Red Flag Valentine

Chapters

Sweetie Belle
Scootaloo
Apple Bloom
Cardinal

Sweetie Belle

“I’m… still not entirely sure how I should be doing this.” With those words spoken, more stammered and whispered really, the speaking stallion flopped himself back onto the bed he was seated upon. His light blue coat blended very well into the slightly lighter blue of the sheets. “What if he says no, or just isn’t into colts?” He let out a sharp groan at the thought of that, covering his eyes with his hooves. “Maybe I should just give up.” He then, ever so carefully, peeked out from behind one of his hooves, looking hopefully at the white mare beside him.

Staring at the colt lounging back on her bed, Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but realize how odd it was to have a colt alone in her room. He might have been as gay as the sun was bright, but that didn’t change the fact that they were still teens and that teens did… things.

With a very poorly concealed blush, Sweetie Belle looked away from her guest. “Morning, do you think you could sit up or something? Before we keep going.” She put a hoof up to her eyes, blocking her vision of her friend in his prone state.

Morning Glory continued to relax for a few more moments, looking at Sweetie Belle strangely as she very strongly averted her gaze. Then, looking down to take notice of himself, he realized what he was doing on a mare’s bed.

He may have been queer as heck, but he was still a gentlecolt when he could remember to be.

Bolting up in his seat to reassume a seated position, even planting a hoof behind him in order to prop himself up and prevent another flop, Morning Glory gave a soft, shy grin. “S-sorry.” He then proceeded to fiddle with his long, white mane with his free hoof.

After making sure he was decent, Sweetie Belle gave a soft sigh as she turned back to her friend. “It’s... fine. Just don’t do it again?”

The two sat uncomfortably for a moment before the white mare cleared her throat and brushed the awkwardness aside. “Anyway I’m, like, 95% sure Cardinal’s gay so you should be fine. Just follow what I told ya and there’ll be nothing to worry about.”

“But what if he isn’t into…” Instead of finishing his sentence, he just gestured to his body with a soft whimper.

Immediately Sweetie Belle could see what he meant, though she could see more of it minutes before.

You see, Morning Glory wasn’t the most masculine of stallions. He didn’t cut the most imposing figure normally. In fact, the only figure he cut was the figure of a mare when looked at from behind. His light colors, small frame, long mane and tail, and generally meek exterior had gotten him confused looks and requests that soon turned awkward once the ponies checked the somewhat masculine structure of his face.

Realizing this, Sweetie Belle scrunched her face just a touch, wrinkling her snooter. “Well, maybe he might like…”

“Girly colts?” Morning suggested with a soft giggle before Sweetie even realized she was searching for a word.

“That” She said, nodding softly. “I just think that maybe that dumb colt wants someone with a more feminine touch.”

“Or someone who could keep up with him in a race, maybe?” Morning rebutted, though not even sure of the quality of the rebuttal. “There’s just… a lot of variables. And I don’t know if I can deal with him rejecting me.” Thinking on it, his face gave a slight scrunch. “Heck, I don’t even know if I could deal with him accepting.”

Planting a hoof on her buddy’s shoulder, Sweetie Belle looked to Morning very seriously. “Just go get those flowers, talk to Cardinal, and ask him to kiss him or something. Then get back here and tell me all about it.”

“But-”

“No buts!” the filly snapped at the colt, obviously getting very tired of Morning Glory’s insecurity. She just wanted to see those two boys actually enjoy themselves for once.

While he wanted to fire back, Morning Glory held his tongue because he knew she was right. He couldn’t keep circling around the problem, so he just needed to face it head on.

In the most meek and inoffensive ways possible.

So, after saying his terrified goodbyes to Sweetie Belle, Morning Glory embarked on his journey to finally, after all this time, confess his love to his gay dude crush.

With a brief pitstop first.

Stopped in front of The Flower Trio’s flower shop, he couldn’t help but bite his lip and reconsider even approaching the establishment, much less entering it and making a purchase.

But that nagging voice in the back of his head, the one that sounded suspiciously like a certain singing filly, urged him to continue onwards. Normally listening to nagging voices in his head wasn’t his first priority, as they didn’t tend to tell him very helpful things (only to run, hide, or cry), but this one seemed to at least want to prove helpful.

Upon entering the shop, the colt immediately approached the front counter to find Daisy stationed behind it, a somewhat surprising sight for him.

The light pink mare greeted with a bashful smile and a small wave. “Heya Morning. Did Rosie tell you come in ‘cause I’ve got the shop all to myself? If so, tell her I’ve got it all under control. I haven’t even had a customer all day!” She smiled even wider at that, proud of her failing business.

Looking around, Morning could agree that the store did look pretty dead. More dead than a flower shop in the middle of July normally looked anyway, but that wasn’t of the most importance.

Morning shook his head with a soft sigh. As much as he’d like a place to hid from his problems and just do menial labor for a few hours, he couldn’t just lie. He probably wouldn’t be paid if he lied.

“N-no, Roseluck didn’t call me in. I’m sure she thinks you’re doing a great job.” He began to scratch his right foreleg with his left hoof, letting out another gentle sigh as he looked anywhere but at the mare he was talking to, fighting to beat around the bush harder. “I’m actually, uh, looking to buy some flowers right now.”

This immediately brought a huge grin to Daisy’s face, followed by a loud ‘eee’ing to Morning Glory’s ears. Right after, he found himself being dragged along the shop floor to peruse the various types of flowers.

“So what kind of thing do you need flowers for? As you may know, we have flowers for every occasion. Funerals, weddings, births,” she took a small moment to glance over at Morning, smiling from ear to ear, “Dates~”

Seeing the massive blush form on the light blue colt’s face, extremely difficult for him to hide due to the color, Daisy knew she struck gold. Sidling up to Morning’s side, she shot him a cheeky grin. “Soooo, who’s the lucky lady? Sweetie Belle, right? I’m totally not asking ‘cause I’m betting on it or anything.”

Too embarrassed to correct her on gender, or just at all, all Morning could do was feel his face get hotter and hotter as he looked away. “That’s not important! A-all that matters is… I just need a dozen roses and to get over my fear of even approaching h-” Realizing that finishing that particular sentence would reveal a hand that he hadn’t even been dealt fully yet, he bit his tongue, “Them for a date.”

Nodding sagely, Daisy dragged Morning over to the rose display. Roses of all types of colors, both natural and magically induced, wrapped up in those bouquet wrappers. Morning eyed the multicolored ones for a moment, but was stopped from picking one by Daisy, who grabbed a classic red set and handed it to the poor colt.

He struggled to comfortably hold the bouquet in his hooves, awkwardly juggling it before pinning it between his foreleg and his chest. With his free hoof, he pat himself down carefully, even reaching into the strange pocket dimension all ponies kept their belongings in because they don’t have actual pockets.

His eyes widened slightly as he realized his pocket only had his keys and a few random objects. He looked solemnly to Daisy, a gentle blush on his face. “I’m pretty sure I left my wallet at home.” With a forlorn sigh, he moved to set down the beautiful flowers he’d had picked out for him, only to be met with a pink hoof to stop him.

“Just take ‘em. We’ll dock your pay later.” Daisy told him, shoving the bouquet back towards him. “Now go get her, champ! You better not chicken out, or Mr. Cake wins the pot.”

While they weren’t the words of encouragement he needed, nor were they the ones he wanted, it was certainly all he had to go on as Daisy shooed her one customer for the day out of the shop.

After stumbling into the marketplace of Ponyville in search of his target, Morning Glory realized just how conspicuous he looked while nervously clutching flowers to his chest. Especially with the ever increasing knowing looks and hopeful grins. News travels fast in a small town like Ponyville, whether that news be about an impending monster attack or the seemingly banal romantic interests of a teenage colt.

The only pony who seemed to not be smiling was Mr. Cake, staring through the window of his shop and sweating nervously.

But the light blue colt with the very very obvious red roses was only worried about one thing: Finding Cardinal.

It was the last part of the plan, but it was very much the hardest part, as that colt could be anywhere in Ponyville, whether running about or flapping above the clouds. Making it all but impossible for most ponies to track him down when they needed him.

So, it was only blind luck that lead the two colts to crash into each other.

Morning Glory fell back immediately after hitting the thick, well-muscled wall of soft grey fur before him. He landed on his rump and even dropped his flowers before realizing what he’d hit.

Looking up, he saw Cardinal staring down at him, a soft grin on his face. He extended a hoof to help Morning up, which the smaller colt took a bit apprehensively and awkwardly. Using only a fraction of his strength, Cardinal brought the admittedly small and frail colt back to his hooves.

Staring blankly at Cardinal, Morning Glory couldn’t help but stutter and stammer his way through and attempted sentence. Attempted in that it was more of a jumble of sounds that merely pretended to be words.

After a few moments of Cardinal trying to make out words, he just leaned down to pick up what his good buddy dropped and smirked as he realized what it was. He handed it back without any trouble, but couldn’t hide his knowing grin, now the only knowing grin on the street.

“You, uh, dropped this.” His smile flashed wider as he handed over the bouquet. Morning briefly swooned before remembering himself, snatching the flowers back, then clutching them close to his chest once again, tighter than before.

The silence between the two was palpable, forcing the bulkier stallion to chuckle softly as he ran a hoof through his spiky mane, colored like Fall leaves: red at the tips, transitioning to a nice golden brown at the roots.

“Heh, sorry for knocking into you.” The Autumnal pegasus chuckled gently as he scratched the back of his neck. “I guess I just wasn’t watching where I was going. Aaaanyway~” he ever so subtly gestured to the flowers he’d handed over with a large grin, “What’re those about?”

Morning Glory was once again lost in a wave of stammering and mumbling, but eventually he made it out. With a large blush, he offered the bouquet over to Cardinal. “T-these are for you!” He said just a bit too loudly, shutting his eyes out of pure anxiety.

Cardinal smiled.

He then leaned down to stick his face near the flowers, opened his mouth, then munched down on the largest rose. The crunch was loud enough that everyone around them could hear, causing a very large concentration of cringes.

The largest of them was Morning Glory’s as he, right after hearing the munch, opened his eyes to see one of the roses had magically become just a stem. Looking up at Cardinal as he wondered what had happened, he could see the colt still chewing, open mouthed, on the remnants of the rose. He didn’t exactly know how to respond.

But Cardinal did.

“Man, I really needed this. Was just about to pick up lunch and everything.” Cardinal told his shocked and somewhat amazed friend as he continued to chew. Thankfully he swallowed right after and wiped his lips free of flower paste. “How’d you even know I was hungry?”

“Oh you know. Just a… lucky guess.” The poor, rejected colt muttered, dipping his head. He briefly wondered if he could turn this around in his favor, but decided against it.

Cardinal laughed like he saw nothing wrong, he didn’t, and clapped a hoof on Morning’s shoulder. “And that’s why you’re my best friend, bud. You just get me.” He was just about to continue singing the praises of his buddy, but he suddenly looked over to the clocktower and gave a small frown. “Heck. Wish I could stay and talk but I’ve gotta be training. I’ll catch you later, alright?”

Without waiting for a response, Cardinal just took off running in a random direction, obviously faster than Morning could keep up with.

This just left Morning Glory in the middle of the marketplace, holding a partially eaten bouquet of roses as a good few ponies watched on.

Scootaloo

Naturally, the next day brought Morning Glory right back to the Carousel Boutique for more coaching.

Due to the happenings of last time, he was instead situated in the kitchen of the half business, half home as he drank some half decent tea. Across from him sat Sweetie Belle, thoroughly enjoying her own tea, and to his right sat the newcomer of Scootaloo, forgoing the tea entirely in favor of a soda.

Morning had just gotten done with telling the girls what had happened with Cardinal, though they’d obviously heard through word of mouth, various newspaper articles, or the few folk songs that had been written since the previous day. News travels fast when there’s no real news to travel.

The three sat there, digesting the story over their drinks for quite a few minutes before someone finally spoke up.

“So, what’re we supposed to be doing here?” Scootaloo asked as she set her finished soda down on the table. She leaned back in her chair, letting out a sigh. “I dunno if I’m gonna be the biggest help. Romance isn’t really my thing.”

Morning just gave her a shrug as he tried to hide behind his teacup.

Sweetie Belle, however, briefly lit her horn to move Scootaloo’s empty can onto the coaster that was there for a specific reason. As she did this, she looked to Scootaloo as if nothing was happening. “Well, you know Cardinal more than I do, and obviously my idea didn’t work.”

Ignoring Sweetie Belle for a moment, Scootaloo looked over to Morning Glory. “So he just, like, ate the flowers right outta your hoof?”

Blushing at the sudden attention, the pale blue colt nodded gently as he shrunk in his sear. “I mean, it was really just the one flower but,” he then dipped his head just a bit, “Yeah, I guess.”

Nodding satisfiedly, Scootaloo then turned to Sweetie Belle. “And why not just get Apple bloom? She’d be way more useful here.”

Sweetie Belle just shook her head. “She’s too close to Cardinal. And you know exactly why we can’t let her in on this.” She took a moment to take a small drink of her tea, then looked back to Scootaloo. “You’re our plan B, so do you have an idea to help this sweet gay boy,” she briefly gestured to Morning Glory, “Get his gay on with a colt of indeterminate sexuality?”

At that, Scootaloo took a moment to focus on thinking. It had been quite some time since she’d last done it, so she was forced to really try. She shut her eyes tight, resting her elbows on the table while pressing her hooves together in front of her face.

She sat like that for quite a few moments while Sweetie Belle and Morning Glory watched on. And, as it continued, shared a look at Scootaloo’s expense.

“I’ve got it!” Scootaloo exclaimed suddenly as she lurched back in her chair with a massive grin on her face. “Morning could just race him! Cardinal loves to race!”And then she just sat back with a huge smile, like she’d found the perfect answer.

There was quite a pause as both ponies waited for her to continue and maybe make a bit more sense. Of course, she paused with them so that they could compliment her on her awesome idea. This just made a long pause that was awkward for all.

The pause was broken by Sweetie Belle clearing her throat, then following that up with gesturing to the colt across from her. “Look at this colt,” she reached across the table at the blue colt, grabbing his hoof and pulling it back with her gently. She then gestured across the lithe foreleg that was now displayed along the table. “Look at this leg. Do you really think this could keep up with Cardinal? It can’t even keep up with me.”

As Morning Glory stole his hoof back with a blush, Scootaloo just shrugged. “What? You asked for my idea and I gave it to you. Now it’s not good enough?” She crossed her hooves with a slight frown, flopping right back in her chair.

Sheepishly raising his hoof, the girly colt fought to cut in. While this was supposed to be a thing for him, he couldn’t seem to get a word in. But finally it was his time.

“I… don’t think I’m going to be the best at running. Maybe.” He couldn’t help but give a tiny shrug, then tapped his hooves together nervously. “But I could try, I guess?” He sank back into his chair as he just reserved himself to doing whatever it takes to get a boyfriend.

“Alright fine!” Scootaloo said with a huff, yet again rolling her eyes with a loud, drawn out sigh before standing up from her seat. “I’ve got another plan, but I’ve gotta go grab something from someone.” She turned to look at Morning. “Wanna tag along, or just stick around here?”

The colt briefly looked down at his tea cup, noting that it was empty and that it would be awkward to request a refill, then he looked back up at Scootaloo with a small shrug. “I guess I could join you and get a feel for what you’re gonna make me do.” With that said, he ever so gently stood up, shooting an apologetic grin to Sweetie Belle.

She just accepted it with a shrug. At least she could focus on other things for a while. Like the other pairings she had to set up.

After they embarked, all Morning could do was follow closely behind Scootaloo as she raced through the streets of Ponyville. She walked much faster than he normally ran, but he fought very hard to keep up with the racing pony.

It was only a few minutes of running, though it felt like hours to the soft blue colt, before Scootaloo suddenly stopped in front of him, causing him to bump into her as he seems to do at least once every day.

After softly bouncing off of the similarly lithe mare and brushing himself off, Morning Glory noticed the reason why Scootaloo had stopped in the first place.

In front of the both of them stood a moderately tall, light grey colt. Due to the speed of the filly approaching him, he had already taken a defensive stance in preparation to be knocked into. This just left him frozen in front of the now stationary Scootaloo, staring at her warily with his purple eyes.

“Rumble! Just the colt I wanted to see.” Taking advantage of the stationary colt, Scootaloo moved to sidle up against him and wrap a hoof around his neck. Truly a feat for her. “Y’see, our friend over here has a bit of a problem,” she gestured over to Morning Glory, who was trying his hardest to not keel over and die from embarrassment, “Sooooo, I was wondering if I could get those tickets back.”

Rumble rolled his eyes, letting out a soft sigh, He looked to Morning and basically ignored the filly who was still hanging off of him for a moment. “So, is this a Cardinal sort of thing?”

All Morning Glory could do was nod bashfully and fiddle his hooves about just a bit. He didn’t really trust himself to talk due to all the embarrassment, and he didn’t really know Rumble all that well.

Thankfully the nod was all Rumble seemed to need. He reached into his dimensional pocket and pulled out a set of two tickets that were in mostly pristine condition. Immediately he hoofed them over to Morning with a soft grin. “I was gonna give ‘em back anyway. Pip can’t exactly make it.” He flexed his wings gently in response to his statement, confusing Morning Glory immensely.

And yet he still accepted the tickets warmly and without a fight. He gave them a small look over and decided that if Cardinal was a fan of the Wonderbolts, and he sure as heck was, then Morning would have to be a fan as well. Or at least try and fake it hard enough.

He gave a shy grin to both Rumble and Scootaloo. “Thank you. I’m not sure how I can repay you, Scootaloo. I probably have some money saved up but…” He gave the tiniest of shrugs before regarding Rumble fully. “And I hope you can find some other thing to do for your, uh, thing.” He then gave another, much more nervous shrug.

Removing herself from around Rumble, Scootaloo gestured kindly at Morning. “No need to repay me. Us Junior Recruits get free tickets to, like, study the formations or something.” She took that moment to strike a strong pose with her wings flared out as she stood as tall as she could. “I mean, when you’re the second best flyer in the business, and training with the best, you don’t really need to study.”

It took a moment, but Rumble’s eyes lit up with realization after Scootaloo finished patting herself on the back. He turned to her with a questioning look on his face. “Wait, free? You said a hundred bits!” He glowered down at the filly, causing her to instantly retreat.

“Oh, did I say free? I meant, uh,” she looked to Morning Glory for assistance, but found that the colt had instead already taken a few steps back. Knowing that he wouldn’t exactly be any help, she tried a different tactic. “So how’s about you go find Cardinal and I can go and take care of this?” She ended her question with a soft point at Rumble.

Morning didn’t need to be told twice. He trotted a few more steps back before turning around and rushing off.

He then spun around to run back in the direction of the arguing pair. Not because he wanted to keep his friend and sort of acquaintance from fighting, but because he really needed to go that way to take a shortcut. He yelped out a “Sorry!” as he passed, but they didn’t exactly seem to notice.

It didn’t take long for Morning Glory to get where he was going. After cutting through the argument, then Ponyville’s ‘Granny Smith Memorial’ park, he found himself all the town’s very neglected racetrack. Only used by teenagers or Pegasai who just wanted to show off.

Being both of these, Cardinal zoomed past Morning quickly, bring a large gust of wind along with him. This blew the heck out of Morning’s long white mane and made him look gorgeous.

It also blew the tickets he was still grasping gently between his lips. He let out a startled gasp as they left his poorly handled grasp, and he tried his hardest to reach for it, but, being an Earth Pony, he couldn’t exactly do much about it.

But Cardinal obviously could, what with his wings and all. Hearing the soft gasp of his buddy with his sensitive Pegasus ears, he looked to see what the problem was and, in doing so, he noticed the fluttering of tickets to his right. Mixed with Morning’s saddening reaction and useless attempts to get them from the ground, he realized they were most likely pretty dang important.

Gliding down with expert precision, he caught the tickets in his mouth while doing a sick flip. He then lazily flapped on down to greet his buddy with a very big grin.

“What’s up, dude?” He attempted to say past the items in his mouth, so it came out mostly muffled. Realizing this, he spat the Wonderbolt tickets out into his hoof, only slightly covered in saliva, along with his mouth guard, very covered in saliva. He offered said hoof over to Morning. “Right, here ya go.”

Making sure to not go anywhere near the mouth guard, Morning graciously stole away the tickets, though he made sure to grab them by the non-wet bits. Even still, he considered placing them back in his mouth for just a moment. It’s basically the same thing as kissing, right?

Of course, he didn’t. That would be weird.

Instead he just stood staring at Cardinal, unable to form actual words due to being, like, three steps away from scoring a date.

As such, it was up to Cardinal to save the day.

After depositing the mouth guard, he wiped off his hoof, then gestured the tickets his friend was still clutching. “So, those tickets are yours?” He paused to let Morning respond, which he did with a small shrug transitioned into a shy nod, causing Cardinal to grin. “Sweet! What’re they for? Like, a ballet or something?”

Morning Glory suddenly became eerily aware that he would have to actually produce a word or two explaining himself. He fought with his tongue for a few moments before finally whimpering out a words. “It’s, uh, just two Wonderbolts tickets.” Seeing Cardinal perk up slightly at the mention of the flight team, along with the added glint in his eye, gave Morning all the courage he needed to follow through.

Sort of. He still stumbled about in getting his words out. “I was sort of thinking… I mean, you’ve kind of… I’ve heard you talking about how much you like talking about the Wonderbolts, so I just sort of got these for you.” With an absolutely massive blush all the way uo to his ears, he offered the tickets in his hoof right back to his friend.

After taking a moment to process what the blue colt had just told him, Cardinal gave a beaming grin to both Morning Glory and the tickets. It took him a moment to grab them back, but when he did he let out a soft squeal.

He couldn’t help but read the information over and over again, but getting too excited to even process the words he was reading. But once he finally did it, his grin got even grinnier and his eyes lit up like either fireworks or shooting stars.

“Holy heck, these are for the Cloudsdale show tonight! How’d you even get these?” He brought the tickets up to the sun to fully confirm they were legitimate, watching the wings of the logo begin to flap.

Not knowing about the prevalence of Unicorns enchanting fake tickets for profit, Cardinal was absolutely ecstatic about this. The rush of happy was simply too much for the colt.

Therefore, he was forced to spread it. And he was going to start with the pony in front of him.

Disregarding any sort of personal space issues, Cardinal immediately wrapped his hooves around the back of Morning’s neck, bringing the smaller colt in for both a severely deep and a severely awkward hug. He even started to nuzzle his friend gently. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou~!”

Despite the heinous disrespect of his personal bubble, Morning couldn’t find himself disliking this treatment at all. His entire body might have lit up with a huge, deep red blush, but he couldn’t complain at all. He even found himself wrapping a hoof gently around Cardinal, testing his boundaries a bit.

Of course, that moment was the one where Cardinal decided to pull back, ensuring that the boundaries couldn’t be tested properly,

The light grey colt gave one more beaming grin at Morning, then extending his wings and giving them a test flap. “I’ve gotta go tell Scootie the good news!” He took off with a speed and intensity that nearly knocked the smaller colt over.

The last thing the dazed colt heard after the rush of wind was: “Thanks bud! I’ll tell ya how it went after school tomorrow!”

Author's Note

Merry late christmas

Apple Bloom

“So, y’all can’t even figure out how to get two ponies together?” Apple Bloom let out a sigh, leaning back in her seat as she shook her head.

Morning Glory stared across the table at the country mare, Sweetie Belle turning to her right to do the same. The two waited for the newcomer to slap upon them some romance truths.

With a second sigh, Apple Bloom leaned her elbows on her kitchen table. She looked over to her longtime friend (and short time acquaintance) with a calm, knowing gaze. She was gonna blow their minds, obviously.

“Potions.”

That was really all she needed to say. She knew potions, and potions had never failed her before. Aside from the times that they had indeed failed her.

Sweetie Belle looked at her with no small amount of shock. “We didn’t bring you here to suggest drugging two gay boys, even if that would make it much easier to convince one of them.”

Apple Bloom shot back an insulted look, but before she could respond she was interrupted by the shy raising of a light blue hoof.

Again, all ponies were quiet, but this time turned to Morning Glory in order to hear what he needed to say. And yet the silence still lasted for quite a bit, as the soft cold questioned if he was really allowed to speak.

He tapped his hoof tips together, giving off the smallest blush. “I… don’t exactly think I want him drugged either. It seems kind of mean…”

Apple Bloom’s face went from insulted to downright angry for a moment. But it was only a moment. She let out a breath to calm herself down, then shook her head. “I can’t believe y’all think I’m that dumb. I ain’t talkin’ about love potions!” She tapped her hindleg impatiently. “Card just needs a little push, is all. So, all I’m sayin’ is give him a truth serum, or maybe just something to keep him from running.” At that, she tapped her chin with a hoof.

The two other ponies took this small moment of thought to look at each other with a bit of surprise and shock. Sweetie Belle turned to Apple Bloom, opening her mouth to respond.

But, of course, she was interrupted by the kitchen door being kicked in very loudly and very rudely. This caused everyone in attendance to jump and guard themselves, though some higher and more guarded than others. All shivered slightly as the cold night air flooded in.

And in stepped Scootaloo, sauntering along inside with a large grin before plonking herself down at the table quickly, sitting right across from Apple Bloom. She kept grinning right up until she noticed both of her friends staring at her.

“What? There somethin’ on my face?” Scoot asked, but didn’t wait any amount of time before wiping her face off vigorously.

Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom shrugged, but Sweetie was the first to lean forward to respond. “Where have you been? We were supposed to meet like an hour ago!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “I kinda had something to do first.” She pulled gently on her shirt, a very blatant blue and yellow Wonderbolts jersey, to prove a point. This just ended up getting face paint all over it, much to her slight dissatisfaction.

Even still, she looked to the empty chair to her left, then gestured to it grandly. “And look! Morning isn’t even here yet, so stop whining.”

There was a small silence that gave way to a soft squeak that gave way to a distinctly male voice from under the table. “I’m, uh, actually down here.”

Startled, Scootaloo scooted her chair back to see Morning Glory blushing heavily as he curled up in front of her. She was at a loss for words for a moment.

So she just stared at him for a bit longer as he got out from under the table. “I thought you were gay.” She said, finally finding her words, before turning to Sweetie Belle. “I thought he was gay?”

“He’s gay, Scootaloo.” Sweetie told her with a good amount of impatience. “Now, could we just-”

“Could be bi.” Apple Bloom chipped in with a smirk. “I mean, he’s definitely hangin’ around with mares a whole lot.” With that, she gestured a hoof at Sweetie Belle.

While the three fillies bickered over just who was what sexuality, Morning Glory managed to sit himself down in his new seat, his face still completely on fire with a blush. He was forced to bury his face in his hooves. “Could we just get this over with quickly, please? I still have to be home for dinner.”

All the girls grumbled in response and settled back down, Scootaloo even pulling her newfound chair back to where she found it and finally joining the rest of the group.

“Alright so, Cardinal-” Morning began before quickly being interrupted by Scootaloo.

“So, are you gay?” She asked in a very painfully serious manner. “I mean, why would you be under the table if you were?” She finished that question with an inquisitive look.

Just as soon as he thought it was completely gone, Morning Glory’s blush returned with a vengeance, lighting up his entire face as he turned away. “I’m very gay! I just…” he sputtered out a small, gasping breath as he tried to follow that up, “I just… got really scared when you came in, is all.”

Scootaloo just shrugged. “Still feeling pumped from that Wonderbolts show!” She said just a bit overly loudly, to the point where it echoed just a bit.

Almost immediately, Apple Bloom put a hoof to her snoot and shushed Scootaloo, then perked her ears to listen for any sounds in the adjacent rooms. After hearing a whole lot of silence, she glared just a bit at Scootaloo. “You gotta quiet down. Granny’s tryin’ to sleep and isn’t takin’ too kindly to ponies waking her up these days.”

Even as bombastic and rebellious as she was, Scootaloo couldn’t help but dip her head in apology. “Sorry AB. How’s she doing anyway?”

Apple Bloom shrugged. “Pretty normal, but she’s still peeved by that whole park thing.” While she moved to explain further, she was quickly interrupted by Sweetie Belle tapping her hoof on the table.

“Listen, I wasn’t exactly expecting to be planning this for twelve hours. Rarity wants me back home,” Sweetie paused to look up at the clock across from her, seeing that it was currently 8:30 PM, to with che gave a great sigh, “Thirty minutes ago. I might die tonight.”

Scootaloo was, of course, the first to wave that off and shrug. “Yeah, whatever. We can take care of it after school tomorrow.”

This found Apple Bloom clearing her throat, then shaking her head. “Nnnnope. Gotta help Cardy with his homework. Might be cute, but he’s not too smart when it comes to school work.” There was a small beat of silence following her sentence, after which her eyes lit up. “Wait, I think I’ve got an idea.”

After that, the four ponies parted ways to head home and go to sleep in preparation for school the next day. Minus Apple Bloom, who had already skipped step one.

The day following that was almost exceedingly normal, only filled with very tired classmates and a very boring lesson taught by an equally tired Cheerilee, though her tired was mostly due to dealing with somewhat cranky teenagers.

It got to the point that the incessant chattering and constant sleeping of a small amount of her class (though most especially Scootaloo and Cardinal) made the poor teaching mare retreat to her desk to grab a stack of papers.

This made the entire class groan. While they had brought this upon themselves, they didn’t expect to get any homework on a Monday. Not that it would be very hard for most of them. Most of them.

Cheerilee tossed out the papers, just a short worksheet really, to the ponies in the front row for them to pass back to their classmates behind them. She then returned to her desk to let out a deep sigh.

It had nothing on the collective sigh let out by the class. They knew that, while it would be easy, it would cut into their precious freetime.

It seemed that only three ponies in the class were silently thanking whatever fate brought their teacher to bring this upon them.

Apple Bloom turned to Sweetie Belle with a sure grin, as she had been doing most of the Cheerilee prodding. In turn, Sweetie Belle smiled towards Morning Glory, who was pressing a hoof to his chest while sinking deeper below his desk.

Scootaloo continued to snore behind Morning Glory, her own page of homework laying directly on her face as she did her snooze.

Cardinal, the object of Morning’s current affection, mirrored his fellow winged pony in slumber, though his homework was instead right beside his head, right in a puddle of his drool.

Needless to say, the two pegahorses were the first out the door once the bell rang, though Cardinal beat Scootaloo who was still dealing with a paper stuck to her face. She threw it off just in time to make the race close, but her momentary distraction proved to be her undoing.

The rest of the classroom filed out soon after that, most ponies forming small groups in order to get the homework done quickly, then do whatever teens do when not busy.

Probably card games or something.

This just left the group of three (Morning, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom) to collect the pieces and reconvene.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle approached Cheerilee’s desk wordlessly, and were quickly greeted by two more pages of homework for their respective study buddies.

Sweetie Belle just let out a soft sigh, taking her sheet and walking to the door for another very productive study session with Scootaloo. As she passed by Morning Glory, who was clinging to the wall helplessly, staring at her with big, eyes, she gave him a small nod as she left to do her own thing.

Apple Bloom approached him next, clapping him on the shoulder with a smile as she handed her paper over to him. “Knock ‘em dead, kid.” She then similarly left him out to dry as she left the building.

Morning continued to cling to the wall, his heart racing as he attempted to unlock latent invisibility powers, just like in one of his Japaneighs animes. Of course he couldn’t, but his ears perked up when he heard voices through the door.

It was very obviously Apple Bloom and Cardinal from the country twang and absolute dimness respectively. Morning couldn’t quite tell what they were chatting about, but he figured it was him by the way his ears were burning. Or maybe that was just his huge blush.

But he still stood there when the sound of conversation faded down to nothing, then turned to a set of hoofsteps trotting away. And yet he stayed frozen.

“You’re going to have to go see him eventually.” Came a voice from across the room. Cheerilee didn’t even look up from her desk as she acknowledged him, very used to dealing with the issues of teens while grading papers. “He’s waiting for you, and you know how stubborn he can be. And I won’t be letting you spend the night here again.”

All Morning could really do was let out a soft, defensive squeak at her words. And yet he knew she was right. Those desks were way too uncomfortable.

With another soft squeak, he resigned himself to his fate of spending time with a friend and crush. Truly a terrifying prospect. And yet it was all he could do.

He gave Cheerilee a dejected sigh, then a thankful nod as he braced himself. Then he opened the door to leave.

And was right away accosted by Cardinal.

The larger colt immediately jumped from his sitting position to greet his good friend with a grin, getting just a bit too close to him. This had the added benefit of blocking any of Morning’s exit routes.

“Hey dude! Did you get lost or something?” He grinned as he gestured back into the classroom. Morning opened his mouth, but was quickly stopped by Cardinal patting him on the shoulder. “Nah, I’m just kidding dude. So, Apple Bloom told me you’re gonna be helping me with, uh…” he paused to grab, then take a look at one of the papers Morning had with him. Upon looking, he gave a large blink and a head shake. “You’re gonna help with whatever this is.”

Morning too perused the page he was left, and was delighted to learn that it was just simple algebra that he could crank out in a few minutes. And then he looked back up at Cardinal to say something.

He was taken aback by the look of sheer confusion on Cardinal’s face as he looked over the sheet again.

“Why are there letters here? I thought this was math.”

This was going to be a very difficult job.

The two quickly embarked to Cardinal’s home for a bit of makeshift tutoring, as seemed to be the norm for Apple Bloom’s more regular sessions. It wasn’t a very long walk from the schoolhouse, though nothing was a very far walk in Ponyville. Even still, it was just a twoish minute walk filled with the smallest of small talk.

Mostly on Cardinal’s part, but Morning found a small groove for himself in the conversation between the other colt’s joyful statements.

By the end of the twoish minutes, both colts found themselves laughing and joking about with each other. They stood on the front stoop of Cardinal’s house, giggling and nudging each other while Cardinal moved to unlock and open his door.

And inside they went. The house was dark and quiet to the point of being eerie for Morning to walk into, but he felt safe enough as he followed his crush inwards. He tried his best to match Cardinal’s strangely brisk pace.

They took a turn down a close hallway before Morning could even make out most of the house, and then Cardinal ushered him to and through a door at the end of the hallway.

The room, obviously, was Cardinal’s. From the calming sky blue wallpaper to the numerous posters of the Wonderbolts, horrible bands, and wrestling covering said wallpaper. And Morning figured he could find a way in though that last one.

The rest of the room was surprisingly cleaner than Morning had expected. There was hardly any garbage strewn about the floor, or on his desk, under his bed, in his closet or anything.

Cardinal shrugged off his saddlebag and set it down beside his bed with strange precision. He then gestured for Morning to do the same. “Make yourself at home, dude.”

Morning just set his own right beside Cardinal’s, then awkwardly stood near the door while Cardinal moved over to his desk across the room.

The desk was about as clean as a desk that’s used only weekly could be. Most of the things were in order not because of strict organization, but due to complete underuse. Cardinal had to wipe it down of any dust before waving Morning over. “C’mon, let’s get this over with.” He said before plopping himself down in his desk chair, then gestured over to the stool beside him.

Morning moved as quickly as he could to not waste any more time. The stool forced him to sit a bit close to his friend, not that he was at all complaining.

The two began to focus on their homework in that moment, both attempting to work through the most they could do alone before asking for any help from the other.

Morning Glory breezed through most of the problems in minutes, probably due to a mixture of being naturally good at math and actually having paid attention to Cheerilee’s lessons. After about five minutes he’d gotten through most of the worksheet, though he had a few problems he was still questioning.

He turned to Cardinal to see how he was faring, and maybe get some assistance on one of the ones he was having a spot of trouble with.

And yet all he saw was a confused Cardinal scratching the back of his head. He looked over to Morning just a bit pathetically, his eyes shining with the hope that, much like Apple Bloom, his friend would teach him the material he was too tired to learn in class.

“I don’t get how to get these letters.” Cardinal said as he gestured to the second set of problems. He then poked a hoof at the first, much easier set. “They just gave me the numbers to the letters for this one, so that was real easy. But now I’ve got the answer but gotta find the letters?” He finished off his questioning by returning to scratching his head.

It took Morning Glory a moment to realize that this wasn’t just an extended bit. But, seeing the truth in his friend’s eyes, he knew that he was going to have to strap on his teaching hat and just learn that boy some maths.

He took a deep breath, readying himself for teaching, then poked a hoof at the first problem: 6=a/4+2. He’d already solved it, so he could definitely do this.

Morning looked up to Cardinal with the slightest bit of confidence. “So, basically all you’ve gotta do is, uh…” he blinked, then looked over to his page to get a semblance of what to do. He then realized that, despite knowing how to do the maths, he completely blanked on how to explain it. He continued to stammer and stutter about variables and multiplication, but he saw it wasn’t really convincing Cardinal.

Quickly running out of words to explain math to a horse, Morning gave a short huff as he slid his page over right next to his friend’s, allowing him to just see the answers. “I’m not a very good teacher.” He said softly, and with a small frown.

Cardinal, however, found his eyes lighting up with both realization and joy that he wouldn’t have to learn much today. He could just copy numbers, then just focus on training and dealing with parents later.

Instead of starting the copying right then and there, Cardinal opted to turn to face Morning Glory with a huge grin. He didn’t hesitate to open his arms widely at his friend, then wrapped them as tightly as he could around him.

Morning let out a soft little squeak as he was forcibly wrapped in his friend’s warm embrace, not that he could find the words or need to complain at all. Cardinal even extended his wings, also wrapping them around the smaller Earth Pony in some kind of superhug.

It was very warm, but the warmest thing in the huggle seemed to be Morning's face, now a brighter shade of red than ever before and hot enough to melt snow. And yet he couldn’t do much but grin widely and lean ever so slightly against Cardinal’s chest floof.

Cardinal pulled him ever so closer to his chest with a slightly tightened hug. “Thank you so much, dude. You don’t know how much I needed this today!” He then let the embrace linger for another few moments.

Just enough moments for Morning to gently wrap his hooves around Cardinal as well. Mostly because it would have been weird not to, but also because the colt was a big ball of warmth and fluff.

And yet, it only lasted for a moment. Cardinal pulled back from the hug almost immediately, either ignoring or just not noticing Morning’s own hug as he broke it. He just turned back to his work and began copying.

Then Cardinal froze in his seat, his ears standing as tall as they could get and swiveling about to track a nigh imperceptible sound. Listening in closely as well, Morning very faintly heard the sound of the front door being shut.

He then jumped a bit upon hearing the much closer sound of Cardinal letting out a sigh. Looking over to see him, he was somewhat shocked to see a mournful frown on his friend’s face.

Noticing his smaller companion’s surprised expression through the corner of his eye, Cardinal forced a grin. In a very forced manner. “Listen,” he said a great deal quieter than he was before, and with just a bit of added quake to his voice, “My parents are sort of home now and I’m not exactly supposed to have colts I like over yet so…”

He actually hesitated, at a loss for words for once. Instead, he just gently gestured to the large window slightly to his left. He then gave a very apologetic look.

“I… can’t really let them see you leaving through the front door either.” The large colt squeaked out softly before turning his head away from Morning. “Sorry.”

Hearing approaching voiced from down the hallway, Morning knew that he was running short on time to decide. He quickly stood up from the stood up from the stool and approached the window. Cardinal joined him just as quickly, moving past him to open the window.

Cardinal then gave his friend a short, soft hug and another apologetic look, though slightly disarmed by a gentle smile. “I really hate to kick you out like this. I’ll work on copying after I’m done training, and I’ll get it back to you tomorrow. Now then:” He gestured to the window. “After you.”

Morning Glory nodded softly, gently crawling through the window that strangely didn’t seem to have a screen. He briefly contemplated returning the tiny hug he was given, but he reconsidered as he heard the voices outside getting closer and closer still.

He managed to duck out just as the door opened, leaving Cardinal to fend for himself when to came to lying as to why he was talking to himself and poking his head out of his window.

Morning himself, however, was left with just one question to follow him on his way home:

Just what did Cardinal mean when he said ‘colts he likes’?

Cardinal

As Morning Glory stumbled his way home, his mind was awash with muddled thought and internal screaming due to not one, but two hugs from his crush. And the whole confusion of what Cardinal had meant when he said ‘colts I like’ when referring to him.

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t see the yellow and red figure before him until it was too late.

But thankfully instead of crashing into Apple Bloom, she just pressed a hoof against his chest to halt him. He still jumped, however.

After the jump, Apple Bloom took note of his face, entirely confusion with a light dusting of panic, and frowned. “Didn’t go too well, huh?”

Morning fought against nodding because, while it didn’t go exactly as he’d planned, he still wasn’t turned down or shunned. He just didn’t know what he was at this point.

“It went…” he started, then scrunched his face as he realized he wasn’t too sure how it’d went.

“It went?” Apple Bloom questioned.

“It went.” Morning concluded.

Apple Bloom blinked, then stayed silent in hopes her acquaintance would finish his thought. When he looked to her with the same amount of expectation, she let out a sigh. “I take it he didn’t sweep you off your hooves then?”

Morning shook his head, though with a small, hopeful glint in his eyes. “He did hug me though. Twice.” The small white couldn’t help but smile as he said that.

Apple Bloom smiled as well, if nought wider than her friend did, while she gave him a nice, hard pat on the shoulder. “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. I knew helping him with homework would help! And maybe now we won’t have to potion him too hard.”

“L-let’s not do the potioning, actually.” Morning eeped out softly.

“Speaking of homework,” the apple horse said, completely ignoring the protests she couldn’t even hear, “how’d Cardy take to learning math? Did he pick up on it easy?”

Morning let out a soft, nervous chuckle. “Well, about that…” He began to look around to try and find just about anything to make an excuse out of.

As he did this, Apple Bloom shot him a tired and somewhat disappointed frown, already knowing she would have to teach everything to Cardinal yet again. “I hope you didn’t just give him the answers.”

Drawing a blank, Morning lept to the one thing he knew. “Listen, I’ve gotta go think about Cardinal and cry.” Letting out a soft squeak, he didn’t even take a moment to think about what he’d said before taking off towards home.

Apple Bloom nodded. It made sense.

Once home, Morning let out a deep sigh that he didn’t even know he was holding back. Mostly because he was just very used to letting them out as they come. And yet this sigh seemed to come from very deep within himself and, once released, he felt like there was a weight lifted off fo him.

Now that he was alone, he could finally relax and take a break from fielding everyone else’s ideas on how to get Cardinal to like him. Especially now that it was clear that it’d be less of a hassle than he thought. He now knew that Cardinal seemed to have at least a passing interest in him.

Letting out a soft, happy sigh at the thought of that Morning shrugged off his saddlebag. At least, he would have if he had any saddlebag to shrug off. He hadn’t noticed it before during the escape of Cardinal’s room or the failed conversation with Apple Bloom, but now it was plainly clear to him that he was missing a key weight on his back.

Dancing about with more than just a bit of anxiety, he tried his best to retrace his steps and figure out where he must have left it. Moments later, he realized that he knew exactly where he’d left it.

Cardinal’s house.

And he knew he couldn’t just trot on over and reclaim it. Instead, he would probably have to wait until the next day to hope Cardinal remembers it.

With a now soft and somewhat dejected sigh, he shrugged and entered his kitchen. “Well, I guess I should probably trust him with this.” Morning said softly to himself, as is allowed for a pony in the privacy of his own home.

Turning on the oven to a respectable heat of 400°F, Morning leaned back against his counter and grumbled to himself while he waited for the oven to heat.

“I mean, I should probably trust him. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t wanna date him, right?” He scrunched his snoot as he thought it over, but brought himself back with a shake of his head. “No, of course I trust him. And it’s not like I can get the Crusaders to help me with getting it back.”

He couldn’t help but crack a smile as he pictured it, giggling to himself. It was something of a spy-esque thriller with Morning playing as the charismatic super spy and the Crusaders all taking turns as his assistant.

And then Cardinal as some sort of damsel, or one of those sexy but dangerous secretaries to the true villain. And some villain somewhere.

Honestly, all he really knew was that he’d be wearing a catsuit and he’d look damn good in it.

Shaking his head again, he found himself snorting in laughter just a little bit. “Well, that was stupid.” He told himself before laughing for just a few moments later.

Morning looked over to the oven and, upon noting it was only at half of its desired warmth, let out a loud and desperate groan. He couldn’t stand to wait much longer for his grass covered frozen pizza.

He took a quick lap around the island countertop in the center of his kitchen, then flopped right back against the marble counter.

“What am I gonna do?” He asked himself, not quite knowing which question he was really asking. Mulling over it for a moment, he grumbled and sighed yet again. “What am I gonna do‽” He repeated with distress. “None of the ideas I got from the girls really worked, so what now?”

He waited for several moments for the ideas to appear in his head but, upon coming up with nothing, he stomped his hooves lightly while letting out a tiny grumble. “Gosh darn it! I’ve gotta get Cardinal to ask me out somehow!” Giving a soft sigh, he then cocked his head slightly. “At least I know he likes me.”

The white colt swooned as he said that, grinning as widely as possible and pressing a hoof to his chest. A blush covered his face as he recalled the short hug the two had shared before he was forced through a window.

The love produced by this moment was just enough to get Morning thinking of just dropping all of his anxiety and find Cardinal in order to get it all over with.

He almost began to discuss it with himself, but he was abruptly drawn away by the sudden and incessant beeping of his oven, giving him a very loud reminder that it was now pizza time all the time.

Giving up for a moment, he decided to take care of his problems after eating, but still before bed.

Waking up the next morning, all Morning remembered was eating most of his pizza, cleaning up, then reading a book until he fell asleep. He got a whole two pages in, as the sheer act of eating his pizza had tired him out enough.

And, by the loud beeping of his alarm clock, he knew that he wouldn’t exactly have the time to both take a shower and plan through all of his romancing escapades.

Needless to say, he had to think it over for a few minutes. And by that point, he was already getting to be late for school.

After the quickest of quick showers, Morning Glory was out the door with a half dried mane (the left half) and a slice of leftover pizza flopping out of his mouth to be devoured on his run. A tactic he picked up from a book he saw on his bookshelf.

As he munched on that grassy pizza and trotted along his normal route to school, he wasn’t very surprised when he saw a white figure approach him and begin to walk in time with him.

Quickly crunching the rest of his pizza, he looked over to give a small smile to Sweetie Belle. “G’morning.” He grumbled softly before clearing his throat, reeling just a bit from swallowing an entire pizza slice at once.

“Morning. So, I heard your date didn’t go as we all planned, huh?” She asked, to which Morning responded with a quick eye roll and loud grumble. She was just going to start with this, huh?

“It didn’t go perfectly,” he admitted with a soft sigh, but he also gave a soft smile as well, “buuuuuuuut he did hug me and maybe he might have let it slip that he likes me so...it’s a plus?” He shrugged, but a larger smile found its way to his face and a giggle to his voice.

It seemed that the smile was infectious, as Sweetie Belle took one up as well. “Well that’s something! At least we have a little to work with.” She told him, to which he responded with an attempt to speak before Sweetie cut him off. “I think we should all meet up after school to discuss strategy.”

Morning took a moment to stop and scratch one foreleg with the other while grumbling a bit. “Uh, about that…”

Stopping and spinning place to look at him, Sweetie Belle looked at him in a very questioning way. “What’s wrong? Getting cold hooves this far in?”

Shaking his head softly, Morning thought over his next response very carefully, muttering under his breath and sighing when he couldn’t figure out the perfect sentence. And yet he spoke more anyway. “It’s just that none of the ideas worked so far, so I don’t see much use and coming up with new ones.” He grumbled softly once he realized the words could come across as rude, but he wasn’t about to apologize for it.

Rolling her eyes, Sweetie Belle frowned at her friend. “Oh come on! That just means we haven’t tried the right one.” Bringing herself up against Morning’s side, she wrapped a hoof around him. “See, I’ve got one idea. How do you feel about karaoke?”

Morning just let out a soft squeak as he was ushered along his way to school with Sweetie Belle shopping her idea to him.

Thankfully the walk to school didn’t take too long, small village and all, so Morning was mostly in the clear once Sweetie Belle took her seat to discuss him with Apple Bloom.

Mostly being the keyword, as once Morning took his own seat he was approached by a strangely bashful Cardinal.

He approached quickly and gently, immediately setting one of the two saddlebags he had down by Morning’s hooves. He opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped once realizing he had no idea what to say.

“Sorry about last night.” He decided to start with, grumbling softly and scratching the back of his neck. “I didn’t know my parents were gonna be home that soon, and I sorta panicked.” He let out a small, breathy laugh at that, shaking his head. “Anyway, I just wanted to get back to what I was talking about yesterday.” He hesitated, opening and closing his mouth a few times without a sound.

Right when he was about to return to speaking, the school bell rang to cut him off. Cheerilee called for everyone to take their seats, forcing Cardinal to shoot Morning a disappointed look.

“Let’s talk later.” Cardinal muttered, ruffling his wings nervously, then gestured to Morning’s saddlebags. “Thank you, by the way.”

After a beat of awkwardness, Cardinal left for his seat.

Thankfully, the school day wasn’t too difficult or taxing. Aside from Morning obsessing over whatever it was Cardinal wanted to tell him, the time just flew by.

All that was really went over before the bell rang again was the homework from the day before and a little bit of extra instruction to add onto yesterday’s lesson. Then all that was left was the classwork to finish before the bell.

After the class noisily let out and Morning was once again able to think clearly, he looked around to try and find Cardinal. And yet, strangely, he seemed to be missing from his usual nap at his desk, leaving only a small puddle of drool to thrive on its own.

Letting out a soft sigh, Morning Glory looked one seat forward to find Cardinal’s partner in naptime, Scootaloo. Reaching over to her seat, he nudged her gently.

She shot up immediately, looking around wildly for the reason she was so rudely awoken. Seeing that the classroom was now mostly empty, she took a moment to stretch her hooves above her head, the sound of the cracking and popping both horrifying and deafening, after which she scratched the back of her neck and let out a loud yawn.

She then turned to Morning. “Did I miss the bell, or are we just being attacked again?” Without even waiting for a response, she got up out of her seat to stretch herself out with a long and drawn out sigh.

“It’s all over, Scootaloo.” Morning told her without much fanfare. “Now then, did Cardinal tell you where he was going after school before you both snoozed?”

Scootaloo just shook her head. “Nah, I passed out before y’all even got here. Which some would call depression, but I think of it as an adventure.” She gave a grin, tilting her head slightly. Once tilted, her face gave a scrunch in confusion.

She dipped her head slightly, then shook it about wildly. As she did this, Morning spotted a small piece of folded up paper taped to the nape of her neck and flapping wildly about. Grumbling loudly, Scoot just flopped around harder to get rid of it.

Carefully reaching over to his friend, Morning grabbed for the piece of paper to free her from her torment.

Once freed, Scootaloo grinned at Morning. “Thanks! That was getting pretty annoying.” She briefly regarded the paper, but her focus shifted back to Morning moments later. “Anyway, how do you feel about skydiving? ‘Cause I’ve got one heck of an idea.”

Ignoring her almost entirely, Morning Glory went about unfolding and inspecting the paper that was purposefully left behind. Written on it was an almost illegible scrawl, huge and bold across the page. After squinting and tilting his head, he was just barely able to read what it said:

“MEET ME MARKET FOUNTAIN. TALK THERE. -C”

Well, Morning could have told who had written it from just the all capital letters and poor penmanship. The ‘signature’ was just a small confirmation for him.

Needless to say, this caused an absolutely massive jolt of anxiety to grip his heart and rattle it around a bit. He was already gritting his teeth and trying to not to scream in terror as, while he was within spitting distance of having what seemed to be a serious conversation with Cardinal, but he would also have to confront having an entirely serious conversation about his feelings without bolting.

Completely ignoring the face of pure terror on Morning’s face, Scootaloo tilted her head in confusion. “So, does that mean no skydiving?”

“Maybe later.” Morning squeaked non-committedly , then just bolted out the door.

Morning Glory approached the center of town much like a prisoner on death row. He slowly meandered down the streets of Ponyville, his eyes cast down to the floor while ponies watched him walk.

It was obvious to him that everyone was well aware of what was really going on. Especially due to the constant influx of ponies reaching out to amp him up and congratulate him on finally getting it done. As well as giving their hopes that it wouldn’t go at all like last time.

All Morning was able to do was smile politely and nod, then walk away and grumble to himself softly before the next pony approached him.

And yet somehow he still managed to make it to the marketplace before the sun set. He took a short moment to take a small breath and calm himself down, slowly creeping from market stall to market stall as he tried to get a feel for what was going on.

He hid behind the cherry stall, the one closest to the fountain at the center of town, and peeked over the side to see if Cardinal had showed up yet. If not, he was going to abscond and find a plan before attempting to attack again.

And yet those plans were dashed the moment he saw Cardinal right by the fountain. Strangely enough, he seemed to be pacing back and forth between the fountain and a tree nearby, frequently looking all around him for any signs of Morning.

Ducking back behind the stall as Cardinal began to search, Morning curled up in the fetal position right then and there, pressing his back against the wood of the stall. He internally screamed at himself to both leave for home and also to go confront Cardinal already. As such, he was torn.

He was extremely startled when the cherry attendant cleared his throat, looking down at Morning disdainfully as he muttered to himself about Morning driving all of his customers away. Pressing his hooves against the bottom of the stall, the cherry pony lifted with all the earth pony strength he had and uprooted it from the ground.

He then proceeded to stomp his way out of the marketplace, leaving Morning defenseless and visible to the entire world.

Turning around to look to the fountain, Morning caught Cardinal’s curious gase. Knowing he was trapped now, he scrambled to stand back up and face the fact that his choice had been made for him.

He trotted as quickly as he could without being extremely awkward as he approached the fountain and final boss of his adventure. He kept his eyes to the ground, fearing running away and hiding were he to look at the colt before him.

Once before Cardinal, Morning stared down to his hooves while scratching one of his forelegs against the other. He attempted to greet his friend, but couldn’t manage the words.

“Heya Morning.” Cardinal instead began, just before letting out a breathy, nervous laugh. He moved one hoof to scratch the back of his neck. “I was sorta getting worried you weren’t gonna show. But here you are.”

“Here I am…” Morning agreed with an equally nervous chuckle. “I sort of got sidetracked with… stuff.” He gestured behind him to the empty space that once housed a cherry stand.

Cardinal nodded gently. “Yeah, I saw that.” He said before letting out a short laugh. “I guess that he just really didn’t wanna deal with us today.” Casually looking around at the ponies staring at them both, he couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Y’know, unlike everyone else around here.”

Morning managed to share in the smiling and giggling, finally looking up to look Cardinal in the eyes. The two shared a short moment of smiling at each other before Cardinal motioned his head towards the fountain.

“We should sit. This might take a while.” With another larger smile, he nudged his buddy just a little bit before approaching the edge of the fountain to take a seat.

Morning Glory joined him only moments later, sitting just a bit too close to Cardinal, not that either colt minded one bit. The two of them sat there calmly for the longest moment, trying their hardest to not get performance anxiety from all the ponies around them.

“I really like you, Morning Glory.” Cardinal said softly, purposefully looking away from Morning for the moment. He shook his head gently, letting out a soft chuckle. “I mean, how couldn’t I? You’re always so nice to me, and so helpful.”

Morning couldn’t help but blush as he grinned from ear to ear, very happy to be hearing any praise from Cardinal. Giggling just a bit, he scooted just a slight bit closer to Cardinal. He couldn’t exactly form any words to respond yet, but he was enjoying hearing Cardinal’s.

“Just in the past couple days you’ve been so sweet.” Cardinal continued, slyly wrapping one hoof around Morning. “I mean, you brought me a snack after one heck of a training session, got me tickets to that sick Wonderbolts show, and even let me copy your homework.”

Morning looked away from Cardinal for a moment, pressing his hoof to his mouth as he giggled quite a bit loudly. “You’re very dumb. A very dumb pony sometimes.” He turned back to face Cardinal as he continued to laugh, only to be surprised when he saw a worried look on his face.

Taking on a worried look of his own, Morning squeaked and leaned towards Cardinal, covering the pegasus’ hoof with one of his own as he realized what he’d said was probably rude as heck. “What I mean is, uh, you… don’t know why I gave you those, do you?”

To his credit, Cardinal took a moment to think about it, but shook his head when he came up with not much. “Is it because you like me?”

“No, it’s because I l-” Morning paused to fully comprehend what his friend had just said. Sighing softly, he nodded once he realized Cardinal had nailed it on the head. “Yes. I like you, Cardinal. I like you too, I guess.”

He leaned back slightly, bracing himself on the edge of the fountain so as to not fall in while he gazed up at the sky. “All those gifts…were to get that through to you. With the help of the Crusaders, at least. Sweetie Belle thought I should get you flowers,” he turned to look back at Cardinal and look into his wide eyes, “but you ate those, and I had absolutely no idea how to come back from that.”

Cardinal could only respond by blushing largely, soon after moving to hide his face in his hooves. “I was really hungry and I didn’t knoooooow!” He then began to giggle into his hooves.

“And then came the tickets that Scootaloo gave to me, to give to you, so that you and I could spend time together.” Morning continued, and by the look on Cardinal’s face he could tell that his friend knew where he was going with this. “I didn’t expect you to go back to her with them. But that’s fine because I’m not the biggest Wonderbolts fan.”

“Scoots might have just screwed you there. I don’t think you could’ve made it to a Cloudsdale show.” Cardinal admitted as he flexed his wings gently, but still shrugged afterwards. “Was a pretty good plan though.”

Morning gave a nod. “I didn’t really expect it to that well, but I was desperate. What I did think was gonna work was Apple Bloom’s plan.”

Cardinal joined in on this nodding, following where Morning was going for once. “I guess that was probably getting the both of us alone in a room so we could ‘do our homework’ together, huh?” He asked with a sly wink.

“Basically. And I’m pretty sure it almost worked.” Morning lead on with a somewhat teasing grin.

“Ooooonly if my parents hadn’t shown up when they did.” Cardinal agreed as he scooted ever so slightly to the pony to his side. “But they’re not here now~” He said with a grin and a wink.

Morning briefly looked around to the ponies surrounding them, blushing heavily while realizing they were still staring. And yet, looking back to Cardinal, he couldn’t find the want or need to panic. Instead, he just breathed out a sigh and wrapped his hooves very gently around Cardinal’s waist.

Ignoring the gentle cheering around them, Cardinal hugged the smaller pony right back, pulling him even tighter to his chest.

This hugging lasted for quite a long moment, just enough time for most ponies in the crowd to pass off their bits to Cheerilee, who was watching from afar.

Pulling back first, tough still leaning slightly against Cardinal, Morning sighed happily. “So, do you want to go get lunch sometime?”

“Can sometime be now?” Cardinal asked quietly, nudging his now more-than-friend gently before rubbing his tum a little bit. “I haven’t really had much to eat today.” As if to emphasize this point, his belly gave a loud growl between the both of them.

All Morning could do was laugh and very gently nuzzle against Cardinal’s chest.

End.