New Discoveries

by Phantom Shadow


Chapter 20: The Truth

Sweetie Belle entered the clubhouse to see the impatient Scootaloo sitting there. The Pegasus filly had an annoyed look on her face, as she sat on her haunches, tapping her hoof against the hardwood floor. When the unicorn filly trotted in, she directed her attention to her, eyebrows furrowed and a frown on her face.

“Alright Sweetie Belle, we’re inside, nopony else around, just the two of us,” she said, a twinge of anger in her voice, “What do you want to tell me that’s so important that it couldn’t wait until after the storm?”

Sweetie Belle slowly made her way in front of Scootaloo, her eyes focused on the ground. All the while, she searched her heart for the proper way of telling her the truth. Knowing that there was no way out of it now, she slowly began to let it out.

“Well...you see...it’s...it’s like this...” she began, feeling very hesitant in her words, “I...um...I...I needed to tell you the truth about...about...about something.”

“Okay...” said Scootaloo, raising an eyebrow, “About what?”

Sweetie closed her eyes, feeling the tears beginning to well up. This was one of the parts that she feared: telling her that she had lied to her about the whole thing.

“I...I kinda...sorta...l-l-” she began to say, before she went against herself and blurted out, “I lied to you about Scott!”

After she spoke the words, she squeezed her eyes shut, thinking that the Pegasus filly was going to say something hurtful to her. She braced herself for whatever her friend was about to lash out at her.

However, the mood instantly changed when she began to hear small chuckles coming from Scootaloo. Confused, she slightly opened one eye and saw that she was attempting to hold back laughter. What part of this was she finding funny?

“Let me guess,” she said, still trying to hide her smile, “There is no such pony named ‘Scott,’ is there?”

Lowering her head in shame, she simply nodded to answer the question.

Immediately, the orange filly, unable to contain herself anymore, broke out in uncontrollable laughter. As she did so, Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and wonder what she found so funny about this.

“I knew it! I knew it!” she said, in between laughs, “I just knew that you made the whole thing up! I just knew it!”

“You...but...I...uh...huh?” the unicorn filly stuttered as she thought to herself, How in Equestria does she know already? Exactly what DOES she know already?

Eventually, the Pegasus’ laughter calmed enough for her to answer her unasked questions, “The way you’ve been acting, the way you kept on avoiding the topic, how you manage to prevent everypony from meeting him, I just knew that there was something fishy about the whole thing! Anypony who has a crush on somepony else wouldn’t act the way you did! It was just too obvious!”

Sweetie Belle sat in silence as Scootaloo tried to compose herself from all the laughing. After she managed to calm her laughter down, silence dawned on both of them; the only thing that could be heard was the small patting of the raindrops that had begun to fall outside. Soon, the smile on her face turned to one of a serious look as she decided to ask the most obvious question.

“Why did you make the whole thing up?” she asked, noticing that Sweetie Belle wasn’t looking at her, “Why did you say you had a crush on somepony when you really didn’t?”

Sweetie Belle’s heart began racing, the moment the questions left her friends’ mouth. This was the other part she feared: telling Scootaloo the truth about her feelings for her.

“Actually,” she said, looking at the ground, “I didn’t make the whole thing up.”

“Huh?” asked the confused Pegasus, “Isn’t that what you just said, that there wasn’t a pony named ‘Scott?’”

“That’s true,” she said, her voice low and soft now, “There is nopony named ‘Scott,’ but I...I...I do have a crush on somepony.”

With an eyebrow raised, Scootaloo cocked her head and said, “Wait, so, what you’re saying is that you have a crush on somepony, but just nopony named ‘Scott’, right?”

Without saying anything, the unicorn filly nodded. Then, her heart stopped when Scootaloo asked the ultimate question, one that she knew was the heaviest of them all.

“So, if ‘Scott’ was just made up and you do have a crush on somepony, then who do you have a crush on? And why do you need to tell me all of this in private? Why not tell me and Apple Bloom?”

It was at that moment that Sweetie Belle did the only thing her heart told her to do. She slowly looked up at the Pegasus filly before her and looked into her eyes. The moment that she did, the feeling from before began coursing through her entire body. The world came to a stand-still as she looked into her friends’ eyes.

Sweetie Belle found herself standing on her legs now, not taking her eyes off her friend. She could tell that Scootaloo was confused at her strange behavior, but that didn’t matter to her now; all that mattered was what was happening at the moment. She didn’t know what she was doing nor did she really care. However, what she did next was something that, not even she, expected to happen.

Before either of them could say anything to each other, Sweetie Belle took a few steps forward, closed her eyes tightly, and placed her lips against Scootaloo’s. The kiss didn’t go any further than just the connection of their lips; it was more like a butterfly kiss, but not on the cheek.

Seconds turned into centuries for Sweetie Belle as they stayed in that same position, neither of them moving an inch. Eventually, Sweetie’s tightly closed eyes began to ease themselves; they didn’t open, but they weren’t forced shut. Her shallow breathing soon eased down to normal and her rapid heart slowed to its normal pace.

Everything about the action was wrong, wrong because they were young, wrong because they were both fillies, wrong because she did it without warning. However, none of that seemed to matter to the unicorn; to her, it was wrong, but felt so right. It felt as if they belonged there, in that moment, together. In truth, she had wanted to release her kiss from her much sooner than now, but she was too wrapped up in the tender kiss to pull herself away.

However, everything that she had felt vanished in a heartbeat. Soon, she found herself feeling pain in her shoulders. Then, she felt herself begin forced away from Scootaloo, almost as if somepony was tugging her from behind her. Finally, she felt pain in both her spine and the back of her head. The impact on her head sent waves of pain to her nose, causing her to clutch it with her hooves. It was at that moment that she realized what had just happened: Scootaloo had shoved her away.

She found herself lying on the floor, her head against the wall behind her. She opened her eyes as best as she could, since the pain in her nose was preventing them from opening all the way. The second that she did, she wished that she hadn’t.

Scootaloo stood before her, her eyes widened and slightly twitching. The look on her face was one of horror and disgust, like she was looking at an ugly insect, one that needed to be killed immediately. Sweetie Belle’s heart slowly sank as the realization began hitting her: the look on her face was directed at her.

“Sweetie Belle!” she practically shouted, “What are you doing?”

Slowly recuperating from her pain, she stood up and said, “Scootaloo, I...”

She stopped in mid-sentence, as she watched the Pegasus filly beginning to back away from her. All the while, the look never left her face.

“Stay back,” she said, backing up into the wall behind her, “Just stay away from me!”

Tears began welling up inside of the unicorn as she looked into her friends’ eyes. The feeling that she felt was holding her in the moment, but the look on the Pegasus’ face made her heart sink. The longer she looked into them, the more it sank into her body, causing the tears to begin to stream from the corners of her eyes. It was pretty obvious what was happening now. Although she didn’t want to believe it, she had no choice but accept the obviousness of the truth: Scootaloo was rejecting her.

“I...I...” she started to say, as she slowly crept to the clubhouse doorway, tears streaming from her eyes. She didn’t know what to do or what to say. All that she knew was that she needed to get away, run away and never look back.

“What were you thinking?” she asked, her eyes still wide and her heart racing, “How could you do that to me? Why would...”

The moment Scootaloo saw the tears coming from Sweetie Belle’s eyes, she stopped in midsentence, as it started to become clearer and clearer. She began piecing together everything that she already knew with what she was just told now. Sweetie had told her she had a crush on somepony, nopony named ‘Scott,’ but somepony. She also said that she needed to talk to her in private. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, she comes over and kissed her. When Scootaloo put all the pieces together, all she could do was feel guilt, sorrow and confusion. Because everything was happening all at once, it was hard for her to tell which feeling she felt more. The look of disgust had vanished completely from Scootaloo’s face. All that was left was a blank stare, one that clearly meant confusion.

“S-S-Sweetie Belle?” her voice fell into a low whisper, “Are...are you...? Am...am I...?”

The two of them stared at each other for several seconds. Tears streamed down Sweetie Belle’s eyes as a Scootaloo began breathing heavily. Neither of them knew what to say to each other, neither of them knew what to do. The worst part of it all was that, the longer that they stared at each other, the more the pain and fear rose.

Then Scootaloo took a step forward and said, “Sweetie Belle, I...”

“I’m sorry, Scoots,” the unicorn filly said in a whisper, “I’m so sorry.”

Before the orange filly could say anything more, Sweetie Belle turned to the door of the clubhouse and began running away as fast as her little legs could take her. Scootaloo quickly ran to the doorway of the clubhouse and began calling out to her, hoping she’d hear her calls.

“SWEETIE BELLE!” she shouted as loud as she could, “SWEETIE BELLE, WAIT! COME BACK!”

Whether it was because of the distance she had gone, the interference of the rain pouring down, disrupting her hearing, or that she was simply just ignoring her, Sweetie Belle didn’t stop running. She ran until she was nothing more but a small white blur, fading over the horizon.

“What have I done?” Scootaloo whispered to herself, as tears began streaming from the corners of her eyes, “What have I done?

With nothing left to say or do, Scootaloo did the only thing she could do: she sat on her haunches in the doorway of the clubhouse, leaned her head against the frame, and continued to cry.