Patch prided herself on a bunch of different things: her charisma and pure charm, her courage in the face of danger. Her awesome sense of humor. Her ability to make anyone smile.

Her ability to jump out of trees without parachutes.

But if one thing stood out in her mind, it was the fact that she'd finally managed to confess to Bon Bon. Well, she got close. "I care about you" was closer than ending up kissing a different best friend (like she did after a certain plan backfired). Even better than the attempt that ended in the loss of two months' worth of allowance, and that was a pretty darn good try.

But she'd almost legit said, "I love you," and her friend just didn't understand.

Heck. It was fine, because Patch managed to hug and cuddle and nuzzle Bon Bon. And Ace was just a bitter point with her, so she wasn't going to get with him ever.

That just left two ponies in the picture: Patch, and her beautiful, kind, gentle princess Bon Bon. She practically salivated at the chance of being able to run her hoof through her beautiful hair as she kissed her intently…

"Patch?"

Patch jumped like there was no tomorrow. "Huh?!"

Ace was standing in front of her, his green eyes narrowed. "Repeat to me what I just said."

"You scared me!"

Teddy sneered from the other end of the couch. Patch wanted to slap that look off of his face, but she had to stare at Ace in attention, panting just a bit. "What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing!" Patch exclaimed, throwing her hooves out and pushing Ace. When she looked at her best guy friend, she couldn't help but think of the alien practical joke she'd pulled on him. An upgraded version of one her friends had pulled on her when her own pranks got out of hoof. Specifically adjusted to get revenge on Ace for his crimes against Bon Bon.

"Riiiiiiight," Ace replied with a roll of his eyes. "Anyway… We've got a few orders of business, as I was saying."

Patch sat up as Ace walked to the center of the wooden floor... in the center of a circle of boys. Normally the club only had four ponies around; her, Ace, Teddy and Lancer. That day, a whole class of them was in there, hanging on the furniture, on the ground, and against the wall.

"The major point of business today is the upcoming contest at the Rollerama," Ace explained, putting a police officer's cap atop his head. It looked authentic, but then it could have been; his dad was a cop. "The Rollerama skating rink the corner of Red Street and Blue Street. It'll be on Sunday, and you know, we all need to bring partners. Girls!"

Ace pulled a string that was hanging by his head, and a long scroll unfurled from the ceiling. Little sketches of ponies were lining the thing. "What we need to do is choose partners. If you need any help wooing a girl, Patch and I will be here."

Patch noticed that Ace's name was already written under a pink pony with a voluminous blue mane and green eyes. A soccer ball was scrawled next to the microphone with notes and stars that represented her symbol. Ace and Melody. Of course; good luck.

Unless Ace morphed into Chain Link, he wasn't going with Melody.

"Well, Teddy, who do you want to go with?" Ace asked, a blue, orange and black trio of markers in his hooves.

The Mohawked pony smirked. "Sweetheart. She'll need me if she's gonna be in the contest at all."

As Ace began drawing Teddy next to the representation of Sweetheart, Patch rolled her eyes. More like he's gonna sit home alone on the day of the-

Patch's ear twitched at the realization that Sweetheart and Melody's sections were bordering… a certain yellow and purple pony's slot. It was as if fate was daring her to choose her heart's desire…

"Alright, uh, Chase, you next."

A green pony with a black mane who was leaning up against Lancer's favorite blue chair grinned, crossing his forehooves. "I choose Moonbeam."

Patch recognized the name clear as day: Clover's good friend from ballet practice. She hadn't personally met her, but if Clover's stories were anything to go by, she was a great dancer.

Chase was going for blood. She had to watch out there.

"Dandy, we already know who you're going for," Ace said before scrawling a picture of Dandy and his wagon symbol next to Clover. The blue colt blushed and giggled nervously.

Ace pointed to the boy next to him; his best friend, a brown hued boy pony with black eyes. "Now, Spinner, who do you want?"

Patch looked over at the normally talkative guy, who was fiddling with his hooves. Anyone who had him would be lucky; Patch personally knew him, and he was a great guy. Handsome, too. He could probably get any girl he wanted on his arm. "…Bon Bon."

A pair of gold eyes became pinpoints at his declaration. Ace scribbled his symbol and his face in next to Bon Bon's. A blue and green boy sitting next to him called Ferdinand slapped his hoof encouragingly.

…The handsome, sweet, supportive boy wanted to court Bon Bon.

She had a reason to be afraid.

888

"Um… Patch?"

Patch begrudgingly turned around to find herself face-to-face with Spinner and Dandy, both of which were grinning. "We needed some help wooing our partners for the dance," Spinner said. "You're a goddess when it comes to that, so I figured… could you help us? Dandy wants Clover, and I-I want… Bon Bon." He blushed crimson after he said that.

Oh no… he looks cute like that… "Just be yourself."

Dandy nodded his head rapidly. "Yes, we already know that, but we need advice to get their attention too."

Cookie was so darn nice and so sweet that if he and Bon Bon got in a relationship… they'd get all the way to being an old married couple, Spinner was so agreeable. They also had a bit in common, too. Good looks, a love for cooking… Oh, Dandy and Clover were perfect and Clover had a huge crush on Dandy.

The question was, what was she supposed to do with Spinner? Give him bad advice and watch the flames engulf everything? The problem with that was… well, she actually liked Spinner… She was pretty sure she had no chance of getting Bon Bon for the dance, but after that Spinner was gonna stay with her for… a long time. And if the situation with Ace had anything to do with it, Patch would have no say in it.

"Listen," Patch said, taking a step towards the edge of the grass (she'd been walking away from the clubhouse, too concerned about Spinner to do much). "I have a girls' meeting I have to get to," she replied shortly.

She got to walking away, but just then, someone grabbed her tail, and her changing the direction of her head got her to see that it was Spinner.

Having such a grabbable tail had advantages and disadvantages. The first was that, if she ever started plummeting to her death, her tail might get stuck on something, or someone might grab it before it fell. …But it just happened that anyone could grab it at any time.

Patch yanked her hindquarters away from Spinner's reach and got running. Her eyes immediately began scanning the area around her for any escape as she took a sharp right, around an old fence with bushes along it. Spinner and Dandy were chasing after her, most likely going to demand an explanation for why she'd run away.

She was pleased with her chances; she was part of the soccer team, had experience being chased around by furious ponies, and had stamina that only Ace rivaled. She also had about as much brain as the two boys combined, and tons of knowledge of that area of town.

Patch hurtled across the street and took a sharp left turn, diving between the legs of a pony who was carrying a huge box of oranges. He fell over; Patch could hear the sound of the oranges dropping out of the wooden crate and the sound of the man-pony shouting, "Hey, get back over here you insubordinate tom-"

"Lemme help you with that," Patch heard one of the boys say.

The taupe pony grinned to herself as she continued the hurtling dash out of there. She knocked an empty trash can over, causing her to jump like there was no tomorrow and put another burst of speed.

But she almost immediately set her pace back down, looking back and seeing that neither of the boys had thought to separate so they could help and catch her, she stopped dashing after two more blocks and a sharp turn.

She panted slightly from the run. Even though she hadn't reached full-speed, her heart was racing like she'd just run a marathon… Spinner and Dandy had probably taken a wrong turn, or possibly even continued in the wrong direction by then.

"PATCH?"

The taupe pony froze in her tracks as she stared at the pony in front of her. Bon Bon was clutching several magazines to her chest, her light blue eyes wide with disbelief.

"Bon Bon!" Patch scraped her hoof on the concrete for a second, wearing a huge, toothy, exaggerated grin. "Hi!"

"How was the boy club meeting?" Bon Bon asked, looking optimistic for once.

"Fine." Patch froze up; Bon Bon looking actually optimistic? That was strange... "What's going on…?"

Bon Bon threw her head up eagerly. "You wouldn't believe it. Spinner asked me out."

Patch's jaw twitched, and then hung slack. "WHAT?!"

Bon Bon giggled at her friend's reaction. "Of course. He got me flowers and wore this really cute little bowtie. If you hadn't been early to your club meeting, you would have seen it for yourself, Patch. It was romantic, and now I can't wait for the contest."

"Guh…" Patch's knees felt as weak as jelly capsizing under her weight.

Slight splotches of red covered Bon Bon's cheeks. "W-When you said that I should put myself right back up on the market when you took me to the park during that lemonade war… and after that prank... it inspired me."

Patch felt all of the confusion and pain that would have come if an orange hedgehog had hugged her heart. "Good for you…" Patch responded, conscious that tears were bubbling up in her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Bon Bon asked with a frown. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah… Just proud…" Patch's lower lip bulged out, and tears started rolling down her cheeks.

But she was smart, aware that she was awful at lying. Patch fled before Bon Bon could do anything.

888

Patch had made it an extreme effort not to win the Rollerama. Not that she would have won, anyway. Lancer and Bright Eyes, the power couple of the event, had stolen the show with Lancer's private skating lessons from some Olympic skater and Bright Eyes' quick learning from him.

Bright Eyes and Lancer had to lug the thing home. Patch boredly sipped out of her orange soda, her face perched on her hoof as she gazed absently at the glossy metal table in front of her. She was all alone, Buddy, the white and light blue pony who had served as her partner was off, conversing with Chase and Ace excitedly (apparently she had kissed him, and she simply didn't remember it, Patch thought sarcastically).

"Patch?"

The peach colored pony looked gloomily up to see Bon Bon standing there on two hooves. "Do ya mind if I sit here?"

The tomboy sighed. "Go ahead."

Bon Bon pulled the chair out and sat in it.

Patch's heart pounded tiredly. No, she wasn't in the mood for it. She'd been trying her best to get over that crush on Bon Bon for the past few days, but… it wouldn't go away, even if she had zero chances…

"I broke things off with Cook- I-I mean, Spinner."

Patch's ears shot up, and she angled her head more towards Bon Bon. "I mean, he was nice, but… he was boring. He hadn't said a word to me, or played a joke, or anything. Our friendship before was more fun, so we ended on good terms."

"T-That's great. For you, I mean," Patch replied, sitting up straight. She wasn't committed to Spinner… didn't like him as a date at least. Because he didn't play a joke or talk…?

Some part of her brain seriously thought that maybe… just maybe… Bon Bon had added the joke thing because… she maybe, possibly, considered her for a potential boyfriend…?

Delusional, huh?

"Um, yeah."

Patch chuckled out loud at Bon Bon's practical answer for the question. "Yeah, I think so too."

But some part of her was a fan-girl bursting with glee. Her heart was beating warmly at the thought. She might… actually like me…