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// Chapter 3 
// Story: Scootaloo's Dilemma 
// by PonyvilleDJ 
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	Running off after Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were determined to figure out what was going on. What could make their friend just slide down from such a high just like that? As the pair of ponies caught up to Scootaloo, they saw her walking into Sugar Cube Corner.

“I thought Scootaloo said Sugar Cube Corner was too ‘namby-pamby’,” Sweetie Belle said. And it was true. Scootaloo rarely EVER went into the bakery unless Rainbow Dash was there. That, or there was a party. She always had to be the center of attention. Stepping inside, they saw Scootaloo sitting at a corner table with her head in her hooves. It was then that they saw Pinkie Pie come out from behind the counter. Surely the possessed pink party pony of Ponyville could find a way to cheer her up.

“Hey Scootaloo,” Pinkie called out. “Is school out already? It must be, unless-” She gasped at her thought. “YOU’RE NOT PLAYING HOOKY, ARE YOU? No, you wouldn’t do that. So if you’re here, school MUST be out for the day. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Hey, you seem upset. What happened? No, wait, let me guess. Rainbow Dash kept you out of the book store, didn’t she?”

Scootaloo held up a hoof to stop Pinkie and let her breath.

“It’s not that,” she replied. “I don’t wanna talk about it. Can I just get the…”

She seemed a bit unsure of how to request what she wanted. Finally, she found the words.

“Can I have the Triple Chocolate Double Fudge Brownie Bundle Sundae? Extra melted Marshmallows?”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened, as did Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s. Nopony ordered that unless there was something seriously dark in their lives.

“Are you absolutely sure you want THAT?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“I said I wanted it, didn’t I?” Scootaloo answered.

After a moment’s hesitation, Pinkie Pie backed away from Scootaloo and went back to the kitchen. Only three Triple Chocolate Double Fudge Brownie Bundle Sundaes have been sold in Ponyville’s entire history. The Cakes had served two of them; one to the local mailmare, Derpy when she lost her daughter, Dinky to Foal Services for a week. The other time they served one was to Fluttershy when she lost patient at her animal sanctuary. It was a squirrel who had been run over by a cart. In truth, she had never truly gotten over it, but the sundae definitely helped.

Pinkie Pie herself had only ever served one before, and that had been to a large family from Canterlot who simply didn’t understand why the dish was offered. There had just been a lot of foals to feed while the family was visiting Ponyville. There was also a rumor that Princess Celestia had come up with the sundae the morning after she banished her sister, Princess Luna to the moon a thousand years ago.

Stepping into the dining room proper, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle walked over to the table Scootaloo occupied. Looking up from the tabletop, Scootaloo looked startled for a second, though she quickly averted her gaze and pretended to not care about anything that moment.

“What are you two doing here?” she asked as she swirled her hoof in circles on the table.

“We came to see what was wrong,” Apple Bloom replied.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle added. “It’s what friends do; find out what’s bugging their other friends and try to make it better.”

“Well nothing is wrong,” Scootaloo snapped at them, nearly yelling. “Besides, even if there WAS something wrong, nothing you two could do would make it any better.”

A loud ‘ding’ from the kitchen signaled that the brownies were done baking. All that was left was to mix it with the ice cream and add the marshmallows. Back in the dining room, the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat in an uncomfortable silence. What COULD be said? Scootaloo didn’t want to talk about what was bugging her and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle didn’t have a clue as to what it could be.

Finally, with a worried look, Pinkie Pie brought out the dish; a large bowl with four heaping scoops of chocolate ice cream, several chunks of warm fudge brownies with chocolate icing and hot fudge syrup drizzled over it all, topped with lumps of smooth, melted marshmallow goo. Lifting her spoon as Pinkie Pie set the bowl down on the table, it looked as if the treat was the only thing Scooatloo had to look forward to. Sparing one last glance, Pinkie Pie walked away from the table, her hair seeming to have lost some of its signature poof.

A couple hours passed and Scootaloo had finally finished the dishes she promised to clean. All in all, the ice cream she had ordered cost forty bits to make. Pinkie Pie was nice and let her keep her money. After all, it was all she had to her name. In exchange, Scootaloo promised to wash all the dishes Pinkie had dirtied to make the expensive treat. In total, she washed a mixing bowl, a set of egg-beaters, a brownie pan, an ice cream scoop, a pot, a spatula, the bowl the ice cream was served in, and the spoon Scootaloo used to eat it.