P + P = <3

The perfect end to a perfect day, Posey thinks to herself. Sitting on the end of the pier with Pipp, she cannot help but stare at all the new fascinating charms on her friendship bracelet. She nearly gets herself lost in the warmth of the sunset before Pipp brings her back to reality.
“See? Not so broken now, huh?” Pipp says with a smile and a wave of her hoof, rattling off the matching charms on her own bracelet.

“Thanks, Pipp!” Posey responds, nearly overwhelmed with joy, “This has been the best day EVER!”

With a bit too much pizzazz, Posey throws her fore-hooves up in the air, flinging her hard-earned friendship bracelet into the sea. She gasps as she watches her prize sink out of view.

“I got it, Posey!” With almost no hesitation, Pipp dives into the sea after the bracelet, screaming in her coloratura voice, “besties forever!”

Pipp dives in quick and just as quickly comes back up with the bracelet. Overjoyed at seeing her friend save her bracelet, Posey gets a bit too excited and, with a bit of a mischievous spirit she rarely shows to others, she jumps in after Pipp.

“CANNONBALL!”

Posey hits the water on top of Pipp and both quickly surface. When they see that neither of them was hurt, they share a laugh. As their laughing putters out, they start to get lost in thought. Despite a rough start to the day, their time together was the closest thing to perfect either mare has experienced in a while. Pipp felt a great amount of satisfaction making some pony she is fond of happy, and Posey was grateful some pony was willing to spend the day with her. These good feelings, however, had an unintended side effect.

The two mares, just floating and bobbing about in the water, started to unintentionally get closer to each other. Paying more attention to the sunset, the mares bump together. Simultaneously, they snap their necks around and end up muzzle to muzzle. Rather than back off or push the other away, both of them lock their focus on each other.

Posey is drawn to Pipp’s eyes for what seems like the first real time, becoming enamored with their kiwi green shades and sparkling like flowers covered with morning dew. Pipp, due to her shorter stature, found herself with Posey’s mouth hovering over the tip of her nose. Her lips were slightly parted, allowing a bit of warm, sweet, and sugary cotton candy breath to caress Pipp’s face.

BANG! Their brief moment of blissful togetherness was shattered when the Trot-walk’s sunset fireworks detonated above them. Forced back into reality, they both realize that they were still in the water and Pipp was still holding on to Posey’s bracelet.

“Umm here’s your bracelet back,” Pipp says as she outstretches her hoof, presenting the rescued bracelet.

“Oh, uh, thanks. That was… nice of you,” Posey tries to remember how to have coherent thoughts before reaching out her own hoof. Pipp slips Posey’s bracelet back onto her hoof. As Pipp pulls away, though, their hooves graze each other. Instantly, both sets of bracelets light up in the same rainbow glow that they have been doing all day, except they were not on a ride this time. The newest charm materializes. It was a simple, aqua blue water droplet. But as they look closer, they realize that there was an image inside of it. The image they see is of the two of them kissing.

“Uhhh huh huh uhh.” Posey begins stammering, trying to find some real words, but she cannot. Her face gets so red from embarrassment no one could fault any pony for mistaking her for Sprout.

Pipp on the other hoof was reacting more calmly, although she was just as red and speechless. Seconds that seem like hours go by of her just staring at the new charm. She looks up at Posey, who is frantically looking all over the shoreline for the words. For no reason other than it felt right, Pipp reaches out and puts her hoof on Posey’s shoulder.

Posey, still riding high on an emotional rollercoaster, looks down at the hoof on her shoulder and then looks at Pipp. After an awkward moment of silence, Posey’s panic sets in again.

“Well thank you for today, Pipp, but now I need to get home and garden my water. I mean, water my garden… Bye!”

Pipp barely opens her mouth to speak before Posey takes off like a jet ski for the shore. Pipp flaps her wings dry and gives chase but only gets as far as the beach before overwhelming herself in confusion. She hovers over the shoreline as she watches the trail of smoke from Posey running as fast as she can up the beach, into the town, and on her street.

Upon finally reaching her home, Posey slams and barricades the door. Pressing her back against the door, she takes many deep breaths trying desperately to get her heart out of her throat.

“I can’t believe that happened,” she says to herself, “how did it? Why did it?” After locking her door, she starts pacing around the house asking herself the same questions she cannot answer. Her train of thought then guides her to the friendship bracelet that managed to stay on her galloping hoof.

“Why did I want this ridiculous thing anyway?! So, a few ponies get a couple of pretty charms, and the next thing I know is I am acting like a foal in front of the whole town! Is this last charm some sort of practical joke by Izzy to make me look silly? That must be it! She used some of that unicorn ‘jinxie’ magic she is always going on about to make me look bad. While I was with Pipp, no less! Now she might never want to be my mare-friend!”

Posey freezes, processing the words that were just blurted out. She had never thought about Pipp like that before, at least not that she could recall. Her mind starts to go through the day’s activities, except this time she was noticing things she was doing just to be closer to Pipp. Such as getting cheek to cheek in front of the mirrors at the Funhouse, making a real effort to win a prize for her at the various stalls just to hug her, holding hoofs on the more intense rides, and others.

“Maybe I…” Posey starts thinking aloud as she goes over her short-term memory repeatedly. Taking the bracelet off, she looks at the last charm. Even though the image within it was burned into her memory, she wanted to make sure she did not miss something.

But it was the same image that she saw earlier. The image of Pipp and her chest to chest, Pipp’s chin on her neck looking straight up and her looking down to Pipp, eyes closed and clearly locking lips. Her heart starts to speed up again, but without the panicking this time. A smile sneaks its way onto her face at the thought of living out this image. The feelings she felt from earlier were back for a moment, but they went from embarrassment to desire, then to regret, and finally determination.