Thundering Heart
Sweetie Belle ran to the downstairs floor of Carousel Boutique one Equestrian evening, her heart pounding in her chest as she bolted into the office Rarity had set up to help manage her businesses, seeing as it had recently expanded from a local hole-in-the-wall place to a network of stores across the entire country.
Sweetie saw that Rarity was sitting down at the computer, her flank plopped down into the chair, and mentally groaned. Rarity was on the stupid thing WAY more than she should. Sweetie knew for a fact Rarity’s time on it wasn’t kept strictly to business management, either.
Sweetie inhaled a soft breath, before she spoke up. “Rarity?” Rarity looked up from the computer and turned towards Sweetie, her eyes bloodshot and tired. Okay, maybe today Rarity had actually devoted a ton of her time to the business after all.
“Sweetie Belle? What do you need? I’m trying to balance the budget to work in the gems I need for Fleur D’ Lis’ new dress for the gala. Can it wait?” Rarity asked Sweetie, her voice tired and not having the usual peppiness it usually had.
“Sis, I know you’re working, but is there any way I could use the computer to PonyTime Thunder?” Sweetie asked her sister, hoping to Celestia that she would say yes. Thunder was her online coltfriend. His full name was Thundering Rain. They met online many months ago, and were about as in love as two ponies in a long distance relationship could be. They had a lot of the same interests, and he treated Sweetie like his queen. Every morning, Sweetie woke up to a good morning message from him on PonyHoof, and he said goodnight in either a message or video call every night he could. They tried to Ponytime video call as often as they could.
Rarity looked at Sweetie in shock. “What? You want me to stop my work early, just so you can video chat your friend?!” Rarity asked in disbelief.
Sweetie sucked in a breath before replying. “Rarity, pleaseeee? I know you’re working hard, but Thunder is going to bed soon, and starting tomorrow he’s going to be on vacation with his family for an entire week! You know I wouldn’t ask this if it didn’t mean a lot to me! I’ll...I’ll clean the boutique for you tonight if you let me! Pinkie Promise!” Sweetie nearly begged Rarity, desperate to talk with her sweetheart before he left for the entire next week. Times like this made her really wish she had a cell phone, but Rarity insisted she didn’t need one until she was 18. It was foolish, but they were Rarity’s rules.
“Hmm...Deal. Just let me finish up this budget report and I’ll log off, Sweetie.” Rarity said as she looked back at the computer screen. Sweetie’s back legs were wriggling with excitement, however this excitement quickly transformed into frustration and near anger. Rarity was taking FOREVER!
Rarity was casually browsing the spreadsheet she had created, checking it for mistakes, and clicked the mouse to make a change maybe once every thirty seconds. It was so maddening Sweetie wanted to cry out!
Finally though, after what felt like an eternity, Rarity clicked the log out button and clicked on the guest profile, so Sweetie could use PonyTime uninterrupted. Rarity stood up and walked out of the office, giving Sweetie free access.
Sweetie squeaked in excitement and hopped into the chair, using her magic to type on the keyboard and enter her username and password. Every second felt like an eternity to her as the application loaded and signed her in.
However, once she clicked on Thunder’s profile, her heart fell into her stomach. Where it usually told her he was online, with a green bar on his name, it now said he was offline with a red bar.
“What?! He can’t be offline, he’s always on at this time of night!” To make sure, she clicked the video call option on his name.
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. The call hung up after five rings, signifying that no one answered.
Frustrated, Sweetie clicked the button again. Ring. Ring. Ring.
“COME ON BABE! PICK UP!” Sweetie shouted at the screen. Ring. Ring. The call hung up once again.
Sweetie was about to cry, she was so upset. She tried calling him again, and again, and again after that. After the fifth time she gave up, slumping into the chair as a tear fell from her eyes.
“Great! He’s going on vacation for one, possibly two weeks, and I didn’t get to say goodbye!” Sweetie wailed in disbelief, leaning forward and smacking her face on the table, letting out a groan into the wood.
After a few moments, she picked herself up off of it and growled slightly.
“Stupid Rarity! Maybe if she didn’t take forever to log off the computer I could have-” Sweetie cut her sentence off then and there. No, no. This wasn’t Rarity’s fault. Years ago, Sweetie may have been so young and immature as to blame something like this on her sister, but now she was older and more mature.
The truth was, Rarity let her use this computer out of her own good will. She didn’t necessarily have to. She did buy this computer with her own money, after all, and was nice enough to let Sweetie use it quite often. She should be more grateful for that, she realized.
But Celestia-dammit if she still wasn’t sad and upset about the situation! Letting out a loud sigh, Sweetie dragged the mouse to the bottom left of the screen and clicked the button to log off. Willing herself out of the chair, she sighed once again and walked out of the room, up the flight of stairs to the workroom of the boutique. Even if she didn’t get to talk with Thunder tonight, she did make Rarity a deal, and she had to keep her end of it.
Grabbing the broom and dustpan with her magic, she also used her magic to begin sweeping the floor free of the leftover materials Rarity had left there. This was quite a boring and menial task, so Sweetie also used her magic to turn on Rarity’s radio to a suitable volume, and listened.
Contrary to almost everypony her age, Sweetie didn’t enjoy the new age stuff that came out every week. She enjoyed some of it, yes, but Scootaloo years ago had introduced her to the epicness that was classic rock. Ever since then she had become well versed in almost all bands of classic rock.
Sweetie picked one of the classic rock stations and got to work, sweeping up the boutique, cleaning the desks, etc. After about a half hour of working, there was a knock on the door.
Rarity walked in and smiled. “Ah, Sweetie! I had figured you’d forgotten our deal and gone to bed. So, did you manage to talk with your friend?” Rarity asked, and this made Sweetie sigh sadly as what happened came back to her. She had been lost in the music for the past hour and had mostly forgotten about it.
“No...he must have gone to bed early.” She informed Rarity defeatedly, her ears flattened sadly against her skull. Rarity looked sad for her sister, and moved up to her to swoop her into a hug.
“Aw, Sweetie, I’m so sorry. Maybe you can catch him before he leaves tomorrow?” Rarity asked her sister, to which Sweetie sighed and finished up the cleaning of the desks.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Sweetie looked at Rarity for a minute, before deciding to ask her something.
“Hey, Rarity, are you mega busy right now? If not, could we go to my room or yours and talk about something?” Sweetie asked, hoping Rarity would agree. She actually had something she really needed to speak with her about.
“Oh Sweetie, of course we can talk! Finish cleaning up and come find me. I’ll be in my room, dear.” Rarity smiled at Sweetie before turning around and exiting the room. Sweetie felt relieved Rarity wasn’t busy for once, and put the cleaning supplies and such away. She then walked out of the room, towards Rarity’s bedroom. But, on the way, she made a little detour into her room and grabbed something.
The bit jar she had started months ago. She got an idea a few months ago that maybe, if she saved every bit she could, she would eventually save enough coins to buy a train ticket to see Thunder. It would be expensive, since he lived on the entire other side of the country. She grabbed the jar and let out a groan. She had been saving for three months now, and the jar was maybe one tenth full. She was NEVER going to get to her goal. The jar would have to be near overflowing. Dejectedly, Sweetie then trotted into Rarity’s bedroom.
Rarity was sitting on the bed, in the middle of it by her pillows, and invited Sweetie to join by patting the bed in front of her.
“Now, Sweetie, what is it that you wished to talk about?” Rarity asked her younger sister, smiling as Sweetie took the seat in front of her. Sweetie rubbed her front leg nervously with her left, looking down at the sheets.
“Well...I...uh...Rarity, you know me and Thunder are...a thing, right?” Sweetie asked, biting her lip a bit. Rarity did in fact know, and was happy that her little sister had found somepony to love, even if they were far away. In her eyes, love was love. She just tended to call Thunder her friend out of force of habit, and nothing more.
“Why yes dear, of course I do. You’ve told me quite a bit about him. And he does sound just dreamy.” Rarity said with a hint of admiration on her tongue, the word “dreamy” sounding like Rarity meant another angle to it. Sweetie decided to shrug it off for now.
“Well, you know he lives far away. I love him Rarity. I really do. I’ve even been working on this-” She pointed to the jar “-So I could save up enough to go see him. But it’s so hard. Not being able to hug him, kiss him, and hold him like I so badly want to...it’s maddening! Why does he have to live all the way in Vanhoover!?” Sweetie groaned in agony, sighing as she fell onto the bed, her jaw laying on the sheets near Rarity’s leg.
Rarity reach down and gently pet her little sister’s head with her hoof, thinking for a minute or so before replying. “Well dear, love is complicated. Sometimes, ponies get lucky, and find their soulmates where they live. But other times, our soulmates are scattered across Equestria, and it’s up to us to find them. It’s a very hard struggle. When I was younger like you, I had a long distance lover like you. But we didn’t have the internet then. We had to write letters and wait up to a week for them to arrive!” Rarity told her, chuckling slightly at the look of amazement in Sweetie’s eyes.
“It’s very hard having a long distance relationship. All of a sudden, my lover stopped sending me any letters altogether. And the post office informed me they had all been delivered to his home. It hurt me for a while, but I’m still looking for my soulmate. I guess the moral of my story, Sweetie, is love is tough, and distance doesn’t make it any easier. But if you love Thunder, you’ll toughen up and withstand the struggle for him. Because, what you’re going through, I guarantee he’s going through the exact same. And, when you finally do meet each other, it will be one of the best moments of your entire life.”
Sweetie took in everything Rarity told her, dissecting her speech and parsing it into her mind. When her sister finished, Sweetie did feel a lot better. She perked up and wrapped her legs around her sister, holding her tightly.
“Thank you big sis, you’re the best!” Sweetie said as she got out of Rarity’s bed, running back downstairs to the office room, leaving Rarity with a wide smile. She did good this time.
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A few minutes later, Sweetie was back on the computer. She’d logged back into PonyTime, and was at Thunder’s profile, in the private message box. She was currently typing so fast her magic hurt, but she couldn’t wait to say this. It read;
“Dear babe; I know you’re going on vacation, and you probably won’t see this before you go, but I just wanted to say that I love you. I love you with all my heart, and I will always be here for you. I hope you have an amazing time wherever you’re going, and I’ll be right here when you get back. Yours forever, Sweetie.”
Sweetie smiled, and after reading the paragraph for mistakes a few times, she clicked send. That should make him very happy. And that was all she could do right now; try to make him happy.
Sweetie logged off the computer again, and trotted towards the stairs. She was right about to head upstairs to get ready for bed when there was a knock on the front door.
This startled Sweetie. It was past 9pm, and nopony ever came around so far after business hours. Maybe it was Twilight? Maybe some big emergency had come up? Sweetie slowly walked to the door, and went to open it.
As soon as she opened the front door, her world turned upside down. Adrenaline rushed to her head, she felt woozy, and her jaw dropped in shock and awe.
This certainly wasn’t Twilight, or a customer, but somepony much more important.
“THUNDER!”
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