Eris' game

by Java Joe

Meet the Grandparents

Life for Twilight and Rick took on a whole new meaning once Twyla was born. There were midnight feedings, diaper changes and a new respect for what their parents had gone through. There were times, especially when Twyla was fussing or simply wouldn't stop crying, that he suspected she was doing this on purpose just to mess with them. But then he remembered that she was just a baby and such things made no sense.

They were however confronted with a problem. After a few days of rest in Equestria, they had to make the trip back to Earth if for no other reason than to introduce her to her grandparents and to register her birth. Foals in Equestria mature a lot faster than their human counterparts so how would this affect their daughter?

It's not just a simple matter of having her cross the portal, she would effectively have to learn two separate forms. A pony form in Equestria and a human form on Earth. Typically, after a month or so, foals were walking and in some cases saying their first words. On Earth, a baby won't walk unaided for at least a year and other than babbling wouldn't start to make any sense until about the second year.

But those were questions and issues for the future. Right now, they had to bring Twyla to the other side. Celestia had assured them that this would not harm the foal in any way but they were still nervous about doing so.

In order to make the transition smoother, they decided to place Twyla in a basket and then push or pull her over. There was a slight cut in magic when making the crossing so Twilight couldn't use her horn and Rick's jaws weren't strong enough in his human form to hold onto the baby. So it was either awkwardly try to hold her while making the transition or push or pull her through some other way. It wasn't exactly dignified, but Twyla was only a baby so she didn't know any better.

They needn't have worried, Twyla made the transition with no ill effects and probably didn't even realise anything untoward had happened to her. As usual, there was that momentary feeling of vertigo in switching from quadruped to biped but they were so used to it by now that it hardly bothered them.

Rick picked up the basket and brought the newest member of their family upstairs to her new room. When she had been safely put into her crib, Rick called out for Twilight to see where she was.

"I'm in here, " she said a little distantly from the master bedroom.

Rick walked in and saw Twilight staring at her figure in the full length mirror in their room. She had her hands on her belly, noting the flaccid state it was in as well as the extra weight she was carrying. She sighed and looked at Rick, a slightly worried expression on her face. He walked up to her, took her in his arms and hugged her.

"Don't worry about that, you've been carrying a new life inside you for the past several months and it's normal that your belly is like that. It will go away in time, you just need to eat right, exercise and you'll see in a couple of months it'll barely be noticeable. And hey, " he said pulling back a bit, "look what it did for you here, " he said gently touching her swollen breasts.

"Did you hear me complaining about the breasts?" she said looking him straight in the eye. "It's just, I look in the mirror and I don't recognise myself anymore."

"I recognise you Twilight and you're still the same woman in my eyes no matter how you look."

"Thanks, " she said bringing him in close and squeezing him tight. "I think it's time to get dressed and see if there's anything here that still fits me. Where did I put my sweat pants?"

Once dressed they went downstairs, relaxed a bit and it was time to call the grandparents.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Twilight asked.

"No, but that's never stopped me before, " Rick answered.

The phone rang twice before his mother picked up. "Rick? Is that you?"

"Yes mother, it's me. We're back home, just made it through the door and Twyla is upstairs sleeping, " then as if on cue Twyla's cries were heard downstairs and Twilight went upstairs to check on her. "Actually sounds like she's awake now, Twi's gone upstairs to check on her."

"That's nice dear. So your father and I will be coming over and should be there this evening around 6pm. You're okay with us staying for the next few weeks?"

"Of course mother, I wouldn't have it any other way. The guest room is all set up for you, and I hope you're going to like what we did with the house."

"I hope so too. See you in a couple of hours."

"Bye Mum, " Rick said and hung up the phone. He went upstairs to check on Twilight and the baby. He found her sitting in the baby's room, rocking gently back and forth with Twyla at her breast.

"It's a little different this way than as a pony isn't it?" he said with a smile.

"Yes it is, but it doesn't really feel any different. So what did your parents say?"

"They're going to be here in a couple of hours and as we discussed they're going to be staying for the next few weeks. So I'm heading out to the market to get some supplies, afterwards I'll make a quick stop to Equestria and basically tell Spike or whomever is there that we'll be incommunicado for a few weeks while my folks are here."

"Okay, have fun."

"Anything in particular you want or need?"

"Can't think of anything right now, but I'll let you know."

"Cool, " he gave her a quick kiss and gently stroked his daughter's cheek before leaving.

The nearby grocery store was a pretty small and local affair and had been family run for several generations. Rick knew the current owner, not that that was surprising as it serviced a small community but he was the same man that owned it back when his grandparents owned the house and he used to come up here for the summer. He walked in and was immediately greeted by the owner who was currently behind the cash.

"Hey there Rick! Haven't seen you in a couple weeks. Your wife had that baby yet?"

"Afternoon Mr. Johnson, yeah we had a girl a few days ago, just brought her back home now and my folks are coming up to stay for a few weeks. I need to get some emergency supplies before they show up."

"That's great news son! What's her name?"

"Twyla, 6 pounds & 3 ounces or 2.8 kilos, " he said making up the numbers on the spot. People expected the weight to be told so he just went with it.

"She sounds precious. Congratulations!"

"Thanks Mr. Johnson. I'd love to stay and chat but I'm on a bit of a schedule. You know how my wife is with her schedules, " Rick said with a wink.

"I've been married for 50 years son. Trust me, I know all about it. Get what you need, I'll see you when you're ready to pay."

Rick wandered through the store checking out the produce and the other options. He didn't have much time for cooking something really fancy tonight, they had pasta back home so he'd do something with that and some kind of seafood. This would be paired with a nice salad, some garlic bread and he needed something for dessert. But what? A pint basket of fresh strawberries caught his eye and he had the answer.

"Okay, so that's 2 pounds of frozen shrimp, some heavy cream, French bread, a dozen eggs, 1 pound tomatoes, bunch of radishes, scallions, red pepper, cucumber and a pint of strawberries. That'll be $20.00 total, and here's something for your daughter." He pulled out a small plush toy that made Rick smile because of the irony.

"Mr. Johnson, thank you but it's not necessary, " Rick said as he handed the money over. It was a little more costly than the large supermarket but that was not only further away but he felt better helping out the small local businessman especially one he knew for so long.

"Nonsense son, you've been coming here every summer since the time you were a kid. Your grandparents and your mother were good customers of mine and I hope that you and your family stay that way."

He took the plush toy, thanked the owner and walked out with his groceries. On the drive back home he wondered how Twilight would react to the toy.

"Hey babe, I'm home!" he called out as he brought the bag into the kitchen and started putting things away. There was no answer from upstairs. He walked to the foot of the stairs and listened, there was no sound coming from the upper level of the house. He made his way slowly upstairs just in case Twi or the baby were sleeping but both the baby's room and the master bedroom were empty. He was about to check the portal just in case she had gone back to Equestria for whatever reason when he heard her voice coming through the open window. Cursing himself for overreacting, he went downstairs and onto the back porch where Twilight had taken little Twyla out for some fresh air.

Taking the plush toy with him he walked out onto the back porch. "Hey you, " he said, "I'm back, going to get a few things prepped for dinner but I needed to show you what Mr. Johnson at the store gave me for Twyla."

He pulled out the toy from behind his back and Twilight was shocked by what it was. It was a small violet coloured unicorn with a black mane. Almost an exact match for Twyla in her pony form.

"Take a look at this. How awesome a co-incidence is this?" Rick said holding out the toy.

"I'm shocked and amazed, " she said taking the toy from him. She turned it over in her hands, looking at it from every angle. "How is this possible?"

"Honestly it looks like a Beanie Baby knock off. My guess is he had bought this a long time ago, it didn't sell and he's been trying to get rid of it ever since. I do suggest we try to wash it before giving it to her to play with."

"Good idea." She gave the toy back to Rick then asked, "so what did you get?"

"We're not doing anything fancy tonight. Seafood pasta, a salad, garlic bread and dessert which involves strawberries."

"Sounds yummy."

"So I need to do some prep work, and notify Equestria of our lack of communication for the next little while. You stay here, regain your strength and if you need me you know where to call." A quick kiss and Rick was back in the kitchen.

He could wait to start the dessert later, but it would keep in the fridge and it saved him some time later if he started it now. There would be 4 of them for dinner, so he'd need 4 egg yolks. Looking at the egg whites he was already thinking of making a pavlova for later that week especially if the strawberries were as good as they looked.

He set some water to simmer on the stove and added a generous splash of masala to the yolks along with some sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of grated lemon peel. Whisking it all up until it was smooth, he waited for the water to start to boil.

Placing the bowl over the now gently boiling water, he started to whisk the egg mixture as much as he could. The idea was to cook the eggs while not letting them curdle which was not an easy thing. It took some time, but the constant whisking incorporated air into the mixture and you wound up with a light type of custard the Italians called "zabaglione". He covered the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in the fridge to cool.

Next on the list was the strawberries, they needed to be cleaned and hulled. A quick check when he cut into them showed they were dark red all the way through and sweet enough to not require any sugar. Excellent. He'd have to see Mr. Johnson again to get some more. Those also were covered and went in the fridge.

Not much else to do right now but the water that was still simmering on the stove gave him an idea. He started to heat up the water again, but added some sugar and freshly grated ginger and allowed the mixture to simmer for several minutes. In a large jug he juiced about 8 limes, added a handful of mint leaves, filled it with ice and added the filtered ginger / sugar water to it. Topping it off with some cold water he now had some fresh limeade with a bit of a kick.

Taking out two large glasses, he added to them a shot of gin and filled the glass the rest of the way with the limeade and brought them outside.

"Care for something to drink?" Rick asked.

"You're wonderful, you know that? I was just about to ask you to bring me a glass of water or something." Twilight took the glass from him and took a sip. "Mmmmm, perfect. I knew there was a reason why I married you."

"You mean besides my manly charm, boyish good looks, freakish brilliance and skill in the kitchen as well as in the bedroom?"

"Yeah, we'll go with that, " she said with a smile. They clinked their glasses together, the ice making a tinkling sound as they did and just sat back and enjoyed the solitude.

Glancing at his watch Rick saw it was pretty late. "Hell, it's already 5 and my folks will be here in about an hour. Look, I'll go tell Spike what's going on and then we can get ready and be set up for them when they show up. My guess is that they'll be hungry so we might as well be ready to eat when they get here."

Rick ran off, down to the basement where he entered the hallway to get to Equestria. He stripped off his clothes, bounded through the doorway and was greeted with silence. Nopony was here in the library, the door appeared to be locked so that probably meant that Spike was out for the rest of the day and the library was closed. He grabbed a quill and parchment and scribbled, "please do not enter until we come tell you it's okay, " and signed it with his name. Sticking it to the door, he closed it behind him and hurriedly pulled his clothes on before running back upstairs. Had he thought about this for a moment he would have realised that not only was his handwriting atrocious even as a human, he could still barely write Equestrian.

"Everything set?" Twilight asked him when he came back up the stairs.

"Yeah, we're all good. If you want to get the table ready, I'll get started on dinner."

It wasn't long after Rick started cooking that there was a knock on the door and his parents finally showed up laden to bear with gifts for the baby and several suitcases.

Greetings were made, his Mother cried on seeing her first Granddaughter, Twyla started to cry at some point, Twilight did her best to comfort the baby, nothing was really out of the ordinary.

Rick excused himself to go back into the kitchen and his father followed him. Rick offered him a glass of the spiked limeade which he accepted gratefully.

"Hope we're not putting you out by staying. It's your Mother's idea, I figured the two of you could handle this considering that neither of you is working now."

"Dad, we're glad to have you here and with Twi's money she got from her grandfather not to mention the money we made on selling the old house we don't actually need to work. We've talked even of putting in some grapes in the fields back there and trying our hands at making wine. We can't plant until next year but the soil seems to be good for it so we'll see."

"Hey, I'm, your father, it's my job to worry about you and make sure you're doing your best. I know you're capable of taking care of yourself as well as your wife and daughter. You're a smart boy Rick. And you make a damn fine drink, " he said reaching for the pitcher to refill his glass.

"Thanks Dad, now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to finishing dinner. I'm assuming you guys are hungry after your trip?"

Twilight walked in at that point and noticed her father-in-law refilling his glass. "Walter please, let me do that, " she said walking forward and reaching for the pitcher.

He pulled it away saying, "none of that now Twilight. The only thing you're doing tonight is sitting and regaling us with embarrassing stories of Rick and the things he's done, " he said with a smile and a wink. In many ways, he and Rick were very similar but as the old saying goes the apple never falls far from the tree.

"Oh woe is me, my wife betraying my trust and trying to get in good with my parents at my expense, " Rick said with an overly melodramatic gesture.

"C'mon Twilight, " Walter said pulling some glasses from the cupboard and picking up the pitcher, "let's leave the master here in charge of the kitchen and we'll make fun of him in the living room just loud enough so he can hear us."

Twilight giggled at all this, liking the interplay between her husband and father-in-law knowing that they enjoyed this kind of banter.

"Yeah yeah, you just leave now but remember I'm the one cooking dinner and I know which plate is going to be yours so be nice."

Rick quickly went back to what he was doing. The salad didn't require much work, just tear up the romaine and a quick couple swipes on the mandoline and the veggies were sliced. The dressing was a quick vinaigrette that everybody enjoyed because of the garlic, and as he was making garlic bread it wasn't hard to crush an extra bulb or two for it.

He sautéed the shrimp in a little bit of garlic, scallions, butter and white wine before adding the chopped tomatoes and letting that simmer for a bit. When it was done, he added some of the heavy cream and some freshly chopped basil before pulling it off the stove and adding the drained pasta. Mixing well to ensure that the sauce was well incorporated, he removed it from the heat and the ding of the timer assured that the garlic bread could be taken from under the broiler.

"Okay, if everybody wants to take their seats?" he called from the kitchen and everybody made their way to the dining room.

Rick figured they wouldn't stand on ceremony tonight and instead of plating everything individually just put out the bowls and platters on the table and allowed everybody to help themselves to what they wanted.

As they ate, Discord sat and waited. He was pretty much useless in this body, no power of which to speak of and he was reduced to the barest of influence. On the full grown ponies... or humans in this case it was like an afterthought. He couldn't control their minds or make them do anything they didn't want to. But with Twyla however, her mind was still developing which meant he could affect her greatly. Unfortunately this came out as nothing more than crying or fussing although he could see that it bothered Rick especially if he was in the middle of something and Twilight couldn't get to the baby in time. He did however take this with good grace which was something Discord didn't want. He wanted them angry, he wanted strife, he wanted chaos but hopefully one of his little plans would come to fruition.

It was he that sent Rick back to Equestria when the library would be empty and to leave a note thinking it was okay. In his haste, Rick started to write in his dreadful Equestrian but then switched to English partway through without realising it. When Spike, or whomever found the note they wouldn't heed the warning not to come and might actually come through. The chaos that would erupt when Rick's parents found out about this would be glorious. So he sat back and waited for what he hoped would happen soon.

"That was delicious Rick, " Rick's mother said when she finished her meal. "It's a shame you never went on to become a chef."

"Thank you, but I couldn't stand working in a hot kitchen in the middle of the summer, sweating like you wouldn't believe and having people yell at you to get the dish out right away. Nah, I was much happier working from home as a developer."

"Well I'm not complaining about that, " Twilight said. "If it wasn't for you working from home we might never have met and I got the best of both worlds because you still cook."

"What do you mean dear? If Rick was working at home, how did you meet him at the library?"

Twilight was caught like a deer in the headlights but Rick came to her aid. "I had reserved a book online and went in early in the morning to pick it up. That's when I met Twi, we talked, took her out for breakfast a couple times and we just went from there."

"Well, if everybody is done, I'll clear the table and bring out the dessert."

Rick cleared the table, arranged the berries in some stemmed glasses and topped them off with the zabaglione and a touch of whipped cream. Bringing them to the table, there were compliments all around at how good it looked and then compliments on how well it tasted.

As they talked, and enjoyed their dessert nobody heard the door downstairs open and close. It seems somepony had read the note and without knowing what it said decided to come through and check out what was going on.

Discord sensed this and rejoiced. "Yes! We're going to have some fun now!"

The person took a few faltering steps, unused to only walking on 2 feet but quickly re-gained the hang of it and made her way upstairs.

"Hello? Is there anypony home?" she called as she walked up the stairs.

Rick and Twilight froze on hearing the voice. It couldn't be but there was no mistaking it. Before either one could rush out to stop her, she walked in dressed in what appeared to be a toga of sorts and stopped when she saw there was company.

"Oh hello there, please excuse my interruption, my name is Celestia".

Comments

[Sweet Tale]

Manure is about to strike the circular cooling device...

[Triv_]

Oh snap! this should be good!

[Aziraphael]

lol, this is gonna be hilarious. Celestia the hippie has arrived.

On a separate note, Discord better not do any permanent damage to Twyla. Given what Twilight did to Trixie for hurting Rick, if he does anythign to Twyla I'm fairly certain that all the magical power in Equestria won't be enough to save him....

[Norden Guard]

1176226
OH GOOD GOD HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Celestia the hippie HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU KILL ME HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Genesis1212]

Celetia in a toga? Strangly fitting but holy shit this is getting good! :D I hope the chaos is kept to a minimal in this encounter o.0 oh boy