The room fell silent. Nopony would have ever, ever expected to hear that sentence come out of Diamond Tiara’s mouth.
Diamond Tiara broke the silence, and spoke calmly: “I had a dream one night - a nightmare, actually, that I had no friends. In the dream, I felt very depressed -” Diamond Tiara shuddered at the memory. “And not only that, but I was still my old self. I was doing mean things… but itwascompulsiveandIcouldn’tstopokay?” The rest of the sentence came out quickly, as the reformed rival’s cheeks began to flush.
Silver Spoon stepped in. “I had a similar dream. I was still Diamond Tiara’s… hence pony, and I was just as bad as her. And both our dreams had two things in common.”
The three CMCs stayed silent.
Silver Spoon continued: The first thing: We were both being mean to Scootaloo, and we both made fun of her for being unable to fly.”
Scootaloo snapped out of her thoughts. She looked at the two other ponies with wide, surprised eyes. She could say only one word: “What?”
Silver Spoon spoke again, her eyes closed: “In our dreams, we made fun of Scootaloo, until she got so upset she had to ran away. And I think that’s leftover… from guilt.” Silver Spoon closed her eyes, and breathed deeply. “Which is why the second common thing happened: Princess Luna. And she told us both, in each of our dreams, that we must help Scootaloo fly in order to… to-”
“To get over our pasts and accept ourselves, and help Scootaloo achieve what she needs.” Diamond Tiara finished the sentence. She still looked flustered from sharing such a personal truth with ponies she used to fight with for years.”
All of a sudden, Scootaloo found her voice, and the courage to speak. And, for once, she told Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon about how they hurt her.
Scootaloo talked for a long, long time. She mentioned the time when Diamond Tiara threatened to exploit her with a picture of her falling from a tree in a failed attempt to fly if she quite the Ponyville foals’ paper. She brought up several other times when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon each made a special point of making Scootaloo a target for being unable to fly, by calling her hurtful names whenever she passed by.
Finally, Scootaloo got to the straw that broke the camel’s back: When Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon ruined the flag carrying competition for her by making furn of her inability. Although she healed on the outside, she was never healed on the inside.
“I mean, I want to accept you two as friends, and I wish I could, but… you two really… hurt me.” Then, the unthinkable happened: Scootaloo began to tear up.
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon looked at her, sorrow entrenched into their eyes.
Sweetie Belle jumped in: “I remember how sad Scootaloo was that day - and I wanted to help her, but I didn’t know what to do. And now I think I know what she wants.” Sweetie Belle eyed the two ponies. “An apology.”
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon both whispered: “I’m sorry.”
Sweetie Belle continued: “You know what? I’ll tell you both something. Scoot and I have known each other for many years, even before we met Applebloom. So we know each other very, very well. And I’ve always felt especially sad for her that she can’t fly.” Sweetie Belle gulped. “Since Scootaloo got her cutie mark, I began noticing that she was starting to sulk more. And I thought it was because you two were around, before I found out the real reason. And I’m not sure if having you two around brought up Scootaloo’s emotions - maybe it did. But do you know something?” Sweetie Belle’s eyes softened. “My magic hasn’t worked on her. I couldn’t get her wings to grow, couldn’t get her to fly. So now we both feel very defeated. And we appreciate your apologies, but I’m not sure if there’s any other way to help Scootaloo.”
“Which is why I was going to say,” said Diamond Tiara softly, “that Luna told me that friendship is key. She said that friendship is what reformed me in the first place. Your friendship made me a better pony.” Diamond Tiara’s eyes watered at the remark. “But even then, I could tell there was still some tension between us. That we weren’t really friends yet. And I think I know why.” She looked over at Scootaloo, and spoke softly. “It still hurts, doesn’t it?”
Scootaloo nodded, as a huge wave washed over her. To her own surprise, her eyes gave in, and tears began to roll down her face.
“Which is why,” Diamond Tiara took a deep breath. “What we need to do - before any magic or farming, is to heal.”
Scootaloo began to blubber: “H-how can I heal i-i-if I c-can’t fly?”
Diamond Tiara continued: “You can’t fly because of how much you hurt, Scootaloo. You don’t have the confidence you need. You don’t have the trust you need. You don’t trust yourself, or us.” Diamond Tiara motioned to her and Silver Spoon.
“But I do have confidence! And I do accept you both as friends!” Tears streamed from Scootaloo’s eyes. “What do you even mean?”
“I mean,” Diamond Tiara spoke softly. “What I mean is this: Your subconscious feels different from what you let on. You’re still mad at us. You still won’t forgive yourself. And because of that, you can’t fly.”
“Well, why couldn’t I fly in the first place?!” Scootaloo was angry now. Everything was boiling over; everything she had felt, had never fully let out until now. All the anger, all the pain. It had all escalated so quickly.
Diamond Tiara shrugged. “Who knows?” But Princess Luna spoke to you too, right?”
Scootaloo nodded through her tears. Sweetie Belle put a reassuring hoof on her, and telekinetically handed her some tissues.
This time, Silver Spoon spoke: “Then you will fly, Scootaloo. But it’ll take some time, and some work.” She smiled tearfully. “And what you need to do is to get over the pain. Confront your emotions. You’re doing it right now.”
Scootaloo began to smile through her incessant sobbing. “So… I’m making progress?”
Diamond Tiara nodded. “It’ll take some time. You need to get over your emotions, accept us as friends… and we’ll go from there. Step by step.”
Scootaloo glanced around the room, at all the ponies who were truly her friends. Applebloom still looked a little shellshocked, but there was a twinge of realization and understanding in her expression.
Suddenly, A beam of light began to show through her emotions, like the sun breaking through storm clouds. All the pain she had been through started to subside, like clouds. Realization finally hit Scootaloo; it was something she needed help to realize; in order to fly, she needed to forgive everypony, including herself, and find confidence again. Confidence, and happiness.
This had all come as a surprise, to everypony in the room. But somehow, they all knew it was what needed to happen.
“Hey! Look at that,” said Applebloom, pointing.”
Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara’s cutie mark was glowing, just like Diamond Tiara’s had when she was first reformed. Nopony knew exactly what it meant, but would figure out the true reason soon.
Either way, it was an omen that what they did was would help Scootaloo; it was what needed to happen.
For the very first time since this entire mission started, Scootaloo felt truly hopeful.