//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Meanwhile // Story: Just Another Day // by Friendship is Magic //------------------------------// After Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had left Scootaloo with Rainbow Dash, they had gone back to school. "Where's Scootaloo?" asked a somewhat worried Cheerliee. "She's fine Miss. She was just a little sad, so Rainbow Dash is trying to cheer her up." responded Applebloom. "They've been spending quite a lot of time together recently." thought Cheerliee to herself. "I wonder, just maybe." Cheerliee's thoughts were interrupted when she felt a pulling on her front leg. "Cheerliee, Cheerliee. What are we going to be learning about today?" That caught Cheerliee off guard when she realised that she had forgotten to plan something for after snack. "I think we might as well go to the park. It's too nice a day to be sitting in a stuffy classroom." All the fillies and colts screamed when they heard that they were going to the park, "YAY!" Cheerliee smiled at all the little fillies and colts around her. She loved to see them happy. "Come on then, lets go to the park." Another course of screams and the young ponies galloped out of the gate towards the closest park. Cheerliee smiled even wider than before as she had to gallop as well to keep up with them. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle watched as all the ponies ran out of the school towards the park. "What are we going to do now?" Asked Sweetie Belle. Applebloom smiled. "We're going to go spy on Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo." Sweetie Belle smiled when she heard this. The two Cutie Mark Crusaders ran the opposite way from all the other fillies and colts. They ran all the way almost to Rainbow's house before stopping to catch their breath. "Dash's house is just over this hill." Applebloom told Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle instinctively looked towards the hill just a few meters away. "Are we going then?" Asked a enthusiastic Sweetie Belle. Applebloom looked over to the hill one last time before nodding. Together the two fillies slowly edged their way up the steep hill, creeping slowly closer to Rainbow's house. When they reached the top, they peered over the top and looked down towards Dash's house. They were surprised to see Scootaloo still clinging onto the blue pegasus. Scootaloo had stopped crying but was still squeezing the older pegasus in a crushing hug. Rainbow Dash was returning the affection by hugging the little filly back just as tightly. The two fillies quietly watched this exchange for about 10 minutes. Without saying another word to each other the two fillies parted ways. Applebloom started galloping straight away. She galloped as fast as she could back to the farm. When she arrived she was out of breath; she saw that Applejack was in the fields bucking the trees to make all of the apples magically fall into the baskets surrounding them. Even though the little filly was already out of breath she started racing towards her older sister. Applejack heard her coming and turned around just in time to be tackled to the ground by a certain yellow filly. "Whaa, what!?" yelled a very surprised Applejack. "Ahh, are you ok there sugar cube?" "I'm just glad that your ok!" Applebloom responded. "Why wouldn't I be? I've just been bucking apples all day." Applejack got a worried look on her face. "Are you sure nothin' the matter? Did something happen at school today?" "No, I'm just fine. I just realised that I don't ever really show you how much I care for you." said Applebloom as she pulled her sister tighter into the hug. "Ahhh, ok." was all Applejack could manage to say. Applejack returned the hug with her little sister. They stayed like that on the ground for a full hour before Big Mac came out to see what had happened with Applebloom. He looked a bit surprised when he saw Applejack and Applebloom embracing each other on the ground. Big Mac went to walk away but stopped when he heard his sister. "Where you goin' there, Big Mac? Get on over here." Applejack said. "Nope." He turned around to see Applejack putting on her puppy dog eyes for him. "Please? For me?" Big Mac rolled his eyes and plopped down next to his two sisters before joining in on the hug. "I love you two so much." said Applebloom just before she started to quietly cry. Applejack felt her tears running down her body, so Applejack just hugged her sister tighter. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle had ran all the way back to her house to find that nopony was home. Sweetie's head dropped and she began to walk up the stairs to her bedroom, when she heard the front door open. "God, what a day." Sweetie Belle smiled when she heard her sisters voice. Sweetie Belle was about to run down the stairs towards her sister when something stopped her. Something wasn't right. Sweetie Belle peered down into the living room on the top of the staircase. She gasped when she saw Rarity quietly crying. Sweetie Belle frowned. "My sister never cries like that." Sweetie Belle thought to herself. Sweetie hopped down the stairs and walked over to the huddled form which was her sister. "What's wrong sis, did something happen?" Rarity gave a yelp of surprise when she heard her sister's voice but recovered straight away. "Ohhh, it's you Sweetie. I thought that I was alone." Sweetie looked at her sister worriedly. "What's wrong sis? What happened?" Rarity looked up at her sister with bloodshot eyes. "Sweetie, I don't think that you should know." Sweetie looked at her sister sternly. "Tell me what happened, or I'm going to tell everybody your little secret." Rarity looked at her sister in shock. "You wouldn't dare." The only answer Rarity got was a stern look from her sister. "Ok, I'll tell you. But I warned you." Sweetie Belle smiled inwardly. She had won this battle. "Do you know what heat is Sweetie Belle?" Rarity asked gently. "You mean like the weather?" asked Sweetie a bit confused. "No, not that heat." Rarity replied. "Then no, I don't think I do." replied an even more confused Sweetie. Rarity continued. "Well you see here Sweetie, when mares reach a certain age they go though a stage in their life that happens every month or so." Sweetie realised that she was about to get 'The Talk'. As soon as she processed this information, she bolted out the front door and ran all the way over to Applebloom's. "Well that could of gone better." Rarity mused to herself as she watched Sweetie take off.