Scootaloo pushed open the door to the girl's bathrooms at the end of another day. It had been a pretty long one for her, and truth be told she found school pretty tiring. So many different things to do, with multitudes of subjects (the majority of which were filled with information she was convinced had no use whatsoever in the real world) and of course the extra curricular stuff, but the latter was generally the fun bit, unlike many of the lessons. Seriously, how often would she need to calculate the precise angle of a ladder with the hippapotamus below it? She was certain they just made half this stuff up just to annoy them and nothing else. Oh well, no use in complaining.
She continued indoors and walked over to the sink, her eyes peering into the mirror with tiredness. She could do with sleeping more consistently, but then again she had only recently gained a proper family, that of Rainbow Dash, and her life had improved considerably as a result. She turned the tap on and looked into the basin, a satisfied smile on her face as the water ran over her hands. That is to say, went over her hands and downwards. The water didn't squish her hands, because that would be weird and nonsensical, and we don't want that, eh?
Anyways, she was so lost in her own thoughts and focused on the situation at hand that she didn't hear somebody enter behind her. This person, however, had skill in being silent, despite wearing heavy boots that would make noise as they walked along, and were so quiet that, as I say, Scootaloo did not notice their entrance through the door with quietness. And they then stood there before choosing the opportune moment to speak.
And when they did, it was like a peal of thunder. "Well, hello there, Scootaloo."
Scootaloo jumped and nearly fell over, looking in the direction of the voice. "AHH! Oh, hi Diamond. What is it?"
Diamond Tiara snorted. "Oh, surely you must know. Remember when I challenged you to a bet, you lost, and that skipping rope business ensued? In the rain?"
"Yes, I remember."
"Well," Diamond Tiara replied, her face now shifting into another setting completely befitting of her true nature. "I hereby wish to challenge you to see who is the better princess. I have been able to secure a convenient place- my family estate- and there we can do all sorts of challenging things."
Scootaloo was aware this was probably a trap, but at the same time she had to uphold her honour. After all, who turns down a good challenge? "So, you wanna see who's the alpha princess, eh? Count me in. This should be fun!"
"Deal," Diamond Tiara nodded, and set off on her way, head in the air and looking slightly smug. "Watch you don't fall over or anything!"
"You may want to be sure you don't get dizzy!" Scootaloo retorted.
"Pahhh! Speak for yourself!"
Suffice it to say, Scootaloo had received some rather odd looks when she had relayed the news of this event to her family members, who simply sat there silent, trying to process what on Earth they had just heard been said. And when they had finally taken the opportunity to process what they had just heard, they were still extremely confused.
"So," Rainbow Dash said, "if I've understood this correctly, and correct me on any of this if any of what I'm about to say is wrong, but if I have understood this correctly, Diamond Tiara once challenged you to prancing about in the rain in a dress?" The emphasis she placed on the last word indicated how baffled she was by this revelation, and to be fare most of the others were.
"That's correct, and now she wants a second round."
Windy Whistles, who was yet to say anything the entire conversation, took the opportunity to speak up. "At her family estate? In the middle of nowhere?"
"Well, saying that her home is in the middle of nowhere is a bit of a stretch, it's just in the posh bit of town." Bow Hothoof shut his mouth when he saw his wife giving him her 'not helping' look.
"Yes. Her parents will be keeping an eye on things though. They aren't negligant, contrary to popular belief at school."
"This still leaves me really confused," Windy sighed, putting her hand to her forehead as she tried to process all of this. "It's not as if I have a problem with you dressing like that- which I don't- it's just that throwing yourself straight into this sort of competition without proper planning or thought will turn out badly. I should know, I did it a lot when playing sports when I was your age."
"What if it rains? Or there's mud? Or you fall and injure yourself? Don't you need medical staff?"
Scootaloo snorted. "Filthy Rich has an entire army of serving staff, including a medic. We'll be covered. For a second I thought Rarity was talking!"
Rainbow Dash sighed. "I'm reckless (sometimes), not stupid. There is a difference."
Keen to get things back on track, Windy interrupted the interruption with an interruption of her own. "What we want to say is if you feel as though you want to do this, we'll support you all the way. Just be careful. We'll want to be onside to monitor everything that's going on and ensure that everybody plays by the rules. Is that OK?"
"Yeah, that'll be fine," Scootaloo said, sitting back in a large chair that sat next to the window of her home, or new home, as it were. "I doubt anything dangerous will happen, though."
"You'd be amazed," Bow added, his first words since earlier in the discussion. "Strange things happen at the strangest of places, such as when it rained on our wed-"
"I don't think she needs to know that particular story!" Windy said quickly. "We need to prepare for this event, and be ready to do what we must."