//------------------------------// // Picnics and Sandwiches // Story: What We Make of It // by Muse Rush //------------------------------// After the loud crash, Pinkie turned her head around the corner of the hallway and was met with the site of baking supplies all over the floor, Pumpkin staring back at her with a shocked expression, and Li'l Cheese trying to balance on a chair with a large pan on her head. It wasn't hard to put two and two together and figure out she had been trying to reach something in the top cupboards. Pinkie shook her head and sighed as she began cleaning the mess. Li'l Cheese instantly felt bad and started to help pick everything up as quickly as she could, being careful not to make an even bigger mess in the process. Seeing as everything was being taken care of, Pumpkin returned to the front counter. Pinkie and Li'l Cheese cleaned to a soft tune provided by Li'l Cheese. It wasn't until Pinkie stopped in the middle of picking up a pan and stared off into the distance that Li'l Cheese felt like she needed to say something. "Sorry mommy. ...uh...are you ok mama?" Li'l Cheese questioned, stopping her cleaning to sit as well. Pinkie blinked and shook her head before smiling. "Oh it's nothin' honey bun. It's just I never believed it when ponies say time seems to move faster as you get older, feels like just a couple years ago I first left the rock farm and came to live here. But it's a little hard to grasp that was so long ago." Pinkie scoffed at herself. Great, now I'm starting to sound like mom with all her existential talk. It was almost bittersweet to think of how dull her mother sounded when she was smaller. She quickly changed the subject on a vow not to sound boring to her daughter. "Welp! I think we're just about ready to start making the food! How about you go pick what you want to make and we'll bake it together." "Okie dokie lokie!" Li'l Cheese quickly sprung from the floor and began sifting through the cookbook. Shortly after all the supplies were gathered, the duo began their quest for pastries and candy. Pinkie, upon reviewing the contents layed on the counter, frowned, however she was clearly amused at the little act. "Come on, you know you better at least get something healthy in there or else you will feel sick." Before she could finish, a blur of yellow and pink passed her and slammed the fridge shut, tossing something new on the counter. "Tada! See how healthy I am?!" Li'l Cheese smiled as she presented a single carrot on the counter. She left the room before Pinkie could scold her on anything else and came back shortly later with a large picnic basket. "Come on! Let's get packin' mama!" She began throwing paper plates, napkins, and boxes of apple juice into the basket with unbelievable speed and precision. "Woah! Hold your horses! We gotta actually bake the stuff before we can put it in the basket." Pinkie held up a mixing bowl and gave it to the filly. Li'l Cheese blushed with embarrassment as she accepted the bowl and grabbed a whisk. Pinkie picked her up and placed her on a chair next to the counter so she could see better. As Pinkie began mixing ingredients in a different bowl, she started humming a tune all too familiar to Li'l Cheese; however, she never bothered to get to its origin. "Hey mama, how come you always sing that song when you bake?" Li'l Cheese propped her head up on her forearm and wiggled to the tune. Not realizing she was humming, Pinkie smiled in delight as she recalled the memory. "Well, you remember Applebloom right?" Li'l Cheese nodded before Pinkie continued. "Well when she was about your age, she was desperate for her cutie mark. So much so that she asked me to help her bake. She didn't believe that she could do very well so I made up a little song to help her get into the groove of things. Turns out even with the tune she wasn't very good at baking. But I still end up singing or humming it whenever I bake." She laughed a little while pouring the contents of the bowl into a baking pan. Li'l Cheese smiled widely as she handed her mix to Pinkie as well. Almost as soon as the pans were in the oven, Cheese Sandwich jumped in from the room over and hung an arm around each of the girls. "Finally finished! So you know what that means? It's picnic time my party pony pack!" He jumped while giving each a side hug and squeezing them. He grabbed a pre-made plate of snacks and held it up to the girls. "And what's a picnic without gouda and crackers! I already made all the snacking stuff and I see you two have all the sweets covered." Cheese winked as he peered over Li'l Cheese's head while continuing to walk through the kitchen. Upon looking at the mess on the counters, he squished between them. "You two look like you could use some help. Scooch your tooshes so I can get in on the action." He jumped in and grabbed one of the recipes that Li'l Cheese had picked out. Roughly an hour later, the small family was finally ready to head out the door. Cheese began lathering Li'l Cheese in sunscreen, much to her disapprovement. Pinkie put the now fully packed basket on her back. The trio waved goodbye to the Cake twins and started making their way towards the forest. Shortly after they left the center of Ponyville, Li'l Cheese tapped on Cheese's shoulder. "Hey daddy? Can I get a piggy back ride until we get there?" Cheese looked down at her. "Sure! Hop on, my cheesy kin!" Li'l Cheese grinned and jumped as high as she could, landing on Cheese's back. His head dipped down and quickly let out his breath. "Oof! Holy Celestia! You're getting big, kid! You gotta weigh at least as much as the sun!" Li'l Cheese laughed as he greatly exaggerated how heavy she really was. Seeing as she enjoyed the playful pokes, he decided to continue. "Oh how it feels like yesterday when you were born. We were freaking out because you were so small. When I held you, you barely fit in one of my arms. In fact, you were the size of a gummy bear ya know!" "Daddy." Li'l Cheese giggled. "I wasn't that small! I should know cause I was there!" She tried to use his own game against him, but in the end failing. "Oh quiet you. You were just an itty bitty baby, how could you remember such things. All you did was sleep and cry." "Well I'm magical, I have special powers that allow me to be more powerful than the most powerfulest alicorn princess in the entire world. I can see time, when everything starts, ends, and in the middle." "And I'm gonna cut you two off right there before that conversation takes a wacky and not to mention creepy, turn." Pinkie chuckled while putting a hoof in between the two earth ponies. Li'l Cheese frowned at her for cutting off their banter. The scowl quickly turned into laughter as they all climbed the hill that Fluttershy and Discord would normally sit during the tea parties they had outside of Discord's dimension. The family quickly laid out the picnic blanket underneath the singular oak tree and began dishing out the contents of the basket, which included a small celebratory cake, a couple of sandwiches, jello, and of course, some cheese custard. After eating their fill, the three could be seen at the bottom of the hill and at the edge of the forest playing with a ball and rubber chicken. Li'l Cheese would try and alternate between bouncing the ball and the chicken, trying to keep one in the air at all times. The jumping motions would bounce her cotton candy pink mane in a way that looked like a jellyfish; which she quickly found enjoyment in such movement. Seeing as she was entertaining herself, Pinkie and Cheese trekked back up the hill and settled themselves down against the trunk of the tree. Not a single sound could be heard other than the gentle wind blowing, an occasional bird chirping, and the laughs and squeals of Li'l Cheese and Boneless 6 off in the distance. Smiling, Pinkie curled up into the crook of Cheese's neck and sighed happily as he wrapped one of his arms around her and brought her in close. The two cuddled together for quite some time, watching their daughter frolic in the distance. Li'l Cheese had moved on from the ball and chicken to chase a vibrantly colorful butterfly. "You think I should eventually give her one of my itty bitty party canons?" Pinkie spoke, seemingly out of nowhere in particular. "Well that certainly came out of nowhere. What brought it up?" Cheese laughed and turned to face her. She looked up at him and smiled. "To be honest I really don't know." Pinkie giggled slightly. "I was just thinking of how much she acts like us, which is a struggle in itself. I don't really think I got this parenting thing under control yet. I mean, what if something happens and I don't know what to do? After taking care of the twins for so long you'd think I would know a little better when regarding our own child don't ya think?! I've just been kinda going with the flow for the past eight-ish years." Pinkie ranted on and flailed her arms in the air, smacking Cheese in the process. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry Cheese! Did I hurt you?" Cheese rubbed his cheek and rotated his jaw around. A red blemish began to slowly emerge on his face. "For somepony ranting, you sure can pack an accidental punch. Must come from working on the rock farm." He joked around before letting Pinkie know he was ok. After she nodded, he turned to a more serious tone. "But back on track, isn't that what parenting is? Just going with the flow? Plus taking care of your own child takes a lot more time than babysitting others. After all, it's not like there's going to be a book that would exactly sum up parenting." "Don't underestimate Twilight's ability on books." Pinkie interrupted with a smirk. "True, but you get my point. Besides, I think we may have gotten more of a handful than most considering how active Custard is. But to be honest, I think we're doing a pretty good job at this." Cheese kicked back against the tree and put his arms behind his head. "Didn't you almost drop her along with a bunch of toys, bottles, and dishes?" Pinkie said slyly, earning a very distraught look from her husband's face as he quickly sat up. "Ok that was one time." Cheese stomped his forelegs down for emphasis. "You know I wouldn't harm any of you on purpose. Now you on the other hoof." He playfully poked at her. Pinkie scoffed and pretended to be offended by the statement. She lightly shoved him. "Oh shush up." She responded. Cheese turned and grabbed both of her hooves with his and looked up at her. "Hey, I made a vow to protect you guys, through thick and thin!" He dramatically put his arm to his chest as if he were a guard saluting. "Oh yeah? When did you say that?" Pinkie playfully brushed him off. "Remember when you were about four months until you were due and you went through that panic phase? You could barely move or get through the day without breaking down or giving up and going to bed." Pinkie looked down and recalled the memory, as she reflected, she felt that she had maybe overreacted more than she should have. "Yeah, well it was a hard time! It was shortly after Twilight moved back to Canterlot and Rainbow back to Cloudsdale. It takes a lot of effort getting used to having almost half your friends suddenly move away after ten years of not being separated. Plus not being able to really move as freely as I used to be was starting to become a hassle. But what does that have to do with anything?" She stated defensively with a hint of desperation. "Don't worry, I'm getting there. The only thing that had made you calm down and feel even the slightest bit better about everything was when we just started talking to each other. Talking about everything, from how the day was to how much Li'l Cheese was kicking you and how it would bother you at night. But the one conversation that I have truly taken to heart, is when I made my most important promise in the world, to do my best not to let anything happen to you guys. You know I didn't have that growing up so I want to make sure Li'l Cheese has that protection and love. Sure you were half asleep when I said it, but I really did mean it." Cheese let go of her and gave a sincere smile. "Oh come here you." Pinkie grabbed him and squeezed him. "And you're doing an amazing job so far Cheesie." She cooed back to him. The tender moment was interrupted by Li'l Cheese yelling with a devilish grin from the bottom of the hill, now supporting a glowing honey color as the sun began to set. "Ewwww! Gross!" Li'l Cheese proceeded to make gagging noises and clench her stomach. When she opened her eyes, she was met with a smug grin from her mother as she began to stand up. The filly's eyes dilated before she turned around and started squealing as she saw Pinkie begin to run down the hill. Pinkie tackled her and started messing up her hair more than it already was. "Come here you little stinker, you're gonna pay for that." The two girls fought in the grass next to the forest for some time. Cheese watched the scene unfold and chuckled as he saw his wife launch herself at Li'l Cheese. He thought about joining them but found it to be more entertaining to watch the tickle war from afar. As the two rolled closer to the Everfree, he became more attentive, still not trusting whatever was in that jungle of a forest. That's when he saw them approach and his heart dropped. He pulled out his glasses and squinted to make sure he wasn't seeing things. No, that's not right. That shouldn't happen! It's not even night yet. Before he could process anything, Cheese began sprinting down the hill, his heart started beating rapidly as he quickly picked up the pace. He had to do something before it was too late.