Trouble
The Cutie Mark Crusaders, namely Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, as Scootaloo remained silent, finally told their teacher of the suffering they endured at the hooves of their classmates. From the taunting for lacking their Cutie Marks, to the turning of Apple Bloom’s cousin against them, they covered it. From the humiliation about the Apple Family customs, to the threats of humiliation at the fillies’ stint on the Foal Free Press, they covered that too. Then, the more recent, and much more antagonistic attempts to dissuade Scootaloo enough to concede from the Flag Carrying trials were finally put to be put on the table.
Cheerilee had been all but silent, doing naught but quickly scribbling the accounts on her papers (the initial sheet proved to be insufficient). Here however, she interrupted Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom’s frantic portrayal of the events.
“You can’t fly?” She asked Scootaloo with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Scootaloo, whom had been listening the entire time, her stare glued to the desk she was sitting in (focused mainly on a blot of ink that had wandered astray from the paper and dried atop the wooden surface). Without looking up, she sighed deeply and offered her equally subtle answer.
“No. I can’t.”
Cheerilee’s cheeks grew red, having expected something a bit more engaging and open ended than that. Scootaloo only seemed to sink lower into her seat, just as quiet as before.
“I didn’t mean to offend- I just – you always seemed so – I guess I never…. I’m sorry.” Cheerilee sputtered.
“That’s just the thing Miss Cheerilee,” Sweetie Belle explained. “Scootaloo’s real sensitive about not being able to fly yet. When Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon told her that it would be shameful for her to represent the Pegasi of Ponyville if she couldn’t fly, she took it really hard.”
“Hey!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “I’m right here, you know!”
“We know you’re here, but how are we supposed to tell her what’s been happenin’ if we avoid talkin’ bout’ cha?” Apple Bloom asked her.
“I-I don’t know. It’s just weird hearing other ponies talking about me, that’s all,” Scootaloo answered. Truthfully, she hated listening to this story. She didn’t like the way she acted, and it was embarrassing listening to the account.
“If you don’t like hearing your friends talking about you,” Cheerilee said quietly. “Why don’t you tell us the parts about you yourself?”
“Now there’s an idea!” Sweetie Belle cried excitedly.
“I really don’t think I should – I’ve been told I’m awful at storytelling,” Scootaloo replied with reluctance.
“It’s not like that bizarre campfire story you told,” Apple Bloom reminded her. “It ain’t about storytelling at all, matter of fact – it’s about telling the truth.”
“Well, I guess I can try…” Scootaloo sighed once more, going back to the beginning of that day that she had relived many times on her own, yet had never narrated. Here goes nothing… she thought.
“That routine that you saw, the one we won with, that’s the one we had come up with at first,” she explained. “After we showed it to Rainbow Dash, she seemed really… unenthusiastic about the whole thing.”
“She was just being professional,” Sweetie Belle interrupted her. “She told us that she loved our routine from the get-go, but she couldn’t express favoritism so early. She told us on the way to the Crystal Empire.” She added to Scootaloo’s quizzical expression.
“Right,” Scootaloo nodded. “Anyways, after we finished performing for her, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon came over, congratulating us for being so – so brave. Brave for having a Pegasus that can’t fly represent them for Ponyville.” She felt Apple Bloom’s hoof on her right shoulder.
“Keep goin’,” she told her encouragingly.
“And I – I saw Rainbow Dash watching other Pegasus routines, watching ones younger than me flying around and doing tricks and loops, and I just – I just became convinced that the only – THE ONLY – way to do my race proud was to fly,” Scootaloo continued, her sentences becoming less and less fluid as she carried on. “I became obsessed, I had this idea that everypony in the crowd would be watching for me to do anything except take off. I-I forced us to change the routine, one to showcase me flying. I kept on going all day, and poor Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle… They worked so hard, and I just – I just couldn’t do it.”
“They went home to get some rest, and I stayed on that stage all night trying so hard to just finally take off, and nothing happened,” Scootaloo’s voice cracked. “I gave up. I met the girls at the train station, and told them I couldn’t represent Ponyville, and that I wasn’t going to go to the Crystal Empire.”
Apple Bloom rubbed her hoof a bit harder than normal on Scootaloo’s shoulder, before pushing off of it. “This is mah part next,” she started. “Just so y’all know, Ah ain’t proud of it neither.”
Cheerilee had stopped writing, and hearing Apple Bloom’s much more stable and steady drawl, she was reminded that she was supposed to be documenting what they were telling her. Hastily, she scribbled down an account of Scootaloo’s story, just in time for her to capture Apple Bloom’s details.
“Ah should have encouraged her to come with us, and to try at least, but Ah… Ah told her that the Cutie Mark Crusaders didn’t need no quitters. If she was gonna give up, then I wasn’t going to try and stop her,” Apple Bloom admitted.
“We were both still pretty upset about the new routine,” Sweetie Belle tried to explain. “Neither of us were in a really clear state of mind, because I… I agreed with her.”
“Thank you kindly, Sweetie Belle, but you don’t need to offer excuses on mah behalf. I shouldn’ta been so hasty to give up on mah friend, plain and simple,” Apple Bloom said humbly.
Sweetie Belle used this opportunity to pick up the mantle, and resume their story.
“While we were on the train by ourselves, Rainbow Dash found us, and she told us how much she loved our routine and hoped we would win. When she found out what Scootaloo, and what we, did, she stopped the train so that we could get off and convince Scootaloo to change her mind.”
“And as we were getting off the train,” Sweetie Belle continued, her tone of voice changing from a soft and sweet one to one bearing naught but annoyance. “We heard Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon laughing at us, telling us how they would see us from the winner’s circle.”
“Is that so?” Cheerilee inquired, writing on another sheet of paper without looking at it, instead looking at Silver Spoon, who had taken Scootaloo’s position in sitting in her desk looking straight down.
“Mhm,” Sweetie Belle nodded. “Thankfully, we were able to get Scootaloo to come to her senses and we made it back in time for the trials. Which, we won,” she added nonchalantly.
“Yes, yes, you did, it was quite good,” Cheerilee agreed quickly, glancing at the clock. There was only fifteen minutes left for recess. “I hate to sound like I’m rushing you girls, but what happened today that led up to the fight?” Perhaps she wasn’t expecting such an extensive history of teasing and general soreness between her students, but time had certainly flown.
“Right, right,” Apple Bloom said. “Well, when we got to class today, Diamond Tiara told us that her presentation would be one that Scootaloo would appreciate, or somethin’ like that. Everythin’ was goin’ fine up until her presentation.”
“Her presentation seemed acceptable to me,” Cheerilee rationalized. “Granted, it was an unusual holiday, but it seemed plenty exciting. She was quite adept at delivering it too.”
“Well, she got even adepter once you left!” Sweetie Belle cried. “As soon as you walked out the door, she became loud, rude, and angry.”
“She basically stopped actin’,” Apple Bloom added.
“Girls... focus, please. What happened next?” Cheerilee asked again, her eyes meeting the clock face again.
“She started going about how only the weak or disabled fliers were chosen for that Storm Ward’s studies, and then… Silver Spoon came back in,” Sweetie Belle continued.
“She came in dressed as Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom revealed. “Hoppin’ around, makin’ fun of Scootaloo tryin’ to fly.”
“Hold on a second,” interrupted Cheerilee. “Dressed as Scootaloo? Are you sure you girls aren’t just skewing things a bit? That seems like a bit of a stretch.”
“They aren’t,” Silver Spoon finally spoke. It was a quiet, trembling voice. She looked up at Cheerilee, her eyes wide and baleful. “I came in after the bell went off with the costume on.”
“So then… the bell? Was that you?” Cheerilee asked incredulously.
Silver Spoon nodded. “We had it planned so that you wouldn’t be in the room for the last part of the presentation. We’ve been testing the bell over the last two weeks to make sure it would work.”
Cheerilee grew red in the face, not at all pleased that she had been played by her students. “That explains that, then. May I see this costume?” She demanded, hasty to change the subject.
Silver Spoon wordlessly opened her left saddle bag, and using her mouth pulled out a messy purple manepiece. She placed it on the desk, where it was made clear that the style was the same short, tomboyish cut that Scootaloo wore. Scootaloo ran her hoof across her own mane, wondering exactly how they managed to replicate it.
Silver Spoon rummaged around in her pack some more, looking for additional components. She stopped, and pointed back towards the desks she and Diamond Tiara had been sitting in earlier. “The cape is over there. Diamond Tiara brought that in.” Scootaloo recalled stepping on it shortly after the fight, and again wondered where the two had acquired it.
“I see,” Cheerilee said flatly, coldly glancing away from a stung looking Silver Spoon. “Girls, what happened next?”
“Diamond Tiara continued with her presentation, talking about how the weak Pegasi would have their wings studied,” Sweetie Belle explained. “But then, she said that the uncooperative ones that didn’t want to be one of Storm Ward’s subjects would – they would-”
There was an almost inaudible sound that emanated from Silver Spoon’s desk, the very light crinkling of makeshift wings being placed gently on the wooden surface. Cheerilee’s eyes wandered to them, slowly connecting the dots from what she heard of the presentation thus far to the detached and mangled wings before her. At the base of them, there were small tufts of grey fur from Silver Spoon’s coat from where they had been ripped.
“That’s when we started to leave,” Apple Bloom said. “Unfortunately, Scootaloo fell by Diamond Tiara’s desk, and that’s when she sorta lost it.”
“I didn’t fall!” Scootaloo interrupted adamantly. “She tripped me.”
“Oh?” Cheerilee queried. She seemed more inclined to believing Scootaloo’s accusation after everything else she heard thus far, but still had to make sure that what she was hearing was true. “How do you know that?”
“She stuck her leg as I was walking past – I saw it when I was getting back up. And then she said…”
“What’d Diamond Tiara say to you, Scootaloo?” Cheerilee asked softly. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s ears both flicked - they evidently were curious as well.
“She said… she said that I was… a failure. A flightless, flunkout, failure of a Pegasus,” Scootaloo choked.
“Oh my… she said that to you?” Cheerilee expressed sympathetically. “She didn’t say anything else like that, did she?”
…No wonder your parents gave you up...
“...No. That was it.”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle glanced at each other. Neither of them heard Diamond Tiara say that, but something bothered the both of them about the manner Scootaloo answered.
Suddenly, the door to the classroom opened. The students had returned from recess, five minutes early, just as their teacher requested. The first student, a pale blue Pegasus stared wide eyed at the scene before her.
“Cotton Cloudy,” Cheerilee addressed the filly. “Could you please close the door, and make sure no other students come in? I just need two more minutes.”
“Y-Yes, Miss Cheerilee!” the filly obeyed, pulling the door closed as she returned to the hall.
“Alright girls, I’m going to make this quick,” Cheerilee said. “I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what happened today. Scootaloo, you are suspended from school for the next two weeks. I am sure I don’t need to explain why.”
Scootaloo shook her head curtly. “No, ma’am.”
“Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, I will be giving you Scootaloo’s schoolwork to deliver back and forth to her and me.”
“Yes ma’am,” they chorused.
“Silver Spoon, you are being suspended for one week,” Cheerilee finished.
“One week? But I only hit her once!” Silver Spoon protested.
“…Which would normally be a two day suspension, according to school policy,” Cheerilee conceded. “However, in addition to that, yours and Diamond Tiara’s behavior today was also completely unacceptable. Remember when I said that students in my care are to feel safe when they come to school?”
Silver Spoon merely grumbled in the affirmative.
“Not only does that apply to fighting and hitting, but it also goes for bullying and harassment as well,” Cheerilee explained matter-of-factly.
“But, I’m not – we’re not-” Silver Spoon sputtered.
“Now that that’s clear, Scootaloo and Silver Spoon, both of you are dismissed immediately. Field trips are a privilege, not a right. With what transpired today, neither of you have earned it.”
Scootaloo nodded solemnly, and Silver Spoon did so indignantly.
Silver Spoon lifted herself from her desk, leaving the evidence on it. As she hastily trotted to the door with a frown on her face, Apple Bloom raised her hoof in the air, vying for her teacher’s attention. “Yes, Apple Bloom?”
“Miss Cheerilee, do Ah have to go on the field trip?”
“What do you mean?” Cheerilee inquired.
“Well, Ah think Ah’d rather go with Scootaloo and make sure she’s alright,” Apple Bloom stated.
Scootaloo coughed again. “Right here, Apple Bloom…”
“Ah know. You can take over whenever you like,” Apple Bloom acknowledged.
Scootaloo sighed, steeling herself once more. “Miss Cheerilee, would it be alright if Apple Bloom accompanied me back home?”
“And me! And me!”
“…and Sweetie Belle too?”
Cheerilee looked sternly at the three, who were staring back at her with the biggest pleading eyes they could muster. And then, she smiled.
“Of course they can. On one condition,” she added.
“Anything!”
“Name it!”
Cheerilee folded the sheets of paper she had been writing on neatly in half, placing them face down on the desk to prevent them from opening up again. She opened the top drawer of her desk and withdrew a large beige envelope. Carefully, she inserted the sheets of paper into the (considerably stuffed) envelope and sealed it shut by running her tongue across the adhesive lining the opening before pressing them it closed.
“I want you to deliver this to the Princess when you are finished. I would do it myself if not for the field trip,” she requested.
“Princess Celestia?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking confused as to how the three fillies were supposed to deliver it all the way to Canterlot before the school day was out.
“No, Sweetie Belle,” Cheerilee laughed. “To Princess Twilight, right here in Ponyville. She’s taken a very keen interest in how things are run at school, and she will no doubt wish to see this report.”
“Of course. You can count on us!” Apple Bloom cried.
Cheerilee rose from her desk, and began to walk towards the door of the classroom, behind which a bountiful supply of laughter and chatter could be heard from the students congregated outside. “I hope so, Apple Bloom. I’m going to check with Princess Twilight later, and if I found out she didn’t get it, you three will be in quite a bit of trouble.”
“We’ll see to it that she gets it,” Apple Bloom reassured her.
“Good,” Cheerilee stated. “Oh, and Scootaloo?”
“Yes ma’am?” Scootaloo answered with trepidation.
"I want to see you after school on Monday, where you will be presenting your Equestrian holiday for me. Take the sign-up sheet with you on the way out,” Cheerilee told her, ripping the aforementioned sheet from the door, placing her hoof on the handle preparing to open it.
“You mean that you’re still going to let me do the make-up?” Scootaloo asked her in disbelief. “Even after – even after what I did?”
“I told you that I would, didn’t I?” Cheerilee held the sheet in her outstretched hoof.
Scootaloo trotted up to her teacher, and grappled the piece of paper with her hoof. She looked at it, noticing a red smudge where she had initially held it before making adjustments. Now she really needed to clean herself up, instead of just needing an excuse to leave the classroom.
“Thanks, Miss Cheerilee. I won’t let you down,” Scootaloo promised.
“I figured as much, Scootaloo,” Cheerilee answered, her voice lined with the trademark patience and understanding she always used again. It was a far cry from the angry and disappointed tonality from earlier. “It’s my job to teach to a standard, but I have to understand that mistakes will happen, and to adjust accordingly. I couldn’t teach acceptance to my students if I didn’t practice it myself, could I?”
“I uhh… I guess not,” Scootaloo replied, not entirely sure why her teacher said that the way she did.
“Alright girls, run along now,” Cheerilee said, opening the door to an audible wall of chatting ponies. “I’ll see you on Monday, Scootaloo, and don’t forget that letter, girls!”
“We won’t!” Apple Bloom shouted over the cacophony as the trio stepped into the hall, which was made unnecessary as every sound stopped the instant they were visible to their classmates. Scootaloo looked at the myriad expressions of her classmates. Some of them were scared. Others just raised their eyebrow at her, as though they didn’t recognize her. Others simply snickered under their breath as they passed. Scootaloo lowered her head, following Apple Bloom’s bobbing red tail in front of her while avoiding the looks she knew she was being given.
Apple Bloom’s tail turned to the right, and Scootaloo followed. She heard the door creak open, and inhaled the powdery scent she recognized as that of the restroom. She noticed the dried patches of red (now dark brown) on her front hooves as she had been trotting behind her friend, and remembered why they had come here. Scootaloo knew she had to clean herself, as walking around out of school with somepony else’s blood on her was almost certain to draw negative attention to herself, but at the same time… She knew she was wrong for even thinking it, but she didn’t want to get rid of the proof that she had finally bested Diamond Tiara and shut her up.
Scootaloo shook her head, chastising herself silently while she stepped up to the sink. She reached across to the handles, turning on both the hot and cold water in the hopes of creating a pleasantly warm mix. The cold was more powerful it seemed, as Scootaloo began to rub her hooves together under the faucet’s stream. The dark brown joined with the clear liquid, spiraling down towards the drain, and then out of sight. Of course, as Scootaloo used her hooves to scrape her fur, more of that shade continued to tint the sink, spinning around the displacing impact of the water before vanishing once more.
The sound of rushing water splashing against the porcelain interior of the sink was all that could be heard, and Scootaloo was unsettled by it. She could understand the silent treatment from her peers, but she didn’t understand why her friends weren’t saying anything. Scootaloo looked up for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, and saw three ponies in the mirror. Firstly, she saw herself, eyes swollen, and a bruise on her forehead. Behind her, she witnessed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both staring at her with a mixture of curiosity and intensity. Her hooves stopped rubbing together as she held a staring contest with the two, one that wouldn’t end even when they blinked.
"What?” Scootaloo broke the silence at long last.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both exchanged looks, and then looked back at their friend. They walked towards her, growing larger in the reflection of the mirror. “Just making sure you’re alright.” Sweetie Belle told her.
“I’m doing fine,” Scootaloo scoffed. “Just washing myself up, there’s nothing weird about that, is there?”
“No, there isn’t,” Sweetie Belle answered simply.
“So why are you looking at like I’m so… weird?” Scootaloo asked, at a loss for a better word to describe their expressions.
Apple Bloom trotted alongside Scootaloo, dipping her hoof into the now warm stream of water pouring from the sink. Scootaloo was very much taken aback when she felt Apple Bloom’s sopping hoof rub her cheek under her left eye, and she hastily pulled away.
“Hey! What gives?”
“Ah think, and correct me if Ah’m wrong, Sweetie Belle, that we’re both wondering about how you got like this,” Apple Bloom surmised, dousing her hoof under the water, giving the clear liquid yet another reddish brown strand.
Scootaloo watched the tinted water roll down the sink, and looked at her reflection in the mirror, the fur on her muzzle matted from her friend’s informal cleansing. She just rolled her eyes.
“Apple Bloom, you were there, you saw what happened,” Scootaloo stated bluntly. “So were you, Sweetie Belle, so I don’t know what either of you are talking about.”
Sweetie Belle frowned, and glanced at Apple Bloom again. Scootaloo, her fuse considerably shorter than it had been earlier that day, took notice.
“Stop doing that!” She shouted, making Sweetie Belle wince.
“Stop doin’ what?” Apple Bloom asked confusedly.
Scootaloo turned the water off, which was now significantly hotter than it was two minutes ago. “You two keep – you keep looking at each other when you’re around me. Those tiny glances back and forth – and don’t even deny it, because it’s true!” She accused before Apple Bloom’s open mouth could issue an utterance. “It’s like you both are trying to say something to each other, but you won’t because I’m the same room as you. Well, go ahead! Say whatever you have to say - believe me, it feels so good to finally let it off your chest,” she added with a smirk.
She didn’t have any response but the dripping of water into the sink. Her little chest heaved in and out, her bout of frustration released. Both of her friends had stepped back, alarmed by her outburst. Sweetie Belle looked hurt, her large green eyes welling up again. Apple Bloom’s jaw was slack.
“So that’s it,” Scootaloo said solemnly. “Should I leave so you two can discuss whatever it is that you need to discuss?”
“It wouldn’t make a bit of difference, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle cried, her raised voice surprisingly forceful. “We’re your best friends, we would never talk about you behind your back.”
“Really,” Scootaloo said sarcastically. “We all wrote for the Foal Free Press, Sweetie Belle, so I already know how practiced you can be when it comes to betraying somepony’s trust. Or did Rarity’s diary pages end up inked by accident?”
“That- that’s not fair! How could you even – I – I…” Sweetie Belle stammered, the spark behind her words quickly faltering as her best friend tore at her. Apple Bloom, on the other hand, looked more determined than ever.
“Listen here, Scootaloo,” she warned. “Diamond Tiara mighta deserved a bit of what she had comin’, but Sweetie Belle ain’t done nothin’ but try and help you. Matter of fact, we both have. Ah know you’re probably still a bit heated because of what happened today, but that ain’t no excuse for talking to your friend that way,” Apple Bloom chastised.
“Well at least I’m being honest!” Scootaloo protested. “Something that you ought to know how to do pretty well, considering your sister.”
“And so are we, Scootaloo! We wouldn’t never talk about ‘cha behind your back,” Apple Bloom assured her, unaware of her speech pattern crafting an unintentional double negative.
“So why do you two keep doing that staring thing around me?” Scootaloo yelled, her voice echoing around the small room. Neither of her friends spoke. “Well?” Scootaloo demanded again.
“It’s because we’re scared!” Sweetie Belle cried, her voice quaking. “It’s because we’re scared because we see how sad and scared you are and how different you’ve become, and we look at each other because we don’t know what to say!”
Scootaloo looked taken aback, while Apple Bloom looked relieved that Sweetie Belle had indeed managed to capture what they were both thinking and relay it to Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle had a way with describing feelings that would present difficulty to most.
“…We just look, because we don’t know what else we can do,” Sweetie Belle whimpered.
“Huh,” Scootaloo muttered, looking in Sweetie Belle’s direction, but taking precaution to avoid making eye contact with her.
“That’s all you got to say is ‘huh’?” Apple Bloom asked bewildered.
Scootaloo scowled at Apple Bloom, wondering why in the world she seemed so offended. “What? Look, it’s not like I don’t appreciate the concern, because trust me, I do,” she started, making eye contact with Sweetie Belle at last, who grinned ever so slightly at having her care acknowledged. “But, I haven’t changed at all,” she said plainly. “And I’m certainly not scared. I’m still the same old Scootaloo I was when you met me”
“No you ain’t!” Apple Bloom shouted. “Ever since the flag wavin’ thing, you’ve been actin’ like… like Ah don’t even know. It’s like you’re constantly on edge, defensive, actin’ real surly to everypony.”
Scootaloo’s mouth opened in disbelief, as though she couldn’t believe the words Apple Bloom was telling her. “What are you talking about? Surly? Other than that Diamond Tiara, I think I’ve been pretty-”
“Well, you’re wrong,” Apple Bloom interrupted. “Me and Sweetie Belle have been met with a whole lotta sharp remarks when we try and get you to do – well, anythin’ with us!”
Scootaloo groaned, rolling her eyes once again. “Are you still going on about that stupid construction project?”
“Just like that! It wasn’t stupid! It was the first ever shed that Ah ever made without help from Applejack or Big Mac. It was really, really important to me,” Apple Bloom replied accusingly.
“Whatever – we can just make another one, I’ll help you out-”
“Ah can’t believe you! It ain’t about the shed!”
“Well, we’ll make a chicken coop or something else then, I don’t know!”
“Clearly,” Apple Bloom grunted.
Sweetie Belle cleared her throat, causing the muzzles of her two feuding friends to break from the inches apart they were, and turn to face the unicorn.
“I think what Apple Bloom is trying to say, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that it’s getting harder for us to keep interested in what’s really important to you when you don’t seem interested in what’s important to us.”
"Couldn’ta said better myself, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom agreed.
Scootaloo’s eyes felt as if they were going to fall out of their sockets at the rate they were rolling. “OKAY! Fine, yeah, I missed Apple Bloom’s shed-raising, and maybe, just maybe, I’ve been a bit hot-headed. I’ve just been really busy with learning to fly and stuff, and I just forgot about it.”
"It ain’t just about me, neither. You forgot about Sweetie Belle too, remember?” Apple Bloom reminded her.
“What? No I didn’t… Did I?” Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle pleadingly, hoping that she would clear her of time-turned-debt in her standings.
“Well…” Sweetie Belle began sadly, watching Scootaloo frown as her reaction was clearly not what Scootaloo wanted to hear. “Remember the school play?”
Scootaloo scratched her head, puzzled. “Which one?”
“The Representative’s Day re-enactment. It was only a few weeks ago.” Sweetie Belle informed her.
“Yeah, we watched it together, remember?” Scootaloo reminded her. “Of course, Diamond Tiara got the lead,” she noted mockingly. “But…. What about it, exactly?”
“There were tryouts for it,” Sweetie Belle started. “After winning the flag waving competition together, I thought I could muster up a nice performance and land in the lead.”
Scootaloo cocked her head sideways, like Winona did when she didn’t understand a command or phrase. “I didn’t know you were trying out for it.”
“I told both of you.”
“Oh… I uhh… I don’t remember that.”
“Anyways,” Sweetie Belle continued, seemingly not fazed by Scootaloo’s faulty memory. “When I got up on stage… I did terrible. I was so nervous, I forgot almost all of my lines. And when I remembered them, my throat was so dry I couldn’t even speak them. Miss Cheerilee thought I was joking around.”
Scootaloo looked genuinely surprised. Sweetie Belle had always boasted a formidable presence whenever they performed together, be it in a talent show or on a rock singing around the campfire. “After all the times we’ve done stuff in front of other ponies, and after the flag waving trials, I’m honestly surprised. I’m uh… sorry that it didn’t work out. Even Daniel Neigh-Lewis has his bad days,” she offered to try and cheer her friend up. Given the rather heavy emotions that had been heaving back and forth all day, Sweetie Belle saw straight through it.
“I don’t think it’s funny. Really, I was scared and embarrassed when I was up there looking like an idiot in front of everypony. How you felt today in the classroom? That’s what it was like for me,” Sweetie Belle finished, taking Scootaloo’s advice about getting things off her chest to heart. It was surprisingly straightforward and harsh to hear it like so.
Scootaloo’s eye contact with Sweetie Belle had been short-lived. Once again, she found her eyes glued to the wooden floor. She didn’t want to see if Sweetie Belle was angry, sad, or disappointed. She couldn’t bear it.
“Only for me, I didn’t have a friend to take my shoulder and tell me it was going to be alright. I didn’t hear anypony cheering for me in the audience. It was just me,” Sweetie Belle scolded.
Scootaloo derived enough that clearly, Sweetie Belle wanted an explanation. She couldn’t even remember the tryouts, much less what she was doing instead on that day. So instead –
“But – what about Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked lamely, realizing only afterwards that asking a question like that was simply proving her friends’ point even further.
“She was gone with Big Mac, for apple contest prospecting or something like that,” Sweetie Belle explained. “But I know that if she hadn’t, Apple Bloom would have been in the front row cheering me on,” she added accusingly.
The trio just stood there for what seemed like an hour. Scootaloo wracked her brain, trying desperately to remember what she was doing on those days, but to little avail – the past month had simply blended together. Scootaloo prodded the ground, focusing her efforts instead on trying to formulate an acceptable apology.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured simply, knocking her friends out of the vacuum of quiet. They both looked expectantly at her, but both had a look showing a markedly better mood than the one that had they had had moments (that felt like hours) ago. Scootaloo looked back at them, unblinking. She wasn’t good with her feelings – that was always Sweetie’s niche – so she didn’t know if the expression she wore was one that matched her words and her current state of being.
“I’ve just been so, so busy – and I know that’s not a good excuse, but-but-” she sputtered, eager to keep the awkward silence at bay. “I’m sorry, I really am! I would never do anything to make you girls feel bad or whatever, you know? You’re my best friends, and I-I shoulda tried harder to show it! I will!” She finished, running short of breath at how quickly she had spat it out.
Apple Bloom blinked, beating Scootaloo to the punch. “That look like it hurt, Scootaloo,” she teased. “But, we know what you mean,” she added, her mild smirk turning into a large grin. “We forgive ya. Right, Sweetie?” Sweetie Belle nodded, mirroring her expression, it faltering only slightly.
“That’s two times in one day you’ve apologized for acting out to us,” Sweetie Belle said thoughtfully. “I don’t think we could take a third,” she half-joked.
“Yeah… sorry about that,” Scootaloo repeated, rubbing her forehoof along the back of her neck.
“Don’t you go sayin’ that again. I’m with Sweetie Belle – I’m plum sick and tired of listenin’ to you apologize for the day,” Apple Bloom chided jokingly.
“Oh! Sor- I mean-” Scootaloo started, interrupting herself before she uttered yet another apology. “Heh, whoops,” she giggled.
Sweetie Belle followed suit, giggling softly into her white hoof. Apple Bloom joined afterwards, a small amused laugh, one laced with relief at yet another tense situation defused. The girls all slowly ceased, and looked at each other in their triangle formation with relaxed grins adorning their faces.
“So,” Sweetie Belle started. “Are you about ready to go?”
Scootaloo looked at her forehooves, ensuring they were clean and free of any stains. Satisfied, she answered “Yeah, I think so. Do I look okay?”
Apple Bloom drew closer to Scootaloo’s face, examining it for anything that they could fix before leaving. “Ya got that bruise on yer forehead, but other than that, ya look alright to me,” she said.
Rubbing her hoof against the tender blotch on her temple, Scootaloo nodded her head. “That’s not a big deal. You should see Rainbow Dash after trying some of her tricks. This is nothing,” She boasted toughly.
With swiftness that surprised both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle lurched forward towards her pegasus friend. As quickly as she could muster, and before Scootaloo could react to prevent it, Sweetie gently pressed her hoof against the purple blemish above Scootaloo’s face.
“Hey!” Scootaloo yelped while skipping backwards, her purple tail brushing against the sink. “What’d you do that for?”
“Nothing, huh?” Sweetie Belle teased. “You’re not quite as tough as Rainbow Dash yet.”
“Not yet, but I will be!” Scootaloo stated boldly. “I’ll be just as awesome and tough as she is one day!”
“In the meantime,” Apple Bloom interrupted, “Why don’t we focus on you first? We can go deliver this message to the princess, and then start working on your project while we’re at the library,” she suggested, jerking her muzzle towards the saddlebag on her flank, indicating the rather thick envelope detailing the exploits between the Crusaders and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, as well as the sign up sheet she had slipped in while Scootaloo was washing.
Scootaloo sighed deeply, seemingly not excited at the prospect of starting the weekend with school work, but relented. “Sounds like a plan,” she said, moving towards the door of the restroom. Her two friends followed in her wake.
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If Cheerilee was truly operating a Zero Tolerance policy,things would never have gotten this far, because when Diamond Tiara openly humiliated Apple Bloom back in Call of the Cutie, Cheerilee would have stepped on it, rather than letting it slide. Ultimately, what happened here today is Cheerilee's fault for being so completely oblivious up till now.
I like how Scootaloo is conflicted on her actions towards Diamond. IE, she KNOWS what she did was wrong, but still feels satisfaction and isn't entirely proud of herself for it.
I like that part.
Wow. You managed to tell a lot of story in two chapters.
I can honestly say I didn't expect to see that.
For the record, Babs' betrayal (both of them) was not any sort of scheme by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Babs chose to do what she did on her own. First she betrayed her cousin when she arrived, then she betrayed a friend when she left.
4597396
That's a a really neat insight that I hadn't really given too much credence to - about Babs betraying Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
However, I firmly believe that Babs would not have started to mistreat the Crusaders had Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon not gotten involved the way that they did. Though it was still her choice, as you said (you are absolutely correct), I'm going with Apple Bloom's possibly unreliable account that Babs being teased like she was at home inadvertently convinced her to join forces with Diamond Tiara.
I wish Scoots told Cheerilee what DT said, you know "No wonder your parents gave you up"
Oh well, I have no idea, maybe it comes up in future chapters. If it does, ignore this comment.
You know, it's easy to spot useless Cheerilee here and there, and when she's surprised that Scootaloo can't fly, that's a prime example right there. No, Scootaloo just never felt like flying once, ever, during recess. Of course she can't fly! I'd think as a teacher you'd note pretty quick if one of your pegasus students literally never flies.
I wonder if we can get Appejack in on the blame game, considering her whole speech in One Bad Apple, where she then caps it off by standing there doing nothing while DT and SS attempt to bully the Crusaders again.
Scootaloo seems to be under a lot of stress and really poor time management. She's probably let the Flight to the Finish bullying incident been eating her up, given her claims about lessons from Rainbow Dash is an obvious lie. It's a good thing
Every character seems real in this, and I love it. The drama is not artificial.
Though Cheerilee's behavior is a bit undermined with how useless she is in previous episodes.
Of course, real excuses could be given. I understand how busy teachers can get. (And I assume that sort of thing in the context of this story.) But if we take what happens in the show at face value, she is quite oblivious and hypocritical.
Also, are you friends with the artist for your art? I can't imagine commissioning something for each chapter that would work perfectly as the cover of the book. These aren't simple black-and-white illustrations even professional novels have.
Edit: Of course now that I say that the illustrations stop.
Still, they are great.