“Now make sure he doesn’t eat too much sugar. his bedtime is at six-thirty sharp, Smarty Pants is in his bag, and just please make sure he stays out of trouble.” The purple alicorn said to the smaller white alicorn in front of her, the girl's horn glowing golden yellow as a quill danced across a sheet of paper writing down everything that the adult said, now on her twelfth piece of paper for the rules.
“Gotcha Aunt Twili!” The girl chirped, moving her pen and pad away from her face before giving the Princess a salute. “And thank you for trusting me to babysit!”
“It’s no problem, Flurry Heart,” The girl's Aunt Twili, or Princess Twilight Sparkle as the rest of Equestria knew the purple alicorn, said as she smiled down at her niece. “Just be careful with him. Gleam might insist that he’s ready to do something but he’s still just a foal.” She sighed, looking at the ceiling and shaking her head, clearly having gone through a few excursions of her own.
“Babe, I think she’s got it.” An orange pegasus said from beside Twilight, he was dressed in a black dress coat, white dress shirt, and a black bow tie tied around his neck. He also had a red rose pinned onto his shirt. “The girl is going to be the ruler of the Crystal Empire one day, I’m sure she can handle one unicorn colt.” Her uncle Flash said, chuckling a bit as he reached down and grabbed his wife’s hoof. “Now come on, we don’t want to keep the others waiting. Last time Spike almost tore the castle apart looking for you.” Flash said, pulling his wife, her hooves dragging, as he headed to the doors of the castle to leave the young alicorn to take care of things, which didn’t look easy as the alicorn was almost twice his size. Though being pulled away didn’t stop his wife from yelling more instructions as he dragged her.
“Don’t let him use color outside of the line, we’re trying to work on following instructions! And don’t let him eat peanuts! He’s not allergic but he might become allergic while we’re away!” She desperately called out as she was dragged out of the castle, frantically waving one hoof in the air as they left and the door slamming shut, making Flurry sigh in relief as she turned to go see what her cousin was doing, just to jump as suddenly her aunt appeared behind her again, having teleported in, purple sparkles floating down on the ground, back into the castle. “Don’t let him teleport! He gets motion sickness!” The Princess of Friendship said once more before her uncle zoomed through the door in a orange blur and dragged his wife out the door again.
“You got this kid, we trust you,” Flash said before he gave his niece a wink before ducking out and shutting the door again.
“Ok…?” Flurry said, an eyebrow raised as she looked at the door and slowly took a step away, making sure her aunt wasn’t going to teleport into the room once again on her. But she sighed in relief as they didn’t. “I don’t know why Aunt Twili is so worried.” She scoffed to herself as she proudly marched to where her cousin Twilight Gleam, or just Gleam for short, was waiting.
Her Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna were holding some sort of important festival or something that night to celebrate the return of her Aunt Luna many moons ago, or something like that. Flurry knew the tale of how once Celestia had to seal Luna away on the moon for 1,000 winters or something like that, but she found it to believe. The two sisters were the best of friends and always had each other back, how could anyone believe that her Aunt Luna turned into something called Nightmare Moon? But despite what the young alicorn believed the festival was being held and all the princesses needed to be there. Flurry Heart herself was invited to go, and the young alicorn had been there before and past the yummy food there it wasn’t anything to write home about, so she decided to stay home this year. She would much rather watch her little cousin than pretend to know what a winter solace or lunar eclipse was since those were two of the many boring topics brought up at the festival. This was the first time that she had ever babysat the filly on her own though, since either her mom or aunt were there to help her. But how hard could it be? The boy hadn’t made a sound since he got there and she was talking with her aunt and uncle.
“Ok, Gleam it’s just us two,” Flurry announced, throwing the door to the library open, when she had last seen the boy he was busy coloring a picture with some crayons. But when she looked he was gone. The only evidence that he had ever been there was a piece of paper with a picture of an apple on it. Perfectly colored in without any crayons going out of the red apple, which was impressive since it took Flurry forever to learn how to color in the line. “Gleam? Where did you disappear to?” She called out, shutting the door before the colt could manage to get out of the library without her knowing, and started looking for the boy. He was still young so she wasn’t sure how much trouble he could get in, but he was a unicorn and if he was starting to use magic then the boy could get into some trouble. Her mom still tells stories about her when she was a baby and the out-of-control spells she shot out. A unicorn's magic wouldn’t be as strong as an alicorn's magic, but a fire started by magic was still a fire no matter who started it.
“Fwuuuuuuuwwwy!” A high-pitched voice whined from the bookshelves, making the girl stand straight up as she immediately darted into where the bookshelves were, peaking into every isle as she rushed down through the library until she found a small purple filly with a dark blue mane surrounded by a dozen books, all opened to the first few pages, the boy was spinning in a circle, reading a few lines of each book before going to the next one.
“Gleam, what are you doing?” She asked, trotting over, a smirk on her face seeing the little boy looking at all the books.
“I’m tryin ta lean spells.” The boy said, grabbing a book in his hooves and turning it to his cousin, “What spell is dis one?” Gleam asked, showing Flurry the picture of a loaf of bread and the list of ingredients to make it.
“That's not a spell, buddy.” Flurry giggled, taking the book and checking the cover which read ‘Cooking For Beginners’ on it, something her dad probably could use whenever he attempted to cook for family tabletop night. “I don’t think any of these are spell books.” She informed Gleam, her horn glowing with a faint yellow light as all the books lifted in the air, going back to where their homes were. Of course, Flurry knew where the books of spells were, they were buried on the second floor of the library and in the back, but she wasn’t going to take her cousin there. She was pretty sure ‘Don’t teach him new spells’ was on one of the twelve pages of rules her Aunt Twili listed for her. “Why don’t we play a game or something, I’m sure you don’t want to want to hang out in a dusty old library all night.” She said, her attention returning to the little colt that she was babysitting, who had another book on the floor as he frantically looked through the pages. If anyone had any doubt that Gleam was Princess Twilight’s son, then the fascination for books should squelch all doubts. “Gleam, can you even read?” She asked, walking beside him and looking at the book, which showed the picture of a cupcake. They were in the cookbook section of the library.
“Uh…. Nope! But I tee da picture I just do what dey do.” He said, looking up with a beaming smile, making Flurry shake her head while an entertained smirk grew across her face.
“Oh, and what spell do you think this page is trying to teach you?” She asked, poking at the page with her hoof.
“Dat spell makes cupcakes appear whenever you want! You just go zap bam boom cupcakes, and then they appear!” The foal cheered, bouncing in place as Flurry shut the book and put it back in its place. That sounded like a spell her Aunt Twili’s friend Pinkie Pie had mastered and maybe even created as the pink pony somehow always had the little desserts ready at a moment's notice.
“Well you don’t have to worry about learning that spell, we have a royal cook here that makes the best cupcakes in the world.” She informed her cousin, the foal getting covered in a sparkly yellow light as he was lifted and put on the little alicorn's back. “Why don’t we see if she has some ready?” She asked, immediately trotting out of the library and down the bright blue crystal hallway.
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” Gleam cheered, bouncing on the girl's back, licking his lips at the prospect of getting one of the sweet desserts, without having to finish eating his vegetables first.
The two quickly made their way to the kitchen, the castle practically empty of guards and other members of staff. Most of the guards would have gone with her parents to the festival and with all but a handful of guards to watch Flurry and Gleam, there was no need for a lot of cleaners or cooks. So her hoof stomps echoed through the hall as she got to the kitchen and burst through the doors.
“Oh, Ms. Chef!” The small alicorn said, bursting through the door, making the single light purple unicorn that was in there jump, sending a wooden spoon that she was holding flying.
“Miz Flurry, what have I told ze about burzting through ze doorz like zo?” A thick flowery accent flowed from their mouth.
“Oh, sorry,” Flurry said, compensating for her yelling by dropping her voice into a whisper as she walked over. “I was just wondering if you had any-.” She started to ask before a plate of cupcakes floated in front of her face.
“I already have zem ready for zou.” Ms. Chef said, having prepared some knowing with the girl’s parents gone her sweet tooth would drive her to the kitchen at some point “Zis batch is Apple Zinnamin with a cream cheese frozsting and sugar sprinklez.” She explained as Flurry used her magic to lift one and took a big bite out of it.
“Mmmmm!” She squealed, the cupcake practically exploded in her mouth the sweet apple and cinnamon taste covering her tastebuds and making her pop the rest of the cupcake in her mouth. The crisp crunch of apple bits echoed in her head as she bit down on them. “My compliments to you, Ms. Chef,” Flurry said grabbing another one and floating it to her cousin, who immediately grabbed it with his little hooves and shoved it in his face.
“Zank you, Mz Flurry.” The chef said, bowing her head, smirking a bit at the two younger ponies enjoying her baked good. “Now don’t eat zo much zeets or you parentz will be mad at me.” She said, lifting a couple of cupcakes off the pile and sitting them on the counter before pulling the rest of the plate away.
“Don’t worry, this will be our little secret.” Flurry said with a wink, “Right, Gleam?” She asked, looking back at the little filly whose face was covered in the light brown cream cheese frosting.
“Ok good, now why don’t zou try one of zee Peanut Butter cupcakez.” Ms. Ches said, making a new plate of cupcakes appear, these ones a bit lighter in color than the apple cinnamon cupcakes with little bits of peanuts on them.
“Nudder! Nudder!” The boy cheered, clapping his hoofs together as one of the two remaining cupcakes started to glow blue and flew right to him. The tiny unicorn held his mouth wide open as the cupcake flew in it, splattering his face with more frosting and crumbs.
“Ah, no!” Flurry yelped, seeing this, having quickly remembered the no peanuts rule. But she was too late as the boy turned into a black hole and devoured the cupcake. Licking his lips after swallowing it. The girl winced as she watched her cousin silently praying he hadn’t suddenly become allergic to nuts, and as she sighed he seemed to be fine, though her body immediately tensed up as he started to cough. “No! Gleam are you-?” She started to ask if the colt was okay, but when she was suddenly hit with a bit of peanut in the face and stopped coughing, she sighed in relief.“I’ll take that as a yes.” She said, giving the chef a wink before leaving the kitchen, taking her cupcake and quickly eating it before her little cousin had the chance to snipe it away from her. “Ok Gleam, we got a snack now what should we do?” She asked, feeling the boy jump off her back and walk beside her.
“Hm….” The boy paused, holding his hoof up to his chin, like he saw his mom do a number of times when she had to think, and tried to think of what else they should do. He already glanced over those ‘spell books’ with all the yummy-looking food in them and now he had eaten some yummy food. “Play!” He cheered, bouncing off his cousin’s back place excitedly at his idea.
“Yep, I figured that much ya goof.” She said with an eye roll, reaching over and ruffling the boy’s head. “Play what?” She asked, making the boy roll his eyes and wonder why he had to come up with everything.
Returning his hoof to his chin, he started to pace in a circle around the girl, another trait he picked up from his mom. There were so many different games for him to choose from, how could he just choose one? Plus it was going to be his bedtime soon so they couldn’t play all of them, only the best of the best.
“Save Eqwestwia!” The boy cheered, suddenly pausing and throwing his hoof into the air as he announced the game. “I pway da super awesome and cool hewo and you play da nasty viwwan!” He explained, saving his cousin from having to ask about that game. “You can be da viwwan Cwistawis!” He declared, and after needing a couple of seconds to realize who he was suggesting she be the alicorn cringed. She had heard stories about the ex-queen of the changeling from her mom. How Chrysalis once trapped her mom in the mines under the Canterlot Castle, almost drained her dad of all his energy, and tried and almost succeeded in taking over Equestria multiple times. Now the changelings were friends and her Uncle Thorax was a nice Changeling who led his people with love and kindness, and the race was still in its first time of peace that it ever had in all their history.
“How about I be someone else?” Flurry suggested, “I could be Nightmare Moon or Tirek.” She said, and when she said the magic-eating monster's name the boy’s little eyes grew wide, making the girl’s smirk grow. Of course, to a little unicorn, something that could eat his magic would be scary. “And I think I smell some yummy yummy magic coming from… YOU!” She said, spreading her legs to try and intimidate the boy.
“Ah!” The little unicorn immediately cried, darting down the hallway, “No dwon’t get my magwic!” He cried hearing Flurry chasing after him.
“But it smells so yummy! Like an apple cinnamon cupcake with extra frosting!” She growled, trying to lower her voice and try to make herself sound threatening as she chased him down the hall, their hoof stomps echoing down the empty halls as they ran. Gleams squeals and Flurry's deep laugh mixed in with their hoofs clomping. “Drats you’re too fast. I’ll have to go and find someone else's magic to eat, cuz I reeeeeeaaaaally hungry.” She said, stopping and turning to head back. “I think I’ll go after Ms. Chef’d magic! If it tastes half as good as her cupcakes then it’ll be super sweet and yummy!” She said.
Hearing this made the colt stop in his tracks and turn to face Flurry/Tirek. He couldn’t just run away while she went to take the magic away from some pony else, especially not the unicorn chef. If she was drained of all her magic then how would she be able to make more yummy cupcakes?
“No, top oo!” Gleam demanded, turning around around and stomping one of his hooves, making Flurry pause and turn to the boy. A small very unhero-like whimper escaped his mouth. If the boy was able to tell that the pink alicorn with taffy-colored hair wasn’t a red-horned magic-eating monster he didn’t show it. All four of his legs wobbled as if they were ready to snap and fall under the weight of his body. “I’m da hewo of aw Eqwestia and yo no steal magic!”
“Oh, you are?” Flurry asked the boy, stomping her hoof in return, “And how will you stop me?!”
“By bwasting you with magic and topin you!” He said, forgetting the fact that the real Tirek would simply eat whatever magic was thrown at him, but Flurry wasn’t going to be a stickler for the rules. Besides ‘accurately defeating threats to Equestria’ wasn't on the twelve pages of rules Twilight had left with them… or maybe it was. Flurry's memory of all the rules got hazy after the second page. But for now, she wasn’t going to worry about that.
“You can try silly colt,” She dared, trying to give her best evil cackle, though it sounded more like her giving an excited giggle at something funny she saw. “But I will defeat you and steal ALL the magic in Equestria!” She declared, holding a hoof up to her chest trying to look dramatic.
“No!” The boy yelled, immediately charging up to the girl and slamming his little body against his cousin. “No! No! No!” He cried as if he had just been told to do something he didn’t want to do, and continued to beat his body against the alicorn's body, making Flurry giggle and roll her eyes. If the boy wanted to be a hero like his mom was he was either going to have to work on his fighting skills or at least learn how to tackle some pony. But the girl figured she would throw the boy a boy and toppled over onto her side.
“Oh no you got me!” She cried, immediately feeling the foal climb onto her side and jumping on top of her.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” He demanded as he continued to jump on the girl trying to stop Tirek from getting back up to steal his magic or Ms. Chef’s magic as well.
“Gleam you did it!” Flurry said, her voice cutting in and out as Gleam landed on her belly, and the girl caught him with her magic, his body glowing with yellow magical energy as he floated in the air. Giving Flurry the chance to get up and wrap her arm around the boy dispelled her magic around her cousin and started to toss him in the air. “Yay, the hero of all Equestria, Twilight Gleam! Gleam! Gleam! Gleam! Gleam!” She cheered, tossing the tiny unicorn into the air over and over again. The unicorn held his hooves in the air and kept them there as he was tossed around. “Good job taking down, Tirek! I’m sure Auntie Twili would be proud of you for being so brave!” She assured the boy sitting him on the ground and ruffled his head. A beaming smile spread across the boy's face as he excitedly shook before bouncing around the girl, seemingly forgetting that the girl was the Tirek that he had just beaten, enjoying the praise.
“I’mma hewo wike Mama!” He chirped happily as he continued to circle the girl before stopping right in front of Flurry, “Can I have anudder cupcwake?!” He immediately asked, figuring saving everyone's magic was worth at least another sweet treat. And Flurry would agree if he had actually saved Equestria from Tirek he would be allowed to have at least two more cupcakes. But sadly Gleam stopped her from merely going and bugging Ms. Chef for a few seconds. So that wasn’t exactly cupcake-worthy in her eyes. Besides they had already broken the no sweets rule left by Twilight once already.
“I don’t think so, buddy.” She said to him, “Your mom told me you weren’t even allowed to have any sweets so be glad I gave you a couple of cupcakes.” She said, watching the boy's face droop down and his head drop down as well. “But don’t worry we still have time to have a bit more fun before bedtime at the very least.” She said, pulling the boy close in a hug as she looked at one of the clocks that hung in the hallway. They had about another half an hour until it was time for Gleam’s bedtime.
“Mm… ok.” He said, clearly not happy about being dessert-blocked, but he also knew that he needed to use what little time he had awake properly.
“How about… color for a bit?” She offered him, figuring it would be something simple for them to do and it would hopefully get Gleam relaxed enough to get ready for bed.
“Hm….” He started to think again, holding his hoof to his chin as he headed back to the library where his coloring book was waiting. “Ok!” He chirped as he dropped his hoof and began to run back to the library.
“Well wait up for me you goof!” She said, glad that he was already out of his funk, and chased after him. And when they got to the library she used her magic to block off the way to the books. She didn’t need the boy getting lost while looking for ‘spells’ once again. Though if he thought about doing that he didn’t show it as he went right to where his coloring book and crayons were, climbed back up into the chair, and immediately started flipping through the pages and landed on one of a guard pony dressed in the standard armor that you would expect to see of them. Wasting no time, Gleam used his magic to raise a couple of crayons and started to color in the picture, not immediately scribbling like Flurry would have expected from someone of his age.
“Remember to be careful and stay inside the lines,” Flurry said, pulling a chair up and sitting beside him to watch him. She at least remembered one of the few dozen rules she was given and after having broken the ‘no eating peanuts’ rule she didn’t want to see what other rules they could break. But it was clear she didn’t need to tell him that as he slowly colored at the edge of the line first so he wouldn’t risk going outside of it later. He colored the armor grey and the earth pony an amber color and his mane and coloring the ponies mane and tail aqua-green. She was almost amazed by how neat the boy was able to color in the picture, it took her forever to learn to not do that. But the boy was able to color in the picture just fine and soon was done with it.
“Ta-duh!” He chirped, looking over at his babysitter, and slid the book over. “I’m done!”
“Yeah, I can see!” Flurry said, getting a better look at the picture, and there wasn’t even a tiny bit of coloring outside the lines. This made the young alicorn curious about something and soon started to flip through the massive coloring book, which was the size of one of her school textbooks, and check the other pictures. One of two snacks, one colored in lime green the other pink, one of a rainbow-colored in with the proper colors for each part of it, a teddy bear colored in brown, and a dozen other pictures perfectly colored in. “You do a good job at coloring, Gleam.” She praised the boy, getting a beaming smile from him as she shut the book. She returned the book looked at the clock at saw that it was six twenty, close to the boy's bedtime. “Ok, Gleam it’s almost time for bed.” She informed the boy, his face dropping again.
“Mm… no!” He pouted, popping his bottom lip out, and turned away from his cousin, not wanting to go to bed yet. “No wanaa.”
“Aw come on Gleam,” Flurry said, a bit worried this was going to be where the babysitting job got hard, “If you’re good and listen I’ll read you a bedtime story.” She said, which just got a ‘hmph’ for the boy. “And… I’ll give your mom a cupcake for you tomorrow.”
“Peanut?” He immediately asked, apparently having taken a liking to Ms. Chef’s Peanut Cupcakes.
“Yeah, sure.” She promised him, making him hold his hoof to his chin again, “What about two cupcakes?” She asked, and hearing this the boy immediately nodded his head and held his hooves up to be carried. Flurry obliged the boy and scooped him up with one hoof and used her magic to carefully put the coloring book and crayons in the bag beside the table, and then grabbed the bag, taking it with them. Soon the two were in one of the many spare bedrooms in the castle, Gleam in a pair of blue footie PJs excitedly bouncing on the mattress while Flurry flipped through a storybook for the boy.
“Storytime! Storytime! Storytime!” The little unicorn cheered happily, stopping his bouncing as Flurry walked over and she found a story that wouldn’t be too scary for the boy. The book her Auntie Twili left was the many tales of Starswirl and though he was a great hero the ancient unicorn definitely got into some scary adventures.
“Ok goofball,” She said, her horn glowing with yellow magical energy as she lifted the filly up, moved the blanket, laid the boy down, and tucked him in, making sure his stuffed animal Smarty Pants was securely in his arms, “We’ll be reading about Starswirl and the Sirens.” She said, smirking a bit as she heard an excited squeal from the boy. Apparently, he liked this one or liked the title of the story at the very least, Flurry herself had heard it a couple of times, once from Starswirl himself, and wondered whatever happened to the trio of siren sisters. “Once there was a mighty and strong unicorn named Starswirl the Bearded.” She started to read the story to her cousin. She went on to explain how the unicorn was once the teacher to Princess Celestia and Luna and was called to a village to save them from a mysterious threat, just to find out it was from a rare race of creatures in Equestria named Sirens, creatures that would feed off the negative energy of others by singing and their songs making any creature start to argue, and finally at how he had to stop them by banishing them to a different dimension. “And with the sirens gone everyone in the village was safe and lived happily ever after.” She said, closing her book to see what the boy thought of the story.
He had been so full of energy at the beginning of the story she figured that he would be up for at least another two or three stories. But either the story did its job or she was a really boring storyteller, but the foal was out cold. Curled up in a ball and hugged Smarty Pants tightly as he snored softly and drolled a bit. But the sight made Flurry smile a bit seeing the boy out like a light.
“Night, Gleam.” She whispered to the boy as she put the storybook back in his bag before carefully leaving the boy to sleep. Taking the extra time to go back to the library put the chairs back go to the kitchen get a couple of cupcakes from Ms. Chef and put them in a little bag, planning on keeping her side of the bargain she made with her little cousin.
“Ok.” She sighed in relief, walking back to Gleam's room to slip them in, but as she was passing through the main room she was stopped when she heard the door open.
“I’m sure everything is ok, dear.” Her Uncle Flash said as he rushed into the main area, his wings fluttering a thousand miles per hour. But he paused seeing Flurry Heart and looked around. “Uh, your aunt hasn’t shown up yet has she?” He asked the small alicorn, who shook her head no.
“I haven’t seen her.” She informed the pegasus, “So how was the party? Did anything exciting happen?”
“Oh well yeah, of course, it’s always an interesting time when all the princesses get together.” He said with a chuckle as he flew over and landed next to the girl. “What about you, did you have an interesting night?”
“Yeah of course.” She said with a nervous giggle. Past thinking she poisoned her cousin with peanuts after specifically being told not to give him any, and terrorizing him by pretending to be a giant magic-eating monster, how could she not have had an interesting night? But before she could explain any of that her Auntie Twili walked down the hall as she held a sleeping Gleam in one arm, using her magic to carry his bag and looking at the boy’s coloring book.
“Good job Flurry, you made sure he colored in the lines!” Twilight praised, turning around the picture of the knight the boy drew, giving the girl credit for something Gleam clearly knew how to do. “I’ll be honest, I was kind of worried about you babysitting. But your uncle was right, I had nothing to worry about.” She said with a warm smile making the girl's pink cheeks tint red. “I thought that maybe you just threw away all the rules I gave you after we left! Silly of me, right.”
“Thanks, Auntie Twili, it was fun.” She said as she moved the bag to the bag. “Oh, these are for Gleam. I promised him them if he went to bed on time.” She said. But before she could slip the bag into the bag, the yellow glow around them turned purple as Twilight took the bag opened it up, and looked at it before frowning and sniffing it.
“Peanuts?” She asked, looking over at her niece with a raised eyebrow.
“Peanut budda…” Gleam muttered in his sleep as he started to drool a bit more, reaching a hoof out towards the cupcakes. “Budda good…” Hearing this made the older alicorn lean over to her niece waiting for an explanation.
“Oh look at the time!” Flurry said, giving a fake yawn as she gave her uncle and aunt a quick hug, “Gotta hit the hay, love you two, night and bye!” She said before rushing away to her room.