Thunder Flap knew that being a guard was an important responsibility. He had to keep the whole palace safe.
But sometimes, being a guard was so boring! He pulled out his phone and started scrolling.
Princess Pipp wasn’t streaming, which meant she was probably in Maretime Bay with her friends. Good for her; but it was boring here! What was he supposed to do now? Pay attention to his surroundings?
Well, she wasn’t the only streamer around. Maybe he could find another thermal in the sky. He scrolled over to the streamers and scrolled almost down to the bottom.
One seemed to stand out to him. It looked like a newer streamer who didn’t have many watchers.
He squinted at the handle. Sage Wisdom? Maybe a little presumptuous. The thumbnail looked like a pony wearing a blanket or a towel pulled over her eyes, so all that could be seen was the tip of her muzzle.
Out of curiosity (and maybe feeling a little bad at how low her watcher count was), he tapped on the link to check her out.
She responded quickly. “Hey, BuffGuard95! Welcome to the stream!” Her voice was cheerful and cutesy.
He tapped one of the ‘happy’ reactions in response.
Sage continued. “It sounds like your mom’s under a lot of stress right now. She’s got her wings full. And the nice thing to do would be to keep doing the dishes. There aren’t that many, and the least you can do to show your appreciation for taking care of you, feeding you, teaching you how to use a spoon, to help her out in a small way.”
There was a brief pause.
And then one side of her mouth curled up ever so slightly. “But, if you really want your free time back, you need to make it so she asks you to stop. Don’t pretend you don’t know how to do it, or she’s going to sit down and ‘teach’ you, and once you ‘know’, you can’t use that excuse anymore. What you have to do is do it, but in a way that bugs her just enough to push her over that threshold. That’ll get you off the hook, and you won’t even have done anything. You’ve only done what she asked. Try taking it slow. ‘Sorry, mom, just gotta get in between all these tines’. ‘That dish didn’t look clean enough’. ‘I know it’s midnight, but I’ve gotta get this done’. It’ll no longer be your job in no time.”
Thunder looked up, brow furrowed. That didn’t sound quite right to him, but it seemed logically sound.
Sage giggled. “Alright. I think I have time for one more question tonight. PlzLeaveMeAlone775 says, ‘My dad keeps barging into my room, like all the time. I’m not even doing anything wrong, but I’d like a little privacy. But he doesn’t care. He just says stuff like “his house, his rules”. How do I get him to stop?’.” She exhaled, puffing out her cheeks. “Golly, I picked a hard one,” she murmured. “So first of all, you’re completely in the right here. You’re your own pony and you deserve basic respect and boundaries. Unfortunately, if you’ve brought this up and he keeps brushing you off, you might not get that until you actually move out. And when that happens, stay firm. After all, by his logic, your house, your rules.”
There was a brief pause.
Her smile turned slightly devious. “But if that’s not an option anytime soon, you’ll need to get him to stop, while making him think it’s his choice. And the best way to do that is to turn up the awkward. What you’ll need to do is go shopping, and find yourself a toy that has a large base. And I’m not talking about the kinds of toys you can find at the general store. When you know he’s going to barge in, get it inserted. No, not there.” She smirked. “Yes, there. He’s not going to be able to look you in the eyes again, let alone come into your room without knocking and getting explicit permission.” She giggled. “Who’s he going to tell? Or even better, what’s he going to say? You try describing that without sounding like some kind of predator. Just remember, go slow, be gentle with yourself, and use plenty of lube. Except silicone-based toys do not go with silicone-based lube, so…” She let out a soft grunt and rubbed her eye through the towel. “-watch out for that. I think that’s all I’ve got time for tonight. Tune in next time for more Sage Wisdom!”
The stream quickly ended.
Thunder tapped his chin. Interesting…
Sunny squeezed another orange, extracting all the juice. She tossed the orange peel into her mouth and reached for another.
A shadow flashed by overhead. “Hey, Sunny.”
“Hey, Zipp,” Sunny said, slowing to a stop. Zipp looked a little too excited. Something was definitely up.
“Brought you a surprise,” Zipp said, holding up a bag.
Sunny gave her a sideways look. It didn’t seem like a prank, but something was still up.
And then she looked inside. Her ears pricked. “Zipp, you didn’t!”
“Eh,” Zipp said with an easy shrug. “It’s all royal property anyway, right?”
Sunny looked back inside at what was most definitely an ancient journal. “Zipp, you can’t just, just take a piece of history that would provide insight to daily life for ponies in the past, that’s…” She hesitated. “That’s…”
Sunny Starscout pored over the journal. “Amazing,” she breathed for what must have been the tenth time in twenty minutes.
“Yeah, I thought you’d like it.” Zipp peered over her shoulder. She cocked her head. “What’s a rainbow falls?”
“I think it’s a place. I don’t know where it is, but I wish I could have been there. They apparently traded all kinds of things there. All the ponies together in harmony, just being together. It sounds like Maretime Bay Day, but even better. I bet it was incredible.”
“Did they not have money back then?”
“They did, but I think it was just a cool tradition.”
Zipp held up her necklace, her cyan eye reflecting on the surface. “Wonder how much I could have gotten for this,” she said.
Sunny smiled wryly. “She’s still watching for it?”
“Yeah. It’s been a week and it’s like every day, ‘such a good look for you, Zipp’, ‘how beautiful, Zipp’. I’m getting sick of it. Maybe I’ll just make a new law,” Zipp said. “When I’m queen, no more dumb crowns or meetings or anything like that.”
“Well, no matter what you’re wearing, you’ll always be my friend,” Sunny said.
“Aw, you’re just saying that because I bring you cool stuff,” Zipp joked.
Sunny didn’t respond.
“Uh, Sunny?” Zipp prodded.
“Buckball?” Sunny read aloud, confused.