The three fillies woke up in the early morning feeling rested. Celestia had just brought out the sun, the sky was a light orange and purple, almost matching Scootaloo's fur and mane. Up with the sun were the two leading adults of the house -- Apple Jack and Big Mac -- as is the Sweet Apple Acres tradition. Apple Bloom could hear Big Mac pulling something heavy outside. She knew right away she'd overslept, it normally didn't matter even if she had guests... but something told her today that would be okay. All ponies on the farm were ready to greet the new day.

Together the girls went sleepily into the kitchen, expecting to have to make themselves some oatmeal, only to find breakfast surprisingly being made for them by Apple Jack herself:

"How did y'all sleep? What're your plans for today? Must be nice to be back here, huh, Scootaloo?"

Apple Jack had a lot of questions, naturally, and Scootaloo was more than happy to answer them all. It was nice to just be able to talk to AJ again, outside of the passing moments spent with their friends. Sure the filly was sometimes there, too, but this was different. This was one-on-one time, like she had with Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and even Fluttershy (which happened more often only because she was so shy). Being a farm pony, Apple Jack was always busy and with precious little time that wasn't scheduled. Inside her own house, it was a bit different.

Scootaloo answered all but one question, and once conversation was exhausted, breakfast was set before them and Apple Bloom filled in the blank:

"We're gunna go to the club house." She said. "Even though it's been a while... just wanna see it again."

Apple Jack smiled on hearing that:

"Well, that's good girls! Have lots of fun."

The three fillies giggled as they dug into their oatmeal with apples and cinnamon:

"We will."

All three fillies were quiet as the door swung open...

The clubhouse had clearly been neglected for many months. The items inside were dusty, in the same disarray they'd been left last time the Crusaders held their weekly meeting. It had never been cleaned up -- both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom remembered that was a priority at one time, but it had long faded from their minds. Sweetie Belle had left a doll on the floor, and when they all saw it, neither filly said a thing. Recognizing its more... festive attire Babs respectfully picked it up and set it on a chair in the corner.

"You got your cutie mark, Scootaloo," said Apple Bloom. "I don't know why I'm showing you this..."

"It's fun to think back," said Scootaloo, going through some pictures she found on the floor of all the CMC together. "It's not just a club house for the CMC, remember? This was where we went to have fun."

"You're right."

Scootaloo went through her bag, getting her CMC cape:

"I think this might be better left here," she said, approaching a rack in the corner.

"That's very profound," said Babs, watching her hang it up. "That cape's gotta mean a lot to ya."

Profound... That was a word Sweetie Belle might've used.

Scootaloo didn't answer, but instead looked around.

"Let's renovate... make this place look new," Apple Bloom suggested.

"That sounds kind of nice."

Without a word, the two fillies went to work. Keeping a respectful distance as the two went through their old things, Babs helped with what she could, which amounted to a little at first but grew over time.

Two hours later, the room was nearly clean. It took a lot of elbow grease, but the fillies were proud of the job they had done. It was just a matter of moving a few more things and the CMC Clubhouse would be good as new... there weren't enough fillies for it to be a CMC Clubhouse anymore, but Apple Bloom imagined all the fun things that could happen once it was new again.

The last thing to be moved was a large desk. Babs and Scootaloo moved it together, laughing as they went along. Babs was much stronger than Scootaloo, and could move it with ease. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, was having trouble... Her wings buzzed furiously as she tried, hard as she could, to lift it up.

Apple Bloom was behind Scootaloo, inspecting the floors and walls carefully one last time for signs of dust and dirt, when she was startled by the loud buzzing. The abrasive sound made her mind flit back to an event five months before. Tears formed in her eyes...

"Stop it!" She shouted, jerking her body in Scootaloo's direction while placing both hooves on her wings.

The little Pegasus dropped the table on her hoof... and had an immediate reaction:

"Hey, get off me me!" She growled, slapping away Apple Bloom's hooves as hard as she could while bouncing in pain on her hind leg. "Ow, ow, ow..."

Apple Bloom didn't notice that Scootaloo had dropped the table on her hoof... she had noticed, however, that Scootaloo had slapped her with enough energy to make it sting. She didn't think twice about what happened next...

Slap!

She reflexively struck Scootaloo hard across the face. The little Pegasus paused for a moment, stunned by what had just happened... then reacted as expected, tackling Apple Bloom hard.

The two rolled around on the floor for a good, solid minute. Apple Bloom's stunned cousin set the table on the floor and slowly backed away.

"Chicken!" Shouted Apple Bloom.

"Blank Flank!" Cried Scootaloo.

Thinking of this as just a harmless scrap, Babs nearly laughed at first, but then realized the fillies' frenzy was continuing to grow to the point where it might be a good idea to get Apple Jack... she stood there debating, unsure of what to do.

Apple Bloom was on top at first, then Scootaloo, wings buzzing... they rolled back and forth hurling a torrent of insults at each other. It ended with Apple Bloom getting the advantage by pulling on one of Scootaloo's wings.

Looking down at her friend, suddenly... Apple Bloom realized she was fighting Scootaloo. That felt wrong. This was her best and only friend.

She let up, ready to get off her friend and apologize when Scootaloo rolled to her side and Apple Bloom heard the distinctive buzzing yet again. A surge of rage as hit her all at once as she threw her hoof back and attempted to hit Scootaloo in the face... a little too hard. Scootaloo's speed won out, and she missed and struck the boards... but the aggression she used made her feelings known.

"Stop it!" Cried Babs, now realizing this little tuffle might have turned into a real fight.

"Hey!" Shouted Scootaloo, managing to push Apple Bloom on her side.

The Pegasus got on top of her friend yet again and, even though she was out of reach, Apple Bloom still threw punches wildly. The anger behind the punches disturbed both Babs and Scootaloo.

Scootaloo had gradually grown to become angry as Apple Bloom during their fight. She wound up, finally ready to throw a punch back... when she felt a sudden heavy force crash into her body:

"Enough!" Babs shouted, finally breaking the fight up with the sheer force of her own body weight.

The three fillies on the floor all looked at each other... and sighed. Scootaloo got up with Babs, shaking the stars from her eyes.

"Sorry, Scootaloo," Babs said, dusting herself off. "That was gettin' really out of hoof!" She laughed. "I dun wanna see ya both tear each other apart, now."

Babs was surprised to learn that, despite being broken up, neither filly had gotten the fight entirely out of their system:

"Stay out of this," growled Apple Bloom, attempting to rise to her hooves.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo agreed, still seeing red.

If the young Pegasus were calmer, she would have been grateful to be broken up from her best friend. Fighting was icky, she'd been taught that since day one. She was pumped, however, from having AB take shots at her face. Used to buzzing, not fighting, she was not accustomed to this type of adrenaline and could not just turn it off. Instead of thanking Babs for intervening, she ended up throwing a poorly aimed punch at Babs's shoulder... a blow which she didn't even intend to connect, but was thrown just to get the anger out.

Babs surprised them both. Gracefully swinging a hoof by her face, as though she were brushing her own mane, she knocked away Scootaloo's hoof without even flinching. Unbeknownst to any of them, the filly from the east was using her martial arts training -- it felt natural and had surprised her at the same time... but she had ground to keep:

"Cut it out, Scootaloo!" Babs exclaimed. "I didn't do anything to you!"

Despite being speechless, Scootaloo's frustration simply grew. She threw another punch, this time more serious. It was seen coming a mile away, however, and deflected just as easily. Apple Bloom was no longer interested in fighting her friend anymore, but rather in seeing how this was going to turn out. She didn't expect either filly to get hurt, but rather just expected to see a big show. She'd never actually seen martial arts for real before, and only knew how to pretend with her own stuff.

"Stop it, Scootaloo," Babs said calmly. "You're gunna hurt somepony. Let's just talk about this, huh?"

Scootaloo was getting madder by the second. Who was this filly to step between her and Apple Bloom, and tell her to calm down?

Scootaloo threw one final punch, this time putting all of her weight into it.

Babs instinctively seized the hoof and pulled her in hard, throwing the little Pegasus completely off balance. Without meaning to, Babs slammed Scootaloo nearly full force in the face with her elbow. She realized all too late what had happened and felt awful... especially after she felt the warm spray of blood against her foreleg. Scootaloo was, however, trying to hit her... and if she didn't respond in just that way she could have been hit or knocked over. Babs backed up, releasing the smaller Pegasus, who fell to the floor with a new black eye and bloody nose. She looked up at Babs with a blank expression on her face, feeling pretty humiliated:

"I'm so sorry, Scootaloo!" Babs cried, offering a hoof. "You shouldn'ta done that, though..."

Scootaloo, ready to accept the city filly's hoof, now paused... withdrawing into a fine point. That last half made her blood boil... why did Babs have to keep doing that to her? She glared up at her friend's cousin, feeling nothing but sheer, unbridled resentment:

"I'm so... outta here!" she hissed, knocking away Babs' hoof.

As she picked herself up and headed for the door, Apple Bloom cried out:

"Scootaloo, wait!"

The Pegasus didn't respond. Her wings helped carry her much more quickly than Babs or Apple Boom could have run. She was out of the club house before either could react, and out of sight before they were even outside. The only trace of her, a fading buzzing off towards the thick apple orchard... Too late, yet again.