You Are

by OfTheIronwilled

Rating: everyone
Tags: Cutie Mark Crusaders, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1965

After Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo finally stop standing up for themselves and each other, it's up to Apple Bloom to show them how their faults are nothing compared to their merits.

When Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon send the Cutie Mark Crusaders into a heavy silence in the clubhouse, it's up to Apple Bloom to cheer her friends up and prove to them that their flaws really don't matter at all.

Published 2013-12-31 06:30:06 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-31 06:30:06 UTC

Special

You Are (Special)

The clubhouse was dark. Really, really dark, mostly because of the patchy red fabric usually used as capes now being hung over the windows of the place and blocking most of the light shining from Celestia's sun. Sweetie Belle lay down on her stomach in the back-right corner of the tiny room, right near one of the aforementioned windows, and let her one of her hooves fiddle nervously with the makeshift curtain while the other scuffed against the wooden floor. Her head followed it, green eyes barely moving enough to watch the particles of dust covering the floor spread around in a tiny dark cloud from under her -- it was probably bad for her to be back here in the nearly untouched part of the clubhouse, Sweetie supposed, especially when she was kicking up so much dust, but she also supposed it was nothing compared to what Scootaloo was currently doing judging by the thudding bumps of hooves hitting wood and grunts of anger she could hear splitting from the other side of the house.

Sweetie gave a sad sigh, slowly tearing her head away from the sight of the cloud of dust slowly rising into the air above her hoof, and instead settled her wet eyes heavily on her pegasus friend, expecting to see and finding chaos. Scootaloo had her hooves pounding against the floor below her and sent tremors shivering throughout the entire tree their little house sat in, her tail flicking angrily and snorts sounding from her nostrils. Her wings buzzed wildly, just barely lifting her from the ground as she screeched out horrible names and continued to snap her back legs outwards, bucking the same area over and over again -- a dart board was set on the wall right behind the podium which was used for official document changes and member initiations (and just for playing around sometimes), covered in tattered pictures of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and that was Scootaloo's target. Already half of the pictures had landed in a crumpled pile on the ground, followed by several tacks which flew in all directions every time Scootaloo happened to bring her hind legs down for a short breather; and the podium had fallen to the ground, a few ore chips on the top of it. All of it would have to be fixed later, but for now...

Every buck had Scootaloo panting harder and harder, her body slowing down, and as she finally stopped her kicking, quieting down to fight her tears back, Sweetie Belle decided it would be a good time to finally ask her question.

"S-Scootaloo," she croaked, her voice hoarse. "Do you think Apple Bloom will be coming today?"

Scootaloo simply snorted in return, lying on the ground and curling up into a feeble ball with her head resting atop her forelegs. Sweetie Belle noticed that she turned away from her a little bit too, to where the two weren't looking exactly eye to eye, but she could still see Scootaloo's burning purple eyes twinkling with unshed liquids.

"I doubt it," Scootaloo muttered. "I doubt that she'll ever want to talk to me again. " And then her forelegs separated slightly, leaving enough room for her to lower her muzzle and hide her face under them. A quiet sigh and something that the pegasus wouldn't admit to being a sad, pathetic whimper, and then the only thing resembling life coming from her was the rise and fall of her chest and the occasional twitch of a wing or tail.

Sweetie Belle shuddered, she too starting to wrap hooves around herself, and then wrenched her eyes away from Scootaloo to jerk around to face the back, bare wall. She stared into the corner almost like she did as a foal in timeout, the area covered in shadow and cobwebs, her eyes burning as she tried not to think. Every second her eyes lifted higher and higher, even though she tried her absolute hardest to yank them downward and again to the dust-covered floor beneath her, and eventually they rested uncomfortably on her stub of a horn. Eyes stinging and the fur on her cheeks matting with hot tears, she fell into a ball into a ball on the ground too, wailing.

Why would Apple Bloom want to spend time or talk to Scootaloo, to her? A flightless pegasus and a useless unicorn who couldn't even do a levitation spell right -- they were both just freaks! Every time Apple Bloom did talk to them or stand up for them, just like a few hours ago, it just ended up with her being called names too for no reason. Sweetie wouldn't blame her if she hated them, wouldn't blame her at all...

The tree house settled into an almost-silence, the only sound to be heard being Sweetie Belle's sobs and the whistling of wind blowing the capes on the curtains all around. Nopony talked, even looked at each other, just wallowed, their faces shoved in their hooves. Just let the dust stay on the floor and all of their tattered decorations litter the ground.

And then, a few hours later, Sweetie Belle's ears perked. She lifted her head slightly, just enough for her eyes to poke over the edge of her hooves and dart to the entrance of the tree house, and to see that Scootaloo was doing exactly the same. Rubbing a hoof over her eyes and trying to shake the dirt out of her mane -- Rarity would be furious! -- she shakily got to her feet, her mouth and ears crinkling upwards,

A shape wriggled into the tree house, taking it's time, and as it squinted against the darkness clad in a crusader cape with a pink slip of paper in it's teeth, Sweetie Belle lunged forward, her legs pumping.

"Apple Bloom?!" she shouted, her mouth a giant smile of euphoria as she pounced onto the shape, the thing finally melting into a pale yellow against the darkness. Apple Bloom gave a muffled yelp around the slip of paper as she tumbled to the ground, Sweetie Belle on top of her, and she continued to lay, dazed, until a white hoof flicked upwards to hit the nearby light switch and rip a cape away from a window. "I thought you weren't coming back!"

Apple Bloom blinked from underneath her, shaking her head back and forth, and pushed Sweetie Belle away from her in order to stand up. After doing so and taking the piece of paper out of her mouth and into her hoof, she opened her mouth to speak-

Just to stop and clamp her jaw right back in its place as soon as her eyes shifted to the side, to where Scootaloo sat with her eyes slightly glistening. Apple Bloom cleared her throat then, in reaction to the look, and took a small step backwards to the place in which she came before averting her eyes and then closing them. Her eyebrows crinkled up, a bead of sweat rolling down her head before matting into her fur, and her grip on the paper tightened.

"L-Listen, Apple Bloom," Scootaloo stuttered from beside Sweetie. "I... I shouldn't have let those two talk to you like that back there. Really. I... I guess I should apolo--"

Apple Bloom lifted her hoof without opening her eyes, covering Scootaloo's mouth and rendering silent before once again taking a step backwards. Sweetie Belle frowned, looking between the two and noting the tenseness of Scootaloo's back melting away as her eyes fell to the floor. Sweetie was worried, really worried, and she shifted to the side in order to step in if it was absolutely necessary...

But then...

But then Apple Bloom opened her eyes, her yellow cheeks stained a bright, burning pink color, and looked down to the paper in her hooves.

"Hello there," she said, sweat once again rolling down her face as her narrowed eyes trailed the page in front of her. "Mah name is Apple Bloom, and Ah have two of the greatest friends a filly could ask for." A pause, a sigh, a nervous gulp, and then Apple Bloom smiled warmly, her shakiness going away as she simply tossed the paper aside and stared into her and Scootaloo's eyes. "One of 'em is named Sweetie Belle, and she's probably the nicest unicorn alive. She's got a real purdy mane and voice -- the purdiest voice Ah've ever heard -- and even though she can't do much with her horn yet, she can still lift small stuff up all neat-like and sing really good. She always helps me out with mah homework in Cheerilee's class, and she's a real smart pony who gets good grades on almost anything." Apple Bloom didn't give Sweetie Belle time to react, and instead turned to Scootaloo instantly. "The other is Scootaloo, and while she's as stubborn as a bull sometimes, Ah know she's every ounce as brave as one. Even though she ain't quite to flying yet she's still as fast as a jet on her scooter, and every day she zooms right on past Granny at the market and does a crazy stunt that me and tons of other ponies couldn't do in a million years. She doesn't take nothing from nopony and stands up for her friends no matter what, and every day she sticks it to those nasty mules Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She's as loyal as the Element of Loyalty herself, one of mah best friends... and sometimes... s-sometimes Ah wish Ah could be more like her and not let things under mah skin so much..."

Apple Bloom gave out a quick harrumph of a throat-clearing following her speech and jutted her chest out awkwardly as her cheeks splattered red, and clamped her eyes shut as to not look at Sweetie and Scoots reactions. Sweetie and Scoots in turn simply stood there, blinking, mouths twitching and their eyes burning as one fought to hide their crying face and one didn't -- after what happened today... after what happened today, Sweetie Belle couldn't believe what she was hearing (she suspected Scootaloo really couldn't) and just when she thought her crying was done she had found some other thing to start it up again, this time with a gigantic smile on her face. Apple Bloom could have stopped talking to her at any time, letting her get made fun of less often, but here she was... here she was... telling her that it didn't matter. That her burnt-out sparkler of a horn didn't work, that Scootaloo couldn't fly. It didn't matter. Because...

Because of everything that had just been said, really.

Everything in the crowded, still fairly-darkened clubhouse fell into another almost-silence, this one filled with just the breathing of ponies and the chirps of birds outside. Nopony said anything, nopony did anything. Just stood there. Stood, stood, and stood some more.

...

...

And then they hugged.

Author's Note

Before anyone says anything, I know this probably isn't spectacular. I expect it to do badly, actually, and there's a reason for that. This one wasn't really thought through as well as my others, and is mostly just to get some of the cobwebs out and get rid of my Writer's Block before I start a new, bigger, GOOD project. I thought it would be interesting to show my readers some of the practice I do, so here we are. Expect a better story soon, and not something that was just typed up in a little bit over an hour. If you like it then yay, but if not, then know that this is FAR from my best work, and that this was just for practice for later.