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// Put Everything Back Where It Belongs 
// Story: Sweet Nothings 
// by Golden Tassel 
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I didn't need to open my eyes to know I was awake; my dreams were never so happy. Sweets was there with me. I felt his breath against my neck as I held him tightly. The bed was warm and soft, and I just wanted to stay there, safe and secure. From how tightly my little brother was holding me, I knew he wanted to stay too—wanted me to stay.

He was a good pony. He didn't deserve . . . he didn't deserve our mother. He didn't deserve what I had to do. He didn't deserve any of it.

He deserved a better life than what the stable had to offer.

. . . But that was the best life there was. I had seen the world outside, seen what it would do to him, what it would turn him into. Rake had shown me exactly that on my very first day outside.

So I held him. I held my little brother close. I nuzzled the top of his head, smelled his mane, and just . . . lay there with him. I wanted him to stay like this forever—an innocent little child in a safe home.

But a part of me already knew that it couldn't last. All the more reason to keep holding on to him while I could. All I ever wanted was to keep my little brother safe. I already knew how far I'd go to protect him . . . knew I'd do it all over again if I had to.

Of course our peaceful morning together didn't last forever. A loud pounding against the door to our quarters broke us out of our embrace, and we both sat upright. There was muffled yelling, and then I heard the door opening.

I jumped out of bed and opened the door to my room to look out into the living room. The overseer was there, along with a mare from security.

"Where is Sweetie Pie?" the overseer demanded.

"Day? What's going on?" Sweets asked, coming up to my bedroom door.

I moved to keep him behind me. "Stay back, Sweets. What's this about?" I asked the overseer.

Ignoring me, the overseer made a move toward us. "There you are. Come—" He stopped abruptly when I flared out my wings and stamped my hoof. He leveled his gaze at me. "Sweetie Pie is my responsibility now," he said. "I told him to stay in his room, but he snuck out to come here. You have to get along with everypony, Sweetie Pie." His voice was at once stern and demanding and sickly-sweet. "Now come here."

"I don't want to stay with you!" Sweets yelled as he crawled under me and looked out from between my forelegs. "I want to stay with my big brother!"

"Sweets, let me handle this, please," I said quietly to him, trying to hold him back.

"I don't want to go!"

"It's okay. You don't have to go." I put my hoof on his shoulder and felt him calm down. I looked up at the overseer. "He doesn't have to go."

The overseer raised an eyebrow at me. "Come now, Lucky Day. We have to get alo—"

"No."

"Excuse me?" He blinked.

"I said no. I'm not going to let you take my little brother away from me." I took a step forward. "You've seen what I'm willing to do to protect my little brother. You already exiled me once. Do you think I'm afraid to do it again?"

Everypony was quiet. The overseer opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. He glanced at the security mare and jerked his head in my direction. She floated out her baton and started toward me. I took another step forward, and she stopped.

"You don't scare me," I said. "You've never used your little stick on someone who fought back, have you? You wanna try your luck on me?"

She didn't move. I took a step, and she backed up.

"Th—there's no need for this to get ugly, Lucky Day. We can all get along here." The overseer put his hoof on the mare's shoulder, and she put her baton away. "You've been away from your brother for a long time, Sweetie Pie," he said, clearing his throat. "We'll let you two catch up. I expect you home for dinner, though. Lucky Day, perhaps you should join us again. I'm sure your brother will like that."

The two of them slowly backed their way out into the corridor as I glared at them while advancing slowly.

"We'll think about it," I said as I pushed the button to close the door.

No sooner had the door closed than I felt the blood drain from my face and my legs go limp. I leaned into the door and slumped down against it. Sweets rushed up to me and threw his forelegs around my neck in a tight embrace.

"That was incredible, Day! Nopony will ever mess with us again!"

I clasped my hooves on Sweets's cheeks to hold him steady and to make sure he looked right at me. "Promise me, Sweets. Promise me you'll never do that. You should never talk to Security or the overseer like that."

"But you—"

"I shouldn't have done that, Sweets. Being outside changed me. I don't get along like I used to anymore—I don't fit in here. Please, Sweets, promise me you won't try to be like me."

"I . . . I promise . . ."

Hearing those words, I let go of his face and pulled my little brother into a tight embrace. The panic I had felt immediately following the overseer's departure melted away in Sweets's warmth.

"Day? Is everything alright?" came Starry's voice from the doorway to our mother's room.

Sweets shrieked and clung to me tighter.

"It's okay. It's only Starry," I reassured him. "She's my friend. She's here to help, remember?" I felt him shaking against me as he stared across the room at her. I stroked my hoof along his mane to try to calm him down. "We're alright, Starry. Just a little shaken up is all. The overseer was just here." I looked up at her. "Is it time to go get the new capacitor?"

Starry walked out toward us slowly, but stopped a few feet away. "You know, actually, I can probably handle it on my own. There's no need you should have to come with me, so you can stay here with Sweets." She knelt down and ducked her head to look at Sweets on his level, smiling at him. "That sound good to you?"

Sweets's trembling stopped, and he looked up at me, smiling. "It's all I ever wanted."


***


"Check," said Sweets as he put his pawn down where my knight had just been. We were playing chess while waiting for Starry to return with the replacement spark capacitor.

I looked over the board. "And mate next move; nothing I can do to stop it." I reached out and shook hooves with Sweets in resignation. It was the third game he'd won since we'd started. I smiled as I watched him reset all the pieces.

"Remember the first time you beat me?" I asked, laughing softly. "You were so upset about it. You even tried to invent an escape for me when I wouldn't let you take your move back."

Sweets's cheeks flushed. "I thought you'd be mad, and . . . you're my big brother; you're supposed to be so much smarter about everything. I thought if I won against you . . . if I was better than you, you wouldn't want to play anymore." He rolled his king back and forth between his hooves for a little bit before putting it on the board.

Reaching across the board, I tousled his mane. "And now I can't even remember the last time I won against you." I chuckled and made my opening move.

"Last month," Sweets said as he took his turn. "When you were in Medical, recovering from your collapsed lung. You did something I didn't expect you to do: you sacrificed your queen. It opened up a hole in the pawn defense, and then you pinned the king with your knight and finished him off with your rook." It never ceased to amaze me how he seemed to remember every move of every game we had ever played.

"Ah. I guess I just forgot because I had other things on my mind back then," I said. "All I remember from then was how worried I was about you being on your own while I was stuck in Medical."

Our conversation quieted as we focused more on the game. I could tell I was starting to lose already, though; my mind hadn't really been on the game—it hadn't been all morning, and finally I decided to say what I needed to say to Sweets, what had been running through my mind ever since I'd scared off the overseer that morning.

"I don't think I can stay in the stable after we finish the repairs," I told him.

He didn't say anything; only stared up at me, looking as though he weren't sure he'd heard me right.

I sighed. "I don't fit in here anymore, but I have a home with Starry I can go to outside."

Sweets's jaw trembled. "Y—you'll take me with you . . . right?"

I closed my eyes tightly and shook my head. "I can't. It's too dangerous outside."

"You'll protect me! You always protect me!"

"I can barely protect myself out there, Sweets. But with Mom gone—"

"D—did I do something wrong?" Tears welled up in his eyes.

"No! No, Sweets. Of course not. It's just that—"

"Then why are you leaving me, Day?" he cried. "I got the overseer to let you come back so we could be together again! I did it all for you!"

"Sweets, it's not about that. I'm just trying to think of what's best for you: you're safe in here, but nopony trusts me anymore. If I stay, it'll make things harder for you. You need to start taking care of yourself now. I don't want to leave you, but—"

"You're lying!" he screamed as he lifted the chessboard in his magic and flung it across the room where it crashed against the wall and sent pieces scattering everywhere. "You wouldn't leave if you didn't want to! Why, Day? Why don't you want to stay with me?"

I reached out to put a hoof on his shoulder, but he ducked away. "Don't touch me!" he yelled. "You can't leave! You can't!"

"Sweets, please, just . . ." I tried to reach for him again, but he ran off, crying. I wanted to go after him, but he was too upset to listen to me. I figured that he simply needed some time to calm down, and then I could try talking to him again later. So I stayed behind. I busied myself with picking up the chess pieces, arranging them in their starting positions on the board to keep track of them.

There was one piece missing at the end: one of the black pawns. I searched all over the room, but couldn't find it. It had simply vanished. And as I sat there, alone, looking over the incomplete chessboard, I thought back to the first time Sweets had been the one to teach me something about chess: I had advanced one of my pawns two squares from its starting position, thinking it was safe there, and then Sweets made it disappear, simply vanish—he captured it with one of his pawns in a move I'd never seen before. En passant, he'd called it. It was an obscure rule that I hadn't known about. He'd read about it in the stable library all on his own. I had been surprised, but proud of him; my little brother was getting smarter, growing older, becoming independent.

Sweets had needed to grow up so fast, faster than he should have. And I knew how much it must have hurt him to be faced with losing me a second time—I hurt just as much to think about losing him again. But I had seen the world outside, and now I had seen the stable through the eyes of an outsider too. I had never really belonged in either world, but I knew I had to spare Sweets from the horrors that lurked outside. And part of that meant I had to leave him. I was stained by the wasteland—the way I had threatened the overseer proved it. If I stayed, Sweets would be tainted by me.

I had protected my little brother his entire life. But now I would be his greatest danger.