Youthful Expression Ch.2

Youthful Expression
Written By Closer-To-The-Sun (Joseph Noblit)
Chapter 2: One Tree Hill

The long school day was finally drawing to a close for all the students in Cheerilee's class. All the ponies (and Spike) went outside and began to chat amongst themselves before leaving. Spike and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were talking and laughing as among themselves as two prissy fillies showed themselves.

"Well, well, it looks like the blank flanks got themselves a pet," one of them said.

The four turned to see two ponies, one pink and the other gray. It was Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

"Oh dear, not them," Sweetie Belle thought aloud.

"Don't you two have somepony else to annoy?" Scootaloo had a large amount of distaste in her voice.

"Nope, just your's. Aren't you lucky?" Silver Spoon said with a hint of sass in her voice.

"So, is this dragon belong to you girls or did you have to steal him?" Diamond Tiara trotted up to Spike, looking at him with interest. Spike gave her an odd look as he was eating a gem he had saved for the walk home.

"He's not a pet! He's our friend!" Applebloom shouted defensively.

Silver Spoon got close to Applebloom, "Oh, so he's your coltfriend?"

Those words really struck at Applebloom, causing her to blush heavily. Scootaloo stepped in for the rebuttal, "He's all of our friend!" she spoke incorrectly.

"Ooo!" Diamond Tiara and Sliver Spoon taunted in unison.

Spike, who was busy chewing the part of the gem he had in his mouth, finally spoke with an empty mouth, "Come on, these two aren't worth it," He herded the crusaders away from the two ponies, "besides, they have some serious issues if bugging us is the highlight of their day."

As Spike led the girls away, the four of them heard Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara trying to defend themselves by calling them names. With a huff, the two prissy ponies turned their noses up and began to walk in the other direction.

Spike looked over his shoulder and told the girls to watch quietly. With the remaining part of the gem he had yet to finish, he threw the gem up in the air with all his strength. The jewel soared in the air and landed, hitting Silver Spoon on the head and bouncing of her on to Diamond Tiara.

"Oww! Meanie!" one of the shouted at Spike.

"Run!" Spike said to the crusaders with a huge smile on his face. The girls did just that, laughing as well.

The four youngsters stopped running when they felt they were far enough away from the schoolhouse. All four began to laugh more as they thought again about Spike throwing the gem at them.

"Haha! That was so classic, Spike!" Scootaloo said, rolling on the ground laughing.

"I only wish I could have thought of something like that!" Sweetie Belle spoke between laughter, holding her sides.

Applebloom wiped a tear of laughter away from her eye, "Thanks for doin' that, Spike. Ah think those two fancy ponies won't bother us for sometime now."

Spike was on the ground, still laughing. He finally caught his breath and replied, "Well, I just think they got what they deserved."

"They certainly did!" the white unicorn added.

The four continued to laugh and relive the experience. As time went on, they laid their backs to look up at the sky and imagine what the clouds looked like. Every so often, they would see a rainbow streak in the sky, to which Scootaloo would ramble about Rainbow Dash and how awesome the orange peagsus thought she was.

Sweetie Belle was the first to get up, "I should get back home. Rarity said she could use my help with a few dresses today. She said it was a big order."

"I'll walk with ya, Sweetie Belle, I have to get a few items from the market anyway," the orange pegasus pony said, "Take it easy, you two!"

Applebloom and Spike waved good-bye to their friends and looked back toward the sky. After a few more minutes of sky-gazing, Applebloom remembered the plan she had worked out in her head earlier that day.

"Say Spike, wanna see some place really cool?" she asked, rolling in the grass to get back on her hooves.

Spike stood up and stretched his arms out and replied, "Sure, why not." He grabbed his bag and helped Applebloom with getting her saddlebags back on.

"Ah can get it on by mah self!" Applebloom was defensive, "but thanks, now follow me!" she added with a warm smile.

Applebloom led the way for the dragon through a number of dense brush and bushes. As they walked, Spike was noticing that it was taking them quite some time to get wherever it was that Applebloom had in mind. On the filly's face, it seemed with the confident smile on her face like she knew exactly what she was doing and where she was going.

"Are we getting close at all?" Spike finally asked after what felt like a half an hour.

"We're almost there, ah promise!" the yellow filly's voice sounded confident.

"Alright," Spike said with a bit of uncertainty.

Finally, Applebloom spoke, "Here we are!"

Spike noticed they were still in the brush, "Where is here?" he asked to Applebloom.

Applebloom giggled, "Jus' follow me," she said as she exited the brush.

Spike followed and saw that they were on top of a hill with a lone tree. The hill over looked all of Ponyville with the view being able to see Cloudsdale, Canterlot, and a small part of Manehattan in the distance.

"Whoa…." the purple dragon was speechless.

Applebloom sat underneath the tree, "What do ya think, Spike? Pretty cool, huh?"

"It really is, how did you guys find this place?" he asked as he sat down right next to the pony.

Applebloom laughed a little, "Well, it started when the crusaders and ah got lost quite some time ago…."

The yellow pony went on to tell the story of how she, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle got lost one day. They argued a lot and figured that they needed to get to higher ground to find their way back. They found the hill and decided to make it their second fort, as they called it their "fort away from our fort". She even mentioned that Scootaloo wanted to call the fort "Fort Rainbow Dash" and that Sweetie Belle quickly objected to the idea. They continue to chat for the long time in the shade of the tree, sitting side by side.

"So, whenever we jus' want t' get away, we come up here to our special fort!" Applebloom spoke with a bit of pride.

"You mean like when Applejack gets annoyed at you girls?" Spike turned his head to Applebloom, giving a smirk.

Applebloom froze for a bit, "Yup, like then!" The two laughed shared a laugh and turned back toward the horizon.

The filly turned her head to the dragon, "We also bring food up here, too. Ya know, t' watch the sunset and all."

"That does sound really cool. Having this place to yourself and all." Spike said.

Applebloom turned her head to speak, but was caught off guard by Spike who also turned his head toward her. The two youngsters were shocked to come to the realization that their lips had met.

The purple dragon and the yellow pony were both experiencing their first kiss.