When I left the boutique I was peeved.
Nopony made Sweetie Belle cry like that. Nopony. The only reason I wasn't gonna beat the daylights out of Scootaloo when I found her was because of Sweetie's tearful pleading before she'd let me go to find our complete jerk of a friend. A slap across the face wouldn't hurt her, though. Much.
I went to just about every business and stall in town asking if anypony had seen Scootaloo. The few that had all said she'd been flying a different direction. The last pony I'd asked pointed me toward my own family's orchards. When a streak of rainbow split the sky starting from the fields closest to the Whitetail Woods I broke into a run. Sure enough, Scootaloo was sitting at the base of an apple tree, hugging her knees to her chest and staring at the ground.
I set my jaw and slowed to a steady stride. Scootaloo's ears twitched. She looked up, and her eyes went round as dinner plates.
“Apple Bloom!” She sprang to her feet. “I was just about to go back and talk to--” I wound up my right arm and slapped my friend across the face with about a quarter of what I felt like giving out. Angry or not, I almost winced at how loud it was. Scootaloo reeled back and covered her left cheek. “What the hay!?”
“You know darn well what! What is wrong with you, Scootaloo!? D'you have any idea what ya did to Sweetie!?”
“I--”
“I found her cryin' her eyes out 'cause of you! I just spent an hour lookin' after her 'cause you,” I jabbed a finger at my friend's face, “went and stomped all over her feelin's!”
“I didn't--”
“Y'all saw how nervous she was last night! Y'all shoulda known she was worked up about it. Especially the way you two were goin' at it after lights out.”
Scootaloo's went almost as pale as Sweetie. “You-- you knew?”
My own face flushed a little. “I heard the two of you. You were kissin' and I heard her… sayin' yer name.”
Scootaloo waved her hands frantically. “It wasn't like that! We didn't go that far, I swear! And-- and she came onto me!”
“That whole thing was yer idea!”
“You agreed to it!”
My face flushed even hotter, right on up to my ears. “I was just tryin' ta help!”
“Then why were you jealous?”
On some level I knew I was losing control of the argument. The rest of my head was flooding with images and feelings from the night before. Sweetie's lips, the pressure of her body against me, Scootaloo's hands wandering down…
“I-- I wasn't--”
“You totally freaked out! Everything was cool until you saw us, and then you flipped!”
“You were sneakin' behind my back!”
Scootaloo threw up her arms. “We were in the middle of the room! We were just doing what you already did!”
“I didn't feel nopony up!”
“Tell that to my rump!”
“I oughta kick that rump of yours straight to the moon! Y'all show it off enough!”
“Nopony's making you look! If you can't keep your eyes off me, that's YOUR problem!”
“I-- I don't like mares!”
Scootaloo took a step forward. “You liked 'em fine last night!”
I stepped back. “No-- no I didn't! I-I was jus'--”
“You kissed her first! You volunteered! You could've just said no, or told me and her to do it, but you stepped up. You wanted her as bad as I did!”
“If ya want her so darn much, then why'd ya tell 'er to forget it happened?”
Just like that the tide shifted again. Scootaloo stepped back, ruffling her wings uncomfortably. For the first time I noticed they were pretty mussed up. “It's not like that.”
“Oh yeah? Then what's it like, Scootaloo? Huh? What's it like? Y'all just after a one night stand?”
“No.”
“It just a game to ya? That what Sweetie is, just a game?”
Her wings flared. “No!”
“Then why ya gotta let her down like that?”
“I-- It's--,” Scootaloo's eyes darted back and forth, looking for an escape route that wasn't there, not with the branches of the tree right above our heads. “It's because--”
“Y'all already got somepony, is that it?”
“Yes, no, sorta, I don't know!”
I balled my hands into furious fists and lashed my tail. “Yer cheatin' on somepony!?”
“No!”
“Who is it? I oughta go tell 'em right now! Diamond? Silver? Huh? Who--”
“YOU!"
Scootaloo was breathing hard. I'd almost forgotten how to breathe. I just moved my mouth around silently while waiting for my brain to grind back into action. It felt like an eternity before I could force a shaky, shallow breath, take a step back, and even start trying to sort out what I just heard.
“…Me?”
Scootaloo looked away. “Last--” Her voice cracked. “Last night, when you-- when you interrupted us the second time? I forgot you were there. I was so into Sweetie Belle that-- It was like you weren't there anymore.”
“Y'all were just caught up, that's all,” I said, voice weak and wavering. Scootaloo shook her head and looked me in the eye.
“Don't you get it? We're best friends, all of us. We promised we'd be together forever. If-- if Sweetie and I-- you'd get left out. We wouldn't be the Crusaders anymore. We'd be Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle… plus Apple Bloom. I can't do it. I just can't, okay?”
“Then-- then why'd ya--?”
“I don't know, okay!? It was late, I was licking that darn salt-- I really wanted to-- You're both hot, okay!? Sweet Celestia, do you have any idea-- Have you seen Sweetie? Have you looked in a mirror!?”
The heat that'd drained out of my face following Scootaloo's confession came back full blast. It wasn't like I hadn't ever overheard a comment or two, but getting it to my face, and straight from one of my best friends, that was something else. And it was a pretty short list either way.
“I'm nothin' special.”
Scootaloo's eyes turned earthward. Her wings kept half opening and closing up again like she didn't know what to do with them, and her tail kept flicking to the left. Her hands balled up in fists but her voice got soft. “That's a load of horseapples and you know it. You're special to me, Apple Bloom. Both of you. I-- I care about you both. You girls are everything to me.”
I couldn't quite stop myself from chuckling. “Don't let Rainbow hear ya sayin' that.”
Scootaloo smirked. “Heh, yeah. She'd be all 'whoa, squirt, you feeling okay?'”
“Ha! She'd probably decide you were a rogue changeling or sumthin'.” We shared a quiet laugh at the image of Rainbow Dash gathering up her friends and trying to explain that Scootaloo had turned evil because she'd stopped worshiping her shadow. It was shame the moment couldn't last. I sighed and shook my head. “Look, Scoots, if ya wanna be with Sweetie, then you should be with her. I don't care if it means I'm playin' second fiddle the rest of my life.”
Scootaloo ran her hands over her hair. “You're not getting it. I care about you both. As much as I want Sweetie… I want--” she took a deep breath, steeling herself, “I want you, too. How can I pick between my best friends?”
I turned away and folded my arms. Scootaloo could be so gosh darn stubborn. “I keep sayin' I don't like mares. It's a real easy choice, Scoots.”
“Yeah, right.”
I laid my ears back. “I'm serious!”
“Say it to my face.”
“What?”
“Look me in the eye and tell me you're not interested.”
“Y'all callin' me a liar?”
“Pretty much.” When I rounded on her she went on before I could give her another piece of my mind. “Yeah yeah, sister's the element of honesty, you were raised right, yadda yadda. I've seen you check out Sweetie before, and I know you were into it last night.”
“Stop it, Scootaloo! Just stop it! This ain't about me, it's about you!” I took a step forward and this time it was Scootaloo who backed up. “This is about you runnin' out on Sweetie!” Another step. “This is about you pushin' fer us ta fool around!” Another. “This about you sneakin' in the dark and messin' around with Sweetie.” Scootaloo's back bumped into the tree.
“Apple-”
“This is about ya grabbin' my rump! I finally had that all under control! I was good! I was happy! Then ya had t' go an-- ya had ta go 'n mix it all up again! Now nuthin' makes sense and I don't know what I want anymore and I keep thinkin' about it over and over and it just won't stop and--”
“AB?”
“And what the hay is Applejack gonna think!? And Granny? An'-- An'-- I don't--” My voice broke. Scootaloo was so close. I'd gotten her backed right up to the tree, just inches away from me. Any closer and we'd be touching. Her purple eyes looked right up into mine, and I could feel her breath on my face and neck. She tried to say something, but she didn't really get much out. Her lips moving caught my eye, and then…
I had to know. I just had to.
It happened fast. One moment we were standing there, panting and staring, the next I had her sandwiched between me and the tree trunk, my lips pressed to hers. Because I needed to know if it was just the salt. I needed to know if it was just my head being messed with, or if everything I was feeling, everything I'd been feeling, was real.
Scootaloo turned her head a little and pulled on my upper lip. My eyes fluttered closed.
I couldn't like mares. I'd never liked mares. If I did I'd be enjoying kissing her. My heart wouldn't be pounding like it was trying to break out of my chest. My face wouldn't be burning. My stomach wouldn't be all twisted and fluttery. I wasn't like that. I wasn't! I'd never been like that with anypony else!
Scootaloo's arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer. Our lips worked against one another, pressing together and pulling apart over and over.
I could stop this any time I wanted. It was just a test. It didn't mean anything. It couldn't mean anything.
Scootaloo's tongue was at my lips.
I let it in.