Cheerilee tried to hide her frown as she passed by Scootaloo’s desk, placing the math test face-down before trotting back toward her desk. Scootaloo stared at the slightly wrinkled paper for a moment before cringing and cautiously flipping it over.

A deep crimson “F” and a frowny face sticker glared up at her; she’d scored only fifty-two percent. One quick quiver of her lower lip was all that escaped before she slumped down in her seat, trying to hide from the world. The creaky old wood of her chair let out a groan that would have drawn attention if her classmates were paying any. They were not; all around her, fillies and colts either buzzed with confidence or crumpled up and threw away their exams without a care, but not her. She’d failed too miserably to pretend to be proud of herself, but she couldn’t shrug it off, either. Scootaloo sighed, grateful for the fact that nopony was looking at her, but not much else.

At the end of the month, everypony in class would be going on a week long camping trip in the White Tail Woods with only the flimsiest pretense of it being educational and all the intent in the world to have fun. Rock climbing and archery and swimming and a dozen other things would reward the students for all of their hard work. Everypony would revel in an experience they would fondly remember for years—except of course for those dumb enough to be left behind to study.

A tap on her shoulder snapped her to attention and she turned around to see what Sweetie Belle wanted, managing to morph her sullen face into a relatively bright mask. “What’s up?” she asked.

“How’d you do?” Sweetie Belle asked cheerfully.

“Oh. Um...” Scootaloo trailed off. Dropping the act and grimacing heavily, she rubbed a hoof against the back of her neck. “Not good.”

Sweetie Belle frowned and turned her gaze downard. “Oh.”

“I think you and Apple Bloom probably shouldn’t count on me going with you.”

“Well it’s not over yet!” Sweetie Belle chirped. She put a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder and offered a reassuring smile. “If you do really, really good on the next one, I think you could still make it. Your grade isn’t un... um, unsalav...” Her face scrunched up and her tongue poked out of her mouth as she concentrated. “Unsalvageable,” she finally said, beaming with pride.

Just then, the bell rang and the classroom roared to life.

“Oh, remember class, we’ve got a spelling test coming up soon, so make sure you study hard!” Cheerilee yelled over her students’ conversations. “Class is dismissed!”

A veritable stampede barreled across the room and out the door while Cheerilee collected her things and hummed a jaunty tune.

“Ooh, maybe we could get studying cutie marks!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

“So, what do y’all wanna do today?” Apple Bloom asked as she approached her friends.

“Aww, come on Scootaloo, I’m sure—”

Anger sparked in the little pegasus’s eyes. “Yeah. You’re sure. Because you’re a friggin’ dictionary,” she barked, prodding her friend sharply with a hoof before folding her limbs over her chest and her face into a pout. “Do you think I want to fail? Don’t you think I’m already trying hard?”

Cheerilee paused and looked over at the quarreling Crusaders. “Girls? Is everything alright?”

“Everything’s fine, Miss Cheerilee,” Scootaloo shouted toward the front of the room. She turned back to face Sweetie Belle, but refused to make eye contact. “Sorry I snapped at you like that.”

Scootaloo slid the paper off the desk and into her saddlebag where she couldn’t see it, then she slid herself out of her chair and began marching toward the door. “I’ll see you girls tomorrow. I’ve got stuff to do.”

Sweetie Belle took a step after her, but stopped herself. Her forehead creased with worry, she turned to Apple Bloom and asked “Do you think she’ll get to go?”

Trotting swiftly toward home, Scootaloo stopped when she heard a voice calling from the side of the road.

“You looked upset today, blank-flank. Still mad you can’t ride your scooter near the school?”

She scowled. “I don’t have time for you right now, you stuck-up little—”

“Hey, no need to bite my head off. Chickens are made to be awkward tomcolts with no talent, not like, carnivores or whatever.”

“Just leave me alone,” she sighed. “I have enough to deal with right now without you making things worse.”

A wicked grin crept across Diamond Tiara’s face. “You know... I might have something that could totally clear up your problem.”

Scootaloo turned around and raised an eyebrow. “What do you know, huh?”

“Y’know, if you get like, a hundred percent on that spelling test, your grade would probably be high enough,” Diamond Tiara said, stepping toward Scootaloo.

“So what if you’re right? How am I gonna get a perfect score?”

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. “You really are dense,” she said before leaning in next to Scootaloo and pressing her muzzle up to Scootaloo’s ear. “I have the answers,” she whispered.

Jolting backwards, Scootaloo stammered, “C-c-cheat? No way!” She stood straight and defiant, glaring at Diamond Tiara. “I may be a lot of things, but I am not a cheater. And besides, my grades aren’t that bad that I need to be perfect to fix them.”

Diamond Tiara stared silently at her for a few seconds before replying, “Suit yourself.” Then she turned around and turned her nose up. “I’ll see you at the campsite,” she said before looking back and snickering. “Or not,” she giggled, sashaying away.

Scootaloo’s nostrils flared. She thought she smelled a dying campfire.

---

The minute hand on the clock perched just to the left of the twelve, and Scootaloo bit her lip. Her mind blanked completely. She grabbed her pencil and hastily scrawled a guess only a moment before the clock ticked forward.

Cheerilee glanced up at the clock and cleared her throat. “Okay, class, time’s up. Everypony pass your papers to the left and then forward.”

Shoving the spelling test away from herself as though it were plagued, Scootaloo’s head thudded into her desk. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, filling her quaking lungs with musty air from the heavily worn wood.

With the last of the tests collected in Diamond Tiara’s hooves, Cheerilee trotted forward, picked up the stack, and set it in a wire-basket marked “IN” before blinking at it. “Actually, class, how about you all take a short recess while I grade these? That way, you won’t have to wait until Monday to know how you did!” She peeked up at the clock again. “Don’t get too excited, though. It’ll be a very short one.”

Cheers erupted. Fillies and colts clambered out of their seats and raced for the sunshine. Scootaloo dragged herself out of her seat and plodded across the floor without a hint of enthusiasm. Stepping into the fresh spring air, she kept her head low and her eyes lower as she made her way past the playground and toward the old oak tree. She dropped against the base of it and sighed.

“C’mon, Scoots, I’m sure ya did fine,” Apple Bloom called from nearby. “This one wasn’t so bad, an’ ya definitely studied good and hard.”

“Maybe,” she mumbled, lifting her head and making eye contact with the first pony since that morning. “I mean, I think I got most of ‘em right, but I know I screwed up a few. Especially that last one.”

Sweetie Belle finished her approach and smiled sheepishly. “Unsalvageable?”

“Yeah. That,” Scootaloo droned, letting her head fall back against the soft grass under the shade of the solid oak. She curled into the shadow of the tree, shunning the sun’s warm light.

“U-n-s-a-l-v-a-g-e-a-b-l-e,” Sweetie stated firmly.

Mouthing each of the letters in slow motion and nodding her head after each recitation, Scootaloo’s lips curved upwards a bit and she rose up on her hooves. “I think... I think I got that one,” she mused.

Apple Bloom scooped her into a tight hug. “See? It’ll be fine, so stop wallowin’ so much. Ya ain’t been the same lately.”

“Heh... I know. I’m sorry, girls, I just... my grades weren’t the best and I was really worried I’d have to stay behind,” she said, suppressing a sniffle.

Sweetie Belle joined the embrace, and together the three fillies brightened up the chilly, dark patch of shade, only to be interrupted by Cheerilee’s curt shouts.

“Recess is over, class!”

Mutters of disappointment emanated across the schoolyard as the reverie was cut short and the foals marched solemnly back into the classroom. Cheerilee began pacing up and down the rows of desks, depositing one slip of paper on each. Scootaloo shivered with wide eyes as Cheerilee’s stack dwindled and the distance closed. Her eyebrows rose hopefully when Cheerilee paused at her, holding on to the last test. Cheerilee only briefly made eye contact before darting her gaze away and sliding Scootaloo’s fate face down in front of her. She trotted briskly away.

With trembling hooves, Scootaloo rotated the paper over so that she could discover her destiny. Her body shuddered as if wracked by a sob, but she made no sound save a tiny squeak of disappointment at the paltry red number and accompanying frowny face sticker in the corner. She immediately folded it over on itself to shield herself from the harsh reality of the situation, but it was too late.

Cheerilee rapped a hoof against the chalkboard to focus the attentions of her pupils. “Class, here is the schedule we’ll be following for the rest of this month. As you can see, we don’t have any ordinary field trips or guest speakers planned, but we do have our fantastic camping trip to look forward to. Just don’t forget that there is one more math test next week.” She smiled and looked out over the classroom. “Now, let’s go over the answers to the spelling test we just finished...”

Scootaloo’s heart raced. She recalled what scores she could and focused with all her might on crunching the numbers correctly as she added up her current grade. With a lot of hard work and more than a bit of luck, it just might have been possible for an excellent score on the last math test to push her grade high enough. The more she went over it, the more excited she became to realize that it was possible. Finishing her arithmetic decathlon, her shoulders sagged. Ninety-eight percent. She would need a nigh-perfect score to make the cutoff, and no matter how hard she studied she was certain she could never reach such a peak.

Cheerilee kept smiling as she finished reviewing the spelling words and switched to a lecture about history. Scootaloo couldn’t bring herself to pay any attention, instead spiraling around the ruins of dreams dashed by failure.

Hardly noticing that class had ended until Apple Bloom shook her out of her stupor, Scootaloo stashed her spelling test in the dark, forgotten corner of her saddlebag as she stood up.

“You comin’, Scootaloo?”

She looked to the front of the room where Cheerilee happily hummed, shuffling papers about. “In a minute. Go on without me. I’ll... I’ll catch up.”

Apple Bloom shrugged and turned to Sweetie Belle. The two began chatting idly as they made for the door.

Scootaloo approached the teacher’s desk with trepidation. “Miss Cheerilee?”

“Oh, hello there. What can I do for you, Scootaloo?” she asked, setting aside other tasks and giving her full attention to her student.

“Um, about the camping trip...” Scootaloo said, scuffing a hoof against the floor. “What would I need on that math test to make it?”

Cheerilee leaned down and rested a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder. “I know you’re concerned, and I would love to help, but I’m afraid I can’t do much. I can bend and round the numbers a little, but I don’t think I can let you go with less than a ninety-five percent.” She frowned. “I’m sorry.”

Scootaloo fought through another sob-like retch, forcing down the moisture threatening to bead up in the corners of her eyes. “O-okay,” she said, faking a smile. “Thank you.”

“I know you’re actually a very smart little filly, Scootaloo. I believe you can do it if you apply yourself.”

She nodded once and turned around, dropping her smile but holding her head up until she’d made it out of eyesight. She wandered out of the building and stared wistfully into the sky. Her introspection was interrupted by a loud cough, and she turned to see Diamond Tiara leaning against a fence.

“So. I hear a rumor that you’re not going to be coming with us on the camping trip. Is that, like, true?”

“What do you want?” she barked.

“Like, duh,” Diamond Tiara replied, “for you to come, too.”

Scootaloo squinted and wrinkled her eyebrows. “You expect me to buy that?”

Diamond Tiara laughed. “I guess not. Look, blank-flank, I can help you. Do you want to go or not?”

Scootaloo’s glare answered the question.

“I can get you the grade you need, and then you can come. All you have to do is promise to do me three small favors.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know yet,” Diamond Tiara said with a shrug, “but they’ll be little things like having to say something to somepony. You won’t have to fight or give me anything of yours. No blood, no bits, nothing like that. Just words or small gestures.”

“And how exactly does this even work?”

Diamond Tiara waved a dismissive hoof. “Oh, that part’s like, totally easy. Miss Cheerilee always has everypony pass their tests to the left and to the front.”

Scootaloo blinked. “And?”

With a roll of her eyes, Diamond Tiara sighed. “You really are dumb. I sit all the way in the front and all the way on the left. Since I’m handling a bunch of papers at once, nopony will notice if I shuffle one or two around a little. I’ll totally turn in a cheat-sheet with your name on it instead of your miserable answers. So come on, what do you say?”

A gust of wind howled by and Scootaloo shivered. “I don’t know...”

Sunlight glinted off Diamond Tiara’s painfully white teeth as she smiled. The expected perfection of her smile was replaced by an almost intentional crookedness to the smug grin. “Do you really think you can make it without me?”

---

“Oh, and before you all go, I have yesterday’s math test graded. If you would all line up single-file near the door, I can hand them out as you leave. Congratulations to those of you who’ll be coming camping on Monday! I’m happy to report that most of you made it, but if you didn’t, don’t despair. These last several exams have been particularly tough.”

Scootaloo shot out of her seat, coming to a stop just in front of Cheerilee. She swallowed a lump in her throat as a nervous sweat began beading up on her forehead. Cheerilee smiled as she hoofed Scootaloo her test, and Scootaloo blurred out the door and around a corner. She slammed herself up against a wall and squeezed her eyes shut, holding the paper out in front of her and fighting to slide one eye open. When she finally managed to peer through the gap in her eyelids, she flew through momentary despair, confusion, then joy.

She almost cried at discovering she did not score one hundred percent and the accompanying gold star, but quickly swapped to bewilderment. Ninety-eight percent and a smiling flower. After a moment of contemplation, all trace of negativity drained out of her as she realized she’d made it. Her grade was secured. Squealing with delight, Scootaloo shoved the paper into her bag with the others and tore around the corner, only to come skidding to a stop in front of Diamond Tiara.

“I told you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you were right. I’ve gotta get to the clubhouse. I can’t wait tell the Crusaders the good news!” she said, leaning into the first step of a gallop, only to be held back by a hoof.

“Not so fast. There are two sides to the bargain, you know.”

“Oh. Um, yeah. Did you... am I doing one of your favors now?”

Diamond Tiara nodded. “I need you to walk past Snips and Snails and say something about how easy that math test was. Loud enough for them to hear you.”

“That’s... that’s it?” Scootaloo asked, her face screwed into a quizzical expression of disbelief. “That’s the first favor?”

“Didn’t I say they’d just be little things?”

“Heh. I guess you did,” Scootaloo replied. “Alright then. You want the other two favors now?”

“Nope. I’ll let you know when it’s time.” Diamond Tiara smiled that same unpleasantly crooked smile. “Just go do like I told you, and then you’re free to go get covered in tree sap—or whatever it is you and your friends like to do.”

“Okay then. Guess I’ll go do that. Listen I, um, I never thought I’d be saying this to you of all ponies, but... thank you,” Scootaloo said with a blush.

“No no, thank you. Now go on. You have a job to do.”

Scootaloo quickly spotted Snips and Snails just ahead, adjusting her course so that she’d pass by them on her way and waving back at Diamond Tiara as she set off. Snips and Snails were both trotting slowly down the road when she caught up to them.

“Jee, I can’t believe how simple that math test was. Even I got an ‘A’ this time!” she shouted, badly failing to mimic natural musing with her comically overstated line; she had wanted to be certain she was both heard and understood. Continuing on down the road, Scootaloo barely noticed that Snips’ and Snails’ hoofsteps stopped.

---

The lake gleamed in the gloriously sunny center of the campsite—almost as brightly as Scootaloo’s sparkling eyes. She breathed in the scents of pine and dew and crisp, clean air as she set hoof into the beginning of the beautiful week. She was melting in deliciously contradictory relaxation and anticipation when she noticed Sweetie Belle waving her over toward a circle of stones that all the other ponies seemed to be gathering in. Cantering over to join her friend, she glanced around and felt a pang of sorrow that she couldn’t place.

“Welcome, students!” Cheerilee exclaimed. “We have an exciting...”

Scootaloo tuned her out as the source of her unease began to come into focus. Something was missing She turned to Sweetie Belle and asked, “Where’s Apple Bloom?”

Sweetie Belle smiled. “Oh, she’s picking apples; there’re a few apple trees over there,” she said, pointing off to the west, “and she said she couldn’t leave without getting a few.”

“Oh, okay.” Furrowing her brow, Scootaloo scanned the circle once again before it clicked. “What about Snips and Snails?”

“Huh?” Sweetie Belle tilted her head to one side. “I don’t think they got to come.”

Frowning at this, Scootaloo scrambled through a thicket of unusually thorny feelings. Why had Diamond Tiara made her say that to them? If she knew they had failed...

Her stomach churned. She knew Diamond Tiara couldn’t ever have been a decent pony, but that kind of cruelty was a new low. Kicking a pony when they’re down and insulting them that harshly in one cold, calculated careless utterance was awful. Scootaloo felt nauseous.

No blood, no bits, nothing like that.

The sick feeling in the pit of her stomach quickly burned away in the fire of a freshly born anger. Diamond Tiara was much worse than just “not-a-good-pony.” Her eyes met the bully’s, and she saw a mirthful gaze staring back. It disgusted her.

“Alright. So everypony meet back here in one hour, okay?”

Scootaloo shook herself out of it and whipped her head around to find all the foals dispersing across the grounds. “I’ll be right back,” she said, making a beeline for the spoiled filly with the unsettling smile. She caught her alone on a fringe of trees just east of the lake.

“What’s wrong with you?!” she shouted.

“Huh? What’re you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about!”

“Oh, that?” Diamond Tiara yawned. “You’re the one who said it.” She smiled. “Not me.”

Stamping a hoof, Scootaloo growled, “That’s a load of horseapples!”

“So what if it is, huh? What are you gonna do?”

“You’re awful! I’ll... I could tell Miss Cheerilee!”

Diamond Tiara giggled, then chuckled, then doubled over laughing. “No you... ha ha... no you can’t! Heeheehee... you totally can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

Her laughter subsiding, Diamond Tiara stood up straight through a few more waves. “Because then I would tell her you cheated.”

“You... you!”

“Not to mention, you still owe me two more favors.”

Scootaloo shook her head vigorously and took two steps back. “No way. Nuh-uh. I’m not going to help you hurt any more ponies!”

Smiling that crooked smile and holding back another laugh, Diamond Tiara leveled a chilling glare at Scootaloo. “Yes you will. It doesn’t matter if you tell the teacher or if you tell your friends or if you break your promise; if you cross me I’ll tell Miss Cheerilee what a bad little filly you’ve been.”

Horror dawned on Scootaloo’s face as she realized the depth of her predicament. Her jaw worked futilely as her brain failed to retort and her stomach sank.

Diamond Tiara slithered up to her. “Look, it’s only two more, and then you’re free to go. Just do what I tell you and everything’ll be fine.”

Scootaloo gulped and her eyes quivered.

“You know, I think now’s a good time to call in the second favor.” That terrible smile crawled across her face again. “What do you think?”

Tearing her gaze away and blinking away a few drops of moisture Scootaloo deflated. “What do I have to do?”

“Push Twist into the lake.”

“WHAT?”

“You heard me!”

“I can’t do that! That wasn’t... that’s not part of the deal! You said no blood!”

“Relaaax. She knows how to swim. There’s a lifeguard on duty, too. And besides... how could a little dip make her bleed?”

Scootaloo closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A harmless prank. Nopony would suffer any lasting damage. “That, one more thing, and then you swear I’m free? Those are the three favors, the deal is finished, and I never have to talk to you again?”

“Cross my heart.”

“How can I trust that you even have one?”

Tapping a hoof against her chin, Diamond Tiara sat and thought. “How about I give you some ammo you can use against me if I go back on my word?”

“Yeah right, like you’d put yourself in a bad position...”

“It’s not a bad position at all. It totally gives you a way to trust me so we can complete our deal without any problems.”

Scootaloo’s wings flared and her coat stood on end, alive with electric anger. “And how do you know I won’t turn around and use it against you anyway? Huh? Did you think about that?”

Diamond Tiara giggled again. “Don’t make me spend all day laughing. Of course you wouldn’t. You’re like, way too goody-goody for that.”

“Fine,” Scootaloo spat. “Give it to me.”

“I’m terrified of heights,” she stated flatly.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Scootaloo lowered her wings and closed her eyes again, exhaling a long breath. “What choice do I even have?”

Diamond Tiara slapped a hoof on her back. “That’s the spirit!”

She shuddered and spun about, trotting limply toward the lake. As luck would have it, Twist happened to be within shoving distance already. Scootaloo steeled herself and swallowed a fresh lump in her throat. The largest yet. At least this time there were no conditions on how it had to be done. She decided in swift order to pretend it was an accident.

Aiming herself at her hapless classmate, she tensed her legs and mouthed an apology. Then she rocketed into her with a tremendous slam and pinballed away toward the opposite edge of the woods, tears streaming down her face.

She heard a scream and a series of sputters. She couldn’t close her ears to the rotten fruits of her labor, and she couldn’t bring herself to face another pony just then. So she continued to run, until she was well esconced in the woods, just barely able to see out into the clearing, coming to rest at the foot of an apple tree.

“Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom called, squinting at the shuddering heap on the ground. “What are y’all doin’ over here?”

Rather than answer, Scootaloo covered her head with her hooves and moistened the dirt with her tears.

“...Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom asked, pensively approaching her and laying a hoof on her. “Are y’all alright?”

Choking back a wide enough space in her sobs to speak, she responded. “No. I’m not alright,” she said, the sound muffled.

Apple Bloom stroked her softly. “What’s wrong? I’m sure we can—”

Her head snapped up and fresh streams poured down her face. “No! We can’t! I pushed Twist into the lake!”

“What?! Scoot, why?”

“Diamond Tiara told me to do it! She was gonna... I wasn’t gonna get to come, and she... I couldn’t do it, Apple Bloom! No matter how hard I studied, there was no way, and she helped me! But I never should’ve listened to her because now if I don’t do what she was she’ll tell Miss Cheerilee that I cheated and—”

“That’s not good enough! Gettin’ caught cheating is one thing, but Twist can’t swim!”

Wailing twice as loud as before, Scootaloo fell to the ground once more and let her heart spill out around her.

Apple Bloom stood and glanced out toward the lake. “I’m... I gotta go see if she’s alright or help pull her outta the lake or somethin’! Don’t y’all go nowhere, I’ll be back!” she shouted before galloping away and leaving Scootaloo alone on the forest floor with her tears.

A series of short silences, punctuated by gagging, coughing, wretching sobs echoed throughout the lonely stretch of woods. An apple came tumbling off of a small, ripe pile at the base of a tree and thudded softly against Scootaloo’s side. She blinked and stared blearily in the direction it had come from to find a hateful pink monster standing smugly behind the apples.

“Before you say anything, I want you to know that I totally didn’t know Twist couldn’t swim. Swear. Also, though, she’s pretty much okay. They’re still keeping an eye on her because she’s unconscious, but she’s out of the lake and she’s breathing. So, y’know, no blood.”

Scootaloo only cried in place. Diamond Tiara smiled her crooked little smile.

“Anyways, I got a real good one for your third favor—”

In an instant, Scootaloo was off the ground and in her face. “NO! I won’t do it! I won’t hurt any more ponies; I don’t care what you say or who you say it to, it’s not worth pretending I have any honor to hold onto if it means I have to... have to...”

She patted Scootaloo. “There, there. I thought this might happen, so I went ahead and got one extra piece of insurance lined up for you. Do you have any idea where Sweetie Belle went?”

Scootaloo’s jaw dropped. Her pupils disappeared. Her body shook. “No...”

“The thing is, I think she might be lost. Lots of trails snaking through the forest that all look the same... it could happen to anypony.”

“Why?” she screamed. “Why me? What did I ever do to you?!”

“Does it matter? I’m a bully, right? This is what I do.”

“I know you’re a bully, but... but this is too much, even for you! You were always a jerk, but I never realized just how evil you could be! This isn’t right! How can... how can anypony be this cold? This... this heartless?”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Diamond Tiara sneered and turned her back on Scootaloo. “A heart is a weak point. All it’ll ever do is hold you back.” When she looked back over her shoulder, the sobbing mess of a pony was gone.

---

She’d done enough damage already for the stupidest and most selfish reasons imaginable, and Scootaloo would have no more suffering on her conscience. Blurring frantically through the woodland trails, calling out for Sweetie Belle, she didn’t notice or care when night fell. She continued her search by the light of the moon and the stars, galloping over dozens of miles of wilderness. She plowed through foliage without regard for the ever increasing bruises and scrapes developing all along her body as she cried and cried out, desperate to find her friend.

Finally one of her calls was answered by a shaking, cracking voice. “Scootaloo?”

“Sweetie Belle!” she cried, her eyes lighting up and her heart soaring.

“I was so scared... Silver Spoon said she was going to show me—”

Not stopping to converse, Scootaloo continued her sprint into a fierce, tackling hug that sent the two of them rolling across the ground. “I’m... I’m so, so, sorry!” she sobbed into Sweetie Belle’s dirty, matted coat. “It’s all my fault! Please, please don’t hate me!” she managed between bouts of choking back waves of tears.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I was just—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Scootaloo interrupted her again. “I just need you to know that I’m more sorry than you can ever know for getting you dragged into this. Now that I know you’re safe, I’ll take all the detention and grounding and gruel for dinner I have to, but Diamond Tiara isn’t going to get away with this!”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes softened, and she tightened her end of the embrace. “That’s... that’s really great, Scootaloo, but um... how do we get back?”

Scootaloo released her hold and stood up, offering a hoof to help Sweetie Belle stand. “I’m not sure, but between the two of us we can figure something out. The constellations can be used to figure out directions, right?” She smiled warmly. “The situation isn’t unsalav—”

“Unsalvageable,” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“Right. Okay, so we know the White Tail Woods are to the west of Ponyville, so for sure if we go east we can get out of the forest, right?”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Right. I think east is that way,” she said, pointing a hoof off into one of four identically dim directions.

“Awesome!”

“Well...”

“Not awesome?”

“There’s a big cliff over there that I don’t think we can climb down.”

Squinting into the darkness, Scootaloo made out a craggy ledge that did indeed look too steep to traverse. She swiveled her head to the left and the right to see if it would be possible to go around, but her attention snapped back behind her when she heard another voice shouting.

“Diamond, I found them!”

Two sets of hooves pounded viciously toward her and the shadowy shapes approaching resolved into Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara.

“I’m totally glad we found you two. Cheerilee is freaking out, you know. You shouldn’t wander off on your own like that.”

“It’s over, Diamond! I found Sweetie Belle, Twist isn’t dead, and I don’t care what my punishment is; I’m taking you down with me!”

Diamond Tiara faked a shiver. “Ooh, I’m shaking. You’ve got nothing on me. It’s your word against mine, and I happen to have a rich, powerful family backing me up.”

“She’s got my word, too!” Sweetie Belle shouted, standing tall and firm.

“Great! I’ve also got Silver, here. So it’s two against two and we’re back to where we started. Do you really, I mean really think you can win? I’m better than you. I’ve played you like a fiddle from the start,” her lips curved, as if to smile, but the ghastly expression that washed over her face could hardly be compared to anything so positive as a smile. “Do you want to know the very best part about all of this?”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo glared at her while Silver Spoon drooped to one side.

“You never even needed me. Do you know why you didn’t get a perfect score?” she asked. “It’s because I didn’t touch your last math test; you got the grade you needed all on your own. You’ve been serving me for no reason at all!” she cackled as a gust of wind blew through the clearing and a sheet of rain started to fall. “In fact, I changed your answers on the tests before that to take you down a peg! When you got all worried about your grades and started studying all the time, it totally worked. You got way smart all of a sudden, and I just dragged you back down.”

Silver Spoon’s sudden glare could burn a hole through steel. “Is that what happened? You know my parents grounded me, right?”

“You were going to go to Canterlot without me,” Diamond Tiara seethed.

“Only because you were grounded!”

“Like, duh?”

“I had plans! I was going to—”

“Yawn. What does it matter?”

“Rrrgh, you... you jerk!” Silver Spoon shouted as she tackled Diamond Tiara. The two of them sailed toward the cliff before crashing to the ground and rolling around in a sweaty struggle. Silver Spoon managed to pin Diamond Tiara for a moment before she rolled and bucked her into the air.

Silver Spoon landed with a thud on the rain-slick surface and scrambled to her hooves, panting. “We’re done,” she huffed. “I’m going to side with these two when they talk to Cheerilee. Three against one.”

“What?” she wheezed.

“I’m not your friend any more, Diamond.”

“Pfft,” she spat. “You never were. Opening your weak points is stupid.”

Scootaloo’s voice dripped with visceral contempt. “You’re a monster.”

“And you’re an idiot!”

Scootaloo shook her head. “I can’t even hate you. All I can do is feel sorry for you because you have nothing. Give it up.”

“What do you know?!” she screamed, dashing toward Scootaloo with thrashing limbs. She slipped on the muddy rock beneath her and went careening over the edge of the cliff, grasping the lip with her front hooves. Her eyes went wide and her lip trembled. Instantly, deep wells of tears sprung up in both of her eyes as she began to wail.

Scootaloo dove toward her and grabbed her left hoof, but was smacked away by Diamond Tiara’s panicked flailing. “She’s afraid of heights,” she whispered to herself before shouting, “Both of you, help me! We have to pull her up!”

But as she thrust a hoof forward to try again, a gust of wind knocked the awful filly loose and she began to plummet, going completely still with shock. Darkness consumed the bottom of the ravine, so how far she’d fall was a mystery.

“No!” Scootaloo yelled, diving over the edge and straightening her body into an arrow. She sliced through the air and quickly caught up to her target, inching just past her before spreading herself out to slow her fall and catching the filly in her hooves. Instinctively, her wings spread as well and she was more than surprised to find them flapping, seemingly of their own accord. More startling still was that her fall was slowing noticeably.

Her tired body ached and the muscles in her wings screamed in protest at trying to carry the weight of two souls when they’d not yet mastered one, but she pushed her way through the pain and strained and strained and strained herself until, as if by a miracle, she blinked and found herself gasping for air on the platform above, practically drowning in the torrent of rain splashing into her open mouth. She sputtered and coughed, turning her head to the side to avoid taking in more water.

A sound like thunder roared over the horizon. One pony, then two, then a dozen all surged out of the trees and surrounded the fillies, assessing their conditions and shouting that they’d found them.

Diamond Tiara blinked several times before uttering one word: “Why?”

The ponies attending to her tried asking questions, but received no answer as she only repeated her pressing inquiry.

Scootaloo shifted her gaze toward the pony whose life she’d saved. “Because—” she coughed “—whether you’re good or bad, you’re still a pony,” she stated, coughing again as punctuation.

“Why?”

“Because I have a heart.”

A sparkling light danced across Scootaloo’s flank, and she fell asleep, exhausted from the ordeal.