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Scratch was shaken awake.
Though he usually slept in his dollhouse, him and Molly had monthly “sleepovers”. The only difference was that Scratch laid in the hammock above her bed, chatting until they called it a night.
He must’ve fallen asleep first, this time. He didn’t even remember drifting off before being jolted awake by his friend's frantic voice and the shaking of his hammock.
“Molly? What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
Molly stopped yanking the hammock just to stare intensely into Scratch’s eyes, which were still half-glazed with sleep and dusted with worry.
“Would you still be my best friend if I was a worm?”
Scratch blinked. He squinted, still trying to make out her face in the pitch black room. “Would I…would I what?”
“If I was a worm, Scratch. Would you still be my best friend?”
The ghost sighed and sank back into the cobwebs. “Did you really have to wake me up for this?”
“Just answer.”
“I mean…probably not?”
With this, Molly immediately collapsed back onto the bed, which Scratch could see clearly since his eyes had started to adjust. She buried her face in a pillow, her shoulders heaving with sobs.
“Molly?!” Scratch flew down to her. “What’s wrong??”
“Y-you..” she sniffled, “you said y-you w-wouldnt be friends wi-with me if…” she burst into tears before she could finish.
Maybe being woken up so suddenly was clouding Scratch's mind, or maybe he was missing some crucial significance to the question- but this didn't make any sense to him. Regardless, he put a hand on her back in some attempt to console her. "Moll, Moll, hey, how could I be friends with a worm? I mean, I wouldn't be able to talk to you or anything like that, right?" She lifted her head and wiped her face with balled up fists.
"You w-wouldn't know it was me? You wouldn't feel like...l-like I'm more than just a worm? You wouldn't recognize me?"
"Wait, hang on. In...whatever scenario you're thinking of, did I first meet you as a worm? Or were you magically transformed into one...? Or whats the deal?"
Molly shrugged and sniffed. "I don't know. I just...I-I feel like if you were a worm, Scratch, I would know it was you. And I'd still be your friend. Even if all you could really do was wiggle around and all worm-like..." She sat up onto the bed. She wasn't crying anymore, just drew in her knees and held them close to her chest. Scratch sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her. Though it was cold, she leaned into the touch.
Maybe it was never about the literal worm-ness of the question. If either of them had been a worm, the other would surely be able to feel some sort of connection, right? The way you feel connected to someone not only through their charm and person, but by some deeper, intangible presence you cant quite identify. It's what drew them together initially, right? Despite being completely different, even with their species, and untraceable to the other, they still managed to become best friends regardless.
Is being a worm really different than being a human? Or a ghost?
"Molly, I bet if you were a worm, you would be the most earth-churning worm out there."
She smiled and scoffed a little. "I bet you'd be the hungriest one. I'd know for SURE it was you."
"Oh please, your little worm self would be causing a ruckus and disrupting all the other worms. Enhappifying the soil, and all that."
"En-Wormifying, probably."
"Ah geez, there you go again." He jokingly shoved her away as she giggled. "There's no way I wouldn't recognize you." She yanked him back and squeezed a hug out of him.
"I'm glad you're my best friend."
"I'm glad you're mine too, Moll. I'd be yours if you were a human, pony, or stinkbug. Now, can we go back to bed?"