“Do it again!” Scootaloo cheered, hopping up and down in excitement. She’d been listening to Sweetie’s singing for hours, not wanting to leave the clubhouse. Scootaloo just relaxed in the wooden structure, enjoying the sweet music flowing through her ears. She actually fell asleep twice; Sweetie woke her from her slumber both times. Sweetie had regained her love for singing, the way she could just let loose and put all her emotion in her songs, but this was beginning to be too much. Even though the praise she was receiving was one of the greatest feelings she had ever experienced.
Sweetie frowned and stretched her back. “Scootaloo, that’s the fourteenth time!” She trotted closer to Scootaloo, her frown morphing into a devious smile. She placed her hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder.
“Why don’t you sing me a song? You can sing one of those rap songs you like so much!” Sweetie brightened at the idea.
Scootaloo stared at Sweetie with an eyebrow raised. “Sweetie, you don’t even like rap music! You like all that lovey-dovey stuff.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes with a small smile on her face.
“I don’t love the genre, but I think I will enjoy it if you sing it.” Before she could answer, Sweetie gave her the most adorable puppy dog eyes in all of Equestria. Scootaloo’s heart melted at the sight of the light green irises. How could she say no to that? Scootaloo gulped.
“Uh, I guess I could try…” Sweetie giggled and fell backwards on her rump, creating a slight plop as she hit the wooden floor. She shifted her flank, trying to get comfortable. When she managed to get in a pleasant position, she looked up into Scootaloo’s nervous, violet eyes, staring innocently like she was a young foal. Scootaloo shook her head, attempting to regain her mind from the endless, green seas that were Sweetie’s eyes. A fuzzy feeling rumbled in her belly, as she opened her mouth to sing:
“I’ll take you to the candy sho---” Scootaloo stopped when she saw Sweetie pressing both her hooves to her mouth, attempting to suppress the giggles. She glared at Sweetie and cleared her throat. At the sound, Sweetie wiped a few tears from her face as she started to regain her posture, still snickering.
“That was good, but I think “50 Bits” sings the song a little better.” Sweetie burst into another fit of giggles. Scootaloo just gave an angry snort and trotted to another section of the clubhouse. Sweetie brought herself to her hooves, still giggling. She walked to her orange friend, who was now gazing out the window with an angry expression on her face. Sweetie nudged her fellow crusader, staring into her eyes with a smug smile plastered on her face.
“Come on, Scoots, smile! Y’know you want to.” She kept nudging her friend annoyingly, Scootaloo snickered and playfully pushed Sweetie.
“Alright, I’m not the next “Hoofpac”, but I wasn’t that bad.” Scootaloo smiled and noogied her friends mane, making it slightly frizzy. Sweetie smiled sweetly, putting a foreleg around her pegasus friend. Scootaloo melted into her friend’s embrace, leaning her head against Sweetie’s shoulder. Sweetie grinned smugly and glanced at her friend.
“I thought you didn’t like all this mushy stuff. Is the great and powerful Scootaloo not ‘too cool for hugs’ anymore?” Scootaloo nuzzled further into her friend’s shoulder, moving her head to gaze in Sweetie’s eyes. Her eyelids descended halfway down her eyes as she answered.
“Maybe, but nopony is too cool for you.”
“School school school, school school school, OH how I hate school,” Scootaloo sang, the other two crusaders trotting beside her as they reached the school house. Applebloom looked as if she was about to bodyslam Scootaloo, whilst Sweetie smiled, humming a tune for Scootaloo’s song.
“OOOOOOOOHHHHHH, school school school, school schoo---”
“Will ya shut yer mouth already!?” Applebloom growled, staring daggers at Scootaloo, “you’ve bin singin’ that since we left fer school! Ah also ain’t in the mood, ya know ah got grounded for two months! Just shut up or talk about somethin’ else!” Scootaloo winced. I never noticed how scary Applebloom could be, she thought.
The three crusaders came upon the schoolhouse. Just as the bell was ringing for classes to start, they rushed into the building.
Classes went on as they usually went, though for Scootaloo, this day stretched out even longer than normal. She couldn’t take her eyes off Sweetie. The enthralling beauty that Sweetie had was, in Scootaloo’s opinion, unbelievable. I am soooo crushing on her, this is nothing like Rumble and I used to have. Now that she thought about it, Rumble was just a really good friend. Sweetie was like a goddess. Even the slightest movement made Scootaloo flinch. When Sweetie sneezed, Scootaloo felt her heart bounce in her chest as she gasped loudly, drawing the attention of her classmates. She sunk back in her chair, embarrassed.
Cheerilee was teaching some boring lesson that nopony really paid attention too. At least the other colts and fillies were pretending to pay even the slightest amount of attention. Scootaloo just stared into space, lost in her thoughts. When she wasn’t doing that, she was gazing at her white friend. Listening to her intently when she hummed a tune in boredom or drew a doodle in her scrapbook.
A thought came to Scootaloo: Sweetie is a filly! What would her parents think? What would Rainbow Dash think? What would… Sweetie think? She never had a problem with filly foolers, but she knew other ponies did. One of those ponies was her father, a racist and ignorant middle-aged stallion. Scootaloo still loved him, but he wouldn’t take the news very well. Maybe it was just Sweetie. She looked around the class. looking at all the colts and fillies, listing each one as “hot” or “not”. With an exception for Rumble, who she considered “drop dead sexy.” She didn’t list Sweetie, for she was in a different league altogether. She looked at the other fillies, listing four of them as “hot”. Awesome. She thought sarcastically.
She frowned to realize she had interest in both genders. Great, another thing to get sad about, she thought
Scootaloo’s thoughts were interrupted by the excessively loud ringing of the school bell.
“Okay, my little ponies, recess time.” Cheerilee sat down at her desk, shuffling papers.
Finally, I can have some time to cool off--
“Oh and Scootaloo, I would like to talk to you for a second.”
Darn.
The class flooded outside into the sunny day, without a care in the world. Sweetie and Applebloom gave worried glances at their friend, but soon followed the crowd to the playground.
Cheerilee had a concerned expression on her face as she trotted to Scootaloo’s desk. She knelt down on one knee, placing a foreleg on Scootaloo’s shoulder. This didn’t do anything to comfort Scootaloo, but she gave a false smile, nonetheless. Cheerilee cleared her throat before speaking.
“Scootaloo, is everything alright? You seem distracted, is something bothering you?” Scootaloo desperately wanted to scream: Yes! I want to hook up with my best friend! But with every bit of willpower she stopped herself and instead, shook her head sadly. I don’t want to talk about this! Can’t she take a hint! I just want to be alone. Thought Scootaloo. She hung her head, trying to hide the smallest wave of salty water starting to well up in her eyes. She shook her head again, more violently to stop the depressing feeling she was experiencing, but unfortunately, it didn’t leave. Cheerilee wasn’t convinced.
“Scootaloo, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what's wrong.” Cheerilee wore a sympathetic smile, still rubbing Scootaloo’s shoulder. Scootaloo felt a tear slowly trek down her cheek, despite her efforts to hold back her feelings. Cheerilee wasn’t helping, in Scootaloo’s mind. Cheerilee’s smile faded to a worried expression; she had never seen Scootaloo’s eyes water, let alone see tears from the brash little filly. She seemed more like Sweetie Belle than herself at the moment, quiet and sensitive. Her foreleg stopped rubbing and instead it resorted to small pats on the upper back and neck.
Scootaloo wiped her eyes and quickly hopped off the chair, isolating herself from Cheerilee’s so called “comforting”. Scootaloo wanted to get advice from her teacher, she was so caring and understanding. But, despite what she wanted, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her teacher about her interest in fillies, or tell her about her undying love for her best friend. She just needed to be alone, to lose herself in scooter tricks, or look at a picture of Sweetie and rub her--
“Scootaloo?” Scootaloo was brought back to reality by her teacher’s voice. She spinned around to see her teacher looking at her with an expression full of sympathy and worry. Scootaloo clenched her eyes shut, restraining any further tears. She was on the verge of breaking down, this was too much pressure. Scootaloo began to shake as a cold sweat started to form on her forehead.
“I…” Scootaloo stuttered. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.” Scootaloo clenched her eyes tighter. No! Stop Scootaloo! Just hold them back! Rainbow Dash doesn’t cry! Scootaloo hid behind the little bit of hair she had on her head.
“Scootaloo, please.” Cheerilee tried to approach her, but Scootaloo back away, avoiding any contact.
“NO!” Scootaloo launched into a gallop, she bursted right out the schoolhouse door, knocking down fillies and colts as she headed for the school’s entrance. She turned her head to see Cheerilee following her. She gulped and hopped the school fence, hiding herself from view. Scootaloo quickly scampered to a nearby alleyway, hiding herself in the corner of a dumpster and a stone wall.
“Scootaloo! Scootaloo, come back! I promise that you won’t be in trouble, I just want to talk!” Cheerilee shouted. Scootaloo shivered and buried herself further in between the wall and the dumpster shielding her from Cheerilee’s line of sight. She whimpered and curled into a ball.
Now nopony could see her cry...
