//------------------------------// // Sweetie Belle // Story: Red Flag Valentine // by Meteor_Mirage //------------------------------// “I’m… still not entirely sure how I should be doing this.” With those words spoken, more stammered and whispered really, the speaking stallion flopped himself back onto the bed he was seated upon. His light blue coat blended very well into the slightly lighter blue of the sheets. “What if he says no, or just isn’t into colts?” He let out a sharp groan at the thought of that, covering his eyes with his hooves. “Maybe I should just give up.” He then, ever so carefully, peeked out from behind one of his hooves, looking hopefully at the white mare beside him. Staring at the colt lounging back on her bed, Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but realize how odd it was to have a colt alone in her room. He might have been as gay as the sun was bright, but that didn’t change the fact that they were still teens and that teens did… things. With a very poorly concealed blush, Sweetie Belle looked away from her guest. “Morning, do you think you could sit up or something? Before we keep going.” She put a hoof up to her eyes, blocking her vision of her friend in his prone state. Morning Glory continued to relax for a few more moments, looking at Sweetie Belle strangely as she very strongly averted her gaze. Then, looking down to take notice of himself, he realized what he was doing on a mare’s bed. He may have been queer as heck, but he was still a gentlecolt when he could remember to be. Bolting up in his seat to reassume a seated position, even planting a hoof behind him in order to prop himself up and prevent another flop, Morning Glory gave a soft, shy grin. “S-sorry.” He then proceeded to fiddle with his long, white mane with his free hoof. After making sure he was decent, Sweetie Belle gave a soft sigh as she turned back to her friend. “It’s... fine. Just don’t do it again?” The two sat uncomfortably for a moment before the white mare cleared her throat and brushed the awkwardness aside. “Anyway I’m, like, 95% sure Cardinal’s gay so you should be fine. Just follow what I told ya and there’ll be nothing to worry about.” “But what if he isn’t into…” Instead of finishing his sentence, he just gestured to his body with a soft whimper. Immediately Sweetie Belle could see what he meant, though she could see more of it minutes before. You see, Morning Glory wasn’t the most masculine of stallions. He didn’t cut the most imposing figure normally. In fact, the only figure he cut was the figure of a mare when looked at from behind. His light colors, small frame, long mane and tail, and generally meek exterior had gotten him confused looks and requests that soon turned awkward once the ponies checked the somewhat masculine structure of his face. Realizing this, Sweetie Belle scrunched her face just a touch, wrinkling her snooter. “Well, maybe he might like…” “Girly colts?” Morning suggested with a soft giggle before Sweetie even realized she was searching for a word. “That” She said, nodding softly. “I just think that maybe that dumb colt wants someone with a more feminine touch.” “Or someone who could keep up with him in a race, maybe?” Morning rebutted, though not even sure of the quality of the rebuttal. “There’s just… a lot of variables. And I don’t know if I can deal with him rejecting me.” Thinking on it, his face gave a slight scrunch. “Heck, I don’t even know if I could deal with him accepting.” Planting a hoof on her buddy’s shoulder, Sweetie Belle looked to Morning very seriously. “Just go get those flowers, talk to Cardinal, and ask him to kiss him or something. Then get back here and tell me all about it.” “But-” “No buts!” the filly snapped at the colt, obviously getting very tired of Morning Glory’s insecurity. She just wanted to see those two boys actually enjoy themselves for once. While he wanted to fire back, Morning Glory held his tongue because he knew she was right. He couldn’t keep circling around the problem, so he just needed to face it head on. In the most meek and inoffensive ways possible. So, after saying his terrified goodbyes to Sweetie Belle, Morning Glory embarked on his journey to finally, after all this time, confess his love to his gay dude crush. With a brief pitstop first. Stopped in front of The Flower Trio’s flower shop, he couldn’t help but bite his lip and reconsider even approaching the establishment, much less entering it and making a purchase. But that nagging voice in the back of his head, the one that sounded suspiciously like a certain singing filly, urged him to continue onwards. Normally listening to nagging voices in his head wasn’t his first priority, as they didn’t tend to tell him very helpful things (only to run, hide, or cry), but this one seemed to at least want to prove helpful. Upon entering the shop, the colt immediately approached the front counter to find Daisy stationed behind it, a somewhat surprising sight for him. The light pink mare greeted with a bashful smile and a small wave. “Heya Morning. Did Rosie tell you come in ‘cause I’ve got the shop all to myself? If so, tell her I’ve got it all under control. I haven’t even had a customer all day!” She smiled even wider at that, proud of her failing business. Looking around, Morning could agree that the store did look pretty dead. More dead than a flower shop in the middle of July normally looked anyway, but that wasn’t of the most importance. Morning shook his head with a soft sigh. As much as he’d like a place to hid from his problems and just do menial labor for a few hours, he couldn’t just lie. He probably wouldn’t be paid if he lied. “N-no, Roseluck didn’t call me in. I’m sure she thinks you’re doing a great job.” He began to scratch his right foreleg with his left hoof, letting out another gentle sigh as he looked anywhere but at the mare he was talking to, fighting to beat around the bush harder. “I’m actually, uh, looking to buy some flowers right now.” This immediately brought a huge grin to Daisy’s face, followed by a loud ‘eee’ing to Morning Glory’s ears. Right after, he found himself being dragged along the shop floor to peruse the various types of flowers. “So what kind of thing do you need flowers for? As you may know, we have flowers for every occasion. Funerals, weddings, births,” she took a small moment to glance over at Morning, smiling from ear to ear, “Dates~” Seeing the massive blush form on the light blue colt’s face, extremely difficult for him to hide due to the color, Daisy knew she struck gold. Sidling up to Morning’s side, she shot him a cheeky grin. “Soooo, who’s the lucky lady? Sweetie Belle, right? I’m totally not asking ‘cause I’m betting on it or anything.” Too embarrassed to correct her on gender, or just at all, all Morning could do was  feel his face get hotter and hotter as he looked away. “That’s not important! A-all that matters is… I just need a dozen roses and to get over my fear of even approaching h-” Realizing that finishing that particular sentence would reveal a hand that he hadn’t even been dealt fully yet, he bit his tongue, “Them for a date.” Nodding sagely, Daisy dragged Morning over to the rose display. Roses of all types of colors, both natural and magically induced, wrapped up in those bouquet wrappers. Morning eyed the multicolored ones for a moment, but was stopped from picking one by Daisy, who grabbed a classic red set and handed it to the poor colt. He struggled to comfortably hold the bouquet in his hooves, awkwardly juggling it before pinning it between his foreleg and his chest. With his free hoof, he pat himself down carefully, even reaching into the strange pocket dimension all ponies kept their belongings in because they don’t have actual pockets. His eyes widened slightly as he realized his pocket only had his keys and a few random objects. He looked solemnly to Daisy, a gentle blush on his face. “I’m pretty sure I left my wallet at home.” With a forlorn sigh, he moved to set down the beautiful flowers he’d had picked out for him, only to be met with a pink hoof to stop him. “Just take ‘em. We’ll dock your pay later.” Daisy told him, shoving the bouquet back towards him. “Now go get her, champ! You better not chicken out, or Mr. Cake wins the pot.” While they weren’t the words of encouragement he needed, nor were they the ones he wanted, it was certainly all he had to go on as Daisy shooed her one customer for the day out of the shop. After stumbling into the marketplace of Ponyville in search of his target, Morning Glory realized just how conspicuous he looked while nervously clutching flowers to his chest. Especially with the ever increasing knowing looks and hopeful grins. News travels fast in a small town like Ponyville, whether that news be about an impending monster attack or the seemingly banal romantic interests of a teenage colt. The only pony who seemed to not be smiling was Mr. Cake, staring through the window of his shop and sweating nervously. But the light blue colt with the very very obvious red roses was only worried about one thing: Finding Cardinal. It was the last part of the plan, but it was very much the hardest part, as that colt could be anywhere in Ponyville, whether running about or flapping above the clouds. Making it all but impossible for most ponies to track him down when they needed him. So, it was only blind luck that lead the two colts to crash into each other. Morning Glory fell back immediately after hitting the thick, well-muscled wall of soft grey fur before him. He landed on his rump and even dropped his flowers before realizing what he’d hit. Looking up, he saw Cardinal staring down at him, a soft grin on his face. He extended a hoof to help Morning up, which the smaller colt took a bit apprehensively and awkwardly. Using only a fraction of his strength, Cardinal brought the admittedly small and frail colt back to his hooves. Staring blankly at Cardinal, Morning Glory couldn’t help but stutter and stammer his way through and attempted sentence. Attempted in that it was more of a jumble of sounds that merely pretended to be words. After a few moments of Cardinal trying to make out words, he just leaned down to pick up what his good buddy dropped and smirked as he realized what it was. He handed it back without any trouble, but couldn’t hide his knowing grin, now the only knowing grin on the street. “You, uh, dropped this.” His smile flashed wider as he handed over the bouquet. Morning briefly swooned before remembering himself, snatching the flowers back, then clutching them close to his chest once again, tighter than before. The silence between the two was palpable, forcing the bulkier stallion to chuckle softly as he ran a hoof through his spiky mane, colored like Fall leaves: red at the tips, transitioning to a nice golden brown at the roots. “Heh, sorry for knocking into you.” The Autumnal pegasus chuckled gently as he scratched the back of his neck. “I guess I just wasn’t watching where I was going. Aaaanyway~” he ever so subtly gestured to the flowers he’d handed over with a large grin, “What’re those about?” Morning Glory was once again lost in a wave of stammering and mumbling, but eventually he made it out. With a large blush, he offered the bouquet over to Cardinal. “T-these are for you!” He said just a bit too loudly, shutting his eyes out of pure anxiety. Cardinal smiled. He then leaned down to stick his face near the flowers, opened his mouth, then munched down on the largest rose. The crunch was loud enough that everyone around them could hear, causing a very large concentration of cringes. The largest of them was Morning Glory’s as he, right after hearing the munch, opened his eyes to see one of the roses had magically become just a stem. Looking up at Cardinal as he wondered what had happened, he could see the colt still chewing, open mouthed, on the remnants of the rose. He didn’t exactly know how to respond. But Cardinal did. “Man, I really needed this. Was just about to pick up lunch and everything.” Cardinal told his shocked and somewhat amazed friend as he continued to chew. Thankfully he swallowed right after and wiped his lips free of flower paste. “How’d you even know I was hungry?” “Oh you know. Just a… lucky guess.” The poor, rejected colt muttered, dipping his head. He briefly wondered if he could turn this around in his favor, but decided against it. Cardinal laughed like he saw nothing wrong, he didn’t, and clapped a hoof on Morning’s shoulder. “And that’s why you’re my best friend, bud. You just get me.” He was just about to continue singing the praises of his buddy, but he suddenly looked over to the clocktower and gave a small frown. “Heck. Wish I could stay and talk but I’ve gotta be training. I’ll catch you later, alright?” Without waiting for a response, Cardinal just took off running in a random direction, obviously faster than Morning could keep up with. This just left Morning Glory in the middle of the marketplace, holding a partially eaten bouquet of roses as a good few ponies watched on.