//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: To Everypony, A Season // by GarlandGala //------------------------------// A campfire winked at Ponyville from between the tidily spaced trees of Apple Acres, the only light left in the sleeping region. It wasn't a particularly cold night, but the added warmth and gentle popping of the logs helped ease the tired muscles of the three fillies gathered around the flame. Their reward for a full day of trouble-making had been a full evening of manual labor, bucking apple trees and pushing carts until all twelve little legs felt like jelly. It was only conversation that kept the three of them awake while the rest of the world slumbered. "Phew!" Apple Bloom exclaimed as she rubbed her hooves up and down her aching flanks. Despite being a resident of the farm herself, she had never done so much labor in a single day. "We sure learned our lesson, didn't we girls?" "No kidding. I'm pooped!" moaned Scootaloo, practically yawning her words. "Me too~!" agreed a miserable Sweetie Belle, who was the least used to exercise of the three. Apple Bloom sighed. "At least mah' sister let us camp out in the orchard. Guess we must've looked awful pitiful totin' all those apples around." With an enthusiastic groan of agreement, sweetie Belle threw herself down in the grass and stretched her hind legs out behind her as far as they could go. Then she collapsed unceremoniously onto her belly with all limbs stretched out in all directions like a paper doll. “Errrrgh..." she whined, "And I still think Big McIntosh is perfect for Cheerilee.” Apple Bloom gave her friend a disapproving glance, even though she didn't entirely disagree. “I ‘spose friends’r’friends." she explained, partly to herself. "It’d be kinda like... kinda like somepony tryin’ to get us together, Sweetie Belle.” The suggestion made Sweetie Belle squeal scandalously, a trait she was beginning to pick up from her sister. “Eee~! But I'm a filly, silly!” Scootaloo looked up sharply. “What's that got to do with anything?” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both turned their eyes toward their friend, causing her to avert her own gaze toward the fire. Apple Bloom, from her angle and light, could detect the faintest blush on Scootaloo’s cheek. It was clear that she was losing inhibitions to exhaustion and needed a bit of rescuing. “Scootaloo’s right.” She jumped in, flaunting her farm-filly charm. “Love is love, ‘least that’s what mah' sister always tells me. Us three, we’re just good friends, that’s all.” Sweetie Belle giggled, completely oblivious to any subtext in this conversation. “Yeah, whatever, I know. I just mean, you know, I like stallions way too much for that anyway!” “Stallions?” Laughed Apple Bloom. “Don’cha mean colts?” “No way! Colts are dumb. I mean stallions!” Sweetie's incorrigibility quickly changed the mood. The giggles of three little fillies danced above the campfire as they each flopped down on their backs, forming a triad of small heads around the flame. Apple Bloom breathed in deeply, tasting the sweet fumes of the fire as they poured down through her equally red mane. “Too bad we’re still ‘too young’ for special some-ponies yet. Stallions or otherwise.” “Yeah...” Scootaloo longingly agreed, as she stared up at the distant clouds. Even Sweetie Belle’s voice carried a note of sadness. “Yeah...” There followed the collective sigh of three young fillies who were of just the right age to start daydreaming about that sort of thing. It was the first Hearts and Hooves day of their lives where they all felt this way, and they only very vaguely understood what that meant. One in particular had felt it for quite some time, and she still didn't know what to make of it. Scootaloo sighed, her eyes filled with a faraway mist that reflected Cloudsdale high above. “I can’t wait ‘till I’m old enough.” Sweetie Belle, the loud mouth of the three, was quick to pounce on this opportunity. “So you can ask out Dashie!” She proclaimed, her voice cracking neatly around the word 'Dashie'. It rang especially loudly in Scootaloo’s ears. “Huh!?” Suddenly, it felt like another pony’s tongue was caught in Scootaloo’s throat, choking her back. Apple Bloom couldn't resist a little teasing herself. She thumped her hoof imitatively against her chest and giggled, “Hehe, yup! We know yer' heart’s all a-flutter for the fastest mare in Equestria!” “N-no way!” Scootaloo protested meekly. “I think she’s totally cool but that’s all!” “So cool that you want to kiss her!" Sweetie Belle continued, bursting into song. "Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, up in an apple tree!” As Sweetie Belle began singing, Apple Bloom began chanting along with her in unison, clapping her hooves to the rhythm of “K.I.S.S.I-” “STOP IT you guys!” They did. An awkward pause ensued as Scootaloo sat up, staring very seriously at the other two fillies. Apple Bloom immediately felt bad about her role in the torment and tightened her lips. Sweetie Belle, not really realizing that she was upsetting her friend, just pursed her lips defensively. “Hey, we’re just playing, Scootaloo.” “Yeah, and besides...” offered Apple Bloom, “Rainbow Dash’s already got a boyfriend... well, something like that. So it's not like... ya' know.” The blood rushed from Scootaloo’s face so quickly she could feel it coursing down her neck. She swallowed hard and blinked her eyes slowly before just barely whispering, “H...huh?” “Oh yeah!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle, forgetting the rest of the discussion entirely. “I didn't tell you? She’s going on a date with Vain Glorious from Canterlot! My sister set them up! He’s SOOOO handsome oh-my-gosh.” At that, Scootaloo hopped up on all four hooves, her ears flattened back against her skull like an enraged cat preparing to strike. “A stuck-up Canterlot pony?! Why would Rainbow Dash go out with somepony like THAT? I don't believe it!” Sweetie Belle remained strewn out calmly in the grass, her hooves folded neatly behind her frilly mane, which was full of small twigs. “I dunno, geez, ask Rarity then! No need to get all jealous, Scoots!” That was the last straw. Sweetie Belle didn’t even see Scootaloo coming, but she certainly felt her lips being covered with the entirety of a hoof. Scootaloo stood over her, holding her silent and frowning down at her with an expression of anger mixed with tears that refused to be kept back in their ducts. “I’m... not... jealous!!! I’m … worried for Rainbow Dash!” She shouted. Apple Bloom was only a little worried about Sweetie Belle, who had pushed this whole thing a bit too far. But seeing the tears in Scootaloo’s eyes concerned her deeply. She was up and between the others in no time, a hoof pressed to each of their chests to push them apart. “Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, please! Everypony was jus’ playin’. Really, Scootaloo, she doesn't - I mean we don’t -” “WHATEVER!!” Scootaloo's shout caused a bird to flee from its nest and fly noisily away. Soon, Scootaloo did likewise, releasing Sweetie Belle and storming off to be alone with her tears. The remaining fillies just sat in silence watching their friend stomp away. Sweetie Belle rubbed at her lips. “Ouch.” She murmured, her voice slurred by her own hoof. “That really hurt.” “Yeah? Well, I reckon she’s thinking the same thing, Sweetie Belle.”