She stood open-mouthed. It was her. How could it have been her? She never came anywhere near the tree house unless she had something to ask of the three fillies that usually spent their time crusading for cutie marks. It must have been a mistake, but here she was.

It had been a lengthy explanation, with much moaning and many uses of the word ‘but’. But after half an hour, the mare sighed and in the most reluctant tone moaned,

‘Scootaloo…’

‘Fine. But don’t come crying to me when the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ involve you in their silly activities. There’s nothing that filly ever keeps from them. They’re all practically sisters.’ The mare sucked up her pride and took a deep breath. She turned and gestured for Scootaloo to come over. She gave a quick glare at the fox that was comforting her to discourage any ‘helpful’ suggestions. She left him with only a smug look on his face. But she looked slightly worried if nothing else.

‘Scootaloo…’

‘Look, Scootaloo. I know you mean well, but I just can’t have something like this going around. Please, for Lunar’s sake, don’t tell any pony else. It’s risky enough as it is to keep Lunar in Ponyville without some pony else trying to help.’

‘About that…’

‘Scootaloo!’

‘What? What was the question, Miss?’ Scootaloo sat upright instantly, aroused from her sleep, and blurted out her go-to response.

‘Actually, Scootaloo, I said you can go home now.’ Miss Cheerilee explained. Scootaloo, as usual, had fallen asleep on a Wednesday afternoon during History. It was a pointless subject to Scootaloo but other colts and fillies believed it to be really useful. She didn’t know why, and she didn’t care. She packed up her things and walked outside to find Applebloom waiting with Sweetie Belle and Rarity.

‘Now, Sweetie Belle, I want you to be home by evening. I have a lot to do before the Canterlot Garden Party. Fancy Pants asked me to design a dress for Fleur so I can’t be worrying about you. Bye.’ Sweetie Belle blushed as the sisters exchanged a hug.

As the fashionista left, both Applebloom and Scootaloo giggled like the school fillies they were. Sweetie Belle shot them a stern look whilst they gradually calmed down.

‘Anyway, so what are we gonna do today, guys?’ Scootaloo saw Sweetie’s embarrassment so changed the subject to avoid any further prosecution of the exchange.

‘Break Dancing. I hope I’m better than I was last time.’ Applebloom moaned.

‘Wait… We’ve done it before?’ Scootaloo seemed surprised. When did they do break dancing? It never appeared on any list they’d drawn up in the past.

‘Yeah, remember last month, at Twist’s party.’ Sweetie Belle piped up. They had tried it at Twist’s birthday party at Sugar Cube Corner and after the reactions they’d received for Ponyville’s party thrower extraordinaire, Pinkie Pie, they’d all agreed to forget about it and never speak of it again. It had gone silent now each filly was remembering their individual experiences. Some memories were worse than others.

‘So now what? What haven’t we done?’ Scootaloo broke the silence. She didn’t want to remember her experience even if she was possibly the best of the three.

‘We could just go and do something at the tree house-’ Sweetie Belle relayed a plan only to be interrupted by a suddenly worried Scootaloo.

‘No,’ she screamed, the two other fillies jumping at the abruptness of the shout, ‘I mean no, we can’t because…err…’ she’d suddenly run out of ideas. Her head emptying just before she finished her sentence.

‘Why not?’ Applebloom said whilst Scootaloo’s eyes darted around, ‘Scootaloo, are you okay?’

‘Yes, just dandy. I gotta go.’ Scootaloo crept toward her scooter trying to escape her friends and keep Lunar’s secret.

‘Dandy?’ Sweetie Belle repeated, ‘Are you sure you’re okay? You’re sounding like…like Applebloom.’

‘Hey, I don’t say dandy, not even Applejack says dandy.’ Applebloom groaned, to the humour of Sweetie Belle.

‘No…’ Scootaloo knew she couldn’t keep a secret from these two. They’d found out secrets about every pony in the ‘Gabby Gums’ days. It would be easy for them to find out what she was hiding from them.

‘Can you girls keep a secret?’ Scootaloo squeaked. The fillies nodded their heads furiously.

‘Alright, there something living at the tree house. I only found out yesterday but it’s hiding from every pony. He’s not a common animal; he’s a fork or something. But he seems friendly and just wants to be left alone. He’s also meeting someone tonight but I’m not sure who…’

'Wow’ the light-yellow and white fillies muttered together.

‘Please don’t bother him. I actually like him and I’m not sure how he’d react if I brought any pony with me to see him.’ Scootaloo pleaded, ‘I really have to go now. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, okay?’ Scootaloo climbed on her scooter and strapped on her helmet. She was still worried but now she both fillies knew why. And that made her content enough to be able to not have to panic all the way to tree house. She left the two remaining fillies in her tracks as she sped off. She wondered only of what her dream in class had meant. She had been told by a mare that she couldn’t tell any pony about Lunar.

‘Oh, pony feathers…’

‘Why does she always run off?’ Applebloom muttered with empathy in her voice.

‘I don’t know but whatever she’s up to, we need to calm her down.’ Sweetie Belle answered.

‘Should we get involved?’

‘Is it our business?’

‘She is our friend-‘

‘-And she’d help us in this situation-’

‘-even if she’s too stubborn to admit it.’

The two-way conversation between the worried friends went on for minutes. Was it there place to get involved? What had happened for Scootaloo to be worried? They knew very little about the problem and only through inferring that there actually was a problem had they become almost as worried about Scootaloo as she seemed to be about this fork. Nothing could distract the friends from their worries except the setting sun. It took all their conviction to convince themselves to ask for help with a situation that they’d never seen before and never wanted to have again. Hopefully Applejack and Rarity could shed some light on this situation.