Chapter Eight – I Knew You Were Trouble

Sweetie Belle kicked the pale, black stone in front of her, pretending it was Obsidian Glass's head. It tumbled down the dirt road for a little bit, before inevitably stopping. Sweetie Belle walked three steps to catch up to it.

"You're ruining everything." The purple-haired filly accused the rock. She gave it another swift kick, sending it down the dirt path. She imagined that the rock could talk back to her.

"What did I do?" The rock asked in the snarky voice of Glass.

"You've been messing with my friend's heads!" Sweetie Belle shouted, chasing after the rock and kicking it again. "Why would you do that?" The rock stand-in of Glass tumbled some more but did not answer. Some ponies nearby stared at her momentarily, confused at why a random filly was screaming at a rock. She ignored them till they moved on.

"I really don't like you." She hissed at the rock, still pretending it was Glass.

"You know, Gummy and I both think that talking to rocks is strange and not exactly healthy either." A familiar and hated, smooth as glass voice told her. She looked around for a moment, then – remembering a well-known fact about Glass – searched upward.

On the top of a two story building on the same side of the street as Sweetie Belle, Obsidian Glass sat next to a green reptile of sorts. Looking a little closer, Sweetie identified it to be Pinkie Pie's pet alligator.

"What do you care?" She finally managed to ask.

"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't care?" Glass said.

"We're not friends." Sweetie Belle replied. Glass responded simply. He sat Gummy on his head, and leapt off the building. Sweetie Belle knew better than to worry at this point, and watched calmly as Glass caught a loose brick on the structure, and swung down. He landed softly in front of Sweetie Belle, seemingly unfazed about yet another potentially dangerous fall. Gummy was equally undisturbed, and had taken to teething on the silver streak in Glass's hair.

"And why is that?" He asked.

"I don't like you." Sweetie Belle said. Gummy sensed the impending negative energy, and hopped off the top of Glass's head.

"You don't trust me." Glass reminded her. She grunted, realizing he was using her own words against her.

"Shouldn't you be moping right now?" Sweetie Belle said, attempting to change the subject. Glass's demeanor did not change.

"I was, for a bit. But Gummy here helped me see reason." Glass held out his hoof, about to pet the alligator. Gummy responded by viciously snapping his jaw around Glass's hoof. Sweetie Belle flinched at how fast the gator moved. Glass, instead of crying out in pain, laughed.

"That never gets old, Gummy!" He said. The gator released the hoof and blinked. Then he slowly walked away. Glass turned his attention back to Sweetie Belle. "You know, I should ask why you aren't with the other Crusaders."

"None of your business." She said. Gummy returned, carrying in his mouth a very familiar looking rock.

"I should think it is." Glass said, accepting the rock from Gummy. "Judging by the way you were talking to me about it." Sweetie Belle clenched her teeth.

"Look, because you keep refusing to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Applebloom has practically been killing herself trying to figure out what's wrong with the club, and Scootaloo…" Sweetie Belle paused. "I don't really know what's wrong with Scootaloo." She admitted.

"So I'm to blame for that." Glass said. Sweetie Belle nodded. "Am I also to blame for the fact that you don't resent my decision?"

The white unicorn filly froze. "How did you know that?" She asked quietly.

Glass gave a semi-devilish grin – bruised face and all – and said, "Says it all over your face."

"Forget you!" Sweetie screamed. She stormed passed him, Gummy bouncing out of her way just in time. She made it all of two steps before a pale, black stone landed in front of her. Partly furious, partly impressed, Sweetie Belle turned back around at the white colt. "What?!" She yelled.

"What will it take?" Glass said calmly. "What will it take to get you to stop seeing me as a villain?"

Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and a long thought before saying, "I wouldn't mind getting a Cutie Mark."

---

"Where do ya think she went?" Applebloom asked.

"I don't know." Scootaloo said.

"When do ya think she'll be back?" The yellow filly persisted.

"I don't know." The orange pegasus repeated.

The two friends had been walking in a wide loop of Ponyville for a while now, neither of them any closer to finding Sweetie Belle. They would have immediately gone after their friend, if Pinkie Pie hadn't made them finish their deserts first. The party pony had claimed that no desert should ever go wasted, and made it clear to the remaining Crusaders that they weren't going to leave without a little indulgence.

Now the two were aimlessly wondering through town, checking every corner for Sweetie Belle, and coming up short every time.

"Do ya think she was right. Have we bin obsessing over Glass?" Applebloom asked.

"I don't— maybe." Scootaloo said. "I just have this funny feeling about him you know? Like, when he's around, things just feel real good. My whole body gets this warm feeling, and my coat gets all prickly and kinda sweaty. You know what that feeling is like?" Applebloom shook her head. She had never had a feeling like that before. She had an idea about it though.

"Ah think, maybe, ya might like Glass." Applebloom said.

"Of course I like him. We're friends. I think. Sort of." Scootaloo told her. The yellow filly shook her head.

"Ah think ya might like him just a little bit more than that." She said. Applebloom noticed her friend's ordinarily orange cheeks become flushed with red.

"What?!" She sputtered. "That's crazy Applebloom. I don't like Glass that way. I just, well… um…" Scootaloo found herself saved from answering when Applebloom suddenly found herself tripping and falling on the ground. As she stood up, the yellow filly saw what it was she had tripped over.

"Gummy!" She said aloud. Scootaloo was perplexed, having never met the alligator before.

"Applebloom, please tell me you know this alligator." She said. The red-maned filly nodded.

"This is Gummy, Pinkie Pie's alligator." Applebloom informed Scootaloo. She turned to face the reptile. "What're ya doing out here, little guy?" She asked, expecting no response seeing as how she wasn't Fluttershy and could not in any way communicate with animals. To her surprise however, Gummy responded. The green little reptile rotated his body in a weird, wobbling manner, and pointed with his tail.

Both Applebloom and Scootaloo followed the direction Gummy had pointed to, and saw in the distance two white ponies heading for the Everfree Forest.

"Sweetie Belle." Applebloom said, recognizing her friend.

"And Glass." Scootaloo said, recognizing the other.

---

Sweetie Belle crossed into the darkly shaded territory of the Everfree Forest to the tune of "Muskrat Love". Or well, a very poor coverage of. Obsidian Glass, despite his many talents, was tone deaf when it came to whistling.

"Will you stop butchering that song!" The purple-haired filly yelled. Glass abruptly stopped whistling.

"Sorry." He said quietly. "So what kind of Cute Mark can you even get in the Everfree Forest?"

"Any kind really. Why do you ask? Are you scared of going into one of the most dangerous place in all of Equestria?" Sweetie Belle taunted him, grinning slyly. This was the whole purpose for her reason to want to come into the Everfree Forest. Not only would it convince Glass to stop his quest to become her friend, it would practically excommunicate him from ever joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders out of fear. The dark-haired colt claimed not to want in, but Sweetie Belle suspected otherwise.

Another good reason to see if he was scared of Everfree was because Sweetie Belle wanted to find some personality flaw with him. Being scared of going into the cursed forest – something the Crusaders had done often – would be a sure way to get Applebloom and Scootaloo to not like him.

"Nah. Not really." Glass said, earnestly. Sweetie Belle's plan fell apart right there. If Glass had said that more defensively, Sweetie Belle would know he was lying. Instead though, Glass said it as nonchalantly as he said anything else. "What exactly are you hoping for in your Cutie Mark?" Glass asked her, continuing to traverse the gnarled ground of the deadly forest.

Sweetie Belle gave a quick look back at the entrance to the forest. It seemed to be swallowed up by the brush and foliage as they went deeper. Now that her plan was ruined, she didn't have any reason to stay in the forest longer than she had to.

"Uh... You know, just a Cutie Mark. Something to define me." Sweetie Belle said.

"That's stupid." Glass bluntly remarked. Sweetie Belle stopped in her tracks.

"Excuse me?" She asked. Glass stopped too and rotated to face her.

"That's stupid." He repeated. "Your reason for wanting a Cutie Mark is stupid."

"It's stupid?" Sweetie Belle howled with rage. "It's stupid to want to know my place in this world? Stupid to want to know what makes me special? An individual? It's stupid to want the simplest thing anypony can get, especially when so many other ponies already have it and practically rub it in your face every day? That's what you think is stupid?!" The white unicorn felt tears well up in her eyes as she angrily poured out emotions she had bottled up for so long.

Glass stood calmly in front of her, accepting every word she angrily spouted at him. "Yes and no." He said. Sweetie Belle screamed in frustration.

"What does that even mean?" She asked wildly.

"Yes, it's stupid to have to be told what about you is special and makes you an individual. Especially when you feel that it's the only thing that makes you different from others. No, it's not stupid to want individualism, because unless you know yourself, you'll never feel good when comparing yourself to other ponies." Glass said, finishing an explanation that left Sweetie Belle slightly less confused, but no less enraged.

Unsure of what to do, Sweetie Belle just slammed her hoofs on the ground, hoping to release her directionless fury. It helped… a little.

"I just don't understand what it is about me that makes me special." Sweetie Belle miserably said. In the distance, there was the howls of supposedly timber wolves who probably picked up on Sweetie Belle's earlier outburst. She and Glass ignored them.

"Are you different from your friends?" Glass asked. She nodded. "Are you different from that pink bully Diamond… something or other?" He asked. Again, Sweetie Belle nodded. "How are you different?" He asked her.

The white unicorn filly paused for a moment to think. "Well, there are a lot of differences between me and my friends, or me and Diamond Tiara." She said.

"Then each one of those differences makes you special. Not because of some mark on your flank, but because you are you." A single tear trickled down Sweetie Belle's cheek. The timber wolf howled again, closer. Again it was ignored.

"Really?" She asked. "You aren't lying?"

"You think I followed you out here to the Everfree Forest and delivered that whole monologue just to lie to you?" Glass asked with mock incredulousness. "I would think my friend would know better than that."

Sweetie Belle felt the faintest of smiles creep up on her face. She did not refute Glass's statement.

She wouldn't have, even if she got the chance. Because at that moment, a timber wolf broke through the trees and roared at them both.

Sweetie Belle was frozen with so much fear that she couldn't scream. Glass just looked at her with the most brilliant poker face ever.

"Think we should leave the Everfree Forest now?" He asked.

---

Okay, I really despise Taylor Swift and her music, but this chapter title was too good an opportunity to pass up. With that explained, this might have been one of the most emotional chapters I have ever put together. This was probably due to the fact that I was fueled by Sweetarts for the majority of it. Please give me your thoughts and criticisms. I will thrive on both.

In Bronyhood,

Fire Gazer the Alchemist