The market was a bustling with activity. Ponies zipped from stand to stand by hoof or by wing, anxious to finish off their lists in time to make supper. The customers made offers and the vendors made replies. It was loud in the wrong sort of way. It made Apple Bloom want to get up and go someplace else, anywhere but where she was.
The market had been fun when she was a filly. She’d run around through the legs of the older ponies, running to every last stand to see what they were selling, even though it never really changed. Applejack would try to rope her into helping with the family stand, but she’d always managed to escape from her older sister.
Apple Bloom remembered that fondly. It was a lot simpler back then, back when she was little. But she was so much older than that now. She could do anything, in fact, she was invincible. She had the brain to think up the zaniest misadventures, and the lack of a brain to try them out. She was old enough to pull her weight on the farm, even though she didn’t have an apple on her flank. There was always something at Sweet Apple Acres that needed fixing. It made her wonder how her family had ever gotten along without her.
She was even old enough to have a marefriend, which she did. She smiled. Alula was a great marefriend. Sure, she didn’t really see her that much, but that didn’t mean they weren’t going out, no matter how much Scootaloo, or anybody, teased her about it.
“Hey AB. Whatcha doing?”
“Well, speak of The Nightmare. I was just thinkin’ about you.”
Scootaloo grinned coyly. “Why so?”
Apple Bloom chuckled. “Scoots, we already went over this. Yer not my type. Besides, I thought you had a thing for Rumble.”
Scootaloo blushed. “Well, yeah. It wouldn’t kill you to flatter me though.”
“Okay, fine,” she said, “Wanna come back to my place? Granny’s the only one home, but she slept through the Changeling invasion, so I don’t think she’d notice.”
“Okay, now you just made it weird,” she said, looking a bit astonished.
“Ya brought it on yerself.”
“I said flatter me, not make me feel like I should fly halfway across Equestria for safety.”
“Well yer still here, aren’t ya?”
“Yeah, but I don’t really know why,” she said, looking down at the market from their hill. “I flew all around Ponyville looking for you to see if you wanted to do anything.”
“Nah, I don’t really.”
“You realize school starts tomorrow, right?”
“Yep.”
“And you want to spend the day doing nothing?” Scootaloo exclaimed, unbelieving.
“I’m doing somethin’,” Apple Bloom stated matter-of-factly. “I’m watchin’ the market ponies.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I noticed. But why can’t we go do something, y’know, cooler?”
“Well, I know Sweetie Belle’s out of town, so you’ve got nothin’ else to do but what I want to do. Also, you’re really easy to mess with.”
“When you’re right, you’re right,” Scootaloo admitted. She let her front hooves give out. Next came the backs. With nothing to hold it up, her body dropped to the ground, her stomach coming to rest on the grass. The blades tickled her muzzle, but she didn’t mind.
To her credit, she spent a good ten minutes doing what Apple Bloom wanted. She sat there, picking one pony to watch, then another when that pony left the market. After a while, this would get boring for anypony, most of all somepony like Scootaloo, who even now couldn’t sit still for very long. So it was a surprise when Apple Bloom was the first pony to break the silence.
“You see those two ponies over by the Tomato stand?”
Scootaloo blinked. “Wha?”
“The brown stallion and the light blue mare over there,” Apple Bloom said, pointing over to the left.
“Oh yeah, that’s Caramel and Sassaflash. They got engaged last week, right?”
“Yeah, but Sassaflash ain’t even talkin’ to him. It looked like Caramel said somethin’, then she just started ignorin’ him all of a sudden.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Caramel must’ve said something dumb.”
Apple Bloom looked over at her. “What, you think it’s his fault?”
“Well yeah, stallions can’t just say stupid things to their marefriends. And why else would she be acting like that?”
“She might just be overeactin’.”
“Oh please, mares don’t do stuff like that. Stallions are just bad at romance.”
Apple Bloom sighed. “Trust me Scoots, that ain’t how it works. Mares buck things up just as much as Colts do.”
“How would you know?”
“Really? I’m goin’ out with another filly. ‘Course I know how they act.”
Scootaloo didn’t have a response from that, other than stuttering. Apple Bloom continued.
“And there goes Sassaflash. She’s runnin’ down the street away from him. But look, nopony’s even paying attention; they’re actin’ all normal like.”
“Yeah, I guess they are,” Scootaloo replied, not quite sure what Apple Bloom was getting at.
“What if me and Alula had a fight in the market? If we got really angry and started shoutin’, I bet them adults would care.”
Scootaloo thought this over for a while. “Yeah, I kinda see what you mean. It’s like adults expect more out of us because we’re supposed to be growing up.”
“Yeah, exactly. But they don’t even do the stuff they say we should be doing. They tell us to be all civil-like, but they ain’t that way at all.” She scanned the marketplace again. “Hey, you see that mare over at the carrot stand?”
“Yeah.”
“The one shopping looks like she’s been chewing that mare’s ear off!”
“Yeah, she has. I’ve been watching for the last minute or two.”
Apple Bloom looked over at her quizzically. “Why didn’t ya point it out?”
“What, are we in a hurry? You’re the one who wanted to sit around and watch the townsfolk.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she replied. “And yer the one who said y’all was goin’ to be bored.”
Scootaloo smiled. “Yeah, guess you’ve got a point,” she said, refocusing her attention to the market. “I wonder what she’s even shouting at her for. Is it really so important that she needs to make the other pony feel bad? What’s up with that?”
“I don’t know, but that’s the point. Them adult ponies say we don’t do anythin’, but our nothin’ is better than their somethin’. It’s like they’re preparin’ us for some life we ain’t even gonna live.”
“Yeah, who knows,” said Scootaloo flatly, nudging a stone down the hill. It rolled and bounced, gaining more and more momentum until it finally came to rest at the bottom. The two sat in silence for a while, just watching the ponies going to and from the stands, no longer thinking about them, but about themselves.
“I can’t believe it’s our last year of school tomorrow,” Scootaloo said after a spell.
“Yeah, just one more year before we’re all on our own. Or at least, until you are.”
“Shut up, you’ve got it easy. You already know what you’re going to do.”
“So do you. You’ve got that cutie mark for a reason ya know. It means yer good at somethin’.”
“Yeah, I’m good at dancing. What am I supposed to do with that?”
“Well, I don’t know, be a dancer?” Apple Bloom asked sardonically.
“You know how hard it is to be a dancer though? You have to put in hours and hours of work just for a slight chance of being successful. Sometimes I wish I had your talent. It must be nice, already doing what you’re meant to do, not having to worry about it.”
Apple Bloom was indignant. “Are you kiddin’? I wish I her yer cutie mark sometimes.”
“Why?” Scootaloo asked.
“Ya don’t see it?”
“Not really.”
“The way I see it, I’m gonna spend the rest of my life workin’ on the farm. And sure, I love the farm and all, but you’ve got a chance to be famous and impress all of Equestria. A carpenter just can’t do that sort of thing.”
Scootaloo thought, then spoke. “I guess I see what you’re saying. But isn’t the stability nice?”
“Yeah, I guess it is. I’ll always have work, and I guess I’m be content in some smaller way. It sure is easier than bein’ a dancer.”
“Yeah, and I guess I do have a chance to do something important. It just scares me, that’s all.”
The wind blew through the long grass of the hill. It started tickling again. Scootaloo tried to blow it away, but to no avail. Her view of the marketplace was obscured by the green blades, but she could see all she really needed to; she couldn’t see all the trees, but she knew there was a forest there.
“Maybe that’s why they’re so upset all the time.”
“What d’ya mean?” Apple Bloom wondered.
“I think it’s because they spend too much time worrying about if their life is turning out how they wanted it to when they were our age. I mean, if I was stuck in the middle of my profession at that age, feeling like I couldn’t move up any farther and hoping I didn’t go any lower, I’d be pretty upset sometimes too.”
“That makes a lot of sense. Maybe that’s why they have all those other issue. They probably create all those small problems them ‘cause they don’t want to think about the bigger ones.”
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo, staring off into the distance. If she hadn’t been scared of being an adult before, she was now. She was on a huge wheel, spinning faster and faster even though she desperately wanted to get off. She was getting dizzy, and a bit nauseous.
And worst of all, the grass was still itchy.
She stood up, spreading out her wings, ready to take off. Apple Bloom looked up at her.
“Where you going?”
“Home. I’ve got some stuff to do.”
“The summer homework?”
“Yep.”
“You didn’t even start yet, did you?”
Scootaloo smirked. “What else would you expect?”
Apple Bloom chuckled weakly. “Have fun.”
“Oh, I won’t,” she replied, leaping into the air and making a beeline for her house. Apple Bloom watched her go, her body becoming a small orange blip as the got farther away. From the hill, she saw her friend land and walk into her house. She could also see the sun, which was well on its way to setting. In fact, she was going to be late for dinner if she didn’t hurry.
She got up, taking one last glance back at the market. Sure, it was full of ponies who sometimes seemed a little on edge, but the still managed to have fun. There were as many smiles as frowns, probably more. It was just that the bad moments were more noticeable, like bright green paint spilled on the side of a deep red barn. But it would take a lot of green paint to fully cover up that wall, and with the right primer, you could paint right over that spill. That she knew from experience.
It still scared her, though. She still longed for the days where she, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were still looking for their cutie marks. Her sister had told her time and again she shouldn't be in such a hurry to grow up, and as she usually way, Applejack had been right about that one. There were some great things about her life now, though. She had a purpose and talent, and she loved them. She had a marefriend. She had a lot of things she didn't have as a filly. That was what made if complicated.
Taking a deep breath, she turned from the market, heading down the hill in the direction of home. She wanted to forget about life for a while, pretend for just a bit more that it was as it always had been. And she knew that the best thing for forgetting your troubles was some fresh home cooking.
