//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Scootaloo's Secret 
// by FightingOreo 
//------------------------------//

Silver Spoon sat in the CMC clubhouse, with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.
“I wonder if Scootaloo’s finished talking with her dad?” Sweetie Belle asked nopony in particular.
“Ah don’t think so. I think she was going to come here after they finished.”
They both turned to look at Silver Spoon, rather menacingly. Silver Spoon gulped. “Umm...  hi?”
Sweetie Belle chortled, snickered, tittered, then burst out laughing. Watching her roll around on the floor, neither Apple Bloom nor Silver Spoon could keep a straight face. Within thirty seconds, they were all on the floor, Sweetie Belle trapped in Apple Bloom’s headlock.
Three minutes later, they had resumed sitting on the boxes the CMC used as chairs. “So anyway, Silver Spoon, how did you get your cutie mark? You never told us.” Sweetie Belle cocked her head to the side, gazing at her newest friend.
“Do I really have to tell you?” Silver Spoon blushed, and looked down at the ground.
“YE-” Sweetie Belle started, before being interrupted by Apple Bloom.
“Well... not if you don’t want to, but it is a club about gaining cutie marks and all. We just want to know is all.”
Silver Spoon considered all that had happened, and thought of Diamond Tiara.

Silver Spoon was playing at the park, with her friend Caramel Bangle. “Wheeee!” Silver Spoon exclaimed as she zoomed down the slide. Caramel was sitting on the swings, eating a container of pureed fruit, with a small silver spoon.
“Do you want a go on the slide Caramel?”
“Sure!” Caramel raced over to the slide, while Silver Spoon walked over to the swings, where the fruit lay forgotten. Watching Caramel slide was fun, but then Silver got an idea. It was a bad idea, but bad ideas are usually the most fun, in Silver Spoon’s experience.
Three minutes later, she was ready.
“Bye Cara! I’ve got to go home!”
“Bye SS!”
Silver Spoon gave one last look at the small container, before walking away. Something in her gut felt bad, but she gave it no thought. I mean, nopony really cared about it right?
It would be 15 minutes before Caramel noticed that her small spoon was missing. 

“So that’s how I got my cutie mark. My special talent is thievery and deceit.”
“Woah...”
Silver Spoon looked at the ground. “I never told my parents the true story.”
She looked up through her eyelashes, at the two sympathetic fillies. “Will you two still trust me, now that I told you that?”
“Of course we’ll still trust you SS!” “We wouldn’t abandon a friend just because she made a bad decision!”
“Diamond Tiara would.” The small filly mumbled under her breath, but just loud enough that Apple Bloom could hear.
“Well, SS, we’re not Diamond Tiara, are we?” Apple Bloom whispered in Silver’s ear.
“No... you’re not.” Silver Spoon grinned. For the first time, it really dawned on her that she had friends. Real friends, that wouldn’t abandon her for somepony else.


Scootaloo looked at the ground, shuffling her hooves a bit. “Umm... so Apple Bloom and I were talking  and umm... she told me that umm...  I had...  umm... a disease?” Scootaloo’s fathers eyes widened, in a mixture of shock and horror. Ever the calm, collected pony, he gently took Scootaloo’s hoof in his own, and led her into his lounge room.
“Well Scootaloo, a couple of years ago, when you were trying to learn how to fly, we took you to a hospital. Mummy and I talked to the doctors there, who told us that you had a mental disease. 
 The two ponies stood anxiously awaiting the next words. “Ma’am, sir, we’re sorry to tell you this, but Scootaloo has a very rare disease called Dowell Syndrome.”
“Is there a cure?”
“Not at the moment. Research is being done, but they estimate it will take at least 20 years, even with proper funding. There are some schools available though, made to help ponies who suffer from Dowell Syndrome, and from what I hear, they’re quite good.” 
“Mummy and I talked for a  long time, about whether we should send you to one of these special schools or not.  I wanted you to have a normal life, disease or not. Mummy wanted to send you to this school.
“Is that why mummy left?” Scootaloo’s eyes filled with tears.
“...Yes, Scootaloo. Your mother left because we were fighting over you, and she didn’t like it.”
“I JUST WANT WHATEVER’S  BEST FOR SCOOTALOO!”
“SHE DESERVES TO LIVE A NORMAL LIFE!”
“SHE NEEDS TO GET HELP! SHE’S SICK!”
“SHE’S NOT SICK ANY MORE THAN SOMEPONY WITH A WHEELCHAIR IS SICK!”
“Does that mean I’m not normal?” Scootaloo was on the verge of an emotional breakdown, and her dad knew it. Nonetheless, he decided not to lie in such an important conversation.
“Well Scootaloo... no. Your brain is wired a bit differently to other ponies brains... but that doesn’t mean that it’s any worse, or that other ponies are better than you.”
“Anyway, back to the story, me and her were fighting a lot, and so she left. She tried to send you to the school, but the judge let you stay with me.”  Scootaloo’s dad held back tears as he remembered his wife.
“Where did she go?” Now Scootaloo was asking more straightforward questions, her dad grew noticeable more relaxed.
“To be honest Scootaloo, I don’t know.” “The letters stopped sometime after she reached Fillydelphia, she may have moved on since then, I don’t know.”
“Okay...” Scootaloo’s face fell.  “Tell me more about my disease.”
Flying Breeze and his wife sat at a table, food untouched. They were reading a brochure about Dowell Syndrome,   mournfully. “Dowell Syndrome” it said, “is a fairly uncommon occurrence that affects young ponies brains.”
“There are no real physical symptoms, most symptoms are characteristic, or affect mentality. Ponies suffering from Dowell Syndrome can often be moody, eccentric and have difficulty concentrating.”
Many other things were mentioned in the brochure, including an interesting fact that Leoneighdo Da Vinci suffered from Dowell Syndrome, that Flying Breeze made a note to remember.
“We should send her to this school.”
“Why? Why can’t she just live a normal life?”
“Because she’s not normal. We can’t dance around the issue Flying!”
“There IS NO issue!”
They both took a deep breath. “Let’s just go home, we can discuss it more later.”
In total, their food cost $68.50. They ate $3.00 worth of it. 
“So Scootaloo, you have a special kind of disease. Your disease only affects the brain, and changes the way you think. That’s why you get words wrong sometimes.”
“Do any other ponies have this disease?”
“I’m sure a lot of them do. A lot of them keep it secret though.”
“Why?”
“Because ponies are scared, that other ponies will judge them, or be mean to them”
“Like Diamond Tiara?”
“Exactly. Ponies like Diamond Tiara are often very judgmental, and think that other ponies different to them are ‘wrong’, or ‘bad’.”
“Oh. Thanks Dad.”
“No worries Kiddo. Ask me if you have any more questions.”
“Sure will.”
Flying Breeze, and his daughter Scootaloo Breeze, both sat, silently thinking about life, Scootaloo’s mother, and prejudice. Scootaloo thought about the cruelty of other ponies. As Scootaloo hugged her father, they cried as one, father and daughter. They cried for loss, they cried for bad luck, and they cried for the ponies who just couldn’t understand.