> Sweetie's "Happily ever after" > by Lululu > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweetie came trotting into the Boutique, having finally tired of the day’s crusading. She dumped her saddlebags unceremoniously by the door and went on a search for Rarity, full of questions about shoe-fitting. She eventually found her sitting with a guest. He was a rather dashing looking blue earth pony (as with so many of her sister’s words, Sweetie wasn’t entirely sure what “dashing” meant, but decided that he was definitely it), whose cutie mark identified him as one of the musicians who Rarity liked to socialise with whenever she went to Canterlot. Sweetie frowned. She had a strong suspicion that Rarity was trying to get him as a coltfriend, and that she’d have to sit through hours of gross sappiness and then hours of screaming and crying when Rarity decided that she’d changed her mind. The stallion glanced her way and flashed her a small smile before turning back to his conversation. With that slight smirk, just a twitch of one corner of his mouth, Sweetie knew that she was doomed. There would be more pining and more tears than ever over this one. “Oh, Sweetie Belle, I didn’t hear you come in,” Rarity called over. Given the bell over the Boutique’s door, Sweetie suspected that she had actually just ignored her, hoping that she would go straight to her room. “Did you have a fun time at school today?” “Yeah, it was pretty good,” came the standard response to the standard question. “Maybe she could help us,” the visitor almost purred. Soft, moderately deep, and with an upper-class Canterlot accent, his voice sounded more like an impression than like an actual modern pony. “Sweetie, your sister and I can’t agree, so I’d like you to judge. Is it more important that the government does what ponies want, or that it lets ponies do what they want?” Sweetie was blindsided. First off, she was stunned that he wanted her to take part in their adult conversation. Most adults just asked her about kid stuff, like school or playing games, when they decided that they had to talk to her at all; they certainly never wanted her to join a serious discussion. Secondly, she didn’t really understand the question. “But, the ponies want to do what they want. Aren’t they the same thing?” “Well, they are if there’s only one pony. If there are more ponies, though, then one might want to do something that most of them don’t want her to do.” Sweetie considered for a moment. She didn’t reach an answer in that moment. “She might want to play loud music all night,” he expanded on his claim, “and they want the night to be quiet, so they don’t want her to be able to do what she wants.” “Well, then,” Sweetie finally answered, “she shouldn’t be allowed to. She’s upsetting a lot more ponies so that she can play her music.” Rarity let out a satisfied little hum. “Yes, true,” the stallion nodded, “but what if, say, she lived far away from those ponies? What if she lived the other side of a hill, and the only people who could hear her music liked it? The other ponies still think that the night should be quiet, but they’re not close enough to be disturbed.” “Then it’s none of their business,” Sweetie frowned slightly, wondering at what the disagreement could be. “If they aren’t being kept up by it, they can’t tell her not to have fun for no reason.” “So, only the opinions of the ponies involved should matter?” “Yeah.” Sweetie suspected that there was more to come, but was confident of her position. The stallion, however, didn’t question her further. Instead, he turned to Rarity and said, “You see? Your sister agrees with me.” “Uuurgh,” Rarity rolled her eyes in a most unladylike way, “but to go as far as allowing colt-cuddling… It’s unnatural. You can’t reproduce like that, and the whole point of it is to make babies. You have to be sick in the head to want to do it. It’s defective. Besides, Sweetie’s just a child.” Her little sister hunched almost imperceptibly. “Nonsense. She may be young, but you can’t dismiss what she said just because of that. It made sense and she obviously thought about it.” Sweetie smiled to herself a little. He talked about her like an adult, and obviously thought that what she had said was sensible enough to have come from one. She went and sat down on the empty sofa. She wanted to listen to the rest of the conversation. Maybe he’d want her opinion again. +++++ Sweetie’s head nodded forwards, then her eyes flashed wide as she jerked it back. She was dog tired, but she certainly didn’t want to be sent to bed. She shot a nervous look at Noteworthy, sitting across from her on the sofa, but he just smiled at her. She was safe, as long as she could keep herself from nearly falling asleep again. He was staying at their house again, as he did every few months. He found Ponyville a welcome relief from the busy, noisy, frantic streets of Canterlot, and when he took a holiday Rarity always proposed that he stay with them. Sweetie approved of the arrangement; Noteworthy was always interesting to be around, and treated her like someone really important, and they also got to go and stay with him in Canterlot sometimes. It was strange, though, that he always used a different room to Rarity. In Sweetie’s memory, her sister had never had a colt friend who wasn’t a coltfriend. She suspected that it was because he was a coltcuddler – and that that was why he had been defending them when she first met him – but it would be rude to pry. Her head pulled up again. Being distracted by her thoughts, she’d forgotten that she was trying to stay awake. With Rarity having gone up early, and Noteworthy being so lax, she could probably stay up later than she ever had before, but she wouldn’t get away with it if she started falling asleep right in front of him. “You alright?” Damn it. The game was up, but she had to try, at least. “Don’t worry, aba … ab … ah, aaaah….” she desperately tried to force the yawn down, but her face was pulling back so hard that she was showing all her teeth. “I’m fine,” she said when she had regained control, “I’m tired, but I’m not sleepy. Like, my body feels tired, but it doesn’t feel like it would be able to sleep.” It was worth a shot. She found herself slowly grinding a hoof against one side of her face. Oh, for Celestia’s sake, it was like her body was trying to get her sent to bed. She felt a leg on her shoulder, and Noteworthy toppled her over onto himself. “Well, no point sending you up, then, is there? But, if you’re tired, then resting against something should help.” It was kind of weird that he was being so close with her -- she’d never usually be cuddling up to someone who wasn’t her family or one of the other Crusaders -- but he was nice and, perhaps more importantly right now, warm and soft. She pushed into his coat and nodded slightly. It was only when he lightly nuzzled the top of her head that she realised something. Sweetie fell asleep smiling, and woke up hugging her teddy tight the next morning, having been tucked away in her bed. > Chapter two: Chapter One > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “And I know how many cookies we have, so don’t you think I won’t find out!” With that, Rarity swept out, and they were alone for the weekend. Noteworthy wasn’t entirely sure whether the warning was for Sweetie Belle or for him. Since he’d moved to Ponyville a year ago, he had been babysitting for her on a frequent – and increasingly so – basis. It wasn’t that Rarity disliked looking after her sister, it was just that she always had better things to do. As he had told her, however, Noteworthy had moved to Ponyville exactly because he didn’t like always having things to do. He was now living an idle life of composing between his tours, and, he readily confessed, that meant an idle life of not actually doing anything at all for most of the time. So, they had come to an agreement; when Rarity needed to be somewhere else, he would take Sweetie off her hooves, and in return he would have something to keep him just busy enough to keep the boredom away and he would clean out her cupboards more thoroughly than a swarm of locusts. It was a simple, pragmatic arrangement. Sweetie pressed her muzzle up to his, her eyes closed. Well, that was how he explained the arrangement to everypony else, at least. There was a little more to it than that. A certain little secret that he and the little filly hid, just between the two of them. He nuzzled his adorable charge back for a moment, then opened his mouth to ask what she wanted to do. The words, however, stuck in his throat. They were trapped there by a tongue, which was being completely clear about what it wanted to do. He froze, briefly, in surprise, before melting into the kiss. Whilst it was not unusual for her to kiss him, Sweetie was never this forward about it; their relationship was playfully inappropriate, but Noteworthy was always sure to keep it to the safer side of romance. He put her eagerness down to their long separation over his recent tour, and let himself enjoy the filly’s affection for a while before breaking off. “So, I’ve got you for two whole days. Any ideas for what you want to do?” “Uh-huh.” She slowly leaned into him again, but was stopped by a hoof against her chest and a laugh. “Appealing as it sounds, I don’t think we can stand here kissing until you have to go to school on Monday,” Noteworthy explained. “Have you got anything planned that I should know about?” “Well, Apple Bloom managed to get Vinyl to help us get DJ cutie marks on Sunday. She was really drunk though, so she might have forgotten… Other than that, you’re going to have to keep me busy,” Sweetie tried to purr seductively. +++++ Noteworthy drifted slowly through the market, following the excitable white ball of fur that bounced from stall to stall, grabbing things and exclaiming in delight, before promptly dropping them and dashing off somewhere else. He wasn’t sure what was so exciting about it all, but the joy on her face was more than enough reason for him to come along. Every now and then, she bounded back over to him, snuggling up against one of his legs. Her beautiful face rubbing up against him made him want to kiss her then and there. He almost did, but he really couldn’t risk doing that in public, and so he changed the motion to a lazy stroke of her mane. Overly affectionate, perhaps, but nothing too unusual. Rolling her head into his touch, Sweetie opened her eyes and gazed into his. He let himself drink her in for a moment before she buried her face in his side again. Despite his efforts to avert public disapproval, he noticed that they were getting a lot of funny looks. Not aggressive, thank Celestia, but the ponies around them obviously thought that he and the filly were being too close. Much as he would like to ignore them all, he dreaded to think what might happen if somepony put it into Rarity’s head that they were more intimate with each other than they should be. He gently pried her away. “How are you still so interested in the market? It’s not that big, you must’ve looked at everything here three times already.” “Hmm, I don’t know.” “Well, shall we go, then? There isn’t much point just walking in circles staring at things.” “I don’t feel like going back yet.” Sweetie threw a lingering glance over her shoulder, towards nothing Noteworthy could bring to mind. “We could go to the park, then? Just for a change of scenery. Ponies will start to think I’m a statue, standing here for so long.” He finally earned a smile and a head-tilt of assent. He gratefully struck out away from the market, with Sweetie in tow. Once there, Noteworthy started to worry about how he would keep her occupied. He was certainly safer from suspicion here, but in a lot more danger of having an upset filly on his hooves. His first idea was to hunt for other foals, who could entertain Sweetie without him having to think of any activities at all. A quick lap of the park, covered by idly chatting to her about what she’d been looking at in the market, turned up nothing. He supposed that he could kick a ball around with her, but that would require getting a ball from somewhere… As they talked, she started to wander off in her own direction. Well, he mused, if she wants to just walk and chat, that’s fine by me. So, that was how they spent the next half hour, just wandering in small circles in the park, talking a whole lot about nothing of any importance. +++++ Overall, the day had been thoroughly enjoyable, and thoroughly uneventful. Noteworthy was completely unprepared, therefore, when Sweetie came and curled up against him on the sofa that evening. Her curling up between his legs was not unusual in itself – she had fallen asleep with him holding her many times since they had met – but what she was doing certainly was. “Uuuh, Sweetie?” “Mmmh?” She kept grinding her hips against his. “Could you stop that?” “But you like it,” the filly half-whined, half-laughed. “No, no I don’t. You’re a foal, you aren’t supposed to do stuff like that!” “You do. I can feel it against my back.” Noteworthy was so mortified that he didn’t even respond for a few seconds. When he recovered enough to move, red-faced, he pushed her off the sofa. “Alright, it’s time for bed,” he decreed. She leaned in towards him, eyes half-lidded, and asked, “Are you coming up with me?” “No! I am not. Bed. Now.” “Why not?” Now the filly really was on the verge of a whine. Her tail slumped down, and her face scrunched up ever so slightly. “You’re a foal; you don’t understand sex,” her babysitter pointed out. “I do,” she snorted in a rather unladylike manner, “it’s not exactly complicated. All you have to do is…” “I mean,” he drowned her out, “that you don’t understand the emotional side. The act itself might be simple, but there’s lots of emotional aspects to it too. If you have sex as a foal, it might be with somepony who you’d regret it…” “Adults regret it too, sometimes, and I’m being far more picky than my sister is. How come she’s allowed to and I’m not, then?” “Well, you should really love each other before…” “But we do love each other, don’t we?” Her eyes widened further than Noteworthy would have thought possible, brimming with tears. “Of course we do.” “Good.” Sweetie kissed him firmly on the mouth. “But, but,” Noteworthy cast around desperately, “you might get pregnant! You wouldn’t want to be pregnant now, would you? Think of how much trouble we’d be in, and how you’d be stuck away from your friends and school, and how you’d have to look after a foal afterwards!” “I haven’t had my first cycle,” Sweetie grinned slyly. She kissed him again, not on the mouth this time. He didn’t answer.