The Gift for the Pegasus: A CMC Mission

by G4PONYTales

Chapter 2 - Encountering Reformed Rival

“Scootaloo?”

The familiar voice jolted the pegasus from her daydreaming, forcing her to shake her somber, weary mood. Scootaloo knew that voice, had heard it a thousand times. It took a few seconds for her to remind her subconscious not to lash out, and remind herself that the past was past.

“Uh-, hi, Diamond Tiara.”

The formal rival of the CMC’s, the one who had once been so mean, looked down at Scootaloo. A curious, somewhat amused look rested on her perfect, somewhat daunting face. The large, sky-blue eyes inflicted, unless Scootaloo was mistaken, only a hint of smugness.

Scootaloo, suddenly overly conscious of her awkward orientation, abruptly jumped to a standing position and brushed herself off profusely. Despite efforts to look nonchalant, curious shivers ran down the pegasus’s spine. Even though Diamond Tiara was reformed and had even called the CMCs her friends, suspicious doubt hung in Scootaloo’s confused mind.

The nerves growing in Scootaloo’s mind somehow bore a wide, sheepish grin refusing to leave her face. It spread from ear to ear, providing the image of her face slowly blowing up like a balloon full of helium...

Diamond Tiara broke the silence, jolting Scootaloo out of her head: “So… what are you up to?”

Up to? Like flying? In retaining her stoic position against the suspicious comment Scootaloo replied: “Oh, er… cloud-watching, of course… I’ve had a… rough day on a tough mission with the other two CMC’s, and er… sometimes I just like to look at clouds!” Despite all efforts, she heard herself as nervous. And in response, Diamond Tiara’s intimidating eyes began to look… annoyed?

Diamond Tiara glanced at the treehouse. “I would suppose you three are having one of your little… mission wrap-ups. And it seems unusual for a pony so devoted to her cause to desert her team… so why did you leave? Did they not want you there or something?”

Scootaloo couldn’t tell whether the earth pony was serious, or joking. It could be a joke… but could she be serious? “Well, I actually got dismissed early because I was… tired?” Scootaloo couldn’t exactly come out and say what was going on in her head. “So… I came out here and rested a bit.”

Diamond Tiara then spoke quickly, her eyes brightening with renewed confidence: “Well then,I hope you’re feeling better, because I would like to see your clubhouse.”

“R-really?” Scootaloo was taken by surprise, because the last time Diamond Tiara saw their clubhouse… it wasn’t a pleasant experience. However, that was before she fully trusted the CMC’s to take her into the light, away from the dark nurturing that had initially defined who she was…

Diamond Tiara responded stoically to the silence: “Is there something wrong with that?”

Think fast, Scootaloo! Stay. Focused! “No, not really, but… why do you want to see it…? You didn’t seem to like it that much the last time and…” the words, as usual, died in her mouth.

Diamond Tiara put on a pouty face that was hard to identify as real, or fake. “Oh Scootaloo, don’t you understand? I want to be friends with you! We hardly see each other since you and your friends got your cutie marks, and I want to see you more.” That was true. Despite having called the CMCs her friends, she and the trio had barely interacted since then. Perhaps it was because they had their own lives, and very little in common. Or maybe it was because there was so much tension in between them that old habits died hard.

Diamond Tiara walked up to Scootaloo, wearing a warm grin that barely suited the cold, pthalo-blue eyes that once smirked and mocked relentlessly. She continued: “So I was thinking I’d like to see your clubhouse… and possibly look in on some of your club meetings! What do you think?” The wide, eager grin across the porcelain face offered a different type of pride; one which, rather than mocking other ponies, expected them to consider wanting her around something to be excited about.

The brightness in DIamond Tiara’s eyes seemed almost hypnotizing“So-o, do you think I could join one of your meetings?”

Scootaloo blinked hard, in a vain effort to rid the taunting images behind her eyes, to ignore the inner instincts telling her not to trust Diamond Tiara, because she might get hurt again. Scootaloo pushed aside her inner feelings, and smiled.

“Sure, Diamond Tiara, why not?”

The two ponies walked side by side; a rare sight for the two of them to digest. Even Diamond Tiara, from Scootaloo’s side view, appeared somewhat fazed by what was happening. This time, she was the one to break the silence. “Where’s, uh, Silver Spoon?”

“Oh, she’s with her cousin. They went somewhere together on a weekend trip to some resort… it’s really a family thing.”

This came as a surprise to Scootaloo; the two former tyrants of the school were always, always seen together. In fact, it felt strange from the very beginning to see Diamond Tiara alone. “So, gee, it looks like you don’t have much to do, huh?”

Scootaloo glanced sideways at Diamond Tiara to catch a glimpse of agitation in the sparkle of her eye. Only a glimpse, before she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She then replied stoically: “Oh, it is a lonely weekend for me… but thank goodness I have a backup!” Her face brightened, as they stopped at the clubhouse ladder.

The backhanded comment somewhat threw Scootaloo off track, back into a fog of confusion that clouded her mind. The confusion caused her pupils to dilate slightly, before she closed her eyes, and breathed deeply. When she opened them, she smiled widely and said: “Well, new friends are always welcome!” But a nagging at the back of her mind told her something different.

“Scootaloo? Yur, uh, back?” The two fillies, distracted from their mission wrap-up, looked rather puzzled to see the return of their weary friend so shortly.

“Uumm… yeah, it’s a long story. But look who I brought!” On cue, through the doorway walked Diamond Tiara.

“Diamond Tiara? Wow… it’s uh… a surprise to see you here…”

The air of the clubhouse had never been so tense, the silence never so awkward. Diamond Tiara stepped in and said: “Well, Scootaloo and I met when she was cloud-seeing, and I asked her to bring me to see one of your mission wrap-ups! I mean, we haven’t seen each other in so long… and we’re friends, right?”

It was to Scootaloo’s relief that the other three ponies began discussing more deeply about Diamond Tiara visiting the clubhouse, and them, after all these years. It was a relief, because this way Scootaloo no longer needed to use her dwindling energy on maintaining conversation, nor did she have to work through the confusion about Diamond Tiara that constantly clogged her mind...

“Oh, hello, girls!”

What do ya want, Diamond Tiara?”

“Oh, we were watching your flag-carrying routine from afar and,well, we think it looks great!”

“Uh… thanks?”

“Except… it’s a bit ironic that your routine represents three types of ponies… with a pegasus who can’t fly…!”

“Scootaloo? Hello, Earth to Scootaloo?” Applebloom waved her hoof in front of Scootaloo’s eyes, which were somehow glazed over. At least she hadn’t fallen asleep…

When she snapped out of her daydream, Scootaloo focused her eyes on Diamond Tiara; she appeared to be smirking, and for a few timid minutes looked like her old self. “Scootaloo did seem pretty zonked out when I found her spacing out on the grass…”

“And that’s the reason why we sent her home.” Sweetie Belle interrupted what could have been a sentence representing inner taunting and laughter from a pony who was newly reformed. The unicorn looked at her friend with concern in her big emerald eyes. “Scootaloo, I saw you space out again. Should you really be here if you’re so tired? What if you’re coming down with something…”

“Well, Scootaloo seems fine to me”, chimed in a beaming Diamond Tiara. “And for sure, I don’t think she should be sent home because thanks to Scootaloo, I got to see this cool-looking tree house!”

Sweetie Belle’s wide eyes dilated inarticulately. “That’s not… what I meant…”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes now had a curious flash in them. “Well, it sounds like you didn’t want her around, when you were so hesitant to welcome her back.”

“We were never hesitant! We’re just… confused-”

The pthalo-blue eyes then went puppy-dog. “And me. I mean, I thought we were friends…”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle glanced at each other speechlessly, dumbfoundedly. Applebloom was the one who spoke. “Honestly, Diamond Tiara, we’d love to have you around… but it might be tough adding you to our CMC clubhouse meetings because, well, we formed them out of a bond that we had with being blank flanks, and it’s really a symbolic thing that we all found each other when we thought we were alone.”

Now, it was hard for anypony to tell whether Diamond Tiara was still feigning emotion. The same eyes that held her complex thoughts and feelings glanced somewhat distraughtly at her cutie mark. That crown, as all of them knew, was a constant reminder of the pony she had once been. Although she had managed to change her ways since then, that cutie mark would always be there, like a label.

Perhaps it was this cutie mark, and the reminders it brought, that prevented the ponies from being able to see each other as fully-made friends.

At the moment Scootaloo, like many times, was being hit with so many memories that came with seeing Diamond Tiara. However she, having been eager - or was it obligation - to introduce the lonely filly to their friendship circle, spoke up: “Well, Diamond Tiara doesn’t have much else to do for the weekend… so how about she just sit in on one of our club meetings? I mean, she doesn’t have to join right away… let’s wait and see.” Scootaloo turned to Diamond Tiara, and smiled. “I’ll sit with you, and we can both watch the remainder of the mission wrap-up.” But as she said those words, the pegasus felt somewhat detached from what she said, in comparison to what she felt.

“But Scootaloo… I thought you weren’t feeling well-”

“No, no, it’s okay. I’ll just sit and watch.” The pegasus beamed, her strengths in hiding what went on inside her somewhat increasing with the introduction of a newly reformed rival to the clubhouse, as though the last incident of bringing Diamond Tiara here had never happened.

However, this newly-found motivation was temporary, and was sure to crack at the seams as Scootaloo’s feelings grew stronger...

Author's Note:

I wanted Diamond Tiara to make an appearance, because she pretty much disappears after "Crusaders of the Lost Mar".. Here's an optional question for the readers: What do you all think about her being here?

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