Sweetie Belle glanced nervously between what she assumed to be the behemoth of a script and the look of concentration on Miss Cheerilee's face. It was one thing to direct her own three-pony play with a story that she had written, and the dialogue (as much as she tried to sophisticate it with older Equestrian dialects) was easy to memorize - she had penned it! She had seen "Harmony's Flowers" once before when she was younger, and though it was fuzzy, a lot of the sequences she remembered were long and boring exchanges of dialogue. The part that stood out the most to her was the romance, the overcoming of odds for Star Bright and Drift Monsoon to be together. Cheerilee looked up from the papers, and could probably see the trepidation on her face.
"Something the matter, Sweetie Belle?" she asked with concern as she placed a quill in a cup on the desk.
"Just a little bit nervous, is all. Please tell me that's not the script?" Sweetie Belle pointed to the novel cradled between Cheerilee's hooves.
"This is the original 'Harmony's Flowers', yes," Cheerilee admitted. "I'll admit it's a bit on the longer side as far as Bridleway goes, but... have you seen the play?"
"Once, yes. I was young... er, when it just came out. I don't remember much about it."
"I'm curious then," Cheerilee started. "What made you jump to direct this one so quickly?"
Sweetie Belle blushed, rubbing her shoulder and breaking eye contact. "I don't really know. It just kind of spoke to me, that whole love story thing. I think it's sweet."
"I agree with you there. Between you and me..." Cheerilee leaned in over the desk, Sweetie Belle following suit. "I cry every time I see it. The ending gets me, every single time!" she whispered excitedly.
"Really?" Sweetie Belle held her hooves over her mouth, stifling a giggle. "The ending is my favorite part too! It's the only thing I can remember. The rest of it kind of... blurs together."
"I imagine it would. Even for a teacher, some of the more political scenes can get... wearisome."
Sweetie Belle breathed a sigh of relief, deflating just a bit in her seat. "So it's not just me, then. Do you really think that the rest of the class can memorize all of that in just under two weeks?"
Much to Sweetie Belle's surprise, her teacher shook her head. "It takes professional theater actors almost a month. As much as I love to brag with other teachers at conventions that I have the brightest students in all of Equestria, it's a bit of a reach to expect that."
"Oh..." Sweetie Belle frowned. "So how are we going to do the show? Is someone going to hold cue cards from the audience?"
"Hahaha! No, I don't think that will be necessary. You said you've seen the play once, correct?"
Sweetie Belle nodded her head briskly.
"Well, I've seen it many times. And each time, it was just a little bit different. The director adds his or her own personal touches, cutting some things, extending others, to show the audience how they interpret the story."
"So that's what the director — me — will be doing?" Sweetie Belle gulped.
"Yes. When I spoke to Mrs. Loving about our performance, I made clear that there would likely have to be extensive changes to accommodate the schedule and limited experience of the cast. I've taken the liberty of making some changes to the script already, removing a couple of the monologues and a lot of the tribes leaders arguing semantics — here." Cheerilee reached down into her drawer, and pulled out a (thankfully) much thinner volume of papers that read Harmony's Flowers: Scholastic Adaptation. She held it out for the filly to examine.
Sweetie Belle skimmed over it rapidly, focused more on the length of the work rather than the content. "And she was alright with that? Us changing her work and everything?" the unicorn asked her teacher uneasily. Though Sweetie Belle didn't much like her original play A Tale of Three Fillies, she would have been reluctant to allow somepony else to make changes to what she considered her magnum opus.
"She was actually really excited about it. She says it's refreshing to see different takes on her book, as long as the overall message comes across," Cheerilee explained.
"The overall message..." Sweetie Belle echoed. "What is that, exactly?"
"You don't remember?"
"Like I said, it's been a while."
"Well, perhaps when you read through it, it will come to you again." Cheerilee said thoughtfully. "In any case, I won't hold you here any longer. Please, take that draft with you tonight, and if you see anything you have questions about, or any changes you'd like to make, let me know tomorrow morning."
"Alright," Sweetie Belle acknowledged her instructions. "Is it okay if I show this to the girls? I'm sure they'd love to get a chance to get a jump start on it!"
"Of course you may! Are they as excited about this as you are?"
Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin with her hoof. "Well... I think so. I think they had a lot of fun with my other play, so I'm sure they wouldn't mind doing another one."
"Oh yes!" Cheerilee clapped her hooves together. "A Tale of Three Fillies was such a fun three pony play! The beautiful costumes especially, and you girls had such great chemistry together. I'm sure you'd all do a fine job acting together again."
"Speaking of which..." Sweetie Belle pondered aloud. "When do we pick the parts?"
"We'll have a casting session tomorrow, and you will be in charge of casting."
Sweetie Belle gulped audibly again. "Me?"
"You are the director, after all," Cheerilee chuckled. "Now, run along! I've got some preparations to make for tomorrow, and I know you've got some things on your plate as well."
Sweetie Belle slipped the draft of the script into her saddlebag, and hopped out of the chair. "Okay. Have a good evening, Miss Cheerilee!" she yelled behind as her as she galloped through the door and into the hallway. There were all sorts of prospects running through her mind right now, and she couldn't wait to talk to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo about them. She barely heard her teacher return her courtesy as she leaped over the set of stairs leading from the front doors of the school in a single excited bound.
"Giiirls!"
The white unicorn filly bolted down the dirt path, making a beeline to the treehouse that was growing steadily larger in her eyes with each hurried step she took. She was gasping for breath, but that didn't stop her from shouting again to prepare the girls for her arrival.
"Giiiiiirls!" she yelled again, slowing to a moderate trot at the base of the tree house. From the window, she saw Apple Bloom's bow silhouetted against the awning for a second before vanishing back inside.
"Sweetie Belle's here!" Sweetie Belle heard her farmer friend's muffled call from inside as the unicorn climbed the ramp, the announcement followed by an excited exclamation from Scootaloo's voice.
The door to the treehouse opened as she scaled the peak, and Sweetie Belle was greeted with a pair of sparkling violet eyes and a wide grin.
"Come on, Sweetie Belle! Tell us everything!" Scootaloo ushered Sweetie Belle inside, swiftly closing the door behind her, leaving a sign nailed to door in sloppy hoofwriting with the words Top Secret Cutie Mark Crusader Meeting : Keep Out! flapping against the wood for any would be trespassers to heed.
Sweetie Belle uttered a breathless "thank you", and took her seat in her familiar position, a large blue cushion against the wall opposite the door. She wiped her forehead with her hoof, to hopefully remove any sweat from her sprint before it crept into her eyes. Blinking to make sure they were clear, she found herself being stared at by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo's eager faces.
"So? What's goin' on? You really rushed over — Is everythin' alright?" Apple Bloom asked.
Sweetie Belle nodded, still trying to catch her breath. She wordlessly opened her saddlebag, and extracted the abridged script from within. The unicorn pushed it towards her friends, who snatched it hungrily for examination, and managed to eke out the words "we've got a play to prepare for."
Apple Bloom issued a shriek of excitement. Scootaloo's smile widened, but she did her best to keep her cool.
"Mah friend, directin' a bridleway production! And we get to help! Just think, we'll get our cutie marks for sure this time!"
"We said the same thing last time, Apple Bloom! Even after nailing that crazy script, still no cutie marks."
"Things'll be different this time, Scootaloo! I can feel it — our entire class is gonna be participatin'! It's gonna be huge!"
"Maybe, maybe not..." Scootaloo said reluctantly, her facade of indifference quickly crumbling as she added "But we're totally gonna get our cutie marks for this!"
She and Apple Bloom fell into a fit of giggling and squealing, before Sweetie Belle finally gained enough composure to speak again.
"Hold on, girls! If we want to have any hope of getting our cutie marks, we've got a lot of work to do!" she exclaimed dutifully.
"Right, right." Apple Bloom and Scootaloo nodded in agreement. "So, what all needs doin'?"
"A lot..." Sweetie Belle admitted. "We've got props, costumes, backdrops... and of course there's the rehearsing."
"Ah wanna act again!"
"Me too! Does this one have any fight scenes? Any stunts?" Scootaloo flipped through the booklet, eyes searching for words indicating action sequences.
"I don't think that it does," Sweetie Belle said. "But Miss Cheerilee said that I could change things to make it different."
"Ooh! You should totally add a fight scene for me!" Scootaloo dropped the script as she bounced to her haunches, punching at the air in front of her, using her mouth to add sound effects. Sweetie Belle couldn't help but giggle at her friends' frankly adorable enthusiasm.
"Now wait just a minute, Scootaloo! We don't even know what parts we're goin' to be playin'! How is Sweetie Belle supposed to add a fight for your character already... matter'a fact, how is the castin' gonna work? Sweetie Belle?"
Sweetie Belle glanced nervously between her two friends' eager faces. "Well, Cheerilee told me that there was a casting session tomorrow, and that I'll get to assign the roles..." Sweetie Belle frowned.
"Awesome! Pick a cool one for me!" Scootaloo suggested, reaching down and picking the script up again. "Like... ooh! This one. Drift Monsoon — she's a soldier sent on a mission to keep the peace in Equestria! You could totally work a burly brawl in there!"
"Actually..." Sweetie Belle chuckled. "She's a he."
Scootaloo's did a double take to the character description again, groaning loudly. Apple Bloom was doubled over from laughter on the floor.
"And secondly, that's one of the main roles. I have to be fair with the casting. I don't want Cheerilee or the rest of the class to think I'm just putting you girls in the lead because you're my friends," Sweetie Belle sighed. It was a lot easier to cast a play when it was just three ponies.
"That makes sense..." Apple Bloom said, conceding the fair point. "Guess we'll just have to earn the parts?"
"Looks like it," Sweetie Belle said. "Although..."
"Yeah?" Scootaloo's eyes lit up.
"Cheerilee did say we had great chemistry together," Sweetie Belle pointed out optimistically. "That might help!".
Apple Bloom tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean, 'chemistry'?"
"It means," Scootaloo started, reaching over from her side and pulling a very unprepared Sweetie Belle towards her. "Well, take me and Sweetie Belle for example." The side of Sweetie Belle's head came to a halt, resting against the pegasus' warm shoulder.
Although Sweetie Belle was yanked in rather suddenly, she felt no desire to pull herself away with any sort of haste. It was... nice. Comfortable. If she could be so bold to use an expression from her sister, it was positively magnificent.
She could get used to this, she thought. Her eyes had closed as soon as she felt herself being pulled, and she hadn't yet opened them even after coming to a stop. Sweetie Belle's mind's eye was occupied trying to etch this moment in her memory, her head resting on that delightful pillow of a pegasus' shoulder. Scootaloo's orange fur, though she remembered from their exploits being coarser than her own, was somehow more delightfully soft and inviting than it had been before. Suddenly —
"Uh... Sweetie Belle?"
The filly's eyes jerked open, Apple Bloom staring at her with a raised eyebrow. Sweetie Belle's white face turned a stark crimson, and the comfortable warmth became unbearable. She pulled her head off of Scootaloo's shoulder, glancing momentarily at the orange ears turned red in embarrassment below her purple mane, Scootaloo's face was still looking away from her. Sweetie Belle tried to pull the rest of herself away, but Scootaloo's foreleg was still wrapped around the unicorn's shoulder.
"Sorry!" she squeaked shamefully. "Blood rush — I got dizzy from the running and jerking around and... stuff." Her eyes were firmly planted on the floor.
"Right..." Apple Bloom cleared her throat. "So, uh, Scoots, you were saying?"
"Oh! Yeah!" Scootaloo shook her head vigorously. "So, chemistry. It means we really get along together. Like, since we're such good friends for real, we can really be comfortable together when we're acting." Sweetie Belle's ears were an inferno as she felt Scootaloo turning her head to look at her. "That's what chemistry is, right, Sweetie Belle?"
"...Yeah. Pretty much." Sweetie Belle mumbled, scratching her left foreleg with her right hoof awkwardly.
"Well, I say we get to practicin'!" Apple Bloom cried, "If we learn to act how the characters are s'pposed to act, we'll get awesome roles tomorrow for sure!"
"And one step closer to earning our cutie marks!" Scootaloo added, throwing her hooves in the air excitedly, releasing Sweetie Belle from her surprisingly firm grip. Sweetie Belle scrambling away as innocuously as she could. "What do you say, Sweetie Belle?"
Sweetie Belle looked up again, her green eyes meeting Apple Bloom's orange ones, and Scootaloo's violet ones. They both seemed oblivious to her reaction, which Sweetie Belle was quite thankful for.
"Huh?"
"We can't rehearse properly without ya!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. "Yer the director, after all. You'll know exactly what to look for."
"Well, I..."
"Yeah!" Scootaloo chimed in. "We don't want to get stuck playing a bunch of trees, do we? We can't do this without you!"
Sweetie Belle laughed, the nervous attitude seemingly vanished in light of her friends' ever-present enthusiasm and votes of confidence.
"Alright! Let's get to work!" She extended her white hoof in front of the other two, and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both reached out with a hoof of their own, With all three of their hooves in contact, they inhaled to prepare their familiar "battle cry" that they used so often in the war against their blank flanks.
"Cutie Mark Crusader Performers YAY!"
"Cutie Mark Crusader Actors YAY!"
"Cutie Mark Crusader Thespians YAY!"
The chaos of their jumbled cry left all three of the fillies lying in stitches on the treehouse floor.
"Settle down, everypony!" Cheerilee called to no avail, her command falling flat against the excited chatter of her students.
"I want to paint the backgrounds! And the foregrounds!"
"We're on a stage! How can you paint a foreground?"
"I don't know, but I just want to paint!"
"Your attention, please!" the teacher shouted again. This time, it worked. The entire classroom fell silent, each filly and colt turning to look at the teacher. Some even had their mouths hanging open having been halted mid-conversation.
"Now, I'm glad you are all so excited for the play, but we've got to get started right away with assigning each and every one of you something to do."
All at once, the classroom exploded into a din again. each and every pony simultaneously announcing what they wanted to do.
"Everypony, please!" the mare yelled again. "We've got to focus!" She beckoned to Sweetie Belle. "Sweetie Belle, could you come to the front, please?"
Sweetie Belle hopped from her desk at her summons, passing by several students as she trotted to the front. She stopped next to her teacher, who continued to speak.
"Now, we have our director. But there are several other jobs to do. Painting, costumes, props, and of course, acting."
A shrill voice sounded from the left side of the room. "Well, there's one role you don't have to worry about, Miss Cheerilee!" Diamond Tiara said smugly, hopping down from her desk to the front of the room with a large apparatus in a pink satchel on her back. Sweetie Belle watched with a raised eyebrow as the pink earth pony settled next to her, lowering the object from her back and unfolding it - revealing a folding chair with the letters "D.T" on the back in bold font. In between the letters was an illustration of her cutie mark.
"Meet your new Star Bright!" she exclaimed, nestling into her chair, wriggling to make herself comfortable.
"As much as we appreciate your enthusiasm, Diamond Tiara," Cheerilee said warily. "We'll be holding a casting session in just a bit. We'll find the best pony for each role, including that of Star Bright."
"Perfect! I'll get it that way instead," Diamond Tiara resumed, seemingly oblivious to the notion of a casting session.
"No offense, but Star Bright is a unicorn," Sweetie Belle told her. "And she has to be romantic."
"So we'll slap a fake horn on, duh! And what do you mean by romantic?" A bewildered Diamond Tiara asked. "I'm plenty romantic! Isn't that right?" She turned to ask the rest of her classmates, who stared back in an uncomfortable silence. "Well?" She raised her voice.
"Hah, well..." Cheerilee rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "I'd say now is a good time to start the casting session, don't you think, Sweetie Belle?"
"Mhm!" Sweetie Belle nodded.
"Wonderful, let's get started." Cheerilee gestured to her desk. "Everyone who is interested in performing in the play, come up and grab a copy of the script from my desk." Earlier that morning, Sweetie Belle had brought her suggested changes to the script to her teacher for approval. After it was finalized, the teacher used the printing press in the school to make around a dozen copies.
A majority of the class filed to the front, the first of the arrivals claiming their copies.
"Miss Cheerilee, there's not enough for all of us!" Silver Spoon whined as she arrived to the now-empty desk.
"You'll just have to share with somepony else, Silver Spoon," Cheerilee explained, receiving an exasperated sigh in return. "Now, can we arrange the desks to form a circle? Quickly, quickly, everypony!"
There was a shuffling and scraping of metal on wood as the students formed an imperfect circle of desks, leaving a wide gap in the center of the room. Each pony in the room took a seat, anxiously awaiting what would come next. Several of the ponies who had scripts were absorbed in them, with their friends squeezing in behind them to read over their shoulders. Though they had gone over it last night, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were both scrunched with Sweetie Belle.
"Fantastic! Now, Sweetie Belle will be in charge of the casting process," Cheerilee announced. Several of the students gasped, the loudest of which was of course Diamond Tiara.
"Why does she get to choose the parts?" Diamond Tiara asked with a whine.
"Because, she's the director. It's her job to make sure that the ponies playing the parts are the best possible for the play," Cheerilee told her. "Now, everypony who wants to help with props and sets, come with me to the stage." As the remainder of the students stepped into the hall, Cheerilee looked back at Sweetie Belle with a grin. "You've got it from here, Sweetie Belle?"
"Yes ma'am!" Sweetie Belle raised her hoof with the script in it.
"Alright. Good luck, everypony!" Cheerilee closed the door behind her as she went through it.
The room grew quiet as every set of eyes turned to face Sweetie Belle, some with curiosity, some with confusion, and some with disdain.
"Well..." She cleared her throat, her face growing hot. "I suggest we get started."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Diamond Tiara asked haughtily. "Since you apparently know so much about casting."
"Back off!" Scootaloo shot at her. "At least she's directed a play before, so she's got more experience than you!"
"A lame three pony play. It would have been horrible if her sister hadn't come through with those costumes."
"Horrible? I suppose you think you could have done better?"
"Not with her writing it! At least there's hope for this one."
"Girls!" Sweetie Belle yelled. "Scootaloo, thank you. Diamond Tiara..." The earth pony glowered at her as Sweetie Belle inhaled deeply. "I understand you might have a problem with me being in charge—"
"Tch"
"—but, I would appreciate if we could just try and work together for once."
"Fine. Whatever." Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. "So what do we do?"
"Since the play is about Star Bright and Drift Monsoon... we should probably cast them first. So, who wants to be Star Bright?"
The fillies in the room exploded at her, and Sweetie Belle was unable to make heads or tails of what anypony was saying.
"I want to be Star Bright!"
"Let me play her!"
"Puh-lease! Obviously, I'm the best choice!"
"STOP!" Sweetie Belle shouted, her voice cracking. "Maybe choosing Star Bright is going to be more difficult than I thought... let's get Drift out of the way first instead."
A series of disappointed groans and reluctant agreements met her. Sweetie Belle did her best to not appear flustered at their disapproval, and scanned the room for the perfect candidate for Drift Monsoon. Her choices were remarkably limited. Snips and Snails were both males, but neither of them were pegasi, and neither of them struck Sweetie Belle as having the capacity to pull off the role. Pipsqueak might have fared better, but again, he didn't have the wings. That left Featherweight and Rumble, and she couldn't find Featherweight.
"Rumble?" Sweetie Belle asked timidly. "Since Drift Monsoon is a male pegasus... and you're a male pegasus... did you want to play him?"
Rumble folded his grey forelegs across his chest, and rather crossly replied. "Not really, no."
"What? Why not?"
"Because, it's so... sappy and lame! And I'd have to kiss somepony, yuck!"
"Please, Rumble! You're the only male pegasus we have... except for Featherweight — where is he?" Sweetie Belle asked, looking around again to make sure she hadn't missed him on her initial scan.
"He's working on the set. He prefers to be behind the camera, not in front of it," Rumble explained to her. "And no offense, I don't think he'd be too interested in having to kiss one of you either."
"Not even... me?" Diamond Tiara fluttered her eyelashes. "Since I'm going to be Star Bright anyways, kissing me won't be a big deal, will it?"
Try as he might, Rumble could not disguise his displeasure at the thought of having to share a kiss with Diamond Tiara. "Blah, no way!"
"And who says you're going to be playing Star Bright anyways?" one of the classmates piped up.
"Yeah! We haven't even tried out yet!"
"Duh!" Diamond Tiara fired back, unsure of who it was that she was firing at. "Because Star Bright is a high class noble pony, and I'm about as high class as this crowd is gonna get."
"Maybe you should try acting classy sometime then!"
"Everypony, QUIET!"
This time it was Scootaloo that had spoken up. "If Rumble or Featherweight don't want to play Drift... I will."
The classroom fell silent. Scootaloo started to slink down back into her seat, her face roughly the same color as Apple Bloom's mane.
"Scootaloo... you're kinda... well, you're kind of a girl," Sweetie Belle pointed out.
"So? I act like more of a boy than Rumble and Featherweight do anyways, and it says in the script that 'Drift Monsoon is a drafted soldier in the pegasus army, sent as an ambassador due to his comparably lackluster flight abilities.' Doesn't that remind you of anypony?" Scootaloo flapped her small wings ineffectively.
"Umm... I guess you do fit that part at least, but..."
"But nothing!" Diamond Tiara interrupted. "You can't play Drift! That means that either Snips or Snails would have to play Star Bright, and I don't want those bozos ruining the show!"
"Hey!" Snips and Snails exclaimed simultaneously.
"...Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that we'd have to have a male unicorn playing Star Bright. I mean, back in old times, females played EVERY role in theater, even the male ones," Sweetie Belle mused aloud, rubbing her forehead with both hooves.
"Are you seriously suggesting that the filly who plays Star Bright would have to kiss her? On the lips? That's so gross!" Silver Spoon exchanged a disgusted look with Diamond Tiara, who returned the grimace.
"Have you got a better idea? At least I'm trying to help!" Scootaloo shot back at the two.
"As a matter of fact, I do." Diamond Tiara answered scathingly. "Rumble, front and center, NOW."
Rumble groaned in protest, but stepped into the center of circle of desks anyways. "I don't want to play Drift, I already told you!"
Diamond Tiara made her way to the center of the room next to him, a copy of the script in her mouth. She spat it on the ground, and flipped it open to one of the later pages.
"Here, let's act out this scene here," Diamond Tiara commanded, pointing at a set of lines. "I'll be Star, and you'll be Drift. I'm going to prove that we're perfect for the roles!"
***
"You have to leave!" Star Bright pleaded to Drift Monsoon. "If they find you here with me, who knows what kind of trouble you'll be in!"
"Sounds good to me. See you around." With that, Drift leapt out of the window.
***
"No, no, no!" Diamond Tiara cried in frustration. "That wasn't even the line! You aren't even trying!"
"Because I don't want to! This is stupid — listen, if Scootaloo wants to play the part, let her!"
"I am not, I repeat, NOT, going to pretend to be in love with that blank flank!"
"I'm a blank flank!" Rumble turned his side to expose his grey, cutie mark-less flank to Diamond Tiara.
"Yeah, w-well, why are you even here if you didn't want to act?" The filly stepped backwards, eyes shifting between the script on the floor and the blank flank in front of her.
"I do want to act, I just don't want to be Drift Monsoon. Not after skimming the script, anyways." Rumble explained. "I was actually hoping to play Captain Cumulus."
"Before we get too off topic," Sweetie Belle interrupted hastily. "We still need to cast our leads! Now, a lot of you want to play Star Bright, I got that. But first, who wants to play Drift Monsoon?"
Nopony around the room stirred, except for Scootaloo immediately to Sweetie Belle's left. Sweetie Belle motioned for her to put her hoof down for the time being.
"Anypony?" she asked meekly. Still no response. Her classmates looked back and forth at each other, and Diamond Tiara looked positively frazzled. "Well, without further ado..." Sweetie Belle turned to look at Scootaloo with a grin. "I guess you'll be playing Drift, Scoots!"
"Yes!" Scootaloo pumped her hoof in the air excitedly.
"No!" Diamond Tiara, on the other hoof, looked positively revolted.
"What's your problem, Diamond Tiara?" Sweetie Belle snapped.
"This is so lame! You're completely ruining the play with your horrible casting! How am I supposed to light up the stage knowing that I have to kiss Scootaloo? This is a romance — not a horror!"
"It's a good thing this ain't the Diamond Tiara show then, isn't it?" Apple Bloom asked coldly.
"I can't help it if nopony else wanted to play the part!" Scootaloo defended herself. "I'm just trying to make the play a success!"
"Besides," Sweetie Belle joined in. "It's just a silly kiss. What's the big deal?"
"If it's just a silly kiss..." Diamond Tiara's face broke into a wide grin. "...then why don't you play Star Bright?"
A collective "ooooooh" sounded throughout the room. A challenge had been issued.
Sweetie Belle paused, her face quickly growing flush. Since she was the director already, she hadn't even considered taking on the dual role of acting in the play as well. Truthfully, an excuse to kiss her crush, even if Scootaloo thought it entirely platonic, held great appeal to Sweetie Belle. After all, wasn't the reason she signed on to direct the love story between a pegasus and unicorn based partially on her own feelings towards Scootaloo?
"I - uh - er..." Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo, who looked just as embarrassed as she did.
"Just as I thought. What's the big deal? Pah!" Diamond Tiara guffawed mockingly, the rest of the class giggling along with her.
"W-wait!" Sweetie Belle gulped nervously. "W-would that be a problem? I thought that... that some of you wanted to play her."
"I wanted to," a bright yellow-orange earth pony named Sunny Daze spoke up. "But... you are a unicorn, like Star Bright is."
"Me too," added her friend Peachy Pie, another earth pony. "And Scootaloo — you're nice and everything, but I just... well, you know." Scootaloo nodded bashfully.
"You should totally do it!" Rumble exclaimed. "Just to see the look on Diamond Tiara's face!"
Diamond Tiara's cry to silence Rumble was drowned out by the cheers from the rest of the class.
"So... I guess that means..." Sweetie Belle murmured softly, looking at Scootaloo tentatively. Her pale green eyes met the pegasus' deep violet ones.
"It's just a silly kiss, right?" Scootaloo asked as nonchalantly as she could.
Sweetie Belle's crimson face nodded.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Diamond Tiara uttered as she leaned over her desk, Silver Spoon patting her back while she shook her head sadly.