Young Loveby Jay DavidChaptersPart OnePart TwoPart ThreePart OneThe young unicorn flipped through the pages, looking for it with growing frustration. Sweetie Belle had a thought on her mind for some time now, and not just the usual thoughts like how she and her friends will get their cutie marks. This was something new. It was something that had popped into her head a few months ago and had since become something she could not shake out. After much time in trying to ignore that thought, she eventually decided to simply accept that that's the way she felt. And so here she was, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking through this old photo album. It was a collection of photographs taken during the party after the wedding in Canterlot. She and her best friends had all been flower fillies at that ceremony and it had been a lot of fun, aside from the near conquest of the city and all. Eventually, after turning the final page, her face lit up. She'd found what she'd been looking for. Sweetie took the photo from the album and placed it in the palm of her hoof. Before, she'd only ever thought of him as a friend, but after that day, that notion of him had changed. But her smile vanished as other thoughts began to enter her mind. "He likes somepony else. And not only that, but somepony close to you. It's probably never going to happen." It was certainly a sombre thought, but Sweetie Belle had little time for it as another thought suddenly popped up. She looked up at the clock and her eyes widened. Was that really the time? She'd spent so long looking for this thing that she'd almost forgotten that it was time to go to school. She leapt off the side of her bed and ran to the door of her room, picking up her school-bag as she ran. As she opened the door and ran out, she was suddenly knocked back when she collided with someone. Regaining her balance quickly, the young unicorn looked up to see that it was none other than her sister, Rarity. And she did not look happy. "Young lady, do you realise what time it is?" She said sternly. Sweetie Belle looked down at the floor, embarrassed to look her sister in the eye. "Sorry sis." She said apologetically. Rarity sighed before replying. "We'll discuss this later. For now you'd better get off to school. Go on now!" Sweetie Belle nodded and continued running down the hall as her sister looked on, shaking her head. "That filly. Honestly. What could she have been doing for so long that made her forget like that?" Wanting an answer to that question, Rarity's attention turned to her sister's room. Nothing looked out of the ordinary and she was about to turn around and leave, but then something caught her eye. A small white-trimmed photograph in the middle of the floor, lying next to a discarded photo album. Sweetie must have dropped it in a rush to leave. But Rarity's thoughts were more focused on what she wanted out of this album in the first place. Rarity hesitated for a moment. While she was curious to know, her sister had made it very clear in the past that she didn't want her privacy violated. The incident a few months ago involving her school-bag and the newspaper instantly sprung to mind. But in the end, given that their parents were away, Rarity was responsible for her. And if Sweetie Belle was almost missing school because of something, she had a right to know. Or at least, that's what she kept telling herself. Using her magic, she levitated the book to look inside it. Inside were various photos taken during the party after the wedding of Twilight's brother. Rarity smiled, as it had indeed been a fun time. She managed to catch up with her old friend, Fancy Pants, and everyone generally had a good time of it all. As she flipped through the pages, she soon noticed that one spot in the book was blank, causing her to remember the photo on the floor. Putting the album down, Rarity then levitated the discarded photo to her face. Her expression then turned to one of confusion. It was a photo of Sweetie Belle wearing the dress she'd made for her. Rarity afforded herself a brief moment of pride, remembering how much she'd enjoyed working on it. But then her attention was drawn to the fact that Sweetie, in the photo, was dancing. And not only that, but dancing next to a certain young dragon, and looking happy as she did so. Rarity raised an eyebrow, unsure of why her sister would be so focused on the picture. But then she started to really think about it, and her expression turned to one of shock, and that in turn became an expression of amusement. "Well now, Sweetie Belle. This is interesting. I'd never have guessed." Then her expression slowly became one of deviousness. "As her sister, I suppose it's my duty to help things along a little bit." .................................. Twilight looked through the book, smiling as she did so. She'd been rather pleased over her recent acquisition of this particular tome, having spent every waking moment trying to memorise each sentence and spell within it. Twilight had always prided herself on her magical ability, but this gift from Princess Celestia had magic she'd never even heard of. She was looking forward to trying out some of these spells. But before she could do so, she heard a knocking at her door. Turning from her book, she walked over and used her magic to open it. On the other side was a very familiar face, one Twilight smiled at. "Good morning Rarity. How are you?" She asked. Rarity smiled back as she entered. "Oh Twilight dear, I'm positively fine today." As her friend entered, Twilight raised an eyebrow. Rarity did indeed seem to be in a rather chipper mood today, more so than usual, and this piqued her interest. "Has something happened?" She asked. Rarity turned and nodded before replying. "You could say that. But before I go on, is Spike here?" She asked. Twilight shook her head. "No. I sent him out to get more quills. Why?" Rarity put a hoof to her mouth, giggling as she was trying to keep in what she wanted to say. "Well dear, I've just learned something absolutely adorable". Twilight looked confused at this. "Adorable?" Rarity nodded. "Yes indeed. I won't tell you how I found out, but it seems my dear little sister is harbouring a little crush on your son." Rarity squealed after telling her this, and Twilight meanwhile was rather taken aback by this news. "My son? Spike? And your sister, Sweetie Belle, likes him?" "Yes. Isn't that absolutely precious?" Twilight could not deny that. The two of them had looked cute together during that dance at the wedding in Canterlot, and they certainly enjoyed spending time together whenever they met up with each other at other times. But, as Twilight considered this, affording herself a brief smile as she did, a rather unpleasant thought came to mind. "Rarity, does your sister know that Spike has a crush on...you know....YOU?" Rarity stopped giggling at this. She was still smiling, although a much smaller one, and her tone of voice was more quiet. "I'm sure she does. Not to sound insulting, Twilight, but your boy hasn't exactly been subtle about the whole thing." Twilight couldn't help but roll her eyes at that. It was true, her son's crush was obvious to anypony with eyes, with him having pursued every opportunity he could get to impress Rarity since the day they first came to this village. But even then, Sweetie Belle's own crush was a problem if Spike liked somepony else. "So what are we going to do. We can't very well tell Spike to stop liking you so that Sweetie can get together with him." Rarity nodded at that. "Oh, for sure. But I was thinking of something a little less obvious. I recall Sweetie telling me of a time some months ago when she and her friends tried to arrange a romantic scenario for their teacher and Applejack's brother." Twilight raised her eyebrow again. "Didn't that plan end in disaster?" "Yes, but I'm not suggesting we do things so obvious as they did. We're going to be much more subtle about it." Twilight considered this, then gave out a brief giggle. It would make her happy to make sure her son would get together with somepony, especially somepony as sweet as Sweetie Belle. But the more she dwelt on that, the more another worry came to mind. "Don't you think this is wrong for us to do this? You know, meddle in their lives like this? I mean, for all we know they may end up together on their own at some point." Rarity shook her head. "Under normal circumstances that might be true, but given how tight-lipped the two of them are about their crushes around their own family, do you honestly think they'll ever work up the courage to say something like that to each other, even if Spike does eventually move on from me?" Twilight had not considered that. There was some truth to what Rarity was saying. Enough to allow herself to go along with this. "Alright Rarity, I'm in. And I have just the plan to do it. First, we'll arrange for the Crusaders and Spike to spend the day together doing something fun. But we'll need to get Sweetie and Spike alone with each other, so we'll call Applejack and Scootaloo's parents and we'll tell them..." As Twilight laid out her plan, Rarity just kept smiling. This was going to be great, she told herself. Of course, a plan like this would require great care in order to not make things fail, but still, with both her and Twilight on the job, how can this possibly go wrong? Part TwoShe had to admit, her sister had planned a nice day for it. Sweetie Belle was walking down the main street of Ponyville, taking in what a lovely sunny day it was. Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi had clearly done fine work today. All the better considering how much she was looking forward to spending this day with her friends. It had all been arranged. Rarity had apparently been given a big order of dresses to make and so couldn't be available to do anything with her today. As such, she'd suggested that she spend the day with her friends, Scootaloo and Applebloom, which Sweetie was more than willing to do. Eventually, she reached her destination. It was the fountain near the centre of the village. This was a frequent meeting place for the three of them, second only to their clubhouse. Looking ahead, she noticed two fillies standing next to it and talking. Even from this distance she could tell that it was her friends, so she ran faster to meet up with them. As she approached, the two of them turned and smiled as they waved to greet her. Sweetie Belle smiled back and was about to say hello when she noticed something that caused her to skid to a halt. There, standing next to Scootaloo and Applebloom, was Spike. He raised his hand and waved in greeting, causing Sweetie to briefly hesitate before giving a wave back. She then walked up to the group before speaking. "Hi guys. Hi...Spike." She said nervously. Spike raised an eyebrow at this hesitation to say his name, but didn't press the matter. "So then, what do you guys want to do?" Sweetie asked. Spike spoke up first. "Well, I've heard there's a practice session by the Ponyville rodeo team this afternoon. We could watch them do their stunts." Sweetie Belle looked at him and finally worked up the courage to ask him the question that had been plaguing her since she laid eyes on him a few moments ago. "If you don't mind me asking Spike, why are you here? Not that I'm not happy to see you, because I am, It's just strange to see you here with me...US. Here with us, I mean." All three of them others were giving her funny looks as she spluttered her words out. Despite their being close friends, Sweetie had never told the other two fillies about her feelings towards Spike, so their reaction to all this was just as confused as the young dragon himself. But rather that making fun of her for it, Spike simply answered her. "Well, Mom said she had a lot of studying to do today so there wasn't much for me to do. So she gave me the day off. And she'd heard that you guys were doing stuff today so she suggested I come and find you." Sweetie Belle nodded as she heard this. It was certainly not an unreasonable thing, but given her recent feelings towards him, she knew it might make things uncomfortable for her. Then Applebloom stepped forward and spoke. "Yeah, and me and Scoots was thinking it'd be great that he's here so you're not all alone." That sentence made Sweetie's head shoot in her friend's direction. "Alone? What do you mean alone?" She asked rather frantically. Suddenly, Scootaloo and Applebloom were giving each other very uncomfortable looks, something which Sweetie Belle caught instantly. "What is it?" Scootaloo was now the one to answer her question. "Well, we were all ready to come here and spend the day with you and everything, but stuff suddenly came up. My parent's told me they wanted me to help in some decorating back home and Applejack said she wanted Applebloom to help her and Big Mac harvest some apples from their southern orchard today." Sweetie Belle was certainly disappointed that her best friends weren't going to be spending the day with her, but that thought was soon usurped by another more pressing thought. This meant that she'd be alone with Spike, her crush, for the whole day. She didn't know whether to be happy or weep over that. But instead of being obviously nervous about it, she simply forced a smile and looked at her friends. "That's okay" She lied "Me and Spike will just do stuff together." Scootaloo and Applebloom raised their eyebrows and looked at each other before looking back at Sweetie Belle. "You sure you'll be okay?" Applebloom asked. Sweetie didn't answer, she just nodded her head frantically. The others smiled back, somewhat uncomfortable, and walked off, waving as they did so. Once Spike had finished waving back at them, he turned to face the rather embarrassed young unicorn. "So then. Ready to go?" He asked. It was clear to Sweetie that the young dragon wascompletely oblivious to how uncomfortable she was feeling right now. Still silent, Sweetie just nodded more. ..................................... The two of them watched as Sweetie Belle and Spike walked alongside each other and away from the fountain. Rarity couldn't keep her giggles in, which was followed shortly by Twilight shushing her. "Rarity, we need to keep quiet. This invisibility spell will prevent them from seeing us but they can still hear. We need to keep quiet if we're going to keep them in the dark about all this!" Although others could not lay eyes on them, Twilight and Rarity were indeed invisible. Twilight's gift of a new spell-book from Princess Celestia had turned out to be more handy than she'd imagined, and plus, she'd now get the chance to test out one of it's spells much earlier than she was expecting to. It was a spell she hadn't tried before, but it was one that had clearly worked, as nopony in town had noticed them, especially the two they were following. "I'm sorry dear, it's just so exciting. Seeing them together is just so cute!" Although others could not see them, they were both completely visible to each other, an unexpected side-effect of the spell. Twilight, looking at Rarity's excited face, couldn't help but shake her head. "I just wish we didn't have to be so sneaky about the whole thing. Lying to Spike like that, getting Scootaloo's parents to be in on the plan. I'm not sure if we're doing the right thing here." She then felt a hoof on her shoulder and she turned to see Rarity giving a reassuring smile. "Don't worry Twilight. This will all be worth it. You'll see." Twilight still had her doubts, but she smiled in response all the same. After which, the two looked back at their targets and began to walk behind them, making sure to keep a safe distance so as to not let their hoof-steps be heard. ......................................... Spike looked on as the earth ponies on the field did their various stunts. High jumps, races, back-flips. He'd seen Applejack perform these stunts many times before in preparation for the annual Canterlot rodeos, and although these ponies were not quite up to her standards, he had to admit that they were still impressive. He looked to his left to see Sweetie Belle, and was able to tell that she was just as focused on what was going on in the field, although her expression seemed to suggest that something was on her mind. "Are you okay, Sweetie Belle? You seem distracted." He asked. His voice seemed to shake her out of her current states, as she now went back to that nervous smile she'd been wearing previously. "Oh! I'm fine! How are you?" That last statement was rather confusing. Spike figured that something must definitely have been up with her, or else she wouldn't be acting this way. "I'm fine, Sweetie. Are you sure you're okay? You haven't been acting yourself today." The young dragon then noticed that her eyes were shaking, darting from one direction to another, like she was terrified about what might happen next. "Oh, it's nothing! Nothing at all!" Spike wanted to question her further but ultimately decided against it. If there was something she wanted to tell him, he was sure she'd do it in her own time. Instead he turned his attention back to the rodeo performers. "Still, these guys are great. All these stunts, and on such a nice day too." Spike commented. Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement. In truth she was having a great time here. Being able to spend the day with the boy she'd had a crush on was something she'd been thinking about for some time now. But it had come so suddenly, without warning, that she'd been in a constant state of shock ever since. But she also realised that if there was ever going to be a chance for her and him, her behaving in this shaky nervous manner wasn't going to help anything. "Yeah. It's great. My sister would never come out and watch this kind of stuff. She'd call it uncouth." Sweetie said. Spike gave a chuckle before replying. "No offense Sweetie, but she'd say the same about anything." Sweetie gave a brief giggles at that. Applejack had said the same thing once and she had to agree. As much as she loved her sister, the two of them had always had different interests. But they'd never let it come between them. "You know what, Sweetie Belle?" Spike asked, catching the young unicorn's attention. "What?" She asked back. "It's a good thing Twilight was so busy today or else I'd have missed this." He said happily. Sweetie smiled at that and nodded. And then, as she was mulling that statement over, a thought came to mind. If Spike hadn't had today off, he wouldn't have been able to be here with her. And if Applebloom and Scootaloo hadn't been told they couldn't be here, she wouldn't have been left alone with Spike, the boy she just so happened to have a crush on. And that was far too many coincidences at once to escape her notice. And as she was dwelling on that, it conjured a memory to the surface of her mind. A memory of when she and the others once attempted to intervene in the personal life of their teacher. This led to a rather uncomfortable notion. What if there was some kind of manipulation going on here? But that couldn't be, she told herself. The only way that could be possible is if someone knew about her feelings for Spike, and who could possibly know that? As she dwelt on that question, understanding dawned, and her expression of shock quickly became one of anger. It was a face that soon caught Spike's notice, leading him to worry. "Er, Sweetie Belle? Are you okay? I'm sorry to have to ask that again, but you look rather angry." Sweetie belle frowned before answering. "I'm fine Spike. But when I go home I need to have a little chat with my sister." And a mere five metres away, a pair of invisible unicorns were looking at each other with a combination of worry and fear. Part Three"Sweetie Belle! Wait up! The young dragon kept calling out to her, but she was too far gone. It had been just a few moments since her revelation about what was going on, but it had been enough to make her more angry than she'd ever been. The nerve, she told herself. To have lectured her and the others about this and then to do it themselves? To outright lie to her, Spike and the others to pull it off? To think she was stupid enough to fall for it? Her sister, and whoever was helping her, was going to hear about this. Little did she know that her sister was well aware of her younger sibling's bad mood and, along with Twilight, was now charging forward in a desperate attempt to get home before Sweetie did. "I TOLD you this would happen!" Twilight said to her. She tried her hardest not to speak too loudly, lest the young unciorn a few metres away heard them. Rarity was just as concerned though "I know! But we can't focus on that now! We need to try and fix this mess before it get's worse!" Rarity replied. If the situation wasn't so serious, Twilight would have laughed at that comment. "Worse? How could this POSSIBLY get worse?!" "Things can always get worse twilight! Given everything we've been through since we first met, I'd have thought you'd know that by now." Twilight had to concede to that at least, but it didn't help matters. Even though both were full-grown mares and thus much faster than the angry young unicorn to their left, they still wouldn't get back to Rarity's boutique with enough time to try and cover things up. And it was here that Twilight had an idea. "Wait! I can teleport us back!" Rarity ground to a halt upon hearing this. Turning back she gave a smile and nodded, silently giving Twilight permission. Focusing as quickly as she could, Twilight used her magic to cast her teleportation spell on the pair of them. Sweetie belle meanwhile was still fuming over her sister's actions. So much so that she could only barely hear Spike at this point. "Sweetie! Wait! Why are you so angry?" He called out. The young filly didn't answer, which meant that Spike was getting annoyed at this point. "So Rarity tricked you to get you out here, is that it? What's so bad about that?" Still silence. "I just don't get what's wrong! You didn't even consider this until I mentioned how..." And as he dwelt on the events of a few moments ago, a rather unusual notion suddenly popped into his mind. "...until I mentioned how you and I just so happened to end up spending the day together." This, Sweetie heard. It caused her to stop running forward, allowing Spike to soon catch up. There was dead silence between them. As Spike caught his breath, he kept his eyes on Sweetie Belle, whose back was still all he could see. "They made it so that we'd be alone together? Why would they do that? And why would you be so uncomfortable about it?" He kept asking. He could not see it, but Sweetie Belle's face was turning bright red. She knew Spike was not an idiot, he was just a few moments away from figuring it out, and she knew it. But what could she do? Just confess right there? What would he think of her if she did that? As Sweetie was wrestling with herself over what to do, a sudden bout of understanding crept into Spike's mind. Sweetie Belle was obviously angry that Rarity had set things up. But all that had happened was that she and Spike had spent the day alone, without the other two crusaders. Why would she be angry that Rarity had done that? A thought then came to him. "Sweetie Belle?" He asked quietly. It was here that the young unicorn turned to face him. "Yes, Spike?" "Is there something about us spending time together that embarrasses you?" The filly turned her eyes away from him, face still bright red. "Sweetie Belle. Do...do you...like...me?" If things weren't silent before, they were now. The two youths just stood there, never even blinking as they looked at each other. Slowly but surely, the young unciorn gave a brief nod. Spike did not move and inch upon seeing that. Instead, his eyes gradually widened as this new information began to sink in. "...Oh." He said. For Sweetie Belle, this whole thing could not have turned out worse. The boy she had feelings for now knew about it, and instead of it being the romantic confession she'd always hoped, it was a complete shambles. Looking at him, she knew that he had no idea what to make of all this. At worst, he may not even want to see her again after this. Spike looked at the filly before him, seeing her embarrassed expression and general discomfort with the whole affair. He tried concentrating on what had just happened. She liked him in a way he had not consider her to like him. It wasn't as though he didn't appreciate being thought of in that way, it's just that he'd never expected it like this. But seeing her now, as upset as she was, he knew he had to do something to fix this. "Sweetie Belle." He said firmly. She looked up at him. "Maybe...maybe you liking me isn't...entirely a bad thing." At first, her expression was one of confusion. Not a bad thing? After everything that had happened how could he say that? This was a complete nightmare for both of them. But eventually, she knew that there was something she had to clarify. "But what about you and...you know...my sister?" She asked meekly. This suddenly made things uncomfortable for Spike, but not for the reasons Sweetie might have suspected. "Well, if you must know, I've been re-thinking that matter." Sweetie Belle's eyes widened upon hearing that. Re-thinking? Ever since Spike had laid eyes on her, Rarity had been the love of his life, and even though he'd never been subtle about his feelings for her, anyone could tell that they were at least genuine. "But I though you liked her?" She asked. Spike nodded in a rather morose fashion. "I did. But as I've spent more time with her, it's become clear to me that she only ever sees me as a friend. It hurt when I realised that, but I knew that I was going to have to move on." He then gestured to himself, and then to her. "Besides, if what you say is true, she just went out of her way to try and set the two of us together. If ever I needed proof that she wasn't interested in me, this was it." Judging from the look on his face, it was clear to the young filly that Spike had not said this to anyone. That he would now tell this to her was not only a shock, but also gave her a brief glimmer of hope. For ages now, the fact that Spike had been crushing on Rarity had been the biggest obstacle to her trying to get together with him. Now though, that obstacle was gone. "So..." She began, causing Spike to look up at her. "So..." He replied. "...Where do we go from here." She asked. Spike considered this for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "Well, today wasn't exactly a good start to two people being together..." Spike began. Sweetie Belle looked away briefly in embarrassment, just before he spoke again. "...but we could always start again." Hearing this, she looked at him with eyes wide, a sight that caused him to give a small smile. "So then Miss Belle. How does this Sunday sound to you? Maybe we could catch some lunch?" Sweetie's smile was growing bigger by the moment, but she reined herself in from being too giddy about the whole thing. "Sunday it is then." ............................................... As he entered through the door of his home, Spike looked around briefly before laying his eyes on his adopted mother, Twilight, who was, as usual, sitting at her desk reading a book. Although this time it was with an air of unease and anxiety once Spike had shown up. "Oh, hi Spike." She said in an unconvincing happy tone. Instead of replying, Spike merely walked over to the purple unicorn and folded his arms with a raised eyebrow. As the silence between them grew, beads of sweat began to roll down Twilight's face. "So...how was your day?" She asked nervously. Spike still kept silent. "...Did Sweetie Belle have fun?" It was here that he finally spoke. "Out of curiosity, Mom, just how long were you planning to keep the act up?" Twilight considered her answer carefully, but eventually just gave up and said the truth. "As long as I though I could get away with it frankly." Instead of bursting out with anger, Spike, much to Twilight's surprise, gave a chuckle. He unfolded his arms and gave her a hug, which was an even bigger surprise. "I should be upset with you right now Mom, but luckily for you things turned out okay." This time it was Twilight's turn to raise an eyebrow. Then, as she continued to look at Spike's happy face, understanding crept in and she too began to smile. "You and her?" Her son simply nodded, causing a brief squeak out of the unicorn, who promptly hugged him again. "Oh Spike! I'm so happy for you!" She said honestly. "So am I. So I guess i should say thank you for setting all this up." Twilight shook her head. "It wasn't all me, Rarity was involved too. Speaking of which, when we left each other she was in a fairly panicked state. I wonder how she's doing?" ........................................... It was frantic, Rarity was hard at work in trying to look as hard at work as she could. Once Sweetie Belle came through the doors of her boutique, all Tartarus was going to break loose. She'd had plenty of experience in lecturing Sweetie when she did something wrong, but this would probably be the first time she'd be on the receiving end of it. And she was not looking forward to it one bit. One thing had had crept up in her mind though was that Sweetie was taking a much longer time to arrive than she'd thought. Both she and Twilight had arrived at her home, split up and gone about their business in a vein attempt to look uninvolved, and still had plenty of time to spare. What had she been doing? Her questions would soon be answered however as she heard hoof-steps approaching. Hearing this, she got back to concentrating on her sewing. Not bothering to look behind her, she heard the door open and somepony walking in. Sweat was now pouring down her face as she nervously spoke. "Hello Sweetie Belle. How was your day?" It was a long shot, she knew that, but it was all she had. But, instead of being responded by an angry rant the likes of which she'd never heard, she instead felt a warm sensation on her side. Looking down she saw her younger sister lean her head against Rarity in an affectionate manner, leading to a great deal of confusion from the older unicorn. When Sweetie Belle looked up at her, it was an expression of happiness, not anger. "My day was great. Thanks for setting it up." Rarity was like a statue at this point. She wasn't moving, save for the occasional twitch of her eye. As her sister continued to smile at her though, she eventually broke out of that state and gave back a nervous smile. "Erm...you're welcome?" Sweetie smiled again before moving off towards her room, Rarity watching her every move as she did so. As the young filly closed the door behind her, Rarity pondered for a moment over what exactly had just happened. When last she saw her, Sweetie Belle was ready to start tearing stuff up. Now she was perfectly fine and actually happier than when the day had started. Eventually, a smile crept onto her face as she considered what might have happened in the time between when they teleported and now. "Well, I guess things turned out well." She gave herself a small chuckle before continuing. "Maybe I should try this "setting up" stuff more often". Before getting back to work, she heard a call from upstairs by Sweetie Belle. "Don't push your luck!"
Part OneThe young unicorn flipped through the pages, looking for it with growing frustration. Sweetie Belle had a thought on her mind for some time now, and not just the usual thoughts like how she and her friends will get their cutie marks. This was something new. It was something that had popped into her head a few months ago and had since become something she could not shake out. After much time in trying to ignore that thought, she eventually decided to simply accept that that's the way she felt. And so here she was, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking through this old photo album. It was a collection of photographs taken during the party after the wedding in Canterlot. She and her best friends had all been flower fillies at that ceremony and it had been a lot of fun, aside from the near conquest of the city and all. Eventually, after turning the final page, her face lit up. She'd found what she'd been looking for. Sweetie took the photo from the album and placed it in the palm of her hoof. Before, she'd only ever thought of him as a friend, but after that day, that notion of him had changed. But her smile vanished as other thoughts began to enter her mind. "He likes somepony else. And not only that, but somepony close to you. It's probably never going to happen." It was certainly a sombre thought, but Sweetie Belle had little time for it as another thought suddenly popped up. She looked up at the clock and her eyes widened. Was that really the time? She'd spent so long looking for this thing that she'd almost forgotten that it was time to go to school. She leapt off the side of her bed and ran to the door of her room, picking up her school-bag as she ran. As she opened the door and ran out, she was suddenly knocked back when she collided with someone. Regaining her balance quickly, the young unicorn looked up to see that it was none other than her sister, Rarity. And she did not look happy. "Young lady, do you realise what time it is?" She said sternly. Sweetie Belle looked down at the floor, embarrassed to look her sister in the eye. "Sorry sis." She said apologetically. Rarity sighed before replying. "We'll discuss this later. For now you'd better get off to school. Go on now!" Sweetie Belle nodded and continued running down the hall as her sister looked on, shaking her head. "That filly. Honestly. What could she have been doing for so long that made her forget like that?" Wanting an answer to that question, Rarity's attention turned to her sister's room. Nothing looked out of the ordinary and she was about to turn around and leave, but then something caught her eye. A small white-trimmed photograph in the middle of the floor, lying next to a discarded photo album. Sweetie must have dropped it in a rush to leave. But Rarity's thoughts were more focused on what she wanted out of this album in the first place. Rarity hesitated for a moment. While she was curious to know, her sister had made it very clear in the past that she didn't want her privacy violated. The incident a few months ago involving her school-bag and the newspaper instantly sprung to mind. But in the end, given that their parents were away, Rarity was responsible for her. And if Sweetie Belle was almost missing school because of something, she had a right to know. Or at least, that's what she kept telling herself. Using her magic, she levitated the book to look inside it. Inside were various photos taken during the party after the wedding of Twilight's brother. Rarity smiled, as it had indeed been a fun time. She managed to catch up with her old friend, Fancy Pants, and everyone generally had a good time of it all. As she flipped through the pages, she soon noticed that one spot in the book was blank, causing her to remember the photo on the floor. Putting the album down, Rarity then levitated the discarded photo to her face. Her expression then turned to one of confusion. It was a photo of Sweetie Belle wearing the dress she'd made for her. Rarity afforded herself a brief moment of pride, remembering how much she'd enjoyed working on it. But then her attention was drawn to the fact that Sweetie, in the photo, was dancing. And not only that, but dancing next to a certain young dragon, and looking happy as she did so. Rarity raised an eyebrow, unsure of why her sister would be so focused on the picture. But then she started to really think about it, and her expression turned to one of shock, and that in turn became an expression of amusement. "Well now, Sweetie Belle. This is interesting. I'd never have guessed." Then her expression slowly became one of deviousness. "As her sister, I suppose it's my duty to help things along a little bit." .................................. Twilight looked through the book, smiling as she did so. She'd been rather pleased over her recent acquisition of this particular tome, having spent every waking moment trying to memorise each sentence and spell within it. Twilight had always prided herself on her magical ability, but this gift from Princess Celestia had magic she'd never even heard of. She was looking forward to trying out some of these spells. But before she could do so, she heard a knocking at her door. Turning from her book, she walked over and used her magic to open it. On the other side was a very familiar face, one Twilight smiled at. "Good morning Rarity. How are you?" She asked. Rarity smiled back as she entered. "Oh Twilight dear, I'm positively fine today." As her friend entered, Twilight raised an eyebrow. Rarity did indeed seem to be in a rather chipper mood today, more so than usual, and this piqued her interest. "Has something happened?" She asked. Rarity turned and nodded before replying. "You could say that. But before I go on, is Spike here?" She asked. Twilight shook her head. "No. I sent him out to get more quills. Why?" Rarity put a hoof to her mouth, giggling as she was trying to keep in what she wanted to say. "Well dear, I've just learned something absolutely adorable". Twilight looked confused at this. "Adorable?" Rarity nodded. "Yes indeed. I won't tell you how I found out, but it seems my dear little sister is harbouring a little crush on your son." Rarity squealed after telling her this, and Twilight meanwhile was rather taken aback by this news. "My son? Spike? And your sister, Sweetie Belle, likes him?" "Yes. Isn't that absolutely precious?" Twilight could not deny that. The two of them had looked cute together during that dance at the wedding in Canterlot, and they certainly enjoyed spending time together whenever they met up with each other at other times. But, as Twilight considered this, affording herself a brief smile as she did, a rather unpleasant thought came to mind. "Rarity, does your sister know that Spike has a crush on...you know....YOU?" Rarity stopped giggling at this. She was still smiling, although a much smaller one, and her tone of voice was more quiet. "I'm sure she does. Not to sound insulting, Twilight, but your boy hasn't exactly been subtle about the whole thing." Twilight couldn't help but roll her eyes at that. It was true, her son's crush was obvious to anypony with eyes, with him having pursued every opportunity he could get to impress Rarity since the day they first came to this village. But even then, Sweetie Belle's own crush was a problem if Spike liked somepony else. "So what are we going to do. We can't very well tell Spike to stop liking you so that Sweetie can get together with him." Rarity nodded at that. "Oh, for sure. But I was thinking of something a little less obvious. I recall Sweetie telling me of a time some months ago when she and her friends tried to arrange a romantic scenario for their teacher and Applejack's brother." Twilight raised her eyebrow again. "Didn't that plan end in disaster?" "Yes, but I'm not suggesting we do things so obvious as they did. We're going to be much more subtle about it." Twilight considered this, then gave out a brief giggle. It would make her happy to make sure her son would get together with somepony, especially somepony as sweet as Sweetie Belle. But the more she dwelt on that, the more another worry came to mind. "Don't you think this is wrong for us to do this? You know, meddle in their lives like this? I mean, for all we know they may end up together on their own at some point." Rarity shook her head. "Under normal circumstances that might be true, but given how tight-lipped the two of them are about their crushes around their own family, do you honestly think they'll ever work up the courage to say something like that to each other, even if Spike does eventually move on from me?" Twilight had not considered that. There was some truth to what Rarity was saying. Enough to allow herself to go along with this. "Alright Rarity, I'm in. And I have just the plan to do it. First, we'll arrange for the Crusaders and Spike to spend the day together doing something fun. But we'll need to get Sweetie and Spike alone with each other, so we'll call Applejack and Scootaloo's parents and we'll tell them..." As Twilight laid out her plan, Rarity just kept smiling. This was going to be great, she told herself. Of course, a plan like this would require great care in order to not make things fail, but still, with both her and Twilight on the job, how can this possibly go wrong?
Part TwoShe had to admit, her sister had planned a nice day for it. Sweetie Belle was walking down the main street of Ponyville, taking in what a lovely sunny day it was. Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi had clearly done fine work today. All the better considering how much she was looking forward to spending this day with her friends. It had all been arranged. Rarity had apparently been given a big order of dresses to make and so couldn't be available to do anything with her today. As such, she'd suggested that she spend the day with her friends, Scootaloo and Applebloom, which Sweetie was more than willing to do. Eventually, she reached her destination. It was the fountain near the centre of the village. This was a frequent meeting place for the three of them, second only to their clubhouse. Looking ahead, she noticed two fillies standing next to it and talking. Even from this distance she could tell that it was her friends, so she ran faster to meet up with them. As she approached, the two of them turned and smiled as they waved to greet her. Sweetie Belle smiled back and was about to say hello when she noticed something that caused her to skid to a halt. There, standing next to Scootaloo and Applebloom, was Spike. He raised his hand and waved in greeting, causing Sweetie to briefly hesitate before giving a wave back. She then walked up to the group before speaking. "Hi guys. Hi...Spike." She said nervously. Spike raised an eyebrow at this hesitation to say his name, but didn't press the matter. "So then, what do you guys want to do?" Sweetie asked. Spike spoke up first. "Well, I've heard there's a practice session by the Ponyville rodeo team this afternoon. We could watch them do their stunts." Sweetie Belle looked at him and finally worked up the courage to ask him the question that had been plaguing her since she laid eyes on him a few moments ago. "If you don't mind me asking Spike, why are you here? Not that I'm not happy to see you, because I am, It's just strange to see you here with me...US. Here with us, I mean." All three of them others were giving her funny looks as she spluttered her words out. Despite their being close friends, Sweetie had never told the other two fillies about her feelings towards Spike, so their reaction to all this was just as confused as the young dragon himself. But rather that making fun of her for it, Spike simply answered her. "Well, Mom said she had a lot of studying to do today so there wasn't much for me to do. So she gave me the day off. And she'd heard that you guys were doing stuff today so she suggested I come and find you." Sweetie Belle nodded as she heard this. It was certainly not an unreasonable thing, but given her recent feelings towards him, she knew it might make things uncomfortable for her. Then Applebloom stepped forward and spoke. "Yeah, and me and Scoots was thinking it'd be great that he's here so you're not all alone." That sentence made Sweetie's head shoot in her friend's direction. "Alone? What do you mean alone?" She asked rather frantically. Suddenly, Scootaloo and Applebloom were giving each other very uncomfortable looks, something which Sweetie Belle caught instantly. "What is it?" Scootaloo was now the one to answer her question. "Well, we were all ready to come here and spend the day with you and everything, but stuff suddenly came up. My parent's told me they wanted me to help in some decorating back home and Applejack said she wanted Applebloom to help her and Big Mac harvest some apples from their southern orchard today." Sweetie Belle was certainly disappointed that her best friends weren't going to be spending the day with her, but that thought was soon usurped by another more pressing thought. This meant that she'd be alone with Spike, her crush, for the whole day. She didn't know whether to be happy or weep over that. But instead of being obviously nervous about it, she simply forced a smile and looked at her friends. "That's okay" She lied "Me and Spike will just do stuff together." Scootaloo and Applebloom raised their eyebrows and looked at each other before looking back at Sweetie Belle. "You sure you'll be okay?" Applebloom asked. Sweetie didn't answer, she just nodded her head frantically. The others smiled back, somewhat uncomfortable, and walked off, waving as they did so. Once Spike had finished waving back at them, he turned to face the rather embarrassed young unicorn. "So then. Ready to go?" He asked. It was clear to Sweetie that the young dragon wascompletely oblivious to how uncomfortable she was feeling right now. Still silent, Sweetie just nodded more. ..................................... The two of them watched as Sweetie Belle and Spike walked alongside each other and away from the fountain. Rarity couldn't keep her giggles in, which was followed shortly by Twilight shushing her. "Rarity, we need to keep quiet. This invisibility spell will prevent them from seeing us but they can still hear. We need to keep quiet if we're going to keep them in the dark about all this!" Although others could not lay eyes on them, Twilight and Rarity were indeed invisible. Twilight's gift of a new spell-book from Princess Celestia had turned out to be more handy than she'd imagined, and plus, she'd now get the chance to test out one of it's spells much earlier than she was expecting to. It was a spell she hadn't tried before, but it was one that had clearly worked, as nopony in town had noticed them, especially the two they were following. "I'm sorry dear, it's just so exciting. Seeing them together is just so cute!" Although others could not see them, they were both completely visible to each other, an unexpected side-effect of the spell. Twilight, looking at Rarity's excited face, couldn't help but shake her head. "I just wish we didn't have to be so sneaky about the whole thing. Lying to Spike like that, getting Scootaloo's parents to be in on the plan. I'm not sure if we're doing the right thing here." She then felt a hoof on her shoulder and she turned to see Rarity giving a reassuring smile. "Don't worry Twilight. This will all be worth it. You'll see." Twilight still had her doubts, but she smiled in response all the same. After which, the two looked back at their targets and began to walk behind them, making sure to keep a safe distance so as to not let their hoof-steps be heard. ......................................... Spike looked on as the earth ponies on the field did their various stunts. High jumps, races, back-flips. He'd seen Applejack perform these stunts many times before in preparation for the annual Canterlot rodeos, and although these ponies were not quite up to her standards, he had to admit that they were still impressive. He looked to his left to see Sweetie Belle, and was able to tell that she was just as focused on what was going on in the field, although her expression seemed to suggest that something was on her mind. "Are you okay, Sweetie Belle? You seem distracted." He asked. His voice seemed to shake her out of her current states, as she now went back to that nervous smile she'd been wearing previously. "Oh! I'm fine! How are you?" That last statement was rather confusing. Spike figured that something must definitely have been up with her, or else she wouldn't be acting this way. "I'm fine, Sweetie. Are you sure you're okay? You haven't been acting yourself today." The young dragon then noticed that her eyes were shaking, darting from one direction to another, like she was terrified about what might happen next. "Oh, it's nothing! Nothing at all!" Spike wanted to question her further but ultimately decided against it. If there was something she wanted to tell him, he was sure she'd do it in her own time. Instead he turned his attention back to the rodeo performers. "Still, these guys are great. All these stunts, and on such a nice day too." Spike commented. Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement. In truth she was having a great time here. Being able to spend the day with the boy she'd had a crush on was something she'd been thinking about for some time now. But it had come so suddenly, without warning, that she'd been in a constant state of shock ever since. But she also realised that if there was ever going to be a chance for her and him, her behaving in this shaky nervous manner wasn't going to help anything. "Yeah. It's great. My sister would never come out and watch this kind of stuff. She'd call it uncouth." Sweetie said. Spike gave a chuckle before replying. "No offense Sweetie, but she'd say the same about anything." Sweetie gave a brief giggles at that. Applejack had said the same thing once and she had to agree. As much as she loved her sister, the two of them had always had different interests. But they'd never let it come between them. "You know what, Sweetie Belle?" Spike asked, catching the young unicorn's attention. "What?" She asked back. "It's a good thing Twilight was so busy today or else I'd have missed this." He said happily. Sweetie smiled at that and nodded. And then, as she was mulling that statement over, a thought came to mind. If Spike hadn't had today off, he wouldn't have been able to be here with her. And if Applebloom and Scootaloo hadn't been told they couldn't be here, she wouldn't have been left alone with Spike, the boy she just so happened to have a crush on. And that was far too many coincidences at once to escape her notice. And as she was dwelling on that, it conjured a memory to the surface of her mind. A memory of when she and the others once attempted to intervene in the personal life of their teacher. This led to a rather uncomfortable notion. What if there was some kind of manipulation going on here? But that couldn't be, she told herself. The only way that could be possible is if someone knew about her feelings for Spike, and who could possibly know that? As she dwelt on that question, understanding dawned, and her expression of shock quickly became one of anger. It was a face that soon caught Spike's notice, leading him to worry. "Er, Sweetie Belle? Are you okay? I'm sorry to have to ask that again, but you look rather angry." Sweetie belle frowned before answering. "I'm fine Spike. But when I go home I need to have a little chat with my sister." And a mere five metres away, a pair of invisible unicorns were looking at each other with a combination of worry and fear.
Part Three"Sweetie Belle! Wait up! The young dragon kept calling out to her, but she was too far gone. It had been just a few moments since her revelation about what was going on, but it had been enough to make her more angry than she'd ever been. The nerve, she told herself. To have lectured her and the others about this and then to do it themselves? To outright lie to her, Spike and the others to pull it off? To think she was stupid enough to fall for it? Her sister, and whoever was helping her, was going to hear about this. Little did she know that her sister was well aware of her younger sibling's bad mood and, along with Twilight, was now charging forward in a desperate attempt to get home before Sweetie did. "I TOLD you this would happen!" Twilight said to her. She tried her hardest not to speak too loudly, lest the young unciorn a few metres away heard them. Rarity was just as concerned though "I know! But we can't focus on that now! We need to try and fix this mess before it get's worse!" Rarity replied. If the situation wasn't so serious, Twilight would have laughed at that comment. "Worse? How could this POSSIBLY get worse?!" "Things can always get worse twilight! Given everything we've been through since we first met, I'd have thought you'd know that by now." Twilight had to concede to that at least, but it didn't help matters. Even though both were full-grown mares and thus much faster than the angry young unicorn to their left, they still wouldn't get back to Rarity's boutique with enough time to try and cover things up. And it was here that Twilight had an idea. "Wait! I can teleport us back!" Rarity ground to a halt upon hearing this. Turning back she gave a smile and nodded, silently giving Twilight permission. Focusing as quickly as she could, Twilight used her magic to cast her teleportation spell on the pair of them. Sweetie belle meanwhile was still fuming over her sister's actions. So much so that she could only barely hear Spike at this point. "Sweetie! Wait! Why are you so angry?" He called out. The young filly didn't answer, which meant that Spike was getting annoyed at this point. "So Rarity tricked you to get you out here, is that it? What's so bad about that?" Still silence. "I just don't get what's wrong! You didn't even consider this until I mentioned how..." And as he dwelt on the events of a few moments ago, a rather unusual notion suddenly popped into his mind. "...until I mentioned how you and I just so happened to end up spending the day together." This, Sweetie heard. It caused her to stop running forward, allowing Spike to soon catch up. There was dead silence between them. As Spike caught his breath, he kept his eyes on Sweetie Belle, whose back was still all he could see. "They made it so that we'd be alone together? Why would they do that? And why would you be so uncomfortable about it?" He kept asking. He could not see it, but Sweetie Belle's face was turning bright red. She knew Spike was not an idiot, he was just a few moments away from figuring it out, and she knew it. But what could she do? Just confess right there? What would he think of her if she did that? As Sweetie was wrestling with herself over what to do, a sudden bout of understanding crept into Spike's mind. Sweetie Belle was obviously angry that Rarity had set things up. But all that had happened was that she and Spike had spent the day alone, without the other two crusaders. Why would she be angry that Rarity had done that? A thought then came to him. "Sweetie Belle?" He asked quietly. It was here that the young unicorn turned to face him. "Yes, Spike?" "Is there something about us spending time together that embarrasses you?" The filly turned her eyes away from him, face still bright red. "Sweetie Belle. Do...do you...like...me?" If things weren't silent before, they were now. The two youths just stood there, never even blinking as they looked at each other. Slowly but surely, the young unciorn gave a brief nod. Spike did not move and inch upon seeing that. Instead, his eyes gradually widened as this new information began to sink in. "...Oh." He said. For Sweetie Belle, this whole thing could not have turned out worse. The boy she had feelings for now knew about it, and instead of it being the romantic confession she'd always hoped, it was a complete shambles. Looking at him, she knew that he had no idea what to make of all this. At worst, he may not even want to see her again after this. Spike looked at the filly before him, seeing her embarrassed expression and general discomfort with the whole affair. He tried concentrating on what had just happened. She liked him in a way he had not consider her to like him. It wasn't as though he didn't appreciate being thought of in that way, it's just that he'd never expected it like this. But seeing her now, as upset as she was, he knew he had to do something to fix this. "Sweetie Belle." He said firmly. She looked up at him. "Maybe...maybe you liking me isn't...entirely a bad thing." At first, her expression was one of confusion. Not a bad thing? After everything that had happened how could he say that? This was a complete nightmare for both of them. But eventually, she knew that there was something she had to clarify. "But what about you and...you know...my sister?" She asked meekly. This suddenly made things uncomfortable for Spike, but not for the reasons Sweetie might have suspected. "Well, if you must know, I've been re-thinking that matter." Sweetie Belle's eyes widened upon hearing that. Re-thinking? Ever since Spike had laid eyes on her, Rarity had been the love of his life, and even though he'd never been subtle about his feelings for her, anyone could tell that they were at least genuine. "But I though you liked her?" She asked. Spike nodded in a rather morose fashion. "I did. But as I've spent more time with her, it's become clear to me that she only ever sees me as a friend. It hurt when I realised that, but I knew that I was going to have to move on." He then gestured to himself, and then to her. "Besides, if what you say is true, she just went out of her way to try and set the two of us together. If ever I needed proof that she wasn't interested in me, this was it." Judging from the look on his face, it was clear to the young filly that Spike had not said this to anyone. That he would now tell this to her was not only a shock, but also gave her a brief glimmer of hope. For ages now, the fact that Spike had been crushing on Rarity had been the biggest obstacle to her trying to get together with him. Now though, that obstacle was gone. "So..." She began, causing Spike to look up at her. "So..." He replied. "...Where do we go from here." She asked. Spike considered this for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "Well, today wasn't exactly a good start to two people being together..." Spike began. Sweetie Belle looked away briefly in embarrassment, just before he spoke again. "...but we could always start again." Hearing this, she looked at him with eyes wide, a sight that caused him to give a small smile. "So then Miss Belle. How does this Sunday sound to you? Maybe we could catch some lunch?" Sweetie's smile was growing bigger by the moment, but she reined herself in from being too giddy about the whole thing. "Sunday it is then." ............................................... As he entered through the door of his home, Spike looked around briefly before laying his eyes on his adopted mother, Twilight, who was, as usual, sitting at her desk reading a book. Although this time it was with an air of unease and anxiety once Spike had shown up. "Oh, hi Spike." She said in an unconvincing happy tone. Instead of replying, Spike merely walked over to the purple unicorn and folded his arms with a raised eyebrow. As the silence between them grew, beads of sweat began to roll down Twilight's face. "So...how was your day?" She asked nervously. Spike still kept silent. "...Did Sweetie Belle have fun?" It was here that he finally spoke. "Out of curiosity, Mom, just how long were you planning to keep the act up?" Twilight considered her answer carefully, but eventually just gave up and said the truth. "As long as I though I could get away with it frankly." Instead of bursting out with anger, Spike, much to Twilight's surprise, gave a chuckle. He unfolded his arms and gave her a hug, which was an even bigger surprise. "I should be upset with you right now Mom, but luckily for you things turned out okay." This time it was Twilight's turn to raise an eyebrow. Then, as she continued to look at Spike's happy face, understanding crept in and she too began to smile. "You and her?" Her son simply nodded, causing a brief squeak out of the unicorn, who promptly hugged him again. "Oh Spike! I'm so happy for you!" She said honestly. "So am I. So I guess i should say thank you for setting all this up." Twilight shook her head. "It wasn't all me, Rarity was involved too. Speaking of which, when we left each other she was in a fairly panicked state. I wonder how she's doing?" ........................................... It was frantic, Rarity was hard at work in trying to look as hard at work as she could. Once Sweetie Belle came through the doors of her boutique, all Tartarus was going to break loose. She'd had plenty of experience in lecturing Sweetie when she did something wrong, but this would probably be the first time she'd be on the receiving end of it. And she was not looking forward to it one bit. One thing had had crept up in her mind though was that Sweetie was taking a much longer time to arrive than she'd thought. Both she and Twilight had arrived at her home, split up and gone about their business in a vein attempt to look uninvolved, and still had plenty of time to spare. What had she been doing? Her questions would soon be answered however as she heard hoof-steps approaching. Hearing this, she got back to concentrating on her sewing. Not bothering to look behind her, she heard the door open and somepony walking in. Sweat was now pouring down her face as she nervously spoke. "Hello Sweetie Belle. How was your day?" It was a long shot, she knew that, but it was all she had. But, instead of being responded by an angry rant the likes of which she'd never heard, she instead felt a warm sensation on her side. Looking down she saw her younger sister lean her head against Rarity in an affectionate manner, leading to a great deal of confusion from the older unicorn. When Sweetie Belle looked up at her, it was an expression of happiness, not anger. "My day was great. Thanks for setting it up." Rarity was like a statue at this point. She wasn't moving, save for the occasional twitch of her eye. As her sister continued to smile at her though, she eventually broke out of that state and gave back a nervous smile. "Erm...you're welcome?" Sweetie smiled again before moving off towards her room, Rarity watching her every move as she did so. As the young filly closed the door behind her, Rarity pondered for a moment over what exactly had just happened. When last she saw her, Sweetie Belle was ready to start tearing stuff up. Now she was perfectly fine and actually happier than when the day had started. Eventually, a smile crept onto her face as she considered what might have happened in the time between when they teleported and now. "Well, I guess things turned out well." She gave herself a small chuckle before continuing. "Maybe I should try this "setting up" stuff more often". Before getting back to work, she heard a call from upstairs by Sweetie Belle. "Don't push your luck!"
