//------------------------------//
// 7 - Boing! Boing! Boing! 
// Story: Life Lessons 
// by lunabrony 
//------------------------------//

	Scootaloo had been searching high and low for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who seemed to have vanished. They weren't anywhere near the Town Hall like they were when they had sent her outside, for which she completely understood. She had been angry at first, but then realized that her remark to Bloom had been uncalled for, and wanted to apologize for it. The problem was, she was going to have actually find them first before being able to apologize.
Unknown to her, the fillies were trapped inside Golden Oaks Library at the moment, awaiting the arrival of their sisters for a very long talk about what they had seen in the book. 'The Talk', as it were. Scootaloo sat alone outside Sugarcube Corner, sipping on a lemon flavored drink and feeling rather mopey in general. One didn't realize how few friends one had until those friends were unavailable to hang out with.
Pinkie Pie descended from the open picnic umbrella dressed in a large fuzzy spider outfit, holding onto a thick white string that was (HOPEFULLY) tied to the roof. Scootaloo didn't see her until she was practically in front of her own face, and only just happened to look up.
"Hi!" Pinkie chirped.
Scootaloo screamed like a little... child... and leaped backwards, knocking over the table and chairs as well as the table next to hers. The pegasus was given several very strong looks of disapproval by neighboring patrons.
"Whatcha doin?" Pinkie asked.
"What... what are you... WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Scootaloo gasped.
"Why not?" Pinkie asked, throwing away the spider outfit to land on the ground again. "How come you're not smiling? Did you lose it?"
"What, no, I-"
Pinkie sprang onto her forehooves, standing upside down on one of the overturned chairs until Scootaloo's flipped frown was caught in her line of vision. "I found it!"
"Pinkie, stop!" Scootaloo insisted. "I'm busy!"
"Oh..." The party pony flipped back over again. "Busy doing what? Maybe I can help."
"I doubt it, nopony else will tell us. I lost the rest of my team and we were all trying to figure out where foals come from, but nopony will tell us! It's all a big conspiracy!"
"I can tell you," Pinkie said cheerfully.
"I knew it," the pegasus grumbled. "I'm NEVER gonna... what."
"I can tell you where foals come from," Pinkie said again.
"Really?! Where?!"
Pinkie sat down next to her. "You gotta promise to keep it to yourselves though, it's really sensitive information. You might not be ready for it."
"I'm ready," Scootaloo said. "I gotta know, we've invested so much time into this!"
"Well, alright..." Pinkie leaned in and whispered. "The pelicans."
Scootaloo blinked.
"Twilight told me that when a mare and a stallion are in love, and they really really really really REALLY want a foal, if they're lucky then this really big pelican drops off a child in the middle of the night."
"...That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I think you got trolled," Scootaloo said.
"I can't have, she promised it was true."
"Pinkie Promised?"
"No, just regular promise. But it's Twilight, I trust her."
"Yeeeeah, I'm gonna keep looking..." Scootaloo said.
"Oh... okay! Hope you find what you're looking for!" Pinkie shrugged and bounced away, doing her own sound effects. "Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing!"
Scootaloo facehooved, and began walking towards the Library. She never saw the dull green flash that rippled from behind a tree, so thought nothing of it when Diamond Tiara ran out in front of her.
"Scootaloo! There you are! I've been, like, looking ALL over for you."
"You... what? Me?" She looked suspicious. "Why?"
"Well I just thought that since your friends betrayed you, you might wanna hang out with me instead," she said casually.
"Betray... what are you going on about? You're just trying to pull one over on me again, and I'm not falling for it. Go home, Tiara."
"You mean..." she faked a gasp. "You don't know?"
"Don't know what? I don't have time for this!"
Diamond Tiara grabbed the pegasus and dragged her down the road. "Come on, you'll see! It's not pretty, though!"
The orange pony had no idea what was going on, but reluctantly allowed herself to be dragged along, if for no other reason than she wanted to know what was going on. Diamond Tiara dragged her underneath a window, and pointed upwards. "There, look."
Scootaloo looked, and saw Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sitting in a side room of the Library and laughing... with Silver Spoon.
"Aren't they supposed to be with you?" Tiara asked.
"Yeah... and... they're not even looking..." Scootaloo felt sick. "It's like they don't even care. They replaced me... just like that."
"Well, that's just not okay at all. I'LL be your friend," Tiara said. She smiled, her eyes flashing green. This whole situation was just solving itself.
"...Yeah, okay..." Scootaloo said. She turned her back on the Library, and Tiara led her away. Scootaloo had never imagined that her friends would turn on her just like that, and although part of her didn't want to believe it, this whole time she'd thought they'd at least be out wondering where she was. But it didn't seem like they cared at all.
"Come on, Scoots," Tiara said. "I know how to make you feel a LOT better... a solution, you might even say, you'll be in...love with. You'll be a changed pony."