//------------------------------// // Confessions Favor the Bold // Story: A Case of the Scoots // by Ephedianroyalty //------------------------------// “My name was Emily.” For the third time that day, I wondered just how I had ended up in my situation. I mean, yeah, they deserved to know, but I wanted to do it on my terms, and now I had just blurted it out under pressure. And really, found out because of Trump? Not my best moment, definitely. I honestly meant to tell her sooner. I only really understood what had happened partially into the second Doomsweek anyways, and there really wasn’t a good time to do it since Bloom returned. At least, that’s what I told myself. As I talked, the memories flowed out of me like water, and I didn’t realize I had something new until the color drain from Applebloom’s face. “What did you say?” I replayed the flow in my head and stumbled upon the new memory. “Um, it was a perfect cosplay.” “Scoots, I think that was me you knocked over.”  Well. Add another revelation to the list. And just like that, another piece fell into place. “That explains so much! Like how we were found in the same place when we woke up.” Dear God, I sounded like a preppy school girl.* Sweetie smiled and hopped up and down. “And me! I used to be somebody from Roanoke Island. Jimmy Hook?” I started. I knew that name! Where though? “Hey, I know you from Fimfiction!” “And it seems we all got here as a result of purchasin’ or bein’ given, an item by that merchant. Very strange.” I nodded in agreement and prepared to get down to business, expecting her to lead the charge to find out who this guy was. Rainbow would probably say a spy, and I was tempted to think the same. “But it can wait. We got somethin’ more important.” “Namely?” Sweetie and I leaned in, waiting for the big reveal as Bloom drug as much weight in for her words as she could. And then she hit us with it. “Ice cream!” Sweetie’s face lit up, happy as can be, but I just stood there, staring. That’s it? But she just… “Are you coming, Scoots?” Bloom called out, and I realized they had left me behind. I charged out after them, and we three friends knew everything would be okay, if only we stuck together. I paced on the sidewalk next to the park we had planned on meeting at this week. It was just a day ago when Bloom found out, but I already felt like I was exposed to the world. My head went up at the sound of a car, and Rarity’s car pulled up. The side door opened, and Sweetie got out, waved goodbye, and jogged over to me. I say jogged, but I swear I’ve never seen someone look quite so girly just running. I waved and met her midway, and braced for the tackle hug I saw coming. “This again, Sweetie? It’s only been a day!” I teased, and she bounced back, a little color flushing her cheeks. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to see your friends!” she defended. I smiled at her and reached over, giving her my own hug. “No, no there isn’t,” I replied. Over her shoulder, I noticed Bloom heading towards us. I let go of Sweetie and walked towards AB, Pointing her out to Sweetie. She turned and brightened when she saw Bloom, running over to her, which was like ten steps. I just followed her at a walking pace, easily making it over to there with just a little more time used. No reason to run, anyways. “Hi!” Sweetie beamed at Applebloom. I went with a casual wave, still trying to get that comfortableness with them I had before last night.  “Nice to see you again, Bloom.” She smiled at me, and I felt twenty percent more comfortable.  I relaxed my stance a little. “Ah’m so glad the Crusaders could meet again, So then, what are we gonna do this week?” Sweetie Belle raised her hand. “Explore the tomb of Ahuizotl? Hopefully, we’ll get out before Stalwart Stallion locks us in!” I looked over at her and saw the slightly dreamy look in her eyes. I rolled mine. “It’s Mojo. And I think we’ve already done that. How about we journey to the city of clouds, and do battle with Sky Pirates?” I really hoped we would have a clash in the sky again. That was fun last time! “We already did that Scoots!” that’s never stopped us before! I opened my mouth to protest, but she cut me off. “Why not try outer space?” “An adventure with aliens?” I paused and considered it. You know what, it sounded pretty interesting. “Sure, why not?” “Oh, I hope they’re not xenomorphs.” Sweetie crunched up in herself. I smiled and shook my head. “Technically they’re not called ‘Xenomorphs.’ That was just a bit of nonsensical babble from Gorman,” I recalled. “How are ya even old enough ta have seen that?” I smirked at Bloom’s question. “When my dad’s around, we sometimes watch films together.” I sighed wistfully. “Besides, it not all that scary or gory.” Sweetie sighed. “Rarity has enough trouble with me watching railway videos on YouTube,” she admitted, and I held in a snicker. Applebloom, on the other hand, seemed to get enraged. “Why? There’d be no California without the railroad!” “She thinks it is, quote, ‘most unladylike to use or be interested in such smoky machines’,” Sweetie Belle said pompously. She even added a British accent, and I saw the perfect response. “Well, fiddlesticks to that!” The other two CMC started laughing, and I smiled before dissolving into giggles with them. Success! I followed Bloom down to the basement, and I could feel Sweetie chomping at the bit to get going with this. When we got down there, Bloom started moving furniture around, and after a glance at Sweetie, I joined her. I guess the clutter wouldn’t really give any space to sit. Bloom pulled a couple of platforms out of the mess and started setting them up. “Scotts, the screen still needs to be assembled, do you think you can do that?” Bloom pointed to a pile of… something sitting by the stairs. “You wound me, Bloom. We both know my answer,” I said sarcastically with a smirk. She rolled her eyes, and I turned to the pile, trying to figure out what to do. The truth was, my answer would be a most definite ‘no.’ I struggled, and Bloom took notice after a while, drawn over by my muttering. “No, Scoots, the tripod does NOT go on the roof,” I tossed a scathing look over my shoulder, and Bloom met it with a smirk. “I know that!” I quickly put the tripod where she pointed, blushing. “Besides, you don’t seem to be having much luck yourself.” Applebloom looked over at Sweetie. “Sweetie Belle! How’s the screen?” she got a thumbs up, Sweetie’s other hand holding the screen itself. “Mounted to the post, but we can’t unroll it yet.” I set the tripod down, a little shakily, and watched Sweetie finish the project. Applebloom turned on the projector, her face filled with glee, but nothing showed up. It was blank. I looked around the front and noticed something as Sweetie bemoaned our failure. “The screen lock is engaged.” with a smirk, I pushed the catch back, and Sweetie’s screensaver popped up on the screen. After making sure everything was set, we went up to Bloom’s living room, waiting for the boys. You could cut the tension with a knife. I know I was feeling the excitement to see Rumble just as much as the others for their own, but at least I wasn’t pacing like Sweetie. When a knock sounded at the door, Bloom revealed her tension by rocketing towards it, and I heard her skid to a stop before throwing the door open. “Howdy Y'all,” she tried to sound like she had just casually gotten up, but the underlying breathlessness was still there. The boys didn’t seem to pick it up though. Button just asked, “We good for tonight?” if I didn’t know any better, I’d say the boys had been just as nervous as we were. Bloom surreptitiously wiped her palms on her jeans and then waved them in. “That we are! We can’t start until after dinner.” And what a dinner it was. I know I was stiff the entire dinner, and at least half the time Sweetie and Button were oblivious to the rest of the table. On top of that, the conversation alternated between awkward and stilted. I practically sailed down the steps to the basement when we were released. “Finally, I thought that’d never end!” I sighed, sitting down on the lower platform. Button sat down on the far end of the second one, Sweetie snuggling against his legs on the first. “Oh come on,” she said, “It wasn’t that bad. It was only a little teasing.” “Oh, yeah, that’s all it was,” I snarked. “You and I both know you don’t remember a thing form that dinner past Button and being teased. You probably don’t even know what we had!” Sweetie colored. “Of course I remember what we had! It was...” She defended herself poorly, but Button came to her rescue. “It was a standard apple dinner. There’s nothing to remember, Scootaloo.” He smirked at me, and I pouted before my heart flipped as Rumble, who was sitting above me, pressed his lips to my head. “Stop teasing her, Scoots. You know we weren’t that much better.” I turned around and smiled shyly at him and took his left hand with my right, suddenly feeling self-conscious as my face heated up. “Break it up, lovebirds.” Bloom plopped down to my left into the legs of Pip and motioned for Sweetie to start the video. I quickly schooled my emotions, forcing the blush from my face as best I could as we began. “Hello, everybody! This is Sweetie Belle!” She waved at the camera, and I rolled my eyes before saying my part. I smiled and raised my hand. “Scootaloo here!” “And Ah’m Apple Bloom!” Bloom finished. “We are the CMC!” We did a three-way hive-five and chorused the last part. “The Canterlot Movie Club!” “And this evening, we have some special guests joining us!” Sweetie rotated the camera, bringing the three boys into the picture. “Introduce yourselves,” she whispered. “I’m Pipsqueak!” Pip said, his voice filled with its normal dosing of happiness and accent. “Rumble, at your service.” I smiled at him, squeezing his hand. Button started off with enthusiasm. “Hi, I’m Button Mash! I’m twelve years old, and I like-” “Yes, thank you, Button” I interrupted, and Pip elbowed him in the side. I segued into the actual topic of the night. “Today’s entry is What’s Up. Sweetie took it from there. “This movie has a curious history, It appeared in 2010, and probably looks like a knockoff of Up, but the two films have almost nothing in common.” Bloom smiled at the camera. “If everyone’s ready, let's go!” I had trouble watching the movie. Even discounting the horrible quality of the film, Rumble was cracking jokes in my ear the entire time and was being generally the adorable dork I fell in love with. So you have to understand when I got slightly upset that we had to leave. Thankfully, Rainbow had come to pick me up in lieu of my parents, who were off doing… whatever it was they did again. “So, how was your triple date, Squirt?” Rainbow teased, before relenting under my flailing arms. “Okay! Okay! Your ‘Crusader’s movie night with friends.’” I smiled at her amiability and started recounting the night, telling her about our struggle to survive on a spaceship, and our foray into a horrible example of racism thinly disguised as a movie. She smirked when I admitted to not really watching it but kept her jokes largely to herself, and I thanked the Almighty that she had said yes to being my ‘adopted’ sister. Then she hit the topic that I wanted to talk about tonight. “So, Squirt,” she started, “How badly do you want to go to Camp Everfree?”