Bleachers / Cherrytown / Too Late

“So, uh… How’ve you been?”

“Well… A lot’s happened this fall.” Daring cleared her throat and looked down at her hooves. “Got some new scars… I think I lost some old ones too, actually. Hard to tell with the way magic and curses work. Uh, I figured out that thing with my publisher, so hopefully we can actually start getting the book out there… Oh, I finally got that ancient battle mask I was telling you about authenticated. So that was cool.”

Daring stared out onto the baseball field. The entire field had been redesigned thanks to some educational grant the city had just gotten, and they had even installed a bigger cage around home plate to stop balls from flying into the stands instead of relying on volunteer unicorns to try and catch them with magic before anyone got hit.

Her bat (well… Fast Clip’s bat, but Daring had owned it longer than he did by now) sat beside her, still in fairly good condition from its relative lack-of use. She was amused that Cheerilee still had it.

“That is cool!” Cheerilee tightened her scarf and giggled. “Didn’t you say that pot was going to challenge our entire fundamental view of Equestrian history?”

“I may have been embellishing a bit.”

“You? Daring ‘Drama’ Do? Never!”

They laughed, but Daring felt her throat tighten a bit.

It was on this very field when she had her first crisis of faith all those years ago. The crushing realization that she didn’t feel love the same others seemed to, that her understanding of relationships was practically zero.

It was so much back then.

It was so much now.

Because Cheerilee had been right, and the longer Daring knew her, the more she began to understand. There was even a word for it now. Demi-romantic. Unable to feel romantic feelings, unless they had already established a connection.

In all their years of knowing each other, every day made it more clear.

It had started that one fall years ago, but Daring couldn’t deny what it was anymore. As each and every year passed it only grew stronger. Armed with academic access she threw herself into searching for something, anything that might help convince her otherwise. But everything pointed to one singular thing.

She knew what it meant when her heart beat quicker, when her wings began to flutter and tremble, and when she would feel a lingering sadness whenever she was alone. She kept looking: over her shoulder and down at the ground. Like maybe the answer was in the bleachers. Maybe there would be some kind of solace in the empty stands around her. But there wasn’t. There was nothing.

It was all so much. It was all too much.

Because it hurt.

Daring summoned the strength to smile. She wanted to speak her mind, to open her mouth and let the words flow like water. Fuck, she wanted to let her know. She wanted to let her know how she wanted to find every single tomorrow with her. To let her know how long this had been tearing her up inside.

But she couldn’t. Maybe not ever.

Because the mare next to Cheerilee wrapped a wing around her, and Cheerilee blushed and leaned into their embrace. “I don’t know much about history… Is that important?”

“Blossom, you silly.”

Blossomforth chuckled. “That’s why you love me.”

Cheerilee didn’t protest. Daring almost wished she would.

Because in the time she had spent figuring herself out, the world decided to keep moving on.

Because Cheerilee wasn’t a psychic, and Daring wasn’t someone who could change the past.

Because in a few more months, Blossomforth and Cheerilee would marry.

And then, Daring would be right back where she started. A scared mare on her own.

Watching from the bleachers.