Apple Bloom was kept awake by nightmares that night and didn't get much sleep. She had one dream where she was walking down a road in the middle of Ponyville, but there was nopony around. It was the middle of the day, and normally the roads were packed with ponies going to and fro, but she couldn't see a soul. Suddenly, she saw a pony come around the corner: it was Whiteshadow. She smiled at her, but Whiteshadow turned away from Apple Bloom.

"Whiteshadow, wha,,.,.what's wrong?" she asked, getting closer to her.

"Stop staring at me!" she yelled, "All you do is stare at me!"

"Ahm sorry..." she said softly, looking down at the dirt, "Ah don't mean ta...I just..."

Suddenly, the white filly ran toward Apple Bloom and shoved her to the ground. Apple Bloom's head bounced off the dirt road and her vision blurred. She could see the pony standing above her, laughing this evil, mean laugh.

"You're just what? Weird? Sick? A freak?"

"No! No! It's not like that!" Apple Bloom yelled, squeezing her eyes tightly closed as she felt the tears start to flow down her cheeks.

"Then why do you keep staring at me?" Apple Bloom heard her yell at her.

"Ah...Ah don't know! I don't gee gosh know!" Apple Bloom sobbed.

She woke up with a start, the sound of Whiteshadow's laughter still in her head and her eyes pouring tears just as they had in the dream. She was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea, and squeezed her eyes tightly until it passed.

Wiping her eyes with her hoof, she looked out her window. It was Friday, early in the morning. Another day of school...another day of going to school and seeing her.

She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling...

"Ah don't know if ahm sick...or what. But I just can't go to school today...maybe ever again." she thought to herself.

She took a deep breath and got out of bed, walking over to the mirror to look at her reflection. The sun was just starting to come out, so it was still dark and she could only just make it out. Her mane looked a mess, her eyes were bloodshot and her face streaked with tears. She suddenly was overcome with determination.

"You know what? No, Apple Bloom! You've never run away from nothing! You're an Apple! Our family is tough, smart and can overcome anything if we just put our hooves to it!"

She went to the washroom to start her morning routine, and by the time she was done she had a plan in mind.

"Ahm going to go school, walk up to that filly and apologize if I done her wrong last night! Then, I'm going to go crusadin' with Scoots and Sweetie Belle and forget all these silly feelings! That's what I'm going to do!"

*****

Apple Bloom was steadfast in her resolve to put all of her confusion behind her, and trotted to school with her head held high. Halfway there, she saw Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle playing outside and raced up to meet them.

"Hey guys!" she called to them, "What's goin' on?"

"Not much, just skipping rope." Sweetie Belle said, going back to skipping.

"How'd your date with the new filly go last night?" Scootaloo asked with a smirk, "You make out?".

"Shut the heck up, 'fore I buck you like an apple tree!" she yelled, swinging at the purple-maned filly with her hoof.

Scootaloo hopped out of the way, just barely avoiding being smacked, "Whoa! I was just kiddin', AB! Lighten' up! That woulda really hurt!"

Apple Bloom took a deep breath and stepped back, her cheeks turning red; A bunch of other ponies in the school yard had stopped what they were doing and were now looking toward where the yelling had come from.

"Scootaloo and I joke around all the time, and I never get this angry about it!" she thought to herself, and felt that weird pain in her stomach again.

"Err...so, are we still going crusading after school today?" Sweetie Belle quickly chimed in, trying to break the awkward silence that had developed.

"Y...yeah, sure. A'course!" Apple Bloom replied, her head clearing and her anger gone.

"I guess..." Scootaloo said, hooves crossed and avoiding looking at the two other ponies.

"Well...great! So, let's get to class then! The sooner we get today done, the sooner we can get back to working on getting our Cutie Mark's." Sweetie Belle said, and made her way up the stairs and into the schoolhouse. Scootaloo followed quickly behind her, after casting an icy glance back at Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom took a deep breath and mentally steeled herself to walk into the classroom and apologize to Whiteshadow.

"Just like I practiced." she said out loud to herself.

When she walked into the classroom and saw Whiteshadow's desk empty, however, she felt her resolve flow straight out of her body like somebody had turned on a faucet. Her courage and determination were replaced by a feeling of concern and worry.

What if something happened to her on the way back home? I never should have let her walk by herself in the dark!...

"Apple Bloom, please take your seat! Class is about to begin." said Cheerilee, taking her place at the front of the room and beginning her lesson for the day.

Apple Bloom slowly sat down in her seat, but she couldn't pay attention. Her eyes kept wandering back to the empty desk at the back of the room. Her mind raced, wondering whether something had happened.

"Naw..." she thought, finally, "Ponyville is too small to not have heard about something bad happening to a filly last night."

She tried to leave it at that and pay attention to the math problems that Cheerilee was writing on the board, but her eyes cast another glance at the empty desk and, despite her best attempt to suppress it, her mind concluded the only other logical explanation: the white filly wasn't in class today because of something that Apple Bloom did. But, despite the way her mind had been working against her lately, she just couldn't think of any reasonable thing that she could have done to keep Whiteshadow away from class today, besides being a bit rude.

Suddenly, her mind flashed back to the nightmare she'd had the night before. How "dream Whiteshadow" had accused her of being weird for staring at her. Maybe that's why she wasn't in class! Maybe it was because she was too embarassed to be around her?

"Apple Bloom!"

She snapped back to reality and realized that Cheerilee had stopped talking and now she and everybody else were staring at her.

"Apple Bloom, could I have a word with you outside?" Cheerilee said to her sternly.

Her face bright red, she stood up and followed the purple mare out the door, a wicked grin on the face of Diamond Tiara the last thing she saw before she left.

When they were both outside in the hallway, Cheerilee looked concerningly at the filly and inquired, "Apple Bloom, is there something wrong?"

Apple Bloom's eyes looked at the ground, avoiding her teacher's gaze, and she mumbled, "No, Ms. Cheerilee."

"It just seems that you've been so...distracted lately, I was concerned that maybe there was something going on that might be keeping you from paying attention in class. How is your family doing? Is Applejack okay?"

Apple Bloom looked up at the mention of her sister, "My family is fine, ma'am. I guess I'm just...not sleeping well lately. I'm sorry. I'll try to pay attention."

Cheerilee smiled at Apple Bloom and patted her head, "Okay, then. You're a very bright filly, Apple Bloom; I'd hate to see your schoolwork affected by you staying up too late. Anyway, it's recess-time, so why don't you go play."

Apple Bloom nodded and tried to smile, but she felt those pains in her stomach starting up again. Cheerilee was more than her teacher; she was her friend and Apple Bloom had blown a great opportunity to finally get some of her thoughts and feelings off of her chest.

Then again, if word got back to Applejack that she was having funny feelings and thoughts about a particular filly, it might make things a bit uncomfortable back at the farm.

She decided to stop over-analysing things and, as Cheerilee had said, she went outside to play.

She spent her break-time skipping rope with Sweetie Belle, playing tag with Scootaloo and her scooter, and generally trying to forget about all of her confusing feelings. She was really looking forward to heading to the clubhouse after school and seeing what sorts of adventures the trio would have this time. For a brief time, she even forgot about Whiteshadow and her weird pains, the upsetting dream, and the disastrous dinner.

Before too long, though, Cheerilee was outside calling everybody back:

"Fillies and colts, recess is over! Everybody back inside please!" then added with a smile, "Oh, hello there, Whiteshadow; nice to see you back!"

Apple Bloom dropped her skipping rope and felt like her stomach did a summersault inside her body. She turned around and saw the white filly coming up the path, carrying her book bags and limping on a bandaged hoof. Apple Bloom purposely took her time putting her rope away in her bag, so that she started heading up the steps at the same time as Whiteshadow.

"Uh..hey." Apple Bloom said to her, hoping against hope that she'd even be willing to talk to her.

"Oh, hey Apple Bloom." the filly said, looking up at Apple Bloom with a smile that, to her frustration, sent a hot flush through her face.

"Ah missed you in class this mornin'." Apple Bloom said before she could stop herself. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and internally chastised herself for saying such a dumb thing.

Missed you? Seriously??

Whiteshadow winced in pain as she stood for too long on the bandaged hoof, "Oh...well...I missed being here, I guess. I tripped coming down my stairs this morning and sprained my hoof."

"Golly!" was all Apple Bloom could think of to say, restraining herself for expressing too much concern lest Whiteshadow become uncomfortable.

As the two fillies were about to enter the classroom, Whiteshadow suddenly put her hoof on Apple Bloom's shoulder. The white filly's touch made Apple Bloom's stomach feel like a thousand butterflies were inside it. She turned toward her and opened her mouth to say something but stopped as she saw Whiteshadow's face leaning in closer to hers.

Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh...what's she doing? She's not gonna...is she?

But Whiteshadow only leaned in to whisper in Apple Bloom's ear, "Look, I don't want to make a big deal of it, but I wanted to...um...apologize for how I left last night. I guess I was worried you were bored with me and I left so I didn't annoy you."

Apple Bloom's heart and mind were racing...

She...was worried...about annoying...me?

It felt like a huge weight had lifted off of Apple Bloom's heart. Knowing that Whiteshadow didn't think she was weird, or rude or annoying made her feel so good that she felt like hugging her. It was actually such a strong feeling for her that she took a step down to keep herself restrained.

"What's the matter with me?" she asked herself for the hundreth time that week.

Whiteshadow shrugged, "Um...we should head to class, but...I was wondering...and it's okay if you don't want to, but my dad said it's okay...did you want to come over to our house for supper and sleepover tonight?"

Apple Bloom smiled and, without thinking, said, "Shore!"

As soon as the word left her mouth, though, she remembered her plans with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle and regretted agreeing to it, but seeing the smile on her friend's face made it impossible for Apple Bloom to take it back.

*****

The rest of the day, Apple Bloom sat in class and actually managed to pay attention. It was as though her mind was freed from worry for the first time in over a week. She wasn't quite sure what it meant, or how it was connected to Whiteshadow, but she didn't question it. She still felt bad about having that talk with Cheerilee, so a step in the right direction was good enough for her right now. She also wasn't sure about how she was going to break it to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo that she wouldn't be going crusading with them that night, but she was sure they would understand.

"They're mah friends, ain't they?" she thought to herself.

Apple Bloom allowed herself a quick glance back at Whiteshadow - she was taking notes in their workbook - before redirecting her attention back to the front and focusing on her lessons.

By the time Cheerilee dismissed the ponies for the day, Apple Bloom had already formulated exactly what she was going to tell her friends. While Whiteshadow was getting her books gathered up, Apple Bloom walked over to Sweetie Belle and said, "Hey, Sweetie Belle, ahm sorry but ah won't be able to make it to the meeting tonight. Ah got invited over to a sleepover at Whiteshadow's house after school."

The white filly's eyes opened wide and she frowned sadly, "Bu...but we were going to go crusading tonight. We already made plans that tonight was going to be the night we were going to get our Cutie Marks!"

Apple Bloom felt a pang of guilt; it was true that she already made plans. She quickly responded, "Well...what about if ah ask Whiteshadow if she wants to come crusadin' with us? She don't have her Cutie Mark niether, so maybe she could join us Crusaders?"

Before Sweetie Belle could respond, Scootaloo walk up to them and scowled, "Let me guess: you aren't coming tonight because you made plans with the new filly, right?"

"Well..yeah," interjected Apple Bloom, "but like ah was just tellin' Sweetie, we should ask Whiteshadow if she wants to join us! She probably wants to get her Cutie Mark too."

"Right..." Scootaloo retorted, "She joins so that you can spend even more time staring at her when you think nobody is watching, and even more time ignoring us!"

Apple Bloom felt her face flush, both with embarrassment that somebody else had noticed how often she stared at Whiteshadow and with anger at the accusations.

"You have to make a choice, Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo continued.

"Don't do this, Scoots..." Sweetie Belle said sofly, trying to stand between her and Apple Bloom.

"No, Sweetie Belle, I'm tired of playing second pony to some new kid! You need to choose: her, or us!"

"Ah choose both!" responded Apple Bloom, her eyes starting to mist up, "Ah don't want to lose any friends, but...we can go crusadin' another night. The last time ah did something with Whiteshadow, ah acted like a real dummy and...I'd like to make it up to her."

"When are you going to make it up to us?" Scootaloo said, frowning and walking away. Sweetie looked in both directions, torn between what to do, before - looking like she was about to cry - she followed Scootaloo out the door.

Apple Bloom wiped the tears from her eyes. She had no idea why this was happening to her. Had she been ignoring her friends? Was there something wrong with the amount of time she was spending with Whiteshadow?

"Are you ready to go, Apple Bloom?"

The filly turned to see Whiteshadow next to her with her bag.

Apple Bloom swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded, "Yep...ah...ah just need to head home and let mah family know I'll be spendin' the night at your place. Ahm sure they'll be fine with it."

Whiteshadow smiled and flicked her mane back from her face. "Okay; I wrote down directions to my house. I'll see you in a couple of hours?"

"See ya then..." Apple Bloom said, trying to sound excited.

In truth, she really was happy to be able to spend time with her new friend, but something was nagging her in the back of her head. Maybe what Scootaloo had said was right?

She tried to forget about it, though, and walked home to get her stuff packed for the night.

Author's Note

Another chapter done, and this story still seems to be quite divided between those who seem to enjoy it, and those who seem to not.

I appreciate the support thus far, as this is definitely not your typical clopfic, so keep reading and I hope you keep finding it interesting. And if I haven't gotten your interest yet, hopefully the next few chapters perk your interest up a bit...:-)