Diamond Tiara's first thoughts were that somepony must have left her curtains open. She heard a noise and groggily swung her hoof towards her alarm. It was Thursday, so Grey should be on his way soon with cinnamon buns and a cup of rose tea for breakfast.
Her hoof swung freely over the edge of her cushion and down to the ground. Unbalanced, she toppled to the floor in a tangle of blankets. She then heard the noise once again, and this time, she realised that it was not her alarm after all, but a rooster. How does one turn off a rooster?
Opening up her eyes, she realised that she wasn't in her room, after all. There were pink curtains hanging on the window, but that was where the similarity ended. The floor was hard wood, there was a map hanging on one wall, and looking around, her tiara was nowhere to be found.
And then it hit her. Of course her tiara was nowhere to be found. It was broken. Daddy had broken it. Daddy had broken it and thrown her out. Stupid. He had no right. He had no right to do that to her!
She lashed out at the cushion next to her, and started pummelling it in fury, picturing Daddy's face there.
This is for my tiara! *Wham!* This is for abandoning me! *Wham!* This is for not being there when I need you! *Wham!* This is for not loving-
She squeezed her eyes closed and hugged the cushion to her face, choking down a sob. Then she tossed it back down to the ground in irritation and gave it a few good whacks, embarrassed at her weakness.
"Morning workout?" a voice said wryly. She flushed, suddenly remembering that she wasn't the only one in the clubhouse. Whirling around, she saw Scootaloo standing in another corner. She appeared to be tying down a bandage on her side. How long had she been watching?
"What's it to you?" she snapped angrily, and then regretted it. She might not like Scootaloo, but she needed her help right now. She shouldn't try to antagonise her.
"Oh, nothing, I suppose." Scootaloo finished adjusting one last bandage. "I was actually just about to start my own workout. It's sort of pegasus only, though."
With that, she dropped to the floor and started doing wing pushups. Diamond Tiara watched in fascination. She'd never thought those small wings were that strong. She didn't really get to see anypony working out too much, let alone exercising their wings.
It was actually sort of impressive how she just cranked them out, one after another. Diamond Tiara found herself involuntarily walking closer as she watched.
"You do all that every morning?" she asked, curious in spite of herself.
"Yeah," Scootaloo said, stopping her pushups and stretching. "My wings are pretty tiny, so I've been working on my wing muscle strength."
Well, she supposed that was reasonable. Now that Scootaloo had stopped moving,but still had her wings out, something caught her attention. In an area her wings normally covered, she had an old-looking scab on her side, and her fur was kinda thin in a line on either side of it.
Diamond Tiara would never have noticed if she hadn't been this close and Scootaloo hadn't been exercising. What could possibly have caused that?
"What's that on your side?" she asked.
Scootaloo looked up. "Hmm?"
"That spot there?" she said, pointing.
Scootaloo looked at her side and frowned. "I told you, that's personal."
Then she went back to her pushups, ignoring Diamond Tiara completely.
But she didn't say that was personal. She said the reason she was living here was. Diamond Tiara shook her head. Whatever. There were more important matters right now.
"What's for breakfast?" she asked the exercising pegasus.
"I... just said-" Scootaloo managed between pushups. "that you... could sleep here. I didn't... say anything about breakfast."
She finished her exercises and lay there panting. Diamond Tiara frowned.
"But I just left last night. How am I supposed to have anything here for breakfast?" she said, a high whiny tone entering her voice.
"We're ponies," Scootaloo said simply. "You do realise you can eat grass, right?"
"Well yes, but that's so uncouth, undignified, so-"
"Impractical? You will find yourself eating grass on occasion, but if it was the only thing you were eating, you'd have to graze all day." Scootaloo gestured outside the clubhouse window. "Take a look outside. What do you see?"
Diamond Tiara glanced out. "Trees."
Scootaloo sighed. "Could you be a little more specific than that?"
"Apple trees?"
"Right," Scootaloo said. "So what do you think is for breakfast?"
Diamond Tiara thought for a moment. "Apples?"
"Got it. Not much to it, but it's better than nothing."
A potential problem occurred to her. "Wouldn't Applejack notice apples around here were going missing?"
"Of course she does. But Applejack gave this treehouse to us knowing that it was in the middle of an orchard. She expected that we'd eat some of them. And Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle haven't been, so I can eat them without anypony noticing."
"So that's all you eat for breakfast? Raw apples?"
"Well, no, sometimes Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stop by, and we go out." She looked out the window herself. "In fact, it looks like she's on her way now."
"Wait, Sweetie Belle's coming over, like, right now? While I'm still in the clubhouse?"
Scootaloo folded back up her wings, and as she did so, Diamond Tiara noticed a few spots that were either bare or had really short feathers. Funny. They're all in line with that old scab I noticed.
She vaguely wondered why she'd never spotted them before. Then Scootaloo started preening her feathers, rearranging them to cover up the patches, and it became kinda obvious.
However, Diamond Tiara had other concerns at the moment. "If she comes over right now, I'll be discovered here!"
Scootaloo adjusted another feather carefully. "Well, you could hide in the clubhouse till she's gone, or rather, we're gone. But this'll hardly be the last time she comes over. You'd be better off just letting Sweetie Belle know you're staying here."
"Until we're gone?" she asked. She wasn't totally sure she'd be able to find her way to school in time by herself.
"Well, we're probably headed out for breakfast, so... yeah," Scootaloo said.
She sighed. Her whole ordered world of how things should be was in ruins anyways. The way things should go, she'd have a nice, sophisticated breakfast, be groomed, make sure she looked her best and get ready for the new day. Silvy would meet with her, and they'd talk about what they were going to do for the day, and maybe make fun of the blank flanks, if she ran into them.
Now she was here with one of the blank flanks, she hadn't even had breakfast, probably had horrid bed mane and bed fur, another was on the way, and Silvy probably wasn't even going to talk to her today. That hurt, even knowing why.
And Sweetie Belle would be here any minute.
It wasn't that she really hated Sweetie Belle. She seemed nice, after all. But she had so much potential, and she wasted it. She could have been one of them. She was sisters with one of the best, most sophisticated fashionistas in Ponyville.
Rarity understood the importance of always looking good, going to the spa, and undoubtedly knew what a proper, high-class breakfast should look like. She had even made a large number of Diamond's dresses, though some were Canterlot high fashion.
But Sweetie Belle had none of that. She ran around wreaking havoc with the Crusaders, going to the pond and catching frogs, and unerringly getting every single bit of tree sap in the area on her. Anytime she tried to do anything with any amount of grace, it ended in disaster.
She could probably force herself to get along with Sweetie Belle for now. She wasn't that bad. She did so want her breakfast. And she didn't think she'd done anything really bad to her personally.
She looked out the window and frowned as another time she'd looked out of this window occurred to her. It'd been back when Babs had been here. Babs had really known how to have a good time. It was a shame things had ended between them the way they did.
But they'd kicked the Crusaders out of this very clubhouse, and she remembered seeing Sweetie Belle crying through the window as they left. Bother. Why do there suddenly have to be consequences to everything now? she thought irritably. There never were before.
"Do you think Sweetie Belle would still be upset about the time we took over your clubhouse?" she asked tentatively.
Scootaloo glared at her. "We're all still upset about that. But Sweetie Belle will keep a secret if I ask her to."
Well, she supposed she'd better get down and face her. Sweetie Belle would figure it out eventually, anyways. Besides, maybe if she told all three of them how sorry she was, Daddy'd take her back in.
"Alright, I guess I'd better talk to her," she said wearily, and walked slowly to the door, only to find Scootaloo blocking it.
"Hang on, let me talk to her first. If you just walk out of the clubhouse, she might get the wrong idea."
"Morning, Scootaloo!" a voice called from down below. "You up?"
"I'll be right down, Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo called out, then headed downstairs, out of Diamond's sight.
Diamond Tiara stood there, nervously, a knot in her stomach, as bits of what was being said drifted up to her. She felt as though everything was about to go wrong somehow, and much more tense than she really should be.
After a moment, she placed the reason she was feeling this way. This was just the way things been before Daddy had kicked her out.
Well, she doubted things could go that badly, at least. She settled down to listen.
"Morning! How are you - *gack*" Scootaloo's voice was suddenly cut off with a whumping sound.
"Scootaloo!" A second voice called out enthusiastically. It sounded like somepony was either being tackled in a big hug down there, or possibly being attacked. It was hard to tell. Most likely the former, though.
"Sweetie Belle... I know... you're happy to... see me, but... not on my side..." Scootaloo's voice came up faintly to her.
Ouch. That must have hurt.
"I'm sorry!" she heard Sweetie Belle say. "I just thought after yesterday that you'd really need a hug, and I needed a hug, and-"
"That's fine, but gently, alright?" Scootaloo said resignedly.
"Ok," Sweetie Belle said. "You missed a spot on your left wing, by the way. I thought those had all come back in?"
"Some of them have, but that was just a partial molt."
Partial molt? What exactly is a molt? Some pegasus thing?
"Shouldn't you have had a full one by now, though?" Sweetie Belle said, sounding puzzled.
"It's running late, ok?" Scootaloo rebutted, annoyed. "Can we drop it?"
"Right," Sweetie Belle said. "So, did you want to get some breakfast over at Sugarcube Corner? My treat."
"That'll be great!" Scootaloo exclaimed, then got ahold of herself. "But something kinda happened tonight. Can you keep quiet about this?"
"You know I can. What's wrong, Scoot?"
She couldn't really hear Scootaloo's reply. She figured Scootaloo had whispered it. She heard the response loud and clear, though.
"You slept with Diamond Tiara?!"
Alright, that does it. She charged through the door and down the ramp, working up a head of steam.
"I did not sleep with-" she paused and took in the scene. Sweetie Belle was looking at her, wide-eyed, while Scootaloo cradled her own head in her forelegs.
"-Scootaloo," she finished weakly. "Morning?"