Time heals all wounds
The trees gently swayed in the breeze, sounding like wooden wind chimes as the branches were being cradled by the wind that blew in the peacefully calm atmosphere of the edge of Ponyville.
But for a certain young filly, even though she was out incredibly late, everything was sour and lonesome; she knew that she should have been ecstatic since she had only just received her cutie mark….but her mind had some other things weighing on it. Her flank had been marked and what's better was that her two other friends had got their cutie marks at the exact same time!
That’s what she had hoped for!
This was meant to be one of the happiest times of her life…but…
Scootaloo sat on top of a hill that was right on the edge of Ponyville and she gazed up at the indigo skies above whilst her eyes were trained on Luna's moon, the stars softly twinkled behind the veil on moonlight and every once in awhile a shooting star would dart by in little silvery streaks.
The small Pegasus filly release a lengthy forlorn sigh from her throat as she looked back at her tiny stunted wings; a pegasus' best allies. They had been like this for as long as she could remember and it seemed that no matter how old she got her wings refused to ride with her through foal hood and grow alongside her.
Anyways, why was she out at such a late hour?
It was because (as previously mentioned) she'd been thinking of a lot lately...namely her wings.
Her idol and hero, Rainbow Dash, the former element of Loyalty and current member of the friendship council, had taken her beneath her own wing and even assured her several times that even if she never flew due to her problem that she would still be awesome in her individual way. But then those horrid words that ex-bullies Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon spoke to her back before the Equestrian games would come back to haunt her and smash her positive dreams into shards:
“A Pegasus pony at your age? You should've been flying long ago!"
“I have to say that not being able to fly has everything to do with everything, doesn't it?"
"...Yet you have a Pegasus pony who can't even fly!"
"Mrs. Harsh whinny would never pick a Pegasus who can't fly to represent all of Equestria!"
Those taunts overflowed inside the little Pegasus' mind and swirled around, wrecking everything as those words spun like a tornado in her head.
Each and every word from that day was like a Manticore sting to her heart, Scootaloo whimpered softly as she curled into the smallest ball she could and she covered her eyes with her hooves, letting her mental barrier fall and crumble into dust.
The small orange Pegasus hung her head as she let loose all the tears that she had managed to hold in for so long.
They felt so big and heavy as they streamed down her face.
Her purple mane hung limply in front of her face, shielding her eyes, as she cried silent tears that endlessly flowed down her muzzle and dripped to the moderately-trimmed grass beneath her hooves. Her diminutive wings instinctively bristled and seized up to the point of refusing to budge; the muscles responding to her despair and to the moistening air around her.
Why did her wings have to be so tiny and fragile?
Why couldn't she take to the air and fly with Rainbow Dash?
That was her dream!
"Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo's ear twitched at the voice, and she recognised it instantly. It was normally a voice filled with this selfish confidence and it was usually high-pitched and whiney as to make anyone within close range cringe upon hearing such a bratty tone. The small Pegasus reluctantly turned to face the owner of this voice and she had to blink her teary eyes twice to refresh her vision.
It was Diamond Tiara.
The pink earth pony had an expression on her face that Scootaloo hadn't seen before. Her lilac eyes were filled with empathy and she wore a concerned frown on her muzzle, her stance wasn't so confident and needlessly regal as it normally was but instead the slouched trot she adopted was timid and meek. She adopted a posture of false confidence as she slowly made her way over.
The little Pegasus couldn't keep the distain off her face as she glared a little at the former bully. She quickly picked up a front left hoof and rubbed the lingering moisture out of her eyes in order to remove the evidence of her tears, she didn't want the rich filly to discover her weakness.
"What do you want?" Scootaloo asked bitterly, her eyes narrowing.
Diamond Tiara didn't come any closer as she replied nervously, fidgeting where she stood. "U-Um, I came to see if you were alright. I heard you crying."
Scootaloo harrumphed and turned her back to the rich filly, sucking back any lingering tears and trying to erase every shred of evidence to suggest that she had been sobbing her eyes out until now. Her forelegs rubbed away at her puffy eyeballs to try and rid them of the moisture and she let out a muffled groan to try and clear her throat.
Out of all ponies who could find her why did it have to be Diamond Tiara?
She recomposed herself as best she could and replied gruffly. "I'm perfectly fine."
Diamond rolled her eyes, visibly annoyed.
She could see through the façade that the Pegasus filly was trying to maintain and she wouldn't tolerate being blatantly lied to.
"Please, don’t insult me by lying to my face."
The two fillies were both silent for several minutes before Diamond Tiara walked up to Scootaloo and seated herself on a spot right next to her. The orange pegasus didn't bother to move and just sat without looking at the rich filly, she just decided to give up trying to shoo her away as she knew how ambitious and stubborn she could be and just decided to tolerate her presence for now.
The two gazed up at Luna's moon.
It seemed so bright and full.
The stars twinkled and shimmered like diamonds in the skies, accompanying the beauty of the moon. It was clear that princess Luna had put a lot of love and effort into how dazzling the moon appeared and she even made certain that her subjects didn't miss a single splendid detail of how pretty it looked. Obviously, Luna paid close attention to make sure that nighttime wasn't ignored.
Hardly five seconds had ticked by and Diamond Tiara spoke again.
"Scootaloo, can't you tell me what's the matter?"
The Orange filły just scowled darkly.
“And why do you care?"
Diamond was taken aback by this. She looked as though she had been slapped in the face and felt very much affronted by this behaviour and she held back the urge to glare right back at the moody filly, but some of that glare managed to make itself known on her face anyway.
She narrowed her soft blue eyes at Scoots and opened her mouth to retort when the other filly suddenly whirled on her hooves and stood face-to-face with her with such intensity on her expression, her tiny stunted wings buzzed and bristled with irritation.
She then angrily exclaimed something that set off a lightbulb of realisation in the former-bully's head:
"Why should it matter to you anyway!? I thought that you wouldn't even want to talk to a Pegasus who can't fly!"
Diamond Tiara's eyes widened and her heart dropped into her stomach when realisation hit her on the back of the head. She had forgotten about it since the end of the Equestrian games, after the Cutiemark crusaders won the flag carrying show in the Crystal empire. The fogginess of confusion cleared up and it all started to make sense.
So that's what this was all about...!
She quickly recovered from being stunned and lowered her head with her eyes shimmering with pure guilt, and she spoke in a surprisingly quiet tone that could actually compete with Fluttershy's soft-spoken meekness. She had no clue as to how she could totally atone for hurting the feelings of the small Pegasus but she decided that she had to handle it delicately.
"S-Scootaloo...I-"
She didn't get to speak another word before Scoots went on a massive rant.
"Did that make you feel satisfied that day? Did taunting me about the fact that I can't fly make you feel good or something? Do you just get a kick out of hurting others and teasing them for stuff they hate about themselves, including the fact that their blank-flanks?!"
Diamond Tiara just stayed silent, each and every sentence that left Scootaloo's mouth felt like a jagged sword being jabbed right into her heart but she knew that she deserved this deep down. She squeezed her eyes closed and grit her teeth as the gravity of each remark hit her with enough force to make all the energy go out of her legs. She fell to the ground hard and lay on her tummy whilst she continued to listen to the verbally rampaging orange filly.
Scootaloo's purple eyes started to swell with tears of their own while she carried on as her whole body started trembling. Her stunted wings didn't stop bristling or showing signs of hostile animosity, although her body was shaking like a maraca.
"W-Well, I'm going to fly one day a-and the day that I do I'll..."
She trailed off, and turned around to look longingly up at the sky once more.
Her eyes were filled with tears again and she felt her heart break just a little bit when she pictured herself flying through the air without a care in the world...like Rainbow Dash. She collapsed to the ground beneath her and laid on her stomach with her head bowing down so her eyes wouldn't have to look at the pink Earth pony anymore, her tears started to fall once more as she cried.
She knew that Rainbow and herself had talked about this, just before the flag carrying event in the Crystal empire.
She could remember her words well:
“Maybe you'll fly, and maybe you won't. You're all kinds of awesome anyway!"
The little flightless Pegasus just continued to cry, her heart snapping into two. She wanted to take to the air and fly with Rainbow so she wouldn't have to assist her. She wanted to fly like all other pegasi, but she supposed that perhaps she just wasn't meant to. Scootaloo just cried and cried but then she felt someone wrap their hoof around her and pull her into a comforting embrace.
Her eyes snapped open with surprise.
Diamond Tiara had actually come forwards and wrapped a foreleg around her neck to comfort her. Tears of her own started to trickle down Diamond's muzzle and she held on to the upset little Pegasus tight. Little choked sobs quivered from her throat and her chest felt tight with upset, even all four of her hooves were trembling.
Scoots wanted to pull away but she found herself unable to since not only did she find the hug kind of nice, but she also couldn't back off due to the fact that the other filly had her in a sort of headlock. It was a long time as the two fillies hugged beneath the light of the moon, nopony spoke a single word and all emotions were being wrung out from two hearts like wet sponges.
Diamond eventually pulled herself away and looked Scootaloo right in the eye.
The orange filly no longer looked angry and bitter, but instead her eyes were overflowing with shame. She was a bit shaky from her emotional outburst and her little wings were finally in a more relaxed position as they were folded against her back. She didn't make a sound, probably out of fear of losing her composure again and crying her eyes out uncontrollably.
Diamond's ears were now flat against her skull and her eyes gleamed with sincere and heartfelt sorrow. She couldn't keep from fumbling with her two front hooves while she concentrated on rubbing them anxiously so as not to look at the gut-wrenching sight of one of her first friends so upset.
But she forced herself to look back at her, now knowing that she needed to do it.
"Scootaloo..." The filly sighed softly "I'm so sorry for hurting your feelings, it was despicable of me to do that to you. I know that now..."
Scootaloo hiccuped and sniffled softly, rubbing her eyes with a foreleg to get rid of any lingering tears, and she murmured. "N-No...it's okay, you were probably trying to impress your mother again...right?"
Diamond Tiara nodded her head, cringing at the memory of her overbearing mother lecturing her for losing the flag carrying event to those (former) "Blank Flanks". Then she shook her head to try and perish the memory and her expression quickly turned from somber to this determined anger that made her light blue eyes quite fiery. She stomped her two front hooves in frustration.
It was Scootaloo’s turn to be taken aback as this action made the orange filly jerk back in surprise.
"But that's no excuse!" Diamond's body started to shake, she gave a roar of frustration that threatened to tear her throat apart. "I hurt you, Scootaloo, and I shouldn't have! I hurt several other ponies too! I can’t ever forgive myself for doing that!"
Scootaloo just stood still and took in how upset the earth pony was. Now it was her turn to try and make Diamond feel better. Even though the bitterness towards Diamond slightly remained in her heart, she couldn't just stand back and watch the pink pony beat herself up about it.
Then some words rolled off her tongue before she could stop them...
"I could forgive you, Diamond Tiara, if can try to forgive yourself..."
Diamond Tiara raised her head, teary-eyes wide with their own brand of surprise after hearing those words come from the young pegasus' mouth. Did she hear that right? Was Scootaloo honestly willing to forgive her for doing such an evil thing? She couldn't help but rub her tears away with a foreleg and she recomposed herself as she sat herself back on her haunches.
She had to make sure she heard that right.
"...Are you sure about that, Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo sighed and evaded the pink filly's eyes for a moment.
Quite honestly she knew that it would probably take a long time to truly forgive her for bullying her for her physical limitations and she wouldn't forgive Diamond right away. She knew that she just said that to try and get the rich foal to stop doubting herself, but she also knew that she really could forgive her if she really tried.
She finally returned her focus on Diamond Tiara's doubtful gaze.
"Sure." She said, "It could take some work but I can try and forgive you if you can stop beating yourself up about that and all the other bad stuff you've done. We just gotta do a bit of work on it..."
Diamond Tiara didn't say a word as she gazed into the face of the young filly sat before her. She could feel this tug at her heartstrings as the guilt she felt a minute ago started to wash away a bit, perhaps it would take awhile for her to be completely forgiven after all the horrible and hurtful things she's said and done to other ponies.
In spite of this, she knew that it would be completely worth it if she cleaned her slate.
The pink Earth pony hung her head and frowned, doubt leaking into her words, "And why would you want to help me? After everything I've done?"
Scootaloo didn't even need to ponder on her answer to that question. She still felt a little hurt after those nasty insults were slung at her and her friends by the mouthes of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon but she knew that, to truly move on from that, she had to try and do just that -move passed it. She let a small sincere smile curl at the corners of her muzzle and she raised a hoof to pat Diamond's shoulder consolingly, she spoke softly with a tender tone filled with trepidatious compassion.
".....Because that's what friends do, I guess.”
After a moment of warm fluffiness, the two fillies climbed to stand on their hooves.
They smiled at one another with gazes that were so warm that they might as well be akin to the heat of a nice campfire, the two foals felt that they were truly starting to move on from their mistakes of the past and they were feeling truly liberated.
They could truly take that very first step to complete forgiveness.
They started off down the pathway of the woods -they headed towards the exit- and started to make their way back to their respective homes.