Chapter Eighteen – A Polite Request

"Diamond Tiara has a what on Glass?" Apple Bloom shouted with barely contained laughter.

"A crush," Scootaloo said again. "Can you believe it? She actually has a crush on Glass."

"That's hilarious," Sweetie Belle remarked, snorting back a few chuckles of her own. "How's that even possible?"

Scootaloo shrugged. "All I know is that's the truth."

The three dissolved into giggles once again at the mere thought of it. They were still laughing by the time Glass jogged over to them.

"Hey, girls," he said, breaking apart their laughter. "What's so funny?"

"You know," Apple Bloom informed him. Glass raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the yellow filly with any more questions.

"Hi Glass," Scootaloo said with a smile. He returned it with a beam of his own. "What did Ms. Cheerilee want?"

"Eh, just to talk… about stuff," he murmured vaguely. Scootaloo narrowed her eyes at him, but decided to talk to him about it later. Her focus was stolen by the teary filly behind him.

"Dinky?"

"Hey," the purple unicorn mumbled while kicking at the ground.

The Crusaders shared a quick look before they eyes fell back on Dinky. After what had happened earlier today, Scootaloo was surprised that she was anywhere near her.

"Hope you guys don't mind if Dinky joins us," Glass said.

"No, not at all," Scootaloo replied, still in a little shock. The trio expanded their circle, allowing both new ponies to walk in. Dinky was awkwardly avoiding eye contact, likely feeling that she shouldn't be there. "Are you okay?"

Dinky looked up, still blinking back a few tears. "I… I will be. I guess."

"What happened?" Sweetie Belle asked.

The look of modest surprise on Dinky's face told Scootaloo that she had expected no one to care. Which was silly; after all, why wouldn't they care?

"I… It was Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon."

"Ah can't believe them," Apple Bloom said angrily. "What'd they say to ya?"

"Come on AB, don't force her to relive it," Sweetie Belle told her.

Apple Bloom was about to apologize, but Dinky cut her off. "They were insulting my mom."

Scootaloo blinked in shock. "They were insulting Derpy?" Those heartless jerks! Do they have any idea how sweet a pony she is? One glance at Glass let her know that the stallion was having the same thought as her.

"Why on Earth would they do that?" She asked.

"I… I don't know," Dinky admitted. "I don't know what I did to them to deserve this."

"I'm sure you didn't do anything to them," Sweetie Belle assured her. "Those two are just rotten for the sake of being rotten."

"Yeah, ya shouldn't let 'em get under yer skin," Apple Bloom affirmed. Glass nodded his agreement. It wasn't much, but Dinky found the strength to wipe away the tears and give something that resembled a smile.

"I just wish I could stand up to them." Dinky frowned. "If Glass hadn't shown up I..."

"Why can't ya stand up to 'em?" Applebloom asked.

Dinky looked away. "I... can't tell you."

Scootaloo opened her mouth, curious enough to press Dinky for further information, but it was then that the bell rang, signifying the end to recess. Reluctantly, the four girls turned back to the schoolhouse, ready to go. Scootaloo paused, and noticed that Glass wasn't following them.

"Uhh, Glass?" She asked. "You coming?"

"Probably not," he said. "I think I'm going to skip the rest of today."

"What?" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Glass you can't! I–"

"Hey you two, hurry up!" Sweetie Belle called back. Scootaloo turned, seeing her friends were almost inside.

"You should get to class," Glass said, her attention refocusing. "I'll see you at the clubhouse after school, okay?"

No, not okay. Scootaloo didn't want Glass running off in the middle of the day like this, especially with the Crusaders trying to befriend Dinky. They would probably need his help getting her to open up, considering his experience with buried emotions.

This has to be because of Cheerilee, Scootaloo thought. Whatever they talked about, it shook him up.

"Okay," she reluctantly said. "But you better be prepared to talk about it when I get out of school."

He nodded, before taking off in the other direction. Scootaloo felt an urge to go with him, but forced herself to fight it down.

Despondent from seeing Glass leave, she worked her way back to school. Cheerilee entered in after her, looking a little frazzled. It didn't take a genius to realize her teacher had been engaging in a fruitless search for Glass. She looked around the room as Scootaloo took her seat, and upon finding no sign of the white colt, began class again.

It was another lecture that seemed pointless to Scootaloo (then again they all did) so she quickly found herself spacing out. She would have stayed that way till the bell rang had it not been for a piece of paper that landed on her desk. Glancing in the direction that it came from, she saw Apple Bloom doing her best to be nonchalant.

Scootaloo grabbed the folded paper and opened it up.

Where did Glass go?

She looked to make sure Cheerilee was looking, and scribbled a hasty reply that said Glass was at the clubhouse before sending it over to Apple Bloom. The note came her way again.

Why did he leave?

Scootaloo bit her lip. She wrote "I don't know" onto the paper and flicked it over to her yellow friend. Apple Bloom read it over with squinted eyes before crumpling the paper up.

Confused at first, Scootaloo then realized it was because Cheerilee was standing over her.

"Girls," she said calmly but with latent annoyance. "Are these notes anything you would like to share with the class?"

Both students tried to avert their eyes. "Not in particular."

"Are they in anyway more important than the lesson right now?" Their teacher asked. Faintly, the sounds of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon giggling could be heard.

"Maybe," Scootaloo whispered under her breath. Cheerilee raised an eyebrow at her.

"Of course not, Miss Cheerilee," Apple Bloom quickly covered.

Appeased, she crossed back up to the board and resumed teaching. Scootaloo resumed her spacing out from earlier. It was going to be a long, long wait for the bell to ring.

The bell finally did ring, and Scootaloo hopped out of her seat eagerly. Sweetie Belle, Dinky, and Apple Bloom were a step ahead of her, but she easily caught up to them, anticipation for her talk with Glass driving her. She was almost out the door before she heard her teacher's voice.

"Scootaloo, can I talk with you for a second?"

She froze, her friends catching up to her. Turning, she saw her magenta teacher smiling sweetly at her.

"We'll see ya outside, Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said. Her friends waved goodbye and bolted.

"Is this about the note passing?" Scootaloo asked blatantly, looking at Cheerilee. "I promise I won't do it anymore."

"No, it's not that. It's about Glass." Just his name was enough to get her heart pounding. "I'm worried about him."

Before she spoke, Scootaloo remembered how much Glass wanted his personal life kept a secret. "What is there to worry about?"

"Something's happening to him, I just know it." Her teacher admitted. "I tried to talk to him about it, but he ran off. Scootaloo, you know him better than anypony, could you help? I just want to make sure nothing's wrong."

Scootaloo believe Cheerilee's words wholly, but she didn't know if Glass would feel the same way. "I"ll try," she promised.

Cheerilee smiled. "Thank you."

The orange filly bounded out the school door, some of her confusion dissipated. So that's why Glass ran off. She realized. But… this is good. Maybe Ms. Cheerilee can help! If he tells her about his dad, then maybe she can talk to him… or… do something so his life won't be so bad anymore!

Her friends were waiting for her, as promised.

"What did Ms. Cheerilee want?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"It was about Glass." Scootaloo told them everything.

The three exchanged a few glances before looking back at Scootaloo. "What do you think?" she asked. "Should I tell Glass to talk with Ms. Cheerilee?"

"I don't see why not," Dinky said. "Ms. Cheerilee always tries helps me when I have problems."

"Plus, she might actually be able ta fix somethin'," Apple Bloom said.

"Okay then," Scootaloo decided. "Come on, we gotta get to the clubhouse."

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Hey, guess what? I'm back! That's right, Shattered Glass's hiatus gets a temporary reprieve, and I'm brining you not one, not two, but THREE new chapters over the next three days. (Insert wide array of cheers.) But yeah, I really hope you guys didn't forget about this story yet. Anyways, I got two more chapters to proofread before posting, so see ya later, alligators!