Scootaloo was tired. She spent the whole night in Apple Bloom's wardrobe and could find hardly any sleep there. The inside of the wardrobe was uncomfortable. Even the bows, that she piled up to improvise a bed, didn't help. And the fact that Applejack came in every half hour to check after Apple Bloom was also not helpful.
Every time when she just managed it to fall asleep, Applejack entered the room to ask Apple Bloom something.
At one time, she came with a glass of water and then she thought that she heard Apple Bloom coughing. And it was going on like that for the whole night.
And after Applejack found out that Apple Bloom was gone she couldn't sleep either because Rarity, that came over to look after her and Sweetie while Applejack followed Apple Bloom, moralized her and Sweetie Belle the whole time.
Apple Bloom returned together with Applejack several hours after Rarity arrived at the farm. She was telling something about a chimera in a fire swamp that wanted to eat her, but luckily she was fine. Applejack managed it to defeat the chimera and to rescue her, and Scootaloo felt relieved over it that Apple Bloom returned safely.
Now, Scootaloo was on her way home. She only wanted to slip in her bed and catch up on her sleep. When she had reached her house, she opened the door, trotted in slowly and shut it with a kick of one of her back hooves, so that a loud bang echoed through the house.
She trudged up the stairs. When the entrance of her bedroom came in sight, she increased her tempo, eager to finally find some sleep. As she sped to the door, something pink fell out of her mane. She stopped and looked down. It was one of Apple Bloom's bows, the one she had worn in her room.
Right. She brought it over with her when she left the farm. Scootaloo picked the bow up and continued her way to her room, more slowly now. When she had entered her room, she immediately climbed into her bed and slipped under the blanket. Before she closed her eyes, she put the bow into her mane. For some reason she liked it. And this was something that confused the little filly.
Ever since she could remember she never wanted to wear bows. She always considered bows as cheesy and uncool. But when she had worn Apple Bloom's bow, she found out that she felt comfortable with wearing bows. And now that she had put it into her mane again she felt much better than on her way home when she wasn't wearing it. Scootaloo couldn't understand that. Why she liked it to wear bows suddenly?
“Were I wrong?”, she thought. “Have I never liked it to wear bows just because I never tried it?” She rolled to the side and glanced around the room for some moments. Cheerilee always said that it lies in the eye of the beholder if something is cool or not and that tastes can change over time. She rolled on her back again and took the bow out of her mane. She held it in front of her face with both hooves and inspected it.
It was made of a cheap fabric. Not one of the expensive ones of which Sweetie Belle talked so often, the ones that Rarity's richest customers ordered for their dresses. She examined one side very carefully and then turned it round to look at the other side, and examined it in the same way. Despite the cheap fabric that was used it still looked nice. She stroked the fabric with her hoof. She liked the feeling that the fabric created on her hooves. Even when it was only a cheap one it felt like the most valuable silk to her nonetheless. “No, it doesn't look nice.”, she thought. “It looks beautiful.” She continued stroking it, this time more gentle. Yeah, she really liked it. Maybe Cheerilee was right.
She pulled back the blanket a little so that her chest was free and pressed the bow against her. Scootaloo smiled. Even through her fur, she could feel the silkiness. Pressing the bow against her body like this generated a warm, cozy feeling in her chest. “It's strange to feel something like this for a simple bow, but it can't be wrong when it feels so good.”, she thought to herself.
For some minutes Scootaloo just laid there, enjoying the feeling.
Then she began to wonder again. She had noticed that the emotions she felt when she was wearing Apple Bloom's bow or when she was simply holding it in her hooves were the same like the emotions she felt when she thought on her scooter. That confused her even more.
She loved her scooter. Ever since Cheerilee bought it for her no day passed on which she wasn't racing through Ponyville with it. She had to practice first, but she got the hang out of it soon and since then nothing could stop her anymore. She learned many tricks in all these years and became a master in performing stunts with her scooter. She even became so fast that some pegasi in town couldn't keep up with her anymore. And she had undergone so many exciting things with her scooter. Like the one day when she ended up in the hospital and her scooter was almost ruined.
She was trying a new stunt, a Double Backflip. She practiced this stunt hard; she even skipped school on some days to master it. When she entered the Ponyville skate park on this day, she knew that she was ready.
She raced over the ramp, yanked her scooter up and managed to do the first half of the trick without problems, but when she started with the second 360° spin a bird flew into her way. She tried to dodge it and this ruined everything. She was loosing control in mid-air, felt to the ground and hit the edge of the ramp on the other side with her right foreleg. She also made the mistake to approach the ramp too fast which caused her scooter to be knocked down into a thousand pieces.
After she thudded down onto the edge, she couldn't move her foreleg anymore and it was distorted in an awkward way. She didn't feel any pain first, but the treatment in the hospital turned out as the most painful experience in her life up until this point. It was a compound fracture and it took months until the fracture was healed completely. Her scooter could be repaired too, but it took her weeks to convince Cheerilee to let her driving it again.
Her scooter meant as much as her life to her. No. Her scooter was her life! She even could say the same about her helmet that she got on the same day.
“But this bow?” she thought. “It doesn't mean anything to me. I just have it since last night, that's not enough time to develop such a strong bond to it. Do I really feel the same for it?” She lifted the bow up from her chest, held it in front of her face and rubbed over the thin fabric again. She thought on the cold metal of her scooter and how she felt when she touched it. No. It was not the same feeling. It was similar, but different. “Cold.....”, she murmured. Suddenly the feeling felt familiar. She remembered on it that she already felt it one time before. It was in last winter.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and she headed out into the north of Equestria on their own to get polar expedition cutie marks. They hadn't told anypony about it because they knew their families would have never allowed it. They only left a letter in Apple Bloom's room just in case something should happen to them. And something did happen to them.
They underestimated how quick the weather could change in northern Equestria and were surprised by a snowstorm before they could reach their destination, the Crystal Empire. Luckily they found an ice cave to take shelter in and even managed it to make a little fire by burning one of their saddle bags with matches that Apple Bloom brought with her. But the fire didn't last long and so they had to cuddle against each other to keep themselves warm.
Apple Bloom sat in the middle, with Sweetie Belle to her left while she snuggled against her right side. Her head rested on Apple Bloom's chest. She could feel her chest rising and sinking when she breathed. It had something very soothing to it to feel the movements of Apple Bloom's chest at her face and it made her feeling cozy in a way she never felt before.
Thanks to Twilight they were saved on this day. After Applejack found the letter she asked Twilight for help, who sent a letter to the Crystal Empire. Twilight's brother was the one that found them in the cave and brought them safely to the Empire. They got away with colds and after they could warm up a little, they made their journey home. Scootaloo was just happy that they survived this adventure and forgot the feeling quick. But now it was back. Yes, it felt the same way. But why?
Scootaloo tried to remember if she ever felt this cozy feeling again after that day in the cave, but she couldn't. There were no doubts. She only felt it one time before, when she was cuddling with Apple Bloom in the cave. And they never cuddled again after it.
Suddenly, Scootaloo felt a pain in her chest. The wonderful feeling she felt since she lied down in her bed with the bow was replaced with another one: Sadness. She was sad suddenly and a feeling of hopelessness hit her.
“It was such a long time since I cuddled with Apple Bloom and we never did it again..... What if she doesn't want to cuddle with me anymore?” She shook her head. “Wait, why did I thought this?”, she asked herself, now feeling surprised. “I never wanted to cuddle with Apple Bloom again!”
But the feeling didn't go away. And her explanation felt like she had just lied to herself. But still, this feeling couldn't be right! She tried to ignore it for some minutes, but it only grew stronger the more she tried it.
She couldn't deny it anymore: She wanted to cuddle with Apple Bloom again and the thought that they never did it ever again since the cave made her sad. “Does that mean that I..... No! This is ridiculous! We are only friends! Yeah, we are close friends and I like her very much, but..... I..... I don't love her!” Again the feeling of lying to herself. “But why do I feel like this then?”
She looked down to Apple Bloom's bow that was lying on her chest again now. Suddenly, she asked herself how it smells. Another strange thought in her head. But she couldn't resist. She picked it up, held it to her nose and sniffed at it. First slowly, then she took a deep breath. “It smells like Apple Bloom.”, she thought. The cozy feeling returned, now stronger than before. It spread out from her chest down to her stomach. Her stomach began to tingle. She pulled down the blanket more and stared at her stomach curiously. “Are these the butterflies everypony is talking about, the ones that you can feel in your stomach when you have a crush on somepony?”
She couldn't come up with a better explanation. It did feel like she had butterflies in her stomach after all. Scootaloo knew what this meant. The suspicion that she felt more for her best friend than she ever thought began to grow stronger. The filly rolled to the side. She held the bow to her nose again and sniffed on it a third time. And then again. She liked the smell of Apple Bloom on the bow and don't wanted to stop. She felt addicted to it. She tried to think of something else what this feeling could mean, but she couldn't come up with an idea. She sniffed on the bow again.
“Maybe I really love Apple Bloom.”, she thought. Scootaloo began to feel immensely happy suddenly. The feeling of sadness over the thought that Apple Bloom doesn't want to cuddle with her anymore, that she still felt a little, vanished and it was replaced by a wave of joy. She grinned unconsciously and turned on her back again. Now that she had spoken it out she knew it. She pressed the bow harder against her.
“Yeah, I love Apple Bloom!”, she thought. Then she sat up and shouted: “I love Apple Bloom!” And then again: “I love Apple Bloom!” She let herself fall down onto her pillow again and laughed. She was feeling free now; it was like a big stone felt off of her heart. Deep inside her she knew that she had to tell it to Apple Bloom someday and that meet her would be different from now on. But that wasn't important now. The only important thing now was this feeling, the feeling to love somepony.
“And the best thing is”, she thought, “that I will her meet again today!” She grinned. Now she was really glad for it that Apple Bloom insisted on it to held their next Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting this afternoon, even when she said how tired she was. Suddenly she felt worn out again.
Since she put Apple Bloom's bow into her mane minutes earlier her tiredness was completely blown off. Her big feelings for Apple Bloom and all the thoughts she did in the last minutes had dispelled all the tiredness how she realized now. But now that she had become aware of her feelings it returned.
Scootaloo yawned. She reached down and pulled the blanket up to her until it was under her chin, covering Apple Bloom's bow that lied still on her chest. Scootaloo slid her hooves under the blanket and embraced the pink little bow. She smiled again. She couldn't wait for it to see Apple Bloom again today, but now she needed some sleep to become rested up for their meeting.
She snuggled against her pillow and slowly delved into sleep. Her thoughts circled around their meeting today while she drifted away more and more. “Apple Bloom.”, she whispered a last time and then she was fallen asleep.
