Love In Tears

Slowly, Sweetie Belle set the letter back down on the table. Despite the way her voice had hitched and cracked at several points, she had managed to get through the whole thing in one sitting. The kitchen was quiet but for Pearlescent’s rumbling purr where she had curled up in the chair next to Sweetie Belle. Both mares gazed at the creased sheet of paper, the weight of its words lingering in the air like a melancholic melody.

“Well,” Scootaloo finally said, her voice soft and raw. “That’s…a lot to take in.” She looked down at her mug of cocoa, now lukewarm and untouched for several minutes. Her wings twitched restlessly, betraying the whirlwind of emotions she was trying to contain.

Sweetie Belle nodded, her throat still tight. “Yeah,” she murmured, tracing a hoof around the edge of her own mug. “I knew she was dating Rumble, but…hearing it all like this…it’s like she’s finally closed the door, you know?” Her eyes glistened, but she blinked rapidly, fighting the tears back.

Scootaloo shifted uncomfortably, her ears flicking back. “I didn’t realize she felt like that. About…us. About what we had.” She shook her head. “No, that’s a lie,” she admitted. “She tried telling us often enough, especially toward the end. I just didn’t want to listen.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah,” she sighed, reaching over to run a gentle hoof over Pearlescent’s soft fur. Finally, after several long moments, she glanced back up at her ex-wife. “But…she wasn’t wrong. What we had…it did matter. More than anything.”

Scootaloo started to shake her head again, an echo of the old anger from the fights they had in the last months before Apple Bloom left their marriage flickering across her face. She stopped herself before any angry words could spill forth, though, and her breath left her in a soft sigh. “Yeah,” she agreed. “It did. It still does.” She glanced up at Sweetie Belle from under her naturally long, beautiful eyelashes, one of the few traditionally feminine things about her appearance. “Sweetie Belle, I…” Scootaloo paused, shaking her head and dropping her gaze. “I sound like a broken record, but…I’m sorry. For not being there for you. For not being strong enough. For…”

“Shhhh…” Sweetie Belle reached a hoof across the table to place it over Scootaloo’s. “That’s enough, Scootaloo,” she whispered. “Enough apologizing. Enough recriminations. You weren’t the only one who let things fall apart after Apple Bloom left.” She glanced at the letter, then up at Scootaloo. “I have more than enough to be sorry for, too.”

Scootaloo fell silent under Sweetie Belle’s gentle admonishment, looking down at their joined hooves. After a few moments, she whispered, “So…what happens now? Where do we go from here?” Her eyes flicked back up from their hooves to Sweetie Belle’s face again. “Do we…go anywhere at all?”

Sweetie Belle didn’t reply for several long moments. Finally, she hooked her fetlock with Scootaloo’s and brought the pegasus’ hoof to her lips to give it a gentle kiss, then lowered her head to press their joined hooves to the base of her horn. “I’m not sure,” she murmured. “But…I want to find out.” She raised her head just slightly, pressing her cheek to Scootaloo’s hoof. “Rarity called earlier. She invited me to come spend Hearth’s Warming with her and the others in Canterlot.”

“Rainbow Dash said the same thing to me,” Scootaloo nodded. “She and Applejack left on the train this morning. I…I still hadn’t decided whether to take her up on it.” She glanced upward, in the general direction of her old mentor/surrogate big sister’s cloudominium. “Do you think they planned it like that? To invite both of us and see what happened?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “I don’t know,” she breathed. “It wouldn’t surprise me, but they might just know each other so well that they end up thinking alike on some things, without having to plan for it.”

After a few moments, Scootaloo asked, “So…do you want to go? Or should I stay here? Or…?”

Sweetie Belle raised her other forehoof, placing it softly over Scootaloo’s lips. “I…I think I might call her back,” she whispered. “We can catch the next train. I…if you want to, I really want to give this…us…another shot. It won’t be the same as before, but…but I don’t want to let you go again.” Her jade-green eyes met Scootaloo’s amethyst, full of fragile hope. “Not without a fight.” A tentative smile flickered across her lips. “It’ll be like…a second first date.”

The small joke drew a quiet laugh from Scootaloo, like the cracking of thin winter ice. “I’d like that,” she murmured. “I’d really like that. I…” She hesitated, searching for the right words. “I don’t know where this will lead, but…but I don’t want to run away again. I want to fight for you. For us.”

Scootaloo glanced at the letter again, her gaze lingering. “Do you think Apple Bloom really meant it?” she asked softly. “About wanting to hear from us? I mean…I want to believe she does, but…” She shook her head, her voice trailing off. “I don’t know what I would say.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “I think we should,” she replied softly. “I mean…I haven’t sent her a Hearth’s Warming card or anything. I didn’t think I could bear it before, but…” Her fetlock squeezed Scootaloo’s. “Even if it’s hard, I think it would mean a lot to her-and to us-to let her know we’re thinking of her…and that we wish her well.” She glanced at the letter once more. “Reading Apple Bloom’s letter…it reminded me how real what we had was, even if it wasn’t perfect. Even if it wasn’t…” Her throat tightened momentarily, and her voice hitched. “Even if it wasn’t right for her.”

As Scootaloo nodded, rising from her seat to go retrieve the call crystal, Sweetie Belle found another new lyric springing to her mind, still sad and wistful, but now tinged with hope, like the faintest tinge of light on the horizon to herald a new dawn.

Love is in tears,
But hope lingers through the doubts and fears.
Two paths, crossing once more,
Trying to rebuild stronger than before…