Diamond Tiara goes to Boot Camp

by dungeonguy88


Chapter Ten: Voluntold

“What are we even doing out here?”

Stalwart Gaze spared a glance for the pink filly trailing just a few hoofsteps behind him before fixing his eyes ahead once more. Just out of the corner of his eye, he could already see the other campers filing out of the messhall after the other members of the camp's staff.

Scowling as the stallion once more failed to answer her, Diamond Tiara glanced to one side, trying to contain the urge to complain and pout.

She didn't manage for too long.

“If you're going to drag me over this whole stupid camp again, can we at least swing by the cabin?”

“Which cabin?”

My Cabin. Duh.”

“For what?”

“I need to get my-...” Diamond Tiara ended up trailing off again, as she thought about her conspicuously absent tiara.

“You need to get your...?” Stalwart prompted, without looking back.

The filly briefly turned her gaze towards her own hooves once more. A few seconds later she shook her head clear of her lingering thoughts “Tch! What are we even doing out here?!”

Again Stalwart failed to reply.

“...Well?” Diamond Tiara snapped, perturbed by the stallion's ongoing silence.

“I thought I explained myself rather completely back in the messhall.” Stalwart replied, without turning back or slowing his pace.

“Well, explain it again!” The filly demanded, even as she stomped her small hooves into the grass.

Stalwart managed to internalize the desire to roll his eyes, with only a modicum of effort. After a few more steps, the stallion quietly exhaled before answering “You missed out on the lesson yesterday.”

“So?”

“Remedial lesson.” Stalwart blandly supplied.

The filly briefly came to a stop at that, tilting her head towards the stallion as she tried to parse about what he meant “Wait...you're saying I've still got to waste time bucking pieces of wood?”

“It's not hard.”

“It's stupid.” Diamond Tiara sharply asserted.

“Also mandatory.”

“That's even stupider! Why do I have to learn this anyway?”

Stalwart stopped for a moment, before brushing the back of his head with his hoof. Letting out a sigh, he turned back towards the filly “The basic class is required, just to make sure you have something to fall back on if you're ever in danger. Once you-”

“It's bucking.”

“...Once you've gotten the basics out of the way, the rest of the self-defense courses are purely optional.” Stalwart patiently finished.

“Well-...what's in the rest of the courses?” Diamond Tiara asked, a bit curious now.

“I'm sure it wouldn't be of interest to you.”

“And why not?” The filly demanded.

“I imagine those courses would be a bit too challenging for you. Particularly since the other campers-” Stalwart glanced to the side, as he replied as nonchalantly as he could.

“You don't think I can do it?!”

“I'm sure if you put your mind to it-...though, you have already fallen behind the rest of the campers...”

“I have not!” Diamond Tiara sharply denied.

“It's fine. I'm sure you could catch up with the others if you wanted to...” The stallion mused.

“...Tch!” The filly snipped, before glaring off towards the other campers that were now gathering on the far side of the field.

“...And since you've made it clear that you don't want to do any of this, there's no real shame if you can't catch up with the others.” Stalwart continued on just a bit too nonchalantly, even as he ignored the glare the pink filly had transferred back to him.

“I already told you that I could do this if I wanted to!”

Stalwart gave a shrug at that “You just don't want it enough, obviously.”

Stymied by the unflappable stallion's stoicism, Diamond Tiara start shifting from one hoof to the other in pure frustration, scowling terribly as she reached her boiling point “You know what? Fine!”

“Pardon?” Stalwart queried, as the filly promptly turned tail and started marching off.

“We'll just see who can't buck!”

“I never said you couldn't-”

“In fact, I'll probably be bucking circles around the others before the day is even out!”

“...”

“I bet even you won't be able to keep up with me!” Diamond Tiara declared even as she continued to stomp away.

“...”

Drawing to a sudden halt, the Earth pony filly snapped her gaze back to the silent stallion “Well? Are you coming or not?!”

Calmly meeting the filly's glare, Stalwart quietly cleared his throat before pointing a hoof towards the other end of the field, where a lone training dummy remained. This happened to be in the exact opposite direction Diamond Tiara was marching.

Blinking as she realized the point he was trying to make, her cheeks briefly reddened “...Oh.”

Stalwart simply let one of his eyebrow's climb slowly upward.

“...Shut-up.” Diamond Tiara quietly groused as she marched back past the stallion, on the way to the training dummy now.

“Alright.” The guardpony easily acquiesced, before trailing after the filly.


Back with the rest of the campers...

“...”

“...”

“...”

A fair few of the campers at the forefront of the large crowd of foals easily caught the sight of Ms. Arcana raising an eyebrow at Lancer's uncharacteristic silence. Indeed, some of the older campers were starting to have some trouble suppressing their curiosity at this.

Scootaloo, having mostly gotten over her embarrassment caused by her earlier outburst, glanced towards the other campers gathered in the field, before sidling a bit closer to Delicacy and Snails.

Leaning towards Delicacy, the pegasus filly rose a hoof to her mouth before quietly speaking her mind “Do you think she's going to say anything, soon?”

Glancing towards Scootaloo, the young unicorn seemed to give a moment of thought before giving a small hum “Uhm, I think we're just supposed to wait. Everyone else seems to be doing that.”

Scootaloo gave a frown at that, as she noticed a couple of other campers starting to mutter to themselves “How long though? And what for?”

“...Dramatic effect?” Delicacy quietly proposed.

“Maybe she forgot what she was going to say?”

Both fillies jumped in mild surprise as Snails offered his own thoughts on the matter. In a very audible and not at all discreet manner.

Indeed, both Scootaloo and Delicacy were staring at the young colt with mild horror, along with a good portion of the other campers. The remaining portion of the campers were quietly watching for the intimidating Lancer to react to the rather loudly stated notion.

After several seconds, Lancer found herself letting out a quiet sigh, before slowly facehoofing.

Turning to the side before rolling her own eyes, Arcana cleared her throat before gesturing a hoof towards her pegasus friend “I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. Would you mind terribly restarting, Ms. Lancer?”

Sparing only a brief glance for the green-coated unicorn's words, Lancer again glanced out upon the crowd of waiting foals. Taking in a small breath, as she reminded herself that she was absolutely in her element, Lancer ran over the practiced words in her head. There was no special reason to treat this year as being any different than any other.

Apart from all the departures from the norm she was making this year.

And she was fairly sure that they were all good ideas anyway and she was in-charge now, so...

Shifting the padded training-weapon held under her wing into a more comfortable position, the pegasus used that brief motion as a point of focus, shooing away her remaining errant thoughts.

Briefly clearing her throat, Lancer straightened out her posture before finally addressing the campers in her usual authoritative tone “Right...First of all, I'd like to open things by making it absolutely clear that these additional lessons are strictly voluntary. Unlike yesterday's lesson, you should feel perfectly free to opt-out if the subject matter makes any of you uncomfortable. At any, and I do mean any, point in the lesson.”

This was greeted by surprised, and somewhat concerned, looks from many of the campers. This was especially the case with many of the younger campers, as they wondered what could be so bad that the already intimidating mare would let them opt out of it. That many of the older campers seemed a bit thrown did little to reassure.

Scootaloo and Delicacy just seemed relieved that Snails hadn't gotten them or himself into hot water with the Camp Director.

“I guess we're not in trouble, after all...Kinda feels weird, actually.” The sole member of the CMC observed.

“Why would we be in-” Snails began to ask, again in far too loud a voice, before being stopped by a pale blue hoof covering his mouth.

Following said hoof to its owner would lead to a blushing Delicacy, who quickly removed her hoof before giving the colt a sheepish smile.

Even by his typical standards, Snails found this a bit confusing.

Scootaloo just gave a shake of her head at this before turning her attention back to Lancer.

“That being said, I would encourage all of you to stick around through all of today's planned lessons, as we will be imparting some information that I believe is very important for everyone to have.” Lancer gave a brief nod, seemingly to herself, before beginning to pace over to a pile over training equipment “We will be discussing some matters that many ponies find patently discomforting, and in a frank, direct manner that many of you will find uncommon. Many of our older campers will notice some very obvious differences in this year's lessons, I'm sure.”

Coming to a pause by the pile of padded training weapons, Lancer turned back to look at the crowd of campers, as if to make sure she had their undivided attention. Slowly casting her gaze over the gathered foals, a few couldn't help but fidget a bit as the silence wore on.

The quiet was suddenly dispelled as Arcana gave a very audible sigh, surprising a few of the campers, before the older unicorn spoke-up “Tell us, Ms. Lancer, what is it you are going to be teaching us today?”

Lancer found herself closing her eyes, before letting out an annoyed huff.

A moment later, Arcana found Rockette nudging her in the side with a hoof, as the middle-aged pegasus leaned in to speak “Perhaps we can try being a bit more supportive, don't you think?”

Arcana gave off a snort, before speaking loudly enough for just about everypony gathered to hear “This is me being supportive.” Turning her attention back towards Lancer, the older unicorn then rose a hoof to her mouth before calling over “Perhaps some sort of demonstration is called for, Ms. Lancer! So you could show us all just what it is you are going to be teaching!”

Pursing her lips, Lancer slowly turned towards her unicorn friend “...Thank you, Arcana. What would I do without you?”

Arcana, utterly unbothered by the ire being sent her way, gave an easy shrug “Not much, apparently.”

Giving a shake of her head, one could visibly see Lancer finally giving in “Right...I'll be needing someone to assist. And I don't suppose that's something you'll be volunteering for, Arcana?”

“I do believe I've done my good deed for the day.” Arcana easily responded, earning a exasperated look from Rockette.

“Very well, then.” Lancer took a moment to shift the padded polearm from under one wing to the other, with an easy twirl “If I could get somepony with a basic foundation in weapons handling...?”

That got the crowd of foals to focus their collective attention.

“W-weapons?” Delicacy quietly exclaimed, already considering taking up Lancer's offer to let her excuse herself from the proceedings.

“Does she mean like with swords and shields and stuff? That's so cool!” Came Scootaloo's excited whispering.

“But-”

The pegasus filly didn't even seem to notice Delicacy's quiet objections the notion “Maybe they'll even let us get into some cool sword fights or something.”

“-it could be-”

“Oh, neat!” Snails quickly agreed with Scoots assessment, smiling happily at the notion, before turning towards Delicacy “You want to have a really cool sword fight, Deli?”

“-and what if-...me?” Delicacy suddenly halted her muttered worries as she realized that the unicorn colt was speaking to her.

“Uh-huh!” Snails easily nodded.

“You want to-...with me?”

“Uh-huh!” This was accompanied by another nod from the goofy colt.

“I-...okay then.” Delicacy ducked her head down, trying to hide her blushing.

“Yeah! And maybe Scoots can go with DT!” Snails suggested.

“Yeah! And- wait what?” The orange filly's excitement coming to an abrupt halt, as she processed just what Snails had suggested “Hold on. Why am I getting stuck with-”

Before Scootaloo could inquire as to why she was going to be stuck with Diamond Tiara, everyone's attention was drawn to the fore, as Lancer spoke up “I am going to need someone that is reasonably proficient if we're going to be doing this.”

Between the absence of Stalwart Gaze and Sea Breeze, and Arcana already shooting the notion down, there remained a fairly narrow field of candidates to choose from. Lancer certainly didn't expect Rockette to take on the role, so the campers and staff were soon turning expectant looks towards Brick Brawn and Silver Shield.

For Brick Brawn's part, he seemed fairly content to avoid anyone's gaze, all too wary of getting into anything resembling a sparring match with the burly pegasus mare.

Silver Shield, perhaps not picking up on his fellow stallion's reluctance, gave a bemused shrug and raised a hoof up “I'd be happy to assist.”

Lancer let an eyebrow raise up a bit at the young unicorn, before shrugging in-turn “Alright, feel free to pick up a training-weapon whenever you're ready...”


About ten minutes later...

“Told you I could do it if I wanted to!”

“Mm-Hmm.”

“And you know what? It was easy. Like, I don't know why you even bothered, it was so easy.”

“I didn't think it would give you much trouble.”

“Right? I mean, I don't know what Applebloom thinks is so special about bucking.”

“I suppose you showed her...whoever she is.” Stalwart again conceded, not yet inclined to disrupt the little pink filly's crowing. Indeed, he was lending much more of his attention to the large group of campers that they were even now approaching.

“Heh. I bet even Applebloom wouldn't have gotten the hang of it that quickly.” Diamond Tiara noted from the stallion's side, still holding her head up high. Which incidentally, did little to similarly bring her attention to her fellow foals and just what seemed to be holding their collective attention.

“I wouldn't really know about this Applebloom.” The stallion quietly pointed out, without looking her way.

Diamond Tiara spared a moment from her boasting to glance at the stallion “Huh? Oh, well she's not really-”

“Gyahhhh! Oooo-mph!”

Both foal and stallion came to an abrupt stop, as they both watched a white and lilac blur fly through the air, before rolling to a stop at the hooves of the two ponies. Shortly after that, a wooden training sword followed through the air to thump into the ground near their hooves.

A moment later, a dazed Silver Shield was staring up into the bemused frown that Diamond Tiara was sending his way “What happened to you?”

Giving a dizzy shake of his head at the filly's question, the unicorn stallion couldn't muster up anymore than a few sloppily muttered words “S-something-...don't know...I don't-”

“I can't leave you alone for even a few minutes, can I?” Stalwart ruefully noted.

“Uh, seriously. What's going on?” Diamond Tiara demanded, turning her inquiry towards the larger Earth pony stallion with a raised hoof.

“If I had to guess, a lesson in the matter of the aerodynamics of your typical pony.” Stalwart Gaze noted, while still casting an eye towards the dazed Silver Shield.

“More like leverage.” Arcana corrected a moment later, as she strode over towards the incapacitated stallion. Lancer was only a few steps behind her, still holding the padded spear under her wing as she approached.

Standing just to the side, as Arcana gave a cursory looking over of Silver Shield, Lancer glanced away in apparent discomfort “I recall telling you that this was a bad idea...”

“Nonsense. He's fine.” The academic quickly dismissed with a wave of her hoof, before leaning in towards Silver Shield to examine him more closely “Nothing's missing. He still has most of his faculties. Mr. Shield will be walking this off within a few minutes, I'm sure.”

“Where 'm I walkin'?” The unicorn stallion muttered, still in a daze.

A number of other campers took this moment to rush over to their little gathering.

“Mr. Shield has suffered enough, I think. It's time we moved on from this notion.” Lancer sternly stated, even as she spared a moment of her attention to take note of Diamond Tiara.

Furrowing her brow, as she took note of this, Diamond Tiara's face quickly became pinched with annoyance “What notion?”

“Is Mr. Shield hurt?” One colt suddenly asked, garnering an unseen look of chagrin from Lancer.

As if on cue, Arcana's horn lit up with a light blue glow. A similar glow surrounding Silver Shield's head, lasting for a few moments, before disappearing as quickly as it had arrived.

“He's fine.” The middle-aged unicorn calmly declared.

Concealing her own relief, Lancer gave a shake of her head, before focusing on adjusting the spear resting under her wing “Well, even so, now's probably a good time to end-”

“Please. Throwing Mr. Shield through the air several times hardly qualifies as a proper demonstration.” Arcana carried on, lightly stamping a hoof as she said this.

“I didn't do that bad...” Silver Shield tried to interject, still lying on his back on the ground.

The unicorn mare gave a nod towards the stallion “You see? Mr. Shield is already recovering. We can dust him off and see if he can't last a bit longer this time.”

“...How long did I last this time?” Silver Shield absently asked.

Her eyes briefly darting towards the stallion, Arcana used her magic to bring out her clipboard for her perusal “...Eight seconds. Easily double where you were in your first bout.”

Laying his head back down and closing his eyes, Silver Shield slumped into the grass a bit “Oh, that's good...”

Lancer gave a pointed look towards the exhausted stallion, before sending a look of abject skepticism towards Arcana.

“...He'll be fine in a few minutes.” Arcana flatly countered.

Lancer gave a shake of her head at her friend's stubborn insistence “Ok. That's enough. We're done with this, Arcana.”

“It would be irresponsible of me to let Shield continue with this. Even if he was willing.” Stalwart Gaze quietly interjected before Arcana could continue her argument.

Frowning, as the stallion apparently took a side in their discussion, Arcana cast her gaze for another solution. She quickly settled her eyes upon Brick Brawn.

“You, Mr. Brawn. You have some experience with the handling of arms, do you not?” Arcana sharply called out to the stallion.

Jumping a bit, as everyponies attention was suddenly drawn his way, Brick Brawn found himself being stared at by several dozen expectant campers. Cringing a bit as he took in their hopeful looks, the stallion furtively glanced Lancer's way, as he brought a hoof up to rub the back of his neck “I, well, that would have been part of my training, yes.”

Arcana gave a sharp nod at that response “Excellent. If you would-”

“Oh. No...” Brick Brawn awkwardly denied with a shake of his head. Seeing the expectant, questioning look being sent his way by the unicorn mare, he had to think for a few moments before responding “I can't today, because...I slept on my neck funny?”

Lancer let out a huff of a laugh at this, before starting her way back towards the other side of the field “Well, now that we have that settled we can-”

“If you need someone that can handle a weapon, I could substitute for Shield.”

Again everypony's attention shifted, this time towards Stalwart Gaze, as the stallion calmly picked up the fallen practice sword from beside the fallen Silver Shield. As implacable as ever, when the stallion had a firm grip on the sword's hilt in his mouth, he gave a dull shrug towards the surprised Lancer.

“No need to stop things.” The burly stallion added, speaking around the handle of the weapon.

Lancer, still a bit surprised that someone had volunteered to 'assist' her with the demonstration, was only broken from her thoughts when Arcana audibly cleared her throat.

Having gotten the warrior pegasus' attention, the unicorn mare gestured towards the irate pink filly “She did miss your earlier demonstrations with Mr. Shield.”

“I still don't know what's going on here!” Diamond Tiara finally snapped, punctuating her words with a forceful stomp of her forehooves. For Stalwart Gaze's part, he simply let one of his eyebrows climb it's way up his brow, giving a far more mild reaction to the outburst than anypony else.

Lancer spared a few more moments to send a disapproving look Diamond Tiara's way, one that the filly refused to be bothered by. Letting out a sigh, the pale-coated pegasus looked over the gathered campers before making a gesturing nod towards Diamond Tiara “Go rejoin your cabinmates.”

Paying no mind to the petulant look being sent way by the pink filly, Lancer started leading the other campers back whence they came “Alright. Let's get this over with.

Arcana again pulled out her clipboard as she followed after, with Rockette following a moment later.

“...This would be part of those more advanced lessons, I mentioned earlier.” Stalwart quietly explained to Diamond Tiara.

“Well, what is it? A lesson in being confusing?” The filly irritably demanded of the older stallion, as she stepped around the supine Silver Shield. Most of the others seemed content to leave the younger stallion be, as they followed after Lancer.

Stopping briefly to check on Silver Shield, Stalwart Gaze replied in his usual placid manner “Not exactly.”


A few minutes later...

“So, uhm...what have you been up to since breakfast?”

Diamond Tiara sent a skeptical look Scootaloo's way, as the pegasus filly awkwardly tried to open up a dialogue with her “Uh, why do you care?”

Scootaloo found herself swallowing, as the pink filly focused on her “Well, I-I don't. I was just...curious. It wasn't really all that clear what Mr. Stalwart wanted with you.”

“Tch! Nothing important.” Diamond Tiara tersely said, before then turning her attention back towards Lancer and Stalwart Gaze. Briefly glancing that way revealed that the two adults seemed to be doing some quick warm-up stretches.

Frowning a bit at this response, Scootaloo briefly brought a hoof up to rub the back of her other foreleg. Turning from one side to the other, the orange filly eventually settled for staring at her hooves. Steeling herself, she eventually decided she couldn't let things go unsaid for any longer “Uh, Diamond Tiara?”

“Huh?” The pink filly grunted and sparing only a brief bit of her attention for the pegasus filly, being far more intent on what was going on with the adults and the padded weapons.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Scootaloo pushed ahead “...Alright. Look. I kinda meant to say this the other day, but then we got into that argument and...yeah. Then you got into that other fight and-...None of that's really important. I just wanted to say that I'm sor-”

“What are they doing?” Diamond Tiara interrupted with a tilt of her head.

“Huh?” Scootaloo cleverly replied.

“I said, what are they doing? And why are they carrying around those toy weapons?” The pink filly irritably reiterated.

“What?...Oh, uhm, I don't know. But Ms. Lancer said they aren't really toys-” The orange filly bemusedly tried to explain.

“Ms. Lancer seemed really serious about that.” Delicacy noted from one side, her own attention for what the adults were up to broken by the discussion.

Scootaloo gave an awkward nod at that, before again trying to approach Diamond Tiara “Uh, yeah...Anyway, like I was saying-”

“Hey, DT!” Snails abruptly interjected, drawing a few looks from the nearby campers.

“Stop calling me that.” Diamond Tiara demanded, her eyes narrowing a bit at Snails' use of the nickname.

“Stop calling you what, DT?” Snails inquired with an entirely earnest amount of confusion. After several seconds of silence, the colt gave a shake of his head, before focusing back on Diamond Tiara “Hey, is it alright if you have your sword-fight with Scoots? Me and Deli were-”

“What sword-fight?” The pink filly blurted out.

“Uh-huh.” Snails nodded with a smile, not picking up on the implied question.

“Can this wait, Snails? There's something I really need to-” Scootaloo again tried to take the reins of the conversation.

Diamond Tiara utterly failed to notice, of course.

“Is that what they're doing?! They're going to make us fight with swords!” This loud exclamation from Diamond Tiara netted her some grumbling from the nearby campers, those that were actually trying to listen on what the adults were saying.

“Uh-huh.” Snails replied with an excited grin.

Delicacy held up a hoof at that “I don't think they're going to force us to do anything...”

Scootaloo couldn't help but bring a hoof up to her forehead and let out a quiet groan.

“Then what are they doing?!” Diamond Tiara again demanded, pointing a hoof towards the fairly distant Stalwart Gaze and Lancer, who now seemed to be taking a few questions from the other campers.

“Hey! Can you keep it down?” One of the other nearby campers called over in a loud whisper.

“Yeah. Some of us are trying to listen.” Another quickly added.

“Why don't you keep it down!” DT quickly snapped.

“Wha- you're the ones that keep talking!” The first camper countered, bewildered by the turnabout.

Scootaloo had to swallow down even more anxiety, as she once again found herself sitting at the center of everypony's attention.

Well, not really everypony.

Really, it was just small number of the closest foals in the crowd that were even looking their way.

But it really felt like everypony was staring, leading her to wonder why it was so hard to give a simple apology to the snobby Earth pony filly. Why did this all have to be so hard? Scootaloo soon found herself trying to tune it all out, screwing her eyes shut, as she tried to sort this out in her head.

She must have actually hurt her feelings. It was still a novel thought for Scootaloo to think that her nemesis could be hurt by words, just like she or her friends could. It had to be why the pink filly was acting so strange lately, right? Getting into fights. Forgetting her tiara and moping around. And she was pretty sure that Diamond Tiara had been trying to run away that night, when she came stumbling back into the cabin out of breath.

It was a pretty mean thing to say to someone, that no one would want to be friends with them.

Scootaloo felt bad about what she said to Diamond Tiara. That much she knew. Sure Diamond Tiara was a jerk. Sure she had teased Scootaloo and her friends all the time. Sure what she said probably had a bit too much truth to it. None of that stopped her from feeling bad about it and there was only one way she was going to stop feeling bad about it...

“Well, if we're the only ones that are talking, maybe you should shut-up!”

“Maybe you should try it for once!”

“I'm sorry.”

“We're really sorry-”

“No we're not!”

“You don't even know how to be quiet, do you?”

“Wha- why should I have to be quiet?!”

“Because no one wants to hear what you have to say?”

“I said, I'm sorry.”

“Lots of ponies want to hear what I have to say!”

“Please. Who would want to hear what a snob has to say anyway?”

“Yeah, I bet there's hardly anypony that can even stand to be around-”

“I'M SORRY!”

“...”

“...”

“...”

Ok, now everypony was actually staring at Scootaloo. Or very nearly everypony.

Including Diamond Tiara.

“I, uh-...” The orange filly briefly glanced around, before focusing her gaze down towards the grass in front of her. Anxiously pushing her purple mane from her eyes, she tried to swallow down her embarrassment before attempting to speak again “I mean, what I meant was- I didn't mean for-”

Scootaloo's lips snapped shut, as she felt a feathery-soft touch alight upon her withers. Literally so, as it quickly became apparent that it was a light-gray wing settling over her back that got her attention, one that happened to be attached to Mrs. Rockette.

“Mrs. Rockette?” Scootaloo was surprised to find that it was Delicacy that blurted out the question instead of herself.

The former Wonderbolt gave a brief reassuring smile, before turning back to the rest of the campers “It's alright everypony. Nothing to see here, so please redirect your attention back to Ms. Lancer and Mr. Gaze.”

The rest of the campers seemed briefly torn, their gazes darting between the Camp Director and the unfolding scene, collectively unsure where their attention should be.

Without any further concern for the rest of the foals, the pegasus mare adjusted her wing and started herding the confused young filly along.

Scootaloo had to resist the urge to dig her hooves in, as she gave into the light prodding and sheepishly tried to vocalize her confusion “Uhm, where are we-”

“Hey! What are you-” Scootaloo was cut-off, as Rockette started to guide a slightly outraged Diamond Tiara with her other wing. Unlike the little orange filly, DT quickly tried to resist Rockette's attempts to guide her along.

“We're just gonna find some place quiet for you two to talk.” Rockette calmly replied.

The pink filly blinked at this, before shifting her gaze towards the still rather embarrassed Scootaloo “But, I don't want to-”

Rockette was having none of it and when it became apparent that her wing wasn't going to be sufficient, she wasted no time in placing a hoof to her backside and prodding the filly along a bit more forcefully. Digging little furrows into the ground for about a second, Diamond Tiara found herself stumbling forward a bit, before she got her hooves back under her. The older mare didn't give her the chance to dig-in again and kept prodding her along, ensuring that Diamond Tiara kept pace.

“I-quit it!”

“Just this way.” Rockette repeated, as they steadily made progress away from the crowd of campers, leaving a bemused and concerned Snails and Delicacy to watch their progress.

Scootaloo spared a glanced back towards the rest of the camp, only to duck her head once more, her cheeks going red as she was reminded of what had just happened. Why did this have to keep happening to her?

“Alright, everypony! We're going to take a fifteen minute break!” The orange filly distantly heard Lancer call out to the rest of the campers, just as Rockette had them turn the corner of a building.

“Alright you two. I'll leave you to talk this out.” The mare matter-of-factly said. A short canter later and Rockette was getting ready to step back around the corner “I'll just be waiting over here until you're done.”

“Wait! You can't just-” Diamond Tiara exclaimed while reaching a hoof after the older pegasus.

“Try not to take too long.” The mare added as she left their sight, proving Diamond Tiara's attempts to stop her utterly futile.

There followed an awkward silence, where Diamond Tiara seemed to be making a concerted effort to not acknowledge Scootaloo. The little orange filly couldn't help but frown, even while her wings gave the occasional nervous twitch, as Diamond Tiara continued to stare after Mrs. Rockette.

Sidling up alongside the pink filly, Scootaloo watched her out of the corner of her eyes for a few moments, before eventually taking in a deep breath “So, uhm-”

Almost immediately, Diamond Tiara jerked her head away “Hmph!”

Briefly taken aback by being given the cold shoulder, Scootaloo had to shake herself back on track “Just- Listen, alright? I-...I didn't really mean for it-...I want to apologize, Diamond Tiara.”

Feeling a bit more strength at finally having said as much, Scootaloo tried to step back into the pink filly's line-of-sight. Her efforts to speak face-to-face were quickly thwarted, as Diamond Tiara immediately turned away the moment she noticed the attempt.

Overtly frowning now, Scootaloo tried to quickly circle back around the other way, only for Diamond Tiara to once again avoid her. Pausing to give out a small sound of frustration, Scootaloo found herself speaking through gritted teeth “Will you quit that!”

“No.” As if to drive the point even further home, Diamond Tiara turned her nose up a bit further and closed her eyes.

“Wha- but you have to let me apologize!” Scootaloo exclaimed in growing outrage at this behavior.

“No, I don't.”

“But-”

“You can't make me.”

“Will you just let me-”

“I don't want your apology.”

“Well, too bad!” Scootaloo finally snapped. Taking a moment to plant all four of her hooves firmly on the ground, she looked back up to the prissy Earth pony “Cause I'm not going anywhere until you let me apologize to you!”

“...Is that supposed to scare me?” Diamond Tiara asked with apparent skepticism. Still, the fact that she was now, at least, looking at Scootaloo could be counted as progress.

“I- no. But-” The pegasus filly fruitlessly responded. She had to take another moment to keep from getting distracted by that, before taking another deep breath “I just want to apologize for-”

Scootaloo again found herself cut-off, though this time it was by way of a pink hoof shoving her backwards “Quit it!”

“Wha- you quit it!” Scootaloo quickly countered after re-planting her hooves.

“No, you!”

“You started it!”

Both fillies eventually settled for glaring at one another, neither apparently willing to give ground.

Yet again, this was not how Scootaloo had wanted this to go.

She wasn't getting anywhere just standing around exchanging angry looks with the obstinate Earth pony filly and if anything it seemed like things were only getting worse. At this rate, they were going to end up just going there separate ways again, angrier than ever with one another, leaving Scootaloo to keep wondering just how badly she felt about what she had said to Diamond Tiara.

Well, that couldn't happen.

“I'm sorry I hurt your feelings!”

Diamond Tiara seemed briefly surprised by the swiftly, and loudly, blurted out apology. But, her face soon hardened and she quickly shouted back “You didn't hurt my feelings!”

“What?”

“You didn't hurt my feelings and I didn't cry! So stop apologizing!”

This was unexpected.

This really was just about the last thing Scootaloo had expected to happen. And considering the number of crazy things she had come to see as fairly run-of-the-mill, that was saying quite a bit. If Diamond Tiara had simply been angry or dismissive or just generally a huge jerk, she wouldn't have been too surprised. Scootaloo could even have honestly imagined a few scenarios where the pink filly just accepted the apology and they got along afterwards, for the most part. And she wouldn't have ruled out Discord showing up for no other reason than to make her day weirder. All of those possibilities seemed entirely plausible to the orange filly.

But, Diamond Tiara pretending that she wasn't even upset was just too...

Pretending.

That was the operative word.

And it made sense. It wasn't exactly unheard of for Diamond Tiara to bend the truth or gloss over things or even outright fib. Particularly when it came to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. There were plenty of occasions where she would do it to make them feel bad or avoid getting in trouble. And there were probably a fair number of times when she would deny any number of things to avoid embarrassment.

So, why wouldn't she now?

'Oh.'

There was definitely a very tangible moment where Scootaloo could feel herself finally making the connections in her head. Looking over towards Diamond Tiara once more, it was apparent that the pink filly was going back to her strategy of quietly brooding once more. But, even that seemed to help confirm this notion in her head.

“...Sorry.”

“I already told you-”

“I know.” Scootaloo cut-in before Diamond Tiara could get to riled up “And even if you're fine with it, I still feel bad about what I said.”

She did.

Scootaloo had gotten into plenty of arguments before and had called out the pink filly more than a few times. But, she couldn't recall a time when she had specifically said something to really hurt anyone. Even Diamond Tiara.

And what she said had very clearly hurt Diamond Tiara.

“I'm sorry about what I said, back in the woods. There's- there's probably plenty of ponies that would want to be your friend...even when you're kind of being a jerk.”

Scootaloo flinched back a bit when she saw Diamond Tiara's head jerk up at that last bit, almost as if she was about to loudly object to being called a jerk. But, to her surprise, the prissy filly just ended up letting out an annoyed huff and glaring off to the side.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Scootaloo tried to quietly clear her throat, but was stopped when she heard the pink filly mutter something.

“Uh, what was that?” Scootaloo immediately asked, reflexively tilting her head forward to hear better.

After a couple of seconds of quiet grumbling, the pink filly seemed to swallow before speaking her mind once again “I said, I never cried.”

Scootaloo frowned at that response for a moment, before glancing off to the side herself “Well...I never cried either.”

That was a lie.

Though she was fairly sure that Diamond Tiara knew that.

...Maybe. It was kinda hard to tell.

“It's, uhm, I mean I didn't cry either, when you sometimes said-”

“I got it!” Diamond Tiara snapped, before again glaring off to one side.

Scootaloo found herself licking her lips, before clearing her throat “Maybe we should-”

“I'm not a-” Diamond Tiara began at the same time, leading to both abruptly pausing.

“...What?” Scootaloo eventually asked.

The pink filly just gave an annoyed snort “Nothing.”

Scootaloo gave a rueful shrug at that, before proffering a hoof towards her fellow filly “Ok...maybe we should go find Mrs. Rockette, so we can head back.”

Diamond Tiara gave another huff of a sigh at that “Fine. Let's just-”

“Are the two of you done talking things out?” A familiar voice called from just beyond the corner of the building. A moment later, Rockette popped her head back around the corner “If you two still need a few moments-”

“Have you been there this whole time?!” Diamond Tiara demanded.

Blinking in momentary surprise at the question, the older mare gave a smile before answering “Of course. I wasn't going to leave the two of you unsupervised.”

“So, you heard everything we were saying?” Scootaloo asked in a quieter, though also rather distressed, tone.

“Oh, calm down. I don't recall hearing anything too embarrassing.” Rockette replied with a wave of her hoof.

“That's not the point! That was a private conversation!” Diamond Tiara angrily exclaimed.

Raising a hoof up to her mouth, Rockette gave a sheepish look “Oh. I'm sorry for interrupting. Was there anything else you needed to say to Ms. Scootaloo?”

The pink filly came up a bit short at that, her mouth hanging open as she briefly glanced towards Scootaloo “I- Well-...I don't know!”

“We can spare a couple of more minutes, if there are any other personal matters you need to discuss.” The grey mare offered again.

The young pegasus briefly got to watch, as Diamond Tiara seemed to struggle and sputter over the relatively simple question of whether or not she had anything she wanted to say to Scootaloo. She even found herself giving a helpless shrug towards the Earth pony filly, when Diamond Tiara ended up looking her way.

“This- Can we just go?!” Diamond Tiara eventually blurted out, before stomping past the former Wonderbolt, as Scootaloo watched in confusion.

For Rockette's part, she seemed to give something between a nod and a shrug, before extending a hoof out to the bemused pegasus filly “How about you?”

Blinking, as she was shaken from her thoughts, Scootaloo took a moment to process the quesiton before giving a quick nod and running over “Yes, ma'am!”

The older mare quickly lead her off after Diamond Tiara, perhaps the only one of the three that was unbothered by recent happenings “So...do you feel any better after your little talk with Ms. Tiara?”

Glancing up at the question, Scootaloo found her attention turning back towards the pink filly ahead of them. For a second, she thought she saw Diamond Tiara looking back her way, before the pink filly quickly turned her attention elsewhere.

This whole thing left Scootaloo feeling confused, uncertain, embarrassed, a little bit exhausted, and wondering if anything had actually changed. And she was rather given over to thinking that it might be the same for Diamond Tiara, especially given how much trouble it had proven to be prying anything out of her.

Did she feel any better after her talk with Diamond Tiara?

“Kinda.”