Apple Bloom’s Secret

by YourUncleFuncle


That Hollow Feeling

“What in Equestria is going on, crusaders?”

Scootaloo is walking with her friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to school like they usually do, with the exception of yesterday because Apple Bloom was late getting to their meetup point. The only major difference today was that Scootaloo was the only pony doing the talking, while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were walking as far away from each other as possible and trying to avoid each other’s looks.

“Nothing,” they said at the same time, causing them to blush in embarrassment.

A small moment of silence followed this awkward interaction before Scootaloo froze and sat down on the dirt road and crossed her arms and gave the two a stern look.

“You two have been radio silent since we met up, and I want to know why!”

“Nothing’s wrong!” Sweetie Belle said quickly, “Everything Is absolutely fine! Right, Apple Bloom?”

“Right,” the earth pony replied, still avoiding her gaze.

“Yeah right,” Scootaloo said, not believing her friends, “it’s obvious you two are hiding something, so tell me!”

It was clear that Scootaloo was not going to let them off the hook, and that meant that one of the two ponies were going to have to think of something fast.

“We had a little disagreement about what we should do today as Crusaders,” Sweetie Belle lied.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, encouraging the two fillies to keep going with their explanation.

“Ah didn’t want to do sculpture after all,” Apple Bloom chimed in. Sweetie Belle turned to her in surprise, as the unicorn filly had been doing most of the talking out of the two of them so far in their awkward attempts to both fool Scootaloo and be as far away from each other as possible.

Sweetie Belle picked up the hint and thought of a response. “I told her that I wanted to do it and we had a big fight, but we’re okay now.” Apple Bloom nodded in agreement.

The two looked to their suspicious friend, whose expression seemed to go away just like the hollow feeling in Sweetie Belle’s stomach.

“I mean we don’t have to do it if you don’t want to,” Scootaloo assured Apple Bloom, “and we don’t have to think of anything for this afternoon yet. We can just roll with the punches and come up with something.”

Sweetie Belle looked over to Apple Bloom and winked at her, who jolted for a second before nodding in agreement. “Okay,” she said nervously.

“Cool!” Scootaloo exclaimed, completely forgetting about what had happened before, “So for the homework last night, did you gals get the answer for number three?”

The three fillies launched into a conversation about the homework, which went on for the duration of their walk to school.
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After some time of walking they reached the brick building in time for school. Unlike last time, however, Apple Bloom was there with plenty of time to spare and she came with her two best friends by her side.

She hoped that today would be far better than yesterday, which was almost guaranteed. “Ah almost passed out and had to go home sick,” she thought supposedly, “Ah don’t think it could get much worse.”

When they walked in the classroom she saw that about half of her classmates had already arrived, including Pip, Featherweight, and Twist. The clock said that there were about ten minutes to go before class started, and Miss Cheerilee didn’t mind how early you got to her school until the bell rang, but if you trotted in after that she would give you the evil eye, one that Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and even Scootaloo has seen many times before.

Apple Bloom looked over to the desk to say hello to their teacher when she noticed her doing something unusual about her. Most times when Apple Bloom would walk in the room she would see her purple and pink teacher sitting at her desk and preparing for her lesson or a test for today. Instead, however, she seemed to be silently watching three ponies enter, thoughtfully studying them.

At first she thought that Scootaloo had done something bad again. “The last time she had looked at us like this, Scootaloo had written her name on the inside of her desk.” It seemed like it was going to be some kind of trouble for Scootaloo until…

“Sweetie Belle? Could I please talk to you for a moment?”

Both fillies turned to look at their unicorn friend, who looked like she had as much idea of what their teacher wanted as they did. She gave her friends a confused glance before she followed Miss Cheerilee out of the school.

“What was that all about?” Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom.

“Ah don’t rightly know,” Apple Bloom responded. “Maybe Miss Cheerilee is talking to her about our big project like she did for me yesterday.”

“She hasn’t talked to me yet, and I still don’t have a plan.”

“She’s probably used to it by now, Scootaloo. You always pull something off at the last second.”

Both of them giggled before finding their seats in the classroom and waiting for their friend to get back.

——————————————————

Sweetie Belle really didn’t know what to think of this scenario.

Of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she was the one that Miss Cheerilee had to pull aside and talk to the least. She was a goody four shoes, and she always did her homework neat and on time, qualities that she often shared with her older sister.

She also was the most well behaved out of the three. Apple Bloom was good except for the fights she got into every once and awhile, and Scootaloo was just a troublemaker, always finding a way to provoke a talk. She, on the other hoof, never got into fights and was always nice to all of her classmates, even the bullies, so the fact that she was being called outside now was really scary to her.

She followed her teacher as they rounded the corner of the little school and stopped when the teacher turned around to face her, but the expression surprised her.

Instead of the one she used when Scootaloo was talking in class too much, or when Diamond Tiara was caught bullying, or even an angry or mad one at all. It was more sympathetic, worried, and even a little sad.

“Sweetie Belle, are you alright?” she asked looking down at the white filly.

“I think so,” Sweetie Belle responded, confused, “why do you ask?”

“Your sister told me about how Diamond Tiara was making fun of you by calling you certain names, and I just wanted to…”

Cheerilee’s voice faded out as the hollow feeling Sweetie Belle had in her belly when she lied to Scootaloo cane back. “How could I forget? Of course Rarity was going to tell the teacher! How am I supposed to get out of this now?”

While she had thought of a good way to get out of telling Rarity why she wanted to know what a fillyfooler is, she hadn’t even remembered the excuse, let alone prepared for it. Miss Cheerilee is going to find out that Diamond Tiara never called me that, and everypony will know I lied, and will want to know the real place I heard it.”

“...so if something like this ever happens to you again, Sweetie Belle, please let me know as soon as possible.”

Sweetie Belle was able to get out of her thoughts to hear the last part of her teacher’s long speech. Although she only heard the beginning and the end, she nodded like she understood and said, “Yeah, thanks Miss Cheerilee!”

Cheerilee smiled and gave Sweetie Belle a hug of encouragement. “No matter what other kids may call you or how you might react, you will always be who you think you are, so don’t listen to the negativity, but focus on the positivity.” She let go and smiled, “Now let’s get to class. It starts in a few minutes.”

Sweetie Belle felt her fear go away and relief come to her. After the surprise conversation she hoped that everything would clear up, and it would be the end of it, never to be mentioned again.

Unfortunately she had missed quite a few important details that Miss Cheerilee had said while talking to her.