//------------------------------// // Perspectives // Story: Snickers: The Royal Colt // by Mocha Star //------------------------------// “There, your letter’s sent. Now, can we get back to our lives?” Filthy Rich asked his wife. “Those awful foals, and my daughter, Diamond Tiara, throwing her lot in with that blank flank lowbrow, grass eating, hussy of a colt. I knew Silver Spoon had the lowest of standards, but my own daughter, being brought down to her level, for some cheap piece of flank?” “Spoiled, dear, I think you’re overreacting a scosche,” Filthy Rich said while looking over his newspaper at his wife, reading glasses perched on the end of his muzzle.  Spoiled gaped at her husband for a second. “A scosche? A scosche?! We’re losing our daughter for some slutty colt that’s probably slept with half the castle, for all we know. You know, as well as I, his reputation. His being a prostituted out foal and, by his own claims, having sired at least one filly that he knows of.” Filthy Rich sighed and lowered his paper. “Dearest, those are rumors. No foal can sire foals, you know this as well as I.” “He’s five, it could happen! A little magic - awful stuff that - can make him breed with a mare. Sweet Celestia, if he breeds with my darling little filly,” Spoiled snorted, “why, I bet he already has tried. I can see him trying to take advantage of her, against her better judgement until the last second.” Filthy Rich shook his head slightly. “I think you’re overreacting about all of this. Our daughter’s a good girl and knows better than to flag her tail for the first colt that catches her eye,” he lifted his paper again with a snap to bring it back to form. “Besides, I thought she was a lesbian.” “I did, too, like all fillies her age tend towards. Then she comes home one day and says she likes this random colt as a ‘friend’, and two weeks later she’s off with him to Canterlot.” Spoiled whined and stomped her forehoof, petulantly. “Filthy, would you please be worried with me?” Filthy Rich, without looking past his paper, spoke blandly. “Oh no, our poor girl. Whatever shall we do? Call the fire brigade, for her loins are burning up for this colt.” “If you could be any more uncaring, I’d leave you and take half of your savings before I got to the door,” Spoiled snapped. Filthy lowered the paper enough to look over it again. Spoiled sat on her haunches and nibbled at her forehoof. “I can hardly imagine the debauchery they’re up to at this very moment.” “Who’s a cutie? You are, yes you are! Why, I could just cuddle you all day.” “I think it’s gonna be a boy, there need to be more boy gryphons. I think he’ll be like his daddy; tall, dark, and handsome... you know, for a bird.” The fillies giggled as they looked at the egg, sitting up on a bundle of blankets and surrounded by pillows in Kiwe’s official room, a warming light held over the egg as it rested. Gil frowned on the soft bed while Kiwe lay opposite the fillies, smirking at their behavior. “Certainly you do not intend to fawn over an egg for long, do you?” Kiwe asked, amused. “He’s going to hear us, and that matters.” Silver Spoon said, gently touching the egg with her fetlock. Diamond nodded her pink head. “Yeah, when he hatches, he has to know who his aunties are.” “Aunties,” Gil snapped his beak. “Are you all a herd family, or something weird like that?” Silver Spoon partially sneered at the gryphon. “We already said yes, except Kiwe, he’s just a close friend.” “Close, like you’re just trying to get pregnant with his baby, too?” Gil snarked.  Both fillies bristled at the accusation. “For your information,” Diamond snapped, “we’re saving ourselves for Snickers, thank you very much.” “You’re not welcome,” Gil looked away from the fillies toward the door, where Laxxie and Snickers had just walked in. “And what’s that, some kind of golem? You know those are illegal where I’m from, right?” “This is Laxxie, she’s a timberpony,” Snickers said, “and this is Gil, Laxxie. He’s a gryphon.” Laxxie waved a wooden forehoof at Gil. “Hi.” “Great, it can talk. What wonderful conversations I expect to have with it,” Gil said with a roll of his eyes. “Let’s talk about roots and vines.” Snickers placed a hoof on Laxxie’s back and mentally implied for her to hold her comments, for now. “Laxxie is actually pretty good at talking. Maybe you’ll have something in common, if you hang out for a bit?” Gil scoffed and turned his body away, showing the tuft of his tail to the colt and wooden filly.  Snickers ignored the cat-bird and moved toward the fillies. “So, what’s going on? I heard some babytalk.” Silver sat tall and giggled, pawing at her necklace she’d recently put back on. “It was us! Diamond and me were just letting this little cutie know who his aunties are.” “It’s us,” Diamond tittered and leaned onto her herd-sister, “and we’re gonna be the best aunties ever!” The fillies bumped their hooves and then stood up and faced one another. “Bump, bump, sugarlump, rump!” They chanted and shared a giggle.  “What’s that look for?” Diamond asked Snickers as his cheeks puffed with his quiet laughter. Kiwe was grinning at the fillies. “I think it is cute you have a chant. It is something I do not recall ever having wanted, though.” Silver Spoon scoffed. “Like, whatever. You need one for yourselves, it really helps bonding between friends. And, like, we’re practically sisters now, thanks to our stallion,” she said while looking at Snickers.  Diamond bumped her rump against Silver’s. “Don’t be too pushy, Silver. I heard from a maid that stallions don’t like to be embarrassed; it makes them finish faster,” she said with a sly wink that wasn’t hidden from anypony in the room.  “Excuse me, I think I last long enough, so being embarrassed doesn’t really bother me that much.” Snickers admitted. Silver and Diamond looked at him and he lowered his head, slightly. “Well, let’s not chance it, okay?” Both fillies nodded and rested back onto their bellies, returning their attention to the egg that was bringing such a new change to their lives.   A mail clerk checked the envelopes, as she did every day when they came across her desk before she sent them to one of the workers that dealt with them. She sighed when she noted another pink envelope with a familiar cutie mark denoting the sender. “Spoiled Milk, again,” she mumbled and set it in a short pile going to one of a dozen social workers. Once the clerk was done, she picked up a stack of envelopes and delivered it, repeating the task for each of them until her duty was done, until the next day. … Seven ran his forehooves through his mane and swore he felt more of his lovely locks fall out from the stress of his job. He forced his wings from his sides to gently go through a flapping motion, to avoid strain, before he stood up and stretched his legs. “Why did I choose to do this with my talent? I could have been a school counselor,” he mumbled to himself. “Because, you asked for an internship and did a good enough job,” a mare commented with a voice that rumbled like she’d been smoking for twice as many years than she actually had. “Here, another stack from Pen for you. She dropped them off on my desk,” the mare raised her foreleg, coughed roughly into her elbow, then hacked and swallowed something audibly down her throat, sending unwanted ripples through Seven’s gut. “I’m giving you my files on Ponyville’s most notorious mare, too.  “She’s a piece of work, writing us for every foal that sometimes sneezes too much near her little filly. Waste of our time, but my load’s gotten heavier with the increase of drug usage in Manehatten. Too many foals are starting to sell, or use.” His mouth watering with saliva in preparation to vomit, Seven used his wing to casually flap the rank stench from the mare’s breath and take the file folder and envelopes from her. “Thanks, I’ll get right on these.” “You should. Seems there’s one in there about our favorite find in the woods. He’s been causing a lot of havoc and I hear the mares upstairs are wondering why you haven’t gotten involved with it all.” Seven scrunched his muzzle. “You mean Snickers? He’s just a colt, and aside from a couple letters, he’s doing fine, so I hear.” “Have you checked your inbox by the south wall this week? It’s already full, sweet flanks. You’re falling behind.” Seven set the paperwork down and stuck his tongue out at the mare as she waddled away. Seven flapped his wings several times to clear the area of her stink and flew over the cubicles to the inboxes, where he collected several tied bundles of letters and took them back to his desk in three trips. He looked at them all and felt his mane tingle. “I’m going to go crazy if I can’t get these caught up soon.” Seven lamented, then shouted, “Why are there so many more foals than social workers in this dumb world?!”  There was a spattering of cheers and hoofclaps from around the office, then work went back to normal. With tired eyes, Seven began going over the letters, one by one. “I’m ready to go home,” Snickers announced one night during supper. He said it casually between bites of fried fish, so it was a bit of a shock to everycreature at the table. Luna looked down at Snickers from her seat near him, as did Celestia, who was sitting across from him. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara stopped chewing and looked at one another, while Kiwe and Gil seemed a bit dismissive of the comment. “So,” Silver Spoon started, “you’re, like, okay with everypony there now?” Snickers snorted derisively. “Buck no, but I miss my mom. Not Aquelis’s mom,” he said, looking at Celestia, who did her best to hide a hint of sorrow, “I mean Rarity. The mare that took me in when I needed a mom and helped me be a better pony… I mean, sure, those three fillies helped, too, but they can get cutie marks in dumb stuff, for all I care.” “Now, Snickers,” Luna said, getting his attention. She felt proud that he didn’t flinch away anymore. “Over the past weeks you have been here, you have made it clear you’re a different pony than you were when you got here. You’ve come to terms with the foal inside of you, your herd is doing wonderfully, and your friendships are as strong as ever. “Whatever has happened in your recent past should not affect who you are now, and if you are as strong as you have led us all to believe, then going back to Ponyville should offer no problems to the bonds you’ve forged.” Snickers leaned down and used his lips to pick up a small bundle of hayfries. He munched while thinking of the ponies he’d left behind.  “Snickers,” Diamond Tiara spoke up. “Whatever you do, wherever you go, we’ll be with you all the way. You mean more to us than some stupid ponies that bucked you when you were down, right, Silver?” Silver nodded fervently. “You’ve changed us for the better, into better ponies, Snickers. I know that whatever you’re going to go through, I’ll be there, with my herdsister, by your side all the way.” Snickers swallowed and chuckled. “You make it sound like getting back to Ponyville’s gonna be some kind of adventure. Hmm, you know, I kinda wanna walk back, if that’s okay with all of you.” The Princesses looked between one another, then to each foal, who was nodding in approval with Snickers’s thought. “Well, I’m not okay with that,” Gil snapped from his seat, a plate of raw fish already being refilled by the server for the third time. “I’m not here to traipse around the world with my sister’s egg. I’m going to stay in Canterlot until it hatches, then take it home.” “You go where the egg goes. The egg goes where Kiwe goes, and Kiwe’s going with us, right, bro?” Snickers asked and wrapped a foreleg around Kiwe’s withers. Kiwe nodded. “Yes, family bonds are strong as steel. To these facts, even you must kneel.” “If you weren’t protected by so many rules, I’d take you to the arena and we’d have it out,” Gil promised. “But, as it is, young gryph,” Celestia intoned, quieting the young around the table, “the stakes are set and the path is laid. I cannot stop my… Snickers from leaving on a journey home, as I am not his mother and he is old enough to travel with his friends. Perhaps he will travel back here, someday, as well. For the moment, all I can do is have his luggage and items prepared for his trek and offer him my best wishes on his journey.” Snickers sighed. “Again, this isn’t like I’m going across the country. I’m just going down the mountain on a train and walking from the base of the mountain to my hometown, a couple days straight that way,” he pointed at a wall. Luna clapped a hoof to the table. “Huzzah! With such being said, let us drink and celebrate Our nephew’s returning home come the morrow!” Snickers tried to tell Luna that he was planning to leave in a couple days, but she began calling servants over and began placing orders for a small but energetic celebration.  Before too long the main rooms were set up with buffet tables loaded with food. Ponies, gryphons, and minotaurs were filing into the apartment and Snickers stood at the base of the stairs with his fillies by his sides, greeting creatures as they came in who wished them well on their trip, voyage and marriage, clearly showing that most of the guests didn’t even know why they were there, except for free food and a reason to rub elbows with others. “I don’t think they even know us, Snickers,” Silver whispered to Snickers while Diamond shook the talons of a gryphoness that just complimented her tiara as a fine accessory. “I know, but look at how happy Auntie Luna is,” Snickers said, pointing to the dark mare talking jovially with a minotaur about the size of his horns compared to her own. Snickers and Diamond greeted a minotaur mare that had breasts covered in a shirt that barely held together, catching all the foals attention. “How pregnant do you mares get?” Snickers blurted, bringing a bellowing laugh from the giant satyr. “I like you, perhaps you’d like to suckle my milk in private?” She joked, laughing again when Silver and Diamond interposed themselves between their colt and her. “I like your fillies, keep them close. They would go to battle for you over my chest, they would go to battle for you over anything.” The minotaur turned on her hooves and walked away, her breasts bouncing with each step. Silver and Diamond both swatted Snickers with the front of their hooves on his upper forelegs. “Ouch, what was that for?” “, Snickers.” Silver said in accented English.  Diamond rubbed where she hit him. “I’m sorry, are you going to be okay?” Snickers nodded, but rubbed his hidden bruises briefly. “Yeah, just stop doing that. You’re gonna really hurt me one of these days. Just, do something less hurting, okay?” Both fillies’ ears drooped and then lowered their heads. “Sorry,” they said in unison. Snickers wrapped a foreleg around each of them and pulled them close. There was a flash of light and Snickers kissed each filly on the cheek. “It’s fine. I just want a copy of that picture when it comes out,” he said to a short mare with a camera. “Sure thing, I’ll get you a copy, all right.” Snickers nodded and let the fillies go, then led them into the party. “C’mon, let’s have some fun. I’m gonna drink some normal wine and you make sure I don’t act too stupid, okay?” The sunlight streamed through the trees in Sweet Apple Acres and three fillies ran through the trees with a single goal in mind. “Almost there, I can’t wait for this meeting of the Rainbow Dash Fanclub to start, I have so many things to talk about!” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, as did Apple Bloom. “Like how awesome she is?” “How ‘bout how she’s the best there ever was?” “She’s the most daring?” “Most st’pendous?” “Bestest at everything, pony ever,” both fillies mocked Scootaloo. Scootaloo just beamed. “Exactly! There’s nothing she ever does that can be less than awesome!” Sweetie and Apple Bloom slowed to a trot and let Scootaloo go ahead. “Ya know, Ah don’t think that filly even thinks about what happened with Snickers, do you?” Sweetie shook her head. “It’s like she doesn’t even remember my nephew… he wouldn’t even let me come to see him when Rarity went to Canterlot. He said he hates me, Apple Bloom. Nopony’s ever hated me, how am I supposed to just get over it, like Scootaloo said?” “Well, that’s a bunch of hogwash. Don’t let somepony tell ya how ta feel! That’s what Applejack told me when I was hard on this whole Snickers thing. We did what the adults told us, and it went as wrong as oranges on an apple tree; all we can do is try to do right by him… if he ever comes back.” Sweetie Belle sighed. “Yeah, if he ever comes back. I miss him, and he’s family, Apple Bloom. What was Rainbow Dash thinking when she told us all to lie to Snickers? I actually believed him when he said all that stuff about his past.” Apple Bloom shrugged with a foreleg. “Well, Ah won’t say Ah believed everythin’ he said, but there was truth in what he said. Ah don’t know enough about doctor stuff, and bein’ a head doctor’s beyond me, but what I think Ah know is that what he said is true, but he might be hidin’ some of the truth behind some kinda game, like pretend’n.” “Yeah, I’ve heard that before, from other ponies. I don’t know what’s true anymore; but I do know that Snickers needed us and we weren’t there for him. Don’t tell Scootaloo, but I don’t think I can ever trust Rainbow Dash ever again.” Apple Bloom mimed zipping her lips. “Ah won’t tell a soul.” Above them, flying between tree and tree, Rainbow Dash listened and felt guilty anger in her chest at what the fillies had said.