has to do with the way the syndicate trained him when he was young and how it changed his nature or the way he thinks.”

“Yeah,” he nodded thoughtfully. Or maybe it has to do with how he couldn't really escape his old life forever. Once he was in he was stuck with it to the end.”

One other thought continued to bother him. It was so weird that she knew that band and that entire song. They weren't even on the radio.

He turned to look at her. “Do you like metal music or something?” he asked abruptly.

“Yes,” she replied emphatically.

“No way! You?”

“Yeah, well my parents don't really know because they wouldn't like it but I listen to underground stuff at the record store. Also I even managed to go to a Sleigher concert last weekend.”

His eyes widened. “You saw Sleigher?”

“Yeah, they were amazing! We were right up against the stage. I lost my glasses in the pit,” she laughed.

“That's awesome. I can't believe you like that stuff. I wish I could have gone to that.”

“Maybe someday you could go with us,” she suggested.

It was a somewhat brazen invitation. He knew Sweetie wouldn't care to come but she'd also be jealous if he went with someone else, especially girls. That was a huge facet of his interests that he couldn't even share with his fillyfriend.

“Where are we going now?” he asked, looking up at the streetlights hovering overhead.

“Oh, sorry, I just started walking. I got us a reservation at Berrybrook for dinner. Is that okay? Don't worry, it's not fancy. If you'd rather go somewhere else though, we can.”

He scratched his head. “Uh, no, that's fine.” He'd never been there before. He knew of it and where it was but it was basically invisible to him. His family never went there and as a colt with limited money he only went to fast food restaurants with friends.

When they got there he was relieved to find that it was a midrange vineyard themed boutique restaurant that had novel appeal without the inflated price tag and off-putting strangeness of upper class cuisine.

The two of them shared a secluded candlelit booth which was very romantic whether Rumble noticed it or not.

“So did anyone open for them at the concert? He asked opening his menu. “Did they play like a two hour set?”

“It was just them for two hours. They did mostly old stuff and they did about half of their Retribution album.”

“That's their best one. I can listen to that entire album from beginning to end a hundred million times and feel a rush every single time.”

“Exactly.” She almost pounded the table. “I try to tell Diamond that that album is like flawless poetry but she still likes Burnt Offering better. It just hits us different I guess.”

“Did they do Brittle Bones?”

“Yeah, they actually closed with it which really surprised me.”

“Really? I thought that was kind of an obscure one. You know I never would have guessed in a million years you liked metal. You just don't seem like the type.”

“Well, I don't exactly get to be myself very often so I can see why it would be hard to imagine. I like metal but also I like violin and romance novels.”

Rumble nodded. That matched up with his assumptions about her but what didn't was how easy she was to talk to now that her jitters were gone. He found himself forgetting just how weird this whole thing was. It was exciting to finally meet someone with similar taste in music who was just as passionate about it as him.

“So your team is in the playoffs aren't they?” she asked. “That's exciting.”

“Yeah. You like sports?”

“Not usually but I will show up at your home game when it happens.”

All the way through dinner there was nary a pause in their conversation, even when the food came. Previously in school they had hardly spoken to each other at all and were near strangers but tonight it felt like they had been good friends forever. Silver seemed genuinely interested in hearing about everything he liked even if she wouldn't otherwise care.

They left the restaurant and walked through downtown under streetlights and past illuminated window displays.

“Are you going to try to get into the Wonderbolts like your brother?”

“I don't know… Maybe. I'm still searching for a direction.”

“They have a junior program, don't they? You should at least try it out.”

“You sound like Thunderlane… but I guess I should.”

“Try everything. That's my philosophy. Everyone has a cutie mark but what if you were really good at painting or something and you never picked up a brush. You'd never even know. Wouldn't that be tragic?”

“I guess it would,” he smiled.

Rumble looked at the pale glowing face on the clocktower. “We still have an hour left. Did you have something else planned?”

Silver laughed nervously wondering if she should reveal the rest of the itinerary as planned or perhaps make up something else. Suddenly her date night seemed a little overly ambitious and she was getting cold hooves.

She looked away. “Well, um, I did have a… key for a hotel room.”

Rumble raised an eyebrow “For?”

“For… whatever,” she shrugged. “There's chocolate there. We can just eat chocolate, like for dessert.” she suggested with an uncomfortable grin. - - -

Rumble opened the little black and purple box to reveal an array of very enticing artisanal chocolates. He picked one at random and tossed it in his mouth, a salted caramel.

“These aren't from Sugar Cube Corner, they're too fancy.”

“You're right they're actually shipped in from a place in Manehattan but there's a retailer who sells them here in town. They're fancier than most chocolates but they're not fresh so it's sort of a compromise.”

“Still really good though,” he concluded, laying down on the bed. Silver laid down on the bed too with the open box of chocolates between them.

“Okay, that one was kind of weird, she admitted after testing a second one. “I never liked the fruit ones.”

“Me either,” he laughed.

Their eyes met as they continued to chew their samples. She couldn't believe they were really both here in a room together even if they were just eating chocolate. Only now did she realize how oversized her plan was. Her desire to strike when the iron was hot had taken the form of hubris. Things seemed unlikely to end the way she had fantasized at least for this night but maybe it wasn't a failure. It still felt incredible and she didn't want it to stop.

Rumble felt a trembling in his chest as he looked at her. Despite the entire sorted setup the last few hours had felt energizing and natural. It was the type of experience rarely shared between two ponies who were essentially just meeting for the first time. His thoughts circled back to the terms of the negotiation. Just one date, like a trial period. She must have expected a verdict for her performance on what he assumed was her first date ever. She chose him specifically. It wasn't just one date she wanted. What could he say to her though?

Much to his chagrin, this strange little arrangement forced him to realize something. What he really wanted was a relationship that felt like this and he wouldn't get it from who he was with.

“I wish I could have discovered you in a normal way,” he murmured. With his head on a pillow he grabbed another chocolate and held it idly on his hoof just staring at it. “Can I tell you a secret? I like romance novels too.”

“No you don't,” she laughed.

His eyes snapped back to hers with a quiet sincerity. “Yeah I do, really. I don't really get to read them much though. I don't collect them. I only ever have one or two at a time that I pick up from little free libraries and I keep them hidden at all times because I don't want anyone to find out.”

“You can borrow them from me,” she suggested. I have a huge collection. I won't tell anyone.” She gasped suddenly. “You know what this means? We're like the only two ponies in the world that enjoy both metal music and romance novels.”

He laughed. “You're probably right.” A rare silence passed between them before he spoke again.

“Can you tell me a secret now? What did you really have planned for the last hour of our date?”

Silver's face began to heat up in embarrassment. “Well it's not like I could really plan it necessarily. It's more like a just in case.” Her thoughts wandered to the bedside table behind her and the birth control potion planted inside it. “I don't want to say it was presumptuous but maybe it was a little.”

Rumble smiled weakly. “If things were just a little different I'd say yes. But you know I'm supposed to be with someone else.”

Silver resisted the urge to make a case against Sweetie Belle to avoid coming off as bitter and scornful. One thing didn’t make sense to her though.

“But you crossed that line before, didn't you?” she argued.

His expression darkened. “Oh, so you know about that too… Of course you do,” he sighed.

“I told her not to bother you anymore after I found out about that whole thing.”

“That was a mistake that I keep regretting for new reasons the more I think about it. I'm not going to do something like that again. Maybe that's stupid because it doesn't fix anything. I can't even apologize for what I did but I can at least decide to be different from now on and start doing the right thing.”

“I’d date you if you weren't dating anyone,” she said. “Especially after tonight.”

The fact that they were here together at all kind of said that without her needing to. Still her words gave him pause as they forced him to imagine them together, really together. Could that actually work? Yesterday he would have dismissed such an idea as nothing but a bizarre intrusive thought but after tonight it was like he was looking at a completely different pony now, one that resonated with him and cared about the things he cared about, something unimaginable just a short time ago. It was something he hadn't really felt until now.

“I hope it was as fun for you.”

“I had fun too,” he replied. “I'm happy to have met you, like really met you. I want to keep talking to you and doing stuff with you but I… I'm in a relationship at the moment so it makes things complicated.”

He didn't want to compare her to his fillyfriend either in words or thoughts but he couldn't help it. He wanted to tell her he had fun and that he wanted to do it again but he didn't want to say anything that he would regret.

“I have to get home now,” he said softly.

“Me too,” nodded Silver.

“Thanks.” was the only word he would give her but it meant worlds. It meant that he didn't hold it against her and that he didn't regret coming and that he enjoyed her company.

“Thanks,” she repeated.

Rumble held out his hoof to her over the mostly empty chocolate box. “High hoof.”

She smiled and bumped his hoof with hers.

“See you at school," he grunted, getting up. Without another word he cantered to the door and disappeared.

Overcome with emotional exhilaration, Silver closed her eyes and hugged a pillow tightly to her chest. It felt like she was floating away. How in the hell could she just leave him alone now?