After their ‘pleasant’ meeting with Rainbow, Twilight and Starlight returned to the castle to round up the kids from the castle. Spike already went ahead to Ponyville so he won’t be late to officially start the parade as an announcer. Most of the fillies noticed the downcast expression from Twilight a crossed look from Starlight. Every time they asked what was wrong, their only response was, “It was nothing. Don’t worry about it.” The fillies knew it was more than nothing, but decided not to push further, while Scootaloo doesn’t care because she was still feeling in the dumps.

They all eventually stood outside of the castle, waiting for Spoiled’s carriage to arrive. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, a big fancy golden carriage arrived with two maids pulling it. Once the carriage made a full stop, the door opened revealing Spoiled with a very stern expression.

“Alright you bra—kids, get in the carriage,” Spoiled ordered. “Make sure you wipe your hooves before you jump in.”

As Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon grumbled as they entered the carriage, Apple Bloom whispered into Diamond’s ear when Spoiled wasn’t looking.

“Sheesh, your mother is so unbearable… no offense Diamond.”

“None taken,” Diamond sighed as she and Apple Bloom entered the carriage.

Scootaloo, who was still feeling down, slowly followed after he friends. Before she entered the carriage, Scootaloo turned to face Twilight.

“Twilight…. is Rainbow Dash coming?” she asked.

Twilight let out a long sigh and slightly turned away from Scootaloo. “I don’t think so Scootaloo.”

With a sad expression, Scootaloo slowly stepped into the carriage.

“Another round of Apple Cider Mistress Dash?” Randolph offered to a downcast mare from across from him.

Rainbow sighed and pushed her mug forward to him. “Yeah, keep ‘em coming… and please stop calling me ‘Mistress’.”

“Very well ma’am!” Randolph replied, much to Rainbow’s annoyance.

After Twilight and the others left her behind in the cold, Randolph recovered from Rainbow’s attack. To her surprise, instead of attacking her or pressing her, he offered to heal her wounds and then take her downstairs to Filthy’s secret bar and have a drink. She was not wearing her jumpsuit anymore, but she now had a small rectangle bandage on her cheek from where Randolph had punched her. Most of the selections they have downstairs were different variety of Apple Ciders from Applejack’s Family Great Apple Acres. While it was no surprise to her since the Rich's are partners with the Apples, but what really surprised her was that all the bottles actually belong to the butler himself.

Speaking of Randolph, he already changed his butler uniform with a new one. It was the same outfit as the one form earlier, except it was clean and free from tears and scratches. The only thing he added was a small bandage on his head and on one of his forelegs. While the old stallion was still sore, but that doesn’t stop him to continue his butler duties.

As Randolph poured some more cider into Rainbow’s mug with his mouth, Rainbow watched him with her arched eyebrow.

“You know… for a butler from a very wealthy family, I didn’t expect you to have your very own stash of Sweet Apples Apple Cider.”

Randolph stopped pouring and gently placed the bottle on the counter. “Well… if you’re working for a mare like Spoiled, you got to have something to help you make it through the day,” Randolph said simply before he gives Rainbow her drink and then took a quick swig of his own drink.

Rainbow took a quick sip and then sighed somberly. “Listen… I’m really sorry about everything. You know, almost stealing the present, knocking you down and uh… blowing up part of this house.”

“While I can’t speak for Mr. Rich, but I do appreciate your apology,” said Randolph. “And I also apologize for punching you in the face.”

“It’s fine, I had worse injuries so this is nothing,” Rainbow said with a shrug before she stared at her drink with a depressing frown. “My heart though… is another story.”

Rainbow truly felt she let everypony down this time. She missed Scootaloo’s scooter competition, she didn’t get the toy, she unintentionally yelled at her out of frustration, and now she upset her own wife for not only lying about the toy, but also nearly committed petty theft of some other filly’s gift.

Some wife and mother she turned out to be.

She would have continued to wallow in her sorrows, but a loud noise from Randolph’s throat got her attention.

“While I don’t appreciate you nearly stole Mistress Diamond’s gift, I do however understand your predicament,” Randolph took another sip of his drink before he continued. “Being a parent… or in my case, parental figure is never an easy task. I recalled countless times when Master Rich couldn’t make it to any of Mistress Diamond functions… I have to be there in his place. While Diamond… nowadays enjoyed my company, I can tell that deep down, it wasn’t the same… not that I blame her. There was one incident that Master Rich arranged an important meeting for Barnyard Bargains, not realizing that Diamond’s sixth birthday party happened to take place on the same day. He wasn’t able to cancel his meeting and he promised his daughter that he’ll be there for her birthday, so he tried to host a party and have a meeting at the manor at the same time.”

“Did that ever go well?” Rainbow asked out of curiosity.

“Oh goodness no, it was a complete disaster!” Randolph stressed as he took another sip of his drink. “Chefs keep coming in demanding what dish to cook, the party guests and business pony were mixed up, Diamond demanded for attention little kids were out of control and worse of all, there was a food fight that took place in the middle of the meeting room!” Randolph then shuddered. “I’ve spent weeks cleaning that room up!”

“Sound’s like it was one heck of a party!” Rainbow commented.

Randolph nodded and then he continued. “Anyway, Mistress Diamond was very upset that day and Master Rich felt terrible for letting work get in the way of his daughter’s important day. So for the first time and only time in a long while, he took the day off and spent his entire day with just his daughter alone. Of course, the executives were not happy with his sudden change of plans, but to Master Rich, it was worth it. He told me at the end of the day, Diamond’s smile was so wide, it nearly split her face in half. He never had another day off since, but Diamond now knew that his father love her more than anything in the world.”

Rainbow raised her eyebrow. “Well that’s good for Rich and all, but what’s your point?”

“My point is Mistress Dash, that no parent is perfect,” Randolph summed up simply. “You may messed up badly and couldn’t fulfill a lot promises you can’t keep, but if you can actually start fulfilling a promise you can keep, make some sacrifices and put an effort to it, then you’ll show your daughter and your wife that you do care about their feelings. With or without that toy.”

Rainbow stared at the butler in awe. She knew Randolph spends a lot of time with Diamond whenever she needs his service or as a stand in for family events when neither of her parents was around like Derby Racers from last year. But she never thought that he is like a parental guardian or maybe a second father to Diamond. While Randolph is not her real father, but she can tell that he loves that filly like it was his own.

After a long period of silence, Rainbow finally spoke. “Since when do you know so much about parenting?”

Randolph smiled. “It was all from learning experience.”

This made her think of Scootaloo again. While they were not really blood related, but she really loves that tomboyish filly like her own daughter. She frowned from all the times she had to work late lately and she felt she owed it to Scoots for leaving her hanging. She knew what she had to do.

“Still… you’re right. I gonna make it up to my family, especially to Scootaloo! I should start actually fulfilling promises!” Rainbow grinned as she proclaimed, but than she frowned afterword. “But how?”

“You can start by going to the parade.”

Both ponies yelp from the sudden voice and they turned to see Pinkie Pie, who was sitting next to Rainbow, drinking her own apple cider from out of nowhere.

“Pinkie, what are you doing here?” Rainbow exclaimed.

Pinkie placed her mug down and than faced her friend. “Weeeeeell, I noticed that Twilight looked very upset and everypony went to the parade except for you since you pinkie promised you’ll be there so I was looking all over for you and then I finally find you here!” Her face suddenly changed from her cherry attitude to a displeased scowl and her eyes narrowed. “Nopony should ever break a pinkie promise!”

Rainbow began to sweat and gulped with difficulty. “Listen Pinkie, I screwed up badly today and I know I broke her promise, but I’m gonna make this right, so… please don’t hurt me!”

Pinkie’s expression changed to a look of confusion. “Hurt you? Dashie, I would never hurt you or any of my friends! I’ll be disappointed sure, but I would never resort to that!”

Rainbow blinked in surprise. “But what about the time with—”

“Applejack?” Pinkie interjected with her amused snort. “Oh I chased after her because I have a bone to pick with her, not hurting her.” She shook her head and her face changed to her semi-serious expression. “But that’s not important! You technically didn’t break Scootaloo’s promise yet! You promised you’ll ‘be at the parade’ right? Well the parade barley started, so get your flank out there and be with your family!”

Rainbow stared at Pinkie for a moment before she slowly nodded with a smile. “You’re right! I’ll do it! Thanks Pinkie Pie!”

Pinkie smiled back. “Anything to help a friend Dashie!”

Rainbow then turned to face Randolph. “Thanks for the drinks Randolph and for your advice.”

Randolph simply bowed. “Happy to be of service Mistress Dash. Good luck!”

With a determined nod, Rainbow got up from her stool and flew up the stairs as fast as possible. Once Rainbow was out of sight, Randolph turned to Pinkie with his confused expression as Pinkie took Rainbow’s mug and drank from it.

“Um… Miss Pinkamena, our manor is very heavily secured. We should’ve detected you as soon as you set foot in our property. So I ask you, just how did you get in here so easily?”

Once Pinkie finished drinking the entire mug, she turned towards Randolph and gave him her innocent smile.

“Plot convenience!”

The Ponyvillie’s Hearth Warming parade already started as various floats and dancers heading down the road. Many residents were already filling out almost every block on the sidewalks, talking excitably to one another while trying to get a good view. Some of these ponies were waiting on lines to different vendors for food or merchandise. For the first half hour, lots of floats and performers already passed through the main streets of Ponyville; such as a gingerbread house float with ponies dressed as gingerbread men, a giant ursa minor balloon with a Santa hat, a toy box float with ponies dressed as toys, a marching band dressed as Santa Hooves playing the drums, a holiday themed Daring Do float with all the characters waving from the float, and many more.

From the very center of the town, stood a stand with only a small dragon with his winter cap occupying it. Spike and Pinkie Pie have been assigned as official announcers for all Ponyvillie’s events ever since the very first Running of the Leaves Race. But because Pinkie has yet to arrive, Spike decided to do his job solo for the time being.

“Is everypony having a good time!” Spike announced into his microphone with a grin.

Many ponies responded with their cheers and stomping their hooves with excitement before Spike continued.

“Well I’m glad you all do, our third annual Ponyville’s Hearth’s Warming Parade has been a blast! And I have a very good feeling that we’re only getting started!”

“You got that right Spike!”

Spike yelped in fright and then turned to see Pinkie Pie, who was wearing her blue winter hat and scarf, sitting next to him from thin air.

“P-Pinkie!? Where did you come from?” Spike exclaimed.

“Oh, I just got here a few seconds ago!” Pinkie chirped.

“How?”

“I walked here!”

“You walked!? But the Rich’s manor is several miles from here on—” Spike stopped in his midsentence then sighed in submission. “You know what? I’m not going to question it! Aaaaaanyway, the floats we saw that were passing by are amazing! You can tell they put a lot of effort into this!”

Pinkie nodded with so much enthusiasm. “They totally did, and we’ll see even more floats very soon, including our very special float near the end of the parade!

“You mean Santa Hooves?” Spike guessed.

“…okay second best float before that! I’m talking about very certain ‘heroes’ who saved our world many times before… besides us of course!”

Spike grinned. “Oh I know who you were referring to and I can hardly wait! And I’m sure everypony else is excited for them too! For now, here comes Cheese Sandwich’s float!” Spike blinked at the sight of Cheese’s float. “…which were actually made of cheese… huh.”

“Oooooooooh! I bet his float tasted delicious!~” Pinkie gushed.

While that was happening, the Spoiled’s golden carriage pulled up at the least populated part of the town and parked on the street. The servants unstrapped themselves from their straps and then trotted to one side of the carriage. They each grabbed a handle from each side and they opened both of the carriage doors, revealing all the passengers inside of the carriage.

“Welp, we’re here everypony!” Starlight announced as she carfully stepped out of the carriage.

“Sweet!” Apple Bloom cheered. “C’mon girls, let’s go get ourselves some hot cocoa before the parade starts!”

“Yeah! I hope they have white hot cocoa!” Sweetle Belle chirped.

Twilight sighed as she watched the young fillies getting out of the carriage. Just as she was about to get up, she felt somepony touched her shoulder.

“Hold on Princess Twilight, do you mind if we talk for a moment?” said Spoiled with a frown.

Twilight kept herself from groaning and rolled her eyes. She was not in the mood to talk to anypony, especially to Spoiled after what happened with Rainbow. But she knew that if she turned that request down now, Spoiled will just keep bothering her again thought-out the event. She figured she might as well get this ‘conversation’ over with.

Twilight faced Starlight with her apologetic look. “I’m sorry Starlight, but will you watch the kids for a while?”

“Sure thing, just don’t take too long,” Starlight said before adding in her whispered tone. “And don’t let her push you around further!”

Twilight nodded. “Thank you. Just save us the spot.”

With a hesitant nod from her formal student, Starlight and the fillies left them behind and disappeared into the crowd. After they were gone, Spoiled addressed to her servants.

“You two may close the doors now and then take a long walk around the town. We’ll be fine from here!” she commanded.

Her servants obeyed as they shut the doors on them and then they too walked away from them. Only Twilight and Spoiled remained in the carriage alone with no one else around. As for Twilight, something doesn’t feel quite right. Twilight spoke to Spoiled alone many times before, but the way they were alone now in this carriage made her feel very uncomfortable. Even with the way Spoiled was starring at her, it made Twilight fidget in her seat a bit. Deciding to get this conversation going as quick as possible, Twilight began to speak.

“Listen Spoiled, if it’s about your house, I’m very sorry for what happened, but now is not the right time to talk about it!” said Twilight.

Suddenly, Spoiled did a one-eighty to her expression changed to a calm and gentle smile. “Oh you got it all wrong Princess,” she said sweetly. “I’m just wanted to simply checking up on you! From one married mare to another, I feel your pain.”

Twilight blinked in surprise to Spoiled’s sudden attitude. “You do?”

“Oh of course,” said Spoiled as she moved from her seat and then sat next to Twilight. “I went through all those hard times myself. I thought I knew my husband well enough and that he will always have my back when I needed him. But due to some unfortunate circumstances, I realized he’s not the same stallion who I married with. Granted, he never stole a present from a filly, but our marriage is in shambles, all because we have our… disagreements.”

Twilight arched her eyebrow with a frown. “Wasn’t it because you tried to keep the crusaders from graduating and led a protest against my marriage with Rainbow Dash?”

“Details, details,” Spoiled responded, waving her hoof dismissingly. “My point is you deserved better Twilly!”

“Twilly?” Twilight exclaimed with her perturbed expression.

“You deserve somepony who you’ll truly relied on,” Spoiled purred as she moved closer to Twilight. “Somepony that let you cry on to their shoulder, somepony who can help you guide to your true path. Somepony with better… privileges.”

Twilight slightly scooted herself back from Spoiled and gulped nervously. “Spoiled… are you coming on to me?”

“Okay girls, who wants some hot chocolate?” Starlight asked.

After Starlight and the fillies found a good viewing spot for the parade, Starlight decided to treat them all with hot chocolate since the vendor’s cart was close by. Naturally, almost every filly in her group raised their hooves eagerly and let out a loud cheer. The only one who did not joined in was Scootaloo, who was in deep thought with her somber expression.

“What about you Scootaloo? Do you want one?” Starlight asked in her gentle tone.

Scootaloo sighed. “No thanks Starlight… I’m not very thirsty.”

Starlight frowned. “Are you sure?”

“…yeah.”

Scootaloo turned away from Starlight towards the parade. “I’ll just wait here to reserve our spot.”

It pained Starlight to see Scootaloo acted so miserable, especially around the holidays. She wanted to help her someway to lift her spirits up, but she doesn’t know how. Seeing that the filly won’t change her mind or open up further, Starlight reluctantly turned and head to the cart.

“Alright Scootaloo. We’ll be right back.”

The two Crusaders and Silver Spoon stared at Scootaloo’s back with their worried looks. They’ve tried to talk to her and asked what’s wrong ever since they left the castle, but Scootaloo would either responded to them by saying she’s “fine” in her sad tone, or just clammed up altogether. Like Starlight, they don’t know how to get through with her either. One by one, they reluctantly followed Starlight to the hot chocolate stand.

Just before Silver Spoon took off with the others, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see her best friend leaned over to her ear.

“Silver, tell Starlight and the others to get one more hot chocolate for Scootaloo,” Diamond whispered. “I’ll stay here and talk to her.”

“Well… okay,” Silver Spoon responded with her unsure expression. “But how are you going to make her talk? The crusaders had been trying to talk to her for hours and even they couldn’t get through to her!”

Diamond grinned. “You just leave that to me! This is something I need to speak to her alone. Now go with the others!”

Silver nodded before she galloped after the group.

Now alone, except with other ponies watching the parade, Diamond trotted over to Scootaloo and stood next to her. Despite their rocky history in the past, Diamond has been a good friends with the crusaders ever since they helped her see the light and then she stood up to her mother for the first time. Her life has been better since and she owe it all to them. However, she was still new to this whole friendship thing as she was still learning to be nice instead of teasing others. But despite that, she was still willing to help out a friend in need.

She had a hunch of what Scootaloo’s problem was due to some visual clues she picked up from her friend. She decided to go straight to the problem, but at the same time she will try to tread lightly since this may be a sensitive topic to her pegasus friend. After a couple of minutes of casually watching the parade, Diamond decided to break the ice.

“Um… hey Scootaloo,” Diamond began awkwardly. “How are you feeling?”

Scootaloo scoffed without taking her eyes off of the parade. “I’m fine Diamond! Nothing’s wrong with me!”

Diamond huffed. “That’s a lie and you know it! You’ve been acting mopey long before we came down here! It’s obvious that you’re not fine!”

Scootaloo looked away. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“It’s about Rainbow Dash, wasn’t it?” Diamond said in her soft tone.

Scootaloo finally turned to face Diamond with her blank expression. Diamond decided to press further.

“Are you still upset with her about missing you’re scooter performance or is there more to it?”

They were staring at each other for a while until Scootaloo looked down with her sad expression.

“I… I just want Rainbow Dash to came to this parade with us,” she said softly. “She promised she’ll be here, but she didn’t come home! And it’s not just the scooter competition or the parade; it was almost every event I asked her come! She would either be late or missed the day entirely! It’s been like that ever since she adopted me! And just this morning, me and Rainbow Dash had an argument over the voice crystal and I said all those terrible things I said to her. But the worse part is… I didn’t mean any of those things I said and… I felt guilty. And because of that… I think Rainbow Dash hates me now and decided not to come,” Scootaloo let out her stray tear. “I’m a horrible daughter.”

As Scootaloo wiped her tear away, Diamond wrapped her arm around one side of Scootaloo’s shoulder.

“Scoots… you are not a terrible daughter.” Diamond said gently. “You were just upset that your mom didn’t show up like those other times and you couldn’t tolerate them anymore. What you said may be harsh, but I doubt she’ll hate you for now. She loves you too much for that.” She then set her sights on the ongoing parade and sighed somberly. “Listen… you remember what I said that I wanted my daddy to spend the day with me on Hearth’s Warming day?” After receiving a nod from her friend, she continued. “Well… it’s because… he rarely took a day off from work… ever.”

Scootaloo eyes widened. “What?”

Diamond faced her friend with a sad smile on her face. “All my life, I hardly see my daddy. It was always work for him. He never showed up on my birthdays, my cute-ceañera, holidays. Heck, he never returns home to the point that he sleeps in his own office! I remembered that he tried to host my sixth birthday party and run a meeting at the same time in our home. It was… not very pleasant. After that, I yelled at him that he always chooses work over me. I think I made him felt bad about it, so on the next day, he decided to take a day off so he can spend the whole day with me. It was without a doubt, the best day of my entire life! That was the only time he ever took a day off from work. Since then, I asked him many times if we can do it again, but he never has the time.” She sighed and set her downcast eyes towards the ground. “He told me that this year he will take a day off for Hearth’s Warming, but I couldn’t help but to feel… that it may never happen.”

Now it was Scootaloo’s turn to feel bad about her friend. She had forgotten that Diamond’s family life was… not perfect, to put it mildly. Diamond’s father, Filthy Rich may be one of the nicest stallion in Ponyvillie, but he was also one of the busiest business man in Equestria. No doubt that Diamond’s loneliness and her mother’s ‘influence’ is what made her into bully for a while in the first place. Speaking of Diamond’s mother, a thought entered Scootaloo’s mind.

“What about your mother?” Scootaloo asked.

Diamond scoffed. “She rather spent Hearth’s Warming at some high society club than with me!”

Before Scootaloo could say anything further, Diamond faced her again.

"You may not realize it Scoots, but you are actually very lucky!”

Scootaloo had a look of disbelief. “Lucky?”

“Even though Rainbow is late to most of your events… but at least you still get to see her at home after work or on the weekends,” said Diamond before she looked away with a sad sigh. “It’s one of many things I wish I have.”

As much as Scootaloo hated to admit it, but she knew Diamond was right. Even though Rainbow Dash was late for everything and missed Scootaloo’s scooter competition yesterday, but at least Rainbow did try her best to see her. While it is true that Rainbow Dash spent time with Scootaloo after work and on weekends, but Rainbow usually gets home late at night and spends partial days at the Wonderbolts headquarters on weekends. Despite that, Rainbow would still find a way to spend time with her, like reading Scootaloo a bedtime story on weeknights and go to the park in the afternoon on the weekends. Scootaloo appreciated Rainbow’s dedication to the best of her abilities, but Scootaloo wished Rainbow could find a way to spend time with her longer. But yelling at Rainbow Dash about these problems was wrong, even if it was justified. Right now, Scootaloo doesn’t care if Rainbow showed up on time or not, she wanted to apologize and then talk about what she really wanted the next she sees Rainbow Dash.

“Diamond.”

When she saw Diamond turned her head back towards her, Scootaloo gave Diamond her appreciative smile.

“…Thanks.”

Diamond smiled back. “Hey… don’t mention it.”

Scootaloo then adverted her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck. “You know… in case if your father comes or not, you can come over to our castle and spend Hearth’s Warming with us. We would like to have you over.”

Diamond blinked in surprise with Scootaloo’s sudden offer. After a moment of staring, Diamond responded with her beaming smile.

“Yeah… I would like that.”

Scootaloo then gave Diamond her sly grin. “Just for heads up, stay away from anything that was cooked by Twilight!”

“Let’s not kid ourselves around further Twilly,” Spoiled insisted with her flirtatious smile. “We’ve practically bonded more with each other than we did with our own spouses. And since both our marriages is irreparable, we should just completely divorce from our partners and then we’ll wed to each other… as the new royal princess couple!”

Alarm bells started ringing in Twilight’s mind. Not only Spoiled turned out had a thing with Twilight, but she’s was assuming that Spoiled is having a chance with Twilight after Rainbow Dash’s blunder. Twilight didn’t understand where that was coming from, but she felt she should address this misunderstanding as soon as possible. She stuck her hoof out towards Spoiled, forcing Spoiled to stop in her tracks.

“Wait! Hold on!” Twilight said quickly. “First off… where did that come from? Second, who said that me and Rainbow are having a divorce? What she did was bad… but then again, I never give her a chance to explain herself, but despite that, I’m not leaving her or Scootaloo! And third, what about your own family? How would they feel when you decided to ditch them and married to somepony else?”

Unfazed by Twilight’s body language, Spoiled moved closer with her crazed smile. “Come now Twilly, don’t deny it! It’s practically our destinies to be together and rule over these common ponies! Who cares about my ‘family,’ they are practically useless! Filthy would rather use his resources to ‘help’ these ponies and Diamond is too corrupted by those crusader brats to follow my hoofsteps now! We should just ditch them together!”

Twilight started to shake. “Y-your insane! I’ll will never do that to my family!”

Spoiled frowned angrily. “Why do you keep sticking up for that Rainbow freak? You should just leave her! I didn’t make that loudmouth pegasus tomboy steal that toy for nothing!”

Twilight’s felt her heart stop and her pupils shrunk to a size of a pin needles. “W-what?!”

After she grabbed her red scarf and left the Rich’s manor, Rainbow flew towards the Ponyville as fast as possible. She wanted to be with her family. She wanted to apologize to Twilight for lying to her, and most importantly, she wanted to make it up to Scootaloo for not spending enough time with her and actually going to fulfill her promises.

And being there with Scootaloo at the Heath’s Warming Parade will be a start.

When she finally reached Ponyville, Rainbow flew around the town until she found he least populated area for her to land. She used her wings to slowly descend herself until she touched the ground. Once she was safely landed, she folded her wings to her side and let out a sigh.

“Okay, I made it! Now to find my family and hopefully they’ll accept my apology.”

With her plan in set, Rainbow began to trot towards the crowd to look for her friends and family. As she was trotting, she noticed a golden carriage that was just sitting in the middle of the road with two figures that was close together through the window. At first, Rainbow thought it was some random couple acting all romantic, so she paid them no mind. But then she stopped dead in her tracks when she got a better view of the window, specifically a pony with a recognizable violent with a single striped pink mane and a crooked nose shape of another pony.

Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Twilight… and Spoiled? What are they—”

She watched further as Twilight tried to move back further away from Spoiled while Spoiled continue to come closer to Twilight. Rainbow frowned in concern when she noticed her wife had an uncomfortable look on her face. Rainbow frowned further when she also noticed Spoiled had a certain expression on her face that Rainbow did not like. Suddenly, everything clicked when Rainbow realized what Spoiled’s true attentions were and it made Rainbow seething with rage.

That… WITCH! No wonder she kept hanging around with my wife! I’m gonna pulverize her!

With an angry snort, Rainbow dashed towards the carriage to give that rich snob a piece of her mind. But in doing so, she failed to notice another pony that was walking in front of her. As a result, the two ponies collided, sending one pony’s tray full of hot chocolates in the air. Rainbow Dash quickly recovered from the crash, but not quickly enough to catch any of the hot chocolates to land on the pony. Rainbow Dash grimaced as the sound of a pony’s loud painful scream from the hot beverage.

“OH MY GOSH!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in panic as she rushed towards the injured pony. “Are you okay? I am so terribly sor—”

Her voice died in her throat when she got a good look of that pony. She realized that the pony she just bumped into and accidentally burned was none other than Officer Warrant, who also had a look of disbelief and anger when he saw Rainbow Dash.

Oh you’ve gotta be bucking kidding me! Rainbow screamed inwardly.

“YOU!” Warrant screamed. “Just for that and everything else you did all day, I’m placing you under arrest!”

With a yelp, Rainbow Dash dodged from Warrant’s grasp and then she quickly flew away from him and rushed towards the crowd.

“HEY!” Warrant shouted angrily as he gave chase. “Come back here or I’ll have you spend twenty Hearth’s Warmings in jail!”

“You… you purposely led Rainbow Dash to steal that toy?” Twilight exclaimed, both in disbelief and appalled by Spoiled’s actions.

“I was merely exposing her intensions, to prove to you that she’s not the kind of pony you should relied on as your royal partner,” Spoiled said with a smirk before she frowned. “Although, I never expected her to blow up my manor! In any case, she’s not worthy to be married to anypony! With her useless brain and talent, she’ll bring the entire status of this town to the ground. But with me, I’m the mare to help you bring our lives forward!”

Twilight shook her head. “NO! I’m not marrying you Spoiled! I will not abandon my family!”

“You will!” Spoiled insisted with her crazed grin. “Once we’re married, we’ll throw that rainbow freak down to our dungeon to rot! And then we’ll send that pegasus filly away to a different family, or better yet, an orphanage since no family would ever wanted some useless filly who can’t fly! And then we’ll make our own family, and I will teach our children to be the perfect highly respected social ponies, better than my so-call former daughter! We’ll be the most powerful royal couple in all of Equestria, maybe even more than Princess Celestia herself!”

Spoiled leaned very close to Twilight’s face, who had an emotionless expression on her face, and cupped both of Twilight’s cheeks.

“So what do you say Twilly?” Spoiled purred. “Shall we ditch our useless former families and start over as the new royal couple?”

Without waiting for Twilight’s permission, Spoiled leaned forward to kiss the princess’ lips.

SLAP

Spoiled was reeled back to the far end of the seat with her head facing to the right. Once she regained her senses, she felt a throbbing in pain on her left jaw. She slowly turned to face Twilight again, revealing a huge red hoofprint on her left cheek with a shocked expression on her face.

Twilight just sat there with her hoof still outstretched while her face had a look of pure fury. Twilight was normally a calm and peaceful mare who would never resort to any violence unless if it was necessary for self defense, including Equestria’s greatest enemies. However, Spoiled managed to succeed in which most others failed; Twilight finally lost her temper. She never felt so much hatred to anypony since Tirek destroyed her treehouse. With her eyes still set on Spoiled, Twilight slowly brought her hoof back.

“How dare you!” Twilight seethed in her low tone before she started screaming in anger. “Rainbow may have made a lot of mistakes, but she’s the best and most loyal wife and mother I’ve ever known! Not only that, she is an inspired Wonderbolt, helping out children including our daughter and helped me saved the world too many times to count! She is more worthy to be my wife than you will ever be! I have to put up with your verbal garbage for so long because I thought you wanted to change. But the things you said about my wife and my daughter really crossed the line! And the fact that you were trying to rebound your marriage to me and make Rainbow fall, all so you can get royal status really makes me sick! You are no longer my student!”

Twilight opened the carriage with her magic and quickly stepped out. Once she was outside, she half-turned to face Spoiled.

“Rainbow was right… you really are a witch!”

Twilight slammed the door to Spoiled’s shocked face and than she quickly walked away towards the crowd as fast as her legs can carry. Even though she easily put that crazy rich snob to her place, she still felt very unsafe from where she is and wanted to get to her friends as soon as possible. Twilight made a mental note to talk and apologize to Rainbow as soon as the parade is over.

But first, she had to make an urgent call to a certain pony when she finds the nearest voice crystal booth.

Rainbow rushed through the crowd as her life depends on it while officer Warrant continued to chase after her. She came this far just to be with her family and friends in order to fix her mistake; she couldn’t afford to let that officer arrest her on the spot. She needed to get away from him as quick as possible. She tried to go through a group of ponies, go around the vender’s carts as a fake out or even as far to knock over a few trash cans or crates in attempt to slow Warrant down. But no matter what she does, Warrant was still remain on her tail.

Just as Warrant was finally catching up to her, Rainbow spotted an alleyway about a few feet away from her. Thinking quickly, Rainbow used a burst of her speed and quickly did a sharp turn to an alley. Not allowing this perpetrator to get away from him, Warrant pushed forward and pulled the exact same moves to follow Rainbow.

Only to crashed into a dumpster that was suddenly blocked the alleyway.

Warrant fell to the ground, leaving a huge dent on the dumpster and moaned in pain. As Warrant was barely conscious, Rainbow took her opportunity from the other side of the dumpster and flew away further down the alleyway. She eventually reached the dead-end of the alley except for a brown door that said ‘STAFF ONLY’ on it. Rainbow cursed her luck for going down the wrong path. Her anxiety grew when she heard somepony flying down behind her, assuming it was Warrant. Since she can’t go back and going up in the air would only make Warrent spot her quicker, Rainbow had no choice but to quickly entered the door in hopes to hide herself away from the angry cop.

As the door was shut behind Rainbow, Warrant arrived at the scene with a scowl on his face. He looked around for the Rainbow menace, only to find an empty area. His eyes then landed on the door that leads to the staffing area. Thinking she may be hiding in here, Warrant quickly flew by the door and opened it.

Inside of the building was just an studio-like area, with various floats and balloons that has yet to appear on the streets of Ponyville and various different ponies roaming around the area. Some ponies were in costume, to take part of the parade, while the rest of them were crew to help set up the event. Warrant slowly observed around his surroundings, looking at each pony carefully to find a match for that certain troublemaker that he was after. After a minute of searching, not a trace of a rainbowed maned pegasus was found. Not wanting to waste his time further, Warrant rushed out the door to continue to find that pony from the outside.

As soon as the door was shut, a lid of a wooden create from the corner of the room slowly lifted up, revealing eyes which belonged to a pony. The eyes roamed around the room to see if the coast is clear before the head of a pony finally poked out of the create, revealing to be Rainbow Dash. She got out of the wooden create and replaced the lid back on the create, letting out a sigh of relief.

Whew! That was close! Rainbow thought. Now I need to get out of here and find my family before that cop found me!

Just before Rainbow could move an inch, a male voice called out to her.

“Hey you!”

Rainbow quickly turned to see a light violet stallion with blue mane and tail and an image of a clipboard on his flank as his cutie mark, walking towards her. Rainbow assumed that this guy is one of those production assistants for the parade since he was wearing an Id lanyard around his neck and a one-piece headphone on one side of his head. He was about to scold her for intruding the building, until he took a good look at Rainbow and his eyes widened.

“Hey, are you our action mare?” he asked.

Rainbow blinked, not expecting that question. “Huh?”

“Oh thank Celestia!” he cried in relief before grabbing Rainbow. “Please come with me, we’re gonna suit you up real quick!” As he pulled her along towards a different section of the studio, he called out to his crew. “Hey everypony, she’s here!”

Rainbow struggled as she tried to clear up this misunderstanding. “Hey wait a minute! I’m not—”

“Thank you so much for coming in at the last second!” said the P.A. as they reached the next room with all the staff waiting for them. “I know it’s sudden, but when White Lightning injured her wing due to our rehearsal earlier today, we don’t know what to do!”

As Rainbow processed this, one of the staff yanked her scarf away from her.

“Hey what are you—”

Her protests were cut off as was forced to put on a costume from everypony who were present while the head P.A. continued to explain their parade plans with his clipboard.

“Anyway, I know you’ve read our rehearsal booklet, but we’ve made three different chances so I’ll go over with you quick!”

Rainbow grunted as somepony zipped up a tight costume on her body.

“Now instead of doing the mega-triple twists, you’re going to do a simple double loop since that’s what got her injured in the first place.”

Rainbow barely had time to complain as another pony was pulling and trimming her mane with their scissors and then added a lot of mane gel.

“For your ‘zapp attack’ we reduced our magic-made lightning power down to thirty percent so it’ll be enough to only lightly stun other actors, but don’t worry, the suits everpony is wearing including yours is a special heavy duty rubber, so you should be safe… somewhat.”

Rainbow was about to comment about his statement, only to get interrupted when somepony shoved a helmet on her head, obscuring her vision.

“And lastly, we made some adjustments to your microphone from within your helmet to give your voice the proper tonality for the character. Now any questions?”

Rainbow managed to adjust her helmet so she can see the stallion properly.

“Yes I—”

“Great!” The P.A. cheered. “Again, on behalf of everypony here, we want to thank you again for doing this! So break a leg! …er I met metaphorically and not literally of course. Hehehe.”

Before Rainbow could utter a single word, she was lightly shoved to the next room where one of the floats for the parade took place. The room was slightly dark, so she couldn’t see anything or anypony was there. The only thing she could see was somepony wearing some kind of bulky costume with his actual head exposed under the headlight on top of the float.

“Took you long enough!” said the half costumed pony with a grunt. “A few minutes longer and I would’ve done in by a heat stroke! Whatever, its show time!”

He picked up a costumed head from next to him and put it over his head. As he was adjusting the head, Rainbow stared at him for a moment, trying to recall where she saw that ‘character’ from somewhere. When he finally finished and turned fully towards Rainbow, her eyes widen with recognition.

“Hey wait a minute! You’re Hun Drum, aren’t you?” Rainbow asked in awe.

There was an awkward pause as the costumed Hundrum stared at Rainbow for almost a full minute.

“Did ya hit your head on your way over here? Of course I’m Hum Drum! Who do you think you are, the Termineightor?”

Before Rainbow could respond, one of the staff walked in. “Places everypony!”

Rainbow was once again felt somepony pushing her along and into the bottom section of the float. She managed to glimpse the five other ponies going into the float too but she couldn’t make out their features due to lack of light. After she fully entered the float, she turned just in time to see the staff pony closed the door on her, leaving her alone in the dark.

Starlight and the fillies continued to watch the parade as many floats and balloons passed by. Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and even Trixie showed up a while ago to watch the parade with them. When they asked where Twilight and Rainbow Dash was, Starlight said they are running late. She couldn’t bring herself to tell them what had happened at the Rich’s manor or that Twilight is alone with Spoiled, but she was getting worried for her mentor and friend.

Suddenly, she felt somepony stood close to her body. She turned to the side and then felt relieved when she realized that it was Twilight. Starlight frowned when she noticed the distressed look from her friend as if something was bothering her.

“Hey Twilight, you okay? You looked spooked!” said Starlight before frowning with narrowed eyes. “Did Spoiled did something to you?”

“Yes… and no,” Twilight responded with a slight hesitation. “But don’t worry, I already took care of it!” Twilight then leaned towards Starlight with her hoof barely covered her mouth. “How’s Scootaloo?” she whispered.

Starlight smiled. “She’s in high spirits again! All thanks to Diamond!”

“Good!” Twilight replied with a smile before she frowned in thought. Oh Rainbow, I swear when this is over, we’re going to have to talk… rationally this time!”

“And now everypony, what you all been waiting for!” Pinkie announced excitedly from the speakers.

“Put your hooves together for the greatest superhero team of all time,” Spike said with an eager grin. He paused for an effect for a brief moment before he finally spoke.

“THE POWER PONIES!”

“Look Twilight, it’s the Power Ponies! They’re here!” Scootaloo shrieked in excitement.

Twilight chuckled. “Yes I can see that!”

One by one, each of the costumed ‘heroes’ emerged by rising out of the floor of their float with smoke spraying out, obscuring them from the crowd. Then, one at a time, as each Power Pony was revealed from the smoke, Spike announced their names, which the crowd responded with their high-pitched cheers.

The first one revealed to be a purple costumed pony with yellow goggles, gray boots, and light blue horn and top armor on her chest.

“Masked Matter-Horn!”

Then the second revealed to be a white consumed pony with purple arrows and line all over her body while continuously jogging in place.

“Fili-Second!”

The third pony emerged as a dark blue costumed pony with dark blue mask with yellow chest piece with purple diamond in the center and various diamonds spread all over her body.

“Radiance!”

Then they revealed the forth pony, who was wearing a red and green costume with black wrappings around her hooves, black mask, and a black utility belt around her waist with a golden rope strapped on her side.

“Mistress Mare-velous!”

The fifth pony who appeared next was a teal green costumed pony with purple scarf around her neck with a flower on it and butterfly beads around both of her forehooves. She was also wearing a purple mask over her eyes.

“Saddle Rager!”

And then, another costumed hero appeared from the smoke with a red cape and blue belt and gloves. This hero also had a huge head of that character with a black mask around the eyes.

“Hum Drum!”

As soon as Spike announced his name, many ponies stopped cheering. They instead gave him their blank stares. Even the music stopped playing when ‘Hum Drum’ appeared on the float. For almost a whole minute, there was nothing but awkward silent until they heard Pinkie Pie talking again.

“And finally, the mare of honor…”

“And the main character from their recent new Power Ponies movie,” Spike added.

The music started playing again and the crowds were now eager to see the final member of the Power Ponies. As that was happening, a figure emerges from the floor and the smoke kept that pony hidden from everypony present.

Spike brought his microphone close to his mouth. “Put your hooves together for the one the only…”

During a brief pause, drumrolls were playing from the background. After an agonizing minute of anticipation, both Spike and Pinkie finally revealed with their booming voices.

“ZAPP!”

The smoke was blown away and magical lights beamed on the figure, reveling the final member of the Power Ponies, Zapp. She wore a dark blue costume with white hooves with yellow lighting streaks. She also wore a white and blue helmet with her rainbow mane sticking out. She even wore her lighting bolt necklace that was around her neck.

As everypony erupted into a loud happy cheer, ‘Zapp’ stared out into the crowd with her stunned and awe expression. Right at that moment, only one thought went through her mind.

Oh… boy.

Author's Notes:

More tomorrow!