Singing & Dancing
The next day, Happy arrived to an empty store.
This happened every now and then. Papyrus was often early just like Happy, but she wasn’t here this morning. Regardless, Happy pulled his shirt on, and calmly went through the store, and the back-rooms, reminding himself of what work needed to be done.
Five minutes before opening time, Happy brought the ledgers he was planning on going through with him to the front desk. Somepony needed to open the store, and nopony else had shown up to do it yet.
This was unusual, but not unique. Happy shrugged, and simply assumed that the others would be here soon. Running the store with three ponies was no biggie. Two was a kinda tiring, and if you were alone you just put all work besides manning the floor to the side.
At least while there were customers present, and there were hardly ever any customers at this hour. Happy set down his tea behind the counter beside the ledgers, walked over to the door to flip the sign to ‘open’, and returned to look at the paperwork, while slowly sipping his still-somewhat-too-hot tea.
Then the bell over the door chimed, and in stepped none of this coworkers, but a mare. A beautiful earth pony mare, with purple mane and a reddish pink coat.
Conversations around the break room table in the last few days almost made Happy scowl in suspicion, but quickly stopped himself, and nodded with a gentle smile towards the customer.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” the mare replied, smiling at him.
“Would you like some help or would you like to browse?” Happy asked.
The mare’s gaze swept over the store, before it came to rest on Happy, as she smiled with half-lidded eyes at him. “Oh, I know what I’m looking for.”
Happy looked at her blankly for a moment, before he returned the smile, albeit in a more professionally service-minded manner. “That’s... nice. Don’t hesitate to ask if you want help with anything,” he said, and went back to looking through the papers.
The mare looked taken aback for a moment, before her half-lidded expression came back. “Perhaps you’d like to help me find it,” she said, and took a few inviting steps towards the aisles of books.
“Certainly,” Happy nodded, and started walking out from behind the counter, to fall in line behind the mare.
As he did, she swung her tail back and forth, a bit provocatively, and managed to catch him softly underneath his nose. It smelled strongly of rose shampoo.
She looked back in mock surprise, and teetered at Happy.
Happy smiled easily at her, to let her know that there was no offence.
The mare led Happy towards the romance-novels, and swept her gaze across the books on display.
“This is what you have for romance?” she asked.
“Indeed it is,” Happy said. “I can help look if you want, or check the inventory ledgers.”
At this, the bell jingled, revealing Papyrus walking in with a somewhat stiff gait.
Before Happy could greet her good morning, the unnamed mare beside him leaned up slightly towards him, and purred, “I might be looking for something more than litterature.”
Happy’s eyes shifted a bit as he tried figuring out if there was a hidden message behind that.
“We… might have some themed office supplies,” he ventured, uncertain, as Papyrus took position behind the counter.
“Mmmm…” Papyrus groaned slightly, looking like she had bitten into a lemon. “... Mmmiss! Somepony outside wants to speak with you.”
The mare beside Happy let out a surprised, “Oh?” and put her hoof to her mouth, before smiling at Happy. “I might come back.”
Happy felt like the short conversation had already managed to leave him behind. After a moment, he smiled back at her. “You’d be welcome to,” he said.
The mare walked out of the store, and Happy joined Papyrus behind the counter.
“Good morning,” Happy said to Papyrus, glad to finally have a coworker with him today.
Papyrus’ head fell onto the counter. “Sweet Celestia!” she groaned, and took a deep breath. “... Good morning.”
“Something wrong?” Happy asked, looking concerned over his distraught colleague.
Papyrus took another breath, and raised her head, smiling at Happy with a look of amusement, frustration, exhaustion, or possibly sadness, or perhaps all of the above.
“Happy,” Papyrus said. “I have never met anypony as adorable and cringe-inducing as you.”
Happy opened his mouth to respond, but paused when he tried thinking of what to say. “Thank you?” he ventured.
“You’re also gonna give me an ulcer, and I’m just spectating,” she complained.
“... Pardon?” Happy asked.
“She was flirting with you,” Papyrus said.
As Celestia made the sun slowly dawn on Equestria, Papyrus had made realisation slowly dawn on Happy.
“Oooh,” he said, before looking at Papyrus skeptically. “Really?”
“Yes,” Papyrus said in a kind voice. “That was a friend of Oaken. He told me not to say this, but that was such a stupid idea that I don’t care.”
“Wwwhat?” Happy asked.
“Oaken thought you were into stallions,” Papyrus explained. “So he got her to come in here and flirt with you. That’s why everypony’s late. He wanted you two to be alone. Celestia knows how he managed to get her to go along with it.”
Happy was puzzled to say the least. Too many things, in fact pretty much everything, made absolutely no sense about that in his mind. “But I already said…” he started.
“I know, honey,” Papyrus said, in an assuring voice. “Everypony except Oaken does. You’re not mad, are you?”
Happy let out a slightly frustrated sigh. It tended to annoy him when ponies left him in the dust when it came to social matters, and it seemed there was to be a lot of that in the future, with what he had agreed on.
Happy had thought that getting a job in a place like this would let him avoid being thrust into spotlight of social games, yet here he was.
“It’s fine,” Happy sighed, and went back to looking through the paperwork.
“Hang in there,” Papyrus said, kindly, patting Happy on his withers.
—
The day had been mostly normal normal after that. Happy had managed to bury his slightly peeved mood by the time Oaken and Wispy had arrived, and gave them the normal polite morning greetings and nods
Oaken didn’t bring up the whole incident, and had been a bit non-confrontational towards Happy in general. Happy’s normal behavior didn’t seem very convincing, though Happy frankly wasn’t willing to put in more effort into making Oaken more comfortable than he normally did.
However, his patience was slightly thinner during lunch break, and Papyrus, the pony Happy got best along with in the store, might’ve sensed that, and after Wispy had managed to coax a conformation that Happy was going to see Wafer, Papyrus had distracted her with talk of… something. Happy didn’t really listen, and instead focused on a book and his lunch.
“I can close up today,” Oaken offered near the end of his shift.
It was Happy’s turn to stay late during the slow hour and make sure everything was in order before the store closed. He stopped and visualized the work table.
“That’ll mean that you have to stay longer next Friday, and you hate doing that,” Happy pointed out.
“I… can do it today if you wanna go home,” Oaken said. “I’ll stay longer on Friday as well.”
Happy considered him for a while.
“Is this a favor?” he asked.
“Uh, no,” Oaken said. “Listen, I’m sorry about this morning.”
“It’s okay,” Happy said, and he meant it.
He would be even more okay if people would just drop it.
“Yeah but, seriously, I’ll close up today,” Oaken insisted.
Happy gave in, and just nodded, waving to Oaken. “Alright, see you later.”
“Yeah. You too.”
Happy walked out of the store, into the afternoon sun of Fillydelphia. He couldn’t complain about the weather at least, but that was not enough to totally sweep away the feelings that the whole thing with the flirting and the date had reinforced.
“Why?” he asked himself loudly for some reason. “Why do they do this? Why can they not see?”
Happy looked up into the sky, and held out his hoof dramatically as he closed his eyes. “Why do they have to make me feel like there’s something wrong with me?”
A chorus of voices all from all over the street answered him.
“They want joy and happiness in everything!” it sang. “And all of the bliss that love and romance will bring!”
Happy opened his eyes on shock when he realized what was going on, and saw a street full of ponies all looking at him.
“Look, I’m happy with the way that things are,” he sang to the crowd, hoping to nip this in the bud. “I don’t need drama or an emotional scar.”
“Oh you just cannot see your appeal!” The crowd sang, as Happy turned around and tried slinking into an alley, only to find it blocked by a wall of ponies also singing at him. “Somepony please help this stallion heal!”
“Really, it’s not big deal!” Happy shouted as he tried another alley.
That alley was similarly filled with ponies, and Happy instead decided to walk, sulking, down the road. The crowd followed him in a choreographed dance, but at least didn’t block him.
“Do you plan on living your whole life alone? Do you want nopony and a heart of stone?”
Happy turned around angrily. Being the center of attention had never been something he enjoyed, and this was the most center of attention he had ever been.
“Look, not wanting romance doesn’t make me a bad pony!” he sang, staring annoyed at the crowd. “Pretending to want something for acceptance will just make me a phony!
“What’s so bad about me not chasing tails!? I’m not causing heartaches, no cries and no wails!”
“Your face and your posture is cold and is stony! You need to experience love to be a real pony!
“What you have in your life does not make you full!”
“I’ll be the judge of that, and you’re all singing bull,” Happy muttered.
“Go and try romance, let them get through that shell! Give love to ponies and receive it as well!”
Happy had had enough, and jumped up to grab a lamppost, and leaned out from it and addressed the singing crowd.
“Look, I’m not cold-hearted and I’m not some love-hating shrew! Don’t force your values on me, I’m not forcing mine on you!
“I am simply not into just sharing my life— with somepony whether a husband or wife!”
The music stopped, and the crowd was silent for a moment before letting out a collective sigh.
“Whether bringing you down or up into she sky— You won’t know what love does before you give it a try.
“Dismiss love if you will and put it on a shelf— You won’t know if you did right before trying it yourself.”
Happy and the crowd stared at each other in silence, before Happy, reluctantly, agreed to not try and end this love-thing before it even began.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “Are we done?”
“Yeah, song’s over, buddy,” a voice said, before the crowd unceremoniously went back to what they had done before.
Happy let out a deep sigh, and walked home.
They had been right though, he couldn’t know for sure that he wouldn’t enjoy going on a date before he tried it, and now that he was going to do it, he might as well do it right.
At least Happy didn’t have any trouble falling asleep that night.
First time a story of mine have been in the feature-box! (Except for the bottom three spots) 
I'm gonna see if I can perhaps nudge it up a bit by releasing a new chapter.
The opening scene with Papyrus was proofread, but the following stuff I squeezed out in less than 90 minutes, so don't blame my proofreaders if it's sloppy 
Also, this will hopefully serve as good practice for what the upcoming chapter for my flagship story will entail.
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I can't STAND unsolicited matchmakers. If anything, I think they're the scum of the earth.
8800236
I think I know who your favorite princess is
But yeah, they cause... Much Ado About Nothing
Nothin' wrong with being asexual. Dunno why not having a signifigant other is such a taboo.
8800271
Yeah, I don't really know either, but there is an expectation to either be with someone or looking for someone to be with. Unhealthy is what I call that.
Edit: Although I'm not sure Happy is asexual. I think he's aromantic.
8800279 Hm. Well, sexual relations doesn't have to be sex, persay... because, let's be honest, aromantic sounds dumb.
8800345
It does, but I've taken a short look at what asexual means, and it seems to include not being able to be sexually aroused despite wanting to, not being able to be sexually aroused and not caring to, being able to be aroused but not caring to, and a slew of other things. I think Happy finds pretty mares easy on the eyes, but he doesn't care about getting together with any, at least as anything other than friends.
8800356 Hm. I didn't realise the matter of asexuality was so nuanced, although in hindsight (heh, hind, we're talking about ponies) it's pretty obvious that it's complicated.
I still think 'aromantic' sounds stupid though.
8800396
Yeah. I wonder if it might even be the most complicated of sexualities, although I hear people don't agree on whether it counts as a sexuality.
And yes, when you think about it, aromantic is a pretty dumb word, since the word romantic isn't actually strictly associated with courtship and love and stuff, it's just about feelings (as in the romantic movement). Aromantic is also not actually a real word I think
8800411 Innovation usually goes like this, with stupid sounding things. Imagine pitching to a serious business person a device called a 'walkie-talkie'.
To get back on topic, I think it would be classed as a sexuality. Gay is same-gender preference, straight is opposite-gender preference, so why can't asexual be no-gender preference, as a sexuality? The lack of sexuality should also count as a sexuality itself, no?
8800425
Well, yeah, that's true. I hear the Icelanders make up actual new words when they need to, which seems pretty cool.
Spontaneously, I'd agree, but then again here I am, drawing attention to an often overlooked and misunderstood part of a lot of people. I'd be remiss not to be open to how I might have overlooked or misunderstood things about the 'standard' sexualities and their variants.
That said, the trends of people just being difficult with their increasingly arcane what's-it-called... identity politics or whatever, and such, have not passed me by. I'm all for further deepening my understanding and tolerance of my fellow humans, but I don't approve of people being assholes about it. That just seems counter-productive to me.
I'm pretty sure that the top 7 spots in that box are for stories that are new and the bottom 3 are for older stories that have updated.
I liked this :D
Following this. Eagerly awaiting the next part. (Loved the collective song, too)
lol the song xD
8800524
Correct, but none of my other stories have ever been on the top 7 spots before now.
Frankly I think it should be the other way around, or at least 50/50. As it is now, the box favors short stories, and I rarely see the point of short stories.
8800783
Glad to hear it
8800989
Hope you can hold out for a while. I have some other stuff I need to be writing as well, when I have time for writing. Glad you liked the song though
8801075
Thank you
Thanks for saying that. Chapter 22 of mlaabq is gonna have a lot of singing, so it's nice to hear that I can make it work.
8801269
Yeah, it sounds good. But here it has the plus of being more funny
I've been in similar straights. Only, she was a co-worker. We'd spoken and interacted as the workplace demanded before, but that was all that ever happened. I didn't really like her as a person much, to be honest, and she was lazy so she didn't have my respect. The one time she actually flirted (that I know of), I was as clueless as an anime protagonist. A pair of others in the break room chanted "Fail!" at me after she left the room. When I asked why I got a shake of the head, followed by an explanation.
8801343
I find that to be the manly approach.
Not that I've been able to take it. No one has ever flirted with me
8801531
"Hey Frisk! We found another person you missed!"
res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--FLyN0GKO--/t_Resized%20Artwork/c_fit,g_north_west,h_954,w_954/co_000000,e_outline:48/co_000000,e_outline:inner_fill:48/co_ffffff,e_outline:48/co_ffffff,e_outline:inner_fill:48/co_bbbbbb,e_outline:3:1000/c_mpad,g_center,h_1260,w_1260/b_rgb:eeeeee/c_limit,f_jpg,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1474309992/production/designs/690245_1.jpg
8801588
Still haven't played it. Kinda looking forward to it though.
I hope that he rest of the story has singing, like a book musical.
8801717
I hadn't planned on it; I was using that as practice, but I'm gonna make a note of that. There might be opportunities for more singing.
I hope Happy’s friends get it through their heads by the end of the story that he could be happy without a relationship. I doubt Cadance would be so pushy.
8801853
Well, that depends on how you look at it. Cadence perhaps wouldn't push him for as long, but it looks like she can just magically make him fall in love with somepony
But seriously, I don't think the ending will disappoint you
Nice to see some aro representation here! Let's hope Happy's coworkers get the hint soon. It's too bad that Happy doesn't seem to know the terms for what he is so that he can explain it to ponies.
8800425
Actually, asexuality is a recognised sexuality. It's just not a very well known one because it recieves little-to-no media attention.
As for the difference between asexuality and aromanticism, there's this thing called the Split-Attraction model based on the way some people's different attractions line up. There are a bunch of ways you can be attracted to somebody:
Sexually - you want to do the do with them.
Romantically - you want a romantic relationship with them.
Platonically - you want to be friends with them.
Sensually - you want to touch them - not necessarily in a sexual way, you might just be really craving hugs or something.
Aesthetically - you want to look at them/you can appreciate good looks in the same way you appreciate nice scenery.
And more besides! Those seem to be the main ones, though.
Most of the time, people's romantic and sexual attractions line up - heterosexual and heteroromantic, biromantic and bisexual and so on. But sometimes they don't. For example asexual + panromantic or homosexual + demiromantic. This happens to be more common in the a-spec community - those with orientations on the asexual & aromantic spectrum - so people outside these circles don't tend to hear about this so often.
So aromanticism is a different thing that is simply the lack of wanting a romantic relationship with someone. It's got little to do with the whole sex thing.
8802025
Oh, so it is a real word? Whoever handles the spellchecker here, I don't know if it's fimfiction or my browser, should look into that.
Yeah, I'm guessing Happy is an aromantic, and if we add to that how he needs to have the right kind of connection with someone before he's comfortable to do that particular dance, the chances of him being sexually active are probably very slim.
Yeah, that representation compared to the amount of romance around here makes it very unbalanced. It seems unbalanced in general, but extra unbalanced on fimfiction.
But really, even if they knew the terms I think it would take a while to properly explain the concepts to some of his coworkers
I feel pity for Happy. Being made to feel bad for wanting no love strikes me as similar to being made to feel bad for wanting the "wrong " love.
8802264
Yeah. Not wanting romantic love is a very real thing, and it's also woefully underrepresented in culture. I wouldn't say that the ponies are being malicious, but this is what could happen when people just don't understand. Perhaps not the musical numbers, but... you know.
8802246
Well, asexual was only added to the dictionary last November, so it's taking a while for the official word books to catch up with the terminology.
If it takes some time and a close emotional connection for Happy to start seeing somepony in that light, he might be demisexual? Ah, it's a complicated topic with lots of nuance.
And yeah, I've seen maybe twenty good stories using ace/aro characters? Not enough!
8802294
Really? Which dictionary? Because I thought that was a long-since established word. Now I'm curious about when it was added to the dictionary over here.
I know plenty of stories where romantic love and sex are never brought up, but I can't think of any with aromanticism or sexuality as a large part in it on the top of my head. Though there kinda are some here if you count HiE stories where the human isn't into ponies.
8802310
Merriam-Webster, I think?
8802310
Oh! And specifically the meaning of the lack of sexual attraction. Asexual has probably been in there longer to refer to like, plants and microbes and stuff with asexual reproduction.
8802322
Oh, Okay. I'm having trouble figuring out when and if it was added to Svenska Akademien, so if it's officially part of the Swedish language. Oh well, it's not a hard word to figure out if you hear it
8802283
It isn't always malice with humans either. Some people legitimately think they're helping when they engage in trying to 'fix' people.
8802474
Lack of awareness, possibly because of a lack of representation in culture?
8803511
That, and negative representation in culture, often tied to religious or political affiliation, supported by cherry picked or fabricated science and psychology. If you're raised to think that a certain kind of person needs to be fixed, it becomes malicious NOT to try to do so.
8803899
Yeah, and I think I detect some things I don't like when people are overly eager to represent people too. I've not seen Doctor Who, but I heard that there was a homosexual character there, who was homosexual among many other traits, to which the audience just went '... right-o', but then that changed so that suddenly, as I heard it explained, 'the gay character had to gay his way down to the gaycery-store to gay some gay stuff for whatever gay things they were up to'.
And of course in Sherlock when Moriarty's omni-sexuality played into his portrayal as absolutely insane. There was something wrong with him in every possible way, so of course he also had to gay-bi-a-omni-Sherlock-sexual.
Not sure that approach is much better.
8804052
I haven't watched Dr. Who or Sherlock, but as someone in that demographic trying to be represented, my take on it is thus: Years of poor or no representation have left a lot of writers without a strong understanding of how such people should be represented. Similar to how 'strong female character=female who does things like a man does things', it's an attempt to represent, at least, but born of a lack of knowledge and understanding that can't really be gained firsthand without actually being one of the people you're trying to represent, and must always be incomplete when gained secondhand. Sometimes this approach is trying to be noble, other times it's trying to be exploitative, but in my book at least it's a step up from not being acknowledged at all, and is part of the road of progress to actually being represented well.
8804109
Possibly. One reason I'm a bit skeptical is that I haven't gained understanding of how sexuality works from watching tv or reading books. Or actually, maybe a bit from reading books, and even though I'm not trying to deepen people's understanding of asexuality very much, I'm at least trying to bring attention to it with this story, so maybe I shouldn't say too much.
But yeah, the mistake often comes from giving the representative of a traditionally underrepresented group only one trait; that they're from that group. Hence why I'm weary whenever I hear 'strong female character' brought up, at least by PR people. The ones I've seen presented as that tends to be stiff, no-nonsense ice-queens whose only real trait is that they're 'better than the boys' at manly stuff. Make them as skilled as you want, but if that's the only trait they have, the goofs and the techies and the smartypants and the fast-talkers, and all the other characters are going to come across as a lot more interesting.
Also, having only one trait might feed another stereotype; that the group in particular, female characters in this case, can't be funny, or brainy, or have any other interesting trait.
This is starting to sound ranty, but what I'm getting to is that there's a really good franchise that demonstrates the opposite. It's called My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
8804150
Nothing wrong with a good conversation. Anyway, the reason I hold it as a good thing is because even if it ends up being exploitative or misinforming, exposure is key, and as long as the misinformed stuff is called out as misinformed, it still serves the purpose of starting conversations, and getting people to start considering new ideas. MLP:FIM's approach to it seems pretty good. You have girls still being girls while also being individuals.
In any case I'm glad you wrote this story simply because there isn't much awareness or respect levied at those who simply don't want a relationship, romantic or otherwise, with someone else. Nobody deserves to feel wrong for that.
8804241
I guess I see a boring character as a missed opportunity.
But yeah, I just hope Happy can be an interesting character beyond just being single. I think I've done a pretty good job of making my disabled protagonist a character beyond her disabilities in my flagship story.
Oh, and I'm glad you're glad I wrote the story
8801914
Didn't she say herself that her "love talent" only helps ponies remember the love they have for each other, not actually fabricate love from nothing... that's Chrysalis' job.
That said, I wonder if a changeling would end up starving around him. Hah!
8804386
Oh that's right. I forget what they said her talent was, but yeah, a changeling around Happy will be like a brain slug around Fry in Futurama. "Poor fella starved to death."
I feel bad I didn't read this story as soon as it came out, but instead sat on it for a day and read the update to MLAABQ first. It certainly deserved it, but this story really speaks to me. Both the situation Happy is in that I can fully sympathize with, and how society (especially pony society as portrayed in the show) reacts to the idea of someone not trying to find happiness in love, and assumes those that aren't looking are secretly suffering with wounds in their heart, listless and directionless.
I look forward to where you take the story considering the pony side is pushes love so strongly. I hope it won't get to the point where the protagonist will feel a need to swap jobs to get around this, it certainly feels like something he'd do considering it was a major consideration to why he chose that job in the first place.
8805348
I know, right? Shame on you. It was second place on the feature-box. With your help it could've reached the top. Although only in the non-mature-toggled box. The mature box was filled with with clop, as usual. *sigh* ... This fandom
But seriously, thanks
And yeah, my wonderment at how unexplored these theme are continues to amaze me the more people who comment. It couldn't have been that hard to see that people wanted to read this. I talked about the concept for this fic on fimfic's discord channel before I wrote it and people were highly skeptical and wondered what the point was.
8805811
The point is to tell a story. Obviously.
Why would I write a short story about adjusting bowties? To tell a story, duh.
...
That gives me an idea....
8806249
What stories were the protagonist fed up with love, and were they pony-stories?
Yeah, and how your back was expected to give out by the time you were 35, so you needed some little troopers to order around and keep you and your farm running until you could live out your life at a ripe old age of 50.
8806290
I could've pointed that out to the people on discord, but I'm sure they would've just been offended
I'm hoping that bow-tie story will have some sort of Q-arrangement where the protagonist is secretly the Equestrian Secret Service's quartermaster who puts in magic spy-gadgets into them.
8806467
You are clearly unfamiliar with the tripe I typically produce.
8806531
Sadly yes. Precious little time to read when you're writing on so many stories I'm afraid
I never make such an assumption. First of all, NO ONE is like me. They didn't just break the mold when they made me; they smashed it to dust, burned the dust, then flung the ashes into the central black holes of a thousand galaxies to ensure another horror like that could never happen again.
Secondly, if lots of other people were like me, the world wouldn't be such a mess. And there would be many more lions around.