Author's Note

[Safe for Woona] [F/f] [OCs]
By Flutterpony
Original characters are from my story, Fallen Angels, Chapter 17 (formerly 12).

Edit: I came across another OC that looks remarkably like what I imagined for Merriweather.
http://shaxbert.deviantart.com/art/Bookish-Delight-521629010
Bookish is a bit more plush than Merri, (but equally adorable imo).

Book by Flutterpony

The soft part in the middle of Merryweather’s hooves sweat and her legs and tail jittered. It seemed too good to be true. Part of her, however small, was convinced that it really was.

Glitterwing was curious, the kind of filly who liked to listen and ask questions. Merryweather knew it well from the many days she’d spent reading aloud to her with other foals at the Cloudsdale central library but especially from those precious times that it had been just the two of them while her parents left for a while on the odd errand. At first Glitter’s mother and father had hesitated. Merryweather wasn’t a foalsitter. She had her librarian duties to attend to. When they’d apologized for the inconvenience, Merryweather laughed it off quietly. “If you don’t leave us to read together I’ll just be forced to go back to avoiding work by reading alone, and I’d much rather read with a friend.” The parents had been touched by the sentiment. Of course, they didn’t take their friendship the same way Merryweather did. A mentor or a mare without a significant other who’d always wanted a foal, maybe, but not a pony in love with their little Glitter.

It was years before it happened, but finally they’d asked and Glitterwing had wanted Merryweather to be her foalsitter while the restless parents took a second honeymoon. It had been an odd request from the filly but not too odd. Glitter loved to play with ponies her own age as much as the next foal, and it would have been easy enough to send her to stay with her cousins, but the foal’s enthusiasm for her book-reading friend went far beyond any excitement she’d shown for spending time with her peers. The way Merryweather treated her made Glitter feel like she was the most special filly in the world. It was only natural she asked frequently to visit the library in hopes that Merryweather might read her another story one on one as they had come to do often.

No sooner had Merryweather gotten settled and the Mr. and Mrs. bade them farewell than Glitter hopped eagerly next to her father’s armchair begging for the first story. She would sit on Merry’s lap as usual while the mare narrated and voiced each character. Though Merryweather knew Glitter could read more than just picture books, the sitter started with her old foalhood favorite, an illustrated storybook about a young princess and a dashing prince. Despite how she’d loved it growing up, it was one she couldn’t bear to read normally. Next to fond memories of reading it with her parents, Merryweather couldn’t help but also remember that they’d been taken from her in her youth by a weather accident. She missed them too much to remember them too often, and unfortunately the old story sat at the back of her closet. With Glitter, however, Merry felt the loneliness vanish. She’d felt and was pleased now to confirm that, while the familiar images and words played across her mind, with the little filly in her arms, no sorrow would take hold of her. It felt good to relive those evenings of her own foalhood when either of her parents’ voices would lull her with the story and tuck her in with a goodnight kiss--up until the end. As the last page was turned, Merryweather had to pause. There had been no “Happily ever after,” for her little family. She swallowed and breathed once to calm herself and found that she could smell the filly’s shampoo. The effect was soothing, reassuring. I’m not alone. The mare sighed and, with a shimmer in her eye, she spoke the last line.

“Merry, what does, ‘happily ever after,’ mean?”

Merryweather rested her chin lightly atop the littler pegasus’s head as she thought for a moment.

“Well ... something like your mom and dad, I think. They get be be together and they have you to brighten their days.” An unconscious smile lit Merryweather’s face as peace settled in her, happy that she got to share the filly with them, even if only for that week and during their special storytimes. If there could be any way for it to happen, Merryweather wished for more, but she found it difficult to hope.

“What are Mom and Dad going to do without me on their trip?”

The mare’s heart skipped a beat before she chuckled.

“That’s a special part of the ‘happily ever after’ that they can’t show you,” the mare baited.

“Why not?” came Glitter’s predictable followup.

“Well, it’s very private, you see. I… probably shouldn’t tell you about it, really.”

“Is it a secret?” The filly tried to turn her head to look at the mare, and Merryweather leaned to one side to meet her gaze. In the privacy of the home, the mare let herself become lost in them a little.

“Sort of. I could tell you, but… but you’re supposed to be older first.” Merryweather knew Glitter would never let that slide.

“Come ooon! Pleeease!” To Merry’s dismay, the filly hopped off of her lap to turn about and unleash the full force of her puppydog eyes. The mare blushed lightly at the sight, and her throat felt dry at the overwhelming force of Glitter’s cuteness. She coughed.

“Well, if you promise that it’s just between us two,” Glitterwing nodded energetically, “--then alright.”

The mare was rewarded with the filly’s luminescent smile and a triumphant, “Yesss!” before she rose and made her way to her bag. From inside, Merryweather withdrew a book similar in size to the one they’d just read, though its cover was plain and untitled, then she carefully replaced it with the fairy tale. Glitter’s eyes widened and her smile was open-mouthed with glad surprise. “Another story?”

The older pony nodded, her face suddenly tinted a soft shade of pink. “I--” she stammered and coughed as her nerves got the better of her. “I mean, this book can show you how to have part of the happily ever after, and--if you want to, that is--while I read it to you, or maybe after, w-we can, um, try it… together.”

“Really?!” Glitter’s wings buzzed excitedly at the prospect. It sounded too good to be true--to live the secret fairytale ending with Merryweather. Her adult friend’s apparent nervousness only heightened the filly’s anticipation.

Merryweather simply nodded and, with careful hoofsteps, as though she expected at any moment she’d mess everything up, she returned to the foal’s side. As they sat again in the armchair, the soft part in the middle of Merryweather’s hooves sweat and her limbs jittered. It seemed too good to be true. One last time, the mare cleared her throat before opening to the first page, and a stylish hoofdrawn illustration of a mare reading a story to a filly on her lap mirrored their reality.

“Did you draw this?” Glitter ran her hoof lightly over the page’s surface to feel the texture left by colored pencils.

“I did.” Merryweather confirmed. “What do you think?” Though she was no Claude Moneigh, she thought of herself as an artist and hoped it pleased the object of her affection. The likeness to them in color, at least, was there, even if it looked a bit cartoony.

“Wow!” The filly’s awe brought a grin to Merryweather’s face, both flattered and a little self-conscious. She rarely showed her art to anypony. “Teach me how!” Glitter enthused.

“Of course, Sunshine, maybe later?”

“M-hmm!” The filly squeaked her approval toward the room at the mare behind her and turned her attention back to the book. “Did you make this about… about us?”

“Y-yes. Because, um... I--I really like you, and, well,” the words came out with more difficulty that she’d previously imagined, “I want you to be part of my happy ending.” There was a pregnant pause during which Glitter struggled to understand. “I love you, Glitter,” Merryweather confessed tenderly. Another pause, and it clicked for the foal.

“You… you do?

“I do.” Merryweather couldn’t help but tense and hold her breath until the filly’s response finally came with a wide smile and a blush.

“Me too.”