The Wrong Time For Love
by MagnetBolt
“Y'all ever notice how much time your sister spends with mine?” Apple Bloom asked, looking up from the blueprints to the Cutie Mark Crusaders next plan to get their cutie marks. “Ah keep havin' to do more chores because she's always goin' off to meet with Rarity.”
Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin with a hoof. “And Rarity's been kicking me out of the house a lot more. She says she's working on important things for her clients but she never shows me what she's working on.”
Scootaloo frowned and raised an eyebrow. “Uh, guys, we've got a plan here to work on and neither of you has figured out how we're going to get our wagon up to eighty-eight miles an hour. Where did you even get this math from?”
“Ah told you, it was in one of Twilight's books. It got mixed up with the ones she was givin' me to read on potion making.” Apple Bloom ran over to her stack of books and took out out carefully. But not carefully enough, the whole stack tumbling down. “Aw, horseapples.”
“What do you think they're doing together?” Sweetie Belle asked, helping Apple Bloom pick up the books. “Do you think Applejack is helping her put dresses together? I know my sister taught her how to sew when everypony went to Manehattan.”
“It has to be somethin' important, or else Applejack would never'a left those chores undone,” Apple Bloom said, as they pushed the stack back in order, the small handwritten journal uncovered.
“They're probably dating,” Scootaloo said, offhoovedly. “Now can we please get back to the plan? If we can just find a flux capacitor we can definitely get our time-travel cutie marks! I still can't believe I didn't get a hangtime cutie mark for that trick I did...”
“Dating?!” Sweetie Belle yelled, her eyes going wide.
“That's impossible,” Apple Bloom said, waving a dismissive hoof. “Those two ain't nothing alike. They don't got anything in common.”
“You mean aside from being like, best friends? And hanging out all the time?” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Come on guys. It's pretty obvious.”
“But if they're dating... that means they might get married!” Sweetie Belle gasped.
“If they get married we'd be sisters!” Apple Bloom realized, looking at Sweetie Belle.
“Oh great, just go ahead and take all the sisters for yourselves,” Scootaloo mumbled. “Don't mind me, over here with no family at all. No, I don't need anypony to be my sister. You'll be just fine with hoarding your sisters. I don't need one or anything.”
The other two were too busy thinking of the possibilities to hear her.
“We'd be living in the same house, and hanging out all the time-” Sweetie Belle started.
“You already do that!” Scootaloo yelled.
“-But we'd be hanging out as sisters!” Apple Bloom finished.
“And you could finally tell me your secret Apple family pie recipe!”
“And y'all could help me meet all them famous ponies your sister is always walking to!”
“And... I'd probably have to do farm chores.” Sweetie Belle frowned.
“And I'd have t' wear froofy dresses all the time...” Apple Bloom said, looking down.
“And they'd be so busy with each other that we'd never get to spend any time with them!” Sweetie Belle screamed, standing up in a panic. “My sister barely wants me around now! If she was married I'd never get to see her!”
“And Applejack would probably leave the farm and Ah'd have to do all th' chores myself every day! Ah'd never have time to do anything but work like she does! Ah wouldn't even be able t' go to school!”
“Okay, that's getting pretty silly,” Scootaloo put in, trying to interrupt. “Now you guys are freaking out about nothing-”
“We gotta stop 'em!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “If they get married it'll be a total disaster!”
“Don't you guys remember all the friendship lessons we learned? Like on Hearts and Hooves day?” Scootaloo looked at her two friends, who were too absorbed in their own plans to listen. She sighed and rolled up the blueprints they'd drawn up. “Guess we're going to have to do time travel some other day...”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders... um... Love Disaster Stoppers go!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle cheered.
“Yay,” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes.
***
“Do ya see her?” Apple Bloom asked. Sweetie Belle was standing on her shoulders and looking over a low wall towards the boutique. The filly was silent for a few moments, then jumped slightly, making Apple Bloom stumble.
“I see her! Applejack's going right in! The boutique isn't even supposed to be open today. This has to be a date.”
“Why wouldn't they tell us?” Apple Bloom asked. “This don't make no sense.”
“Maybe they were worried you'd freak out about it,” Scootaloo noted.
“That's silly! We never freak out about anything!” Sweetie Belle said. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. Sweetie Belle blushed. “Well maybe a little. But this wouldn't have happened if they'd just tell us what they were doing!”
“Do you really want to know what they're doing? What if you walk in on them and they're, you know.” Scootaloo waved a hoof. She wasn't actually sure on the fine details of how things worked. There was kissing involved, but after that it was kind of a blank. She was pretty sure there was more involved than that, but Cheerilee hadn't gotten that far in sex-ed yet, and wouldn't for a few more years.
“That'd be... the. Worst. Thing. Ever!” Sweetie Belle gasped, falling dramatically off of Apple Bloom. Unfortunately she hadn't mastered her sister's grace and ability to have a fainting couch on hand at a moment's notice, so she just landed awkwardly in the dirt.
“They wouldn't! Would they?” Apple Bloom asked, helping Sweetie Belle up.
“If they are we should just leave them alone,” Scootaloo said. On the other hand, if it had been Rainbow Dash, she might have been easily convinced to go and see.
“We have to know,” Sweetie Belle said. “Apple Bloom and I will sneak in the back. You go in the front. That way if they see you, you can just say you're looking for us!”
“Perfect plan!” Apple Bloom said, nodding. “And if we get caught, um. We'll just have t' be extra careful.”
“Fine,” Scootaloo said, sighing. At least she was the least likely to get in trouble from this. “But if something goes wrong I'm getting out of there before the screaming starts.”
***
Scootaloo quietly made her way to the front door and pushed it open silently. Or at least she tried. The bell over the door rang loudly, making the filly wince. The boutique's lights were turned off, and she looked into the darkness, wondering how angry they'd be that she came in without permission, and probably interrupted... whatever it was that the two did when they were alone.
“Hello?” Scootaloo asked. If she just acted confused, maybe she could get out of this just looking stupid instead of suspicious.
“Quiet!” Somepony hissed, closing the door. “Otherwise they'll hear you!” It sounded like a filly. Scootaloo blinked, trying to let her eyes adjust to the darkness.
“They who?” She asked.
“We've been over this already! Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom!” The other pony stepped into the light, and Scootaloo gasped. It was another Scootaloo!
“Changeling!” She started to scream, when somepony covered her mouth with a hoof, muffling her. She looked up to see Rarity.
“Dear, she's not a changeling. This could take some explaining. If you promise to be quiet and listen, I'll explain everything.” Rarity smiled, looking tired.
“She'll agree. I remember doing this,” the other Scootaloo said. Scootaloo calmed down and looked at her, confused. Rarity let go, and Scootaloo looked back at her.
“Hoh boy,” Applejack said, walking out of a back room, with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in tow. “Guess y'all were right about this havin' to turn around in a loop.”
“Sweetie Belle! Apple Bloom! I'm not the changeling, she is!” Scootaloo pointed at the other her.
“Um, actually, neither of y'all is a changeling,” Applejack said. “It's just that you ain't her yet. Or somethin' like that. Can't say as I understand it much.”
“We sort of went back in time,” Sweetie Belle said, rubbing a hoof on the floor, embarrassed. “We saw Rarity and Applejack kissing and-”
“Y'all can't just tell her everything that's gonna happen!” Apple Bloom said, interrupting Sweetie Belle. “Twilight said it'd cause a paradox if we change the past!”
“No, it's a predestination paradox and we can't change it!” Sweetie Belle countered.
“Ugh,” the other Scootaloo groaned. “This is making my head hurt. The point is, um, me, that I remember this from your perspective, so I know how it turns out.”
“Wait...” Scootaloo considered. “You're me from the future!” She gasped. “Did I get my cutie mark yet?!” She ran around to look at her copy's flank... which was completely blank.
“No!” Other Scootaloo snapped. “And it's even more annoying now, since I went to all that effort and didn't even get a cutie mark! I only had two days to build an entire time machine and I couldn't even let anypony know!”
“Wait, only two days? Why?” Scootaloo frowned.
“Because in two days you need to go back in time to last Thursday so you can become me,” Scootaloo explained.
“All three of us go back,” Sweetie Belle said. “Then we had to hide here until everything gets straightened out. Twilight said we have to avoid... um...”
“Contiminatin' the timeline.” Apple Bloom supplied. Sweetie Belle nodded.
“Applejack and I have been trying to keep you company and keep you away from your other selves,” Rarity explained.
“It's why we thought they were avoiding us,” Sweetie Belle said. “They were really splitting their time with other-us! Which is, um, us. But it's other-us from your perspective. Time travel is complicated.”
“Applejack left th' chores undone to keep me busy so I wouldn't have time to run into myself. And Rarity was keepin' Sweetie out of the boutique because we've been hidin' here!” Apple Bloom smiled. “They weren't really goin' out at all!”
“But what about when you said they were kissing?” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gasped.
“That's right!” Sweetie Belle said. “We found them kissing in the kitchen! There's not much time left! You two have to go in there and kiss!” She started pushing Applejack and Rarity towards the doors. “Otherwise it'll cause a paradox and we'll all get flung into an endless time vortex!”
“It can't happen on account a' the timeline bein' self-repairin',” Apple Bloom retorted.
“I don't wanna take that chance!” Sweetie Belle yelled.
***
Sweetie Belle unlocked the back door. It had taken a few minutes. She had the key, but she figured it would be a good time to try and work on her lockpicking cutie mark. She looked at her flank. No such luck. She'd never get to be a daring thief at this rate! She sighed and opened the door slightly, looking inside.
“Do you see anythin'?” Apple Bloom whispered.
“Not really... wait! There they are!” She gasped. Rarity and Applejack were talking quietly in the kitchen. She couldn't make out what they were saying. Then, Applejack swept Rarity off her hooves and pulled her deeply into a kiss.
Sweetie Belle held back a scream, her jaw dropping. Apple Bloom pushed past her frozen form to look and had more or less the same reaction.
“Oh no!” Sweetie Belle shivered. “It's too late!”
“We're gonna end up never seein' our sisters again!” Apple Bloom said, quietly.
“And I'll have to do farm chores all day!”
“In froofy dresses!” Apple Bloom added.
“Wait a minute, do you remember the plan?” She looked at Apple Bloom. “We were gonna build a time machine! We can go back and stop them from ever getting together!”
“O' course! It's a great plan!” She almost shouted, then quieted herself. The two mares were still kissing. “We gotta go back and stop this. Ah think they started spendin' a lot of time with each other last Thrusday...” The two ran off, discussing what to do.
***
“There,” Other Scootaloo said, with a sigh. “That ties up that loop. Now you just need to go and get that time machine built with them, then you can go back in time and become me, and have this conversation with yourself, and then we can get on with our lives.”
“I hate time travel,” Scootaloo mumbled. Other Scootaloo nodded, agreeing.
“Oh!” Other Scootaloo said. “I remember... um. I told you to borrow the flux capacitor from Time Turner. He's got like ten in his shed.”
“Thanks. Any other advice you can give me?”
“Don't mess up!” Other Scootaloo yelled. “The timeline depends on you getting those two back in time two days from now! Oh. Bring a newspaper so Twilight will listen to you.”
“Got it!” Scootaloo ran off, following her friends. Even if it wouldn't get her a cutie mark, at least she could make sure she didn't cause the timeline to collapse.
***
Applejack and Rarity watched as the Future Cutie Mark Crusaders went back to the room they'd been grounded in. They'd been playing board games and reading books, but were itching to get back to their lives. It'd only be a few days now.
“Ah can't believe all this started jes because they thought we were going out,” Applejack sighed. “Those sisters a' ours just make a mountain out of every little molehill.”
“Well you can't blame them too much, dear,” Rarity said, calmly. “They're just worried that we wouldn't love them as much. But love doesn't work that way, of course. You don't just run out because you love somepony else too.”
“Ah can blame them for bein' a little dense, though,” Applejack smiled. Rarity smirked and bumped her flank into Applejack's.
“Don't be too hard on them. We've been keeping it a secret for two months now! Even Pinkie Pie doesn't know. Though after that kiss it's no wonder they figured it out.”
“Well we had a lot of practice before we had two sets of sisters to keep track of. Ah guess I've been a little pent up.”
“They'll be busy for a while with their games. Maybe we can get a little more, ah, practice in just in case they come back and we need to give them more motivation to build that time machine?” Rarity laughed, nuzzling her orange lover.
Last Thursday wasn't nearly far enough to stop them from getting together.
