//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 5: Snubbles 
// Story: My New Life in Equestria: Helping Has Its Ups and Downs 
// by HAZESHIFT 
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For the Sparkle-Allen household, Saturdays could be many different things. they could have family and friend events, royal events, things from other universes coming into theirs to do whatever, or them going to another universe to help with some kind of problem. Or on the somewhat rare occasion where nothing happened, Dan, Twilight, and young Gaia and Hope took the time to relax like any other family would.

So at noon after a small lunch when they found themselves not being pulled in any way by a bunch of random things the family found themselves in the library. Twilight sat upon one of the couches with Gaia sitting snugly between her forelegs. Two books sat on the other end of the couch.  One was a large picture book lay flat against the cushion at the perfect position for Gaia to look at and the other was a complex science textbook which rested on the edge of the top of the sofa arm, kept straight with just a little magic from Twilight. They seemed to be in sync when reading because everytime Twilight turned a page Gaia followed. But if anyone paid attention like Twilight was they could carefully glance at the little colt, who every once and awhile while looking at the pages quickly glanced up at his mother to see if she was nearing the end of her page. Twilight being the mother she was, did notice this and simply smiled and didn't let on that she knew what her colt was doing. Dan, on the other hand, was on the couch opposite from them, laying on his side and taking up the whole length of the couch and having quite a nice nap. 

That was until a small muted thud sounded in the room, a thud just loud enough to shake the slumber of the human, a thud only loud enough because the sound came from something hitting the couch he was sleeping on. Dan's eyes briefly cracked open and the light the filtered in caused his to quickly close his eyes to preserve his slumber. his mind barely had time to think before another thud sounded. This time Dan did open his eyes. the first thing that started to come into focus was Twilight and Gaia, so he obviously had to rule them out. he pondered as the thud came again and this time he decided to move finally and looked over the edge of the couch. When he did he was greeted by big purple-blue eyes staring up at him with determination and just a tiny bit of indignation. 

"No! Nap!" Hope, his tiny daughter which he cared for more than just about everything chirped up at him. Gaia and she hadn't learned many words, but those two were definitely ones Dan knew that she could say.  Dan simply raised an eyebrow at her, wondering what context of those two words was. He looked up and his eye caught Twilight who was watching their daughter now staring up at her father, and with a gentle head shake, he told her silently that she didn't need to do anything.  looking back down he looked at his daughter who approached the couch. and with all the power her small legs could muster she jumped and reached for the top of the couch cushion. except she had nowhere near enough muscle power to make it even close, resulting in her hitting the side of the cushion and making the muted thump that had woken him up. slowly dan moved his arm and began to reach down to grab his daughter but when she noticed spoke again.

"No!" she chirped again this time pointing at him directly before saying "Nap!" as if she was commanding him to nap. "Snubbles" she then proclaimed pointing to herself. Dan didn't exactly know what she meant since he knew that "snubbles" definitely wasn't a word. So he pulled his hand back and watched as Hope surveyed the room. She looked the couch up and down as if she was doing some kind of science experiment. she looked around the room as best she could before Dan saw her lock eyes with something. He watched her scamper off, her hooves making dull almost imperceptible thuds on the floor as she ran off. less than a minute went by before she came back with a book. she pushed it, huffing and puffing slightly since it was a book that could be considered bigger than her. she set it down right near the edge of the couch before once again running off. Dan watched her as she repeated this multiple time. bringing books and stacking them on their sides and on top of each other. after awhile he was able to see that she had made a little book staircase that was just about level with the top of the couch cushion.. satisfied with her work. Hope ascended her staircase to the top and prepared to jump. once again she crouched low and sprung herself, managing to get half of her body onto the couch cushion while her rear legs dangle and kicked off the edge.  unbeknownst to her when she did Dan's magic went through the bottom of the cushion and gave her a slight push from behind which allowed her to get herself fully on top of the cushion.

When she realized she was up she stood up and turned around and held her head high as if to say to the world "I did it!" before turning to her father. in a few steps, she found a spot right in his midsection where his chest met his stomach. she spun around once before settling down and cozying up to her father. "Snubbles," she said once again as she yawned and then closed her eyes and began her own nap cuddling with her father for warmth.

Dan simply looked at Twilight again who looked like she wanted to laugh, but the precious silence they had was too good to disturb. Instead, she went back to reading her book with Gaia and Dan moved his arm down and around his daughter before closing his eyes once again and falling asleep with a little ball of warmth next to him.