"So... out of curiosity..." Silver Spoon tried to get some words out as she and Applebloom soaked in the relaxing spa bath. "What exactly are you going to do once this little debacle's all over?"

"I'm gonna side back with the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Applebloom said quickly, since it was the only logical choice. "Cut Above's offer might be tempting, but I'm going to stick by my true friends. I know that being one of the most powerful kids in school's a rather heavy burden for anypony to bear, even for Diamond Tiara..."

"Sometimes, I would come to her house when we were younger fillies. She'd be crying about how she had so many different details to attend to when she planned her takeover of the school..." Silver's heart sank when she'd remembered all those times she'd spent with Diamond Tiara. "All those months... wasted by petty conflicts... when we could have been out there, aiding the fillies and colts of the class..."

Applebloom was loss for words. The mere mention of the amount of time Diamond and Silver had been causing misery stung in her mind. However, she did a polite thing by putting a hoof around Silver's shoulders and saying, "I'm sorry it took you this long to figure it out, Silver..."

"It's alright, Applebloom. I've changed since this whole thing started..." Silver said, trying to act quite brave in her depression. "We've all had our bad moments now and again. Mine was just longer than usual..."

As the two fillies climbed out of the hot tub and dried themselves off with towels, they were escorted over to a nearby massage area by Aloe Vera and Lotus Blossom. After that, they leapt onto a couple of massage tables once they were dried and unclothed, the two ponies giving them massages a few moments after they had gotten comfortable on the massage tables.

"Don't worry about your past, Silver Spoon..." Applebloom began speaking whilst Aloe began tenderly massaging her back. "If you can focus on your future and put your past behind you, then I'm sure you can snap out of this depression and get a lot off of your back..."

"Well, I might, but I'm not so sure that Diamond Tiara would..." Silver said, wondering how Diamond would feel by the end of this ordeal. "She might be willing to revert to her old ways out of fear, fear that Cut Above would make her life a nightmare if she sided with us..."

"As I said, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Silver," Applebloom said as soon as Aloe began rapidly striking Applebloom's sweet spots with her hooves to make her more relaxed. "For now, let's just enjoy our treatments..."

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara were all getting suited up into roller-skating shoes at the changing room. It was a rather mediocre punishment for Diamond for breaking her character, but it was still one that had been invoked by her slip of the tongue regardless.

When they were geared up and had finished putting on the last skates, with some sense of difficulty, the three fillies got to their hooves and immediately had trouble controlling themselves. With wheels on the bottom of those shoes, it was as if all three of them had trotted onto a sheet of ice and were now finding it hard to maintain control.

"How the hay does anypony get around in these darn things?" Diamond Tiara said, trying as hard as ever to solidify her fake character whilst serving out her humiliation at the same time.

"Oh, that's easy," Scootaloo said as she finally got up to her hooves and stopped moving altogether. When she said, "Like this!" She used her wings to propel herself forward, shifting her body to turn. "Though, I think you two are gonna have some problems..."

Not even bothering to acknowledge Scootaloo's words, Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara tried as hard as they could to propel themselves forward. Though, it seemed that balance was not on their side once they raised one of their frontal hooves, as all of their remaining legs became much more unbalanced as they'd done so. The result, was the two of them landing on their faces once again, struggling to get back onto their hooves again, no matter how hard they tried this time.

"I gotcha..." Scootaloo moved over to Sweetie Belle and used one of her skates to help the white filly back up. Once she was back up, Scootaloo looked at Diamond Tiara. At first, she was rather hesitant to do it, but she remembered that this wasn't the Diamond Tiara of her past. For if it were, Scootaloo would be angered quite easily with Diamond's mere voice alone. No, with all of the time she'd been with Diamond's other side, she eventually helped her back onto all fours as well, seeing as she was the one who was struggling to find some balance.

Once the three of them were altogether, Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara gently got a stable rhythm going with their hooves, whilst Scootaloo gently buzzed her wings to move herself forward. Slowly, but surely, the three of them were making their way to the rink, where they would either be making complete fools out of themselves, or be some decent, if not adequate skaters.

When they arrived at the rink, something rang in Diamond Tiara's mind. When she's spent enough time looking at that rink, she recalled on a memory of her and Cut Above gliding around it like a true couple would. When the image lingered long enough, Diamond shuddered as she returned to reality.

"What's wrong, Diamond?" Sweetie Belle asked, seeing that Diamond was shuddering after what seemed like a traumatic memory of her past.

"It's just..." Diamond's words seemed to disobey her, as they wouldn't leave her mouth in any way, shape, or form. Eventually, she said, "Me and Cut used ta come here on weekends when we couldn't find ya... He'd dance so neatly on that rink, his hooves stretched out like an angel from heaven..."

"Oh, Celestia..." Scootaloo face-hoofed as she could see Diamond Tiara's past self roller-skating with Cut Above, the two of them performing some quite advanced skating techniques.

"Ah know, the two of us seemed ta be a perfect match, like a couple'a apples in a basket..." Diamond then reflected on what Cut Above had done to her, Silver, and the CMC earlier in the week. "But after what happened, he's turned into a rather rotten one, at that..."

"Such a shame, really..." Sweetie Belle said as the three of them moved further and further to the open area of the rink, from where they would be able to enter. "You two had a whole lot of chemistry together. Even when you two seemed like jerks to other ponies..."

"Yeah..." Diamond Tiara let out a sigh of sorrow, thinking of how she and Cut would have been together if not for this sudden occurrence. "But thanks to Applebloom, ah think that ya'll helped me dodge a bullet there..."

"Yeah! I mean, who really likes somepony who treats others like mud anyways?" Scootaloo said, then showed some shock when she realized that Diamond Tiara was right next to her, feeling bad once more. "Uhh... no offense?"

Diamond sighed dejectedly and said, "None taken..." before she was escorted by Sweetie Belle onto the rink.

Sweetie Belle shot a short death glare at Scootaloo and decided to help Diamond recover from her sorrow. Before long, the two of them were skating, though they were having some trouble trying to control their speed and turning angles.

Scootaloo eventually got onto the rink as well, feeling a little sense of regret for making Diamond Tiara feel bad. The whole sensation was rather odd to her. She was feeling sorry for a pony who had treated her like dirt in the past. Maybe it was the case of role reversal that was making her feel this way...

"And so he said, 'why'd you take up apple farming?', to which I replied, 'because cherry farming's over-rated'!" Applebloom spoke a hilarious anecdote, getting Silver Spoon to let out some giggles. The two of them seemed to truly be understanding each other's ways of life, and Silver was especially pleased to see Applebloom as a friend instead of a target.

"Oh, my sides! That was too good, Applebloom!" Silver then calmed down, cleared her throat and said, "I see that I've taught you well..."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that..." Applebloom said, then thought about how Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were getting on with Diamond Tiara. "I just hope that Sweetie Belle's having as much success as we are..."

"Don't worry about it, Applebloom. I'm sure she's getting along just fine..." Silver Spoon remained optimistic for Applebloom. She could tell that in her mind, Sweetie Belle was just as good a mentor as she was, and that Diamond Tiara would be very well endorsed into the country lifestyle once the bet was over.

"So, Silver. Are you ready for such a big change in your life?" Applebloom asked as the two fillies got off of the tables after their last massages, so that they could go for a mane restyling. "And no, I'm not talking about the mane styling. I'm talking about you moving on from your past and being friends with the three of us..."

Silver pondered that question as they made it closer and closer to the mane-styling stations. "Actually, Applebloom. I'm partially ready, but some parts of me are gonna have to adapt to fit this new decision I'm making..."

"Oh? Like what?" Applebloom asked as Aloe and Lotus began working on the two fillies' manes.

"Well, for one, I'm gonna have to cut down on my vocabulary a little, maybe lose the glasses..." Silver began explaining the changes she'd have to undergo to make her seem more friendly. "Truth be told, these glasses are only for show..." she took them off, revealing her true eyes to Applebloom. "I only wear them because it makes me seem posher than other ponies. That, and my father's got some strict dressing rules for fillies my age in the Silver Family..."

"Oh, really?" Applebloom asked, seeing some difference in Silver Spoon's attitude when she mentioned her father's dress code. "To be honest, I want to hear more about this dress code, Silver..."

"Please, Applebloom. Call me Silvs..." Silver Spoon put a hoof on Applebloom's shoulder and gave her a smile. She could see that Applebloom was a good friend to her, so she thought that it was only necessary to start sharing nicknames with her. "You can call me Silvs. What should I call you?"

"Oh! Well... uh..." Applebloom began to struggle with nicknames for herself. She'd always referred to herself as Applebloom, so this sudden nickname she had to come up with was a bit of a mental struggle for her. However, inspiration finally struck and she said, "You can call me Bloom. Just Bloom..."

"Alright, Bloom. I'll be sure to remember that..." Silver said as soon as their manes were primped and ready for a blow-out. Hair blowing machines were put onto their heads as they continued their conversation. "Now then, about my dress code... My dad actually adopted it from his great great grandfather, Silver Hallway, who was one of the family's greatest silversmiths. He was so uptight in the past, that he created special outfits made out of pure silver and made his children wear them, as a sign of unity, and the Silver Family's regality..."

"Go on..." Applebloom said as the mane-blower did its' work on restyling their manes.

"Not only were the silver outfits hard to wear, because they were more suited for knights rather than little girls, he decided to lose the helmet and bodily pieces altogether and just completely re-shape the manes of all of the young fillies and colts in the Silver Family," Silver went on and on with her explanation. "Colts had to have swirls in their hair whilst fillies like me had to have our manes like that..."

"You know, I haven't seen you shed one small smile since we got onto this rink, Diamond..." Sweetie Belle said, looking at how distraught Diamond Tiara had become with a mere series of words. "If it's about that comment that Scootaloo made earlier, I've already scolded her for it..."

"It's not that, Sweetie Belle. It's just that..." Diamond paused for a second, then sighed once again. "When the week's up, ah'm gonna hafta make one of the biggest decisions of mah life..."

"Oh, right..." Sweetie remembered that Cut Above had forced them all into this predicament, and that one last choice would shape the outcome of their friendships with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. "It is a rather large change, having to choose whether or not to side with us, or with Cut..."

"Ah'm just worried that Cut'll start blackmailin' and threatenin' me if ah join your friend group..." Diamond Tiara felt even more discord as she pondered the outcomes of what would happen if she joined the CMC and abandoned Cut Above. "Ah mean, ah'm capable'a standing up ta him, but ah'm worried of how he's gonna humiliate us in front of the school..."

"How does he get to other fillies and colts?" Scootaloo asked, sliding up to Diamond as they made another turn, followed by a small jump.

"Well, there was this one filly, Noi was it? She was runnin' against him fer class president a few months back..." Diamond said, getting Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to remember that day. "It seemed like a fair competition at first, but then Cut sprung that snake and orange juice trap on her..."

"Yeah... The poor filly was in tears, and Cut won that election unanimously..." Sweetie Belle said, thinking how horrible Cut Above was to other ponies, especially after hearing what he'd done to his opposition in a competition.

"And that was only him warmin' up..." Diamond Tiara continued. "He's a bad pony, ah'll admit, but ya never know when he's gonna strike or what he's gonna do when he's on yer flank..." then, she remembered that she was like that in a sense. "Ah guess that some of his essence rubbed off on me shortly after that..."

"Darn... He should be expelled once the school catches wind of his crimes..." Scootaloo said, thinking on how good it would be to liberate the fillies and colts of Ponyville Schoolhouse from Cut Above's insidious rule.

"But that's the point, Scootaloo... He's even been able ta strike at a teacher pony's worst vulnerability and manipulate them from there... Celestia knows what he's said to Cheerilee to let him walk out those doors free as a bird migratin' south fer the winter..." Diamond said, some worry building up as she thought of the horrible things Cut said to break Miss Cheerilee into letting him go without accusations being afflicted on him. "Why, his acts are so evil, that he's even gotten other fillies and colts wrongfully expelled during his time at other schools... Maybe it's his Cutie Mark or somethin'..."

"That's it! His Cutie Mark!" Sweetie Belle thought of a good way on getting back at Cut Above, as well as end his reign in Ponyville Schoolhouse once and for all. "He must have a fake Cutie Mark!"

"Why'd ya think that, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked, coming to a stop and making way for some other skaters.

"Is there really a Cutie Mark for being evil? No! And even if there was a Cutie Mark for being evil, then it'd probably be one that that pony would desperately try to get rid of in seconds flat!" Sweetie Belle had some logic going in her mind as she explained to the two fillies about Cut Above's Cutie Mark. "If that Cutie Mark's fake, then we should find a way to get it off of his flank some way..."

"But how are we gonna do that, girls... He might have actually earned his Cutie Mark, then found happiness with what he got..." Diamond Tiara said, feeling hopelessness again. "He might try ta superglue it if it were a sticker, get tattoos on his flanks ta cover his tracks, or do something else clever ta conceal his blank flank..."

"Hey. Don't feel so down about it, Diamond Tiara..." Sweetie Belle helped her out by leaning against the wall and giving her a small hug. "As long as you have us by your side, we'll do everything we can to stop Cut from even looking at you..."

"Yeah, that's what friends are for, right?" Scootaloo said, joining in the hug, leaning against the wall as well.

"Y-Yeah..." Diamond felt much more confident when she'd received Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's affection. For months, she thought that friendships could only be earned through power and wealth, when in reality, friendships come from friends who are willing to stand by your side no matter the odds. Throughout the whole experience, Diamond Tiara finally began to feel true friendship for the first time in her life. She returned the hug and said, "Thanks, girls... Thanks for helping me see the light..."