Sherry had butterflies in her stomach as she looked at the note and back at the orchard that surrounded her. This is where he told her to meet him, so where was he? If this was a prank then she swore that he was going to get such a smack for this.
She had been standing here for the past twenty minutes waiting for him to show up. At first she worried that she was going to be late and look like a fool. Curse her for spending so much time on her mane. It wasn’t that important anyway, so why did she care?
She had just about enough of this and was about to head back to her room when she spotted something beige out of the corner of her eye.
“Finally!” she groaned. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting? And I thought you said you were a gentlecolt. I have half a mind to…”
The rest of what she was about to say died on her lips as she turned to face her partner. Instead of a warm smile on a soft blue face she was met with a cold stare on a brown muzzle. The green eyes on that face seemed to want to burn a hole through her skin so they could analyze every part of her soul. And they could only belong to one pony.
Top Soil.
Sherry had purposefully avoided Top Soil the entire time she’d been here. Something about her made her fur stand on end and made her want to fly all the way back home. Maybe it was the way she never spoke. Maybe it was the way she never smiled. Or maybe it was just her soulless, green eyes. The same ones she was trying to avoid looking directly into.
Sherry wet the inside of her mouth, struggling to speak without stuttering. “W-what,” she started. “W-what are you d-doing here? Where’s Pastry?”
Top Soil didn’t respond. She simply scowled and dug her hoof into the dirt. Sherry thought she might have heard her mutter something under her breath, but she figured it must have been the wind.
Sherry continued to try and stare her down as Top Soil continued to stare into the deepest recesses of her being. The silence that fell over them was so thick they could have been swam through it.
After several moments of tense silence, Sherry once again tried to communicate with her. “W-well,” she stammered. “I’m w-waiting”. She tried to think of anything else to add but came up with nothing. Trying to talk with Top Soil was like trying to recite love poetry with a rock.
Top Soil responded much the same way as before, scowling and digging into the dirt, except this time Sherry knew she wasn’t hearing things. She could faintly pick up the sound of Top Soil speaking although it mostly amounted to, “What…brother…weird…fault.”
She had no idea what to make of that. Brother? Did she mean Pastry? He didn’t seem that weird to her, at least not anymore weird than he usually is. And what was that about fault? Whose fault?
She stomped her hoof onto the dirt, kicking up a small dust cloud. All of these questions were making her angry as all they did was make more questions. She needed answers and she was going to get them.
Mustering up her courage, Sherry puffed out her chest and raised her head high. “What was that? I couldn’t hear you. Speak up,” she said, a cocky smile on her face.
The two held each other's gazes in some kind of intense staring contest. Top Soil had just been challenged and neither were too keen on backing down from it.
Eventually, Top Soil spoke. She spoke in a voice that sucked away all the courage that Sherry had previously held in its deep, dark tone. “What have you done with my brother?” she demanded.
“What?” was all that Sherry could say in reply. What did that even mean? As far as she knew, she hadn’t done anything to him. In fact, she thought that they were getting along better lately. She blushed a little when she remembered why that was. She caught herself thinking about Pastry’s happy little smile and never ending optimism.
“You heard me.” Sherry snapped back to reality at the sound of Top Soil’s threatening voice. “What did you do to Pastry?”
This time, Sherry fought back. “What do you mean ‘what have I done to him’? I haven’t done anything. Unless making friends is a bad thing to you.”
“You know what you’ve done.” she snapped back. “Ever since you got here, Pastry’s been actin’ really weird.”
Sherry fought down the urge to scream. Once again Top Soil was being as vague as possible. Weird how? “What do you mean ‘acting weird’?” she questioned, trying to keep an even voice. “He seems pretty…” she waved her hoof through the air, trying to find the right word “nice, to me,” she eventually settled on.
Top Soil stomped both her hoofs into the ground, sending a dust cloud into Sherry’s face. “That’s the problem!” she shouted.
That was the final straw. Sherry had been trying to keep her temper in check this whole time. She thought that upsetting Pastry’s older sister would definitely hurt his feelings so she was trying to be nice. But this crossed the line. Nopony could ever say that Pastry’s kindness was a bad thing. Not even Top Soil.
Forgetting any kind of manners she may have been taught, Sherry walked right up to Top Soil and punched her as hard as she could in the face. The result saw Top Soil sprawled out in the dirt, a nasty bruise forming on her cheek, with Sherry standing over her.
“No,” she growled, looking down at the defeated earth pony with contempt. “You’re wrong. There is nothing wrong with Pastry, especially not his kindness. He is by far the most thoughtful, considerate, caring, optimistic, and beautiful ponies I’ve ever met.” She stomped her hoof into the dirt with each word, getting all the closer to Top Soil
“I probably wouldn’t even be here right now if it weren’t for him constantly trying to get me to see the good in everything. So don’t you dare say that him being his wonderful self is a bad thing,” She finished her threat by raising her hoof again as if to strike Top Soil.
Sherry stood there and waited for a response. She expected her to cry. To beg for forgiveness. To apologize for everything she has ever done or said against Pastry or even Sherry herself.
What she wasn’t expecting was for Top Soil to spring up from the dirt and roughly shove Sherry away. She definitely wasn’t expecting Top Soil to snap back at her. “That wasn’t what I meant!”
“Then what did you mean, huh!” Sherry roared back. “Tell me. Tell me right now. All you’ve been doing this whole time is dance around what you really want to say, so just say it!”
Top Soil started at the ground for a while, mumbling to herself, clearly mulling over her thoughts. The longer she went on, the more she seemed to deflate and the more her face softened. Sherry tapped her hoof rapidly on the ground as she watched.
Eventually, Top Soil spoke in a more subdued voice than what she had started with. “I’m worried,” she began. “I’m worried about Pastry. He’s…he’s always been a nice colt. Kind to everypony, helpin’ whenever he can.”
She looked to Sherry for a reaction, who just rolled her eyes and waved her hoof in a get on with it movement. “Anyway. He’s always been nice. But lately he’s been too nice. Too nice to you. Goin’ out of his way to help. Always wantin’ to be around you. Never stoppin’ talkin’ about you. It’s got me worried, you know?”
Sherry wanted to snap at her and tell her every reason why she thought that explanation was stupid. It didn’t sound like a problem to her. But she fought it. She could tell by the way Top Soil wouldn't meet her eyes anymore that this meant a lot to her and that she probably didn’t understand why she was worried either.
So instead of lashing out, Sherry instead reached out a hoof and gently touched her on the shoulder. “Why does it have you worried?” she asked.
Top Soil shook her head. “Don’t know. Just does.” she shook her head again more violently. “It just,” she sputtered. “It just feels like all he cares about is you. Like you’re his whole world and that’s scary. He’s never been like this before.” She looked up to Sherry with tears brimming her eyes. “You think it's scary?” she asked quietly.
Sherry had to think about it. Did she think it was scary? Her first thought was to say yes, it was scary. It was scary to think that her presence had warped the way he thought.
But the more she thought about it, the more it reminded her of herself. When she first came here, all she thought about was wanting to go home and how much she hated being here. But over the weeks she’s worked, her thoughts became more and more about Pastry.
They became about how much she liked the way he laughed and how much she just liked being around him. She began to look forward to the times they’d spend together, even trying to find ways to spend more time with him, like coming out here. And she now knew the reason why. She liked Pastry Dough. And if he was acting the same way, then maybe he liked her too.
And there was nothing scary about that.
What was scary was how she was going to explain that to Top Soil. She thought about lying but she knew that it would come and bite her in the end. She had to be honest.
“No,” she said. “I don’t think it's scary. You want to know what I think?” Top Soil nodded. “I think Pastry has a crush on me.”
Top Soil stared at her for a few seconds, then started giggling. “Of course,” she said through her giggles. “Why didn’t Ah think of that? Makes so much sense now. You like him too, don’t you. It’s why you came, isn't it?”
Sherry hesitated for a moment, and slowly and gently nodded her head. The two then broke into laughter, laughing with each other. Eventually the two calmed down enough to say their goodnights.
As Sherry got herself ready for bed, she felt relieved. She felt relieved that she was able to patch things up with Top Soil, maybe even making a new friend in the process. She also felt some level of relief having told somepony about her feelings.
Eyeing her desk, Sherry made a decision. Quickly penning up a note she flew down the hall to Pastry’s room and placed it on his door.
Tomorrow she would make her move.