Chapters Sweetie Belle walked home by herself.
The high of talking to Cosmic had worn off, and now she was trotting home, sad at the fact she'd probably never speak to Cosmic Flash again.
When she got home, she stopped holding back the tears. She cried into her pillow until it was soaked in her salty tears.
If only she'd talked to him earlier.
***
Sweetie Belle didn't come down for dinner.
She lay in her bed, motionless. Much like last night, except this time she wasn't daydreaming about love.
She would normally be glad to be out of the machine that was school, but her the small corner of her mind that was happy, was extinguished by the horrible truth.
Sweetie grew tired, and crawled into her bed.
She put the blankets over her head, and again was rocked by a wave of sobs.
She wanted desperately to go to sleep, and maybe have some good dreams, to make the reality of the world go away.
Eventually, her head became hazey and she was about to nod off, when she awoken by a knock.
Sweetie Belle looked up, and heard the knock again.
She turned to her window, and almost fell out of her bed with surprise at what she saw.
Somepony with a teal mane was knocking at her window.
"Applebloom?" said Ms. Cheerilee
"Here." Applebloom replied
"Scootaloo?" Cheerilee said.
"I'm here!" Scootaloo replied.
"Sweetie Belle?" said Cheerilee
There was no answer.
"Sweetie Belle? Is Sweetie not here?" Cheerilee asked, and the students looked around, and shook their heads.
"Nopony has seen Sweetie?" Cheerilee asked, just to be sure.
As the students shook their head for a second time, Sweetie Belle rushed into the room. Her mane was astray, and her saddlebag was open. Papers were flying everywhere.
"I'm-" Sweetie paused to pant. "-here."
***
Sweetie Belle set her lunch tray down on a table, next to Applebloom's and Scootaloo's. There was barely anything on it, ust a juice box and some daisies.
"Soo, why were you so late today, Sweetie Belle? You're usually so organized." Scootaloo said, and took a bite out of her spinach salad.
Sweetie sighed. "Tomorrow is the last day of school. I guess my mind was already dead-set on oversleeping." Sweetie replied, and poked a hole in her juice box with the straw.
Yeah, oversleeping. That's why I was late. Sweetie thought. The real reason was she'd lost her homework to an angry Opalescence, and she'd been spending all morning looking for it. She eventually found it, slightly torn up in Opal's bed.
"Ah don't think ah'll ever be able to oversleep. Applejack has already been gittin' me up bright an' early to help around the farm." Applebloom complained, and snapped Sweetie out of her thoughts.
"Wasn't it Apple-buck season a month ago?" Scootaloo asked, and Applebloom sighed.
"It's always some sort of apple-season to Applejack." Applebloom said grumpily, and the two other ponies laughed.
***
Sweetie had barely finished her daisies when she heard the bell ring.
All the students then began to pick up their lunch trays, and throw them into the trash. It was almost disturbing ho orderly they seemed. Almost like, worker bees or something.
Sweetie shook her head vigorously. Come on, summer. School is driving me crazy. she thought, annoyed.
After all the lunch trays were discarded, and the tables cleaned off, all the students began to file into the exits of the cafeteria.
It was routine now. Sweetie Belle knew every student, she knew every hallway, she knew basically every inch of this school. It would be sad to switch to a new one in September.
As the students filed along, Sweetie saw a flash of teal mane. Huh? Who in the hay is that? I guess I don't know everypony here. She thought, and struggled to get closer to the strange teal-maned colt.
All the rushing and bustling around made it hard for Sweetie to get a better glimpse at the stranger. Eventually, she gave up and decided she'd find the pony tomorrow.
***
"And that's dividing fractions with uncommon denominators!" Cheerilee said happily, but the students didn't share her enthusiasm.
Cheerilee's voice was met with a series of groans, but everypony was silent again with a glare from Cheerilee.
"I just don't know what i'll do with these, these weeds." Cheerilee said under her breath.
Math was the last class of the day for Sweetie, but she couldn't keep her mind on the dancing numbers. All she could think about was the teal-maned pony. She was ashamed of herself for being so distracted, usually she was so concentrated.
This pony better be worth it if it made her wander off from her class.
Sweetie Belle started to put her books back in her saddlebag as soon as the bell rang.
She walked out with Scootaloo and Applebloom, still trying to find that mysterious teal mane.
Applebloom and Scootaloo were talking about..something. Sweetie Belle's mind was strained trying to locate the teal mane. For some reason, nothing else really mattered to her right now. All she wanted was to talk to the pony.
Sadly, Sweetie Belle couldn't locate the stranger. The walk home with her friends seemed to be as gloomy as a rain drizzle, yet it was a beautiful spring day.
***
Sweetie Belle lay in her bed. She had homework to do. She had to eat dinner. She had chores to do.
But she lay there, motionless.
Her mind, however, was anything but motionless.
Visions of the teal-maned stranger taunted her mind, making her crazier and crazier. She was angry at something, no, somepony! She was at rage that she couldn't see this pony.
And then she was at peace. Blissful picnics with the stranger played softly in her mind, making her long for him even more.
He would bring the utensils, I would cook us a marvelous dinner, we'd be so happy! Sweetie's mind raced with possibilities.
Sweetie Belle's mind was a battlefield of emotion. As she was hating the stranger for no good reason, she was having her first kiss with him at the same time. Sweetie barely even knew what he looked like!
Eventually, the surges of emotions died down due to exhaustion. She put the blanket over her, and stared at the window.
Come on. Knock on the window. I know you're there. Sweetie tried to convince herself the stranger would come climbing on her roof holding roses or something. The logical side of her mind tried to fight these insane thoughts with sheer facts, but the happiness of the thoughts was too much.
She stared at her window.
He'll come, he'll come...
***
"Sweetie Belle, I love you."
Sweetie jerked awake at the voice.
It was 3:30am, and the sky was as dark as ink.
She looked around the room, still in a haze of dreaminess.
"Hello?" Sweetie called.
Sweetie looked around, and got out of her bed.
"Is anypony there?" She said again.
Silence greeted her once again.
After being up for a few minutes, she decided the voice was just leftover from a dream.
Sweetie tried to go back to sleep, but her head had began the emotional buzzing again.
I feel like I'm in love with a shadow. She said to herself.
***
Sweetie Belle woke up early that morning, she felt like she had a dream last night, but she couldn't remember.
After pouring herself a bowl of cereal, and staring into space thinking about the stranger, a horrible realization hit her.
Today is the last day of school!
She rushed to clean up her breakfast and get together her saddlebag.
Today was the day she'd talk to this stranger. If she didn't do it today, she'd lose him forever.
***
Sweetie Belle met Scootaloo and Applebloom outside of Sweet Apple Acres.
They would walk to school together today, and go for a picnic after school ended.
"So, what's going on, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo said, and turned on Sweetie Belle, blocking the path.
Sweetie began to sweat nervously.
"What do you mean?" She said hastily, and tried to walk around Scootaloo, but to no avail.
Applebloom stepped up next to Scootaloo.
"Oh come on, Sweetie. Ever since lunch yesterday you've been as distracted as Snips from algebra." Applebloom said cheekily.
Sweetie tried to step around the two questioning fillies, but they kept moving to block her.
Eventually, Sweetie sighed and gave in.
"Fine. It's that blue colt with the teal mane. I can't get my mind away from him." Sweetie Belle said reluctantly.
Scootaloo and Applebloom looked at eachother.
"Cosmic Flash? Sweetie Belle, he's three years older than you." Scootaloo said, and Sweetie's face fell.
Now she knew his name, as well as his age. But now she wish she didn't.
She felt like crying, but she wouldn't let on to her friends. She sniffled, and held back sobs.
"I...I guess I'm just that desperate." Sweetie said, trying to smile.
Apparently her friends thought that was a joke.
Applebloom and Scootaloo laughed and continued walking.
"Ha. Yeah, so funny." Sweetie said under her breath.
***
Sweetie Belle arrived at school with her friends, like she did everyday.
She walked into class, she listened to lectures, she switched classrooms, listened to other lectures, and did that over and over again, like she did everyday, all the time scanning the hallways for Cosmic Flash.
She didn't really talk to anyone, she just passed thought the hallways like a ghost. She might as well be a ghost, what was the point of living anyway?
Down the hallways. Up the stairs. Into the locker. Down the hallways. Up the stairs. Into the locker.
This wasn't life. This was a machine.
And then the sweet release of lunch.
Sweetie Belle didn't sit with her friends today, she found a table in the corner and sat down for her hour of freedom.
She poked a hole in her juice box, and dug into her daisies, but it wasn't until she was halfway done that she realized Cosmic was sitting two tables away from her, in the other corner.
She put her head up and looked at him.
His head was in a book, every minute or two he flipped a page.
He was alone, too.
She put her head back down, and felt a wave of tears coming on, she held them back.
What am I doing? He's right there. She thought.
She got up with her lunch tray, took a deep breath, and walked over to Cosmic's table.
"Hi, I'm Sweetie Belle, are you Cosmic Flash?" Sweetie said.
Cosmic put down his book. "Yes, I am. Hi Sweetie Belle."
Sweetie Belle blushed, and the butterflies were set free to fly around in her stomach.
Sweetie sat down and continued her lunch with Cosmic.
And it didn't matter to her that Cosmic was fourteen she was about to be twelve.
It really didn't.
The only thing that mattered was that she was sitting down having a conversation with the teal-maned stranger, the one who haunted her dreams, the one who knocked on her window.
***
Apparently, Cosmic and her had a lot in common.
They both loved reading, and most gaming, they were both computer nerds, and both didn't have their cutie mark.
The rest of the day, Sweetie Belle was floating, she was so happy. She was mostly surprised that she worked up the courage to talk to Cosmic.
It wasn't until everypony was going home that Sweetie's happiness died.
That was the last lunch she'd ever have in this school.
***
