"Daddy, why?" a little pink filly whined, looking at her father with wide eyes.
"Princess, you know very well why. Making fun of a disabled filly? I'm very disappointed in you." her father said, a touch of admonition in his voice. Her teacher, Cheerilee, and Scootaloo's mentor, Rainbow Dash, glare at her, in silent agreement with her father.
"B-but Dad! It was just teasing!" Diamond Tiara pressed, although it wasn't the EXACT truth. Maybe partially, but not exactly.
In truth, she had mixed feelings for the flightless filly, ever since they had met that fateful day. The day when the Cutie Mark Crusaders upstaged her at the most important event of her entire life; her cute~ceñera. Dia had no trouble getting back at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, but Scootaloo was a different story.
At first, she tried attacking the attention hogs all at once, but as their bond became stronger, they sort of became immune to her and her 'egghead' best friend Sliver Spoon's taunts.
So she decided to face her problem head on. She thought that she couldn't feel anything but hatred towards her enemy, so she tried to find something to make the weird feelings go away. But making fun of Scootaloo's wing problem only made it worse.
Now she sat in Cherilee's office, with three angry ponies looking at her with concern. And her father had now punished her; she wasn't allowed to hang out with Silver Spoon after school for a week. She didn't want Filthy to find out about her exploits in the first place, but Cheerilee had told him.
"Diamond, this is a new low for you." Filthy Rich said calmly. "You know I do this because I care about you."
"I know, but..." Diamond started.
"No buts." her father cut her off, nodding at Cheerilee and Rainbow Dash before trotting out, Diamond trudging behind.
+++++++
"Diamond, what is this?" It was many days later, and she had come home covered in apple goo. Dazzle, her pet cat, pawed up to her and began licking her happily.
"Well..." Dia bit her lip. She didn't want to tell him about her failed exploits to get on the CMC's good side, but she had to.
"Diamond.." Rich sighed after she had explained. "You can't expect those fillies to let you do whatever you want."
"Dad, they'd promised..." Diamond trained off, realizing the futility in arguing. Being a successfully businessman, he didn't let her get away from his rules, no matter how hard she tried.
"It doesn't matter what they promised." her father said, calmly but sternly. "Princess, you are to stay in your room until suppertime. That will do for now."
"Ok, Daddy." Diamond relented, trotting up the stairs to her bedroom, Dazzle pawing behind her. She got on her computer, pulling up a music video. But not even the peppy pop music could lift her mood.
She tried not to think about the CMC, but somehow Scootaloo came back into her mind. Diamond couldn't help thinking; how does she feel? Is she ok? She tried to brush off the thoughts. She couldn't care about feelings, could she?
A message popped up on her computer screen: "Silver_Sword signed in!" The grayish filly had introduced Dia to Adventures in Ponydom, an adventure video game. Diamond had never really been into video games, but Silver's enthusiasm was contagious.
As Diamond opened up the game, she chatted with Silver and began to forget about her tenseness. But not entirely...
••••
"Scoots, you ok?" Rainbow Dash called into her apprentice's bedroom. The orange filly had been in there for a while, and Rainbow was becoming concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Scootaloo called back. In the room, Scootaloo was examining her wings nervously.
Ever since the Cutie Mark Crusaders had carried the Ponyville flag at the Equestria games, she couldn't help thinking about the fact that she couldn't yet fly. Would she ever be able to?
She decided that she'd go for a little walk around town. It was evening, and night would soon be settling over Equestria. Since Dash was her mentor, she stayed in the guest bedroom during the day.
"You goin' home now, squirt?" Dash asked, coming over to her and preparing to fly her down to the town. Scoots nodded, and held on to Rainbow's tail as the cyan pegasus took off. Scoots loved to fly with Dash. It made her long even more to be able to fly herself.
As soon as they reached the ground, Rainbow let Scootaloo off and promptly took off again, leaving Scootaloo alone.
The town's light grew dimmer as evening came upon the town. Scoots slowly trotted to a hill on the outskirts of town. The only sounds she could her were those of her own hooves hitting the ground, the quiet hum of magic, and the occasional chirping of a cricket.
On the other side of town, Diamond Tiara decided to take a walk as well. The cold fall air blew her pink and white striped scarf, causing it to whip around. She looked at the large tree in front of Filthy Rich mansion, where her dilapidated old treehouse balanced precariously on an old branch. The bright pink paint was now faded to a brownish gray color, and Diamond knew not to climb up the frayed rope, for fear that it would collapse under her weight.
Dia herself didn't go outdoors to "play" much anymore. She preferred not to get dirty, and there is a LOT of dirt outdoors. In fact, part of the reason she agreed to play video games with Silver was that no matter what, heroines in video games never got dirty, even in a scuffle. But she wasn't outside for play, she just... felt like it.
She decided to trot over to the hill on the other side of town. Her house was on the richer side of town, and the hill was on the outskirts, on the other side of town. She often went there when her father was mad at her.
As she came to the hill, she could barely make out a small figure standing on top of the hill. Dia hesitated, but decided to see who it was.
Dia almost fell off of the hill upon seeing the orange filly. The pegasus turned around at the sound of her gasp, then shrank back. "Hi... Diamond."
"H-hey, Scootaloo..." Diamond said. The sight of the filly who had gotten her in trouble time and time again should have set her off with insults, but she chose to hold them back. She knew what could happen if she didn't.
"You gonna say somethin'?" Scootaloo asked, a little angrily.
"Well... Y'see..." Diamond stuttered. "I-I've always kinda liked you, Scootaloo..." she admitted, shuffling her hooves anxiously.
Scoots' jaw dropped in disbelief. No way would a mean, spoiled girl like Diamond Tiara ever care about her! Heck, Tiara even teased her for her disability! She tried to find the right words, but all that came out was, "Wha...."
"I know it must be hard to believe," Dia continued as Scootaloo looked at her in confusion, "but trust me. I wouldn't make something like this up." Diamond tried as hard as she could to make Scoots trust her. Honesty wasn't really something she was known for.
Scootaloo paused, staring. She then nodded, although she was still hesitant. Diamond trotted up the hill, sitting next to Scootaloo.
"What're you doing up here?" Diamond asked, looking at the the orange pegasus and smiling shyly.
"Just practincin' my flying." Scoots answered, looking at her wings. "I've been focusing more on flying ever since..."
"... I teased you about it." Dia finished Scoots' sentence. "Sorry." she said embarrassedly, blushing. "I... I wasn't thinking. I wanted to get your attention... but I didn't want to feel this way for you..." she trailed off.
"Gotcha." Scootaloo nodded. "But you know that made me pretty depressed."
"Yeah. Rainbow and the other grown ups told me." Dia responded. "I guess I went a little too far with my teasing."
"A little?" Scootaloo raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.
"Ok, a lot." Diamond admitted. "But I never really thought about how other ponies were feeling." Dia became serious.
"Well, I can forgive you, as long as you swear never to bully anypony EVER AGAIN." Scootaloo said sternly.
"I swear on my cutie mark." Diamond held up her right hoof and crossed her heart, the solemnest swear known to foals. "I feel soooo awkward talking to a blank flank." she then admitted.
"Well, at least I know you're still Diamond Tiara." Scoots laughed, elbowing Dia playfully, who giggled.
"So... How's the flying going?" Diamond asked nervously.
"I've been able to get pretty high off of the ground, but I'm still not actually flying yet." Scootaloo explained as Dia looked curiously at her wings.
"You must be so nervous, not being able to fly at your age and all." Diamond asked, wondering how Scootaloo felt about the touchy subject.
"Not really. I've never really thought much about it until the.." Scootaloo paused, looking for the right word, "...incident." Dia lowered her head. She never thought that her teasing could cause somepony to feel this way.
"Hey Dia, why DO you not like blank flanks?" Scootaloo asked. She hasn't thought about it, but now it came to her unconsciously.
"Well," Dia started, "when I was no more than, like, 2, my daddy told me a story about a town where everypony had the same cutie mark. Without their own individual cutie marks, the ponies lost all of their individual... ness. Getting my mark made me an individual, so I guess I assumed that markless ponies weren't special."
"Diamond, let me explain something." Scoots responded, "the ponies in the story DID have cutie marks, but they were all the same. So no individuals. A pony without her mark just hasn't DISCOVERED her special talent yet." Scootaloo explained. "Speaking of, how did you get your cutie mark?"
"Well, when I was little, my daddy would always bring me little diamonds when I came home from filly-garten." Dia told Scoots. "I liked to make jewelry out of them, but I never really showed anypony. Then, one day, I made a really pretty tiara and wore it to school. Everypony complimented me on it and I realized that making jewelry and showing it off was my special talent! Then, my cutie mark appeared!" She smiled, looking at her mark proudly.
"Is that the same tiara you wear all the time now?" Scootaloo asked, pointing at the tiara adorning Tiara's mane.
"Yep!" Dia answered. She delicately removed the tiara from her mane and held it out for Scootaloo to look at. "Careful, now." she warned.
The small tiara had little diamonds adorning its points. There were also little bits of dried glue on it, but they were barely visible. Dia carefully placed the tiara in her mane. Scootaloo never thought that such a shallow seeming cutie mark could have any meaning.
The two fillies then sat in silence, watching the sunset as the sky turned a beautiful orange color. The night air became colder, and Scootaloo wrapped her bright pink tail around Diamond to keep her warm, who blushed.
Dia looked at Scootaloo and leaned against her shoulder. Scootaloo smiled, surprised, and leaned her head on top of Diamond's.
The darkness fully settled over Equestria as the two foals sat watching, sunset turning to moonrise. The leaves of a nearby tree began to blow in the cold night air, some landing in Dia's mane.
She thought about all the times she'd made fun of Scootaloo. Those times seemed so far away now. Back then, she couldn't have imagined that she'd be so close to Scootaloo, much less telling her what she'd told her this evening.
Scootaloo, too, thought about all the times Dia had made fun of her. She was still a little dizzied from all the things that had happened that evening. Who knew that Diamond Tiara had so much to tell Scootaloo that she didn't know already?
The stars twinkled in the sky as brown, yellow, and orange leaves blew across the sky. The two fillies lay down on the grass, looking up at the night sky. They were far enough apart as to not be awkwardly close to each other, and Scootaloo lay her hooves behind her head.
Dia pointed a hoof up at the sky. "Look! I can see the Ursa Minor up there!" They looked at the starry outline of the large, bear-like creature that hibernated among the stars during fall and winter.
"Yeah! Me too!" Scoots smiled, watching the stars glimmer as the early fall wind calmed them like a lullaby. Neither of the fillies spoke as they let the gentle melody wash over them.
After a few minutes, Diamond suddenly sat up. "I-I have to go. My daddy must be wondering where I am." She knew Rich would understand, but she did have to go home.
Scootaloo sat up as well, and the two sat for a minute, and then Diamond leaned in and kissed Scootaloo on the cheek.
"S...sorry. I just..." Diamond stuttered, blushing even more and backing away nervously.
"It's fine. It... It wasn't that bad." Scootaloo trotted over to Dia and put a hoof around her.
The two fillies looked at each other, and then Dia said something she never thought she'd say to Scootaloo: "Will you... be my friend?"
"Yeah. And maybe a teenie-tiny bit more." Scoots smiled. "Well, best be going!"
"Bye!" Diamond said, watching as Scootaloo trotted down the hill, her wings fluttering happily. And was is just her, or was Scootaloo 'flying' a little off of the ground?
Dia trotted down the other side of the hill, smiling. She felt lighter, like she had wings of her own. Now, all of those hidden feelings were released, and she could relax.
When she got home, she lay down in her bed, smiling as she recalled the events of that night and dreamed of wings, leaves, and love.
