//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Nap Time // Story: The Uncle // by Alaborn //------------------------------// The Uncle By Alaborn Standard disclaimer: This is a not for profit fan work. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyright Hasbro, Inc. I make no claim to any copyrighted material mentioned herein. Chapter 4: Nap Time After getting both foals inside, Evan worked to free Rose Aurora from the carrier while Darlene dealt with the groceries. “Maybe we should have invited April Showers to come in,” Darlene said. “I never thought you’d say that. Why?” She picked up a bag with vegetables in her mouth. “Have you ever made pizza?” “All the time,” Evan replied. “You take the pizza out of the freezer, remove the plastic wrapper and the cardboard disc, and put it in the oven.” “I’m serious,” Darlene said. “Mom likes to make flatbreads from scratch. It’s similar. Of course, she used a recipe book.” “Maybe Rose has recipes?” “It’s worth a check,” Evan said. “First, let’s get these two to bed. Stonehoof?” “No,” the colt said. “Yes,” Evan said, and picked up the colt by the nape of his neck. Stonehoof whined and complained, but Evan ignored him. He deposited the colt unceremoniously on his bed. “Not tired,” Stonehoof said. “You’ve been playing all day. You need to sleep so you can grow big and strong.” “No.” The room was bright, so Evan pulled the curtains closed. “You need your nap.” “No.” He picked up his blanket in his mouth, draped it over the colt, and tucked him in securely. “No.” “Have a nice nap,” Evan said as he left the room, closing the door behind him. Evan found Darlene in the master bedroom, putting Rose Aurora in her crib. “How is she?” he asked. “Dry and not crying. I think she’s ready to nap, but she pretty much sleeps all day anyway.” “That’s one less thing to worry about.” They set the filly in the crib and quietly left the room. “Okay. Let’s get the food put away, and then we can look for a recipe book,” Evan said. They put the milk and other perishable food items in the icebox, and then looked around the kitchen. The system of cupboards and shelves was a lot like a human kitchen. Evan wondered why, since he had to fly to reach the top shelves, and Rose would find it even harder to access them without horn or wings. The kitchen was well-stocked with dry goods, pots, pans, and cooking implements, not at all arranged in a logical order. But there, tucked in one corner, was a bundle of yellowed papers. He picked one up. “Jackpot!” he said. “You found it?” Darlene asked. “I found recipes, I think. Hand-written.” “Is there one for pizza?” “Let’s find out.” Evan started to flip through the recipes. They weren’t particularly organized, but he did find a section with several kinds of bread. “Dandelion and chopped hay bread?” Evan said. “Eww,” Darlene said. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s good, but I wouldn’t want it to be in my stomach when we go back.” “Keep looking,” she said. “No, no, no... here we go!” Evan said, pulling out a paper. “Just pizza dough?” “The dough’s the hard part. The rest is ingredients to taste, right?” “Okay, let’s get everything....” Darlene paused as she noticed something on the recipe. “Yeast? I know we didn’t buy that.” “Maybe there’s some in the pantry?” After some searching, Evan found the yeast, along with olive oil. Both items looked store-bought, with plain typewritten white labels, not at all like the colorful labels he knew from back home. Even store brands had attractive labels nowadays. Darlene picked up the large earthenware pot with the word “flour” painted on it, and brought it to Evan. She set it down, and then yawned furiously. “Tired?” Evan said. “I feel like I’m forcing myself to stay awake after being up for twenty-four hours,” Darlene said. “Why don’t you take a nap? It’s not like making the dough takes two people.” “You don’t mind?” “Go. Keep Rose Aurora safe in dreamland.” “I’m a batpony. That doesn’t mean I can dreamwalk, you know,” Darlene said. “I just mean keeping her company.” “Oh. Then goodnight. Or good afternoon, or whatever.” Darlene left, and Evan got to work. For some reason, the recipe used the measurements he knew, cups and tablespoons and teaspoons. Whether that was the same magic that let him speak and read the language, or one of those weird coincidences, he didn’t know. He mixed the dry ingredients and yeast in a large bowl, using a large wooden spoon held in his mouth, and then added the oil and warm water. He stirred, and soon had a big clump of dough. The next step was to knead it. Evan looked at his hooves, the hooves he walked on through grassy fields and dirt roads, the hooves that manipulated Rose Aurora’s dirty diapers. When it came to cooking, ponies just had to be used to that. He washed his hooves thoroughly, and then noticed what appeared to be rubber hoof gloves resting next to the sink. He grabbed those and put them on; they were loose, but fit over his hooves. He took a wooden cutting board, dusted it with flour, and dumped the dough onto it. Five seconds later, both hoof coverings were lost, stuck to the dough. He put them back on, covered them in flour, and then went back to kneading. After some work, he had a beautiful ball of dough. Following the recipe, he put it back in the bowl, and then covered it with a cloth to rest. The recipe said it needed an hour to rise. Evan peeled off the gloves and sat down in one of the chairs at the kitchen table. The gloves had kept his hooves free of dough, and hopefully the dough free of dirt, but some of the dough had gotten into the hair of his fetlocks. It was already starting to dry, and the feeling of the dried dough in his coat was annoying. After trying a few things, the only one that worked was using his mouth, biting away at the offending dough. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience. But once it was done, Evan was finally free to relax. He leaned back, relishing the feeling of a job well done, enjoying the pleasant temperature and the faint sound of wind chimes. Then Evan noticed two things. Looking out the window at the still rose bushes, there wasn’t any wind today. And the sound was coming from the master bedroom, not outside. Evan jumped to his hooves and dashed to the bedroom. Darlene was asleep, curled into a little ball on top of the bed, head tucked under one wing. And Rose Aurora was up and awake, playing with the mobile above her crib. She batted at the metal suns, moons, and stars, which explained the metallic chiming. And that was the problem. The mobile was above her crib, where the filly shouldn’t be able to reach it. But there she was, hovering above her crib, her horn glowing bright pink. And judging by the tingling of his feathers, Rose Aurora was releasing a lot of magic. “Darlene! Get up!” Evan shouted. Darlene stirred. “Wha...?” she said groggily. “Rose Aurora’s having a magic surge!” “What?” She opened her eyes, and saw the floating filly. “What do we do?” “Crud, what did Jason say? Talk to her? Hold her?” “We better get her. If her surge fades, she’s going to fall!” To get to her, Evan started flying. He promptly bumped his head on the ceiling. The bedroom wasn’t that large, and he wasn’t used to flying indoors. Focusing on his wings, he flapped gently, settling into a hover, before flying towards his niece. “Come here, Rose Aurora. That’s a good girl,” he whispered. The filly was still focused on the mobile, so Evan was able to scoop her into his forelegs. But Rose Aurora started screaming, and reached out to the mobile. Her horn flared even brighter, and she disappeared from Evan’s grasp. The accompanying magical surge made Evan’s wings seize, and he fell to the ground, knocking over the crib. “Evan!” Darlene shouted. “I’m okay,” he said, getting to his hooves. “Where’s Rose Aurora?” “She’s hanging there!” The filly had apparently teleported due to her surge, and was now hanging from the mobile. It was not designed to hold the filly’s weight, though, and the mobile fell from the ceiling. “Look out!” Darlene said. Evan moved to catch the filly, and Darlene jumped into the air, looking to intercept her fall. They ended up colliding with each other. Darlene got to her hooves first, rubbing her sore head. “Where did she go?” Evan looked around, and didn’t see the filly. “I think I felt another powerful surge through my wings. So maybe she teleported again?” They searched the bedroom, not seeing or hearing Rose Aurora. They then started looking around the house. “Rose Aurora? Where are you?” they called softly. She wasn’t in the living room, and they didn’t see her in the kitchen. But Evan thought he heard something. He raised a hoof and said “Shhhh.” They waited, and heard the faint sound of the filly giggling from... somewhere. “Did she get in one of the cabinets?” Darlene asked. “One way to find out.” They opened the cabinets. At first, everything looked normal, but they eventually found one cabinet with the sugar jar tipped over, with only the filly’s rump and pink tail visible. Evan pulled Rose Aurora out of the sugar jar. She was completely coated in sugar, and her surge still hadn’t dissipated. Thinking fast, he started rubbing her horn with one fetlock. The sensation of touching raw magic was a strange one. It felt something like heat, something like static electricity, and like something Evan couldn’t describe. He talked to Rose Aurora softly, and she looked him in the eyes. Slowly her surge faded. “Is she done?” Darlene asked. As if in response, Rose Aurora started crying. “I bet she’s hungry,” Evan said. “That magic surge probably took a lot out of her.” “And she really needs a bath,” Darlene said. “Yeah, look at her horn,” Evan said. The magic had turned the sugar on her horn into caramel. He felt an itching on his foreleg, and noticed more of the caramel stuck in his coat. “Can you hold her?” Darlene held Rose Aurora while Evan prepared a bottle, using the milk they just purchased. Then he stuck his foreleg under the faucet. It turned out the only way to get the caramel out of his coat involved pulling out most of the hair. And even when he was done, it still itched. After finishing her bottle, Evan and Darlene took Rose Aurora to the bathroom, and drew a bath for her. It took more than half an hour to bathe the filly, with about half of the time spent trying to get her horn clean. They found a stiff wire brush to use on the horn, but even that had a hard time dealing with caramelized sugar. “Whew,” Darlene said once they finally got her dried off. “Okay. A fresh diaper, then back to bed with you,” Evan said to the filly. She gurgled happily in response. “How often do those surges happen?” Darlene asked. “I don’t know, but I have a new respect for my brother,” Evan replied. They righted the fallen crib and returned the filly to it. With Rose Aurora safely back in her crib, Evan turned to Darlene. “Are you going back to sleep?” he asked. “After all that excitement, no way that’s happening,” she replied. They left the bedroom, closing the door behind them. Evan then stopped. “Stonehoof!” he said. “What?” “We should check on him,” he said. Evan quietly opened the door to Stonehoof’s room. Despite all the commotion, the little colt was fast asleep. “Oh, yeah, he wasn’t tired at all,” Evan said.