Clementine's First Colt Crush
It was a quiet, sunny afternoon in Midway Village. The birds were chirping. Some of the village's residents stood outside in front of the fountain, engaged in their daily afternoon chats. In the distance, the howling of a few wolves could be heard, but not dangerously close, so they didn't constitute a threat.
It was just an ordinary day. One might even call it “boring”.
Calling it that was nothing that came to Neigh Sayer's mind, though. He loved the life in the little village. Especially on a day like this. Even though he was the mayor of Midway Village, his work was not nearly as time-consuming and stressful as it was for a mayor of a town. At least as long as no monster attacks happened, his work only consisted of filling out some papers and settling a dispute between two ponies with clashing interests here and there. But no conflict had taken place today and he had finished up the paperwork before noon, so he could afford to take the afternoon off.
Right now, he was busy preparing lunch for him and his daughter, Clementine, who he expected to be back home from school soon. It was just a simple potato stew – Neigh Sayer's cooking skills didn't allow for something creative or complex – but neither he nor Clementine were bothered by this.
A simple dish for a simple village. He smiled.
Then all of a sudden, his smile turned into a slightly startled expression as the door of the house was flung open and a visibly distressed and panicking Clementine barged into it.
“Daddy!” she called him, her voice resounding with a tone her dad knew all too well. The door fell shut behind her with a loud bang.
There was no doubt for Neigh Sayer that something was bothering his young daughter. The quietness of the afternoon was over, at least for now. Neigh Sayer stiffled a curse.
“Daddy, something terrible happened!” Clementine's voice rang out to him again, the urgency in it increasing now.
Neigh Sayer forced himself to put on a smile, then he turned away from the stove and trotted out of the small kitchen and into the living room, where his distressed daughter was eagerly waiting for him.
Her face showed a frantic expression, there was sweat on her forehead, her lemon yellow and usually slightly curly mane looked frazzled and her eyes had grown so big in her panic that it seemed like they would pop out of their sockets at any moment. But there were no tears in them. Her eyes were completely dry.
Neigh Sayer breathed a sigh of relief. She was not crying. Not this time. That meant, whatever happened, it could probably be resolved with a short talk at the kitchen table. Which wasn't always the case when his daughter had a problem. In fact, this was the rare case.
Clementine was a vulnerable and sensitive filly. Outgoing and social, but it was also very easy to make her cry. A mean word by a classmate, a spilled drink, and the nine year old filly erupted into a waterfall of tears. And once this happened, she didn't calm down for hours, no matter what one tried.
For a moment, Clementine's dad had to think on that one day when she was eating ice cream for the first time. She took a bite, then she was moaning and said that her teeth hurt. And what emerged from this was a crying fit that lasted for the rest of the evening and the whole following night until sunrise. He did never find out if her teeth really hurt for such a long period of time or if she just got so distraught over the apparently strong pain that she simply cried out of fear it could return. Either way, it was a sleepless night for both of them. Neigh Sayer shivered.
Luckily, the condition of his daughter was more one of nervousness, rather than desperation and distraction this time. And Neigh Sayer was as glad for that as a stallion could be. Even though he loved Clementine deeply, that even the tiniest issues let her become a crying bundle of mysery was very exhausting and often really wearing at him.
“Hello, Clemmy!” he greeted her in a soft tone, calling her by the nickname she loved so much. This was usually the first step to calm her down if the problem she had was a smaller one.
Clementine's face lit up a little, but most of the frantic expression remained. Without taking off her saddle bags, she approached him, got up on her hindlegs and placed her hooves on her father's chest. “Oh daddy, it's so horrible!” she said. Her voice sounded whiny. And whining was what she did now indeed. Even a few tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.
Neigh Sayer's heart did a jump. He reached up to Clementine's face with one hoof and rubbed the tears away that were just starting to stream down her face. “Now, now, not crying again, okay?” he said softly, but also a little strained. “I'm sure we find a solution, no matter what happened.”
The filly nodded weakly and her father gave her a short hug to lift her spirits. Then they walked together into the kitchen.
Clementine took seat at the kitchen table at the opposite side of her father. The saddle bags slid down and landed on the floor, but she didn't pay any attention to that.
As both of them sat at the table, her father gave her a comforting smile, then he started to dig for the problem. “So, what happened, Clemmy?” he asked her with as much patience as he could muster.
Clementine sniffed and rubbed with a hoof over her muzzle. “T-There is this colt in my c-class and he... he...” She trailed off before she could finish her sentence.
“Has he hurt you?” her dad asked her, now worry having become added to his voice.
Clementine shook her head vehemently. “N-No, that's not what happened. He... He's following me around all the time and... during recess today, he suddenly sat down at my side and put a hoof around my shoulder.”
Clarity appeared in her dad's face as he realized what the problem of his daughter was.
“I think h-he has a crush on me, daddy!” Clementine continued. “What should I do?!” She fixated him with a strained look in her eyes, gritting her teeth a little.
Now Neigh Sayer's face relaxed. This was certainly a problem, but this time, his daughter had a real reason to be distressed for once. It was the first time she had to deal with a colt crushing on her and this was by all means no easy thing for a filly her age, especially not for such a sensible one. And fortunately, he was able to help her with this problem. First, it was necessary to get the obvious question out of the way.
“Do you have a crush on him too?” he asked Clementine tenderly.
The strained expression of Clementine changed into a sheepish one as she heard the question and blood shot into her face. “No!” she exclaimed, swiftness in her voice. She was brightly blushing now.
Her father let out a hearty laugh as he saw this reaction of his daughter.
This increased her blush a little. “I don't,” she added in a calmer tone then.
“Have you talked to him about his crush?” her father probed further, even though he could guess the answer, to let the conversation progress.
Another vehement shake of her head. “No. I didn't. I don't know what to say... I don't want to have a coltfriend yet, daddy. But I also don't want to make him sad. He's nice. I can't just go and tell him that I'm not interested...” She looked pleadingly at him. “What should I do, daddy?”
Neigh Sayer crossed his forelegs and looked down on the table thoughtfully as his daughter had finished to describe her problem.
This was indeed not an easy situation, he had to admit. By his own experience from way back when he was a colt, he knew exactly how it felt to be rejected by a filly. But of course his daughter could also not lie to the colt to make him happy. It would put her into a romantic relationship she wasn't yet ready for and that she didn't want to have.
He felt the gears in his head turning. For a moment he pondered the possibility of Clementine simply offering her admirer to become friends, after telling him that her heart didn't respond to his feelings, but he quickly shoved this thought away and shook his head.
No. Being friend-zoned was even worse than getting rejected. If only there would be a way to make it easier for him...
Suddenly, a light went on in his head.
Was there really a need to give him a definitive answer right now? Clementine could just... He released his crossed forelegs and bent forward a little.
“You're not going to tell him if you feel the same or not.”
Confusion appeared on Clementine's face. “Huh? But how should this–“
Her father interrupted her. “Just be nice to him,” he went on. “Join him during recess, talk with him and just spend time with him. And if he puts his hoof around you again or even tries to kiss you” – Clementine's blush became a lot brighter – “you just tell him that you don't want this yet. And after you have done this for a while and you two became friends, then you go and tell him that you don't have the same feelings. Once you have become good friends, it's going to be easier for him and he won't be so sad, because he is then used to hang out with you as just a friend and you can make clear that you two can continue to be friends.”
Scepticism replaced Clementine's confusion. “But what if he asks me if I...” She blushed even more and looked down at the tabletop. “If I love him...” she added more quietly.
“If he asks you this, you just answer that you need more time to think about it and that you just want to be friends for now. If he really loves you, then he will be satisfied with this for a while and he will let you enough time to make a decision.”
For the first time since she returned home, a smile flashed over Clementine's face. Her daddy's idea sounded like a good one to solve the first romantic problem of her life. But she still remained sceptical a little. “But what if he doesn't? What if he says he doesn't want to wait? What if he demands that I make a decision immediately?” Her face turned into a frown again.
“If you really mean something to him,” Neigh Sayer continued “then you can just tell him that he has to give you time if he really wants to have a chance to win you over and he will be more patient. And if he doesn't...” He paused for a moment. “Then you don't have to feel guilty for saying no and making him sad.”
Now it was Clementine who crossed her forelegs. She was thinking about what her dad just said. The filly couldn't deny that this sounded like a carefully thought out plan that might work to end this crush without hurting her admirer.
After a moment of pondering, she looked over to her dad. “So you mean if he's trying to force me to make a decision, I can just tell him the truth and don't have to care about hurting his feelings because he's rude?”
“Exactly.” Neigh Sayer nodded and presented his daughter with a proud smile, happy about it that she had understood what he wanted to say.
He saw realization and relief wash over the face of his daughter now and finally turning it into a big, broad smile. She got up from her seat and cantered at this side, where she got up on her hindlegs like earlier and wrapped her little hooves around his chest to give him a tight hug. “Thank you, daddy!” she happily exclaimed with a voice that was the exact opposite of the whiny and worried voice from minutes before. “Now I can go to school again without being nervous all the time!” A relieved laughter escaped her mouth.
Without a word, Neigh Sayer answered her embrace and gave her a little kiss on the forehead. “Don't mention it,” he said then. “So, should we eat something? The stew must be ready now.”
Clementine looked up to him and nodded with a satisfied smile, then both of them released their respective hugs and began to set the table to prepare their meal, relieved over it that the problem was solved so quickly.
