//------------------------------//
// chapter one: The note 
// Story: The Crusade For Love 
// by JPTrixie-Fan 
//------------------------------//

Ponyville was pleasantly calm for a change; the foals of the town’s school were all sat in their classrooms as time ticked away until they were allowed to go home, Cheerilee turned to face her class talking and reading from her text book as she did so. Scootaloo sighed and looked over at Applebloom who was doodling in her note book, feeling a tap on her shoulder she turned her head slightly and noticed a piece of paper in the corner of her eye. 
“what?”  she whispered as she tried to take the note secretly, but she was quickly interrupted as Cheerilee took the folded paper and made her stand up as the rest of the class giggled at her.

“Would you mind reading this out for the rest of the class?”  The dark pink mare said, her tone was less than amused.

“Errr…” Scootaloo hesitated.

“Well, I’m waiting Scootaloo.” Cheerilee was getting more annoyed with each second the orange filly wasted in reading this note.

Finally she stopped trying to avoid reading it and opened the paper, after glancing at the words in front of her she blushed and tried to make up a new note in her mind. It was too late, before she had a decent lie her teacher had taken the note and began reading it out loud.

“Scootaloo, I want us to be more than friends, I long to kiss your… Oh my.” The older mare blushed and stopped before she read out the rest and more importantly who had written the note. She coughed and looked at the young and right now rather embarrassed filly before balling up the note and throwing it in her bin. “Well… that’s erm… enough of that foolishness, class get back to reading from your text books.” She said a little embarrassed now her self.
***

The two hours that followed the note incident were absolute torture for Scootaloo as she could hear the whispers and quiet laughs of the other students, but worst of all is she had no closure. There were no more notes passed and she had no idea which of her classmates had sent the love letter; could it have been Featherweight? He was a Pegasus too so it made sense in some ways, but they weren’t really friends. Then there was snips or snails if either of them had sent it she wouldn’t be able to live it down. She allowed her mind to drift away for a minute; what if it was Pip? She wondered; they’d spent a lot of time together because his home was close to the orphanage where she lived.
“Arggg…” she groaned in frustration, this was getting her nowhere; there were too many colts in her class and she barely knew any of them enough to be called friends. Eventually she gave up and put her head on her desk facing out of the window. Finally the bell rang and the foals were allowed to go home, but Scootaloo didn’t notice and kept staring out of the window until she felt another tap on her shoulder.

“Aintcha comin’ scoots?” the unrefined speech could have only have come from one filly she knew, not lifting her head Scootaloo turned to face her friend. The yellow filly was stood next her other friend a white unicorn with a pink and purple mane. 

“Hey Applebloom, hey Sweetie Belle; what’s up?” the orange filly was less than enthusiastic after the day she’d had, but that wasn’t their fault she though and so she sat up to talk to them.

“We were going to see if we can get our cutie marks in sword fighting like mister Broadsword, do you want to come?” Sweetie said, there was something a little off in her voice but Scootaloo ignored it, after all Sweetie Belle had been away for a few days with the flu so she might not have recovered yet. 

“Nah… I’m just gonna head to the club house and read the new Daring Doo comic. I don’t feel like doing any crusading today.” With that Scootaloo grabbed her saddle bags and wandered out of the classroom as her fellow crusaders headed the other way to Trixie’s trailer.

***

Paper clattered on the wooden floor of the club house and the filly’s flank soon followed with a slump. “It’s no good.” She couldn’t concentrate at all there were too many questions she wanted to answer, like who sent the note? Who does she know well enough for that sort of confession? How many hooves had the note passed through before she got it? And more importantly why her?
She pondered the last of these questions for a few minutes; why her indeed? If they wanted looks then why not Sweetie Belle? If they were after an outgoing tomboy why didn’t they choose Apple Bloom? Maybe they just had a thing for pegasi, but even then why not Erroria she was half Pegasus and unicorn.
“Why me?” she sighed in frustration and fell on her back to face the old ceiling of the clubhouse. “Why me?”

“You ok? Am I interrupting?” a sweet voice asked as it drew closer to the doorway.

Scootaloo turned to see a pink and purple mane as it rose above the edge of the tree house’s floor; the mane was quickly followed by a white coat and red cape of her fellow crusader who was carrying a broken wooden sword with them.

“Oh hey Sweetie, where’s Apple Bloom?” she quizzed as she noticed the absence of the yellow filly.

“She’s being told off for playing with swords, so I decided to see how you were doing after today’s ‘incident’. Still, I bet you’re happy that somepony likes you in that way.” Sweetie tried to make light of the situation, but Scootaloo wasn’t impressed or even happy she just wanted to clear her mind and Sweetie Belle bringing it up didn’t help.

“urggh…” Scootaloo just groaned and slammed her head against the floor in annoyance. “If only I could’ve seen who wrote the note, it wouldn’t bother me so much.”

Sweetie just shrugged and decided to lie next to her friend. “annnd what would you tell them if you did know?” Sweetie asked looking at the ceiling along with her friend.

“It depends on who the pony is… I mean if it’s Pip then I’d let him down easy, he seems like the easily hurt type. If it was…” 

“What if it was me?” sweetie interjected and let her eyes drift over to the orange filly.

“hah... ha... hahahaha! That’s a good one, you’re a filly. Fillies can’t love other fillies, no… it needs to be a colt…” she stopped when she heard sniffles coming from the filly next to her. “Hey what’s wrong? Is your hay fever actin…”
Her eyes drifted over to the white unicorn who was trying and failing to hold back a few tears.

“It… it’s no… nothing I gotta go.” The well groomed white filly said through each sob as she quickly retreated down the steps from the club house.

Scootaloo lay watching the stairs as her friend scurried away. “What was that about?”
***

Little wet droplets ran down white fur as Sweetie Belle hurried to her sister’s home at Carousal Boutique; she knew her older sister wasn’t home because she was taking Fluttershy out to a fancy meal, but she needed somewhere to compose herself and the Boutique was as good as anywhere.
Finally after arriving at her sister’s house she let herself in using the spare key that was always kept under the third plant pot to the right of the door way. The smell of perfume was strong and heady as she entered the living area on the second floor; it normally bothered her but not today, not after her rejection. The scene played over several times as she made her way to the room that Rarity kept just for her; the memory stung worse than anything she’d ever felt before, it wasn’t a straight rejection which made it worse. ‘fillies can’t love other fillies…’ that hurt more than any name her bullies could call her, it hurt worse than any bee sting or splinter she’d ever felt before and it wouldn’t go away. 

Sweetie lay face down on her bed and sobbed silently into the pillows, she knew she was being foolish and that Scootaloo was still her friend, but knowing that she would never be more than that was too much to bear and if it hurt now then what would it be like if she ever got a colt-friend? The thought of watching the orange filly with some other pony made her heart ache and sink to the pit of her stomach.
“What if she gets a colt-friend and doesn’t have time for me anymore?” This thought hurt even worse; she could feel herself getting depressed and decided to try and sleep the sadness away.
***

“Why’d she run off?” Scootaloo wondered aloud as she trotted to her friend’s house. “Maybe her hay fever is really bad today? Come to think of it her cheeks were really red earlier.” 

The journey was rather long with out her scooter, but after trying to be Cutie Mark Crusaders: Drag Racers last week; it still wasn’t in working condition. Still, at least she got to see the scenic route she thought.  Over head the weather patrol was clearing several errant clouds that had floated over Ponyville and Celestia was moving the sun down to make way for Luna’s night; it really wasn’t an unpleasant night for such a walk and so Scootaloo decided to take her time in going to check on her friend.
***

It had taken the best part of an hour to reach Sweetie Belle’s home, it was a large cottage with a creeping vine climbing the far left wall and an immaculately cared for garden that Sweetie’s father had taken great pride in since his early retirement. Scootaloo stepped closer to the front door and knocked, seconds passed then finally it creaked open and the filly was greeted by a white stallion with a distinctive moustache who was wearing a brightly coloured Haywaiian shirt.

“Oh hey there Scootaloo, what brings you here so late?” asked the stallion who was affectionately nicknamed Magnum; although Scootaloo was too young to get the joke she still called him by it.

“Hi I came to see Sweetie Belle, her hay fever seemed really bad earlier and I just wanted to make sure she was alright.” Scootaloo stated, although she was still plagued by the question of who liked her, the concern for her friend had completely over shadowed it for the time being.

“Sorry, but she hasn’t come home yet maybe she’s at the Apple’s place or at Rarity’s shop, still, I hope she gets home soon. Her dinner’s almost ready.” Magnum explained.

Scootaloo turned and began trotting away as Sweetie’s father closed the door. After a few steps she stopped and tried to remember the directions to the boutique, deciding that that’s the only place her friend could be considering that she’d just come from Sweet Apple Acres and Sweetie certainly wasn’t there. Eventually the orange filly remembered the directions and set off down the road to town centre.
***

Sweetie had finally calmed herself down, sitting up in her bed she stared out of her window and down onto the streets below. The lamp outside the shop was broken leaving the area in almost pitch darkness so that even if there was something interesting to see out there Sweetie had no way of actually seeing it.
She sighed and thought to herself ‘Of course scoots likes colts, why wouldn’t she? I wish I was a boy…’ suddenly an idea struck her, why couldn’t she be a colt? She was a unicorn and Twilight had a whole library full of books that could tell her how to do just that. Without a second to lose she leapt out of her bed and headed out to the Oaktree Library as fast as her legs could carry her.