Whorrible

The next morning the first thing that Diamond did when she got to school was check on Sweetie Belle. The pretty unicorn with the duotone main sat alone in her desk looking despondent. Scootaloo, who sat behind her, was leaning forward and encouraging her with one hoof on her back. What a wonderful sight. It touched her heart.

Diamond looked across the room to where Silver was sitting and found that she was already looking back at her with a wide grin. They exchanged elated glances but for mostly different reasons. While Silver didn't like Sweetie she was primarily excited about having a real opening to get her hooves on Rumble. Diamond abhorred Sweetie and was cautiously optimistic about having to deal with a potential tagalong coltfriend of a friend soon, though she was leaning toward anticipating it being annoying. Rumble was at least near the top of the list of least annoying colts.

Silver was torn between giving him space and letting him come to her in his own time or just swooping right in at lunch time and slobbering all over him unapologetically.

Diamond looked back at Sweetie but instead immediately locked eyes with Scootaloo. Seeing her smirk Scootaloo stared daggers back at her but she didn't flinch.

It begged the question though: How much did the two of them know about the situation? What did Rumble say when he presumably broke up with Sweetie? She hoped he had enough tact to not drop Silver's name in the conversation or today might get very interesting between the two factions.

She looked away and her brow furrowed suddenly. What if he came clean and told her he cheated on her? That might ruin everything. Could that be traced back to her somehow? He wouldn't say with who would he? She began to have paranoid thoughts about it all through first period.

After the bell, Diamond went to her locker in the hall to get her math book. She jerked back when the door to her locker suddenly slammed shut almost on her hoof. The book slipped from her grasp and thudded on the linoleum floor.

She turned to see a scowling Scootaloo up in her face.

“Something funny this morning, Princess Dirtbag?”

“Other than your face, lots of things.”

“What the hell is your problem?”

“Me?” scoffed Diamond.”What the hell is your problem? “You'll find any excuse you can think of to come harass me.”

“That's bullshit,” hissed Scootaloo. “We both know that your entire sad little world revolves around making other ponies hurt. You'd be lucky to be in Sweetie Belle's position one day but I highly doubt it because no one gives a shit about you and no one ever will, not even your parents.”

“At least I have parents.”

Scootaloo shoved her back with one forehoof and it was only then that Diamond became aware of the crowd that was quickly gathering around them as they broke out into chants of fight, fight, fight.

Rage boiled within Diamond. She knew she couldn't win in a fair fight against Scootaloo but she probably wouldn't be stupid enough to try anything with this many witnesses while under probation. Still if she could goad Scootaloo into attacking her again and get her carted off to some reform school thuggish miscreants it might just be worth it.

“You're not shit without daddy's money,” sneered Scootaloo. “Everyone knows that.”

Before she could retort they were interrupted by the gruff voice of a passing teacher. “Break it up. Are we going to have a problem here?”

Mr. Blazer stuck his head through the crowd with a frown.

“No, there's no problem,” shrugged Scootaloo, immediately jettisoning the hostile energy from her voice.

The bloodthirsty crowd dispersed and Scootaloo turned away in a huff. Diamond stood there seething alone before finally picking up her fallen math book and violently jamming her combo lock shut.

At lunch Rumble sat by himself looking rather forlorn. It took everything in Silver to resist the urge to go sit by him and say hi.

“I heard from Applebloom that he officially broke up with her,” whispered Silver to her mentally aloof friend.

Diamond sat at the table hardly eating her food at all. She was still fuming at Scootaloo. She watched the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a somber Sweetie flanked on either side by her two best friends. What a buzz kill. She wouldn't be able to enjoy this victory until she finally put Scootaloo in her place.

Diamond and Silver walked home together after school, their brains occupying entirely different spaces, love and ruthless revenge.

“She's humiliated me twice within a week and I'm so tired of it.”

“What are you going to do about it?” wondered Silver aloud.

“I'm on the verge of a breakthrough. I'll keep you posted… or maybe I'll just keep surprising you,” she offered mysteriously.

“If it's anything worse than your last surprise, Celestia help us all.”

“I think… it needs to be.”

The trail of foals broke up in town going their separate ways. It was about then that Diamond noticed a shadow flash across their path from something passing overhead. Her eyes flicked skyward to see the form of a young Pegasus closing fast.

“I think you have a stalker.”

Silver didn't have time to look before Rumble suddenly set down next to her almost as silent as a cat and at pace with her as if he'd always been there alongside them.

“Hey,”

“Hi, Rumble," replied Silver, trying not to burst with exuberance. “It's been a weird day,” she added “Where are you going?”

“I was going to hit the record store before going home. Where are you going?”

“Uh, nothing. nowhere,” she sputtered. “I was just going home I guess.”

Diamond rolled her eyes.

“So you're free then? Want to come with me?”

“Yes.” The fact that she had just been to the record store not twenty-four hours ago made no reprise in her brain.

“Well you two have fun,” muttered Diamond. “I myself have projects to work on. See you tomorrow.”

The three of them said their goodbyes and Rumble and Silver crossed the street together.

“What happened today?” asked Silver as if she didn't know.

“I heard Diamond and Scootaloo almost got in another fight,” he countered.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “But they're not really fights if only one pony is fighting. Scootaloo is always the aggressor Diamond just gets under her skin.”

“I'm sure you probably already heard I broke up with Sweetie Bell yesterday.”

“Yeah, I did. Why'd you do that?”

“Our relationship was really shallow and it wasn't going anywhere,” he replied bluntly. “Even so she didn't take it very well.”

“Is that… why you came to hang out with me?”

“Yeah… It's not weird to hang out with you alone now.

Are we dating now?

Rumble scratched his ear awkwardly if that offer still stands then I guess so.”

Rumble was ready to move on and excited to date Silver; he just wasn't sure if he should so soon. Just because he didn't want to be with Sweetie Belle didn't mean he didn't want to be her friend anymore. He didn't want to do anything to make her more upset than she already was but also he saw no reason, other than social etiquette, to wait.

“Want to hold hooves?” he asked.

Silver's heart fluttered as she took his hoof while they walked to the record store. - - -

“Open your mouth,” commanded Diamond.

Spoiled opened her mouth obediently, her gaze unfocused staring off into Infinity. She looked so stupid and weak now.

Diamond lifted a shriveled mushroom on her hoof and tossed it in her mother's mouth.

“Swallow it.”

Spoiled swallowed the hallucinogenic mushroom in one gulp and continued staring vacantly through her.

“Stand facing the flowerbed.”

It was the last place she'd been standing before Diamond had interrupted her gardening for the experiment. The filly walked some distance away before deactivating her receptive phase with the magic words. Then she went to the veranda and watched from hiding.

As it turned out, giving her mom shrooms was only entertaining for a few minutes. The mare wandered around aimlessly for a while seemingly watching and tracking things flying by in the air that weren't there. She stood motionless, staring into a single flower and mumbling to herself. But soon enough Spoiled laid down on the lawn and got comfortable in a sort of zoned out or overstimulated stupor. Diamond continued spying for a while but after she didn't move from the spot she got bored and left not caring if she had a run-in with the staff while high or that without having the established context of taking a psychedelic her mother probably wouldn't be able tell the difference between her drug fantasy and reality when she came off her trip.

The filly went to her room and set to work on party planning and the big plot. - - -

On Friday morning Diamond woke up early and deviated from her typical schedule to run a social errand at their rival school. After years of walking to school with Diamond, Silver knew to just leave if she didn’t show at her gate.

“Hey, where were you?” she asked when her friend entered the classroom. “I thought you were sick or something.”

“Project related,” Diamond replied simply. “I think it’s coming together nicely,” she added with a smirk before continuing to her seat just as the bell rang.

Silver scratched her chin in wonder. Whatever she was planning was big. When was she going to tell her about it? Did she even want to know?
Diamond didn’t clue her in during the first three passing periods and when they got to lunch she suggested that she go sit with Rumble which was an easy sell but she was mystified by why Diamond went over to sit with Snips and Snails.

“Hey, guys, what's going on?” she greeted, oddly amicably as she set her lunchbox on their table.

The two looked at each other quizzically, mystified that Diamond Tiara was talking to them.

“Nothing, shrugged Snails warily. “What are you doing over here?”

“Well Silver Spoon is busy fawning over her new coltfriend and I have this thing that I'm supposed to do but I don't know how I'm going to get it done now, you see…”

She paused to look around and make sure no one was eavesdropping. Her eyes landed on an aghast Sweetie Belle who was watching her ex and one of her worst enemies sitting and talking together over food. Focus, Diamond, she told herself.

“Can you keep a secret?” she asked.

Snips set down his floating sandwich. The two nodded and leaned in closer, adequately intrigued.

“You can't tell anyone. You didn't hear any of this from me either. You know Shooting Star who goes to Cloverfield, she's like the most popular pony there?”

“Yeah,” they both nodded tentatively.

“She's throwing this amazing party this Friday night and she told me to get the word out at our school but the thing is that not everyone is allowed to come. See this party is going to be absolutely legendary.” She lowered her voice. “It's going to have weed, shrooms, booze, video games and…” She looked around them before lowering her voice to almost a whisper. “There's going to be some mare that's just hanging out in a room. You go in there and have fun with her. She'll do whatever you want her to do to you, no questions asked, absolutely free.”

Their eyes popped at the sumptuous picture she painted.

“That can't be true,” said Snips.

“Like rutting,” asked Snails

“Yes, like rutting,” she confirmed. "Unless you want her to play checkers with you ‘cuz she'll do that too.”

“Who is it?” asked Snips breathlessly.

“I don't know. It's supposed to be a secret. All of this is supposed to be a secret which brings me back to my point. Only certain ponies are allowed to go. They have to be trustworthy and well informed and not a bunch of losers who will ruin the vibe.”

"You guys aren't losers right? Right.” She answered her own question without waiting for them to respond. “Does that sound like a cool party?”

“Yeah it does,” they nodded emphatically.

“You want to go?”

“Definitely,” answered Snails.

“Okay, well here's the thing, I didn't see your names on the list but if you help do the invites she'll let you in. This is too many ponies for me to track down and ask individually. If you're able to get the word out and do it right and not tip off any losers, Shooting Star will give you first whack at the party slut. That's not really a reward I'm interested in having so you two can have it.”

It sounded like a trick too fantastical to be true but if it wasn't true then why were they inviting so many other ponies too?

“I'm in,” said Snips.

“Me too,” added Snails.

“Great, that takes a load of my mind.”

Diamond passed them the folded up sheet of paper. “Don't show this list to anyone and when you're all done with it, destroy it. It has all of the foals invited to the party, what time slot they're invited for and what you can say to them to sell the party if they're skeptical about it or have other plans.”

“Why so many details?” shrugged Snails.

“She wants this party to be perfect. You don't get to be that popular with subpar stunts. Remember that you're speaking on behalf of Shooting Star here. And obviously never let any adults or other authority figures know about this party. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for us and we don't need anyone dropping the hammer before we even get it off the ground. You pull this off it's going to be the best night of your lives. Thanks for your help, guys.”

For once she wasn't making an exaggeration or a Faustian bargain. She had every intention of giving the two of them exactly what they wanted like a dream come true. Of course they would eventually find that the real list wasn't all that exclusive, it was simply particular in its handling of a few key attendees.

"So what's your plan," Silver finally asked as she walked out with Diamond after the final bell.

"I'm planning a little party that's going feature my mom," she mumbled in her ear. "I don't think you and Rumble should come to this one. Don't worry though, to make it up to you I got you that hotel room again. Key's in my bag."

Silver just looked at her with a manic grin on her face.