Sugarcube Corner was undoubtedly one of Cheerilee’s favourite places to go. The warmth, the delicious smell, and the friendly ponies who worked there were all reasons to go. It just seemed there was one extra reason to go this time. Whether or not it was a positive squarely depended on how the interaction would go.
Knowing this, Cheerilee took a deep breath and walked through the door of the confectionary. Instantly, Tempest’s dark shape stuck out like a sore hoof. She was surrounded by mugs of what Cheerilee could only assume was hot chocolate and had papers scattered across the table she took up. She didn’t seem to notice Cheerilee entering.
How should she approach this, though? Should she just take a seat in front of Tempest? Should she order something to drink and pretend to not have noticed her until the last moment? Maybe she should just leave and try again some other time. What would she tell her students to do in this situation? Probably to just get it over with and apologize, then talk it out. It always seemed to be easy when she said it, but she never thought about how hard it would actually be.
As Cheerilee stood deep in thought at the entrance of Sugarcube Corner, she frowned. Somepony bumped into her from behind, and with a quick apology to Lily Valley and a shake of her head, Cheerilee decided to move further into the store. She looked at Tempest, who was still looking down onto her papers with a passive frown on her face. Cheerilee clenched her jaw and took a step toward her. Now or never, she decided.
Cheerilee opened her mouth to say something. A greeting. Anything. Nothing came out. She just gawked at Tempest, who finally looked up at her. Cheerilee shut her jaw and instead tried a smile.
Tempest returned the smile, although a bit warily. “Hello, Cheerilee,” she greeted. She seemed like she was going to say more, but nothing more followed.
Now she had to say something. Cheerilee took a deep breath and cautiously eyed Tempest. “Good afternoon, Tempest.” She glanced at the table, noting that there was an empty seat on the other side. “Do you mind if I sit down?”
Tempest reached out and swiped all her papers closer to her and shook her head. “Uh, no, it’s fine. You can sit.”
Tentatively, Cheerilee sat down. She looked at the papers now being piled neatly in front of Tempest with sparks of blue magic. She squinted at them and realized they were the notes that Tempest took during their first history lesson. The defeat of Nightmare Moon, the comeback of Discord, Lord of Chaos, and the defeat of Queen Chrysalis and her Changeling army in Canterlot. Or at least, the first defeat of Chrysalis.
Cheerilee held her breath. Tempest’s notes were exactly what she would expect from a pony such as her; neat and orderly. But all ponies were capable of doodling on the margins, she figured, as she noticed the little drawings Tempest would add of whatever it was that Cheerilee was talking about.
She had almost forgotten that Tempest herself was sitting right in front of her until she cleared her throat. Cheerilee’s head snapped up in surprise at the noise. Tempest held a hoof to her mouth awkwardly. “So, did you… want to talk?” the unicorn asked as she looked off to the side.
“Yes,” Cheerilee drew out. “If you’re okay with that, of course.” The school teacher smiled warily. She didn’t want to force Tempest into talking to her, especially if she didn’t want to. But the way the aubergine unicorn was acting, well Cheerilee thought it safe to assume that she wanted to talk.
Tempest moved her stack of notes to the side, leaving the table clear between her and Cheerilee, save for a cup of what smelled like coffee. Cheerilee observed the steam coming off of the top and wondered if Tempest had just gotten there as well, but decided that she had probably just gotten the drink recently.
The more that she stared at the mug, the more Cheerilee wished she was speaking. Although, the more she wished she was speaking, the more time she spent not speaking, and the more her will to speak started to disappear. It was a brutal cycle of wanting to speak, but being too afraid to speak, which she thought was sort of funny in a sad way since her job consisted of her having to speak to several ponies a day, often many at once. Why couldn’t she just speak?!
“Are you okay?”
Cheerilee’s mind clicked back into the moment, and she saw Tempest gazing at her with curious blue-green eyes. Oh, sweet Celestia, she had pretty eyes. Why hadn’t Cheerilee noticed that before?
Focus, Cheerilee!
Cheerilee shook her head violently to try to get herself away from her distracted state of mind. Tempest seemed to take that the wrong way as her face drooped into worry. “Oh, you’re not okay?”
“No!” Cheerilee yelped. “I mean, yes! I mean…” Cheerilee clamped her jaw shut. She needed to calm down. Her heart raced as she took a deep breath and slowed everything down. Finally, she closed her eyes and spoke clearly. “I’m fine. I just wanted to say I was sorry.”
Much to Cheerilee’s surprise, Tempest laughed. She laughed a short, quiet laugh, but it was a laugh. Or more of a chuckle, really. A giggle? No, it wasn’t a giggle, maybe a chortle, or a guffaw. Thinking back to the noise Tempest had made only moments prior, Cheerilee decided that it was more of a chuckle. “What’s so funny?” Cheerilee wondered.
Tempest put her hoof on the table and shook her head with a grin still plastered on her face. “You came here to apologize when I was the one being so rude,” Tempest explained, still holding back a laugh. “I get it, we both made a mistake”—Cheerilee frowned a little—“but you weren’t the one who ran off without even trying to talk it out. That’s… not what friends do, Cheerilee.” Tempest’s face hardened into one more apologetic. “I’m the one who should be sorry.
“We were drunk, and I knew that. I don’t even know why I let it escalate like that. I guess I was just so excited to have someone try to help me.” Tempest sighed and looked Cheerilee right in the eyes. “I was excited to have a friend, and I guess I was so scared of losing you over something like that that I ran away from you.”
Cheerilee grimaced, although not from being upset. “It’s okay, Tempest,” she assured her. “I understand. It was probably… quite a strange situation,” Cheerilee coughed. “I just hope that we can be friends again.”
“Oh, Cheerilee,” Tempest smiled, “we never stopped being friends. I apologize if I made it seem that way. I just needed some time to… think.”
The hesitation in Tempest’s voice raised Cheerilee’s curiosity. “Think?”
Tempest looked at the ceiling of Sugarcube Corner, her cheeks flushing a bit. “I... Princess Twilight’s friends once taught me what it takes to be a good friend. Honesty was one of the things I learned, so I’ll be honest.”
Cheerilee’s heart fluttered a bit. Whether it was nerves or something else, she didn’t really know. “You can tell me anything, Tempest. That’s what friends are for.”
The unicorn nodded but didn’t say anything for a moment. At first, Cheerilee thought that Tempest had changed her mind, but just as she was about to make sure that Tempest was okay, the pony in question cleared her throat. “So, I guess you want to know why I ran away like that. I mean, um, other than shock.” She blushed as she fumbled her words. “Wait, let me try again.”
Cheerilee’s heart managed to slow down to a more manageable pace as she smiled. “Take your time.”
“Right. So, look, I was just surprised. I mean,” Tempest gazed into her still steaming cup of coffee, “last time I had a drink was alone in my office on an airship. Then, all of a sudden I was… kissing this pretty mare.”
Cheerilee lit up like a lightbulb at a carnival. “P-pretty?”
Tempest took a long sip of her coffee and nodded with her eyes shut. She held the cup up with blue magic so that Cheerilee could barely see her face. “Well, I thought so…”
It wasn’t an odd descriptor, and Cheerilee knew that. She often thought that about her own mare friends and had been on the receiving end of the compliment more times than she could count, but the sheer fact that it was Tempest who said it suddenly turned her into a blubbering fool.
“Getting back to the point, I was scared to mess it up, Cheerilee. I was… I liked what was happening. And sure, I was drunk and I don’t really remember what led up to that, but I liked it.” Tempest glanced at Cheerilee with furrowed eyebrows and a tiny frown. “I was just… afraid you wouldn’t like me after the fact.”
Sugarcube Corner was always full of ponies making friendly conversation and enjoying delicious treats. The bustling shop, often made louder by Pinkie Pie herself, seemed as quiet as a mouse compared to what Tempest was saying. Cheerilee was good at helping foals resolve problems in their interpony relationships, but that was always platonic stuff. She couldn’t know what to do when… whatever was happening to her was happening to her.
So she did the next best thing. She mirrored Tempest and took a leaf from Applejack’s book. “I liked it too. I thought that maybe we could have…” Cheerilee bit her lip, wondering how she could phrase what she wanted to say without sounding foalish. “Maybe we could have been something else. More than friends.”
She almost wanted to facehoof, but Tempest surprisingly revealed no emotion, so Cheerilee continued. “I know it would have been much too quick, but at the time that’s what I wanted.” Please tell me that’s what you wanted too.
Tempest nodded every so slightly. “I don’t know much about any of this, but if being more than friends means more of that while we’re not drunk, I don’t think I’d complain.”
Jubilation filled Cheerilee, if only slightly, which still seemed like a massive increase considering. “Well, then we’re on the same page! But I think we should start over again and do it right, even if it’s a little bit slower.”
The maroon unicorn’s eyes softened in relief. “Well, I’ve got a lot of pait-ence,” she said with a smile as Cheerilee giggled at the callback to their first meeting. “And for you, my friend, I’ve got all the time in the world.”