A week went by for the new couple in the blink of an eye. Sweetie spent her days off work just talking to her love, and any time she had away from him talking about her love. The crusaders all had heard about their first kiss under the beautiful streaked sky a dozen times, and a half dozen more about each kiss after that. She never thought she was bragging, but the two single friends in her club couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy at each revelatory declaration of her love.
Spike, on the other hand, kept his experiences mostly to himself. A week in and he wasn’t even sure Twilight knew about this relationship progression, or if she did it was relayed to her by one of his accomplices. Their help was appreciated, though now both Trixie and Starlight wanted to keep playing matchmaker and making sure things went well. He had to shoo them off when they went on a cafe date, though they still would casually walk by and spy on them both every couple of minutes.
What was the most shocking to both of them was how little things seemed to change around them. They were both in the throes of love, the first time either of them had a relationship this meaningful with one another, but after the kisses and dates ended, they just felt the same as when they spent their days testing dozens of crusader ideas. Best friends who just happened to also be in love.
“But it’s been on your mind, right?” Scootaloo asked as she and Sweetie Belle strolled through the mostly empty station, on their way to start their Saturday evening broadcast. “You were so excited to hear about it last week and we got nothing.”
“Last week we had been a thing for less than a day.” Sweetie brushes it off while using magic to play with her voice, trying to find her regular radio tone again. “I really want to hear from him, and to hear what he thought of the whole night. Did I tell you about when we were in the movies and he-”
“He wrapped his arm around you right as the couple moved from kissing to bucking?”
“No, I was gonna say-”
“How he spent the rest of the movie with his claw open between you two, but you were too nervous to take it.”
Sweetie sighed as the two stopped outside the recording booth, letting the last crew before them finish up. She dropped the spell and returned to her normal voice as she whined “I’m not predictable. There’s lots more than just those things. I just, I want to know what he thought about it all so I can plan a date just as well.”
“You’ve got him, now you can relax. Whatever you do, you can trust that he’ll enjoy it. Or at least he’ll give it a shot, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. That’s why I say you take him to a wonderbolts show, they’ll be in town next month so we can all go together. I could even probably convince RD to give us the best seats.”
Sweetie giggled as Scootaloo was already trying to pull them along to group events. “We’ve had two dates so far and you’re trying to pull us into a group date? It’s better than Apple Bloom’s suggestion at least.”
“Heck yeah. What did she suggest?”
“Running the market stall with her when her week rolls around. I think she just doesn’t want to keep asking Applejack and Big Mac to help her and pulling them away from apple bucking season.”
Their conversation shifts away from Sweetie’s love life just as the people ahead of them begin heading out of the studio, leaving it free for Lady Luxury to get started for the night.
It didn’t take long, their months of practice carrying them through the motions as they setup their stations for the night ahead. Sweetie quickly made a list of over a dozen songs to get them through the first hour of the night between calls, and Scootaloo got them all ready to go whenever she requested. It was a pretty standard night for them, despite the idea of Spike’s call hanging over the host’s head.
Spike, in the same dining room where Starlight had confronted him about his crush, was mulling over what exactly he should say to Lady Luxury if at all. Despite Starlight and Trixie’s constant interference, they had no problem leaving this decision completely up to Spike.
“You know just a little guidance this one time would be really nice.”
“Well, we never really asked anyone for advice about us. We just kinda happened on a whim. I didn’t even get any support from Twilight, who was supposed to be teaching me about friendship at the time.”
“Yeah, something about me being dangerous just because I played around with dangerous artifacts and also kinda almost let the town be eaten by bears.” Trixie smiled and sighed, as if remembering good times. “But also, I don’t think she’s ever had a relationship like that before, so she’s probably just as clueless as you are. She is the princess of friendship afterall. Maybe we can call up Cadence.”
Starlight giggled while lightly elbowing her love. “Oh, you’re so bad. She’s totally been like that before.”
“This really isn’t helping me figure out what to do guys.” Spike interjected. He stood up from the dining table and began to walk up and down the room. “Lady Luxury really seemed interested in this relationship. I’ve never heard her put a caller on priority like she has for me, so she might be looking forward to my call. But Sweetie deserves privacy, I’m not even sure I should have been talking to someone else about this all.”
“We’re still right here Spike.” Starlight said as she got up from the table as well. “I’ll go grab us some dessert, maybe some sweets will help you.” She leaned down and kissed Trixie’s forehead before heading off, leaving the two of them alone.
“I’m not sure how hard it would be to figure out, but we are probably the only ones who have experienced something like this. If any of the crusaders or even the elements are listening then they might completely expose us and start gossiping about us. I probably wouldn’t mind but Sweetie might be upset if she found out about it. Maybe if I change some of the details around, but it might not be enough.”
“Spike, can we talk for a minute?” Trixie leaned forward and lowered her voice, dropping her usual flamboyant persona to talk seriously.
This sudden change caught Spike's attention and pulled him away from his rambling. He approached the mare and nodded.
“You’re overthinking things. You’ve been overthinking things the whole time. Do you know how Starlight and I ended up together?”
“No. Probably something lewd based on what I hear in my room.”
“Wrong. We ended up together because we just happened to click together. And that’s what I saw when you and Sweetie nervously confessed to one another. You understand one another, and you two just click.” Trixie leaned back in her and pulled her hooves up on to the table, leaning her chair back as she talked. “Whatever you decide here won’t change Sweetie’s mind. One fault should never be enough to break a relationship and believe me, I’ve made way more than one fault.”
Spike was stunned that Trixie, who had never given him any proper advice, layed out a compelling and surprisingly helpful argument. “So, you think I should do it?”
“I think that you should do what you want. And if things go wrong, you can blame me. Tell them as much or as little as you want, and don’t worry about Starlight hearing you, I’ve got something planned for her tonight.”
Spike nodded as Starlight came back with a carton of ice cream for the three of them. Trixie shifted back to her normal flamboyance and deviance leaving Spike to consider her words. She winked back at him before digging into a bowl of vanilla.
***
Hour by hour the night passed by. All the regular calls passed by, half a dozen interesting topics mixed with another dozen daily stories. Someone with a new million dollar idea and of course, a couple stallions looking to ask the illustrious Lady Luxury for help in their love lives. It was about as normal as one of Sweetie’s nights could be. The only thing that really changed was whenever she talked about love, she had to catch herself from mentioning her own recent adventures in romance.
Finally, the graveyard shift wound down as her show came closer and closer to it’s end. Scootaloo was passed another list of tracks to get ready as Sweetie leaned back away from her mic, stretching from being hunched over all night. “Any sign, Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo queued up the next record before taking the list and beginning to search for the records she requested. “No Spike so far. He might be done calling for advice SB.”
Sweetie sighed, her voice kept lower by her magic. “I guess. I just want to know what he thinks. It’s my first time and I want to be the best I can for him.”
“If you’re thinking like that, then you probably are the best for him.” Scootaloo grabbed the requested album and placed it on the small stack she was gathering. “He liked you before calling in, you don’t need to worry.”
“I guess. Song’s wrapping up now, you ready with the next.”
“You know it. I’ll get back to the phone queue once I’ve got the next few ready.” Scootaloo brought the pile back to her station, a full analog audio board with two turntables to set records on. It was one of only a handful in existence as radio grew in Equestria. The dials and levers would confuse almost anyone, Scootaloo didn’t even know what half of them did, just Sweetie’s normal settings. At this point in the show, all that really mattered was adjusting the caller volume. The rest could almost always be left alone.
What couldn’t be left alone was the small switchboard along the far wall to receive calls. It was her job as Sweetie’s radio partner to screen calls to be passed along to the show. She’d normally pass along a description of what the caller wanted to talk about after ordering or rejecting calls, but since her little surprise with Spike she had been handing more off without the moment of prep time. Just the ones she thought would be interesting to get an honest reaction from.
Scootaloo watched as Sweetie got up to stretch some more, as she picked up the receiver and recited her normal script. “Hello, thank you for calling in to Lady Luxury, what would you like to talk about tonight?”
“Hi, I’ve called a few times before to ask Lady Luxury about my relationship. She had other ponies call in and help me out last time as well.”
It was Spike, the exact dragon Sweetie was waiting for. Scootaloo normally didn’t try to change her voice when receiving calls, but when it was someone she recognized, she did her best. She spoke clearer than normal, trying to get rid of the rasp in her voice. “Ah, I remember you. Thanks for calling again. Is there anything specific you want to tell the Lady?”
There was a pause for a moment and Scootaloo could practically hear the gears in Spike’s mind turning. Slowly, he spoke “I want to thank her. I took her advice and we ended up going on two dates so far.”
“Mhmm, mhmm. I’m sure Lady Luxury will be happy to hear back from you. But is there anything else you would like to ask?” Scootaloo prodded, hoping to get a better idea about what she was about to hand off to her friend.
Another pause as the dragon was surely wondering what to say. “I… Want to know how to tell my uh, mom that I’m dating someone.”
Scootaloo smiled as she began to consider exactly what may play out with another unsuspecting spike phone call. “All right. Please hold, you will have her attention shortly.”
She returned the receiver to its bay before turning to her friend in the booth. She pressed a button to speak with her again. “Ready for more advice or one more song?”
Sweetie gulped down her water and magically pulled the mic back to her lips. “If you have something interesting, we can get going again.”
“All right. We’ve got someone waiting on the line. You’ve got 30 seconds until we’re back.” She released her talk button and plugged the call in to the board.
The anticipation Scootaloo felt was almost overwhelming, almost as much as that first time she heard Spike’s voice on the line. Even if she didn’t think his question was as interesting as the first time, the thought of surprising one of her best friends with the exact thing they’ve been waiting for all week was exhilarating. Sweetie probably would put together what she had in store if she could see the wide smile on her face, so Scootaloo hid behind that stack of records she had just fetched.
Moment by moment the last seconds of the song played out, and Scootaloo only grew more and more excited. Finally, the moment came when she flipped the feed back to Sweetie, and her surprise would be complete.
“Wasn’t that just lovely. One of my favourite songs from the scene in the Crystal Empire. You can hear the passion in every note, and maybe, we’ll hear some passion out of our next Caller. So tell me, what’s happening, caller.”
“Hi Lady Luxury. I don’t know if you remember but I called you a few weeks ago for romantic advice and I just wanted to say how thankful I am…”
Sweetie gasped as she recognized the voice. A mix of glee and frustration washed over her as she shot a dirty look to Scootaloo, who was laughing to herself on the other side of the glass. Sweetie would bet that she was howling, and if not for the magical enchantments on the room she would be able to be heard on air.
Spike continued. “I followed your advice and it really worked. I took her out to see a movie and then took her to watch the sunset together. It was amazing, Swee- we had a great time and we became a couple.”
Sweetie recovered, quickly clearing her throat to make sure her voice change spell hadn’t broken. “Well if I remember correctly Smith, it wasn’t my advice at all last time. It was our lovely listeners and even Starlight Glimmer who helped you. I can’t take too much credit.”
“But still, if not for you I’d probably still be circling around the truth, not able to tell her how I really feel. So thank you.”
“And thank you to everyone who helped out as well. I believe we lost you after Starlight called, but more ponies shared their wonderful advice as well.” Sweetie was trying her best not to get lost as she heard her love indirectly complimenting her. All she could do was redirect that thanks somewhere else so she didn’t break character and blurt out something she would regret. “If thanks is all you called for then I am more than happy to welcome it, but something tells me there is more here.”
“Yeah, well, you see. After we went on our first date, we did a second date that was just to the market. It was nice but the whole time we were out together, I was nervous about others seeing us. And then after, I talked to my uh, my mom and I just couldn’t tell her that I was in a relationship now. I don’t know how she will react. Do you have any advice on how to tell others you have a marefriend?”
Scootaloo kept laughing as Sweetie processed exactly what he said. Was it really embarrassing to be his marefriend, or was he nervous about something else. By mom he probably meant Twilight, and she always thought Twilight would understand any relationship. Also, she was the sister of one of her closest friends. The friend who Spike had an obvious crush on for… over a decade… and rejected him and made him go on a year long tour of the world.
Okay, she understood the problem now. But she would still give the same advice.
“Smith, I think you just need to tell her. She’s your mother so you would know best and if you can’t tell her, then don’t feel the pressure to. But if you believe you can, then you should try it. In fact, I’m so confident in this that I don’t even need to open the phone line for this one…”
Sweetie continued talking to Spike over the phone as Scootaloo finally came down from her laughing fit. Seeing Sweetie get like this was completely worth it, and she was more than happy to let her friend have some time to talk to the one she likes, so she returned to prepping the next track to play.
She pulled the last record off the table and carefully put it back in it’s sleeve, before getting up to put it away. However as she got up to shelve the music, she noticed the switchboard light blink on, as another caller waited.
On to the next thing she had to do, back to work and taking calls. She took off her headphones and pulled the receiver up once again, running through the same script.
This time, a Stallion’s voice came over the phone. It was clear but there was something strange to it she couldn’t quite pinpoint. “Wonderful. I’m listening in right now and I think I can give your current caller some excellent advice. You see, talking with family can be quite hard, and I know first hand, and I figured I could help out some.”
Scootaloo looked over to Sweetie smiling, listening to Spike and considering how her character would respond. She did ask for callers last time, so maybe having someone else ready to help would be right. “Okay. Hold and I’ll ask Lady Luxury.”
She placed the receiver back and scribbled out what she knew for Sweetie to confirm. She finished talking just as Scootaloo slid her headphones back on to listen in on the conversation again.
“You just need to believe in yourself, just like when confessing your feelings.” Sweetie held up her hoof and nodded to Scootaloo, giving her the clear. She continued talking into the mic. “Now I’ve just been told by my producer that we have someone else on the line who thinks they can help you out. If you don’t mind, we’re gonna take you off and let them share their thoughts.”
“All right. Last time that really helped, Thanks Lady Luxury.”
“Any time. Thanks for calling.” Sweetie began to vamp for time as Scootaloo reached over and unplugged Spike’s line, and plugged in the next caller’s.
However once the call had been connected, shiver ran down Scootaloo’s spine. A feeling like a grave mistake had just been made as the magic connected the call to her friend. The same kind of feeling when a trick starts to go awry or a tool is about to break, a panic that can’t be quieted.
“All right, and you, my dear caller, have something to add to aid our friend Smith?”
The feeling reached all the way from her mane to tail. Her entire coat standing on end as a familiar voice came through the phone. Not the stallion she just talked to, but a feminine, generous voice she had known for years.
“Yes, I do. I believe you shouldn’t be toying with your boyfriend Sweetie Belle.”
Sweetie’s Jaw dropped as she heard her sister on the other end. Rarity.
Scootaloo was thrown into a panic as she had about fifteen seconds to kill the feed. An emergency feature was installed in case someone began talking about something not allowed on the station. The show was on a very slight delay, and could be shut down before anything was put on air.
She leaped to the other side of the sound board, flipped the protective cap, and cut both Sweetie and the call off the air. The needle on the next record dropped and the show was replaced by the soft jazz Sweetie had previously queued.
With that panic out of the way, she pulled the phone cord out of its socket just as Sweetie stomped out of the booth, dropping the altered voice to yell. “Scootaloo! The Spike call was nice, but RARITY!? What are you thinking?”
“That call wasn’t Rarity. It was a stallion, so someone with a deeper voice. I know Rarity’s voice and that wasn’t it.”
“Scootaloo. No more games. This is bad. Really bad.” Sweetie took the cord away from Scootaloo and jammed it into the receiver port to put her sister back on the phone with her, but this time not on the air. “What the heck Rarity? You know you aren’t supposed to call during my shift, and you sure as heck aren’t supposed to talk about my job. What are you doing?”
“And why were you a stallion a minute ago?” Scootaloo added, shouting over Sweetie’s shoulder.
The same stallion voice came back over the phone. “You aren’t the only one to practice voice manipulation magic Sweetie. At least, not any more.” She politely giggled as her own false voice came back on the line. “And you know I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t have to, dear. However you seem to be playing games with someone and I can’t have you doing that, now can I?
The shift in voices made Sweetie nervous for a second as she thought Rarity had told her secret to someone else to pull this stunt, but if Rarity could convincingly pull off voice changing magic like her, every call could become a bomb that could destroy her carefully created persona, and take the show’s mystery and her anonymity away with it.
“You rejected Spike. You didn’t even welcome him home. You don’t care for Spike, so what are you doing?” She spit out, each word soaked with a bassalisk’s venom.
Still, rarity just politely laughed. “My, you have quite the awful tone to be speaking to a listener, let alone your big sister. I thought I raised you better than that. Of course I care for my little Spikey-Wikey or else I wouldn’t have called. I don’t want him to have his heart broken again.”
“And who broke his heart the first time?”
“I cannot deny I am the source of this pain, but you will be the next Sweetie. Do you not think Spike’s mind will change if he knew your little secret? Do you not think his little heart and soul would be crushed if he found out his precious Sweetie Belle had manipulated him from the start?”
Sweetie grit her teeth as her sister spelled out every anxiety that had faded once Spike and her got together. Every worry that Spike would hate her for pulling his strings hidden behind her fake voice. The crushing feeling that she could lose one of her oldest friends just from a slip of the tongue. The worry he would be crushed alongside her. Not to mention the fears of her show and job falling apart if she were to be exposed, or if not, becoming unable to be a normal person outside of her recording booth. Both anxieties she thought had faded months ago shortly after becoming Lady Luxury.
She could feel her anger turning to bitter sorrow as her eyes began to tear up. Her voice caught in her throat as she asked her sister, “What do you want?”
“Careful, it’s not lady-like to have your voice crack. As for what I want, it’s simple. Stop taking Spike’s calls, or break up with him. Stop playing your little games with him, or stop seeing him so you can’t play games with him.”
Sweetie scoffs as she turns to Scootaloo, who was busy changing out one record for another. “Easy. I’ll take Spike over his calls any day. I wasn’t even the one who started this, he called me first.”
“Good. A heartbroken Spike would be a no good assistant.” Rarity pauses as she thinks for a moment, “Well I am off to get my beauty sleep, but we must have a talk when you are home. Tomorrow over lunch? Wonderful. Until then dearie.” Without waiting she hung up the phone, leaving Sweetie shattered.
Scootaloo wasn’t normally the empathetic one in the Crusaders. That was mostly handled by Sweetie or Apple Bloom, but seeing her friend like this hurt her emotionally more than she ever had before.
Slowly, she extended a wing over her friend, trying to offer a hug the same way she knew Sweetie would if she was hurt like this. Sweetie shook it off first, but after another moment, accepted it as tears started to stream down her cheeks. She sniffled and fell in to Scootaloo’s embrace, using her friend for support. “I… She just… She’s my sister…”
Scootaloo squeezed her friend silently as she kept crying, building from small sobs to full wailing. Scootaloo held her silently and just let her have her time. She would be ready to talk when she was ready.
“Hey, do you mind if I stay at your place tonight? I don’t really want to head back to the Carousel Boutique.”
***
Rarity hunched over her phone, surrounded by scraps and half finished ill matching sets of apparel that should have been done months ago. She had sewn and stitched for hours, days, weeks with no solution to her current state.
Ever since Spike had left, since he stopped assisting her, she had lost that beautiful skill of keeping her outfits perfect. Seasonal releases went by one after the next and not a single outfit breached the fashion world. Each one premiered and was thrown away half way through the season, and then forgotten.
If she wanted to set her wardrobe back into the world, she needed her assistant back. And there were only so many ways she could pull him back to her.