Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Chapter One Hundred and Two

The Cutie Mark Crusaders walked to school together, accompanied by Silver Spoon, who now felt comfortable joining them in public: Apple Bloom, with her cutie mark and goth makeover; Silver Spoon with her new haircut; and Scootaloo, tall and gangly, flying loops around the other three as they walked—Sweetie Belle alone hadn't gone through any change in appearance at all in the past few months; Sweetie Belle alone looked exactly the same as she had for the past two years.

And yet, she was quite different: her hunched and angry posture and her seething expression were just as shocking a change as the physical changes her friends had gone through.

"Sweetie Belle, how ya doin'?" Apple Bloom said cautiously.

"I'm fine," she said unconvincingly. "I… I'm struggling, a little. Because… you know, I can't just act. I need to come up with a plan first, but I don't know what to do."

"Maybe you should just let it be," Scootaloo pleaded, flying above them.

"I can't," Sweetie Belle muttered. "I just…" She gave a wordless shriek of fury. "I just can't! Something has to be done." She sighed. "There's a lot at stake here."

The others glanced at each other sadly, not knowing how to respond to that.

It was still early, so they went out back into the schoolyard, where many other little ponies were playing and running, enjoying a few more minutes of relaxation before class began.

Diamond Tiara sat underneath the same tree where the Crusaders and their friends often ate lunch. She was surrounded by a huge crowd of young ponies, staring at her with admiration and hanging on to every word she said. Tiara cackled, and all the others hastily laughed along with her.

"Oh hey there!" she said wickedly, grinning at Silver Spoon and the Crusaders. "Silver Spoon, what were you saying about nopony liking me except you?" She gestured to the crowd surrounding her. "HA! You make me laugh. That's right, I've got a whole bunch of new friends, because they know I can provide for them. Oh, and hey, Squeaky…" She stood up and approached Sweetie Belle. "Don't feel bad that your boyfriend prefers me, okay? A lot of ponies' boyfriends prefer me."

Featherweight, among Diamond Tiara's crowd, sheepishly smiled and waved.

Sweetie Belle growled. Her entire body quivered, and the tip of her horn sizzled and smoked. "All right," she hissed. "That is it."

She pounced on Diamond Tiara, and slugged her across the face. Tiara snarled viciously and bit down hard on Sweetie Belle's hoof. Sweetie squealed in pain.

"That's right," Tiara sneered, laughing as she flipped Sweetie over onto her back and pressed both of her front hooves against the unicorn's throat. Sweetie Belle struggled.

A ring of students had formed around them, staring with rapt attention and egging them on. Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon tried to break through the crowd, but they had formed an impenetrable wall, all clambering over each other in an attempt to get a good view. Scootaloo flew over the students' heads, but found that she had to weave her way through the other pegasus kids. She slipped through and dove down, pulling Diamond Tiara off of Sweetie Belle.

"You stay out of this!" Sweetie snarled. Scootaloo retreated in fear. "…Please," Sweetie added in an insincere, nasty voice.

"Come here," said Tiara, lifting her front hooves and punching Sweetie Belle repeatedly in the face and jaw, whipping her head back. Sweetie tossed her head, deflecting a punch away with her horn and causing Tiara to stumble.

Sweetie jabbed at Tiara's chest with her horn, and it became apparent quickly that she was making a very real attempt to gore her, but she lacked the strength and sharpness to do any real damage.

Tiara cackled. "Take some of this, you weak-ass goody-goody. You unicorns, you're all squishy!" She lifted both hooves over her head and chopped them into Sweetie's back, then the back of her head. Sweetie collapsed to the ground, then chopped out with an arm and cut Diamond Tiara's legs out from under her. Tiara fell, but landed with her full body weight on top of Sweetie, elbowing her in the gut.

"Come on!" Tiara growled, driving her elbow into Sweetie's diaphragm again. "Let's hear some trash talk, so everypony knows just how pathetic you are!"

"RARGH!" Sweetie Belle shrieked wildly, her voice cracking. "Give me my boyfriend back, you… YOU BIOTCH!"

She punched Tiara in the head, sending her tiara flying across the schoolyard, landing in the dirt several yards away.

"STOP IT RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"

The students froze and, as one, turned their heads toward the schoolhouse. Cheerilee stood at the door, looking absolutely livid.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING ON HERE?" she spat through gritted teeth. Her eyes wild with rage, breathing heavily, she marched forward, the crowd parting around her as she made her way toward Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle.

Tiara slowly disentangled herself from the fight and stepped aside. Sweetie Belle was frozen in surprise, not getting up off the ground, starting to look pained and tearful as the furious Cheerilee came closer and closer. All the other students flinched away in fear.

Cheerilee glared at the two fillies, seething. "There will be," she growled, "no name-calling and certainly no physical violence on school grounds, you blockheads!" She placed her hooves on the backs of the two fillies' necks and slammed their heads together.

"In my office, right now, both of you!" she commanded. "Everypony else, please wait for us in the classroom."

The bell hadn't rung yet, but nopony argued with her, filing neatly into the building.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Cheerilee paced back and forth in her office, exclaiming in anger every few seconds, as Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle sat motionless in chairs in front of her desk.

"This is… unbelievable!" Cheerilee snarled. "Fighting! I hope you realize, if you two were just one year older, a stunt like that would get both of you instantaneously expelled, perhaps forbidden from ever attending any school ever again! High schools have absolutely zero tolerance for fighting!"

Diamond Tiara was rubbing the spot on her head which had smacked against Sweetie Belle's. "Verbal and physical abuse," she sneered. "I'm gonna sue you, Miss Cheerilee."

"You're welcome to try," Cheerilee said coldly. "But I don't think it'll get you anywhere. It's… comedy. Fortunately, I'm not required to expel you… yet. Now, if one of you could explain to me what happened out there…"

"It was my fault, Miss Cheerilee," Sweetie Belle said mechanically, staring off into space. "Remember how I was dating Featherweight? Well… now she is. And… I was stupid. I thought she had stolen him from me, and that I could win him back if I…" She closed her eyes and started sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Miss Cheerilee. I'll never do it again."

Cheerilee's expression softened at her sincere pain. "Oh… okay, Sweetie Belle. Okay. It's okay. Diamond Tiara? Anything to add?"

"Not really, she pretty much covered it," Tiara said casually, leaning back in her chair. "Her boyfriend is my boyfriend now, it's all her fault, and she's stupid. That about sums it up." She turned to Sweetie Belle. "So, 'biotch'? Really? You're such a prude. No wonder your boyfriend dumped you."

Cheerilee sighed and sat behind her desk. "All right, well, I'll be seeing you two after school for detention every day for the next three weeks. And, of course, I'll be telling your parents about this." She wrote something down on a small slip of pink paper and offered it to Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie took it with her magic. "Thank you, Miss Cheerilee," she whispered, her eyes full of tears.

Cheerilee eyed Diamond Tiara as she started writing another pink slip. "Just remember, next year the two of you will be in high school, maybe, and a higher level of self-control and decorum will be expected of you."

"Okay, that was a personal attack," said Tiara.

Cheerilee shrugged and offered Tiara the second pink slip. Tiara stared at her derisively. Cheerilee walked around her desk and, her face expressionless, forced the scrap of paper into Tiara's mouth.

"Can I go outside and get my crown?" Tiara said tersely.

"Of course you can," Cheerilee said pleasantly. The school bell rang. "On your own time," Cheerilee finished. "Right now it's time for class."

Diamond Tiara slipped off the chair. "I'm taking note of all this, you know," she snapped. "The insults, the physicality. You are so going down, Miss Cheerilee. When my dad hears about this, he'll destroy you. He'll never accept what you've done to his baby girl."

"Your dad likes me, and he's familiar with school policy," said Cheerilee. "And isn't he always saying that he wants his baby girl to get what's coming to her?"

Sweetie Belle joined Cheerilee and Tiara, and the three of them started walking out of the office. "I'm really sorry, Miss Cheerilee," Sweetie said softly.

"It's okay, Sweetie Belle," Cheerilee assured her.

Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you telling me it's okay?"

"You're not sorry," Cheerilee said simply.

Diamond Tiara shrugged.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo glanced nervously at Sweetie Belle's empty desk.

"Have you ever seen Miss Cheerilee so steamed up like that?" Apple Bloom breathed. "That was… that was unbelievable."

"Yeah," Scootaloo agreed uneasily. "Though I've gotta say, I never knew hypocrisy could be so awesome." She mimed cracking two ponies' heads together. "Ba-boom!"

"Oh, but I hope Sweetie's okay," Apple Bloom said anxiously.

"Yeah…"

Cheerilee entered the classroom with the two students, all three of them silently going to their desks. Cheerilee scanned her lesson plans.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo eyed Diamond Tiara nervously. She was grinding her teeth with anger, conspicuously without her namesake accessory.

"Sweetie Belle, what happened?" Scootaloo whispered.

"We're getting three weeks' detention," Sweetie muttered. "It's better than I deserve… I'm sorry for the way I've acted, girls. I didn't realize how unlike myself I was acting, how bad I'd become, until… until I made Miss Cheerilee mad. You've got to be really awful to make somepony as sweet and perfect as Miss Cheerilee fly completely off the handle like that."

She started sobbing, and Cheerilee looked up at her and offered a comforting smile.

"Well, did you tell her you're sorry?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Of course I did. And I promised never to do it again."

"Then you got nothin' to worry about," Apple Bloom said brightly, placing a shiny black hoof on Sweetie's desk. Sweetie Belle smiled and put her own hoof on top of Apple Bloom's.

"It's good to have you back, Sweetie Belle," said Scootaloo, also offering her hoof.

"Thanks, Scootaloo," Sweetie whispered.

"All right, let's put that nasty business this morning behind us and begin," Cheerilee said brightly. She saw the three Crusaders holding hooves on Sweetie Belle's desk and smiled at them. "Could you three separate, please? Thanks." She giggled, shot Diamond Tiara another dirty look, and proceeded with the lesson.