• Published 12th Sep 2012
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The Public Life of Sweetie Belle - BronyWriter



The story of how Sweetie Belle copes with the events of The Secret Life of Rarity

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It Was Me

Sweetie Belle's eyes slowly fluttered open and she had to look around for a few moments before she remembered where she was. Sweet Apple Acres, yes that's right, she was in Apple Seed's room in Sweet Apple Acres. The familiarity of the setting brought a warm feeling to Sweetie Belle. Few ponies in all of Equestria were as hospitable as the Apples.

Sweetie Belle looked down lovingly at the foal nestled in her forelegs. Her foal, her Joyous Blossom. She nuzzled the back of her head and was about to back to the contented sleep she had recently been in when the events of the day hit her like a sack of bricks.

Blossom knew. Blossom had found out at school that her Aunt Rarity was a serial killer. Those nasty foals Golden Necklace and Fire Ruby had deliberately shattered her daughter's innocence and forced her to face the harsh realities of her family history. The contented feeling went away as Sweetie Belle realized that what Blossom had learned today was still something that she needed to talk to her child about. Now that Blossom knew, Sweetie Belle had to do as much damage control as she could.

Damage control. She was thinking about it like it was some natural disaster. Well, it was a disaster. No amount of words could make the filly unlearn the truths she had learned today. No matter how much she wanted her not to, Blossom knew about Rarity and nothing could change that ever again.

Sweetie Belle was taken out of her thought process when Blossom shifted slightly in her forelegs. She nuzzled her foal again which triggered another shift. No doubt Blossom was awake and trying to get more comfortable. Sweetie Belle smiled.

"Hush my baby, your mother loves you very much,
don't cry my baby, your mother loves you very much,
though time may pass, my love will last,
you are my baby and I will love you forever,

Sleep my child, your mother loves you very much,
rest my child, your mother loves you very much,
though we endure sorrow and hardships,
I'll be by your side to hold you close,
you are my child and I will love you forever," sang Sweetie Belle.

It was a simply little song, a fairly common one for foals across Equestria to have sung to them at night. Sweetie Belle had always enjoyed it for its simplicity, and the unending truth behind its words.

She heard Blossom whisper something and she leaned in closer. "What's that, baby?"

"Momma, I don't want to have those sad feelings like Aunt Rarity," whispered Blossom.

Sweetie Belle hugged her daughter tighter. "You won't, I promise you you won't. Think about yourself, Blossom. Do you have those bad feelings right now?"

Blossom slowly shook her head. "I don't want to hurt anypony," she whimpered.

"And that's why you won't," said Sweetie Belle.

"But you said Aunt Rarity didn't want to feel sad but she still killed other ponies!"

Sweetie Belle flinched slightly upon hearing her daughter flat out state that her sister had been a killer, but she took a deep breath and stroked Blossom's mane. "Your aunt had something very bad happen to her, Blossom," said Sweetie Belle. "She felt that killing was the only way to stop the bad thing from happening."

"Was she a bad pony, Mommy?"

The first of the tears that had been creeping up in Sweetie Belle's eyes streamed down her face, staining the pillow she rested her head on. She took a deep breath and used a hoof to wipe her eyes. "Yes, Blossom. She was a bad pony. Even if she had sad feelings, what she did made her a bad pony."

"Did you love her, Mommy?"

"Yes, Blossom. Whatever else she was, she was still my sister and I loved her very much. I still do, actually. I was very sad after she died for a long time."

"Did... did you ever have those sad feelings, Mommy?" asked Blossom.

Sweetie Belle found herself having to hold back a whimper and she had to take a few more deep breaths before answering. "Not like your aunt did," she said. "I've never hurt anypony like that."

"And I won't either?"

"And you won't either. I promise," said Sweetie Belle.

At that moment the most delectable smell wafted up from the lower level and Sweetie Belle deduced that the Apples were making dinner.

"Aunt Apple Bloom and Aunt Applejack are making dinner right now. They invited us to stay and eat with them if you want to. Would you like that?" said Sweetie Belle. Blossom thought for a moment and slowly nodded. Sweetie Belle smiled and shifted Blossom so that she could sit up on the bed. "Okay, then. Let's go see about getting some food.

* * * *

The following days after Blossom's shock came with many steady improvements. It did take a little while, but she eventually came to terms with the fact that she was related to such a bad pony, but Sweetie Belle found her smiling once more. What helped that was undoubtedly many townsponies who came along to both cheer Blossom up and show their support for her. Each and every one of them had been affected somehow by Rarity and to see an innocent foal hurt by that, particularly through an act of obscene cruelty, broke their hearts and they wanted to help her as much as they could.

True to Miss Cheerilee's word, Fire Ruby and Golden Necklace had both been expelled when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon couldn't negate the evidence of the newspaper in Diamond Tiara's office. Word was that they were being tutored by somepony brought in from Trottingham as they for whatever reason could not find a tutor in Ponyville.

So, after a week or so of being out of school, Sweetie Belle once again found herself walking her ecstatic foal to the schoolhouse. In truth, Blossom had been excited to go back to school ever since she found out that they had discovered who had put the article in her book and those nasty foals wouldn't be bothering her anymore. When she was asked, Blossom did admit that before the incident with the article, school had been very fun and she had learned a lot of good things, a lot of which she would not stop telling Sweetie Belle about.

Today some of the scars would hopefully heal from her disastrous first experience with school. Sweetie Belle had told Blossom that school was a good place and that the other foals there were not mean like Golden Necklace and Fire Ruby. Today Blossom would have fun, Sweetie Belle knew she would.

After saying goodbye to Blossom, Sweetie Belle decided that it was time to go job hunting again. She couldn't stay at home all the time reading trashy novels--secretly she had read Daring Do 19, just to see what the author had ripped from the real life adventures of Twilight and her friends--and with Blossom at school, now was the perfect time to get another part time job.

There were a few places she could begin her search. She knew that Horte Cuisine was hiring and the Cakes might give her a job at Sugar Cube Corner, her cooking having vastly improved over the past fifteen years. At any rate, it was time to end her maternity leave.

A few hours later, Sweetie Belle found herself with a few turned in job applications and a good feeling about a few of them too. Ever since the birth of Blossom, ponies tended to have a more favorable view of her so she doubted that anywhere she worked would lose business merely because they hired her.

Sweetie Belle walked through town, hopeful that everything would be okay, even though Blossom knew about Rarity. It had been a tough time for her, growing up like that and really experiencing some of the horrors that the world had to offer and it was terrible that she had found out that way. Still, she had found joy in school once more and she knew that her daughter was going to have a good time with it.

Sweetie Belle glanced up in the sky and, if she remembered how to read the sun for time, she saw that it would be just about time for the foals in Cheerilee's class to break for lunch and recess. It would be the perfect opportunity to check in on her daughter to see how she was doing. Certainly it had to have gone better than last week.

As Sweetie Belle walked up to the schoolyard, she smiled as she saw all of the schoolfoals playing their games in the schoolyard. Cheerilee was not amongst them but the foals knew not to leave the schoolyard and Cheerilee was able to see them from inside where she was undoubtedly getting a little work done.

When Sweetie Belle got closer, she frowned as she realized that she couldn't see Blossom. A knot formed in her stomach as the irrational part of her brain automatically formed the worst case scenario, that she had been taken from the schoolyard by Golden Necklace and Fire Ruby, or worse, Diamond Tiara.

No. No that couldn't be the case. Diamond Tiara wouldn't sink so low as to kidnap a filly just to get back at Sweetie Belle because her daughter got punished. That... that would be ridiculous. Blossom was probably just inside talking to Cheerilee. Yes, that was it.

Sweetie Belle walked through the front gate with the intention of walking into the schoolyard, when she was stopped by a voice that called her.

"Hi, Miss Sweetie Belle!" said the voice.

Sweetie Belle turned to the source and saw a trio of foals waving at her. She flashed them a smile and walked over.

"Hello there," she said. "Have any of you seen Blossom?"

One of the foals smiled and nodded. "Yeah, we were playing a bit of hoofball and Punter here hit the ball too hard." The foal pointed towards a colt next to her with a hoofball cutie mark and a proud smile on his face.

"I kicked it so far it went out of the schoolyard and into the forest over there!" he boasted.

"Blossom just went to go get it is all. She said that she'd be right back."

Sweetie Belle gasped and the knot in her stomach tightened. "How long ago was this?!" she asked sharply.

The colt scratched his head as he thought. "About a minute or two, why?"

"Don't worry, Miss Sweetie Belle, that part of the forest isn't dangerous and she said she'd be right back!" reassured a filly.

A scream escaped Sweetie Belle's lips and to the bemusement of the foals, she bolted in the direction of the forest. No, it couldn't happen. It wouldn't happen! There was no way that anything bad would happen to her, she was just going to get a ball! The fact that anypony would be lying in wait for her when it was such a slim chance that she's come that was... it was ridiculous!

Until she heard the voices.

"It was too easy, freak. I just had to tell Punter to kick it out here as far as he could and then suggest that you go get it. He has a crush on me so I have him wrapped around my little hoof. Poor fool. He was so easy to manipulate, just like Mommy taught me."

"No, please leave me alone!"

Not them, anypony but them! "BLOSSOM, I'M COMING!" she called out, desperately hoping that her daughter would hear her and the bullies would be scared off.

"You didn't have to go and get us expelled, you know. What's the matter, you can't take knowing that your aunt was a psychopath and that you're probably going to turn out just like her?

"Please leave me alone! I didn't do anything to you! Don't come any closer!"

"BLOSSOM! BLOSSOM! DON'T WORRY, I'M COMING!!"

"Nopony can hear us out here. Punter did a good job. Now it's--"

THWACK.

Sweetie Belle stopped dead in her tracks and a gasp escaped her throat. "Blossom?" A pair of tears streaked down Sweetie Belle's face, and she took another shaky step forwards. "Blossom, please no."

Her thoughts were cut off by a loud scream that pierced the silence. It wasn't Blossom's scream. No, that scream came from Fire Ruby. Sweetie Belle took another step forward and heard Blossom's voice through the screams.

"Stop it! Stop screaming! Stop screaming! STOP IT!"

THWACK.

The scream was cut short as the sound of the blow echoed throughout the trees. Sweetie Belle let out a gurgle as the thought slowly started to process in her mind. Her daughter just...

Sweetie Belle's brain power returned and she bolted through the trees. Maybe she had just misunderstood. Maybe her daughter was fine and she hadn't actually done anything and she'd be okay and the fillies would be okay and the noise was just something else.

Sweetie Belle burst into a small clearing, not unlike the one that had started it all. And it was there that she saw the scene laid out before her.

It had happened. Her worst nightmare had been realized before her. Her daughter was sitting on the ground, a bloody rock in front of her and her hooves over her ears. But that wasn't all. Golden Necklace and Fire Ruby lay unmoving in front of her child, their heads split open and a pool of blood on the ground around them. There was no mistaking it. They were dead.

Sweetie Belle stared at her nightmare incarnate with wide eyes. Blossom seemed to have heard her come in as she sadly looked up at her horrified mother as she lowered her hooves. "I guess you were wrong, Mommy," she whispered. "I guess I really do have those sad feelings like Aunt Rarity."

Her daughter's words slowly entered her mind and her brain took a moment to register them. Sweetie Belle's knees began shaking and she let out an ear piercing scream just as she fell to the ground. Not this. Not this. Not this. This. It was happening. It was real.

"I'm sorry I'm a bad pony, Mommy," Blossom whimpered. Sweetie Belle burst out into hysterical screaming sobs. She killed them. They were dead. The dead fillies hadn't attacked her; they hadn't even said that they would. Blossom had attacked first with the intent to kill. That was murder. Her daughter was going to be put down like an animal for murder.

Sweetie Belle's eyes went wide at the thought. "No," she whispered. "No you aren't." Slowly Sweetie Belle crawled over to the corpses of Golden Necklace and Fire Ruby. She shakily reached forward and dipped her forelegs in their blood and smeared it over herself. "You're a good pony, Blossom."

"Mommy, what are you doing?"

"Mommy's very proud of you, Blossom. You're a good pony." Sweetie Belle levitated the rock over to her and raised it high. "Close your eyes, baby."

She glanced up and saw that Blossom's eyes were closed before she moved Golden Necklace's body over and saw the large gash on the side of her head. Steeling herself, she brought the rock down on the gash, creating a larger one and causing more blood to spill out.

"Mommy loves you very much." Sweetie Belle moved over to Fire Ruby and slid the corpse closer. "You aren't a bad pony, Blossom." She examined Ruby's head and saw the fatal wound was between Ruby's eyes. She heard a commotion behind her and knew it had to be done. She brought the rock down on the wound once more. It was done.

"Mommy, you're wrong, I am a bad pony! I killed them just like Aunt Rarity!"

"No you didn't, baby, Mommy did! Don't you remember? They were going to attack you and Mommy came and protected you!" said Sweetie Belle, a growing level of hysteria in her voice. "You're still a good pony; you didn't do anything bad. Mommy was the one who did it!"

The noise behind them increased and Sweetie Belle heard what sounded like four or five ponies come into the clearing. She heard a mare behind her scream.

"They're dead! They killed the foals!"

"Somepony call the cops! They murdered them!"

"No, she had nothing to do with it, it was all me!" pleaded Sweetie Belle. She wheeled around and faced the horrified investigators. "She didn't do anything, I'm the one who killed them! IT WASN'T HER! DON'T YOU GET IT?! I KILLED THEM!!! SHE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!!! IT WAS ME!!!!"

Author's Note:

Er... obviously more explanations are coming next chapter. I dearly hope you don't find this as contrived, predictable, stereotypical and all that. I had it planned this way pretty much from the start. In fact, that the lines that ended this chapter were going to be ending lines for the entire series.