Conflicting Love

The walk to school felt like ages for Applebloom as she thought about what to do about her feelings. Should ah tell her how ah feel or should ah just give her hints? Maybe ah could make her a really nice and romantic dinner or take her out to a nice restaurant.

Ug you two aren't even together and you're already making date plans.

It won't be a date, it'll just be a fun time for us to hang out and spend time together.

Just you and the pony you like, alone, having dinner; yeah that doesn't sound like a date at all.

It won't be a date; ah just want to give her small hints about how ah feel without having to actually tell her. Maybe ah could get her a really nice gift or maybe ah could just give her some flowers; she would love that.

Yeah I'm sure that she'll just love the flowers, until she eats them that is.

Ah could just get her some really good tasting flowers then. Oh ah know, ah can write her a poem.

Ooh a poem, maybe you could get help from the millions of other poems ponies have made. That's what everypony does when they like somepony. If you're actually going to go through with telling her then at least do something unoriginal.

Just as she was about to make some kind of comeback she heard two voices yell out her name in unison. Applebloom turned around and saw her two best friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell running up to her. "Oh hey Scootaloo, hey Sweetie Bell. What's up and why are your manes so messy?" Applebloom asked.

"Scootaloo here thought that we could get our cutie marks in parasailing again but thought that this time we shouldn't use our hooves and we ended up crashing into a tree," Sweetie Bell explained giving Scootaloo a glare.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, "Parasailing's lame anyways. What we need to do is something more cool like cliff diving."

"Yeah that sounds cool," Applebloom said absent mindly while looking forward as they walked.

Sweetie Bell gave her a shocked look, "Cool? That's dangerous not cool."

"Oh well ah meant um it's cool because uh, it would probably teach Scootaloo a lesson that we shouldn't do dangerous stuff so much," Applebloom said hoping that her friends wouldn't notice how nervous she was. It seemed like they didn't since Scootaloo was glaring at her while Sweetie Bell was doing her best to not laugh.

"Oh ha ha ha very funny. Do you have any better ideas?" Scootaloo asked sarcastically. Applebloom thought for a bit until she got an idea that could buy her some time from friends suspecting anything.

"How about we have a race to the school to see if we can get our cutie marks in being fast like Rainbow Dash?"

Scootaloo instantly perked up and had already started running as fast as she could to the school yelling behind her "Eat my dust losers."

"Come on Applebloom we can't lose to her" Sweetie Bell said chasing after Scootaloo.

Applebloom let out a sigh of relief that her plan actually worked. She started to run while starting to feel a bit guilty from having to lie to her best friends.

You can call them your best friends and yet you can't trust them with your secret?

Ah want to trust them with it but ah know that Scootaloo will tell somepony. Ah don't want to lose them as friends if ah tell them.

You told your brother and he didn't think differently of you. Then again he probably just said all of that stuff just so that you would feel better and probably told her about your feelings.

He wouldn't do that. He Pinkie Promised that he would wouldn't tell anypony about it and nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise.

Didn't you Pinkie Promise your sister that if anything was ever bothering you, you would tell her no matter what it was?

But ah can't tell her. It's bad enough that it's a mare that ah like but the fact that it's her makes it way worse. How could I tell my sister about how I feel?

My point exactly. If you tell her then she'll never want you to be around. You know that she'll never return your feelings. But if you don't tell her than you would be breaking your promise and like you said nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise.

For the second time that day she had nothing to say as tears rolled down her face knowing that the voice was right. She had promised that she would tell her sister whenever anything was bothering her but ever since she had the dreams she had completely avoided her sister. But ah can't tell her about it or she'll think ah'm a freak.

Why wouldn't she think you're a freak when you are one?

Applebloom looked ahead and saw the school in the distance. She wiped the tears out of her eyes as best as she could so that her friends wouldn't suspect anything. After a couple more minutes she finally got to the school out of breath with Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell waiting for her.

"Wow you're getting pretty slow Applebloom. What took you so long?" Scootaloo asked with a smug but playful grin.

Yes what did take you so long?

"Ah'm just pretty tired is all. Ah didn't get that much sleep last night," Applebloom said giving part of the truth.

Sweetie Bell didn't look very convinced, "Then why are your eyes watery and your face wet? Were you crying?"

Now Applebloom was starting to sweat from being so nervous, "Oh um on the way up here ah tripped on a rock and it had hurt a lot is all."

Even Scootaloo didn't look convinced at this point, "Applebloom we're your friends right?"

Yes Applebloom aren't they your friends?

"Of course you two are my friends why wouldn't ya be?" Applebloom was getting more nervous. Do they know that something's up?

"Then why are you acting like you're hiding something from us?" Sweetie Bell asked.

Yeah Applebloom it's not like you're hiding anything from them right?

Applebloom knew that she was trapped. She couldn't lie to them but she couldn't tell them the whole truth. "Ah'll tell ya both at the tree house after school. Ah just don't want anypony to know about it."

Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell wanted to know more about what Applebloom was hiding from them but knew that if she told them now then others would overhear them so they decided to drop it. "Okay but you better tell us or else," Scootaloo said.

The three walked into the classroom unknown to the fact that two ponies had eavesdropped on them. "After school? Oh we can't have that now can we? She should tell everypony before school's over," One of the ponies said.

"I don't know about this, this seems a little bit too mean," The other pony said nervously.

"Hey don't be going weak on me Silver Spoon. She's going to pay for what she and her two loser friends did to me. I was supposed to be in charge of the newspaper team but noooo they had to ruin it and get me covered in ink. And what better way than to get back at her then to force her to reveal her biggest secret in front of the entire class," Diamond Tiara said angrily.

"But that was just an accident. They didn't mean for that to happen."

"I don't care if they did it on purpose or not. They will pay. Their blank flanks remember? Applebloom humiliated me so I'm going to humiliate her."

*One hour later*

The first lesson was finally over and so far Applebloom had been sitting alone trying to think of what she should do about her feelings until she heard hoof steps from behind her. She looked around and noticed Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell but they had saddlebags on. "What's with the saddlebags?"

"You mean the saddlebags that we were wearing when we caught up to you?" Scootaloo said with a deadpan look.

"Oh ah'm sorry ah didn't really notice. Anyway what are they for?"

"Today's show and tell remember?" Sweetie Bell reminded her.

"Great, another chance for Diamond Tiara to somehow humiliate me"

"Did somepony say my name?"

The crusaders turned and saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walking over.

"What do you two want?" Scootaloo asked with a glare "How about you just leave?"

"Why do you want us to leave? We just wanted to give our sympathies to Applebloom" Diamond Tiara said with a fake sympathetic smile.

"Why?" Applebloom deadpanned wanting her to just get to the point.

"Well on our way over to school we couldn't help but overhear what you and your brother were talking about," She said with a sinister smile.

Applebloom's eyes widened. Did she know about the dreams? "W-w-w-what do you mean?"

"I think you know exactly what I mean. And I think it would be such a shame if your sister found out about it"

Applebloom now had a look of absolute terror. Diamond Tiara knows! How could this get any worse?

You really should not have said that.

Why?

Because every time somepony says that things always get worse.

"But I think I could keep it a secret from her if you do just one little thing"

"W-w-w-w-what?" Applebloom was now beyond mortified. What could Diamond Tiara possibly want her to do?

Wouldn't it be worth it no matter what it is? If you don't do what she wants then she'll tell Applejack and I know that you don't want that.

"Since you don't have anything for show and tell I guess you could just tell the class that so that you have something for it"

I told you so. You shouldn't have asked if things could get worse. But what will you do? If you don't do what she says then your sister will find out how you feel but if you do then your whole class will find out. Your choice.

Applebloom was torn. What could she do? Why can't things just make sense?

Make sense, oh what fun is there in making sense?

"….Fine"

Diamond Tiara grew a satisfied smirk "I knew that you would listen to reason. See you at show and tell"

And with that the two walked away leaving a horrified Applebloom and a confused Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell. "What did she mean Applebloom?"

Applebloom was silent and just stared at the ground. "…You'll find out in show and tell" Applebloom walked over to the classroom leaving behind her friends.

Why? Of all the ponies to hear it, it had to be Diamond Tiara. Why?

Because life is cruel and the sooner you realize it the better.