I was wide awake.
I gazed at the clock on the far wall. The hands made out something past 11 ‘o clock, but I couldn’t tell exactly what it was. The day had been long, and images of it flashed through my mind. My right foreleg hurt from when I fell off of Scootaloo’s scooter. She told me I would regret it if I ever did that, and I guess she was right. Hey, if Scootaloo’s special talent couldn’t come from her scooter, I figured I would give it a try.
The light was still shining under the door. Rarity was obviously still awake doing something for work. I almost wished I had something to work on this late at night. Then I wouldn’t be under these sweltering covers in this sweltering room!
I need to go somewhere. I can’t stay here.
I crawled out of bed and carefully made my way over to the bedroom door. The Carousel Boutique wasn’t that old of a residence, but the door still squeaked a small bit. From where I was, I could see Rarity slaving over her sewing machine across the room. I couldn’t believe I once had the nerve to try and help doing that. Making dresses? That sounds so incredibly boring.
I quietly my way over to the door and prepared to open it, then stopped myself. The front door to the Boutique was the loudest one. I couldn’t risk it.
The bathroom window was my best means of escape. I hoped that Rarity didn’t decide to check on me before she headed off to bed as well.
I crawled through it and landed safely on the soft grass outside. The night air was warm and humid; I took it in for a brief second before carefully closing the window. I quickly attained my bearings before deciding to run in the direction of Scootaloo’s house. It was hard to make a decision like that, since I lived right in between Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.
I headed northeast towards Scootaloo’s house. Her dad was sure to be asleep by this time, but Scootaloo, on the other hand, probably wasn’t. We actually had no plan for doing anything tonight; my restlessness was a spur-of-the-moment piece of action that would hopefully turn into a night of just hanging out, crusading, or something.
I passed Fluttershy’s cottage. I longingly stared at it as I remembered the Crusaders’ night there. Memories flooded my mind, both of the good ones and bad ones. I didn’t know whether I would want to relive that night ever again, as scary as it was. The wind blew through my mane, and it seemed as if it came straight from the Everfree forest.
Scootaloo’s house entered my vision. I felt full of energy for no reason other than the warm air and Princess Luna’s beautiful half-moon shining down on me. I wasn’t running full speed, but I could have right at that time. I still wanted to keep a low cover in case anyone happened to be out and wandering around that time of night.
I arrived at the house and circled around to the right, where Scootaloo’s bedroom window was. I couldn’t quite see through her window, so I pushed a large nearby rock over to it, climbed onto it, and peered in. Scootaloo was in her bed, completely knocked out.
Great.
I turned around, disappointed, and lowered my eyes. I was deciding whether I should tap the window until she noticed me, but that would be just rude to wake her up. She looked so peaceful, too. Well, there goes that. I guess it’s time for me to-
Thunk.
I jumped forward off of the rock, my heart stopping for a few brief moments. I turned back around to see Scootaloo at the window silently trying not to burst out laughing. My hoof was on my chest as I glared at her angrily, trying to get my heart to start beating normally again. Scootaloo opened the window. “I’m sorry, Sweetie Belle. I couldn’t resist,” she said in a loud whisper. I wanted to hit her, but of course nothing in me would ever carry that desire out.
“So,” she said, leaning on the edge of the windowsill, “what brings you to my bedroom window at this time of night, Sweetie Belle?” She didn’t look tired at all. “Lemme guess, you couldn’t sleep, so you just decided to come visit your awesome friend Scootaloo?”
I stared at her back, trying to retain some seriousness, but her terrible ego only made a smile creep across my face. “Something like that.”
She made her way out of the window and closed it behind her. Her fuchsia mane was still visible under the moonlight and her features remained that of excitement. From what I could guess, she was as eager to go somewhere as I was. “You wanna go crusading? Or do something else?”
“I really don’t know,” I replied as we started walking away back towards the Boutique. “Crusading seems more like something we would do during the daytime with adults around…you know, to make sure we don’t get hurt.” I tried to emphasize that last part. Scootaloo is a little dull-minded and adventurous when it comes to trying to earn a cutie mark. The more reckless, it seems, the more she tries to impress ponies with it. Maybe it’s her way of trying to show herself off to Rainbow Dash.
Tonight, though, she seemed to get the message. “Yeah, I agree,” she said almost forlornly. “I think we should just kick back and do something normal for once.”
I was heavily inclined to agree with her. No daring adventures, no crazy stunts, and no stupid misdeeds going into the Everfree forest. Still, what more can there possibly be for a bunch of blank flanks to do on a night like this? “Well...what do you suggest we do, exactly?” I asked as we made our way past Carousel Boutique. I noticed the light was now off, even if I was gone for no more than fifteen minutes. If I had waited any longer, I realized, Rarity would have easily discovered me trying to escape.
Scootaloo’s voice brought me back to reality. “Let’s see what Apple Bloom wants to do.” I nodded in agreement as we kept on moving straight west. The only sounds around us were our hooves against the grass and crickets everywhere. Lightning bugs flashed all around like small, glowing lanterns. The night felt wonderful, the most ideal night anypony could ask for. The moon shone so that I could see my own shadow on the earth in front of me.
“I hope no wild animals find us,” Scootaloo said. “You never know when they’ll jump out and…”
We both stopped. I turned to her and gave her a slightly annoyed look. “Thanks for the reassurance.” After all, wild animals weren’t even that populous inside our town boundaries. Our eyes sort of gazed at the sight of Sweet Apple Acres lying in the far distance. It was strange, being so tired and relaxed, but at the same time being so restless for something to happen. I didn’t know how to feel about it. I’m sure Scootaloo felt the same way.
“Come on,” she said, starting to move again in a quick trot. I hastily followed.
We approached one of the bridges that went into the center of Ponyville. Even from a distance, though, Scootaloo began to slow down. “What are you doing?” I asked nervously, hoping there wasn’t anything related to wild animals. I sort of have a fear for those kinds of things. It’s Timber Wolves that I probably have the greatest fear of, ever since Apple Bloom told us what her Granny Smith had to deal with. Just the thought of big, scary wolves —made of timber, no less—was not my idea of something I want to encounter at any time. Right now, with Scootaloo and me galloping across the edge of Ponyville, I sure didn’t want anything like that to happen. What would Rarity do if she woke up to the news that I had been devoured by Timber Wolves? What would all of Ponyville do?
I began to feel a strange wave of emotion. The thought of me, or any fillies for that matter, dying almost brought me to tears right then and there. Maybe it’s because of my amount of love I hold with ponies like my sister. I sometimes can’t stand to see them in any kind of pain because I may feel the same way.
Scootaloo was looking at the bridge. I followed her gaze, and from where we were standing I could make out two ponies sitting on the far edge of it, facing toward us and the moon. I couldn’t quite see who they were.
“C’mon,” Scootaloo motioned me to follow. “Let’s see who these two lovebirds are.”
I wasn’t so sure. “Wait, Scootaloo…isn’t that…invasion of privacy or something? Maybe we should just try and stay hidden for now.” She looked at me skeptically. From here I sometimes didn’t like trying to predict something she would typically do, since she was sometimes pretty unpredictable in the first place. “Yeah, maybe you’re right,” she replied, looking unsure of herself.
We quickly and carefully made our way toward the bridge, trying to keep ourselves hidden as best as possible. There were trees on each side of the path that led up to the bridge, so we made sure to stay in the depths of the shadows. The couple wasn’t that far away from us, but they would definitely spot us if we weren’t careful. The last thing I wanted was for some random mare to tell Rarity that we were spying on her and her coltfriend at a far later time than we should be awake.
We were finally within a reasonable distance to hear what they were talking softly about and to see their faces under the moonlight. I recognized the mare as the seller of a vegetable stand in the Ponyville market.
“Who’s the stallion?” Scootaloo whispered to me. “I’ve never seen him around before.” I shook my head in reply. “Maybe he’s visiting town,” I suggested.
“Ssshh,” Scootaloo said. “I wanna hear what they’re saying.”
I went completely still, making not a sound accept for my heart beating in my chest. I perked my ears as best as possible to try and make out the words that came from the light red stallion’s mouth.
“…on a night like this,” he spoke, with his foreleg on top of her head. They were both sitting on their haunches on the edge of the stone bridge, with the mare’s head on the stallion’s right shoulder. I felt a twinge of happiness just looking at them, as if I was almost a part of their perfect interaction. The mare’s head rose and looked at him, and I could tell she was easily swooned by his words. Her smile was visible under the light of the moon high above them.
“This is so romantic,” Scootaloo whispered, a gleaming smile shining on her face. “I don’t know if this could get any better than it already is.”
As if on cue, something caught my eye as we turned back towards the ever-so-perfect couple. Up in the sky, a streaking blur was blazing through the stars far below the moon. My voice caught in my throat with a burst of excitement. There was just something about shooting stars that made my heart stop, and not just because I could make a wish from them. Everything was just so perfect at this very moment, even if there wasn’t some handsome stallion to hold me close while this exhilarating phenomenon was occurring in front of me.
“I wish Apple Bloom could see this.”
My mind was far away from Scootaloo’s words, still gazing in astonishment and wonder as the brief streak of light ended just as soon as it began. What seemed like the last minute was probably only a few seconds. Finally, I blinked myself back into reality and realized what exactly the orange filly had just said. I gazed at her, wide-eyed and struck with the sensation that we indeed had forgotten about our other counterpart. “We did forget about her, didn’t we…”
“Let’s go,” Scootaloo said, “it’s probably only midnight right now.” She winked. “Still a little bit early, right?” I gave her a skeptical look at that. Apple Bloom was usually awake at the crack of dawn. If I understood correctly, she still took care of some of the more minor jobs on the Apple family farm. There wasn’t much of a chance that she was still awake. I kept my voice low. “It’s still worth a shot. Apple Bloom doesn’t exactly sleep like a baby or anything.”
Scootaloo giggled. Unfortunately, it was a slightly more audible giggle than I expected, and I anxiously shot a look over at the couple on the bridge.
Except they weren’t on the bridge.
My heart skipped a beat as I turned back to Scootaloo, only to find the two ponies standing behind her looking anything but impressed. “Aaah!” I yelped.
Scootaloo whirled around as well. “Aaah!” she echoed, taking the surprise just as badly as I did. She stammered nonsense, searching for any amount of words necessary to come up with an excuse.
“I thought I heard talking from behind this tree,” the mare said, suddenly looking a little more amused. “I sure didn’t expect a few fillies to be out this late spying on us…” She giggled.
I shifted uncomfortably, my heart still beating at a slightly rapid pace from the unexpected surprise. It took a few seconds to let the reality sink in. We were caught. Scootaloo shared the emotion, looking a little green around the feathers. I guessed this was going to be another one of those encounters where older mares would be yapping nonstop about how cute we were or something like that. It happened a little more frequently than we want it to, but I couldn’t help it, really. I was cute.
I beat out Scootaloo on our search for words. “Well…we were just passing by and we saw you two and…” I didn’t know exactly what I was trying to say, but as long as it was audible words that made sense, I could live with it.
“What was that, honey?” The mare asked me. “I didn’t hear you…” She leaned in closer. It then hit me that my previous words had come out in more of a squeak than my normal voice. So much for audible.
“Yeah, kid. You kind of have to speak up if you wanna make any kind of excuse,” the stallion murmured, obviously not hot with the idea of confronting two fillies when he could be spending quality time with possibly the love of his life. He sounded quite annoyed in contrast to his counterpart, who was treating the entire confrontation with an open mind and at least a small sense of humor.
“We were just out for no reason ‘cause we were bored and we were just on our way to pick up our other friend so sorry we intruded on your conversation so we might as well be going bye.” Scootaloo’s voice was at a thousand miles per hour. With that, we both tried to trot off in the other direction, hoping they wouldn’t stop us from disturbing their peace.
“Now wait just a second,” the mare said, apparently not taking Scootaloo’s excuse for an answer, “there should be no reason for you two to be out this late, even if it’s a Friday night.”
Scootaloo and I turned back around and exchanged glances, and from what I could tell the only fear in her eyes was the fear of her dad finding out she was breaking his rules. I knew fairly well that something like that would be on my head more than hers. After all, I lead her out of her house, even if she agreed with it.
I contemplated just running away right then and there, but I figured this young couple had a much better need for a reasonable explanation. “We don’t exactly know what we’re doing out this late, ma’am,” I blurted out as politely as possible. She gave me a sideways glance, her face still very dimly lit under the light of the moon. I did my best to continue. “See…I couldn’t sleep, so I went over to Scootaloo’s house to see if she was still awake, and she was, and we decided to just go walk around until we get tired.”
“We usually go try and earn our cutie marks,” Scootaloo added, “but I guess that’s not quite what we’re doing, are we.” She gave me an unsure smile.
“I see,” the stallion said, probably believing every word. “Well, I’m sure you two will have your cutie marks in spying on other ponies in no time, then. Ow!” The mare elbowed him in the side, and he straightened himself up, adding, “then again, perhaps you two are just meaninglessly wandering about. It’s a beautiful night, after all.” He smiled reassuringly at us, though it was quite unrealistic. I almost couldn’t take him seriously.
The mare visibly felt the same way. “I’m sure,” she said sarcastically, shooting him a look of disapproval. Her face softened and glanced back to us. “Don’t worry, children. I won’t tell your parents…as long as you won’t tell mine.”
“Excuse me?” I said without thinking. I had no intention of ever telling anypony of this little encounter besides maybe Apple Bloom, who was probably asleep by now.
The stallion shifted nervously, his hooves softly digging into the earth beneath him, willingly eager to get back to spending time with his partner. The uncanny silence between us lasted for all of three seconds. Before any of us knew it, Scoots and I were dashing off toward Sweet Apple Acres, leaving the couple to wonder what had just happened.
I didn’t look back. Those two could have all the time they wanted, but we were not about to stand around any longer when Apple Bloom could join in on our escapade through the ever-so-frightening depths of Ponyville in the late hours of the night. The warm breeze blew at our backs as the familiar farm drew closer, its beautiful landscape dimly lit by the light of the moon. The scent of hay and farm animals met my nostrils, something I was not always fond of. My lungs began to feel the effects of running for so long, so I slowed down to a trot.
We approached the west side of the Apples’ house with caution, being careful to make ourselves relatively unnoticeable. I looked up at the upper windows of the old house, trying to remember exactly which window belonged to our comrade’s.
“I’m pretty sure it’s that one,” Scoots said, pointing her hoof to the window on the left. She motioned for me to give her a boost, or at least some thrust for her to buzz herself up to the window and somehow get Apple Bloom’s attention.
I held out my forehooves for her to step on and gave my best attempt to lift her upward. She wasn’t all that heavy; after all, pegasi could walk on clouds. I always wondered what kind of freaky magic that was about.
Together with my boost and her jump, Scoots obtained enough lift to flutter herself up to the window and peek inside. I craned my neck upward. “Is she asleep?” I whispered anxiously. Scoots was struggling to keep herself airborne and see through the dark window at once. She finally gave way to the struggle and lowered herself back down. “She’s totally under her blanket with a book and flashlight,” she said, giggling. I breathed a sigh of relief. After all, the Crusaders just weren’t complete without Apple Bloom.
I grabbed a small pebble from a nearby rock bed with my teeth and delicately tossed it up at the window with my hoof. The soft thunk reached our ears as it dropped back down, barely missing Scoots’ head. She glared at me as I set my gaze on the window above, hoping Apple Bloom wasn’t deep enough in her book to not even register our cause of attention.
Seconds passed. Scoots took the pebble in her own mouth. “Merbe y’ shourda thern it herder,” she said. She spit it into her hoof and gave it a good toss this time, just as Apple Bloom decided to open her window. Apple Bloom took the hit right in her face and stumbled backward back into her room. I winced and shot an angry look at Scootaloo, whose face turned visibly redder under the dim light. “Heh heh...” she said. “Oops.”
