“Are there any questions?”
The doctor’s question drifted in the silence and no student raised an eager hoof. It was as if the life had been sucked out of them, or they had other matters in mind that they deemed more important than class. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, for example, spent the entire day sitting in different seats away from each other. This fact posed quirky in the eyes of the students and became a point of ridicule for Diamond Tiara and her equally unkind friend, Silver Spoon. Even the doctor took mental note of it.
“Very well, a quiet class deserves a quiet dismissal. You’re homework assignment is at the door on your way out.”
The chairs scraped across the floor and every student filed out, taking a homework sheet from the neat stack. Once they stepped out into the cloudy autumn day, normal conversation grew steadily and the class lecture was forgotten. The last students out, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, trotted slowly down the steps and they went their separate ways. Sweetie Belle looked up and realized the uncommon break from routine. She turned to Apple Bloom to her right and found a most dreadful look of anger directed to Scootaloo who was on the left. The look she returned was apologetic, on the brink of tears, but she didn't say a word. Sweetie Belle could feel her own face contort into an anxious frown and stopped her solemn walk back home. She hadn’t gone far from the front door, and she waited until her two best friends abandoned her on the schoolyard.
“Hello, my dear scientist,” said a friendly voice from behind.
Sweetie acknowledged the greeting with a forced smile. “Hey doctor.”
He locked the door to the school and caught up with her. He gave her a genuine smile. “My, you were quite the shy one today. Care to share what’s been bothering you?”
Sweetie sighed and told the doctor the events that occurred after her sister picked her up from lunch at the Crisp Grove the day before.
“I see.” The doctor gestured that they walk together and so they began the trek down the winding dirt path into town. After a few minutes the doctor asked, “Is your friend Scootaloo an orphan?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that explains it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You see, all creatures need someone to nurture them from birth to early adulthood. That is the natural order of things. Should it be interrupted, then certain key elements to the young’s maturation process may be missed or destructively altered. You’re friend Scootaloo is an orphan, thus she doesn’t have the easy access to her parents you and Apple Bloom share, and that is vital to her growth.”
“But why then did she steal the chick from Applejack’s farm?”
“That is not as easy to explain. There are several possibilities. Perhaps she saw the chick as abandoned, left on the field to venture the world on its own, and felt compassion and took it as her own. Or perhaps she was using the chick as a confidante, something to confide her secrets to. Maybe it’s as simple as she thought it looked lonely and wanted to give herself as a friend. It’s a better bet, however, that she was the one looking for someone to fill the void in her mind that was made by loneliness.”
Sweetie Belle shot a quick look at the old tree as they passed it and saw that the cocoon was still there. She tightened her scarf around her neck and asked, “But why would she feel so lonely? She has friends and lots of other ponies like her, too.”
“You miss the fundamental difference, my dear scientist. Scootaloo possesses a need which neither you nor Apple Bloom can fill. What she needs is a nurturing guide. Someone to take her under wing and show her the ropes of life in the absence of her parents.”
Sweetie thought about the doctor’s words for a moment and remembered something Scootaloo had said. “You know doctor, yesterday while we were in the alley she told me how Rainbow Dash kept telling her that she was too young to learn her cool flying tricks. Is that important in any way?”
“Could be. Perhaps the consistent turn down from Rainbow Dash to model for Scootaloo her flying tricks is being misinterpreted as rejection. The same she feels from her parents.” The doctor took a moment to wipe his glasses amidst the recent soft rainfall that broke through the clouds. “Of course, I am only speculating. There are so many unknown variables that to formulate a thesis would be like shooting an arrow in the dark.”
“But you’re sure that something is causing Scootaloo to do these things and it’s not because she’s bad, right?”
“Of course, my dear scientist. We’re all creatures of formed habits, adapted and evolved through the passage of ancient times in which have occurred momentous events that forever changed the universe and its inhabitants. Take the alligator for instance. Did you know that alligators used to be over fifty feet long? Now, they average somewhere between eight and twenty. Do you know why?”
“Adaptation?”
“Precisely. The world is much easier to traverse that a large body is no longer needed to plow through enormous obstructions. In addition, the alligator is nimble, quicker than its ancestor to be able to chase and capture swifter prey. Nothing goes unaffected by the changes time brings. All must adapt.”
The rest of the walk was spent tracking through rain-smitten leaves in pensive silence. The light from Ponyville’s gas lamps filled the square shadowed by the dark storm clouds. A single light emanated from Rarity’s bedroom in the otherwise dark Carousel Boutique. As they approached the front door, Sweetie Belle took off her scarf and laid a hoof on the door knob.
“Before you go, doctor.”
He stopped and turned.
“I wanted to know how you felt about Pinkie Pie’s words about how she met Gummy. You know, how it couldn’t have happened any other way and stuff.”
The doctor thought for a moment and responded, “Well, I do believe that her and I would differ on opinion. Whereas she believes there was some sort of supernatural coincidence, I would simply fall back on the rules for adaptation.”
“But you gotta admit, it was pretty lucky how she just found Gummy on the side of the road. And how he didn’t attack Commander Chickadee at all? Can an alligator just forget its natural instincts like that?”
The doctor was about to answer her question, but held back and instead said, “I suggest you do the homework assignment. I believe it will help you understand my position a bit better. Have a pleasant rest of the day, my dear scientist.”
“You too, doctor.”
And with that, he turned and disappeared into the thickening fog.
Sweetie Belle settled onto the couch after shutting the door behind her. She dropped her scarf on the floor and switched on the lamp sitting next to her on a night stand. Hoisting her knapsack onto her lap, she reached in and pulled out the homework assignment. She looked at the top of the page and started reading the first paragraph:
Before you begin, it is important that you understand that this assignment has been formatted into a step-by-step model. If you follow the directions as indicated in every step, you will get an “A”.
“Wow, that’s like the easiest A ever,” she said to herself. She continued reading:
It is also important that you make sure to do the steps on the day indicated. That means you are not allowed to skip ahead into Day 2’s steps until you have accomplished all of Day 1’s steps and have had a good night’s rest. If for some unforeseen reason you must stay up all night on Day 1, then take a short nap and continue onto Day 2.
Sweetie Belle lowered the paper and looked up at the wall clock. Four thirty.
“I have plenty of time to do this I’m sure.”
She picked up the paper and began on Step 1:
Step 1: Go to the kitchen and serve yourself a glass of water. Take a sip. Remember, water is the most important resource we have for survival. Without proper hydration, we jeopardize the basic functioning of our entire bodily system. In addition, proper hydration helps to keep the mind keen and focused, which is important for the task at hand.
“Weird.”
Sweetie Belle got up and went into the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of cool water from a pitcher she found in the refrigerator and took a hearty sip. The refreshing water felt good on its way down her throat, cooling her insides.
“I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”
She made her way back to the couch and set her glass of water next to the lamp. She read step two:
Step 2: Seclude yourself in the quietest area around in preparation for step three. You will require all the peace and quiet you can find in order to give yourself the best chance for ultimate concentration.
Sweetie scanned the living room around her which, aside from the single light illuminating her lap, was in complete darkness. “It’s pretty quiet here, but he did say to find the quietest. How can I tell though?” After thinking about it for a minute, Sweetie closed her eyes and concentrated all her focus into her hearing. She could hear the light patter of afternoon rain outside her window, the hum of the washer machine working in the room behind her. She even picked up the buzzing of the lamp next to her. She opened her eyes. “Let’s try a different room.”
She took her glass of water and walked to the kitchen. She sat at the table and did the same thing. She could still hear the washer machine, though not as clearly. She also picked up the whirr of a single ceiling fan directly above her. “Well, that washer machine is pretty loud. I bet I’d hear it from anywhere.” She stood on her seat and reached for the string to shut the fan down. “But this fan doesn’t really need to be on. I’m not even cold.” After turning the fan off, Sweetie took her seat and listened again. No additional noises from anything else. “Great!” she exclaimed, taking a sip of water. “Now I can go on to step three.”
Step 3: Using the template below, list ten questions that you’ve always wanted the answer to but could never find. This can be any kind of question about any topic. List them on the left. On the right, write a corresponding reason for wanting to know the answer to the question. “I just want to know” is not a valid reason or anything like it. Think hard about your reasons.
Below the third step were two columns, side by side and separated into ten rows. On top of the left column was written “Questions” and on top of the other “Reasons”. She fetched for a pencil in her knapsack and began to think. After about ten minutes of thinking, she wrote down her ten questions:
1. Why didn’t Gummy attack Commander Chickadee yesterday at Sugarcube Corner?
2. Why did Scootaloo steal the baby chick from Sweet Apple Acres?
3. What exactly happens inside a cocoon when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly?
4. Why is the sky really blue?
5. Do rainbows ever end somewhere?
6. How did life begin on Equestria?
7. Where do foals come from?
8. How do you know when to stop watering the grass?
9. What happens to you after you die?
10. How long can you live without drinking any water?
And she wrote their corresponding reasons:
1. It just seems weird how Gummy can just forget how to act like a natural alligator.
2. The doctor told me a lot of reasons maybe why, but I want to know the real truth so I can help my friends get back together.
3. I don’t have x-ray vision so I would like to know what really goes on inside.
4. I can’t really feel the sky but it has a color I can see. Is it painted with some kind of invisible paint or something?
“I hope I don’t get in trouble for putting a question there,” Sweetie said. She decided to erase it
and write in its place: I want to know if something that can’t be felt can have a color. She continued:
5. I’ve always heard there was some kind of treasure at the end of every rainbow, but I never heard of someone finding it. I would like to know so I can get it and maybe buy some things for my friends and family and for me of course.
6. If I can find out how life got started on Equestria, maybe that information can help doctors to discover ways to make it never end.
7. No one knows the answer to this question and it makes me mad.
8. Whenever my mom does it, dad always complains she’s doing it too long and can kill the grass. When my dad does it, she says he isn’t watering them enough. I would like to know so I can tell them just how much is enough and they can stop fighting over it.
9. I want to know what I can look forward to and if any family members who have died will be there. It would be pretty neat to meet family members I never knew because they died before I was born.
10. So I won’t die.
Sweetie put down her pencil and gave her wrist a much needed rub. She looked over her
questions and reasons and was satisfied with her work. She looked for the next step on the page but
realized there was none. She turned over the page and saw “Day 2” printed at the top.
“I guess I’m all done for today,” she said. “That wasn’t too bad.”
“Who are you talking to?” asked Rarity. She walked casually into the kitchen and opened the
refrigerator and pulled out a sealed bag of ground coffee. She poured the grounds into the coffee machine and started it up.
“No one,” was the reply.
“Oh, so much work. The client loved the dresses so much he’s decided to appoint me his design expert. He’s asked for four new styles of dresses by the end of this week. This could mean big things for me, you know. It could be the first step into expanding my business outwards from Ponyville. Maybe even outside Equestria.”
She turned to her little sister who was paying no particular attention to her. She uttered a soft groan and poured herself a mug of hot coffee. “Sweetie Belle, I need to talk to you about something.”
“About what?” she asked with her face still turned away.
“Mother and father have decided to extend their vacation until the end of this week, so you’ll be staying with me a little longer than expected.”
Sweetie shrugged. "So?"
She continued. “That’s going to be a problem because the client has asked that I personally deliver the new designs when they’re ready. He wants to introduce me to his circle of friends who are all well-to-do business ponies. I’m afraid I’ll have to take you with me as I have no other choice.”
Sweetie turned around in her chair and raised her voice. “Can’t I stay with someone while you’re gone?”
“I’m not sure I can be confident that you’ll stay out of trouble if I’m not around. You know mother and father weren’t happy when I told them about your little rendezvous yesterday. They don’t want you out of my sight no matter what.”
Sweetie frowned and turned back. “Why do I always have to go where you go? I don’t even want to go to stupid Manehatten with you.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Rarity sighed. “But rules are rules. We leave Friday afternoon after you’re done with school. We’ll return Saturday right before the festivities begin, so you don’t have to worry about missing out.”
Rarity took her coffee cup and made her way back upstairs to her workroom. Sweetie slumped forward and bumped her head with a thud on the table. An elongated sigh escaped her lips as frustration exploded inside her like a volcano.
“It wasn’t like I was doing anything wrong. I was helping out a friend. Since when do you get in trouble for that?” She picked up her head and let out another sigh. “I hate this. I hate this so much.”
She rubbed her eyes and looked back down on her paper. She noticed she overlooked the final step for the day’s assignment. The final step read:
Step 4: Review your list of questions and circle the three that are most important to you. If you have trouble classifying any of your questions as important, choose the three that would be the most difficult to answer.
She looked over her list of questions and decided on circling questions three, six, and nine. She took one last glance over her homework assignment and made sure she had done every step for the day. She went back into the living room and put the paper into her knapsack. Before she closed it, an idea popped into her mind. She took the paper back out and rushed upstairs to her sister’s workroom. She gave the door a knock.
“Come in,” said Rarity.
Sweetie opened the door and poked her head inside. “Hey Rarity, I don’t think I can go with you to Manehatten after all.”
Rarity was unimpressed. “Really? Why’s that?”
“Well, it’s because we were given this assignment and it’s really hard. I need to put all of my concentration on it and I think going to Manehatten would be a distraction.”
Rarity stopped her work on the sewing machine and walked to the door. “Here, let me see the assignment.”
Sweetie Belle ripped the paper out of reach. “No, I already told you it’s hard.”
“I just want to see the due date. When is it due?”
“Friday.”
“Then why are you so worried? You have all day tomorrow to work on it. If you need help, I’d be more than happy to.”
“I don’t need your help!”
Rarity jerked her head and scowled. “Don’t raise you voice at me like that! I was just offering my help. If you don’t want me to help you, then you can go to the library and ask Twilight.”
“But what if she can’t? What if I don’t finish by Friday?”
“Then I suppose you’ll fail.”
Sweetie gasped. “You would let your little sister get an F? How could you?”
“Hey, it’s your homework so it’s your responsibility to get a good grade. Look young lady, you’re coming with me to Manehatten on Friday whether you like it or not. Don’t try to pull tricks on me so you can stay.”
Rarity went back to her sewing machine and continued work on the hem of one her presentations. Sweetie Belle just stood at the door staring at the floor, rage bottling up inside her. She left the room but not without slamming the door hard. She was about to go into her own room when she heard the workroom door open behind her.
“What on earth is your problem!? Why did you slam the door like that?”
Sweetie froze and didn’t say a word.
“You know, you’ve been acting very strangely ever since you came back from school today. Did something happen to you?”
Sweetie turned to face her sister with tears in her eyes. “No. I’m fine. It’s none of your business anyway.”
Rarity’s face softened as she tried to get closer to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie marched inside her room and shut the door. She lingered by the door long enough to hear her sister go back inside her workroom. She threw herself on the bed and screamed and cried into her pillow.
“Why do I feel so useless?” she cried. “Why do I feel so alone?”