Startled, she looked inside. It was late at night. Nopony should have been in there!
But no, there she was, clamoring down from a cushion in one corner of the clubhouse with a frown on her face. The flightless wonder herself, Scootaloo. What in Equestria was she doing here tonight?
Well, it wasn't like she could find anywhere else to go at this point. She'd have to stick it out, Scootaloo or no Scootaloo. She strode right in the clubhouse, attempting to call up whatever section of her dignity hadn't been trampled on.
"What am I doing here?" she said haughtily, with a flip of her mane. "I could ask you the same thing. Shouldn't you be back at home right now? Or doesn't anypony care where you are at night?"
Looking closer at Scootaloo, she noticed that she was bandaged up in several places. She looked away from the bandages guiltily, feeling somewhat responsible for them.
"Or maybe you should still be in the hospital, getting your side looked at?" she asked.
Scootaloo glanced down at her bandages and frowned. "This is nothing, no thanks to you. Nothing compared to a broken leg, anyways! Where do you get off just waltzing in here, especially after that?"
Taken back at the sheer venom in her voice, Diamond Tiara tried to make a recovery. "I wasn't-"
"You have some nerve!" Scootaloo continued on her rant, brushing aside anything Diamond Tiara had to say. "Have you even given a moment's thought to what Apple Bloom is going through right now? Do you even give a flying feather about anypony other than yourself?"
She hadn't stopped to think about it, actually, with everything else happening today. She normally didn't really think much about other ponies anyways, since it was really what happened to her that was important.
But something daddy had said earlier went through her mind. Apple Bloom was the heir to Sweet Apple Acres, just like she had been for Rich Enterprises. Suddenly she could picture herself in Apple Bloom's position. And she didn't like what she was seeing.
Diamond Tiara imagined herself, both hind legs broken, being wheeled from place to place in a wheelchair. She shuddered at the thought of not being able to walk on her own, and being totally reliant on other ponies for help. Nopony should have to deal with that. Not even Apple Bloom.
Feeling shaken, she took a step back. "I-I d-didn't mean-"
"You didn't mean what?" Scootaloo said, not letting her finish her sentence. She pushed forward, making Diamond Tiara step back again involuntarily. "You didn't mean to break both Apple Bloom's hind legs? You were aiming for just one, perhaps?"
She wasn't sure she'd ever seen Scootaloo this worked up before. "It wasn't like that!"
"Then what was it like, then, huh?" she fired off, pushing Diamond back into the doorway. "You leave Apple Bloom crippled, and then you have the gall to show up here of all places, with that stupid-looking tiara of yours-"
She paused for breath, and finally took in Diamond Tiara's appearance.
"Wait a minute. Where is your tiara? And what's with all this," She gestured at the bundle by the door, "feathering junk you've brought with you? What the hay are you doing here?"
It had been a really long night. Diamond Tiara had had more stress tonight then in most of the rest of her life, save maybe when her mother died. A good argument might not have been foreign to her, but she usually leaned on Silver Spoon, and she wasn't here.
Diamond Tiara was about at her breaking point, and even without the other factors at work, her missing tiara and her memory of its destruction still felt like a gaping wound. Its mention might have been enough to set her off by itself.
But she just couldn't take any more tonight. Her legs suddenly gave way under her, and she collapsed on the spot, sobbing. These weren't a couple decorative tears and sniffles. She began absolutely crying her eyes out nonstop, paying no attention to Scootaloo whatsoever.
She knew Scootaloo was still there somewhere in front of her. She just didn't care any more. She'd had way too much thrown at her in one night, and was giving up. Everything else faded into the background for her, except herself and her misery.
"Oh, come on now," she heard a disgusted voice from in front of her. "This isn't fair. You're the bully here. You aren't supposed to break down crying."
Then what was she supposed to do? She might have been mean and a bully before, but she'd been strong. Tough. Like a diamond. But she didn't feel that way now.
"Don't think I'll let you off for what you did to Apple Bloom just because of this. It was unforgivable!"
Now she just felt fragile. Broken. Like her tiara. Shattered.
A sigh came from in front of her. "I cannot believe I'm going to do this."
Diamond Tiara suddenly felt two forelegs wrap themselves around her and squeeze her in a big hug. She didn't care who it was. She was beyond that point. She just accepted the warm embrace and sobbed into the chest of the flustered filly in front of her.
She felt one foreleg gently stroking at her mane, and the other awkwardly patting her on the back. She felt as though something stopped up had been released inside of her.
"There, there," Scootaloo murmured. "It'll be alright. Now quit your crying so I can go back to yelling at you."
At this, she let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "I- I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?" she asked. "What about, crying?"
She was too drained for anything but honesty. "'bout A-Apple Bloom. D'n't m-mean to hurt her."
"Yeah?" she said, rubbing Diamond Tiara's back in circles. "Well, you did hurt her. She'll probably be out of the hospital in a couple days, but she's going to be in a wheelchair for months. Maybe longer. I spent most of my day sitting next to her, you know."
She hurt everypony. She hurt. "W-Wish there was s-somet'ng I could do to m-make it up to her."
Scootaloo just kept rubbing her back in circles, which was doing a lot to help her calm down. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine her mother was there for her. But of course she wasn't.
"I'm not really sure you can make it up to her," Scootaloo said. "Though, you know she'll be in a wheelchair when she gets out, and is going to need a lot of help getting around. You were good at pushing her before..."
This did actually get a laugh from her, feeble as it might have been. "I suppose I shouldn't stop now. Though I'm not sure Apple Bloom would trust me with that."
"Well, I'd be there, too. And I'll kill you if you do anything like that again, and Apple Bloom knows it."
Diamond Tiara shivered at that statement. She really didn't want to cross Scootaloo right now.
Scootaloo stopped rubbing. "Anyways, think you can cope now?"
She wasn't sure she would ever be able to cope again. But she nodded anyways.
Getting out of each other's embrace was even more awkward than the embrace itself, especially since a part of Diamond Tiara really didn't want to let go. Afterwards, she felt very vulnerable. It felt like part of the armor she normally wore to protect herself from the outside world was suddenly missing.
Another part of her felt totally offended by the situation. Had she really needed to be comforted by Scootaloo, total loser and blank flank?
But then, I'm a total loser now, too. No home, no family connections, hardly a bit to my name. It's pathetic.
And she was actually warming up to Scootaloo despite it all. Alright, Diamond Tiara, pull yourself together. Enough self pity, enough being nice to blank flanks.
"Don't go thinking this means I like you or anything," she stated.
"Of course not." Scootaloo frowned. "You know, you're lucky I'm nice."
Diamond blinked as Scootaloo said this, apparently without irony.
"Right. With all that shouting and all." Who did she think she was kidding?
"No, seriously," Scootaloo stated. "Things could have gone a lot worse for you with somepony else here."
"What do you mean?" How could things possibly have gone any worse?
"Well, you walked straight onto my turf and attempted to lay claim to it," Scootaloo explained. "And you had previously injured one of my friends. Breakdown or not, by rights I should have beaten you up and tossed you right out on your flank, followed by your stuff, or worse. I'm still not sure I shouldn't do the latter."
"What? You couldn't just do that!" Nopony'd dare touch her, would they?
"Things may be different up on your manor. You might call for the servants to have me removed, or discuss matters over tea and crumpets. But this is the real world we're dealing with. Not the elite circles you are used to."
"B-but- My father-" she stammered out, earlier events quite going out of her head.
"Well, as far as your father goes, either he doesn't know you are here, in which case he doesn't matter, or he does know, in which case you are really in trouble. In either case, he isn't here, and this isn't a schoolyard, so you can't just call over Miss Cheerilee."
Diamond Tiara's mind whirled as she tried to comprehend what she had gotten herself into.
"In any case, like I said, you're lucky I'm nice," Scootaloo said. "Now, why are you here?"
Well, the only reply she could think of that might actually get her somewhere was also the truth. "I didn't think anypony'd be here, and I needed someplace to sleep tonight."
"Well, I am here," Scootaloo stated. "So, why should I let you spend the night?"
She actually still had a possibility of staying here? Why would Scootaloo be willing to let her sleep here?
"Um, because you're nice?" she ventured.
"Nice is why I'm even considering it. Why should I do it, though?" Scootaloo asked.
Well, she hated to do it, but if daddy had taught her one thing, it was that money takes care of most problems. She just didn't have much at the moment. But if it was the difference between having somewhere to sleep and not...
"I suppose could offer you a few bits to stay here." she said, regretfully.
"Well, if you're going to offer," Scootaloo said, "five bits for the night?"
She needed to save her money more than that. "Five bits for the week."
Scootaloo put one foreleg to her forehead and groaned.
"The week, huh?" She said. "If we're talking that long, I really need to know what's going on, and we'll need to lay down some ground rules."
Oh, she really didn't want this getting all over the school, and this was Scootaloo, who had all the reason to want to spread about her misfortune.
"Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony?" she said meekly.
"You really don't understand the situation you're in, do you?" Scootaloo sighed. "Things have happened tonight that neither of us want to talk about. I know you understand blackmail. This is that type of thing, only it goes both ways. But we can exchange your silly promises if you want."
They did so, and she felt much better, knowing that if either of them talked, they'd be faced with a wrathful Pinkie Pie.
"After Miss Cheerilee talked to daddy, we had a big fight about what happened with Apple Bloom."
"Good," Scootaloo said. "So what happened, then? You got upset about it, and ran away from home afterwards? If there are going to be search parties looking for you, I'd really prefer you slept somewhere else."
"No, nopony's going to be looking for me." It was her turn to sigh.
"Then what happened?"
"He started yelling at me, and s-smashed my t-tiara, then kicked me out," she said, feeling shaky again even thinking about it.
"Wow, sounds like he was angry. If he's cooled down and had time to think, he might already be looking for you, though."
"No, he said he was disowning me, had some paperwork there, and told Grey not to let me back in. I think he meant it."
"Ponyfeathers," Scootaloo swore. "Why am I the nice one, anyways? Alright, you can stay here for the moment, but you'll need to understand the ground rules, though."
She was going to be able to get some sleep at some point. Perfect.
"What rules?" she asked.
"Well, main one is this is my place, or ours when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are here. So pretty much anything the three of us says goes without question, with my decision being the final one."
"Isn't this actually Applejack's?" she asked. It was on Sweet Apple Acres, after all.
"Sorta, though most of it was made by Apple Bloom at this point. But if Applejack found out we were sleeping here, we'd have more problems than arguing over rules."
"I suppose so." Not to mention she'd be upset about her sister. And she was business partners with daddy, so if Applejack found out she was here, she'd probably kick Diamond Tiara right off the property, too.
"If you want to use anything in the clubhouse, ask first," Scootaloo said. "And you'll be expected to help keep things clean around here."
"You want me to be your maid?"
Scootaloo closed her eyes. "No. But we don't have maids here. So you'll be expected to clean up any messes you make, just like anypony else. I am so not cleaning up after you."
"Whatever," she said tiredly. Something occurred to her that she hadn't asked before. "Why exactly are you living here, anyways?"
"That's personal, and is my business, not yours," Scootaloo said. "It's already really late, and we'll be pretty tired as it is at school tomorrow. Lets just get to sleep."
School. Oh, she didn't even want to think about that. Sleep sounded good, though.
"Where do I sleep, then?" she asked.
Scootaloo pointed to another corner of the clubhouse, which, indeed, had another cushion. "You can sleep over there. Do you need any of that stuff you brought in tonight?"
"Just a minute." She grabbed a blanket and a pillow. After a moment, she decided to grab her teddy bear as well. Scootaloo took the bundle and shoved it through a trapdoor in the ceiling, presumably leading to a storage area.
Afterwards, she held out her hoof and waited. Diamond Tiara puzzled over this for a moment, then sighed and hoofed over five bits from her bag. Scootaloo made them vanish, then climbed back on the cushion she'd been on earlier.
Diamond Tiara settled down on her own cushion. She wrapped herself in a blanket, snuggled up to her teddy bear, and tried to forget where she was and get some sleep. It wasn't easy.