Her hooves felt like lead weights. Tears streaked the fur of her cheeks. The cold winter air stung, her lungs burning as she heaved in heavy sobs. With what little energy she had remaining, she climbed the steps of the porch.

Three steps. It might well have been three thousand.

The mare staggered towards the front door. Raising a hoof that might well have been made of stone, she knocked.

“Cheerilee!”

That golden mane, that grey coat. Those piercing golden eyes. Cheerilee fell forward, and clung to Ditzy as if she were the last drop of water in a desert, the last bubble of oxygen in a drowning ocean. Like a dam at breaking point, she collapsed under a flood of tears.

The gentle arm of her best friend pulled her in from the night cold.

The kettle whistled as it came to the boil. Ditzy Doo moved about the kitchen finishing the tea.

Cheerilee sat silently at the small dining table in the cottage. Ditzy returned with two delicate cups balanced upon a tea-tray between her wings. She carefully slid the tray to the table, and nudged a steaming cup towards her guest, which Cheerilee accepted with thanks.

Cheerilee took a sip and placed the mug back on the table in front of her. “Thank you. This is wonderful.”

Cheerilee smiled weakly, staring intently at swirling liquid in her cup. Ditzy tried to return her smile, but the look of heartache etched across her friends face made it difficult. Instead, she opted to reach across the table, and take Cheerilee’s hoof in her own.

“Cheery, what’s the matter? What’s happened?”

Cheerilee continued to sit in silence.

“Cheery, please. Talk to me.”

“It’s okay.” Cheerilee shook her head. “Where’s Dinky?”

“Dinky is staying at the Boutique tonight. The girls are having a Cutie Mark Crusaders sleepover.” Ditzy would not relent, something had happened to her friend and she would to help. “But Cheery, you’re changing the subject. Something is the matter. I am your friend. You can talk to me. You can trust me!”

“You can’t promise that!” Cheerilee slumped. “I just can’t tell you. I don’t want you to hate me too.”

“Cheery,” Ditzy whispered. “Please, trust me. You mean so much to me. I will always be your friend. Don’t ever doubt that.”

“You can’t promise that, Ditzy.” Ditzy noticed a familiar bitterness she’d heard before in her friends voice. “You might not feel the same way if you knew…”

“Nothing will ever change our friendship.”

“I was such a fool. I did something stupid,” Cheerilee sobbed. “I… I kissed somepony I shouldn’t have.

“I was finishing cleaning out the blackboard dusters when I heard somepony at the door of the classroom. I turned to see who was there. Y…You remember, last year I told you there was somepony I liked?”

Ditzy nodded, remembering the awkward conversation they’d had at the cafe. At the time, she’d tried to guess who it was, but as Big Mac and Caramel were the only stallions they knew in common, she had not been able to work out whom it was.

“Well, they were standing at the door. They were looking for Scootaloo.”

‘Ahh.’ Ditzy started to understand; having feelings for one of her students parents would be an awkward situation indeed.

“I told them everypony had already left. They were about to leave, but I stopped them.

“I asked them if they wanted to go for a coffee.

“We were having a wonderful time. It had been a long time since we’ve seen each other. As a member of the Wonderbolts, they weren’t around often. They wanted to see Scootaloo before they left again.”

Ditzy thought back. It was true, she had never met either of Scootaloo’s parents. Apparently her father was a military stallion.

“I had a good idea where Scootaloo would be, so we walked to the park together.

“I finally plucked up the courage to confess. I told… her… I’d liked her for a long time, I’d just never had the courage to let her know.”

Ditzy smiled as she admired her friend. She was in awe of her bravery. She’d been afraid to confess her feelings to Big Mac, and had only made a move after he had practically hung an “I love you” banner from her doorstep–

Wait… what?

“And I stupidly kissed her,” Cheerilee started sobbing again. “I just– I just got so caught up in the moment. I kissed her.

“She was so angry. She yelled at me, then flew away.”

“She?” Ditzy finally gave voice to her confusion. “You kissed Scootaloo’s mom?”

Cheerilee slumped in her chair. “It was Rainbow Dash.”

Cheerilee could hardly breathe. She stared into her now empty mug, waiting for the inevitable. Ditzy wouldn’t be the first friend she’d lost because of this secret. Her parents had disowned her because of it. Nearly every friend she'd made at her university had abandoned her when they found out. When she decided to move to Ponyville, she had sworn to herself she would keep it secret. Nopony could know.

‘And what a fine job I’ve done of that. The park! Of all the places I could choose to make a fool of myself, it was one of the most public places in all of Ponyville. I might as well have published it in a Gabby Gums column.’

Ditzy flapped her wings gently and fluttered over to Cheerilee, pulling the mare into a hug. She felt Cheerilee stiffen into the embrace. Ditzy rubbed her cheek affectionately against Cheerilee’s. “I’m so sorry, Cheery.”

“You– you don’t hate me?”

Ditzy released her friend, and turned Cheerilee around to face her. “Of course not. I promised nothing would change our friendship.”

Ditzy woke the next morning, Cheerilee huddled next to her. She had comforted the mare for most of the night. Between her fear of being abandoned by her friend, and the embarrassment of what had happened, she had been near inconsolable.

“Come on sleepy head,” Ditzy nudged Cheerilee awake. “Time to get up. Lets have some breakfast.”

Ditzy moved about the kitchen with an elegance that amazed Cheerilee. She’d seen the mare grow in confidence over the last year. Not long ago she would trip, fall or crash into something if someone was watching; now Ditzy moved about the kitchen with grace. She listened to Ditzy sing as she cooked.

“♪Little cranberry, cranberry, cranberry of mine.

In the garden of strawberries, little raspberry, raspberry of mine.♫”

Cheerilee felt a small twinge of jealousy that Big Mac had won the mares heart.

“♪Ah, under the apple tree, the green one,

Lay me down to sleep,

Oh-swing, sway, Oh-swing, sway,

Lay me down to sleep.♫”

Ditzy poured two bowls of warm porridge, and brought them to the table. She then went back to the pantry and returned with a small jar of honey.

“Big Mac should be here soon.” Ditzy smiled. “You should join us today.”

“Thank you,” Cheerilee answered, “but I think I’d prefer go home. I think I’d like to just curl up with a book and hide.”

Big Mac arrived as the mares were cleaning the breakfast dishes. He insisted, as had Ditzy, that Cheerilee should join them. They had planned a picnic in the park where they were meeting Applebloom and Dinky.

At the mention of the park, Cheerilee frantically declined. Had Big Mac not been standing in the doorway, Cheerilee would have been out the door faster than– well, faster than somepony. She eyed the open window, but decided that she’d already made enough of an embarrassment of herself in the past twenty four hours.

“What’s the matter, Cheerilee?” Big Mac asked. Behind her, he noticed Ditzy shaking her head.

“I just had a bad night,” she answered quietly.

“All the more reason to join us in the park.” Big Mac stood there with a stoic, sage-like expression, as if his words were wisdom for the ages. Ditzy smacked her hoof to her face.

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