Silver Spoon pushed the last dish into place in the rack and shook her head, glaring at Diamond Tiara, who lazily polished a fork while several dozen more soaked in soapy water. "Are you planning on finishing tonight?" she finally asked. "I was planning on actually, you know, dressing up, grabbing a bag, getting candy... that with it being Nightmare Night and all."

Sæla looked down at them from the chair where she was filing her claws. "I also want to go home sometime."

Diamond Tiara growled and threw the clean fork into the container where it belonged before glaring at the other two. "Stop pressuring me! It's not my fault that I have to do this! It's beneath a mare of my calibre!"

Silver Spoon's eyes narrowed. "If you stopped whining, you'd be done by now, Tiara!"

"It's all the Crusaders' fault!" Diamond Tiara cried, petulantly grabbing another fork and starting to polish it. "They should have just—"

"Just what, exactly?" Sæla asked, snorting. "Just sat there and let themselves be verbally abused by others because of a prank you two thought was harmless? We get enough stupidity from self-righteous idiots that don't understand our dietary needs, but it's worse when they pass their idiocy to children and then the children get to insult us! You two are lucky those fillies were not hurt by some stressed-out or overly provoked customer! Sure, they would be arrested, and sure the chances of others letting that happen were slim, but there could have been some real damage done if two of them didn't have a more educated palate."

"Only freaks would eat that stuff!"

"Diamond Tiara!" Silver Spoon snapped. "Can't you learn to shut up even when it's for your own benefit?"

"What do you care?" Diamond Tiara snapped back. "You didn't even want to do this! You were borderline siding with them! Why don't you go become a Crusader then?"

"Maybe I should!" Silver Spoon stood up. "I put up with your negligence, panic attacks, half-cooked plans and constant antagonizing for what? To have to pay every single time for sticking to your side when what you need is somepony to tell your father that you needed spanking while growing up! You're insufferable! I'm done with you!"

Silver Spoon spun around and looked at Sæla, who seemed to be regarding her with some grudging respect. "I finished with my part, can I go now?"

The griffoness snorted, but nodded. "You can go. I'll stay here and watch Tiara finish her job."

"Good," Silver Spoon replied, glancing at the staring filly. "At least one adult is willing to put her through a complete punishment." And with that, she trotted out of the kitchen.

Immediately Diamond Tiara threw the fork aside and tried to gallop after her friend, but Sæla was far quicker and blocked the exit, opening her wings instinctively and puffing her chest while she glared down at the filly. "No. You are finishing your job tonight, young filly."

"You can't do this to me, you overstuffed turkey!" Diamond Tiara cried. "My daddy—"

"Is fully aware of what you did and personally told me he'd compensate me with additional money to make sure that you finished your punishment." Sæla's glare didn't diminish. "If you were half as good at cleaning cutlery as you are at alienating others, you would have been done hours ago!"

"But it's not fair!"

Sæla didn't move an inch, and soon Diamond Tiara was back, sniffling in frustration as she polished more forks.

"Kid," Sæla growled. "From what I have seen, this is the first time in your life fairness has had anything to do with you."

Silver Spoon closed the restaurant's door behind her, doing her best to not slam it. The last thing she needed was to loosen it from its hinges and have to stay even longer to fix it. Already Ponyville was finishing decorating for Nightmare Night. It was pretty late in the afternoon, and the festivities would begin in a few more hours.

She started walking down the road towards her house, still feeling agitated and angry at just how selfish Diamond Tiara was.

"You finally made it out," a voice said, making her start.

Silver Spoon looked up at a small pegasus who was flying down towards her from a nearby rooftop. "Thysa," she greeted unenthusiastically. "I'm not in the mood."

Thysa shrugged, walking next to her. "I'll just walk with you, then."

Rolling her eyes, Silver Spoon continued down the road, trying her best to ignore the changeling.

Thysa, for her part, seemed content to simply trot along, sometimes letting her eyes wander over to the decorations that were being put up, but for the most part paying enough attention to follow Silver Spoon's lead.

"I didn't want to do anything to you girls," Silver Spoon finally said, not looking at her companion. "It was all Diamond Tiara's idea."

Thysa was quiet for a little bit. "But you didn't stop her."

Silver Spoon was about to argue that she had tried, but bit back her response. Complaining wasn't really trying. Truth be told, a little part of herself had wanted to see what would happen, even if a bigger part had not wanted to do anything with it.

"No," she finally acknowledged. "I didn't."

"It was pretty bad there, for a little while," Thysa said. "Everypony keeps saying we were safe, but I could read some of the feelings of the patrons... a lot of them were very frustrated and angry. If Sweetie Belle hadn't eaten those Fruit Bats with me... I think if only one of us had eaten, it could have turned out differently. You can't keep insulting people for trivial things like diet or preferences just because you don't like what they do."

Silver Spoon grimaced. "I can't believe she forced herself to eat them. No offense to you or any other omnivores or carnivores, but 'bat' doesn't sound like something you should be eating."

Thysa shrugged. "My aunty is strange, for a pony."

Silver Spoon almost fell when she stumbled. "Your aunt-is she also a—"

"Nah," Thysa shook her head. "It's a complicated story. She might tell it to you someday, if you want to be their friend."

Silver Spoon snorted. "Why would they even want that?" They had reached the entrance to her home, so she stopped and turned to face Thysa. "I told you before: I'm no saint. I enjoy the thrill of getting away with things I shouldn't. With being mean and the feeling of being on top of a situation while others struggle."

"And yet, you seem to have more respect and willingness to not only accept the consequences, but also to try and not go overboard," Thysa replied.

"That's hardly enough to make up for the rest."

"But it's a start, if you want to make something of it."

"And what?" Silver Spoon scoffed. "Be the 'bad' crusader? Make them feel like they have to fight me at every turn to not do something mean to others?"

"You don't have to be mean to feel fulfilled," Thysa said. "That feeling you get out of it, it's not dependant on exclusively being mean."

"So I have to change everything I am to fit with a group of nice fillies?" Silver Spoon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sometimes change isn't a bad thing, you know?" Thysa said. "I would know... it saved my life."

Silver Spoon's other eyebrow rose. "How so?"

"It stopped my family from killing each other."

Silver Spoon cringed, but shook her head. "There's change and then there's change, Thysa. I've lived most of my life being like this. It's all I know, and quite frankly all I want to be right now."

"They are willing to be your friend, you know."

"Yes because they think I'm the victim and Diamond Tiara dominates me." Silver Spoon turned to look past the gates at her home. "She does neither. And I'm honestly tired of her idiocy. She keeps getting us in trouble, for the lamest things."

"Seems to me you really need new friends."

"It seems to me you're butting in when you shouldn't, Thysa."

The changeling-turned-pegasus seemed like she was going to say something, but visibly chose to change the subject. "So what are you going to wear for Nightmare Night?"

Silver Spoon pursed her lips in thought before sighing and opening the gate. "Want to see? You might find it a little funny."

Thysa grinned. "I'd love to!"

They both walked in, closing the door behind them, not noticing the purple dragon that had done a double-take the moment he had seen them together.

"Well," Spike said. "That's an interesting development!"

Author's Notes:

Dun DUN DUUUUUUUUUN!