Sisstet yawned as he woke up. He hadn't intended to fall asleep, but the blankets and pillows were just so comfy. He peeked his head up but didn't see anycreature in the room with him—only a few pieces of furniture and his open bag.
He slithered away from the covers and down onto the floor, immediately going over to his bag. Inside was his toy train and all its passengers. He looked at the desk, and then took his bag and climbed up on the chair.
One by one, he unpacked the pieces of his train set and set them out on the desk. There were five train cars, several strips of a track, and over a dozen little ponies. Each train car was in a different color; purple, green, blue, yellow, and red. Each train car, except for the red engine, could open its roof and let him put the ponies inside. With extreme care, he carefully put the track together and connected each car on the track, while all his passenger ponies waited to be placed.
"That's a nice train set."
He jerked back in surprise, and saw Miss Tw- Twist standing at the room's door. He tasted the air with his tongue then looked back at his train set. "It's my toys that Cheesse gave me for my birthday."
Twist walked into the room, but she didn't seem mad, so he didn't try to hide. She came up and looked closer at the train set. "So, it's your favorite toy?"
"It's all my toyss," he replied, and began putting some ponies in the blue car.
Twist frowned at him, and he worried he did something wrong again. Why'd he always do the wrong things around her? He didn't even know what he did this time.
"You mean the only toy you could bring?" She asked.
He shook his head. "No, all my toys. It iss lotss of toys. There are all these different train partss and all these ponies. Ssee?"
She didn't seem to understand. "It's one train set. When you say Cheese, you're talking about Pinkie Pie's youngest colt, Cheese Slice, right?"
He nodded. "Uh-huh. Cheesse iss my friend."
"What birthday did he give you this train and all these ponies?"
"My last birthday," Sisstet answered. "Cheesse found out my hatch day was coming up, and he asked if I wass having a party. I told him I never had a party for that. He screamed and ran off, which wass scary. Then he came back with a cake and a big box wrapped in paper. He said he told his mom when my birthday wass, so nocreature would forget anymore. I don't know what he meant, ssince I was hatched insstead of born like poniess, but the cake wass good, and the box had this train and all these poniess."
"What did you play with before then?" Twist asked.
He opened up the yellow car and put some ponies in that one. "I draw or stack up rockss to make thingss. I dig in my room, and there are alwayss cool rocks to use. I play with my friendss from school too."
Twist frowned at him, and couldn't help but cringe a little. What did he do wrong this time?
She stopped frowning and gave him a friendly smile. "You really have a problem with your S sounds, don't you?"
He ducked down low. "Ssorry."
She shook her head. "Don't be sorry. I had problems speaking correctly when I was a foal. I tell creatures it was because of my braces, but that's not really true. I had problems before I ever got them."
He lifted his head. "Really?"
"Really," she confirmed with a nod.
"But you talk good now," he pointed out. "How did you get better?"
She sat down next to him. "It stayed that way for years. My parents took me to a speech expert, and he taught me some exercises. For about two months, after I got home from school, I would sit and say tongue-twisters for about ten minutes."
"And that made it better?"
She nodded. "Yes, it did. It was a matter of practice, but after those two months, I seldom had a problem again. I might have gotten over it even faster if I had practiced every day like I should have, or practiced for longer every day."
His coils loosened, and he spread out more upon the chair. "And I can get better too?"
She giggled. "I don't see why not. Flurry Heart said the naga foals up at the Crystal Clutch don't have any speech issues, so that means there isn't anything biologically stopping you from getting better. I can teach you some of the tongue-twisters I used, and you can practice on your own."
He tilted his head. "But, I don't want to twisst my tongue up."
That made her giggle again. "It doesn't twist your tongue up. You are supposed to say them quickly, and while you are saying them, it is easy to mess up what you're trying to say. That is how you get good at speaking clearly. If you can learn to say those things correctly and quickly, over and over again, then you have fewer problems with saying other things correctly."
He uncoiled so far he nearly fell out of the chair, and had to wrap his tail around the back of it to stay in his seat. "Tell me ssome!"
"Okay, let's start with an easy one," she took a deep breath. "Repeat after me. Silly Celestia sold soggy spellbooks to some shiny silver seaponies."
That was a lot of S's. "Ssilly-" He stopped and flicked his tongue rapidly in annoyance with himself for messing up immediately.
"Don't feel bad if you don't get it right away," Twist said quickly. "Just say it as best you can, and then we'll work through each part, together. After that, we'll try saying it correctly as one full sentence, okay?"
He relaxed again. "Okay." He took a breath and tried again. "Silly Celestia sold ssoggy-"
Silver closed the front door behind her and resisted the urge to just slump down on the floor. She knew she should be happy. Her parents were supplying all the funds that were going to be needed. They even, against all expectations, were thrilled and entirely on board with bringing a naga into the family. That was all good news.
However, having to deal with their back-hoofed insults about her and Twist, all while trying to negotiate as much wiggle room as she could into their contract, had been an ordeal. On the plus side, she'd gotten lots of concessions out of them. They were so desperate to have a potential heir to the family business that they'd allowed her to get far more rights in the deal than they usually would have let happen. The visit had been a victory, but an exhaustingly won one.
She didn't see Twist or Sisstet anywhere, but she heard talking back in Sisstet's room. She walked by one of the couches and removed her new-slightly-used saddle bag her parents gave her to carry home the contract so she and Twist could both sign. It was a very expensive saddle bag, made of fine silk, but her mother said it was too last season, and had no desire to keep it. Giving it to her had no doubt been just a way of showing off their wealth. Her parents could afford to toss away things that would have cost other ponies more than a month's wages. At least she got a nice new saddlebag.
With her baggage removed, she moved in towards the bedroom to see how her wife and Sisstet were faring.
"Okay, now we'll try a harder one, " she heard Twist saying. "Stallions stay silent selling silverwave and soap surreptitiously in secluded spots."
Silver stepped into the doorway as Sisstet was staring blankly at Twist. "What does ssara-ssura- that word mean?" The young naga asked.
Twist put a hoof up to her chin. "I'm not sure. It's just part of the tongue-twister."
Silver came up quietly behind her wife, who had her back turned to the door, and put her mouth right behind her wife's ear. "It means trying to avoid being noticed."
Twist gave a startled yelp, and instinctively bucked. Silver anticipated the blind bucking, and was able to dodge it. Twist turned and scowled. "Cute, real cute. If my legs connected with you, I would have no sympathy. You got that? None."
Silver turned her head coyly. "So, I suppose I don't get a kiss then?"
Twist closed the distance and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "I'm not going to punish myself by withholding kisses. How did the visit with your parents go?"
Silver rubbed a hoof against a leg. "We're getting the money after we sign a contract. They've got conditions, but the conditions aren't as bad as they could have been."
Twist frowned and glanced back at Sisstet. "Hey, would you mind practicing by yourself for a few minutes while Silver and I talk? You can practice as you play with your train."
Sisstet nodded. "Okay." He then turned his attention back to the train as he began to recite again. "Silly Celestia-"
Silver and her wife walked back out into the living room. Twist noticed the new saddlebag, but didn't comment on it.
"So…" Silver began. "They are actually happy we are adopting Sisstet, which shocked the poop out of me. Why they are happy isn't so surprising. They see Sisstet as a potential heir to the family business."
"And I'm guessing him taking it over when he grows up is their primary condition," Twist muttered.
Silver shook her head. "Actually, no, they didn't require it. However, they've made it clear they want plenty of opportunities to market it to him, and time indoctrinating him in how he comes from a long line of silver miners and silversmiths."
Twist rolled her eyes. "Your parents have never used a pickaxe or crafted anything in their lives."
Silver agreed, but she understood her parents' thinking. "Even if no member of my family has so much as raised a pickaxe or personally sat down crafting silver into things since my great-grandfather, they still own the mines, and they employ miners and silversmiths. They see themselves still as miners and silversmiths by extension, and have this big family pride about it. Equestria's wealth flows from the Silver family mines. I got so sick of growing up while hearing that said repeatedly."
Twist rolled her eyes again. "As if silver was the sole basis for the economy."
"To hear them say it, you'd believe it, " Silver replied with a groan. "Anyway, Sisstet has to spend one weekend every month with them, and one week every summer. I negotiated it so these could be supervised visits, so we can be present for whatever they say or do."
Her wife's ears fell. "Making us stay there a weekend every month, and a full week every summer? That's going to be miserable!"
"I'm hoping they pawn off most the stuff on Madame Glass and only come out occasionally to monologue about how great the family business and legacy are," Silver replied in a sullen voice. She wasn't looking forward to it either. It was no doubt going to be non-stop insults to her and Twist, and trying to combat them trying to put snobbish ideas in Sisstet's head. That second part is why she had to make sure she was present.
"There's some other details. Like, if we finalize adopting Sisstet we need to adopt him under the name Silver Scale," she added.
Twist flicked an ear. "I don't have any objection to the name, but name changes are a personal decision, not something that should be dictated."
Silver shrugged. "It may go on the adoption papers, but I plan on continuing to call him Sisstet unless he decides he wants to change what we call him. It's ultimately up to him what we call him, even if we adopt him under that name."
"I can agree with that," Twist replied. She looked back towards the bedroom. "Silver, he's never had any toys, aside from that train set. We need to get him some new toys. We also need to figure out what to do with that bed if we aren't going to need it. I hate to have it wasted. It just takes up too much space that he could use for other things, and that room is already kind of small."
Silver smiled. "I actually thought about what to do about the bed. We can donate it to Sweetie Belle. Her colt has been sleeping in a crib until now, but he is getting too big and old for that. We can give her the bed, and she can donate that old crib to Applebloom."
Twist came and gave her another smooch. "Sounds like everything is in order. I guess we need to start reading over and signing this contract."
Silver paused before heading to the saddlebag. "Are you sure you are alright with all this? I know you've had your reservations."
Twist sighed and nodded. "I'm going to do my best. We got a little bonding time today, and we'll get some more soon. This can work."
Silver made the advance this time, kissing her wife with more than just a peck, before stepping back. "I love you."
Twist necked her. "I love you too."