It was difficult to comfort a crying friend, Sweetie Belle reflected, wrapping her foreleg around Applebloom’s shoulders. The three Crusaders had been in their treehouse, having a meeting, when Applebloom had simply fallen apart. She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t even get out one word, her sobs to overwhelming, and both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo knew why.
Flickershine was leaving, and taking Sandow with her.
“Aw, ‘Bloom, they’ll come back soon, it won’t be forever,” Scootaloo said, trying to comfort Applebloom.
Applebloom kept making ”hiyunck hiyunck hiyunck” sounds as she sobbed, she seemed immune to consolation. She pulled both of her friends in closer, never wanting to let them go, just like she didn’t want to let Sandow go.
“We’re all really lucky to known him. He fought an owlbear for us. And there was the unspeakable pepper incident. And so many other good times. He’ll only be away for a little while, and then I am sure we’ll have more good times,” squeaked Sweetie Belle, her own feelings now threatening to overwhelm her. “We found him,” she added.
“Yeah, we did, by accident,” replied Scootaloo, her own barrel hitching, causing her wings to jerk. “Greatest mistake we’ve ever made, and one of the only ones I can think of with a happy ending,” she continued.
The three Crusaders held on to one another, glad to have one another to hold on to.
“Pinkie Pie, I wanted to apologise for my outburst a while back.”
Pinkie Pie peered at Twilight “Creepy” Sparkle. She knew exactly which outburst that Twilight was talking about. Twilight had been in a real funk lately, and had been almost impossible to live with.
“I may have spoken out of turn, about all of us dating,” apologised Twilight. “I’ve been thinking about what I said and why I said it. I’ve been having some problems lately.”
“I know,” chirped Pinkie Pie, now smiling at her friend.
“I’m lonely Pinkie. I have friends and I am lonely. There is a contradiction here Pinkie, and it is very troubling to me,” Twilight confessed.
“Well, as long as you are not hitting on me Twilight, I guess we can talk,” Pinkie said with a barely repressed giggle.
“I wanted to talk with you first, to sort my head out, I figured you’d forgive me without making me work for it like Rarity or the others might,” said Twilight, now looking down at the grass, looking at the blooms of clover.
“Of course you are forgiven silly, even if you were acting kinda creepy there for a while, telling everypony that we were dating,” Pinkie Pie said, now sitting down on her haunches in the grass, making herself comfortable.
“A long series of events happened that really set me off,” confessed Twilight. “I mean, Sandow gets found as a statue, gets turned back into flesh, is immediately taken in by a warm and loving family, finds happiness, and then finds love, the sort of love that ponies write books about, all in very little time. And even before he was a statue… When he was alive long ago. Married. A foal. He had a family back then too. I am jealous, that is what I am. And what do I have? Wings? My accomplishments? Princesshood? While I appreciate all of these things, and I would never give them up, there is one thing I really really want and I don’t have it, and seeing every other pony around me having something I want is tearing me apart! I don’t know how to deal with it. I’ve wasted my life in study, I am wasting my life in the library, and what I really want is some great romantic gesture to happen, some romantic event, somepony to come along and profess some great love that will echo through generations, I really really want to feel needed, loved, and appreciated!” she heaved breathlessly, now finally taking a deep breath after so many words.
Pinkie Pie learned forward, wrapped a leg around Twilight’s neck, and gently kissed her on the cheek.
“What was that for?” asked Twilight.
“To show you that I understand, I am your friend, and that I forgive you,” explained Pinkie Pie, patting Twilight on the shoulder. “I have a lot of the same feelings. I want some big hunky stallion to come along and sweep me off of my hooves too. I am a silly pink party pony, I am obnoxious as can be, I can be incredibly annoying, and something tells me that I am not the sort of mare that causes the romantic sort to develop a fixation,” she finished.
“But- but- but that’s not true,” sputtered Twilight.
“You are an egghead, and I am a spastic dweeb,” Pinkie said with a sad smile.
“No!” retorted Twilight. “Just no! It sounds like you are giving up, just like I have.”
“Well, what do we do about it?” asked Pinkie, her blue eyes twinkling faintly.
Twilight was forced to wonder if Pinkie Pie might be putting her on. She carefully considered her friend, studying her intently, trying to gauge if Pinkie Pie was being serious. With a pained feeling defeat, she realised she could not tell. She could never quite tell with Pinkie Pie.
“We form a herd of militant mares, hunt down what we want, and then claim them as our own?” asked Twilight in a low voice, making sure that nopony nearby might hear her.
“Yeah…” Pinkie Pie agreed in a low whisper, nodding. “And Applejack has rope too.”
“That doesn’t seem romantic,” Twilight retorted.
“Maybe some stallion right now is wishing that some mare would come along and make a magnificent romantic gesture. With rope,” Pinkie argued.
“Rope,” replied Twilight Sparkle thoughtfully.
The pair of mares chortled and giggled together, now sharing a secret plan.
“And a branding iron,” Pinkie exclaimed.
Twilight Sparkle raised an eyebrow and shook her head “no.”
“Or not,” conceded Pinkie Pie.
“Maybe we should try the Grand Galloping Gala again,” suggested Twilight.
This time, it was Pinkie Pie that raised an eyebrow and cast an annoyed glance at her friend, gently shaking her head and booping her friend’s nose.
Flickershine studied the inside of her wagon. Technically, two ponies could live inside of it, sleeping inside of it anyway, if they were real friendly. Of course, Flickershine usually slept outside when he weather allowed, only the cold and the rain driving her inside. There was a hammock that she hung from a pair of trees whenever she had the chance.
But the wagon was really cozy. She wondered what it would take to lure Sandow inside and canoodle with him for a while. Hmm, canoodling, Flickershine thought to herself. She turned and looked over her shoulder, peeking at Sandow, who did not see her peeking at him.
Flickershine pulled her head free of the wagon, turned about, and studied Sandow. He was valiantly struggling to read a book, sounding out each word phonetically, slowly, and then speaking it normally once had it puzzled out. Sandow was getting better. The Apples had been downright hard on him trying to get him to read, and rightfully so. Flickershine had also placed her hoof down and demanded that Sandow be able to read stories to her, poems, and other things of interest.
And Sandow placed as much hard work into reading as he did anything else.
He was sitting under a tree, his back up against the trunk, holding the book in his hooves, turning the page with a wing, a stalk of grass hanging from his lips. His green bandana hung from his neck, and his mane, now a bit longer, hung down into his eyes a bit.
Hello handsome! Flickershine said to herself.
For a brief moment, Flickershine wanted to be a book, and have Sandow turn her pages with his wings. She tittered softly, thinking about the tickle, causing Sandow to look up from his book and smile at her.
Flickershine swooned a bit at the smile.
Collecting her thoughts, she sat down in the grass, pulled out a notebook, and began to make plans for one final dance number, hoping to leave a breathless audience wanting more, knowing that she would return one day soon.
The three Crusaders had finally composed themselves. They remained together in their treehouse, now quiet and thoughtful, understanding that together, they had learned an important life lesson.
Their adventure together into the woods that day had been rewarded, their bravery and their desire to explore had returned something dear to them, and while it was no cutie mark, it was a very similar process, a constant need to keep searching, keep looking, and eventually, there would be something worth finding.
It had been Applebloom that had suggested that perhaps, they really begin searching inside of themselves, and there had been a discussion, a common understanding that they were growing up. In a short time, they had learned so much about life, only recently, learning about sacrifice, bravery, where to kick an owlbear, the birds and the bees, what it meant to have character, Applebloom had learned a very important lesson about telling fiblets, Sweetie Belle had discovered something new about herself, something that only dancing satisfied, and Scootaloo had realised that she was the sense of timing that kept her friends together.
And not just in dancing, but almost everything.
And now, they sat in the clubhouse, looking at one another, realising and knowing that they were no longer quite filly foals, but rapidly transitioning into fillies, and then, one day entirely too soon, they would be mares.
It was a sobering thought that had left them silent.
This would be their last summer as foals, and summer was coming soon. It is a difficult thing to stand at the precipice of change, knowing that you cannot turn back.
Applebloom stuck her hoof out and her eyes darted to her two friends. “Together?” she asked, her eyes still darting.
“Together,” said Scootaloo, bumping Applebloom’s hoof with her own.
“Forever,” agreed Sweetie Belle, bumping the two other hooves with her own.
Off in distant Canterlot, two sisters stood together on a balcony, watching as the day transitioned into night.
“There could be others,” Luna mused, a half smile on her lips.
“I know,” agreed Celestia.
“We need to have Twilight perfect some kind of spell to detect lifeforms trapped in stone,” Luna announced. “History could have so much to teach us.”
“I agree,” replied Celestia, watching the first stars of the evening twinkle.
“And then somepony must go out into the world and try to find them. We may have little ponies set in stone all around us,” said Luna, her horn glowing, the stars winking into existence in the night sky.
“Perhaps Twilight and her friends would not mind doing a little looking,” Celestia mentioned, leaning on sister and sharing her warmth.
The two sisters fell silent as the night came to life slowly around them.