“Applejack, it is so very good to see you. How’s that early retirement going? The farm keeping you busy?” Cheerilee beamed as she greeted Applejack, drawing the mare into an affectionate embrace as they stood outside of the classroom, much to Scootaloo’s lament.

The young mare had taken to staring out of a nearby window, observing a much older class of cadets galloping around an athletic track which consumed a hefty portion of the academy's front yard, pursued by a rather large, muscular looking stallion who appeared to be yelling quite a bit.

“An’ it’s mighty good to see you again, Cher. Ah have to admit the farm has been keepin’ my attention quite a bit, so it isn’t what Ah call an ‘easy’ retirement… and since Ah was escorting this new little cadet here to the academy—”

Scootaloo restrained a frown at being called little.

She was of an average height for somepony her age!

“—Ah thought Ah’d come on by and invite you to hook up over at Sugarcube Corner with the rest of the girls later on tonight, mostly for some drinks to catch up on things, when ya’ll done for the day of course. Heck, even Rarity said she'd be there an' we both know how busy that mare is these days.”

Cheerilee nodded, pressing a hoof to her lips as she pondered out loud. “I suppose I could... I have already prepared for tomorrow’s lesson in advance so, sure, why not? Got to let down your mane every once and a while, huh?”

“The studious and punctual mare herself letting her mane down? Pull the other one! So, Ah’ll be seeing you at six then?” As Applejack turned from Cheerilee, she smiled at Scootaloo who was still staring out of the window, noting the mark of irritation twitching upon the young mare’s brow.

Lifting a hoof up, Applejack quickly scrubbed it against Scootaloo’s mane to catch her attention.

“Hey! Watch it!” Scootaloo protested. “Stop doing that! You know I hate it.”

“Scootaloo, Ah’d like ya’ll to meet your instructor, Cheerilee. Now, you be good for her, ya hear? Ah don’t wanna be hearin’ any bad stories about you, especially from her. She’s a very fine pilot; in fact, she even beat me in that department back in the day when we’re in the same squad.”

Scootaloo scuffed a hoof on the ground, muttering to herself. “Not exactly hard when you’re a grease monkey.”

“Ah heard that…”

Cheerilee giggled, restraining a smile at the young mare’s reaction and Applejack’s natural capability to embarrass her.

The scene itself was so sweet, Cheerilee almost felt jealous that she herself had not yet settled down to raise a foal of her own that she could tease unendingly.

That was why, perhaps, she had become an instructor.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Scootaloo,” Cheerilee held out a hoof towards the cadet, “I look forward to watching you develop over the course of the next few years. From what I understand, you had one of the highest test scores for admittance into the Academy on record. I have to say, I was very impressed when I reviewed the results myself. I expect a lot of great things from you.”

“It was nothing,” Scootaloo played it cool, shaking the hoof, “kinda easy, really.”

Cheerilee blinked at the confident and rather cocky nature of the cadet, before offering Applejack a sly grin. “I see… so I take it Applejack had no hoof in your studies?”

Applejack lifted both of her brows at that. “An’ what’s that supposed to mean? Why are ya’ll both ganging up on me? Is it ‘pick on AJ’ day or somethin’ and somepony forgot to tell me this morning?”

Cheerilee broke out into yet another chuckle as she leaned in close to whisper to Scootaloo, making sure she spoke just loud enough for Applejack to hear, plenty of mirth within her tone as she continued to tease her friend. “Did you know Applejack failed the entrance exams twice? I heard she broke down into tears on the second question on her first attempt.”

“Twice?!” Scootaloo gawked up at AJ, as if searching for the truth of that revelation upon her adoptive mother’s face.

“Damn it, Cher!” Skilfully, Applejack inclined her stetson to hide the vast majority of her embarrassed state. “A-Ah passed it in the end though. An’ don’ you go trying to one-up me, Cheerilee. Ah’ll have you know Ah’ve got some dirt on you too!”

Cheerilee beamed at the embarrassed pony, quickly changing the subject. “It was a pleasure to see you again, AJ. So, tonight at six? I’ll be there. I’ll try and drag along the Duo of Chaos, as well, providing I can get them out of their apartment in one piece… but for now I think it is about time Scootaloo introduces herself to the class.”

“Yeah... good luck with that,” AJ muttered, “see you then, traitor.”

Peeking from under her stetson, she gave Cheerilee one final wink and a parting kiss to the side of Scootaloo’s cheek, which the younger mare immediately scrubbed away with a hoof.

“Behave yourself, Scootaloo. Try and make some friends, you hear?” With that, Applejack trotted away, smiling to herself as she knew full well the kiss was meant to further embarrass Scootaloo in front of her superior.

That grumpy little face of hers did always bring a smile to Applejack’s face.

Scootaloo merely wrinkled her nose, before looking back up to Cheerilee who guided her towards the door.

“Now, Cadet Scootaloo, just wait here and give me a moment."

Scootaloo saluted. “Yes, M’am.”

Sliding the door open, Cheerilee stepped across the threshold, leaving Scootaloo standing outside in the hallway, listening in on the light conversations she could not quite make out that had spread around the classroom while its instructor was absent, the usual hustle and bustle one would expect when a classroom was not under supervision.

“Cadets,” upon Cheerilee making her presence known, all chatter abruptly ceased, “I am pleased to inform you that we are going to be receiving a new addition to our class today. Now, I wish you all to greet her warmly and to help her find her footing here at the Academy, since she is transferring in halfway through the second semester.”

Scootaloo felt peculiarly nervous considering how calm she had felt up until this point. She had never really stood up in front of a classroom of other cadets before, let alone forced to introduce herself in front of a whole crowd of them.

“Please, come in, Scootaloo.”

As if on cue, Scootaloo’s summons into the room coincided perfectly with a long drawn out sigh that escaped her lips, attempting to solidify her resolve while biting back her nervousness with a forced swallow.

Upon entering, the young mare marched herself forward to stop directly beside Cheerilee, turning to face the clinically white and grey classroom with a perfectly rehearsed stare that gave no quarter, aimed over the tops of the other ponies’ heads, and resolutely avoiding every eye in the room.

After all, she had enrolled here to learn how to become a better pilot and certainly not to make friends, despite Applejack's request.

Avoiding eye contact and generally ignoring the other cadets was but ‘phase one’ of her plan to isolate herself.

“Would you like to introduce yourself?” Cheerilee urged, trying her best to smile despite Scootaloo’s very evident displeasure.

With a nod, Scootaloo glanced up to her superior and then once again to stare above the heads of the other students, phasing them out entirely by focusing on the back wall.

“My name is Scootaloo and I’m sixteen years old. I was born on Cloudsdale—”

The very name of the colony whose destruction had instigated the war caused the students to whisper amongst themselves almost immediately, but it was one particular; one very well-spoken and irritating voice, that Scootaloo took an immediate dislike to.

Arrogantly, it spoke above the rest of her peers. In fact, the source even went as far to stand up to protest her so-called concern.

“She’s a Spacer?! Why do have a Spacer in this Academy? Isn't she part of the enemy that started this whole war in the first place?!”

The derogatory term for a pony born in space drew Scootaloo’s glare straight towards the lilac colored mare wearing what appeared to be some kind of cheap looking ornament atop of her head.

Scootaloo gritted her teeth, shifting on the spot as her hooves itched to make contact with the mare. However, Scootaloo was not going to let that remark pass her by without some kind of reaction, even if she longed to resort to violence.

“What did you just call me?”

Cheerilee narrowed her eyes at the ruckus and lifted a hoof up into the air to quell the chaos.

“Quiet! I will not have such racial slurs directed towards any Cadet under my tutelage; especially from you Diamond Tiara. You ought to know better that it should not matter where a pony was born, but rather what it is that they stand for. So what if a pony was raised here on Equestrian soil or within the zero-gravity atmosphere of a space colony? So as long as they fight for equality and peace, then the EFF welcomes all such individuals into our ranks, with zero prejudice.”

The lecture from Cheerilee had calmed the room for the most part, but Scootaloo could not remove her eyes from the mare called Diamond Tiara, relishing in the fact that she was shifting uncomfortably under Scootaloo’s glare as she begrudgingly sat back down in her seat.

“I apologize, Scootaloo.” Cheerilee offered a sympathetic smile towards the Cadet, before immediately looking off into the classroom. “Sweetie Belle?”

Another mare, white, this time in the far off corner, quickly stood up from her desk, lifting her hoof up to salute as her name was called out, catching Scootaloo’s attention as she tried her best to ignore a particular set of eyes angrily burning into the side of her head.

“M’am?”

“Scootaloo is going to take the empty desk between you and Featherweight. Would you please escort her around the Academy today during Free Period after lunch and show her around all the facilities? If I am not mistaken, I believe she is also sharing the same room as you in the on-site dormitory.”

“Yes, M’am! It will be my pleasure.”

“Right, now that introductions are out of the way, go take your seat and I will begin today’s lesson, Scootaloo.” Cheerilee turned to face the wall at the front of the class, which Scootaloo only now recognized to be a rather large LCD display as the rotating insignia of the Equestrian Federation Forces appeared on screen.

Adhering to her tutor's demands, Scootaloo trotted her way towards her new desk, settling down upon the stool as she glanced towards Sweetie Belle to her left, who instantly began pestering her upon eye contact.

“Hey,” Sweetie Belle whispered, “don’t worry about Diamond Tiara, she’s a jerk to everypony. By the way, that’s a pretty awesome scar.”

Why did I look? Scootaloo mentally whined.

“Thanks… I kind of got that impression.” Scootaloo folded her forelegs onto the desk, resting her chin upon them as she tried her best to ignore the mare.

“So, you’re from space? That's pretty neat. What’s it like up there?”

Unlike you, exceptionally quiet...

Grumbling to herself, Scootaloo inclined her head and nuzzled her face into her folded arms, closing her eyes as she released a yawn.

“Wake me up when the lesson is over.” Scootaloo muttered.

“Hey… hey, you can’t sleep here,” Sweetie Belle protested, “you’ll get in trouble… hey? Cadet Scootaloo?”

__________________________

For an Academy that held over two hundred cadets of varying ages and levels of training, the cafeteria was surprisingly small and rather less crowded than what Scootaloo had come to expect.

Waiting in line for what seemed like an eternity now, Scootaloo appeared just about ready to explode not, and only from the sheer boredom.

Not that she was impatient, mind you… after all, this was the mare that remained within a VR simulation for the better part of a day, laying in wait for her simulated enemies to unwittingly fall into her perfectly orchestrated trap.

It was safe to say she had won against the simulation with little to no effort on her part, though Applejack was pretty angry that day, if Scootaloo recalled correctly, since she barely ate anything and scarcely drank a drop of water throughout the entire thirteen hour session.

Or was it a twenty hour session?

They feel the same.

But this?

This dinner queue was a true test of her self proclaimed, legendary patience...

“—I mean, why does she have to act that way? It’s not like you personally started the war or something...”

Please, shut, up! Scootaloo screamed in her head. Does she ever come up for air?!

It was not that she did not appreciate Sweetie Belle’s friendly nature, but Scootaloo wanted nothing more than to be shown where the VR suites were in this Academy so she could be left to her own devices and seclude herself from social interaction.

“Oh, you will simply adore the food here by the way. We've got the best cook this side of Equestria; her husband owns and runs Sugarcube Corner in the city as well, so we even get some of the best desserts I have ever eaten in my entire life delivered fresh, daily. Hey, do you like cake? Should I grab us some? I could really go for some carrot cake.. ooo, maybe triple chocolate fudge, too...”

As they finally came to the counter, much to Scootaloo's joy, the mare picked up a plate, purposefully zoning out the overly friendly Sweetie Belle as she looked to the cook smiling back at her beyond the quite impressive display of food.

“Hello there, Cadet! My name is Mrs. Cake. You must be new here? How are you adjusting?”

Scootaloo appeared a little taken back by the astute observation. “How did you know?”

Mrs. Cake chuckled. “I suppose I can spot what you kids call ‘newbies’ a mile off… that and I am very good at remembering a pony's face.”

“Oh,” Scootaloo looked anywhere and everywhere except at Mrs. Cake’s, “well… thanks for the food, it all looks…”

Pretty good actually… rice, spaghetti, hayfries—oh-my-gosh is that deep fried corn burgers? I love those!

“Please, help yourself to anything you like. It’s all self serve but don’t worry if anything runs out. I have plenty more in the back so pile your plate as high as you want because I am sure Instructor Bulk Biceps will more than likely make you run it off. Also, if you have any specific dietary requirements, I’d be more than happy to accommodate your needs.”

Scootaloo gave the mare a genuine smile as she used a set of tongs to pile her plate with corn burgers. “Thanks, it all looks amazing.”

“I’m pleased you think so.” Mrs Cake turned her attention to Sweetie Belle, “and good afternoon, Sweetie Belle, how are you today? Come to sate that sweet tooth of yours? Sweetie? Uh… Sweetie Belle?”

As Scootaloo shifted down the line, she lifted a ladle to place some rice onto her plate next to her stack of burgers, though paused midway as Sweetie Belle’s aghast expression leaned in very close, staring at her as if something terrifying was latched onto her face.

Scootaloo leaned her head back, perplexed by the sudden invasion of her personal space. “Um… what are you doing?”

“So, you can smile!”

Scootaloo flushed red. “W-what?”

“Just now. You smiled!” Sweetie Belle grinned. “You look so much prettier with a smile rather than that scowl you've had on your face since this morning. Kind of creases that scar.”

"Sh-shut up!" Embarrassed, Scootaloo picked up her plate and moved from the food counter swiftly, trotting into the cafeteria hoping to find a secluded table to claim for herself.

Of course, every table has somepony on it. Maybe I’ll just eat a packed lunch outside from now on.

Broken from her thoughts by a nudge on her flank, Sweetie Belle carried her plate of food above her head with the aid of her magic, and trotted on past the new cadet, beaming a smile Scootaloo could not quite get angry at for whatever reason.

“Come along, Scoots—”

“Scootaloo...” Corrected Scootaloo with a mutter, her teeth gripping her plate firmly, rendering her fully incapable of delivering a full rebuke.

“Potatoe-potato,” Sweetie Belle idly remarked as she approached a table with one other pony present, whom Scootaloo immediately recognized to be her classmate from this morning that sat to her immediate right.

He was a small, thin looking stallion, quite frail and bookish in appearance.

The complete opposite of what Scootaloo would have thought Sweetie Belle associated with.

“Hey, Featherweight!” Sweetie Belle slipped onto a stool as she sat opposite the young stallion.

Scootaloo purposefully sat herself a couple of seats away from Sweetie Belle, setting her own plate of food onto the dinner table before noting Featherweight’s suddenly shy demeanor and rather nervous response.

“H-h-hi, Sweetie Belle…” Featherweight blushed.

Scootaloo mentally groaned, suppressing an eye roll. You have got to be kidding me. This day just keeps getting worse.

“I-I see you've got nothing but sweets again,” Featherweight remarked with an equally nervous laugh, “you know, you should really eat more healthily… it’s not good for your body to eat so much sweets.”

“Nah. I eat plenty of healthy food. I’ve got a stash of fruit hidden under my bed.” Sweetie Belle hoisted a blueberry muffin from the mound of other confectionery goods piled high upon her plate, practically devouring half of it one mouthful.

“O-Oh… okay then...” Featherweight dropped the subject a little too quickly for Scootaloo’s tastes.

Jeez, grow a pair. Even I can tell you like her and I don’t normally pick up on these kinds of things easily.

Drawing her eyes to her own plate of food and trying to find some solace to the situation she was forced into, Scootaloo gazed hungrily down at the burgers, her stomach growling the longer they remained untouched.

They look so delicious. I am so going to enjoy this.

Leaning down to take a bite, Scootaloo’s body instantly sat rigid in her stool as something wet and very cold spread across the top of her head, dampening her mane and dribbling its dark liquid down onto her plate of food.

Sweetie Belle’s gasp and Featherweight’s wide eyes pulled Scootaloo’s attention over her shoulder to Diamond Tiara and a grey colored mare flanking her side, an upturned, empty bottle of cola hovering beside Diamond Tiara's head, who was wearing quite the mischievous smile with a devilish expression in her eyes.

“Oops,” Diamond Tiara remarked sarcastically, “seems like I wasted good cola on a dirty little Spacer.”

The screech of a stool caught Scootaloo’s eyes as her anger quietly seethed below the surface, somewhat stunned at the fierce expression Sweetie Belle was giving Diamond Tiara.

“Hey! Apologize to her! That was uncalled for; she did nothing to you!”

“Pfft,” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes, “hear that Silver Spoon? The loser of the class wants me to apologize to the Spacer.”

“Yeah,” the grey mare approached Sweetie Belle, glaring past her spectacles before giving Sweetie Belle a nudge with her hoof, “whose side are you on, anyway, loser? She's the enemy you know.”

It was Featherweight’s turn to stand. “H-hey! D-don’t push her around like that!”

“Aw, is the little prince coming to save his little, wittle damsel in distress?” Diamond Tiara pouted towards Featherweight. “Sit down, Featherweight… we wouldn't want you to get hurt, now would we?”

“Don’t threaten him like that!” Sweetie Belle hissed. “When the instructors hear about this—”

“Oh, they won’t, Sweetie Belle, if you know what is good for you. Now, be a dear and leave us with the Spacer... we have so much to talk about, after all.”

Scootaloo gritted her teeth as she stood. “Diamond Tiara?”

“How dare you address me you—”

Cut off by a hoof connecting straight onto her nose, Diamond Tiara cried out as she fell down onto her haunches and then onto her back, holding her nose as blood practically poured out onto her trembling hooves, her body quaking with the sudden shock to her system.

Silver Spoon flew to her friend’s aid, gawking up at Scootaloo as she glowered down at them both.

“You scar-faced psycho!” Silver Spoon spat.

"You... y-you you hit me!" Diamond Tiara yelped, tears streaming down her muzzle.

Sweetie Belle, Featherweight—in fact, the entire cafeteria shared a similar sentiment as everypony went silent.

A pin drop could be heard halfway across the academy.

“Don’t ever threaten my friends again... and if I so much as I smell you anywhere near them? I'll show you what this Spacer is fully capable of, and I promise that you won’t trot away with just a broken nose, got it?”

Author's Note

On The Next Chapter: Prodigy.

A clash of personalities!