Micro Meddling (or, Journey to the Centre of the Cute)

by Lukington17


Chapter 1: Playtime A

There were only 27 minutes to go. Crispin Clefnote and his mare Louise watched the front door eagerly - as the day was drawing to a close, their eyes stayed fixed on both the lane outside and the clock. "She's going to make us late, hun". The stallion stared out the window nervously, adjusting his tie whilst his mare fiddled with her dress zip. Behind them, the foals were restless but the opera wasn't going to wait for them much longer.

"I told you we should've hired a proper sitter, Crispin," Louise chided her husband.

"Don't be silly, Mihay ensured us his daughter was capable of the responsibility now, hun. We need to show our encouragement. She's been lazing around too much recently."

Louise nodded, "Yes I remember last month's picnic. Cuteamena didn't raise a hoof to help." As she spoke, a loud ZAP erupted behind them, and they turned in shock: the twins were simply firing harmless playful zaps at each other, and they both sighed. "I hope she won't need to raise a hoof with these two..."

The opera was starting in 30 minutes on the other side of town, and the couple were fearing the worst when, mercifully, over the horizon and walking towards the house appeared a young blue mare. Her pink bow bounced in her mane as she trotted happily to the door and spoke, "Sorry I'm a bit late, I had trouble locking the door." The young mare blushed with a guilty expression as she held a set of keys in her mouth.

The parents looked serious but Crispin offered a smile. "It's okay, Cuteamena. Better late than never. Now, pay attention because we really have to set off in a minute." As Crispin talked Cuteamena through the twins' evening routine, Louise tried to control the foals as they were eager to follow the pair. Ever since their first meeting with Cuteamena at a family dinner, the twins had really seemed to like her - Louise felt reassured by this, but even still, she couldn't help but feel a little nervous about leaving her babies in the hands of a young mare. What if that pesky coltfriend of hers showed up?, she thought. Does Cuteamena know where our fire extinguisher is? I bet she remembers where the fridge is.... As Crispin returned with the mare, the parents proceeded to put their coats on. Crispin finally handed Cuteamena a list of things to do, phone numbers etc., and opened the door. "Remember: if there's anything you're unsure about, drop us a message. I'll be more than happy to step outside the thea-" Louise bumped him disapprovingly. "Erm...yeah, just stay in touch. Don't give them too much sugar; they've been baking cookies already today. And make sure they're in bed by 8pm!" At this moment, the phone decided to ring, much to Crispin's frustration; he answered it aggressively. "Yes?"

"Hi Crispin, it's me. Just wanted to make sure everything's all set." Mihay spoke calmly in such a way that Crispin felt at ease himself.

"Ah, Mihay. Yes all is well, we're just setting off. I've told Cuteamena what to do but she remembers where everything is."

"Perfect. I'll give her a call to check up as well. Enjoy your evening." As their call ended, Cuteamena rolled her eyes in annoyance. Crispin, however, was comforted. Mihay and Crispin had been friends for a couple of years now and their families had stayed close; they were both family stallions who valued loyalty and affection. Crispin and Louise's impressionable twins - Christian and Lulu - were themselves a few years old and were growing increasingly curious about everything they were exposed to, whilst Cuteamena, on the other hand, was somewhat irresponsible. It always confused him why Mihay's daughter could get so clumsy sometimes, but as family friends he knew it was important to support one another.

"Awww my wittle babykins - be good tonight, okay?" Louise's babytalk received a groan from Crispin and a snigger from Cuteamena.

Cuteamena waved the couple off from the porch, with the twins at her feet. "Don't worry Mr and Mrs C, I got this! They'll stay right under my nose - enjoy the opera!"

-----

"Okay, when the cat's away...the mice will play" Cuteamena smirked at the twins, and they gleefully jumped up and down.

"Yay! Playtime!" Christian cheered, as Lulu rolled around on the floor.

Cuteamena turned on the TV and looked into the kitchen. "Now, who wants some ice-cream?!"

"Meeeeee!" the twins cheered, and Christian flapped his little wings towards the fridge eagerly.

"Woah there lil' Chris" Cuteamena said, putting him down and opening the fridge herself. "I'll be doing the serving... in bucketloads!" She got out a scooper and gave the twins big bowls of the frozen treat.

"Cuteamena is the best!" Lulu said, getting chocolate ice-cream all around her mouth.

"Awww, call me 'Cutea' little sweetipie" the mare said, licking her hoof and wiping Lulu's face, much to the filly's scrunched displeasure.

"Haha you got Cutea spit on your face" Chris chuckled, so Cutea smirked and did the same to his messy face.

Lulu noticed some trays of food with a note on them. "Shouldn't we be having mummy's dinner, Cutea?"

Cutea shrugged: "well we could do that...or we could have a BAKING CONTEST!" She noticed Chris holding a rolling-pin and the twins jumped excitedly. She gave them some little chef hats to wear and gave them some fun ingredients like cookie dough, icing sugar, ice cream, sweets, chocolate - as well as butter, flour, eggs etc. "Make something yummy - GO!" She yelled, and the twins started making a mess and playing around. Eventually, the kids had assembled some concoctions on their plates, covered in flour and dough. Chris kept trying to prod Lulu with his rolling-pin, so she ruffled his mane with her whisk. "Okay, let's try Lulu's first..." Cutea picked up the plate of pastry, which seemed to be a sweet-coated cookie but with all sorts of random ingredients like dry pasta and raisins. With a slight look of hesitation, the mare bit into it and chewed in discomfort. "Mmmm, very good Lulu! This will be hard to beat."

Lulu smiled broadly but then looked worried: "mummy says it's bad to eat too much sweets though..."

Cutea shook her head and wiped her mouth of powdered sugar, "mummy's right in general, but this is just one night, right?" And with that, she eagerly picked up Chris' plate, which was a pile of whipped cream and icing sugar with chocolates in it. Cutea chewed happily but then her eyes widened. "Ow! Christian, what did you put in here?!" She stuck her tongue out wide and examined the mush. Chris blushed and looked rather guilty as Cutea fished out a pebble. "Christian, that was silly- I could've broken or chipped a tooth! So could you!"

The green colt stared downwards: "I wanted to win by being cweative..."

Cutea sighed and gave him a hug. "Aw, you know what? They're both really good. You both win the prize."

"What's the pwize, Cutea?" Lulu asked with big eyes.

Cutea handed them their plates. "The prize is the rest of your dishes!" She laughed as the kids shrugged and picked at their sweet treats. Once the three of them had eaten, Chris surprised Lulu by jumping from behind the sofa, which gave Cutea an idea. "Say kiddies, who wants to play hide-and-seek?! I bet you're good at this game." The twins immediately blasted off to various parts of the house, shouting to Cutea to count to 10. She giggled and then headed off to find them.

Chris had been waiting for more than 10 minutes in the cupboard, and was now convinced he had won. Lulu must've been found by now, he thought. Braving a look outside, the bedroom was quiet. He emerged and knocked the chest on the side, causing a picture-frame to fall down. He picked it up and funnily-enough noticed that the picture showed his parents with Mihay, and Cutea was even there with her dark-blue coltfriend. He carefully put it back and then headed out the room, and saw Lulu on the landing. She gestured to him to be quiet, and ushered him over. "Cwis, look..." she whispered, and peering down the steps Chris saw that Cutea was sitting with her back to the stairs, on the sofa in-front of the TV and with her face glued to her phone. "Do you fink she has a cheater game to find us?" Lulu asked. Chris shook his head, but gave a nod for them to go ask what happened.

Cutea was sitting, texting on her phone while the TV glared its lights on her in the gradually-darkening room. She let out a big sigh and nearly jumped up when the twins appeared beside her. "Cutea? Did you give up on the game?" they asked with puppy-dog eyes.

Cutea composed herself and ran a hoof through her mane. "Erm...yes. You both hid yourselves too well, I couldn't find you."

The foals looked at each other and with a gulp Chris touched Cutea's leg. "Cutea, are you okay?"

Cutea looked up, before nodding to the twins to join her up on the sofa. They rested their heads on her tummy and the only sound was the muffled TV commercials. "Everything is okay, Cutea's just a liiiittle annoyed with her coltfriend, kids. That's all."

"Why?" Lulu asked with a tremble.

"Because he's drinking naughty things again. Electric is a silly stallion, right kids?" She put her arms around the two little foals. They nodded, and looked at each other as Cutea's tummy let out a faint gurgle below their heads. She continued in a patronising tone, "he and his silly friends play in dangerous places". The thought of her coltfriend at the pub again was irritating her more and more.

"...What siwwy places, Cutea?" Lulu asked shyly.

Cutea stroked Lulu's mane softly and sighed, "ooooh, all sorts of places - big and small, high or low."

"Oh, I know a small one! Electric Bwoo have a wittle house in here, yes?" Chris pointed to Cutea's stomach.

Lulu looked confused, "don't be siwwy Cwis. How can a stawion have a house in there?!" Cutea rolled her eyes.

"Because daddy told me about- " Chris began, but Cutea interrupted.

She said: "...Because little Lulu, Electric likes to explore places most ponies shouldn't go. So, he makes himself super tiny so he can do that. And with me, he feels closer to me when he's inside my body. My body is his playground..." she explained, a tear in her eye as she felt bad now.

Lulu was curious as ever: "Can we go and pway inside?!"

Chris looked equally excited at this thought, "ooooh yeah, I wanna go see what's so fun!"

Cuteamena wiped her tear and chuckled, stroking the foals gently. "Nooooo no no, it's far too dangerous for little foals like you. I'm afraid that's a playground you can't go in." The foals looked disappointed, but Cutea put a children's show on TV and they watched it intently, laughing and playing along with its colourful characters. At one point, a donut-shaped character was talking to an eclaire and Cutea began to drool out of hunger, much to the twins' amusement.

"Silly Cutea, that's Donny Donut, you can't eat him!" Lulu laughed.

Cutea tickled Lulu a bit and then the twins snuggled up to her calmly. Eventually they began to doze off, so Cutea checked the time: 10:07. She gave them a nudge: "Right little ones, time for beddy-byes!" With a unanimous tired groan the two foals dragged themselves up the stairs behind Cutea, and she prepared them for bed by getting them changed into pyjamas.

"Psst, don't we have to bwush our teeth first?" Lulu prodded Chris, gesturing at her smile.

Cutea overheard and yawned loudly, "ah, it's too late for that - you're already in bed!" She gave a wink and pulled the blanket over the twins, as they snuggled up in their bed. "Go to sleep now, no meddling around. Goodnight little ones, sweet dreams." Satisfied with her job for the night at looking after the kids whilst still not being bossy, she checked her phone notification and frowned, heading back down to the sofa.