Sweetie Belle & Bubblegum

by NinjaMare

Chapter 2: A Friend Named, Bubblegum [Edited]

Sweetie Belle galloped as fast as she could through the town so she could take the little creature from the forest to Fluttershy’s cottage, which was on the outskirts on the other side of town, yet while she was galloping away the filly heard various ponies talk about the flashing blue lights and the explosive booms. Naturally many of them are scared and worried that something dangerous was going down in the forest, while there were some that were more curious about what was going on. Though Sweetie Belle knew exactly what happened in the forest and what caused all the commotion, right now she was focused on helping the little creature.

After a non-stop gallop through the town and a stretch of land outside the town, Sweetie Belle eventually reached her destination, and began knocking on the pegasus door. A moment later the door slowly opened, and the filly was shown a little bit of Fluttershy’s face, who as usual looked a little startled by the sudden visit.

“Hi Fluttershy. I’m sorry for dropping by so suddenly, but I need your help.” Sweetie Belle said as she turned to present the little creature, that’s when the filly saw a worried look come over the shy mare’s face before the door burst open.

“Oh my goodness! Sweetie Belle what happened?!” Fluttershy asked worriedly as she not only looked the small creature over but also the filly.

“The poor thing was attacked by timberwolves. So I brought it here to see if you can help it.” the filly explained to the older mare.

“Of course, bring it inside and I’ll see what I can do for it.” The pegasus stood off to the side to let the filly trot in with the injured creature.

Once inside Fluttershy guided Sweetie to the couch in the main living room, where the creature was gently placed on to where the pegasus began to examine its wounds and other injuries. After the quick little examination Fluttershy flew off to a nearby cabinet in the room, and started to scavenge around for medical patches and ointments to help with the injuries, when she had what she needed the mare went back to the couch and began applying the ointment she got on the more severe wounds, before placing a few medical patches on the spots she treated. Thankfully none of the wounds were to severe or damaging that were life-threatening, but the pegasus still treated the little creature with care, and not just it but also Sweetie Belle to ensure she wasn’t injured. Luckily the filly wasn’t hurt or bared any injuries.

“There we go. That should do it.” the pegasus says as she gently places the last patch on the creature, who began to stir from its state of unconsciousness gurgling as it’s body flattened slightly. This act caused the filly & the mare to look more concerned.

“Fluttershy it still looks pretty bad.” Sweetie says as she pets the poor creature gently on the head, but that’s when the filly noticed something about the little thing. It wasn’t as smooth and moist as it was when she first found it.

“Fluttershy, can you get a wet towel?” the filly asked the mare.

“Um. Sure, but why?” Fluttershy asked as she tilted her head in a perplexed manner.

“When I first found the little guy its body was more shinier and moist, but now it looks so, dried out.” Fluttershy then looked at the small squishy creature and indeed noticed that its body did indeed look more dried out than it was a moment ago.

“I’ll be right back!”

The pegasus then flew off to a different part of the cottage, where the filly heard the sound of a faucet running. As Sweetie waited for Fluttershy to return she noticed that a few of the other animals had gathered around the couch, and were inspecting the new creature in the cottage. Some have hopped up onto the couch to get a really good look at the newcomer, while others to simply gathered around the couch to look at the creature. A minute later Fluttershy came back into the living room with a damp towel in her hooves, which she begins to use to rub down the creature, and as the pegasus wiped the damp towel over it the creature seems to become more shinier and begins to become more aware of its surroundings. And eventually more livelier.

“It looks like it’s getting better now!” Sweetie said as she saw the creature look over to her after Fluttershy finished wiping it down.

“Hi there little guy. How do you feel?” the little creature garbled in a cheerful manner and even flexed its little antenna’s on its head to show that it was much better.

“It does look like it’s doing a lot better.” Fluttershy says as she places the towel down on the table next to the couch, as she does so the little creature looked over to her as she gave a pleasant smile in return.

“Hello there little one. My name is Fluttershy, what’s your name?” the mare asks quizzically as she looks at the little creature with intrigued eyes. The creature garbled some more, but strangely to both the mare and the filly, Fluttershy wasn’t able to understand it.

“Well that’s a first?”

“What’s wrong?” Sweetie Belle asked the older pony.

“I couldn’t understand what it just said.” Fluttershy retorted as she looked at the filly.

“But can’t you communicate with all animals?” the filly questioned as she thought that the pegasus could speak with any animal. Regardless of what it was.

“It’s more complicated than that Sweetie. It’s more of understanding the emotions and feelings an animal gives off, rather than understanding the noises they make.” The filly seems to have some understanding of what Fluttershy was saying.

“Well aside from not understanding it, do you know what it is?” the filly asked though the pegasus shook her head.

“I’ve never seen anything like this creature before, not even in some of the books I have on wild life.” That’s when an idea came to the pegasus’s mind.

“But maybe Twilight knows what it is. She knows a lot more about a whole bunch of stuff than I do, and she might have a book about more exotic creatures than I have.”

“That’s a great idea.” Sweetie says excitedly as she looks at the little creature.

“But first, we gotta call you something. I can’t just call you a creature all the time, and I don’t think slug is a good name.” The creature garbled, seemingly trying to say something, but its words were lost in translation to the filly or pegasus. Sweetie then began tapping a hoof on the floor as she was trying to figure out a good name for the creature. Looking back at the little thing, she looked it over to try and get some inspiration, and after looking at the colors of its body an idea came to her.

“How does, Bubblegum sound?” Sweetie Belle said with a small smile, to which the creature was silent for a moment, before it garbled in what sounded like a very cheerful tone.

“I think he likes it.” Fluttershy commented as the creature hopped in place a few times.

“Alrighty then Bubblegum, wanna go for a ride?” Bubblegum then hopped off the couch and onto Sweetie’s back, with a display of surprising dexterity. Thanking Fluttershy for helping the creature, the little unicorn left the cottage and headed back to Ponyville.

Leaving Fluttershy’s cottage behind the pair made their way through the outskirts of the town, before the re-entered the town where the filly began making her way to the Golden Oaks Library. while trotting through the town the pair passed by pony after pony who were all looking at the unusual pair as they trotted pass, though most of the attention was directed at Bubblegum as none of them had seen anything like it before. Which was a natural response. As for Bubblegum itself the filly occasionally turned to look at it, and saw that it was looking at everything with curious eyes as they trotted about.

“Sweetie Belle!” the little fillies ears perked up as a familiar voice calls out to her. Looking around the unicorn spotted the source of the voice and found Apple Bloom trotting about with her grandmare Granny Smith, with the filly waving at Sweetie.

“Apple Bloom, what are you doing here? I thought you were busy with Zap Apple season?” Sweetie asked her friend as the unicorn trotted over to the earth pony filly.

“We are. I’m just helping Granny get some stuff to help with the jam making.” Apple Bloom elaborated but as she was talking the yellow filly took notice of Bubblegum sitting on Sweetie’s back, who gurgled at the filly and waved with an antenna.

“Uh, Sweetie, you uh…got something on your back.”

“Oh this is my new friend. I’ve named it Bubblegum.” Sweetie explained as she then turned her body so that her friend was able to get a better look at Bubblegum.

“But what is it?” the apple filly asked as she just looked at the small creature.

“I’m actually on my way to the library to see if Twilight knows. I asked Fluttershy if she knows what Bubblegum is, but she doesn’t know.” Apple Bloom continues to look at the unusual little creature before a small smile graces her muzzle.

“Well whatever it is, it certainly is cute.” Apple Bloom says as she pats Bubblegum on the head, which caused the little creature to garble happily.

The two fillies continued to talk for a bit more, but the apple filly eventually had to return to her duties when her grandmare called out to her. After the little meet up with her friend, and ensure to see each other again soon after the Zap Apple season had concluded, Sweetie Belle continued to make her way to the Golden Oaks library. several more minutes go by, and Sweetie & Bubblegum have made it to their destination, where upon reaching the large tree structure the filly entered only to have an explosion wrack her ears, and cloud of smoke to blast in both Sweetie Belle’s and Bubblegum’s face! Both filly & creature coughed out little puffs of smoke as they tried to fan the smoke away, while Bubblegum shakes its body of any soot that also covered it.

From inside the library the filly could hear the two occupants of the library coughing as well, with one of them occasionally sneezing and creating small puffs of green fire from a different room. The filly then waded her way through the smoke that was thankfully getting thinner, as it was wafting out of the open door and windows that could be heard being open, until the library was smoke free. Though that still left the soot and mess that came from whatever caused the explosion, with the library’s custodian and assistant standing by a table.

“Well. That could’ve gone better.” the familiar violet unicorn of the pair as she coughed out the last bit of smoke plaguing her.

“I told you that the mixture was off.” a younger member of the duo groaned before another sneeze came out, accompanied by another puff of green fire. “Excuse me.”

“Okay, okay! You were right!” the older pony said in a rather annoyed yet still understandable tone, that’s when the filly saw Twilight look over to her seeing that her face was darken from the soot, except for her eyes as the mare was wearing goggles.

“Oh my goodness! Sweetie Belle, are you alright!” the older unicorn said in shock as she quickly rushed over to the filly and started to check her over.

“I’m fine.” Sweetie coughed as she reassured Twilight. “But what happened here?”

“There was just an accident with some potion making.” Twilight remarked as she removed the goggles from her face before her eyes focused on Bubblegum.

“What in the world is that?” Twilight questioned as she circled around the filly, while Spike waddled over and around to his caretaker, to get a look at the small creature on Sweetie’s back.

“Looks like some kind of large slug.” Spike remarked as he looked at Bubblegum, who didn’t seem to take Spike’s remark to well and blew out a small barrage of bubbles at the small dragon, causing him to sputter and fall flat on his butt.

“What the hay!”

“That’s incredible!” Twilight said excitedly as she looked between Spike & Bubblegum.

“I’ve never seen a slug that could blow bubbles like—” Twilight was cut-off as she too was bombarded with bubbles from Bubblegum, causing her to sputter as the bubbles popped in her face.

“I don’t think Bubblegum likes being called a slug.” Sweetie said as Twilight as she recovers from the bubbly assault, and used her magic to dry herself and Spike off, which helped wipe off the soot from their faces.

“I can see that. But what is it?” the mare asked as she looked back at Bubblegum quizzically.

“I’m not sure, I actually came to see if you know what Bubblegum is.” The filly responded.

Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof for a second, before turning on her hooves and head into the main room of the library, and started searching through the various books lining the shelves. Sweetie Belle, Bubblegum, and Spike followed the mare around as she goes about her book searching, watching the mare pull some books out and either, put them back or skim through them quickly before putting them back. But as the mare goes about searching through the books for a few moments Twilight seems to be stumped.

“Strange. I can’t find anything that even makes a reference to what you’re little friend is Sweetie.” Twilight bemoans as she shelves the last book she had pulled out.

“Really? Well thanks for looking anyway Twilight, sorry for bothering you.” Sweetie Belle says respectfully.

“It’s alright. Though what are you going to do with it?” Twilight asked as she petted Bubblegum on the head, feeling how soft and squishy it was.

“I guess I’ll just take it back to where I found it.” Sweetie sounded a bit unsure about what she just said, as she’s grown rather fond of the little guy.

Thanking Twilight again for taking the time to check to see if she could find out what Bubblegum was, the little filly bid the older pony and little dragon farewell as she left the library, and the duo to begin cleaning the mess they made. Or at least the one Twilight made. As the pair left the library Sweetie Belle made her way through the town, until she came upon the boarder of the Everfree Forest. As she stood before the tree line of the forest, the filly looked over her shoulder at Bubblegum who actually seemed to look a little sad as they were about to part ways. It would seem that the little creature itself was also starting to grow fond of Sweetie.

“Bubblegum?” Sweetie says.

“Do you wanna go back to the forest?” Bubblegum shook its head before nuzzling into Sweetie’s cheek which got a giggle from the filly as she nuzzled back.

“If you want you can come home with me…though I hope Rarity and my parents won’t freak out.” Sweetie said more so to herself before turning around and made her way back to her town, to her sister’s boutique.