P + P = <3

On the other side of town, Pipp slowly makes her way up the main path to the Brighthouse. She could not get what happened in the water out of her head. It was distracting her so much she made a few wrong turns on the way home. At this point, she was absolutely sure of her feelings, but that’s not what was bothering her.

She opens the front door and walks in, greeted only by silence. Her trotting echoes as she makes her way up the stairs to the shared bedroom. A soft glow of light sneaks around the edges of the bedroom’s double door, along with the sounds of her friends and sister talking. She stands at the door with a hoof on the handle but once again hesitates. For the second time today, her confidence faulters.

Consumed by confusion and a bit of fear, she lets go of the door, goes back downstairs, and buries herself in a pile of spare sheets on the couch. All bundled up, she tries to go to sleep at first but of course pulls out her phone and starts going through the photos of the day. Starting with some pictures of her working with Izzy at the charm bracelet stand that morning, she deletes any she considers “ugly” or duplicates. Afterwards, she stored what remained in a special digital folder all her friends had access to. But then she got to the pictures with Posey.

It’s no secret that Posey is a very hard to please pony, especially to non-Earth ponies. Even after Earth pony magic came to be, the stubborn mare kept every pony at forelegs length. But as Pipp went through her pictures of Posey, you would not know it. In almost every picture, Posey was the happiest pony there. A smile snuck its way onto Pipp’s face as she reminisces on how happy she made Posey. Before she knew it, Pipp was saving all the Posey pictures into a new folder. A private folder simply titled <3.

“Pipp?”

Hearing her name from somewhere in the dark, Pipp shoots off the couch and panics, tossing the dozen or so sheets in every direction. She quickly runs out of sheets and hovers over the couch, darting her head around looking for whomever spoke.

“Is someone there?” Pipp asks the darkness. Her phone bounces on the couch and settles flat with its screen up, its light barely luminating the room. A small bump in the new pile rises and the sheets start to part, revealing the purple and pink tail of Misty trying to shimmy her way out.

“Oh hoofness, Misty!” Pipp swoops down and pulls up the sheets around where the buried unicorn’s head is. The knot of sheets loosens up enough for Misty to pop out. She does a full roll backward and ends up with her sitting up. After shaking her hair out of her face, Pipp buzzes around her making sure she was not hurt.

“I’m sorry, Misty. I didn’t hear you coming. I shouldn’t have reacted like that.” Pipp says sadly.
“It’s ok, I’m fine, really,” Misty says, trying to reassure her friend, “I’m more surprised that I startled you.”
“Oh, well, I was kind of in the middle of something,” Pipp stops buzzing around and lands in front of Misty, giving her a belated greeting hug.
“Is that why you’re down here by yourself?” Misty says with concern as she hugs Pipp back.
A moment of silence between them occurs. Pipp, feeling confused all over again, only hugs Misty a bit tighter. Misty, becoming more worried with every second of silence, just returns the hug knowing Pipp will start talking when she is ready.

“Something happened today, and I’m not sure how to feel about it.” Pipp pulls away from Misty to retrieve her phone and sit on the couch. After making sure her new album was ready, she hoofs it to Misty. Misty sits next to her and goes through the pictures.

“These are all wonderful, I’ve never seen Posey like that before! But I don’t see the problem?” Misty hoofs Pipp’s phone back. Pipp then pulls the charm bracelet off her hoof and gives it to Misty.
“Look at the last one”
Not sure which one Pipp was referring to, Misty politely nods and scans all the charms for whichever one looks odd. Because she has her own charm collection, it did not take long for her to find one she did not recognize.

“Oh. Oh? Oh!” Surprised, Misty looks at Pipp, who is leaning on the arm of the couch holding up her head and staring into nowhere.
“Did this really happen?” Misty asks.
“No,” Pipp says softly, “but I wish it did.”
“Really?” Misty asks with a near shocked look.
“I think I messed up, though.” Pipp continued, not paying attention to Misty’s reaction. She goes on talking about the charm and what happened after it appeared.

“And then she took off to her house. I wanted to follow her, but something just stopped me. That’s not me! I’m not some pony who just freezes up like that! What is wrong with me? Misty? Are you listening?” Pipp finally acknowledges her friend, who was politely quiet the whole time.

“Oh, sorry,” says Misty as she shakes an enamored look off her face, “Yes, I heard every word. I’m just trying to wrap my head around it all. I mean, you and Posey?”
“You think it’s ridiculous?” Pipp asks with a disappointed look.
“Oh no!” Misty quickly responds, “there’s nothing ridiculous about you two being together. Those pictures prove that! I’m just surprised, this just came out of nowhere!”

“That’s how I felt when I saw that charm,” Pipp says as she slowly leans back into the couch and stares up to the ceiling, “I guess Posey doesn’t feel the same.”
“Why do you think that?” Misty asks.
“Pretty obvious,” Pipp responds obnoxiously.
“I don’t think it is.”
“What else could it be?”
Misty thinks about it for a moment.

“Maybe she was scared?”
“Scared?!” Pipp responds, leaning her head forward and gives a surprised look at Misty, “scared of me?”
“Not scared of you but maybe scared of how she feels around you.” Misty confidently says. Pipp responds by giving Misty an unconvinced look.

“I’m not really close to Posey,” Misty continues, “but I think I’ve been in her place. Do you remember when I started coming around and I was really nervous around all of you?”

“Yeah,” Pipp responds, still obviously unconvinced.
“Before that, I never had any real friends,” Misty continues, “So, I didn’t know how to act at the time. Everyone being so nice to me, it was overwhelming and scary. And whenever being with any pony became too much, I’d make up an excuse to leave and immediately regret it once I did.”

Misty pauses for a moment to take a deep breath to keep from becoming overwhelmed by all the mixed emotions her memories brought. Pipp sits up straight and scoots closer to her friend, preparing to comfort her. However, Misty smiles and then looks at Pipp.
“Maybe Posey ran away because she has never felt that way before and it scared her.”
Pipp considers, “you might be right, that does make some sense.” She goes quiet for a moment
“But then why did I freeze up?” Pipp asks, almost whining.
“Same thing,” Misty responds, “you felt something new and didn’t know what to do.”

Again, Pipp considers, “even if you’re right, it’s too late to fix it.”
Misty scoots right up to Pipp and wraps a hoof around her back, “It’s never too late.”
Pipp smiles at Misty and the two mares hug each other.
“Can we keep this between us?” Pipp asks, “at least until I figure things out with Posey.”
“If that’s what you want,” Misty answers before letting her friend go and heading back upstairs. Pipp gathers up her sheets from the floor and returns to the couch, spending the rest of the night scrolling though her new Posey album before finally drifting off to sleep.