Something More

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo made their way through the park alongside its calmly flowing river. Sweetie happily bouncing around with a picnic basket in her mouth, while Scoots followed close behind, looking bemused at the young unicorn’s antics. With Apple Bloom home sick, the two fillies had been at a loss for what to do that morning, but when they saw what a beautiful day it was shaping up to be, they had packed a lunch and headed out to the park for a picnic.

They headed toward a small cluster of trees at the park’s edge - not 150 yards from the Everfree Forest - that provided privacy and shade. The two had been going there together for years, long before they had met AB. With the distractions that crusading offered, the two hadn’t had an opportunity to go for a long time, but the spot still held a fond feeling of nostalgia for both of them.

The two had actually met as young foals messing about on the playground. When they hit it off, Rarity and Scootaloo’s foster mother arranged a play-date, and the two had been best of friends since. They had their first picnic there under the tree, and soon after and it became a bit of a tradition. For a while, they would have a picnic every weekend. Then Apple Bloom had come along, and while the two girls in no way resented the way the group had changed since AB’s inclusion, it was rather nice to revisit something from a simpler time. From before cutie marks or bullying, before life had gotten so much more complex.

In the past few months, they had both realized that their expansive, try-everything tactics for cutie mark acquisition made little sense. They had changed approaches, and decided to stick to things that they already showed promise in. Sweetie Belle was focusing on her magic and her singing and had recently enrolled in lessons, while Scootaloo was spending a lot of time on her scooter and practicing her flying with Rainbow Dash.

“-and the Rarity says she’s gonna take me into Canterlot this weekend to see Neigh Miserables. Oh, I’m so excited!” Sweetie exclaimed with an impressive voice crack.

Scootaloo looked down, hiding her face in shadows in an attempt to obscure her growing blush. It’s just not fair the Sweetie gets to be so adorable! she thought to herself. “Thats awesome, Sweetie. RD is planning on getting tickets for a Wonderbolts Derby too. I’m pretty psyched for that.”

“Oh wow Scoots, that is awesome!”

“I know! Rainbow even says she’s gonna let me do some betting.” Sweetie gave her a look. “What? Fleetfoot always wins. Rainbow says so.”

“If you say so,” Sweetie responded doubtfully. “Anyways, we’re here.” The spot really was peaceful. The green leaves filtered out most of the sunlight leaving only soft green rays of light that gave the place a calm and otherworldly feel. The quiet rustling of the leaves harmonized perfectly with the slow murmur of the creek and the ground below their feet filled their noses with a thick, earthy musk. She dropped the picnic basket at the base of a huge, ancient tree, and set about clearing a space for the two to sit down. Using her forelegs to dig down at ground level, she was unabashedly exposing her rump to Scootaloo, a sight that the pegasus was trying her very hardest to avoid looking at. Since when do I think about Sweetie that way? Since when is it so hard to spend time with one of my best friends?

“All set!” Sweetie opened up the basket and began pulling out all of the food that they had brought with them. This included some delicious zap-apple jam sandwiches along with some cool Sweet Apple Acres cider. And of course for dessert they had packed some famous Sugarcube Corner cupcakes. No picnic was complete without some cupcakes.

“This looks great.” Scoots said, digging in as soon as the food left the basket. Workouts with Rainbow were hard work, and lately she had been in a perpetual state of hunger. Sweetie sat down next to her and took small, dainty bites in stark contrast to the ferocity with which her friend was devouring her food.

Sweetie couldn’t help but think it was just a little bit cute, the pint-sized pegasus devouring her meal with the enthusiasm of ten full-grown stallion. Ugh, stop it, she mentally berated herself. She wasn’t sure when her emotions toward her oldest friend had changed, but she wanted them back the way they were. Having a crush made things so… complicated. Is that what this is then? A crush?, she asked herself mentally. I guess so. I just think of her in an entirely new light, and I have been feeling differently about her for a few months now. Even things that are just as simple as eating sandwich. If it was another pony doing it - even AB - I wouldn’t give it a second glance. But when it’s Scoots, it becomes the most interesting thing and I could just watch for hours. It just makes me feel… happy. I feel happy and light like I could just float away and I just want to sing! I want nothing more than to spend hours and hours just talking to her. Should I tell her? But what if she doesn’t feel the same way? But what if she does? Either way, doesn’t she have a right to know? It is my secret, but if she is uncomfortable with the way I’m thinking about her, she does have a right to know. I need to tell her. It’s gonna be hard but I have to do it. Maybe not today, but I’ll have to eventually.

She realized she was blushing a deep crimson and was glad for the distraction that eating provided. Hopefully Scootaloo hadn’t noticed. Sweetie really intended to tell Scoots about her feelings, she just needed more time to sort out what she was going to say. Saying something like that was big, it could change their friendship forever, so she wanted to deliberate to make sure she did it right. She lifted the sandwich in her magic using her newly refined levitation skills and returned to taking small, elegant bites.

Scootaloo couldn’t help but be intrigued by the manner in which the unicorn was now eating her sandwich. It just looked so classy. Heh. I bet she learned that from Rarity, she thought. Wow, though. She really does look cute, especially with her cheeks all red like that. I wonder what she’s thinking about... Hey, snap out of it, brain! I really shouldn’t be thinking about her like this. She’s one of my best friends for Celestia’s sake! Still, these past few months I just haven’t been able to get her out of my head. She’s beautiful and upbeat and kind and I’ve known her for so long, it feels like we should be more than friends. So yep, that’s it... I have feelings for Sweetie Belle. I just… I can’t fight it. Whenever I’m with her I feel better. I forget how much trouble I have flying, or how bad I did on my last math test, or even the fact that I STILL don’t have my cutie mark. When I’m with her I just feel happy; and it doesn’t matter if I fail at everything. There’s no way I could ever tell her, though. She could never feel the same way about me, and I’d just be hurting our friendship. I really don’t want that to happen, my friends are pretty much the most important thing in my life these days. Besides, she probably doesn’t even think that way about other fillies at all, she seems like the type that would go for colts. It’ll be hard, but this is something I just have to live without, I’m better off not risking it.

Scootaloo looked up from her finished sandwich and saw that Sweetie Belle was looking at her. She looked back down, trying and avoid an awkward silence but that only made things more awkward. Scootaloo could feel Sweetie’s eyes in the top of her head as she tried frantically to think of something to say that would release the tangible tension in the air.

“Sooo… that was a really tasty sandwich, huh?” She said tentatively. Sweetie, glad for the distraction, nodded enthusiastically.

“Oh yeah, really good. Umm… and we still have umm… cupcakes! Yeah! Pinkie said this batch was especially delicious.”

“Oh great. Haha…” Scootaloo reached down on the platter, grabbed a cupcake, and stuffed it in her mouth so she could avoid embarrassing herself by saying more stupid things. It really was quite good. This picnic had gone from fun and relaxing to awkward and stressful in nearly no time at all. She chewed the cupcake while carefully trying to pick a sentence that might move the conversation into less awkward territory. “How’s your singing going?”

The unicorn’s eyes lit up as she was reminded of her passion. “It’s going perfectly!” She said excitedly. “My teacher has just given me a whole bunch of new songs to work on and I just love all of them. I really feel like I’m improving.”

“That’s really good to hear, Sweetie. Do you think… do you think you could maybe sing one of them for me?”

Sweetie Belle visibly tightened up. “I don’t know… none of them are really ready for a performance yet…”

“Oh come on, this isn’t a performance. No one else is watching. You’re just singing for your… friend.”

“I don’t know, Scootaloo.”

“ Pleeeeaase?” Scootaloo turned on her best puppy dog eyes. They were nowhere near as good as Sweetie’s, but still hard to resist.

“Alright fine. But if it’s not as good as you’re expecting, I warned you.”

“Your voice is amazing, It’s gonna be great.” Scootaloo said reassuringly.

“If you say so…” Sweetie cleared her throat and started singing a slow simple melody, her voice startlingly rich and mature. Scootaloo could only watch in awe as the unicorn shyly began her song. It was one of the most beautiful things the pegasus had ever heard.