It was now Monday morning and Sweetie Belle was still completely confined to her room. Sighing, she looked out the window and stared at all the free, happily roaming ponies that happened to wander by the boutique; most were smiling and seemingly enjoying the warm spring air… something that Sweetie really wished she could do right then and there, considering it was Spring break after all. Just her luck; she just HAD to deal with… whatever it was that was inside her during one of the most highly anticipated time periods of the year.

Finally having had enough of the window view, Sweetie stomped a hoof onto the floor from frustration causing the vibrations to shake the nearby infrastructure of the boutique before turning about face from the window and climbing back into her bed.

“Gahhh! I am so bored! I want to go outside!” complained Sweetie out-loud to no pony in particular. This was coincidentally the exact moment that Rarity had come to her door to check up on her, thus allowing her to hear her complaint.

“Sweetie, I know it’s hard right now, but don’t worry, I’m going to go find your friends right now so you don’t have to be bored for that much longer. Did you finish your breakfast?” consoled Rarity.

“Yeah, I did,” replied Sweetie Belle.

“Okay, then I’ll take your dirty dishes and head out right away. Please leave them by the door.” At that, Sweetie got out of her bed and moved her dishes from her nightstand and placed them by the door in a location that they wouldn’t get hit by it if it opened. After, Sweetie then maximized her distance from her sister, keeping herself flat against the opposing wall.

“Okay, you can come in now,” assured Sweetie. At that, the door handle turned and Rarity swiftly used her magic to levitate the dishes through the doorway.

“So you told me earlier that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom should be at your little tree house right now, correct?” asked Rarity.

“Yeah, and please hurry, I’ve only been in here for about 16 hours now,” dead-panned Sweetie Belle.

“All right, all right, I’m going,” said Rarity, closing the door before heading towards the stairs. Sweetie sighed again as she once again climbed into her bed.

Before departing, Rarity quickly took a few seconds to look at herself in a mirror in an effort to make sure her “perfect mane” was still “perfect”. After making a few minor adjustments she made her way to the front door. That’s when something caught her off guard.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* banged the door.

“Huh? Who could that be?” muttered Rarity to herself. Upon opening the door, Rarity found that there didn’t seem to be any pony at their doorstep at first, but then she turned her gaze downward a bit and smiled when she realized who the two visitors were.

“Good morning, Rarity! My, you sure look lovely this morning,” complimented Scootaloo. Apple Bloom, who was standing to the right of her turned her head and gawked confusedly at her friend.

“Since when do you speak all formal like?” questioned Apple Bloom.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Apple Bloom, but I am in a really good mood this morning, so maybe that’s all you’re noticing,” chirped Scootaloo, as she began bouncing a lot like Pinkie Pie past the fashion mare and into the boutique lobby. Finally in the center of the room, she realized that the other two hadn’t moved an inch and she goofily turned around to face them.

“I know I’m not acting like myself but… I dunno, I’m just in such a good mood this morning! It’s like I have all this pent up happiness inside of me that I just need to release with silliness. Seriously, it’s hard to describe and I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before!” rambled Scootaloo, still managing to earn weird looks as she bounced up and down with her wings buzzing frantically. Finally, Apple Bloom brushed off the weird vibe she was getting and decided to feel happy for her friend.

“That’s great, Scoots,” said Apple Bloom, giving her friend a smile.

“And quite convenient too, Sweetie Belle really could use some positive energy this morning,” started Rarity, looking at the floor. “Speaking of convenient, I was just about to go look for you two.”

“Yeah, we were waiting for Sweetie Belle to come to the tree house a few hours ago, but she never came. So we decided to go look for her,” explained Apple Bloom. “Say, do you know why she didn’t show up? Is something wrong?”

“Yes actually…” started Rarity, as she closed the door to the boutique after Apple Bloom entered. The three ponies started making their way to the stairs, only for Rarity to stop the other two just before they could start climbing them.

“You see… after the events of yesterday, Sweetie Belle started acting really strange as she… uh well, anyway she actually stormed off to Twilight’s and when she came back, it seems her condition has gotten even worse. Apparently, her horn shines a gray color now and it seems ponies can’t get near her anymore without her magic kicking in.”

“What?!” exclaimed the two fillies in unison, thus causing them to rush past Rarity, up the stairs and to the door of Sweetie’s room. This news also managed to turn Scootaloo’s expression to one of worry.

“Sweetie Belle?” called Scootaloo, “are you okay?!”

“Ah’m here, too,” called Apple Bloom, “we’re really worried about you!”

“Girls? Is that you?” replied Sweetie Belle hesitantly. She wanted more than anything to burst through that door and give her friends a big hug, but she knew that would be a terrible idea, considering her circumstances. So, she tried her best to keep her emotions to a minimum in an attempt to control that impulse.

“Yeah, we’re here to keep you company!” called Scootaloo, attempting to regenerate the positive energy she had all too easily lost for a brief moment.

“Oh, thank Celestia, I thought I was going to end up dying from boredom in here,” she replied before sighing in relief.

“You don’t have to worry about that; we’ll try our best to keep ya’ll entertained until… hang on a moment, how long is she gonna have to endure this?” asked Apple Bloom, turning to the elder sister who had just finished making her way up the stairs.

“Well, the plan is until Wednesday. Twilight is supposed to be researching and searching for a cure right now and if she fails we’re going to go for a backup plan,” explained Rarity.

“Well then, it looks like we have all the time in the world, right Sweetie Belle?” asked Scootaloo excitedly.

“Yeah! I may not be able to leave my room, but it’s spring break for crying out loud, let’s have some fun!” said Sweetie Belle, forcing herself to regain some enthusiasm.

“Have fun girls, and remember, be sure to keep your distance from Sweetie Belle, oh and keep her door closed unless it’s absolutely necessary to open it; we don’t want to hurt her with any eye contact,” said Rarity turning to go and begin her work for the day. Finally disappearing back down the stairs, Apple Bloom started up.

“So, what do ya’ll want to do today?”

For the next few hours, the three fillies used their creative ability to think of ways to have fun despite the barrier in between them. They figured out a way to play cards by sliding them under the door and having Sweetie use simple levitation magic to move the cards around from her bed. Then they used paper and crayons to help brainstorm some ideas they could use to hopefully one day earn their Cutie Marks in the future. At lunch, the fillies shared a meal of hay sandwiches and milk that Rarity had made for them. Throughout this time, Sweetie was surprised at how well she was avoiding saying the other two’s names. Perhaps she was finally getting used to it?

Sadly, after a few more games and a few more conversations the three fillies had ran out of ideas. It was about five-o-clock in the afternoon when this happened, so at least they had managed to use up most of the day. As it was then dinner time, Rarity had prepared yet another meal for them consisting of various vegetables (the ones Sweetie actually liked) and hay burgers. This time Rarity decided to join them, as she had already finished with her work for the day.

“I appreciate what you have done for Sweetie Belle today. Thank you so much!”

“It’s no problem, Miss Rarity,” grinned Scootaloo, “she’s our best friend after all!”

“Yes, it’s been so much fun despite everything,” agreed Apple Bloom.

“I’m just glad to finally get a break from all this drama that’s been happening recently,” said Sweetie Belle through the door who was then munching down on her dinner that had been set up in a tray designed for use while in bed.

It truly seemed like the perfect day to Sweetie Belle, at least given the circumstances.

‘Maybe being trapped in this room for a few days won’t be so bad,” she thought to herself whilst laughing with her friends. After they had all finished their dinner, Scootaloo spoke up.

“Hey, I know we’ve been kind of avoiding the subject all day… but I really can’t help but wonder. Did you ever find out what caused Sweetie’s condition to get worse?” The smile that Rarity had been presenting suddenly flipped upside-down at the sudden question.

“I… well…” started Rarity, looking down at her hooves.

Suddenly, a loud knocking was heard coming from downstairs. Some pony was at the door!

“Come in!” called Rarity, after walking to the top of the stairs and using her magic to unlock the front door. Rarity smiled at the sight of her best friend.

“Twilight! Am I glad to see you? So I guess you being here means you’ve found a solution to our little problem here, am I right?” asked Rarity, gesturing her friend to come join them.

“Not exactly…” started Twilight as she began to ascend the flight of stairs. Despite her response, she still had a friendly smile on her face, so Rarity assumed there wasn’t anything seriously wrong. She sighed not only because of this, but because she was disappointed that there probably wasn’t a solution yet after all.

“No, I’m just here to see how you are all doing and… would you look at that,” Twilight pointed her hoof at the small pile of random entertainment objects that the crusaders had formed in the hallway, “looks like you had some fun today.”

“Yeah, we decided together as fellow crusaders to try our best to avoid any more of the drama that’s been brewing recently and just have a fun time together,” said Scootaloo.

“That’s great,” smiled Twilight, “and how are you doing, Sweetie Belle?” There was a brief period of silence as the question registered to the filly before she could respond.

“Oh, it’s been great, princess. I’ve been stuck in my room for over a day and it hardly even feels like that at all,” Sweetie squeaked through the door.

“Well, I suppose everything’s good here then… I kept worrying about you all day Sweetie Belle, it was a little difficult focusing on my studying…” Scootaloo then took that as an opportunity to once again pop the question.

“Hey, I was trying to ask Rarity before you showed up, but what exactly was it that caused Sweetie’s condition to get this bad?” This caused the princess to suddenly gasp and a slight blush appeared on her cheeks. There was a silence as the other four ponies waited for an answer. Rarity bit her lip as she obviously already knew the answer. She still wasn’t exactly comfortable with it, but for the sake of Sweetie she kept all her negative feelings and slight anger to herself, at least for the time being.

‘Oh Twilight, please don’t tell her the truth! It could be disastrous if Scootaloo finds out that we…’ thought Sweetie Belle who was now sweating profusely and holding her breath as she waited.

“I… I don’t know… she just stormed into my castle yesterday and after a little bit her horn just started acting up and it all ended up like this…” Twilight said in attempt to keep control of the situation. Nervous tingles shook through her spine as she knew she had to try and sound convincing or there could be dire consequences, both to Scootaloo and to Sweetie Belle… and maybe even to herself.

There was dead silence in the air for a few moments as Scootaloo pondered over her answer. Finally, without saying a word, she sighed and got up from her haunches before walking past the others to a location that was closer to the stairs. For a few moments she kept her back turned to the other ponies as she let the tension in the air simmer their consciences. Finally, she faced them and took a deep breath.

“You’re lying,” she whispered, disdain lining her vocal cords and her face contorting into anger. The other ponies didn’t react at all as they were too stunned to do so. There only existed a few more tense moments of silence before Twilight began to defend herself.

“D-don’t be ridiculous Scootaloo! Think about it, what could I possibly get out of lying to you? I’m here to help Sweetie Be-“

“Stop lying,” interrupted Scootaloo, a little louder than before. A few more moments passed, and Scootaloo made sure to keep her gaze on the alicorn during every second of it. Still, Twilight kept trying to grab hold of the situation.

“Hey, I’m being serious here-“

“Please stop lying to me, I already know what caused the first change in Sweetie’s horn color, I was kind of there. There was a certain event that triggered it. Would you like to remind all of us what that was?”

Once again, another pause occurred and Twilight made a slight gulping noise, clearing her mouth of the last of her saliva as her mouth was now going dry as it dawned upon her that this was going to be bad. At this point, Sweetie Belle had already lost control of her eyes as they doused her cheeks with tears of fear, regret and shame. She curled up into a ball and braced herself for what was now surely about to come. Twilight spoke again.

“Scootaloo, you really need to calm dow-“

“Calm down? Buck that! You know as well as I do that that event was Sweetie Belle and I doing something very special with each other!” At this point Scootaloo’s eyes were beginning to well up in tears, thus blurring her vision.

“Ah think ah understand what Scoots is saying here…” started Apple Bloom, causing the others to look at her, “Some pony got all… up close and personal with Sweetie Belle… and it wasn’t with Scootaloo this time.”

“Rarity told me that you stormed off somewhere sometime after I had left yesterday. Where did you go, Sweetie Belle?” she asked, her voice getting more severe with each word. Finally, Twilight decided to stop playing the lying game.

“Fine. I admit it,” started the now solemn alicorn, guilt wreaking havoc on her conscience. “Sweetie Belle and I… when she came over… she somehow convinced me to…” started Twilight before being interrupted by Sweetie with panic in her voice.

“Please don’t be mad, Scootaloo! It’s this bucking thing inside of me! After we did that together my interests just suddenly changed to mares! Please don’t hate me, I really couldn’t help it!”

“HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?” screamed Scootaloo tears now easily slipping down her face. “Do you have any idea how much I…” Scootaloo paused for a moment to sniffle her nose, “how m-much I-… Aw buck, I love you so much Sweetie Belle and you just… you just… I have loved you for so long; ever since not too long after we first met. Your existence is the sole reason I get out of bed each morning, even after my dad left! I struggled with this for so long, thinking that a relationship couldn’t possibly happen between us, since we’re both fillies and best friends. Then all this happened and I was finally truly happy. While there is a permanent scar left in me from my dad, I could at least say I could be happy… and then I came here, and learned that your condition had gotten worse… which is when I immediately knew something was wrong.”

Finally finished with her revelation, Twilight and Sweetie’s chests burned with all sorts of shame, regret and guilt, and Sweetie couldn’t help herself but to cry silently into her hooves. Twilight just stared at the floor, unable to say anything more or move. Rarity and Apple Bloom just looked at her with a sympathetic gaze, unable to think of anything to say. Finally Scootaloo turned about face and began slowly walking down the stairs.

“I hope you never get better, Sweetie Belle. I BUCKING HATE you!” she screamed as she reached the bottom of the stairs and galloped out the door. This fact wasn’t known to Sweetie Belle as she sprang into action, leaping from her bed, and rushing to her door.

“Scootaloo, please! I’m so sorry, I… oh buck I said her name.”

“Don’t worry… she’s gone,” informed Apple Bloom.

“Oh…”

There was a long silence as each remaining pony thought about what just happened. Finally, Rarity spoke up.

“I… think we all need some time to think. Twilight, Apple Bloom, you both should go home and rest up.”

“Just so you know Sweetie Belle, Ah’ve decided not to take sides in this matter. Ah’ll still be here to support you both,” said Apple Bloom getting up to leave. Twilight still remained still, blankly staring at the floor.

“Are… you okay Twilight?” asked Rarity, clearly concerned for her friend. A few more moments passed before Twilight whispered something inaudible.

“What was that, hun?”

“I… completely messed up. I shouldn’t have done it with Sweetie Belle… at the time I just completely forgot about Scootaloo. How could I have been so stupid?” At that, the alicorn got up from her haunches and silently walked out of the boutique and headed home. A few moments later, Apple Bloom did the same. After Apple Bloom closed the front door behind her, Rarity spoke up.

“Sweetie Belle… are you okay?”

“No… of course not. Thanks for making those meals for us today. They were so delicious. Anyway like you said, I need some time to think. Goodnight, sis.”

“Goodnight, Sweetie Belle,” replied Rarity before making her way downstairs.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm back! Sure, this chapter is a bit shorter than the average one, but it's only like that because the story calls for it, not because I'm lazy or anything. *Shifty eyes*