Punched, Pinched

The bell rang and Miss Cheerilee let her class. "Class, remember to stay together until you get home and don't stay out too late unless you're with your parents or someone you can trust." The children quickly rushed out the door, only hearing very briefly what their teacher's warning. Ruby Pinch walked out with Dinky, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom as the rest of their classmates zipped on by them. Ruby Pinch remained silent as her friends talked about the homework Miss Cheerilee assigned them. Scootaloo's brief appearance this morning had been bothering her all day, so much so that Miss Cheerilee had to snap her out of it twice just to get her mind back to the matter at hand. Why had she been so elusive lately? What had come into her life so recently that it had become more important than their friendship? She glanced over to her friends who were still in the midst of conversation. "Hey Apple Bloom," she thought to herself, " do you know what's up with Scootaloo lately? Why she hasn't been around?" No, the question sounded too invasive. She thought again. "So how's Scootaloo been? I didn't see her in class today." Too casual, they might retort by asking her why she would ask them that, "aren't you supposed to be best friends with her?" Maybe she should mention seeing her this morning on the way to school. She started to think up of ways she could approach the question from this angle. The sound of her name broke her train of thought.

"Pinchy!"

She looked up and saw Apple Bloom.

"Hey, you've been zonin' out all day. Are you okay?"

She looked at the ground again and started digging her hooves in the dirt a bit. "I don't know. I guess I've been thinking about some stuff lately."

Dinky Smiled.

"is it hugs?" she snarked.

Ruby Pinch blushed with annoyance. "No, I've just been thinking where Scootaloo's been lately."

The three fillies fell silent and looked at each other, Ruby Pinch began to feel the gravity of the subject. Sweetie Belle spoke up.

"We were kind of hoping you'd tell us, Pinchy."

The four of them were silent now. Pinchy continued looking at the ground. "I don't know. I did see her this morning on my way to school near Sugarcube Corner, though, but that's about it."

Sweetie Belle smiled. "Maybe she's taking lessons from Rainbow Dash and she's just too busy to tell us."

Apple Bloom frowned. "But what does that have to do with Sugarcube Corner?"

"It doesn't have to do anything with Sugarcube Corner. I was just thinking of reasons why she hasn't been hanging out with us."

"Yeah, but if Pinchy saw her near Sugarcube Corner, then she musta been doing somethin' with Pinkie Pie or Mr an' Mrs. Cake."

"But she said near Sugarcube Corner. She could've been doing something with Rainbow Dash near Sugarcube Corner."

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle started to argue about the semantics of what Ruby Pinch had said. Dinky approached her and put a hoof around her shoulder. "Don't pay any attention to them," She said, "They're just kind of 'on edge' about the whole Scootaloo thing. I mean, they used to do everything together."

"She and I used to do everything together."

She dug at the dirt again. Dinky frowned. She looked at the disarray the absence of their friend had caused.

"I think we should get going, girls. Remember what Miss Cheerilee said?"

Sweetie Belle stopped to think. "This test is important, don't forget?"

Her comment lightened the mood. Apple Bloom smiled. "No, silly. She said that we shouldn't stay out too long and that we should go straight home right after school."

Dinky nodded. "Right."

The four of them resumed their walk and focus quickly moved from the Scootaloo situation over to Sweetie Belle's comment and laughter soon made it's way back into their lives again. Now, the only thought on Ruby Pinch's mind was getting home and seeing her mother.

During their walk, Ruby Pinch thought about how she had acted toward her mother this morning. She didn't act too bad and really the only thing that might have come off as being mean to her was when she saw Scootaloo this morning and her mother asked her if they weren't seeing each other much lately. "At least she took me to school today," she thought, "it's not her fault that Scootaloo aren't hanging out anymore." She thought about surprising her mom again by crawling into bed with her like she did this morning. Maybe she'd even let her get away with calling her "baby". She'd like that and in a way she still was like like her mother told her when they got up out bed. The idea made her smile and the more she thought about it, the better it made her feel. Soon, she was smiling as big as her friends were.

Ruby Pinch opened the front door of her house and walked in. It was dark save for the sunlight that filtered through the sheer curtains in their windows. She called out to her mother, but got no response. "She's probably still asleep," she thought to herself. She headed upstairs to check on her. As she made her way to her mother's room, she noticed that the doors to the other rooms upstairs were closed. "That's weird," she thought, "Mom, never has the doors closed like that. Even she doesn't close hers all the way." She entered the room and found the bed still unmade, the bottle of booze still on her nightstand. "I don't get it, everything looks alright, but why are all the doors closed?" She headed back downstairs. A few thoughts crossed her mind regarding the whereabouts of her mother. Maybe she's just at the bar again. That's always been the case whenever she wasn't at home. She thought about going just to put her mind to rest, but quickly remembered how her mother always disapproved of her going to look for her in places like that. How it wasn't appropriate for fillies like her to see things like that. "I guess she'll be home later." Ruby Pinched grabbed her saddle bag and went back upstairs.