Well, this went down relatively normal so far.

Half of today's lessons were over by now, and Scootaloo was currently kicking back in recess. Miss Cheerilee went straight to teaching after greeting her. Talking about her trip hadn't even come up again. But if she was perfectly honest, Scootaloo wasn't all that interested in doing that anyway. To friends in a smaller circle? Hay yes. Before class? Not so much.

She stretched out her arms and legs and her wings. Joints popped in a very satisfying manner. That was one of Rainbow Dash's habits she adopted and it nearly drove auntie Pitter Patter crazy every time. With a quick smirk she crossed one leg over the other and reclined in place on one of the banks behind the schoolhouse.

The first thing Miss Cheerilee tackled had been a math problem, with predictable groans from the class. It was hard for the Pegasus to blame them, her own groan had been among the loudest. And yet, it went down like anypony would expect. Miss Cheerilee putting up some equations on the blackboard, all the colts and fillies staring at it like goldfish... with the exception of a few geeks, like Twist or Dinky.

Pretty much like every other day. Now why do I still feel weird?

"You were... really brave back there."

Scootaloo flinched as a quiet voice interrupted her thoughts. She spun her head to see who'd addressed her. The tone was familiar, even though its owner didn't usually say much at all. And like Scootaloo thought, it was Tootsie Flute. The petite Unicorn stood a little way behind her and pointedly averted her eyes.

"How you stood up to Silver Spoon, I mean. I know she gave you lots of trouble for a long time. Her and Diamond Tiara both. But you didn't back down this morning. I... I think you're really, really brave."

Scootaloo opened her mouth to reply. Her mind, however, drew blank, so she just said a quick "Thanks" and went back to staring at the other filly. It wasn't that she didn't know how to handle praise, she just hadn't expected it from this direction and for such a small thing.
For her part, Tootsie stayed right where she was. Fiddling her hands in nervous little twitches, and Scootaloo noticed that she was holding something in one of them, but couldn't make out what it was. Perhaps she still had more to say?

"Scootaloo? Um... is it alright if I... asked you a question?"

So she did. Scootaloo nodded. She didn't know Tootsie Flute very well, but if the filly thought she had something to share she would try. She swished her tail behind her and beamed a bright and—just perhaps—a little cocky smile at the other girl.

"Yeah, it's fine, Tootsie. What do you wanna know?" She motioned for the Unicorn to take a seat next to her. She did so, a little haltingly, and curled her own tail in a fine curve. If not for the fact that the fabric of her outfit—what little there was—left almost nothing to the imagination, she might as well have sat down at a fancy dinner table. Scootaloo scooted in place to face her.

Tootsie didn't look up at her. Her eyes were glued to the thing she kept hidden in the palms of her hands, slowly drawing her fingers over it as if to reassure herself that it was still there. Scootaloo caught a glimpse of red against Tootsie's blueish coat, but as soon as she did it was all covered up again. Whatever Tootsie Flute's mystery item turned out to be, it was obviously very important to her.

After a moment's hesitation, she finally seemed to find the courage to speak. Her grip tightened and her jaw set. Even now, though, she was too shy to meet Scootaloo's questioning gaze directly. She looked a little to the side, as if she was trying to convince herself Scootaloo wasn't really there and therefore she wasn't really speaking to another live pony.

"Well, it's... it's like this: I have a, a friend. And this friend has something she really, really wants."

Scootaloo raised a brow. Did Tootsie really just try the 'I have a friend who needs advice' routine? Who did that? She couldn't remember a time when that excuse had ever worked for anypony about any question.

"A friend," she deadpanned. Her scepsis must've been audible, as Tootsie Flute began fidgeting uncomfortably in her seat. Scootaloo decided to throw the poor girl a bone, so she tried her best to turn her own frown around and sound more believing than she felt.

"Okay, a friend. Sure, why not? So this friend needs some super-special awesome advice by yours truly?"

She mentally winced. Yeah, that probably was a bit much.

If Tootsie thought so too, she didn't show it.

"Y-yes. Like I said, she has something she really, really wants. And she, um, she wanted it for a long time now. For years. And now, she's afraid she'll never get it. That's it's too late to even try."

Tootsie's hand began to tremble as she spoke. Scootaloo thought she could make out a sparkle of unshed tears shining at the corner of the little Unicorn's eyes, even as she wasn't looking at her directly. It was like Tootsie was staring at a scene in her head instead, whatever it was that happened that day.

Oh geeze. This really bothers her.

"She... she could've had it back then. If only she'd been a little quicker, he would've taken it. If only—"

She took a deep breath to calm down.

"Nevermind. That was then, this is now. Dwelling on it doesn't help anypony."

"You're right about that!"

Tootsie spun around with a soft squeak. It seemed she had forgotten about Scootaloo even being around, or perhaps she'd expected her to be too bored to continue listening at all. The Pegasus filly was left with a sheepish grin and scratching her neck; she hadn't meant to startle the other girl, but to be fair, just blanking out on her was a little bit rude too. Scootaloo gave her a moment to calm down.

"Look," she went on, "your friend shouldn't let what happened back then hold her back. This is really important to her, right?"
It wasn't until she sent a sidelong glance in her direction that Tootsie found it in her to answer with a slow nod.
"Okay, then she needs to get off her butt and take the opportunity! Nothing's going to change if she just keeps sitting around doing nothing, that's for sure. Rainbow Dash always says it's important to look to the future and be as awesome as possible! So get up, take this opportunity, and be as awesome as I know you can be if you really put your heart into it!"

Scootaloo spread her arms wide and gave the other filly the most brilliant smile she could muster. Even her wings splayed out and open.
And Tootsie stared at her with huge, watery eyes. Her lower lip trembled, and Scootaloo swore she could feel the other filly's rising hope prickle her coat like the rays of the morning sun. Slowly, slowly... she returned the smile.

"You... you really thinks so? You really think I can be awesome, too?"

Scootaloo nodded her head and winked.

"I know so."

The shy little smile on Tootsie Flute's face grew wide. But then it faltered for some reason, sudden worry visibly clouding her mood. Scootaloo saw her knuckles show under the coat of her hands as the girl held her trinket right. The Unicorn glanced to the side, so quickly Scootaloo almost didn't notice. All she saw when she followed the look were a few of their classmates kicking a ball around. Or sitting around and eating, like Twist and Truffle, who had claimed one of the swing sets and were making a game of her flicking gumdrops in the air and him catching them on his tongue. Featherweight busily snapped shots of everything and everypony while Roar leaned against the side of the school with his hands in his pockets, staring at nothing.

"There's one more problem," Tootsie muttered.

Scootaloo suppressed the urge to sigh. Of course there is. The one time I get to use Rainbow Dash's awesome pep talk...

"The, um, the thing she wants," the Unicorn went on, "it already belongs to somepony. Kind of. Well, not really." She frowned. "This other pony may think it belongs to her but they didn't make it official yet. However... she had it for a while now. And I don't really want to fight with her. We've known each other for so long now. I like her. She's my friend. But at the same time I really, really want hi—um, it. I don't know what to do anymore."

Tootsie had apparently not caught on to her own slip-up, but there was little sense in mentioning it. A new plan formulated in Scootaloo's mind. The Rainbow Dash method was insufficient at the moment, so it was time to try a different approach.

"You're friends, right? Well, why don't you share?"

Tootsie looked at her like she'd grown a second head. Scootaloo felt one of her ears cock; she forced it back up.

"No, I really mean it! If you both want this thing so much, but you also don't want to fight each other over it, then share it. That way you both get it some of the time instead of one of you never. Look, Tootsie, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and me often had to share whatever we needed for our Cutie Mark hunt. We didn't want one of us to feel like she's being left out. If you two really are friends, she'll understand why you're asking her for it. And who knows, some things are actually more fun when you're not alone!" She pointed at the group of students currently passing the time by passing a soccer ball from one pony to the next and seemed to be having a good time doing so.

"You see? Sharing is caring, after all! Ask her if you two can share and maybe you'll find it's even better together!"

Tootsie was still watching them kick the ball. She looked to be considering her words, judging from the way the tension slowly bled from her body until she finally turned around again. The hopeful smile had returned, this time accompanied by a by look that seemed almost a little embarrassed. She even wore a tiny blush around her muzzle.

"I, I didn't even consider that," she admitted. "Kind of silly, looking back. Was that another of Rainbow Dash's wise sayings?"

"Pinkie Pie, actually." Scootaloo grinned. "She's even got a song and dance number to go with it, but I couldn't squeeze that one in, too. We don't have a piano around right now and I couldn't play it anyway."

That one managed to coax a giggle from the shy Unicorn girl. One they both shared.

"Then I'll do exactly what you suggested. I'll get up, do my best, and ask my friend if we can share!" She quite suddenly lunged in to hug Scootaloo, who felt some heat rise in her cheeks from the way Tootsie Flute's nipples actually poked her through the material barely covering her upper body. She brought her own arms around across Tootsie's back, a little quicker than she usually would have. Scootaloo had never been one for impromptu hug sessions, even if this did sort of feel nice.

"Thank you, Scootaloo! You were a great help!"

She felt herself released as suddenly as the hug started, with Tootsie jogging away while waving over one shoulder. Scootaloo waved after her, mildly confused but happy to be helpful. As she went over the discussion in her head, she noticed that Tootsie never really told her precisely what her supposed friend was after. Scootaloo shrugged to herself. If Tootsie felt like sharing she probably would have.

Too bad her talk with Tootsie had kept her occupied. By the time they were done, her friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were both already busy. In Apple Bloom's case, it was with sticking her tongue down her coltfriend's throat. The two looked almost comical with how much taller the Earth Pony was, but what really drew attention was the messy, noisy way they made out right on the school's playground. Scootaloo quickly looked away before anypony could see her blush.

Sweetie Belle, meanwhile, talked to Miss Cheerilee about something or other. She hoped her friend wasn't in any trouble, but from the looks of things it was nothing serious or bad. Miss Cheerilee kept smiling cheerfully while she explained something to the younger mare, who followed every word with wide-eyed, rapt attention and frequent questions. Whatever it was, she really wanted to know about it, it seemed!

They actually caught her looking at them at some point. Scootaloo couldn't look away quickly enough; both Miss Cheerilee and Sweetie peered at her. Their conversation turned to a lull. Miss Cheerilee said something aside to Sweetie, who nodded and stepped back.

And then the teacher came over to Scootaloo. She wasn't smiling anymore.

Oh horseapples!

She'd walked up to Scootaloo by now, who pretended she hadn't noticed. Not that the Pegasus could keep from squirming in her seat from her teacher's attention. Miss Cheerilee pulled something from one of her pockets; it looked like a fairly plain envelope. Was... that a note to her parents?

Well fat chance of that doing anything! Not like they're ever home or something.

"Scootaloo?" Miss Cheerilee finally addressed her by name. Scootaloo hung her head and turned around towards her.

"Yes, Miss Cheerilee?"

The teacher took one last glance down at the piece of paper in her hand. She nodded and held it out for Scootaloo, who took it with a nervous feeling. She hadn't meant to do anything bad. And since when was looking a bad thing, anyway?

"Those are notes about the homework assignments for today. I want you to bring them to Diamond Tiara after school. She's been sick for several days now."

Scootaloo's mouth fell open in shock. Cheerilee held up her hands in a placating gesture.

"I know, I know. You don't have the best of relationships. But I want you to see this as an opportunity. You need to put in some extra work too if you don't want to fall behind too much. Maybe you can sit down together for some of it?"

"Why don't you tell Silver Spoon to give it to her?"

"I would, but they've stopped talking to one another. They've had some... issues, over something that happened with Silver Spoon," the mare explained.

Her feelings about that idea must've been obvious to anypony looking at her. Scootaloo heard her teacher sigh and saw her shake her head. Miss Cheerilee folded her arms with a tiny frown in place, then shook her head again.

"Don't you get tired of it?"

"Wha...?"

"Your quarrel, I mean," Cheerilee continued. "You've been fighting with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon longer than anypony. I realise they said some really mean and hurtful things to you in the past. It's true, they didn't give you any reason to forgive them. I understand. But it's also been years now. I believe you've changed, Scootaloo. I believe you've grown up to the point where it's time to let go of that grudge and bury the hatchet. They've also grown up a little, it's just harder to see. They're not trying to hurt you anymore, they're not the bullies they used to be. I would really like for you to try and make up with Diamond Tiara, at least. She's all alone right now. You're the closest thing to a friend she has."

Scootaloo gripped the paper tight. That wasn't fair to ask of her!

"Please, Scootaloo? Will you try for me, please?"

It took the Pegasus a lot to swallow down the lump in her throat. No, she didn't want to go to Diamond Tiara. She wanted to spend time with her even less. But as she looked into the gentle, hopeful eyes of her teacher for so many years, she felt her resolve crumble.

Dammit.

"Okay, I will."

Author's Note

God, this took painfully long to write! The scene with Tootsie Flute and Scootaloo alone gave me writers block for weeks. Write a few words, take them out again, sometimes the connection would eat any progress made... but now it's finally out!