Ack, this cape is choking me! We’ve grown so much they are practically more like kerchiefs. At least I know which one is mine. I hoof-stitched the tear along the hem from snagging it on Miss Flutter’s chicken coop.
“Apple Bloom, do we really have to go through all this? How long are you planning on waiting by the door?”
“As long as it takes, Scoots. We’ll go on your little safari tomorrow but tonight it’s my turn to choose and tradition is tradition. Give her time to have dinner with her family. I’m sure she’ll be along soon.” She’s wearing her hair down like the old days complete with oversized pink bow.
I don’t want to tell her how close this feels to my nightmare of a few days ago. Sure, the clubhouse has long been scoured of remnants from our childhood and tonight even all the drafting tools, blueprints, and even my drum set have been pushed to the corners to leave room for three adult-sized bedrolls and sleeping bags.
“I can’t wait; it feels like it’s been forever!” A.B. gives me a nod of agreement. Our own friendship is priceless and we’ve helped each other get through a lot of rough times but there’s nothing quite like getting all the original Crusaders together!
“I’ll have to take a picture of all three’a’us to send to Babs. Bet she’d get a kick outta that… Ohh! I think I hear somepony on the stairs!” Apple Bloom clears her throat and does her best to look serious but the pink bow really ruins the effect. I roll my eyes and chuckle but also play along.
There’s a knock at the door. “Hail Cutie Mark Crusaders!”
“Who requests entry into our clubhouse?” Bloom gives me a wink.
“I, Crusader Sweetie Belle, wish to rejoin my sisterhood in the spirit of friendship and camaraderie!”
It’s my line next. “Enter and be welcomed in good faith.”
The old door creaks open and there is Sweetie! The warmth of her smile is so refreshing and familiar. She looks more like her sister every time she returns; her big jade eyes a bit more almond-shaped. But her hair is unique, hanging in big pink and lavender curls like bunches of grapes. She manages to pull of the cape with five times the class as the two of us, and she’s got some kind of silver pendant around her neck on a narrow chain. It’s in the shape of a heart with little musical notes cut out of it radiating from the center. “Greetings sisters!” Years of voice training hasn’t stopped her voice form cracking when she gets excited.
Sweetie joins us in the little clubhouse for the last little ritual of our ceremony. “You ready girls?” Sweetie and I give A.B. a nod and we all take in a deep breath.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SLEEPOVER IN THE CLUBHOUSE WITH SWEETIE BELLE! YAY!!!”
And then all of are laughing and giving each other hugs. That startled all the fruitbats out of the East Orchard for sure.
“Now’dat is over with make yer’self comfy and tell us how you been.”
“Let me get something first, my sister slipped me some wine, baguettes, and sweets she got and Bonbons’.” Her horn lit up light green to retrieve the picnic basket she left outside door.
I clap my hooves together. “That was awesome of her!”
“She’s been up to visit me a few times and knows how long it’s been since we got the Crusaders all together and wanted to make sure we had a pleasant night.”
We arranged the sleeping bags in a triangle as Sweetie served us refreshments.
“So, how’s college?”
Sweetie rolls her eyes and sighs. “It’s competitive, backstabbing, stressful, sadly lacking my present company.”
“What about the colts? Bet they’re all over you.” Apple Bloom gives her a wink. I wish she would get a lover of our own and not be so curious about ours.
“Forget about dating anyone in my class. The ones who aren’t into other colts are just interested in me as a status symbol or how I can get them leverage in the class. After a few dates I’m totally off dating within the college ecosystem. I’ve been trying out a dating service instead.”
“You should see fella Scoots has been chasin’!”
“We’re not dating…”
“Yer takin’ him to the wedding ain’t cha?”
I took a sip of wine to collect my thoughts. “Just as friends. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to date Jacinth but he’s too delicate for my lifestyle. I’d be like dating Miss Fluttershy. I’d feel like there’s eggshells all over the ground and he’d feel like there was a time bomb strapped to his arm.”
Sweetie interjects. “Tell me about how you met him.”
“Scoots here threw a party.”
“Oh?” Her face falls.
I rub her hoof. “Yeah, I felt bad I couldn’t invite you but believe me once you hear about it you’ll be glad you missed out.”
“Why? What happened?”
“What happened is I invited the handsomest crystal pony I’ve ever seen to my house party with the intention of introducing him to everypony, get him out of his shell, and then Archer shows up.”
Sweetie sucks a breath through her teeth. “Ex marefriend drama, ouch.”
“That was just awkward, things really started cooking when some kind of portal opened up above the mountain range and some” I wave my arms around “unholy monster beyond imagination slithers out!”
“Oh yeah, I remember that. Oh, I’m sorry Scootaloo!”
A.B. picks up the story. “Jacinth hightailed it outta there. All that rumbling put a damper on the night for a lotta folks. Scoots here was determined not to slow her roll though.”
“Really?”
“You bet, if I let every monster who stomps through Ponyville scare me away I’d never leave the underside of my bed.”
“But your date left you.” She rubs my shoulder.
“Don’t feel too bad for her, she got somepony to keep her company that night.”
“Apple Bloom!”
Sweetie blinks. “Who was it?”
I sigh, might as well come from me. “Dinky and I had a bit too much to drink and somehow ended up in my room.”
“Scootaloo! I’m surprised at you! You should never try to coerce consent when drinking is involved. Poor sweet Dinky.”
“It was kind of a mutual thing! Uh, I think. Listen, it happened and I’ve already guilt tripped myself over it. Dinky was okay with it the next morning, for what it’s worth.”
“Be more careful in the future, Scoots. That could have ended badly.” Sweetie’s hooded stare from over the top of the wine glass she’s sipping stabs me right in the conscience.
“Yeah, a monster could have eaten us all. I understand and I learned my lesson. Don’t worry.”
That conversation left a certain dark shadow over the room which Apple Bloom eased by suggesting other topics. Maybe she felt bad about leading us in that direction when all she wanted was to tease me a little bit. We caught up on what each other were up to and our plans for the rest of the weekend. I found myself just looking at Sweetie and smiling. I mean she was my friend long before Bloom so it’s been difficult adjusting to her being away. I hope she moves back to town even if her singing career takes off.
Hours later with the candles blown out and conversation dead I can’t quite get myself to sleep. Something fishy is going on so I let my mind wander. Wool gathering. I’m not the smartest pony so sometimes it’s the best method.
Not dating anyone in her classes, dating service, that fancy new pendant. I wait patiently for Apple Blooms’ deep sleep snore before I indulge my curiosity.
“Hey, Sweetie Belle, I gotta ask you something.”
“Mmmm?”
“I need an honest answer and I hope to Luna hope that answer is no.”
“Mmm.”
“Are you dating Silver Spoon?”
“Eeep!”
“Sweetie Belle!”
My pale coated friend looks nervously over at Apple Bloom as she stirs, then goes back to sleep. She turns to me, pleading. “Let’s go outside if you want to talk about this.”
“Damn right I want to.”
In the cool air Luna’s moon is leering down at us. Wispy clouds are blowing past at a nice quip though there is no breeze down where we are. It would normally be a peaceful sight but tonight I was alarmed and bothered. “Okay, out with it. What would make you Even Think about giving that witch the time of day? I thought you had more self-respect than that.”
“Normally I wouldn’t, under any other circumstances I wouldn’t, but I didn’t know it was her!”
I stomped the ground. “How is that even possible?”
“This dating service I signed up for, it connects you with a pen pal based on what kind of relationship you’re looking for. They warn you over and over again not to give out your real name or personal details about your life until you’re serious about going out on a date. You know, for safety. There are a lot of weirdoes out there.”
“Go on.”
“Believe me if she had mentioned Ponyville and silver smithing I would have called it off immediately. But she didn’t. And we started writing back and forth… and we kind of hit it off.”
“With Silver Spoon?”
She sighs and looks up at the sky. “How much do you really know about her, I mean about her inner life away from Diamond? What do you know about her besides being a tag-along crony? Her likes and dislikes, her personal feelings and passion?”
I frown and try to come up with an answer. Sweetie turns to address me face to face again. “What kind of timid, scared pony do you think would attach herself to somepony like Diamond Tiara and willingly live in her shadow? Seems like an insecure thing to do, right?”
“A stupid cruel thing to do when you realize how she behaved.”
“All I knew is I was writing this stranger who’s best friend had moved away and here she was as an adult didn’t know how to make friends anymore, and was lonely, very lonely. She kind of touched my heart. We wrote about all sorts of things and she was so candid about her feelings and passions, nothing like my superficial classmates. We started slow and guarded at first but after a few weeks she was writing every day. And it was so flattering. So I asked her over to Canterlot for coffee.”
“Oh, Sweetie Belle.”
“I asked her to bring a certain kind of flower bouquet so I would know it was her and-“
“What kind?”
“Hyacinth since we weren’t too serious yet. Who are you my sister? Let me finish. Anyway I’m waiting at a table looking at the door every time somepony enters and when the bouquet does appear it was Silver Spoon! And she saw me. And she knew. And I could tell what was going through her head; that this was the one chance she took to open up, find somepony she didn’t have a sour history with and bare her heart, allow some hope in. But it was me the whole time, the marshmallow ‘blank flank’. One pony who would never want to see her again. She dropped the flowers and galloped off in tears.”
“And you went back to your coffee because she is a horrible pony and deserves everything she got, right?”
My big-hearted best friend looks over at me and I know I’m going to dread the rest of this story. “She had come all the way to Canterlot. I ran after her, convinced her that we at least needed to talk this out.”
“Ohh, Sweetie.”
“You didn’t see how crushed she looked! You hadn’t been writing letters with her for the better part of a year. Sure it was super awkward but I at least needed closure.”
“Did you talk about the past?”
“Yes, of course we did. She did a lot of apologizing.”
I snarl. “She didn’t to ME when we did our little walk through memory lane the other day.”
“She’s scared of you, Scootaloo. She’s under the impression that you and Bloom are two hotheaded tomcolts who would rather pummel her than hear her say ‘I’m sorry’ and not to be harsh but that’s not too far off from the truth.”
“Pfft! So she said sorry and then what?”
“She asked me if I could forgive her and see her in a new light and I told her I already had. We sort of got to know each other free of all that baggage and sure, you put your best face forward when courting so it wasn’t the real her but I didn’t want to say goodbye to the mare I got to know in those letters. I wanted to keep writing. By then we had done a lot of talking and shed a lot of tears, the two of us, and she had to hurry to make the train. So we both galloped to the station and…”
“You didn’t kiss her did you?”
She shrugs. “Yeah?”
“Sweetie Belle!”
“I couldn’t help it; she looked so cute and vulnerable!”
Hoofpalm. “And you’ve kept this up.”
Sweetie fiddles with the pendant around her neck. “Yeah.”
“You know how sick and twisted this looks?”
“Of course, and I know how unlikely it is that I would me pick hers from the hundreds of ads I read. It’s either the dumbest of luck or somehow our relationship was blessed by Princess Mi Amore herself. More importantly I Know how she makes me feel and I Know it’s my own business whom I date!”
“Are you sure this isn’t some elaborate long con? Are you sure you aren’t setting yourself up for disaster?” I guess it’s me who’s pleading now.
Sweetie sighs. “I’m not dumb or self-loathing enough to intentionally date an old bully. I know ponies can’t change who they are. But I have to believe we can learn from our mistakes and try to atone and be a better pony. I think she is truly sorry and I know the filly who bullied us so cruelly wasn’t the full sum of who Silver Spoon is. I’m going to risk it.”
“She makes you happy?”
She gets that look, the one where you know they’ve got it bad. “Yeah. You have no idea, she gets so eager to please, so enthusiastic, and it’s exhilarating! When she-“
“Sweetie, if you continue talking I’m going to puke all over these apple seedlings and I don’t think Applejack would like that. Please stop. Please.”
“So now that it’s all out in the open are we cool, Scoots?” She holds her hoof up to me.
I let out a dramatic sigh of the kind usually reserved for dad. “Yeah Sweets. We’re cool.” I give her a pound. “I’m not going to like it but you’re my friend and I’ll support whatever you think is best. Just be careful.”
“When am I ever not? You’re the one who always took us zip lining and whatnot.”
“Whatever Sacredy Belle, you loved it.” We hug for a while. I miss the smell of all those fancy shampoos Rarity inflicted on her. I miss hearing her voice and confiding in her. With Sweetie I didn’t have to have my tough persona up, we could really talk about things.
She seems to read my mind. “Enough about me, do you have anything you need to get off your chest? Have you been doing okay?”
“Actually, I did have this nightmare a few days ago. It wasn’t like scary bad, but bad enough that Princess Luna showed up.”
“Aww, I’m sorry! Here.” She sits down beneath one of the grander apple trees of the orchard. “Sit down next to me and tell me all about it.
I knew that going into work on Monday and seeing Silver there would be strange, knowing that she and one of my best friends had probably spent Sunday night together doing Luna-knows-what. I didn't want to scare her off, but I wanted her to know that I knew so we could get to some kind of understanding. And there she is at her desk wearing a teal dress to match the frames of her glasses.
She looks over with the same impassive act she's had for months. "Good morning, Scootaloo."
I just walk over and keep looking at her, into her eyes, still and quiet. I want to watch her reaction. She looks confused, then mildly annoyed. She looks slightly to the left as if searching her memory for what could be the problem. And then she gets it, takes in a breath of air, looks back at me fearfully anticipating my reaction. Now she just looks down at her desk, resigned to whatever happens.
"Silver Spoon."
"Yes?"
"You really, truly care for her?"
She glances up, a bit braver than I thought she'd be. "I do."
I hadn't planned this far ahead. For once I hold all the cards. She's been hiding this relationship and making nuts with her mysterious behavior but now it's all out in the open. I could really hold it over her for not coming clean. I could be truly cruel, payback for years of abuse.
"Silver Spoon. I forgive you."
"Th-thank you." She's confused. I am as well, have no idea why that came out of my mouth. I'm not sure I mean it. I don't know if it's the truth or if I'm lying for the sake of Sweetie Belle. I kind of need to say it. I'll be seeing Silver week after week and it doesn't look like they'll stop loving each other anytime soon and I don't want get in the way of her happiness. I've no right to do that.
"Don't break her heart. Don't know how I'd react."
"You don't have to worry, Scootaloo. She's very precious to me."
"Me too."