Crusading Kingdom

by Calden

A Song of Love

"I don't get it. I'll never get it!" Sweetie Belle sighed as yet another Crystal Empire couple walked away from each other in disgust. Soup dripped from the crystal filaments of a stallion’s hair.

"Don't you worry Sweetie. You'll get the hang of it I promise. You've got a strong heart. You know what it is that you're looking for. Once you have it just will it out through your horn." Cadance wrapped a wing around the young mare who was already almost her size. Cadance didn't know if she was shrinking or Sweetie was growing. Judging from the height of those around them it was both. "Right let's find somepony else and try it again." Cadance led Sweetie down another series of winding sidestreets before yet another cafe was in view.

"You ponies sure do have a lot of cafes don't you?" Sweetie noticed. Cadance pondered this for a moment.

"We do, I wonder why. I've never actually realised how many are here before. It’s like Prance, or Pony-Vienna. Anyway, it doesn't matter why there are so many so long as they're useful to us. Argument 12 o'clock." Sweetie Belle instantly scanned the crowd and saw the couple.

"They're glowing!" She said excitedly. No matter how many times it happened she still got a little rush every time she saw the dark blue aura coming off of a quarreling couple. While it was unfortunate for the couple it did a good job of making Sweetie Belle feel needed.

"Remember:Find the magic and remind them, horn. Got it?"

"Got it." Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and activated her sixth sense, the whole world seemed to slow almost to a standstill and went dark. The silence of this black world was almost deafening. She could no longer see coffees or tables or the buildings all around but she saw the glowing forms of the ponies around her. She ignored the pale pinks and the light blues. She ignored the dazzlingly bright pink of the pegasus ex-alicorn standing beside her. All her focus was on the couple in front of her, the ones with the dark blue aura. The ones she was here for. Red Shift and Neutron Flow, instantly their names appeared in her mind. She just knew. Red was angry at Neutron because he had disagreed with her thesis in a paper she recently wrote. The dispute went further though, she could see that as well. Although neither of them realised it both of them felt that the other was smarter than them and that they were inadequate, that they had to prove themselves worthy by being superior. Sweetie closed her eyes a little tight, she had to find the point they fell in love, the moment they realised that they would never be apart. The second where inadequacies weren’t even a thought.

"I don't care what he has a degree in, he's not getting in here right now! Buck the schedule, you certainly did!" The irate mare told the assistant as she jabbed him the chest with a hoof. "He could be my supervisor's supervisor's supervisor for all I care. It could be Celestia herself, Reddy said he needed to use the Crystal-Magic-Concentrator and he's gonna use it. We've spent 18 months on the waiting list and your boss just bowled up today." Two burly ponies in ill fitting lab coats walked in to join the now quivering assistant. It was doubtful that they actually had doctorates in chemistry with those cutie marks. Nevertheless Neutron Flow spread her wings and blocked the way. "Back off. Don't make me hurt myself trying to stop you because that's what you'll have to live with if you hope to get in."

"Newt it's fine." A voice chimed from afar. Everypony turned to see the red unicorn emerge from the next room. A pair of cracked goggles which looked like the compound eye of an insect covered his eyes and his horn was covered in soot but in the orange aura of his magic he held something close to him. "I'm done." Neutron flow was incredulous and quickly wheeled around to face her coltfriend, whacking the assistant in the face with her still unfurled grey wings in the process.

"What do you mean you're done?! We have half an hour left in this place, there's no way we're leaving. Not after all I've had to put up with from these guys!" Instead of replying he just smiled and floated over the object he was holding so close.

That was it! Now all Sweetie had to do was channel it into her horn. She had gotten to this stage before but she never managed it. Something always went wrong. All she was able to do was leave a tiny suggestion, a glimmer of a thought, in a pony's mind. If she didn't get it perfect then it wouldn't work. She always showed them too much and knocked them out or the intention got lost and the wrong emotion just made things worse. She opened her eyes and nodded at Cadence who was smiling supportively.

Cadence looked on as the heart slowly formed at the tip of Sweetie Belle's horn just as it used to for her, it split into halves and slowly made its way over to the couple. Unable to help it Cadence leaned forward and held her breath in anticipation and hope. The moment the two halves of the heart joined together the two ponies stopped and looked at the small crystal flower that had fallen onto the floor while they were arguing. In that instant both their faces softened as Red Shift lifted the flower with the tiny red carving of what only he and Neutron Flow knew was a newt and the chip in one of the petals from the assistant throwing his clipboard at Neutron Flow in frustration. He carefully placed it in her mane and took a deep breath.

"I'm so sorry." They said in unison. They both paused, giving the other a chance to speak before again talking at the exact same time. "It's just sometimes I feel I'm not smart enough for you. Me? You're the one with a PhD in a subject I can't hope to understand!" Suddenly they both stopped for a moment. He blinked. She blinked. Cadence started to change colour from oxygen deprivation.

"Well with that out in the open I'm sure we can sort this out. I'd be happy to go over some stuff with you. Maybe you might be able to see something I don't," Red Shift said with a smile, "it'll be interesting getting an engineer's input on this."

"I'd love to do that. But I don't think you'd be interested in the basic stuff that I do."

"OH COME ON!!" Cadence yelled from her and Sweetie's hiding spot. Sweetie quickly threw up the image of an empty alleyway until everypony in the cafe had stopped searching for the mysterious screaming mare. The screaming mare in question looked at Sweetie apologetically with a hoof shoved into her mouth. Neutron Flow merely shrugged it off and turned back to Red Shift.

"But I'm happy to show you some stuff just in case, if you'd wanna see it that is." Red Shift beamed at her.

"I'd love to. First we should go to that little place o-" Red Shift stopped what he was saying as he and the other ponies in the cafe turned to looked at whom they were sure was a pair of princesses as they suddenly appeared in the alleyway, hugging each other excitedly. Both of them slowly quietened down as they realised that Sweetie Belle had dropped the image hiding them in her excitement. There was a squeal and a flash of pale green light as the pair teleported away. Neutron Flow turned back to see her husband looking just as confused as she and everypony else was. "Was that Princess Sweetie Belle and Princess Cadence?" He asked her, taking the words right out of her mouth.

--------

After a couple more successful reconciliations and the unexpected arrival of Shining Armor, Sweetie Belle found herself on her own. She loved her lessons with Cadance, relished every chance to improve her magic and, although she would never tell her, Sweetie finally understood Scootaloo's fascination with flight. Still, Sweetie always looked forward to when her lessons were over, to the times she could just explore the Crystal Empire and meet ponies. Everypony bowing when she passed, that was still new, and being taller than everypony was very strange as she was barely no longer a filly. Everypony was friendly to her, although she was sure that the purple studded crown on her head had something to do with that.

Sweetie walked for about twenty minutes until she reached her bench. It was probably her favourite place in the city. A simple bench made of an almost white crystal with purple handrails either side. It reminded her of Rarity. It was no coincidence, however, that the bench was made in the same colours as her sister's coat and mane. Six benches, each designed in homage of Rarity and her friends, circled the statue in the clearing which itself lay in the very centre of The Ruby Park. Crystal effigies of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony in formation towered over Sweetie, thankfully the sculptor who made The Glorious Elements wasn't a cubist like the one who made Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious near the castle, so the the likeness of the statue to their subject matter was surprisingly close. Sweetie Belle sighed.

"Always the hero, Rarity. Never the Princess" Sweetie said to nopony in particular, which was easy as there wasn't usually anypony this far into Ruby Park.

"Who are you talking to?" The little voice startled Sweetie so much that she fell off of her bench far less gracefully than she would have wanted. This made the voice giggle and it made Sweetie rub her now sore back with a wing. Sweetie looked for the source of the voice and immediately saw the little brown earthpony. "Hello." The filly waved at her.

"Hello" Sweetie replied in a crumpled heap.

"Are you comfy there?" The filly giggled again as Sweetie straightened herself and sat back down. "Can I sit with you?" Sweetie nodded and raised a wing for the filly to sit under. The little pony almost flew under Sweetie's wing at such speed that she had to stop herself checking to make sure it wasn’t a pegasus under her arm. The filly looked up at her. "Are you a Princess?" She asked.

"I don't know." Sweetie winked at her. "Why do you think I'm a princess?"

"Well you've got a crown on and you've got wings and you've got a horn. Oh you're really tall too, even taller than my daddy and he's really tall."

"Is he?"

"Mmm hmm. You're really pretty too and princesses are pretty." Sweetie smiled wider than she had in a long time as she listened to the filly.

"Well I must be a princess then. My name's Sweetie Belle. What's yours?"

"Oasis Sands." She said with a grin while trying to get her light green mane out of her eyes. "Thank you Princess." She said when Sweetie moved it with her magic.

"You can call me Sweetie, Oasis Sands."

"Then you can call me Oasis, Princess. Uh, Princess Sweetie! My daddy told me all about this statue, do you know anything about it?"

"Why don't you tell me Oasis?"

"Well these ponies are called the Elements of Harmony and they're heroes. One of them even became a princess!"

"Wow! Which one was that Oasis?"

"That one in the middle, the purple one." Oasis pointed at Twilight at the centre of the formation. "She's not my favourite one though. That's my favourite one. Her name is Rarity." Sweetie laughed.

"She's my favourite too. Why is she your favourite Oasis?"

"Well she's the prettiest one and Mrs Numbertoo, she's my teacher, says that she likes fashion, do you know if she likes fashion?" Sweetie nodded. "Well people that like fashion aren't usually good at fighting and being heroes and saving people because they have a different job. They do other things but not fighting. Rarity does both though because she's a real hero. She beat Nightmare Moon and Discord and Queen Crisliss,"

"Chryssalis," Sweetie corrected. Oasis just kept going without taking a breath.

"Chryssalis and they even beat King Sombra. He's really really mean and he took over the Crystal Empire which is really bad because it's so nice here and he kept it all to himself for a really really long time."

"Breathe ,Oasis!" Sweetie had begun to worry about how Oasis appeared to be turning blue. Finally the filly was done and started gulping up huge lungfuls of air. "What are you doing around here anyway? I don't see many equestrian earth ponies in the Crystal Empire."

"We're from Manehattan really, not the Crystal Empire. I'm here on vacation with my mommy." Suddenly the filly's smile vanished and her eyes widened. She turned a little pale. "Mommy!" She squealed. Tears began to well up in her eyes. "I don't know where Mommy is. I was with her and she told me not to wander off and then I wandered off and now I don't know where she'll be." Immediately Sweetie leapt to her hooves and dropped Oasis onto her back with her magic.

"What does your mommy look like?" She asked in a quiet, calm voice.

Sweetie just was just about able to make out "red" and "unicorn" from amongst the filly's sobbing.

"Hold on tight, Oasis, let's go find your mommy." Sweetie leapt up into the sky and shut her eyes. She focused on Oasis and smiled as the filly, who had her eyes shut even more tightly than Sweetie did, began to glow a light yellow. Now all she had to do was find the connection. She scanned The Ruby Park from above until she saw a flash of the same pale yellow. She opened her eyes, grinned, and swooped down. Sure enough there was a very worried looking red unicorn ahead. "Is that her, Oasis?" Sweetie whispered.

"Mommy!" The filly yelled in reply, far too close to Sweetie's ears for comfort. The unicorn spun around and grabbed the filly mid leap off of Sweetie's head and pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry Mommy, I just wanted to explore, I didn't think how far I'd gone and then I got scared." The mare whispered to Oasis for a minute as she stopped crying. "And this," Oasis ran over and pulled Sweetie Belle over to her mother. The red mare's jaw practically dropped as she looked up at the radiant alicorn Oasis was dragging over.

"Sweet Celestia." The mare muttered. Sweetie Belle giggled.

"No, not quite. Princess Sweetie Belle. You've got a very clever little girl there Mrs Sand."

“A-bub-bub-Pri-Princess.” Sandy Sand said, apparently convinced that she was saying real words. While Sweetie was happy to let the mare believe this a little brown filly clearly had other ideas.

"Mommy you've broken." Oasis told her mother as she prodded her in the cheek with her hoof, Sweetie was surprised at how quickly the filly had recovered from her tears. The mare blushed about as well as you can when you're already red all over and quickly lifted Oasis onto her back in her magic. "G'bye Princess. I hope I get to see you again soon." Sweetie waved to the little filly as she was carried away by her mother before walking the other way down the path under the ruby trees. As she made her way back to the palace she started to think about what Oasis had said. This time she had a quick look around before she started talking to herself.

"She was right." She muttered. "Rarity is a hero, they all are. Tartarus, even Spike's a hero. What have I done that's special? I sang a song to a bully. Real heroic Sweetie Belle." Seeing the north exit to the park Sweetie quickly pushed the thoughts out of her mind and smiled. "if you can't be a hero, Sweetie Belle, be a princess."

Comments

[RuinQueenofOblivion]

Nice chapter, really cute moments with Sweetie Belle.