"I’m still not sure I can do this,” I said softly, only loud enough for the orange Pegasus mare next to me to hear. She said nothing in response, but she extended a wing and wrapped it around me, pulling me in closer to her. There was no reason for me to be whispering as we were laying on a cloud a little ways over Ponyville, but I still kept on it. “Maybe I should just give up. There’s no reason he would like somepony like me,” I shook my head, “He probably doesn’t even like colts anyway.”
She frowned and lightly smacked me in the head. In all honesty I deserved it, but she could have gotten her point across in a much better way. “You need to stop putting yourself down, dude. Nothin’s gonna come from this if you don’t ask him.”
“But isn’t that better than him saying no?”
“Worse than him saying yes though.” She smiled cockily, the way she always does when she knows she’s right. That’s Scootaloo for you though. Always right. She ran a hoof through her purple mane, straightening out the tangles and the knots that were consistently present. She wrapped her wing tighter around me and sighed. “I don’t see what your problem is though. All you gotta do is just ask him. Sure it might hurt a bit, but it’ll hurt more if you don’t do it.”
I grit my teeth and layed my head against the cloud. “It’s not that easy, Scoots. I can’t just ask him out like you did Rumble.” I could feel the pain in my chest getting worse, but I still continued on. “Ponies like me, we go against the natural order of things. Colts aren’t supposed to like colts, that’s just the basic fact. Somewhere along the line, I screwed up and now I…” I hesitated. I couldn’t even admit it to myself. It was a wonder I could even tell her that I loved him.
She stopped me from continuing with a hoof to my mouth. “Keep talking like that and I’ll have to tell Trick myself.” She was smiling, but I knew she would if I didn’t buck up immediately.
I moved her hoof from my mouth and sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell him.” My gaze drifted back down to the cloud. “Just give me some time, okay?”
“Okay,” She said brightly with an actual smile. “Do you want any help or..?”
“Yes!” I blurted out instantly, much to my embarrassment. I quickly attempted to recompose myself. “I, uh, what I mean to say is uh,” I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I sort of need your help.”
“Alright,” She said with a smile that didn’t make me scared. “Meet me in the park in forty minutes. We’ll go over what to do there.”
“Why the park and why forty minutes?”
“Plot convenience.” And with that, she stood up and took off to Celestia knows where, leaving me with words that didn’t yet make sense.
I sat there in silence for a good minute before I rolled over and stared at the sky. It was nice, nearly cloudless aside from a few that the weather team forgot. Thankfully, one was perfectly placed to block the sun from my eyes. I sighed and ran a gray hoof through my violet mane. It was getting entirely too long, but I couldn’t be bothered to get it cut.
“You’re going to have to do it at some point,” I said to myself. I couldn’t tell if I was talking about the haircut or Trick Shot. Either way, it wasn’t happening. I was too nervous to do either.
“Hey Violet,” I heard a sweet, melodious voice call from the ground below, “Are you up there?” I smiled slightly, happy I had something to distract me from my thoughts.
I extended my wings fully and kicked the cloud below me to make it dissipate, which would probably make certain members of the weather team angry later, but then I did a hella flip that makes it mostly better. I glided down to the ground and saw Sweetie Belle patiently waiting for me below.
She smiled at me as I touched down, the sort of smile that could cure a sick puppy, as she bounced in place, her pink and purple curls bouncing wildly with her. I could tell that she might have been the slightest bit happy. “So, Scootaloo told me what happened,” She said loudly, like it was common knowledge already. “I just wanted to tell you that I am so happy for you. I cannot believe that you are finally going to admit your feelings for-”
I lunged forward and tackled her before she could finish the sentence. It took all of my courage to tell Scootaloo and I was not going to let Sweetie Belle tell everyone like it was nothing. I pressed a hoof against her muzzle, stopping her from saying a thing even if she wanted to. I motioned to the gazebo a little ways away from us with my head. “How about we go and talk over there? Quietly.” She nodded and I moved from on top of her. I extended a hoof to help her up and she graciously accepted my help.
“Sorry for tackling you,” I muttered as we sat down. “I didn’t want anyone knowing about me and him though.” I looked over at her. She was sitting beside me, despite there being an empty seat across from me that would make talking easier. I sighed. Her light green eyes were wide and sad, which didn’t help me at all. “It’s not your fault though. You were excited.”
She shook her head wildly, “Nope, all my fault,” She put a white hoof to her mouth and giggled like this was all a joke. “But I really am happy for you, Violet. You two are cute together.”
“We’re just friends,” I said almost instantly. Force of habit, I suppose. Once I realized my mistake, my face lit up bright red. I brushed a hoof through my mane and looked to the wooden floor in hopes that it would help me form another sentence. “I, uh, at least that’s how he thinks of me, probably.”
She put a hoof on the hoof that was propping me up on the bench. “Maybe not. He could be feeling the same as you right now, for all you know.” I looked at her hoof, then to her face. She was giving me the same warm smile she always did. I couldn’t help but share in her smiling, albeit with a slightly more awkward smile on my face. I felt something warm in my chest. It was probably just heartburn or something. Sweetie Belle giggled again, this time most likely at my sad attempts at being happy. “So are you really going to tell him today?”
“Probably,” I said with a sigh, “Scootaloo is practically forcing me to though. I’m not even sure how to go about asking him on a date.” A question popped into my head almost exactly as I said that. It was an okay question, but I would have to swallow the small amount of pride I had left in order to ask it.
But then I realized that, if I didn’t ask her, I’d be stuck in a situation I wasn’t prepared for, so I decided to just bite the bullet. I took a deep breath, then managed to find my voice. “Do you have any tips?”
“Buy him flowers,” She said immediately, as if she already knew what I was going to say before I said it, “It seems like the most obvious solution, knowing you.”
Right, why hadn’t I thought of that? Once she said it, it seemed so obvious to me. I nearly forgot that the little emblem on my flank was also a romantic gesture of some sort. I sighed. “Right, forgot about flowers. Seems a bit cliché though, don’t you think?”
“Nope,” She shook her head, “It sounds like something that you would do yourself.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You callin’ me cliché?”
“Of course not,” She said nervously, “I just meant that it seems like something that would be close to your heart and, therefore, something you would give to somepony you love.”
I nodded, accepting this answer. I then sighed and tilted my head back. “You know, I’d try if I knew what he’d like. There are too many flowers and I just don’t know what to pick. He might like roses, maybe he likes carnations, or maybe he likes tulips.” I shook my head. Too many decisions for me to handle.
Sweetie Belle put a hoof to her chin in deep thought. “Maybe he likes Violets?”
I blinked. “You know, I never thought of that. Violets don’t have much meaning to them though. I like meaning in my flowers which means I’d probably g-” I paused and backtracked a bit in the conversation. I stifled a small chuckle when I realized her little ‘joke’. “You aren’t funny.” Even as I said that, my small chuckle was starting to grow into an uproar of laughter. It got so bad that I could hardly breathe, let alone speak.
After a few moments the feeling passed, leaving me gasping for air all because of a stupid joke. Sweetie Belle looked at me like I was the strange one when I finished. “Are you going to be alright?” She asked. At least she was worried about me.
I nodded. “Yeah, that joke just caught me off guard.” There was a moment of silence between us. “So uh, flowers, right?” I stammered as I tried to fill the empty space.
“Right,” She agreed, “So obviously not violets. I think I just killed that idea right there.” She put a hoof to her chin again, hopefully formulating an idea and not just another awful joke. It took a few seconds, but she finally sighed and lowered her head. “I have nothing.”
I shrugged. “At least you tried and that’s all that matters.” I smiled at her, hoping it would brighten her mood. It worked, to a point. She at least seemed a bit happier when I did it. “Listen, I’ll go with your idea. I can ask Roseluck if she has any recommendation in the way of flowers.”
That improved her mood instantly. Without any warning, she tackled me on the bench and wrapped her hooves around me. That’s Sweetie Belle for you. Always one for hugs. Not that I was complaining, of course, her hugs were always welcome. They were soft and warm and cuddly. The only thing I didn’t like about them was that they made my chest hurt. It wasn’t her fault, of course, probably just personal space issues or something. That or teenage hormones acting up.
It took a good minute for her to let up, again not that I was complaining, and she blushed as she did. “Sorry, I just couldn’t help it.”
“I, uh,” I swallowed a bit of saliva. I didn’t know why I was hesitating. “It’s fine, Sweetie Belle. It was a, uh, a nice hug.” I forced a smile so as to not make this situation more awkward then it already was, but that didn't work out quite as well as I hoped. I let out some sort of sound. It was some sort of mixture between a chuckle, a sigh and probably a sob. “Well I’m just gonna go and see Roseluck then.” I said as I stood up. “I’ll, uh, see you around?”
“Yeah,” She nodded, a bit distracted, “I will see you later. I hope everything goes okay with Trick Shot.”
“Trick Shot?” I asked, still in a daze from the hug. I shook my head to clear it and it seemed to work to a point, “Oh, right. I was doing that, wasn’t I?” I let out a nervous chuckle. “I’ll get right on that.” We stood there, staring at each other for a good few seconds before I nervously trotted off without so much as a goodbye.
I practically bolted to Roseluck’s flower stand, not even slowing down to greet the ponies I was passing or to even acknowledge them. All I cared about was getting my flowers and getting this all over with. This was much more difficult than I ever planned it being. I thought I was just going to tell him at some point, but no. My friends had to have me make an event of it.
Once I reached the stand I was panting and out of breath, but that didn’t seem to matter as Roseluck simply smiled at me and slid a bouquet of very healthy looking red roses across to me. I stared at the roses, then at the Roseluck. She had a knowing smile on her face and a mischievous glint in those green eyes of hers.
I raised an eyebrow and pointed at myself as I still could not talk because I was panting too hard. It occurred to me then that I could have just flown to the stall, but what kind of backwards sense would that make? Roseluck nodded and motioned to the roses, signaling for me to take them. “Scootaloo came by a little while ago,” She said in her high and slightly nasal voice, “She said you would need a bit of help so I decided to put in a little extra for my best little employee.” She smiled wider as she saw my face light up red with a blush.
“Thank you,” I said weakly, still trying to regulate my air intake. “I don’t know how I’ll repay you though.”
“It’s a gift, silly. You don’t have to pay me a single bit.” She pushed the bouquet forward again, so that it was nearly falling off the stand. I quickly swept the flowers up with a wing and held them close to my chest. “All I need is to see you happy. You can do that, right?”
I nodded vigorously and with a large smile. Things were finally starting to go my way. Something in the back of my head told me that something was bound to go wrong, but I kindly told that part to fuck off. I could be depressed some other time. At least then I would have Trick Shot to cradle me as I cried.
I quickly thanked Roseluck and bolted to the park. Scootaloo was probably getting impatient waiting.
Then I hit the halfway point to the park and I started to slow down.
Those negative feelings were coming back again, even with everything that had gone right. Precisely because everything had gone right, actually. Nothing in my life had been perfect up until this point, so why would it start now? Something was going to go wrong and I knew it.
But I would have to face that when it happened.
I kept my slow gait to the park. It wouldn’t kill Scootaloo if she waited any longer. Maybe she’d see something she liked and just focus on that for a bit. I smiled to myself and walked a bit faster, mostly because I would love to see her face.
When I made it to the park, I was both happy and surprised. Happy because I made it and surprised because I saw Trick Shot there. His green coat was practically shining in the sunlight and under it I could see the definition of his beautiful musculature. Most of it was in his legs, his long and powerful legs, but it was well distributed across his body as well. He was standing on his hindlegs which raised his short, light red tail and left nothing to the imagination. His long mane dropped in front of his closed eyes as he was tilting his head downwards to kiss a mare smaller than he was.
But at least I was right about Scootaloo finding something she liked.
Author's Note
Holy heck, I finally managed to write something. Seeing as I haven't written much within the year or so I was taking a break, I am a fair bit rusty. Hopefully it's not that bad. If people actually like it, then maybe I'll continue the story or something.
Though it'll probably end up just like Some Enchanted
And AIMW
And Soarin' Skies
And everything else I was supposed to write.