//------------------------------// // The Rant // Story: Apple Bloom’s Secret // by YourUncleFuncle //------------------------------// The three crusaders had been sitting in class all day waiting for the bell to ring and let them out. Today had been very boring for the colts and fillies because Cheerilee’s lesson was on how quilts were made. At first Sweetie Belle seemed a little excited but it soon died down after she realized they wouldn’t be making any, but instead listening to a boring lecture about it, with her bringing in the Quills and Sofas pony for a presentation. The bell finally rang, signalling the end of the day, and the three fillies ran as fast as possible, but their advance was halted by their teacher. “Sweetie Belle, could I have one more word with you before I let you go?” Sweetie Belle turned to her head and nodded, indicating that she was fine with her friends going ahead of her, so Apple Bloom and Scootaloo turned around and trotted next to each other out of the school and decided to wait outside under a nearby tree. “Why does Miss Cheerilee wanna keep talking to Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom asked once they got in the shade. “Beats me,” Scootaloo said, “she probably was staring off into space all class.” “That’s what you would do, Scoots,” Apple Bloom pointed out, “Sweetie Belle is the most well behaved filly in our whole class, and Ah think it’s weird that she’s been pulled aside more than once on the same day!” “It’s probably nothing. Maybe Cheerilee wants a dress from Rarity or something stupid like that.” “How come you always think stuff like that is stupid?” “Because it is!” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes and looked back to see her friend walking out the door, looking relieved. Apple Bloom couldn’t help but stare into the soft blue eyes that were softened even more by the cute calmed expression. “Dang it Apple Bloom!” her thoughts yelled to her, “stop thinking about this stuff!” “Well, that was…interesting,” Sweetie Belle’s adorable high pitched voice broke said. “You’re doing it again!” she thought. Scootaloo smirked and asked, “Are you in trouble or something?” “Well, not really, you see...uh…I really don’t know. It’s just a big confusing mess.” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom exchanged a look which showed the other how confused they were. “Is she mad at you?” Scootaloo asked. “No, or at least, I don’t think so.” Apple Bloom scanned Sweetie Belle for any signs lying, a talent she shared with her sister, although it was not as good. Applejack could sniff a lie from a mile away from almost anypony. but Apple Bloom had learned how to get under her radar. When she didn’t find any signals she just shrugged and faced Scootaloo. “Can we get to the clubhouse? Ah think Applejack mentioned she was gonna start dinner early today.” “But how are we supposed to make up for all the crusading we missed yesterday?” Scootaloo asked. “We’ll be able to do it tomorrow. Ah don’t have any plans then.” “Great!” Sweetie Belle cheered. “Now let’s go while we still have time, crusaders!” The other two smiled and nodded, following the unicorn filly up the path that led up to Sweet Apple Acres “Alright, so we’ve ruled out skateboarding cutie marks now, agreed?” Sweetie Belle was sitting on a chair in the corner of the clubhouse with a pencil in mouth, about to cross off a picture of a skateboard that was on a list of a few other pictures. Right next to them, Apple Bloom was busy putting gauze and bandages on Scootaloo, who had scratches and bruises all over her body. “Yeah,” Scootaloo said flatly, “who knew that it would be so much different than scootering?” “Ah told you ya shouldn’t have tried to do tricks on your first try, but y’all wouldn’t listen,” Apple Bloom pointed out, tightening the bandaid on her pegasus friend’s forearm, making her wince slightly. “So what do we do now?” “Well, we could always try doing this,” Sweetie Belle held up the page and pointed the pencil tip at a drawing of a headband. “What’s that?” Scootaloo asked. “It’s for sprinting. It might be fun to just run around all day.” “Don’t we just go and do that everytime we go crusading?” “Well yeah,” Sweetie Belle replied, “but now we’ll actually have a good reason to do it, so why not?” “I’m okay with doing that,” Scootaloo said before raising one of her scrapped forehooves and pointing the other at it, “but can it wait until tomorrow? I think this is going to need a little time to heal.” “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Sweetie Belle responded, turning to Apple Bloom. “Is that alright with you, AB?” Apple Bloom shook her head a little. She had no idea that she had stopped listening and was only looking at Sweetie Belle. “You're doing it again!” In order to not raise any suspicions, Apple Bloom pretended like she simply wanted a final runthrough of their plan. “Uh, yeah girls, sounds fine to me! So what’re we planning on doing?” Scootaloo raised an eyebrow a smidge while Sweetie Belle smiled and repeated the plan. “Tomorrow we’ll meet outside of school and run around Ponyville for an hour or so. Hopefully we’ll be so good that we’ll just end up getting our cutie marks by the time we’re done!” “But how can y’all be so sure that we’ll get them?” “When have we never?” Scootaloo pointed out. “Besides, remember that time we stayed at Fluttershy’s cottage? She couldn’t keep up with us the whole time.” “Good point,” Apple Bloom admitted, “but if all our special talents are running, how come we haven’t gotten them yet since we do that all the time together?” Sweetie Belle turned her head slightly in confusion while Scootaloo slapped a hoof to her forehead. “Geez, Apple Bloom, have you been listening to us at all?” she asked with a joking smile. “Oh, did we already go through all this?” Apple Bloom sighed. “Ah think Ah’m just really hungry, thinking about dinner and all.” “That’s fine,” Sweetie Belle said, “I think it’s time that I get back to the Boutique anyway. Rarity said to come back home as soon as we finished.” Scootaloo nodded. “Alright, so we have a game plan?” She received an answer from both fillies in the form of a nod. “Alright, meeting adjourned.” Apple Bloom ran out first, not only in hopes of getting home early to eat, but so that she could have some time alone to get her thoughts straight. “Hey, Apple Bloom!” Or not. She turned around to see the small white unicorn filly that had been on her mind throughout the meeting running up to catch up with her. She caught a glimpse of Scootaloo putting on her helmet and preparing to scooter off the other way, so it seemed like there was no escape from this confrontation. She thought she’d try anyway. “Sweetie Belle, Ah’m kinda in a hurry to get home.” She tried to say it as politely as possible. “Oh sorry, I was just wondering if we could talk for a second.” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow and shrugged, thinking the conversation couldn’t possibly take too long. “Can we walk and talk?” Sweetie Belle smiled and nodded, before starting to walk right next to her best friend. “So I just really wanted to talk a little bit more about, uh, you know…” Apple Bloom turned to look at Sweetie Belle when she hesitated, but her friend couldn’t look her back in the eye. “Talk more about what?” “You know...yesterday.” Suddenly everything froze for the yellow pony. Her thoughts froze, her walking froze, and even time froze. She couldn’t think, move, or feel time passing for a few seconds. It seemed to melt away when she saw Sweetie Belle’s heat ray, or just her look of concern. Her ears folded against the side of her head and she looked to the dirt path. “Oh.” That’s all that she could say. She tried to look her friend in the eyes but she winced and looked away as their eyes locked momentarily. Silence over took them for a second, both hoping that one of them would give in and break it. Apple Bloom won. “Can I ask you a question?” Sweetie Belle asked. Apple Bloom only nodded. “What’s the big deal about it?” Apple Bloom thought her head might fall of based on how hard she felt it jerked up. She looked at Sweetie Belle like she was crazy. “W-what do you m-mean?” she stammered out the question. “Well, I don’t see any problems with liking ponies of the same gender.” If Apple Bloom’s eyes could’ve widened any farther they certainly would have after Sweetie Belle said so. It wasn’t even as if she was saying it just to comfort her. Her tone held no awkwardness in it, and she was looking to her friend with the most sincere face anypony could muster. “She really meant it,” Apple Bloom thought, “she’s not joking!” “I’m guessing there are some ponies out there who don’t agree with it,” Sweetie Belle continued, “but there are so many ponies in Equestria, and not everypony will agree on anything. I know for a fact that there are plenty of ponies here in Ponyville that would not judge you or how you feel toward fillies.” She began to take several steps toward Apple Bloom, who shied away slightly, but it didn’t stop Sweetie Belle from coming inches away from her before stopping. “Everypony is different, and we learn to accept those differences over time. You should be free to live your life however you feel is right, and if anypony tries to tell you different, they clearly don’t have your best interests in mind, because every single pony should be free to Perdue their own happiness. I guess what I’m trying to say,” she paused and wrapped her friend in a hug, “is that I like you just the way you are!” Apple Bloom felt frozen again, as she felt unable to leave the embrace. For what felt like the thousandth time, she felt her face heat up and her heartbeat intensify, especially now that she was hugging her crush. “This feels really nice. This feels right. Maybe Ah really can be with fillies! Maybe Ah can be with Sweetie Belle! Maybe…” “NO!” Her frozen status was broken and she pushed Sweetie Belle. Both were shocked by the action, but Sweetie Belle seemed more shocked. “No!” Apple Bloom yelled. “No! No! NO! Ah can’t take it! Ah don’t want to be like this! Ah want it to be like mah sister always tells me! To fall in love with a colt and marry him someday, and to start a family with him! But Ah know that I will never be happy because CELESTIA DECIDED TO PUT THIS CURSE ON ME!” Sweetie Belle stared in shock as Apple Bloom finally stopped to take a breath, unable to take this news. “Apple Bloom-” “Ah really do try to like colts and to push mah feelings down, but there’s only so far down you can push them before they boil over! Ah can’t take it anymore! Ah don’t even feel like a pony! Ah’m just a freak! A stupid, terrible fillyfooling freak!” Sweetie Belle felt her eyes well up with tears after hearing the last part. She couldn’t believe the hate and cursing that her friend was giving herself. “Apple Bloom, I-” “If mah family ever found out Ah was like this, they’d throw me out! Ah’ve heard that that’s what families do to freaks like me! They send them to the streets and force them to survive as long as they possibly can! If mah sister, mah brother, or even mah Granny Smith found out, they wouldn’t love me any more! No pony would love me!” “That’s not true-” “It is true! Ah’m sick of this! Ah’m sick of lying all the time to hide my feelings! Ah’m sick of knowing that one slip up and all of Equestria will know about them! Ah’m sick of these feelings, Ah’m sick of being the way that Ah am, and Ah can’t help but hate myself!” Apple Bloom finally stopped her hate-filled rant, taking several loins hulking breaths. She hadn’t realized a few tears had gone past her eyes and were slowly making their way down her cheeks. She sniffed and wiped a hoof across her face to clear any tears or snot. That’s when she saw Sweetie Belle. She was in shocked, to say the least, but more than that, she was sad. She was sad that her friend not only thought that nopony would love her, but that she didn’t even love herself. Her eyes glimmered from the sunlight hitting them while filled with tears. She looked like she was trying to think of what to say next but couldn’t through her processing of Apple Bloom’s words. Apple Bloom wanted to make her feel better somehow, but she was so emotional it made her feel sick. Literally. She quickly looked around before running toward the direction of the farmhouse, not sparing a glance at the filly behind her as she desperately tried to make it before she threw up on the path back. Sweetie Belle just stared off in the direction her saddened friend ran, still mortified by everything that had just happened, before painfully muttering out her name softly. “Apple Bloom?”