The Prompt: One (or more) of the Crusaders is crushing on one (or more) of the Mane Six.
Never gave much thought to all that… y’know… love stuff.
I mean, y’know. At my old school I was mostly hidin’ from other kids, see? Hearts an’ Hooves Day? Pah. Nopony gave me nothin’, an’ there was nopony worth givin’ nothin’ to. I guess that one guy with the cloud cutie mark was good lookin’ an’ all an’ one time I felt kinda special when he talked t’me without laughin’, but as soon as the other kids were around that all stopped.
Jerk.
Lately though, I visit Ponyville an’ there’s this one pony I see.
Y’know the one. All prim an’ prissy an’ got this funny kinda way a’ talkin’. She’s puttin’ it on, nopony talks like that. Not even her sister.
Easy on the ears though.
An’ she’s… I dunno, pony acts like that ya start thinkin’ they’re a real snot. Not her though. Haha, we did Cutie Mark Crusaders Bakers an’ she ate that cake Sweetie made for her with a smile on her face. Scoots thinks she’s a little bit of a mean pony, but nopony who wasn’t nice as apple pie coulda ate that cake an’ smiled an’ thanked Sweetie for the treat even if I did hear her wailin’ to Applejack later.
Heck, I wanted t’cry when I tasted it an’ I had ponies messin’ with my lunch every day before I changed schools.
S’kinda funny when she wails anyhow. I kinda like how everythin’ that happens t’her is so big and important.
I wanna be important too.
So I’m makin’ somethin’.
Knittin’s hard. Alla this countin’ stitches an’ loopin’ an’ tryin’ not t’knot too much.
Colors are hard too. Even Sweetie calls her a ‘white an’ purple’ unicorn but she’s wrong. Princess Celestia’s white but she’s not, she’s a soft shimmer-gray, just barely not white, like a pearl, an’ her purple’s kinda bluey like right after the sun sets.
Huh, maybe I oughtta try gettin’ a cutie mark for poetry! Pretty good, huh?
I’m not too good at it normally. But that never stopped our Crusades before an’ maybe I just needed somethin’ like this t’unlock my talent!
I’ll worry about cutie marks later.
Anyway she’s pearl an’ twilight only not that Twilight, she ain’t even twilight colored but that’s not the point. Pearl an’ twilight, so I was thinkin’ kinda the pinky color some pearls have an’ a more day-sky color which matches her cutie mark anyhow an’ some silver.
An’ I knitted it all up an’ now I’m outside the dress store. No, boutique - she likes fancy words, she probably wouldn’t like it bein’ called a dress store an’ she’d get all… ‘oh-my-goodness’ an’ ‘dear me’ an’ all those overblown things she does which is funny an’ cute but yanno, not now.
I’m shakin’ in my hooves here but I knock anyhow an’ she sings out how she’s comin’.
Expectin’ someone else I guess, she looks surprised to see me. Looks a little bit frazzled, got them silly glasses a’ hers on the edge of her snout and her hair’s still all neat an’ pretty but frizzled somehow an’ tape measures over her back an’ it’s not how I’m used to her lookin’, all put-together.
I like it though.
I never talked to her by myself before so I feel kinda weird, but I nudge the box toward her anyhow.
"I uh… I made dis for ya."
She blinks, an’ her horn lights up an’ she takes the lid off an’ pulls the scarf out, an’ I kinda flinch as she looks at it. Th’ diamond pattern’s all crooked an’ th’ silver threads I tried to put in kept gettin’ all bunched an’ the diamond tassels were dumb an’ I’m just waitin’ for her t’laugh.
She looks at th’ scarf, an’ she looks at me (I flinch again, an’ I can almost hear somepony sayin’ ‘two for flinching’) an’ she looks at the scarf.
"Why… Babs. Was this your first time knitting, darling?"
"Y-yeah." Her tone’s not mean but I’m sometimes still waitin’ for somepony t’laugh whenever I do somethin’. "I… I’m sorry I know it’s not good an’ th’colors are probably dumb an’ I… I’ll just—"
"Why darling, this is amazing!"
I blink, shocked. She’s smilin’ an’ wavin’ me in an’ settlin’ that wreck of a scarf over her shoulders.
"Your first try! Why, I’ve seen ponies tie themselves in knots just looking at yarn! And the colors! You have a real eye for them. A talent."
That awful scarf looks pretty on her. Everythin’ does, an’ I’m all puffed up real proud while she shows me colors an’ offers t’teach me a few tricks for keepin’ threads straight.
I’m not a prince like she wants. I’m just a dumb little blank flank.
But maybe she’ll like me, just a little.
An’ the scarf… with her talkin’ like that, it don’t look so awful after all.