A few minutes pass, and you now find yourself inside Rarity’s bathroom, which was just as frilly as the rest of the Boutique. Rarity had taken it upon herself to magically scrub as much mud as she could off both you and Sweetie before she dared to let you get her bathtub dirty. Truth be told, she was a bit too thorough; aside from a patchy spot here and there, yours and Sweetie’s coat and mane were almost totally cleaned off now. Despite this, she still insisted that you both still take a bath to make sure you were, in her own words, “as clean and pristine as you can be!”
“That should do it,” Rarity declares as the princess-sized tub finally fills up to a good enough height for younglings to bathe in, shutting the faucet off with her magic. “Alright, time to get in,” she turns to the two of you, her unkempt long mane swishing a little at the motion.
“Uh, are you talking to me or him?” Sweetie asks, taking the question right out of your mouth.
“Oh, I probably should have mentioned this at first, silly me,” Rarity responds, “I’m afraid you’ll both have to take your bath at the same time.”
“Wuh-wuh-what!?” You blurt out far louder than you expect, causing the two mares in the room to give you weird looks. Now you’re scared. It was bad enough that you have to take a bath where Sweetie lives, but to take one at the same time and place as her? You can already feel the butterflies in your stomach fluttering like crazy.
“Well, I’m terribly sorry, young colt, but I’m afraid I used up a tad more hot water than I normally do for my regular weekend relaxation bath,” Rarity explains. “There’s just not enough left for you two to have separate baths.”
“Well, that’s okay,” chimes in Sweetie, “I take baths with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo all the time. It’s a lot of fun to play in the water!”
“Indeed, I’m usually the one who gives them the baths,” Rarity remarks, “Now both of you hurry up and get in. That water’s not going to stay warm forever, you know.”
You freeze in place, but Sweetie wastes no time. Climbing onto a set of steps made for foals to reach the tub (you know this because you still have to use a set at home), she lifts a limb over the edge and carefully drops it in. The water must not be too hot, as her leg keeps going with no hesitation. In no time, she’s in the bath, already settling in at the far end of the tub.
“Hey, this feels great,” says Sweetie. She turns to you and notices that you haven’t budged an inch. “Come on in! The water’s really nice!”
“I-If you say so,” you mumble.
Using an excruciating amount of willpower, you finally force your body to start climbing the steps, but your drive evaporates once you reach the final step. Instead, you stare into the tub, trying to analyze everything but the filly already occupying it. The sparkly clear water shines in the sunlight let in through a small round window, and a layer of bright pink bubbles (specially requested by Sweetie) idly drifts about, disturbed only by the waves caused by the white filly herself as she playfully gathers them up for… something.
“Now’s not the time to be shy, little one,” you hear Rarity’s voice behind you. “The sooner you get in, the sooner you can get cleaned up and be on your way.”
Gulping audibly, you stare at the other part of the foal staircase, the part submerged within the tub itself for an easy step down. You carefully dangle a limb over the tub as if it was filled with hot lava and not warm water. Taking a breath, you lower your hoof into the water, prepared to immediately withdraw it if it’s too hot.
…Hey, this isn’t bad at all! you think as your hoof easily slides down onto the step. The water is the perfect temperature; it warms you right up without being too hot. Not only that, but you can feel a nice ticklish feeling on your leg courtesy of the bath salts Rarity added while the tub was filling up.
You can’t wait to get the rest of you inside the tub, and you don’t. Going much faster than before, you climb down the steps and get everything up to your withers wet in that wonderful water. Finding a nice corner, you sit on your backside and let the water relax your nervous mind. You’re even starting to forget why you were so worried in the first place.
“I say, old chap! Thank you so kindly for visiting our fancy bath!”
Oh yeah, that’s why.
You turn to Sweetie and nearly gawk at the sight: she had gathered up some of the bubbles and somehow crafted a soapy handlebar moustache across her snout. She had even closed one of her eyes to try and look like she was wearing a monocle.
“Hee hee hee…ha!” She starts to giggle, but instead winces and scrunches up her face. You can’t tell if she’s still just playing around or something serious just came up.
“Ha…ah…HA-CHOO!” she sneezes, sending her soap-stache flying everywhere. Once she gets control of her body again, she rubs her snout with her hoof while she lets out a little groan.
“A-are you alright?” You ask with a bit more concern than you would expect.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she replies with a little nasal twinge. “I got a bubble in my snout, that’s all. Still, that was kinda funny, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” you nervously reply. Come to think of it, her act was kinda funny. Maybe even a little…cute? Is that what this feeling is? Can you even still call yourself a colt if you do find her soap moustache c…the “c” word?
“Alright, you two,” Rarity chimes in while she magically lifts the staircase out of the tub and sets it aside, effectively cutting off all your escape routes. “Time to get washed up.”
“Aww, can’t we play for a little while?” Sweetie asks.
“Sweetie, your friend’s parents will probably be worried sick if we keep him here for too long. It’s for the better if we send him on his way as quick he can. We don’t want the Equestrian guard to storm around town thinking we’d foalnapped him, do we?”
“Foalnapped!?” shouts a scared Sweetie. “B-but I was only trying to help! I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble! I don’t wanna be banished! I’ll never get my cutie mark on the moon!”
“Sweetie, calm down!” Rarity shouts back, gingerly grabbing her wide-eyed sister’s shoulders. “I was just joking. We all know you mean well, dear.”
“You mean I’m not gonna be banished?”
“I’m sure we could work out something with the Princesses. Maybe just make you spend a day or two in your room. At least you’d have a much harder time getting dirty that way.” Rarity giggles like one of those high-society mares you’ve seen in Witherton a couple times.
The two of you stare blankly at the older mare in the room. If she was making a joke there, neither of you got it.
“…erm, yes, well,” Rarity continues, thankfully breaking the awkward silence. “In any case, you needn’t worry about a thing, as I will personally supervise your bath time!”
“Uh, I think we can clean ourselves,” replies a confused Sweetie Belle. You’re glad she doesn’t notice you letting out a sigh of relief.
“I suppose you do, but this is to make sure you’re both the cleanest you can be in the quickest time. I promise to watch over and keep you two on track for your entire bath!” Rarity strikes a dramatically determined pose as she finishes.
“Just stop it! Stop being so selfless, so gracious, so well-meaning, so…AMAZING!”
“MY SOAP!” Rarity gasps in surprise as these words come from outside the bathroom before she remembers who else is in the room. “Er, that is, um … someone’s at the door! Yes, it’s the, um, deliverycolt here to bring me my, er, fancy imported soap! I’ll just, um, go talk to them real quick and see what they have to confess…um, say! Be right back!” With that, Rarity turns and bolts out the room, her long wet mane flowing nearly parallel to the ground.
You stare out the door in silence, not quite sure if you can believe in the older mare. Then again, you’re not quite sure you can believe in anything at the rate this day is going.
“She’ll be gone for a while.”
Why does Sweetie keep having to remind you of her presence?
“Um, why?” you ask.
“She’s not really talking to a deliverycolt. She bought one of those weird magic box thingies a few weeks back. She really likes to watch those shows where all the grown-ups go around kissing and yelling at each other. I think they do more stuff than that, but she always kicks me out of her room when I try to watch.”
“Aw, that stinks,” you reply.
“Eh, I don’t really like those shows, anyway. I hope I never grow up to be one of those kinds of mares,” says Sweetie. Since your family also owns a magic box, you know what kind of show she’s talking about. It still baffles you as to how grown-ups can watch that boring stuff when there are much better shows like Pony Rangers and Spikeball X.
“I hope you don’t, either,” you mumble.
“Huh?”
“N-nothing!” you speak in the loudest volume you’ve ever spoken to Sweetie while shifting your gaze to the water. Did you really just say that? More importantly, did you really mean it?
“So, what do you want to do?” pipes up Sweetie.
“Huh?” you perk up and turn to face Sweetie again. Her green eyes seem to be closer than they were before. Had she moved down the tub while you weren’t paying attention?
“You know, while we’re in the bath? I know some fun games we could play while Rarity’s not here. We could blow bubbles or pretend we’re pirates, or even do something else if you’d like. There’s a bunch of things we can do before we have to get clean.”
“Maybe we could just clean ourselves up?” you nervously suggest. Anything to get yourself out of there as fast as you can.
“Really?” Sweetie sighs. “You don’t want to play a little first?”
“Well, I, uh, it’s just, erm...” you try to think of an excuse, but nothing comes to mind.
“I mean, I understand if you need to go home soon,” Sweetie continues, her voice drooping a bit. “I don’t want your mom to get mad because of me.”
“…That’s not it.”
“It’s not?” Sweetie gives a puzzled look at you.
Gah, stupid brain! you silently curse yourself. Why did you say that? What’s wrong with you? You can’t even lie to a filly you can’t stand to be around to get yourself out of hot water? Did you really just make a joke about being in hot water while you’re taking a bath?
“I...um, that is, I don’t have to be home for a while,” you continue your confession anyway as if you were no longer in control of your actions. “My parents aren’t expecting me to be home until sundown. They think I’m still hanging out with m-my friend Pip…” you finish your statement with a small squeak as your nervousness reaches an all-time high.
“Oh, I see…” Sweetie replies. If you hadn’t turned away from her as you spoke, you would have seen her look down into the tub with a frown on her face.
Once again, silence falls into the bathroom, the only noises being the swishing of bathwater and the sounds of angry ponies on the magic box arguing over something about money.
“Can I ask you something?”
Sweetie finally breaks the silence with a question that frightens you. There must be at least a million things that could happen with this question, and you wager most of them will end badly for you. Unfortunately, you have no way out of this. Well, you could leap out of the tub and run away, but your nervousness and the soothing bath water have turned your hindlegs into mush.
“Um…sure?” you say, reluctantly accepting whatever fate throws at you.
"Is it me?”
“Is…what?” you confusedly reply. You didn’t expect this to be her question.
“Am I doing something wrong?” Sweetie continues, her face gradually getting sadder. “I mean, I know we got you all dirty and all, but…did I do something to you?”
“Wuh-what do you mean?”
“I mean…whenever I try to talk to you, you always get real quiet and try to go somewhere else. I thought you were just shy, but then I saw you having fun with Pipsqueak and talking with everyone else in class just fine…”
“S-Sweetie?” you ask as you see her eyes drooping.
“And then the mudball scooped you up, and I thought that maybe if I got you cleaned up, you would want to talk to me, but you still won’t…”
“Huh?” You have never felt a stronger need to figure out how a girl thinks than you do now.
“I...I don’t mean to be a pain in the flank. I just…think you’re…nice, and maybe you’d want another friend, but I…I understand if you don’t l-like me…”
Her confession stops here. Instead of further explaining herself, Sweetie lets her head drop towards the water. Your insides twist around even harder, rendering you unable to speak or even dare to move. All you can do is sit there and watch Sweetie as she continues looking straight down into the water, the only noises she makes being the occasional sniff.
The longer you watch, the worse you feel on the inside. Since meeting her, all you had wanted was for her to leave you alone so you would stop feeling so weird. Now, it looks like you’re finally about to get your wish: Sweetie might not want to talk to you again after this bath, and you can finally be free…
“Stop.”
But it’s not worth it.
“Huh?” Sweetie perks up, looking back at you. It’s at this point you notice her bright green eyes are starting to water. It’s enough to send another pang of discomfort in your stomach, but you can’t stop now. You have to set things right.
“Sweetie,” you force yourself to talk through a twisted stomach and a lump in your throat. “It’s not your fault. It’s... it’s me.”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“Uh, well...” you falter for a second, and then slowly piece your words together. “You’re a very nice pony, and… really sweet.” you feel some warmth enter your cheeks as you talk, and notice the same happening to her.
“It’s just that…” you continue, “when I look at you, all these weird things start happening. I get this, um, funny feeling in my stomach. It’s like it twists into a bunch of knots, and I can’t talk no matter hard how I try. I… I can’t stand it when that happens, so that’s why I tried to avoid you all those times.”
“Really?”
“I’m sorry if you thought I didn’t like you, Sweetie…I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings…”
You let your head fall in shame as your confession comes to an end. You had done it. You had finally cleared the air with Sweetie and told her the one thing you never wanted to tell her. You are now completely vulnerable to her, helpless against however she decides to react to this revelation.
“Is that all?”
“Huh?” You look at her quizzically. You had not guessed her to react like that.
“Well, that’s okay,” Sweetie calmly replies, her frown already turning into a soft grin. “It doesn’t mean anything bad.”
“Wait… you know what this means?” you say in surprise.
“Well, yeah. I felt something that was kind of the same thing a while ago. It was like there was a bunch of butterflies in my belly, so I asked my sister about it to see if there was something wrong with me.”
“R-really? What did she say?” you eagerly ask.
“She told me that when you start feeling like that around someone, it means you really like them. I was so glad she told me it wasn’t something to worry about. I thought I had swallowed some caterpillars at first!”
“Wait…” you reply, trying to piece together her story in a way that hopefully didn’t mean what you think it means. No, not Sweetie somehow eating a bunch of caterpillars without knowing it. The other thing. “When did you start feeling that way?”
“The same day you started going to our school,” she replies casually.
You’d let your jaw hit the ground if you weren’t in a tub. You don’t even need to ask the next question to know where this is going, but you can’t stop yourself.
“So…so does that mean…?”
“Yep!” interjects Sweetie in an adorable grin. Just as quickly as it appeared, however, her big smile grows soft and the shiny white coat on her face takes on a cute shade of pink. “I…I really like you, and…”
She stops talking for just a second, instead deciding to raise a foreleg out of the water and extend it towards you.
“I…I want to be your friend.”
You gulp audibly as you stare at the hoof pointed in your direction. This is it: the worst possible thing that could have happened today out of all the worst possible things. Sweetie Belle is offering you to be friends with her, to join her on wild quests to get your cutie marks, to spend time with her as the two of you play games, have fun, talk about what weird stuff the grown-ups are getting up to, share secrets that nopony else knows about, get dirty and possibly take more baths together, and who knows what else. It’s a thought that normally twists your stomach about like a pretzel…
So why is your belly not bothering you? In fact, why does it feel like a great weight has been lifted off you instead? Why are you feeling a smile creep onto your face? Why, it’s almost as if…
Oh.
Letting that smile come through in full bloom, you reach up with a forelimb of your own and guide it towards her hoof, delicately lining yours up with hers. It is perhaps the softest hoof you have ever felt, so much so that you could almost swear yours would sink into hers if you pushed hard enough.
“Sweetie, I…I want to be your friend, too,” You give her the most honest truth you could ever tell.
“R-really?” she asks, her grin growing wider and her eyes starting to shimmer again. “You promise?”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly,” you sincerely quote that weird pink pony that runs the sweet shop. It sounded silly to you at first, but you could think of no better words to say at this moment.
“HOORAY!” suddenly shouts Sweetie, causing you to jump back a little. “A FOURTH CUTIE MARK CRUSADER!”
“Um, yeah, fourth crusader,” you mumble as your heart-rate slows down to something manageable. You quickly look towards the door to see if her sister happened to hear that outburst. Fortunately for you, you don’t hear anything to confirm your fears. “So what do we do now?” you continue as you turn back to Sweetie.
“Hmm…” Sweetie looks away to think for a second before returning to you. “Well, I know something that some friends who really like each other do. Maybe we could try that?”
“Okay…but what is it?” you ask with a hint of worry in your voice.
“Well, it’s um…” Sweetie mumbles a little, her eyes shifting away for a second. “It’s… something that my sister probably wouldn’t like to see us doing.”
“Well, are you sure we should do it, then?” you ask out of concern. You don’t want Sweetie to get in trouble because of you.
“It’ll be okay,” she smiles. “We just have to be real quiet. Besides, I hear it’s really really fun if you do it just right and if you really like the pony you’re doing it with.”
“Uh, okay. If you say so," you slowly and nervously reply. You have no idea what’s going on, but you’re scared, and maybe a little excited, to find out.
“Soooo, can you close your eyes?” Sweetie coyly suggests.
“M-my eyes? What for?”
“Um, you’ll see,” is all that Sweetie replies.
You don’t know what to do at first, but eventually you decide to put your trust in Sweetie. You haven’t found any reason not to trust her, after all.
You shut your eyes and wait for her to do whatever it is she’s going to do. The seconds pass by like minutes as you sit there with no idea of what’s going to happen to next. You hear and feel the lovely warm water swish around you as the other pony occupying the tub shifts about. For a second, you have the strange feeling that she is now only inches away from you-
*SPLASH!*
You flinch as you feel a bunch of water smack you in the face. Shaking the stray drops off your mane, you open your eyes to find Sweetie snickering uncontrollably, her eyes closed in laughter.
“Splash fight!” she declares when she finally gains control of her voice again. Before you can react, she pushes her hooves into the water and throws them back up, sending another cascade of water straight into your face.
“H-hey, no fair!” you try to say between laughs. For someone named Sweetie Belle, she sure could play dirty when she wanted to. Well, you can’t just sit here and let her win this little game, that’s for sure.
You wait until the deluge of water stops to make your move. Once you finally spot an opening in the form of Sweetie succumbing to a giggling fit, you quickly dunk your hooves deep into the water and throw them upwards. This brings up a tidal wave that catches Sweetie completely off-guard, covering the last dry spots on her body in warm, soapy water.
Her twin-colored mane now sticks to her face, covering her eyes like a dog with shaggy hair. She shakes her head all about to get her hair out of her face, whipping it around and sending fat water droplets everywhere.
“Nice shot, hehe!” says Sweetie when she can see again, “but I’ll get you yet!” Wasting no time, Sweetie prepares to send another wave of water your way, and you decide to get ready to retaliate.
Thus begins a friendly war of splashes between you and General Sweetie. The two of you settle into a rhythm of throwing your legs up to create big waves, covering your faces to block said waves, and cheerfully laughing the entire time. You both get so focused on your fun game that you don’t even notice how much water you’re getting all over the bathroom.
"Alright, alright, settle down, you two!”
You also don’t notice her older sister, still sporting a long damp mane, finally returning to the bathroom.
“Oh! Um,sorry, Miss Rarity,” you say bashfully, finally noticing how wet the entire room has gotten from your playing.
“Oh, it’s quite alright, little one,” she replies, “Sweetie and her friends have made worse messes in here, I suppose.”
You look over to Sweetie, who happens to be carrying an adorably sheepish smile right now. “Cutie Mark Crusader splash fights get kinda big,” she coyly admits, her hoof rubbing the back of her head, “and involve things other than water.”
You hear Rarity give that strange ladylike giggle in her throat before speaking again. “In any case, I do apologize for my disappearance. Turned out it was just a rerun...er, a wrong order! Yes, I, uh, had to sort things out with the deliverycolt. My, um, shampoos will arrive a few days from now.”
Your focus on Rarity causes you to miss Sweetie rolling her eyes at her older sister’s obvious fib.
“Anyways,” Rarity continues, “It’s time for you two to get yourselves cleaned up, and just to make sure you two are extra pristine, I will personally do the washing myself.” As she speaks, she magically lifts up a fancy washing poofball and a bottle of shampoo while carrying a grin on her face that makes you feel more worried than you should about getting cleaned off.
“Now let’s get you two washed up!”
*******************************
And you thought you were clean after the pre-bath scrubbing.
Just like before, Rarity was a bit more thorough in her cleaning than you would have preferred. You’re so clean that you swear your coat is giving off a natural glow right now. She had even combed and brushed your mane, making you look like one spiffy colt, if you do say so yourself. You have a feeling your mom will interrogate you on why you happen to be much cleaner than when you left home earlier today, but you’ll worry about that when you get there.
“Time for you to be on your way home, young one,” you hear Rarity say behind you. She had escorted you and Sweetie straight from the bathroom to the back door of the boutique. It’s a bit curious how you feel right now; you never wanted to set hoof inside this building a couple hours ago, but now you’re not sure if you want to leave.
“Aw, can’t he stay for just a little while longer?” asks Sweetie, secretly preparing to use another wide-eyed stare if necessary.
“I’m afraid not,” explains Rarity, “Our mom and dad will be here soon to take you home, so you won’t have much time to play with him. Besides, I really need to get started on designing all those socks for that silly game half the town will be playing in a couple weeks, and I simply don’t have time for babysitting once I’m ‘in the zone’, so to speak.”
“Okay.” Sweetie sighs, accepting her sister’s truths. Looks like older sisters could also be major killjoys when they wanted to.
“But, can I at least say goodbye?” Sweetie asks
“Well, I don’t see the harm in that,” says Rarity. “Very well, but don’t keep him too long. The sun’s going to be setting soon, after all.”
With that, Sweetie’s big sister turns and heads back inside the shop. You see her walk halfway down the hall before stopping and bringing her long wet mane in front of her face to examine. You think you hear her say something about “bringing back the shower-head look” before disappearing into another room.
“Thank you.”
How do you keep forgetting Sweetie’s there?
“Uh, sorry?” you ask with a coy smile as your attention moves back to her.
“I mean, thanks for stopping by. I really like taking baths with other friends,” says Sweetie, carrying a peaceful smile on her face. Rarity did a number on her, too; her white coat shines bright in the sun, and not a single strand of hair is out of place on her pretty, curly mane. As much as you don’t want to admit, she really does look c…cu…the “c” word.
“Oh, no problem,” you reply in a surprisingly confident voice. “Thanks for offering that bath. This is the cleanest I’ve felt in a long time.”
“Yeah, my sister’s really thorough about that. Sometimes she acts more like a mom than my mom does.”
“Heh heh, I see that,” you respond. Heck, if Sweetie hadn’t told you about her before you were caught, you might have mistaken Rarity for Sweetie’s mother.
“So, do you want to hang out tomorrow?” Sweetie asks. “We could maybe help you find your cutie mark?”
“Um, actually, I kinda promised my friend Pipsqueak that we’d hang out tomorrow,” you truthfully tell Sweetie, to which you start to see a disappointed frown form on her face. “But we can always drop by if we get bored or something!” you quickly add.
“Okay then!” Sweetie perks up real quick. “So I guess I’ll see you later?”
“Of course, Sweetie,” you reply as you stare into her deep green eyes. “Take care of yourself, okay? I don’t want your sister to get mad at you for getting dirty again.”
“That’ll be okay,” Sweetie assures you, “Apple Bloom said tomorrow’s plan to get our cutie mark won’t get us real dirty…although she also said that when we tried being Cutie Mark Crusader Butter Churners, and that ended up being really messy, but really tasty, too!”
You chuckle a little bit. Looks like Sweetie is just destined to keep getting dirty until she gets her cutie mark…
“Well, I better be going now,” you speak up. You had noticed that the sun was starting to set, meaning your parents are going to start wondering where you are if you don’t hurry back.
You reluctantly step out of the doorway and into the outside world, then turn and give one last smile to the marshmallowy filly you never thought you would become friends with.
“Bye Sweetie. See you later!”
“Bye!” she cheerfully calls back, waving her hoof in the air. “See you around!”
With nothing else to say, you turn around and walk off, your hooves feeling almost lighter than air as you travel on the dirt roads that will lead you to your home. Just like every other you had seen Sweetie, the pretty white mare is sticking in your head long after she’s gone. This time, however, she’s no longer an unwelcome guest in your mind, and you’re no longer strangers with her.
Deep down, you just know that you two are going to be great friends.
________________________________________________________________________________
Note: You now like Sweetie Belle a lot more than you did before, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say you have a thing for her. That’d just be weird.
You do have a thing for bathtubs and splash fights now, though...and Rarity with wet hair. Sweet, sweet wet hair.