Dandelions - part two

The last ring of the bell let the little ponies know lessons were over for today. One after another, the students were slowly heading to their homes. All the students except for Scootaloo, who was waiting by the teacher's desk.
„Sweetie!“ she called up a friend who was just about to leave. "Wait for me outside!
Sweetie Belle nodded and left the classroom.
"That should be all the homework," Cheerilee handed Scootaloo several worksheets for Applebloom, "please, tell her I wish her to get well soon."
"Of course," Scootaloo promised and headed out of the door. "Good bye, Miss Cheerilee!"
"See you tomorrow, Scootaloo!"
Instead of placing the homework into her saddlebag, Scootaloo carried it in her mouth. Anyway, she'd have enough time outside to put it in there.  Just few more steps before she would be out of the school.
"BOO!" somepony shouted as soon as she stepped outside to the yard.
Scootaloo got scared - she jumped high in the air, and let the papers go. They all fell upon her after she landed on her back.
"Yikes," Sweetie Belle muttered. She did mean to prank her friend, but not to scare her so bad.
"Great," Scootaloo frowned, still lying on the ground, "nice job."
Sweetie Belle offered her a hoof so that she could get up easier. "I'm sorry."
"Of course you are."
They started picking leaves of paper up.
"It's just a little dust," Sweetie Belle comforted her friend, "we can sweep it off." She laid all the papers on the grass and carefully swept the dust with her tail.
"I don't care about papers," Scoots snorted angrily, "who would sweep the dust off ME?"
And so Sweetie Belle also cleaned her friends back.
Scootaloo checked herself out in a shiny doorknob. "Hey, Sweetie," she turned to her friend, "do you have a brush?"
Sweetie Belle didn't seem to believe her own ears. "What did you just ask for?" she was trying to make sure.
"A brush."
"What for?" Sweetie still did not understand.
Scootaloo gave her a look of upset: "What the hay do you think? For my mane. To brush it."
Sweetie couldn't tell herself she had just misheard anymore. With her eyebrows rised, she laid her saddlebag on the ground. Then, using a magic spell she had learned recently, she pulled out a brush.
Scootaloo grabbed it from the air and tried to brush her mane in a very strange, gawky way.
"For the sake of Celestia, give me that!" Sweetie couldn't watch her friend's attempt to get her mane tidy. It seemed like she had never tried it before. She used another spell to get the brush back, forced Scootaloo to sit down and started to comb her mane on her own..
"Why do you want to brush your mane anyway?  Or dust off when you fall down? What happened?"
Scootaloo did not reply - she was watching a bunch of dandelions under a tree, not making any sound, having her mind wander through the apple orchard.
Sweetie Belle sighed and decided to change a topic: "Can I come to Applebloom's with you?"
That sentence made Scootaloo react finally.
"I'd rather go on my own," she responded dryly. Then she started drawing circles and loops in the dust on the ground.
Sweetie put the manebrush down, grabbed Scootaloo's shoulders and turned her around to be able to see her face.
"Something's going on and I want to know what that is!" Why do I clean your back and comb your mane?" And why do you want to visit Applebloom on your own?
"I can't tell," pegasus shook her head."
"Fine," Sweetie Belle got mad, "you don't have to share but I'm not sharing my brush then." Said brush floated back to the saddleback of the little unicorn.
Scootaloo then tried to smoothen her half-styled mane with a hoof.
"Or you can tell me, what's the secret you and Applebloom have, and I'll finish the brushing." Sweetie was sitting with her forelegs folded, frowning.
"Applebloom and me?" Scootaloo was looking daggers at her friend. "That's not even..."
"Hmm?"
"Applebloom and me have no secret," orange filly lowered her head, "but I have one to keep from her."
"Sweetie Belle leaned over to Scootaloo with an expectation: "What kind of secret?"
Scoots just shook her head.
"You can tell ME," Sweetie insisted. She even laid her hoof on a friend's shoulder.
"I can't. If Applebloom finds out..."
"Finds out from whom?" Sweetie Belle smiled at Scootaloo. "I can keep the secret safe."
To show she really meant it, she pretended to lock her mouth with a key.
Scootaloo whispered something; it seemed like she was telling it to a clump of grass instead of Sweetie.
"Excuse me? I didn't understand."
"I like..." Scootaloo swalloved the ending of the sentence.
Sweetie Belle scowled.
An awkward silence filled the place. Scootaloo, all nervous, stood up, then she walked towards a tree and plucked a dandelion. She was turning it in her mouth pensively. She dropped it after a while and blurted out:
"I like Big Macintosh!"
„Big Macintosh?“ Sweetie repeated as it really surprised her. "You mean Applebloom's brother?"
Scootaloo, with a look of guilt on her face, nodded.
"Well, I'm not sure now if I can keep this... bomb... inside me." Sweetie Belle scratched behind her ear.
"You have to! Please!"
Scootaloo was holding her friend's face so close it almost felt unpleasant; she was repeating slowly and clearly: "You must - keep this - secret.  From everypony. Especially from Applebloom. Promise me."
"Alright! I do promise!"
Sweetie Belle broke free from her grasp. "Just don't do this again to me, please!"
"How old is Macintosh anyway?" she started thinking afterwards. "He's even older than Applejack, isn't he?"
The pegasus snorted angrily.
"Did I say too much?" Sweetie wondered.
She didn't get an actual answer; Scootaloo turned her eyes up instead.
"I'm sorry."
"That's way better."
Scootaloo smiled at her friend and then picked her dandelion up again, just to let it go.
"I gave one to him, for an apple he gave me. We talked, we laughed... Well, I still don't understand how it happened."
"You know what, Scoots?" Sweetie winked at her friend. "Take your dandelion again and stop talking."
This time Scootaloo didn't feel offended at all. She knew very well Sweetie had just been joking. However, she picked up the little flower with her lips again.
The brush appeared out of Sweetie Belle's saddlebag again, since the unicorn wanted to keep the promise she gave to a friend and finish brushing her soft purple mane.
"If I ever tell somepony," Sweetie sighed, "I got to style Scootaloo's mane... they won't believe me for sure!"
Scootaloo smiled widely. She was still playing with the dandelion in her mouth. She was feeling happy and relieved for having shared her secret.

"All done!"
A floating mirror suddenly appeared right before Scootaloo. She took a long look at her mane since she had never seen it so smooth and tidy.
"Wow," she exclaimed, "Sweetie, that looks amazing!"
Sweetie Belle blushed a little: "Thanks."
"No, no, no. I thank YOU."
Scootaloo got up and looked straight at her friend. "Keep your hooves crossed," she asked her.
"Why exactly?" Sweetie did not understand completely.
"That's right," Scootaloo suddenly started thinking, "why? What am I gonna do there?"
She got apparently nervous. For the last time, she picked up the fading dandelion. While she was trotting around, she chewed it up and ate it.
"Calm down," Sweetie Belle stopped her. "You'll get there, greet him, talk a little bit. Then you'll go see Applebloom. You tell her about today's classes and stuff, give her the homework and you'll go back home."
"Okay," Scootaloo agreed. She tried to smile a little but it looked rather creepy.
"And you probably should get the dandelion petals out of your teeth BEFORE you go," Sweetie added when she saw the bright yellow smile of her friend.
"Or on my way there." The pegasus shrugged and trotted away. "See ya, Sweetie."
She looked around her shoulder and saw her friend waving goodbye. Scootaloo waved back and took a turn behind a corner.
She couldn't find the right rhytm of her walk for a while. She was galloping for several yards. Then suddenly her mind got filled with a thought that wasn't quite pleasant; it made her slow down and think for a bit. After a moment she realized she was sauntering and sped up again. Finally she started to move forward by little skips and to hum silently: "I'll get to see Macintosh..."
Scootaloo had to stop again and remind herself: "You're visiting Applebloom! But seeing Macintosh... that would be really pleasant."
She skipped and hopped again. She was able to run easily up the last hill. The gates of Sweet Apple Acres were already to be seen, as well as a familiar face.
However, it wasn't the one she wanted to see.
"Scootaloo! What ay suprise!" Applejack really didn't seem to expect anypony.
"I brought homework, for Applebloom," Scootaloo explained quickly. As she was saying that, she tried to stretch her neck out to see what's going on in the orchard.
"So where ya have it?"
Scootaloo didn't really pay attention since she noticed something red among the trees.  "Where do I have what now?"
"The homework for mah sis, where ya have it?"
"Oh, right!" Scootaloo was able to concentrate again when she realized the red object was nothing but a cart. She pulled the papers from Miss Cheerilee out of her saddlebag.
Applejack took them from Scootaloo and laid them upon an old barrel so that she wouldn't have to speak with her mouth full. "Thanks! Ah'll tell Applebloom you stopped by. See ya!"
It felt like a cold shower for Scootaloo.
"Come on..." she muttered in disappointment while Applejack was walking away to her little sister, holding the worksheets in her mouth.
For one last time she stretched out and looked among the trees. Unfortunately, there was not even a  trace of Big Mac.
The filly lowered her head. She kicked a tiny rock on a path and started to slowly walk back home.