• Published 28th Nov 2015
  • 862 Views, 22 Comments

The Cocoa Stand - Sketcha-Holic



During a chilly winter in the seaside town of Halterside, Silver Shill sets up a stand to sell hot cocoa made from his dad's secret recipe.

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The Bereaved Family

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

That was the sound made under the hooves of a small, silver-coated colt, bundled up in a hat and scarf, walking on a frozen shore. It was a strange combination of the icy snow and hard sand breaking under the pressure of his steps. Even as short as the foal was, he was heavy enough that neither of those things could hold him up for long. The air smelled of salt, and its coldness was making his nostrils sting.

Right behind him, a smaller, yellowish cream-colored filly in a snowsuit hopped into every footprint, making crunches of her own as the prints became bigger. The frigid air was pierced by her laughter, and she couldn't help but sing, "Hoppity, hoppity, hop-hop-hop..."

The colt ignored her cheery tune, which managed to surpass the sheer loudness of the waves of the ocean pounding on the shore. Instead, his attention was toward the causeway that lead to the lighthouse. As he stared at it, his mind's eye formed a large stallion, with a steel gray coat and a mane and mustache of gold, marching along the path, whistling a merry tune all the while. The stallion proceed to stop, turn toward the colt, and give him a smile and a wave. Then, he called, "Hey, there, champ!"

The colt paused in his walking, and waved back, a bittersweet smile on his face.

And then his sister crashed into him from behind, sending him face first into the snow, and burrowing his head in the ground. The tiny filly gasped, and grabbed her brother's tail to yank him out of the hole. She tugged, and tugged, and tugged until the colt's head came out of the ground with a pop, and they both tumbled onto their haunches.

Gasping for breath and feeling his head, the colt discovered that his dark gray mane was exposed to the elements, and pulled his hat out of the hole. He turned to his sister, and said, "Goldie, can't ya stop when I stop?"

Comedy Gold stuck her tongue out at her brother. "I'm not the one waving at nothing, Silver."

Silver Shill turned back to the causeway, and the stallion was gone. He sighed and put on his hat. "Just thinking of Pop, that's all."

He continued to walk on forward, his mind still numb from the past couple months that had passed since he saw his actual flesh-and-blood father there. He didn't dare tell Goldie how jealous he was of her still having a spring in her step--but, knowing her, she was the type who'd rather keep her sadness locked inside and absolutely hated crying. While her temper had been quicker as of late, she was still as bouncy and peppy as she had been from the day of her birth.

Mom said it had something to do with her age. Six-year-olds couldn't really process death as well as an eleven-year-old like him.

That was when he bumped into somepony else that had been galloping at top speed. Both he and the other pony staggered back, and both fell into the crunchy snow. Both stared up at the sky in the daze before sitting up and holding their ringing heads.

Shaking his head, Silver looked at the familiar pout upon the light blue face of his neighbor. With a sheepish grin, he laughed nervously and stammered, "I-I-I'm so sorry! I, uh, I wasn't looking where I-I was going!" He bit his lip, and looked away as he rubbed his leg. "Please forgive me, Winter Mist."

Winter sighed, and said with a slight but noticeable edge, "Clumsy as always, huh? Why don't you watch where you're going, stupid?"

Goldie popped out of nowhere as she always did, and she helped her brother up. Glaring at Winter, she snapped, "Excuse me, you should watch where you're going, Miss Stupider! How dare you bump into him, now he's got snow and sand on his butt!"

Silver's face turned red as Winter burst into laughter. Giving Goldie a dirty pout, he started to wipe the snow crystals and grains of sand that had accumulated in the exact area that the little filly had mentioned.

That was when he heard another voice cry, "Winter! Are you okay?"

He turned to the source of the voice, and beheld the filly that it came from. She had an off white coat that was a peachy tint in comparison to Goldie's color, wore a purple jacket with a white trim, had her two-toned light blue mane tied in pigtails under her hat, which matched her jacket, and the loveliest pair of blue eyes that he had ever seen. For a moment, it seemed like the clouds above had parted, and the sun was shining on that very filly.

For some reason, Silver's cold face suddenly became warmer. "Uhh..."

The filly helped Winter up, and looked up at Silver. "I'm sorry about you two bumping into each other like that."

Silver blinked and mumbled, "It's, uh, it's okay..."

Once Winter was up, she scoffed and said, "Whatever. Let's go, Coco, I've got more things to show you around here."

As Winter was leaving, Coco smiled shyly and waved at Silver. Then, she turned around and followed Winter.

Silver still stared as they left. Tilting his head, he muttered, "Coco..."

Goldie tapped her chin, and repeated, "Coco?" She giggled, and chirped, "Coco!" Bouncing in place, she chattered, "Coco, coco, coco, coco, coco, coco, coco, coco..."


Later that night, at their house, a simple meal of sweet potatoes and spinach was served at the family dinner table. Silver was surrounded by girls; his eldest sister, Platinum Pen, sat on one end of the table, while Goldie, his youngest sister, sat on the other end, which was to his left. On his right was where his second oldest sister, Pearly Whites, sat, and across from her was where their mother, Sunny Crystal, sat. Across from Silver was an empty seat.

Goldie was continually chewing her potatoes with her mouth wide open, her lips loudly smacking, and mush oozing out of her mouth. The little filly had a huge mess upon her face, and bits of vegetables were gathered in her strawberry blonde mane, and the combination was making Pearl not just cringe, but lean back far enough for the threat of falling over. The older filly's normally pale blue face was tinted with green, and Silver could hear her gagging.

"Goldie!" Pearl snapped. "Stop that, that's disgusting!"

Goldie turned to her with a little scowl on her face. She opened her mouth wide and rolled out her tongue to present the glorious mountain of mashed sweet potatoes that rested upon it. That action was what finally made Pearl's chair fall over, making the young teenager crash to the floor. Silver winced upon seeing Pearl's head make contact with the floor, even if her sky blue mane somewhat cushioned it.

Crystal gasped, and immediately ducked under the table for a better look at her daughter. "Are you okay, sweetheart?"

Rubbing her head, Pearl murmured, "I'll be fine, Mom... but please stop Goldie's display of filth! She's driving me crazy!"

Platinum Pen--or "Penny" as she was called--took up the role of chiding the youngest, saying in her usual flat tone, "Goldie, chew with your mouth closed. You're being impolite."

Goldie rolled her eyes. "Mmpowhitemess ish dummph! Woo mayybbe wools fer eaffing?"

Penny tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "I don't speak stuffed mouth."

Goldie swallowed the food in her mouth. "Politeness is dumb! Who made rules for eating?"

"Ponies tend to not like see chewed up food," Penny answered, rubbing a gray hoof on her chest. "Someone has put their mouth on it, and that means they put their germs on it. And getting germs from someone else makes a pony sick."

"Yeah," Silver said, looking down at his food with a pout. "You're spitting bits of food into my sweet potatoes... and you're kinda loud."

"Well, I'm not spitting on Pearl," Goldie said, crossing her front legs.

Pearl popped up from her spot at the table, her gold eyes in a glare. "You might as well have! You know I don't like icky mush!"

Crystal raised her head, lifted her pudgy, cream-coated body up with a grunt, and then took a napkin from the table. "Now, now, let's not devolve into an argument over nothing." She started to wipe Goldie's mouth, even as the six-year-old began to squirm. With a sigh, she said, "Goldie, don't you know how nice it is to feel clean? Having your fur clump together is uncomfortable!"

"Nooooo!" Goldie protested.

"So, you want to be itchy?"

Goldie shook her head. "Mmm-MMM!"

"All right, then hold still!"

"No!"

Crystal groaned. "So, you want a bath?"

"No!"

Penny put a hoof on her mother's shoulder. "I'll take care of this." Turning to Goldie, she said, "So, you'd rather be a dirty little filly?"

Goldie blinked, and then went back to crossing her front legs. "No bath!"

Penny tightened the ponytail that her dark blue mane was in. Gazing at her little sister with cold blue eyes, she said, "Very well. Then that means you won't go to the Halterside Hearth's Warming Festival."

Both Pearl and Silver put hooves to their mouths. "Oooooh..."

Goldie's light blue eyes widened. "What?!"

"They only allow clean fillies and colts to participate. They don't like all the holiday decorations being all... icky. Especially when a little filly spreads her germs all over the place. Now... do you want to be that filly?"

Goldie shook her head.

"Good. Now take a bath once dinner is over."

Goldie nodded, and then let her mother wipe as much food off her face as she could. Then she resumed eating her dinner with little fuss, bringing about a slightly dimpled smile from Penny. Pearl breathed a sigh of relief, and Silver was carefully parting his sweet potatoes from the specks that had flown out of Goldie's mouth earlier.

Crystal set aside the napkin, putting it in the spot where her husband's plate would have been. However, after a few moments, she grimaced and tossed the soiled cloth onto the counter. Running a hoof through her curly mane of two-toned blue, she sighed. "You know... I'm not sure if I want to go to the Hearth's Warming Festival this year. It just doesn't feel right without your father."

Silver quietly lapped up small bits of sweet potato from his plate, still staring at the empty seat in front of him and expecting it to suddenly be filled by a big, hungry stallion. He would have liked dinner; sweet potatoes were his favorite food.

Penny took a sip from her cup. "It's all right, Mom. I'll take everypony this year; at sixteen, I'm capable of watching my three younger siblings."

Crystal smiled at her. "Oh, thank you, Penny. I may not feel like going, but I don't want my foals to miss out on the festivities if they want to go. Even if we can't make our usual contribution of his special mix of hot cocoa, you four deserve to at least try to get into the holiday spirit. He'd want us to be happy."

Goldie giggled and turned to Silver. "Coco..."

Silver raised an eyebrow. "Can't ya go an hour without saying that?"

"But it's fun to say!" She started to bang her hooves on the table. "Coco! Coco! Coco! Co--"

"Shut up!" Pearl snapped.

"Manners, Goldie," Penny said.

Crystal reached over and gently laid a hoof on Goldie's tiny fetlock. "Sweetie, I know you like Papa's cocoa, but we can't really provide it to the festival now. He never wrote it down, and I can't remember how to make it." She drew her hoof back and looked down. "If I did, perhaps it'd help preserve his memory in this town more. It feels like everyone's forgotten about him already."

Silver glanced at Goldie, who was looking at their mother in confusion. He knew that she was referencing that filly they met on the beach earlier, but he wasn't sure he wanted to tell that to Mom. She was already feeling down about not being able to preserve a fond memory of their father. After all, if there was anything that the entire town enjoyed from their family, it was that of Noble Metal's special mix of hot cocoa, shared between Noble's co-workers and his family on regular winter days, and served to the town at the Halterside Hearth's Warming festival. And now that he was gone, how long would it be until something else fills that little niche?

He sighed internally. If it hadn't been for that stupid Haunted Lighthouse attraction on Nightmare Night...

However, that was when he quickly realized that his father had shared the recipe with somepony: his only son, Silver Shill. He had told him the ingredients to use and how much for a single cup, and how many stirs were required for an even mixing. If he could multiply it by a certain number, then maybe he could make his own brew of the special cocoa.

He choked out, "Say, uh... Mom?"

Crystal tilted her head. "What is it, Silver?"

"Pop taught me the recipe. You think I could serve it this year?"

Author's Note:

Here's my little Hearth's Warming fic, based on a throwaway line in Brotherly Bonding Time.

It was originally going to be a oneshot, but then I realized that it was getting way too long, so I opted instead to split it into parts. I'm estimating that it'll be five parts.

In other news, Pearly Whites and Comedy Gold behave like my sisters. My sisters argue a lot.