//------------------------------// // The Great Cookie Caper of O-Twelve // Story: Minding the Little Ones // by Karrakaz //------------------------------// Dinnertime at Castle Canterlot ran from seven ‘till nine. It had been set up that way to cater to both the changing of the guards — all of whom gratefully made use of their brief period of free time, to get something to snack on — as well as the end of day court; the end time of which varied from day to day. It meant two hours of non-stop work for the cooks, which turned the kitchen into a no-pony’s land of confusion, shouting, and a whole lot of sharp or hot implements being waved around. For anypony looking to get into the supply closet unnoticed, however, it also was the best chance they could get. “We’ve got seven more requests for moondew-pie, and a dozen beers!” A cook yelled, walking down the stairs into the kitchen that was a few inches lower than the dining hall itself. “Lemme guess, those mares from the night shift again? Do they have any idea hard it is to make those pies?” Another replied, wiping sweat from his brow while slaving over a hot stove. He got a friendly nudge from the mare next to him. “Told ya you shouldn’t’ve tried to impress your ladyfriend with ‘em.” The friendly banter helped the cooks in the kitchen cope with the stresses of serving more than a thousand ponies in a short amount of time, but it may also have contributed to the fact that they didn’t notice the two darkly-clad shapes ghosting through the more shadowy parts of the kitchen. The two shadows ducked under and behind kitchen counters and tables, quickly and quietly making their way towards the far wall that held the door to the storage room. With a quick glance back towards the cooks, they opened it, and darted inside before closing it behind them. Once inside, they sat down with their backs towards the door, took off their self-made masks, and laughed. The rush of adrenaline that came with sneaking past ponies was exhilarating. “We made it!” Dawn cheered, immediately getting up again and peeking through the glass pane in the door to see if anypony had noticed them. Her tail swished back and forth in excitement, and her brother swatted at it in an attempt to keep it out of his face. “Uh huh,” Shooting Star replied non-committally. He pulled off his own mask and rubbed his head with a hoof. His mask hadn’t been at all comfortable, and the anticipation and exertion made everything itchy. The payoff would be worth it, though. For weeks they had schemed and planned and tried to find the best way possible to get into the storeroom. Now that they were finally there he was much more interested in what lay inside of it: Cookies. Specifically; Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (with added caramel chunks). They were the reason the two had come up with the plan to begin with. Cookies were the tastiest treats in existence; the right of any self-respecting foal or filly, and they weren’t allowed to eat any. Well, that wasn’t strictly true. Every so often Momma Celestia would come by when she could spare the time, give each of them a cookie straight out of the kitchen, and wink while telling them that they had better eat them while they were still warm. She was a lot better than Momma Twilight, who always said that they couldn’t have any sweets before dinner, and always, always demanded that they eat the yucky grass and daisies that 'formed the basis of a healthy diet'. She wasn’t the worst mother he supposed... she always spent time with them when Momma Celestia was busy, and read them bedtime stories... and kissed all of the ouchies away. But he couldn’t help but shiver when thinking about the 'broccoli' his mother had been talking about. He had never seen a stalk of broccoli before, but just from the description he already knew that he wouldn't like it. More icky ‘healthy’ stuff, he thought with a sour grimace. Where does she find it all? “Star!? Come onnn~!” He blinked. During his momentary bout of distraction, his sister had moved away from the door and clambered onto a set of boxes that were stacked in the corner next to it. That was about the extent of what he could make out. The rest of the room was dark and dreary, almost completely devoid of light, and for a moment he worried that the monsters that lived in their closet might have followed them down here. Dawn wasn’t as worried, shaking her rump for balance before jumping from the crates over to a shelf that was fastened to the wall. It creaked and buckled when she landed on it, slanting to the left before it caught on something and nearly sent Dawn hurtling to meet the ground at high speeds. She caught herself at the last moment, balancing precariously on the edge of the shelf, and knocking over several things which Star hastened to try and catch. Unfortunately, his seated position near the door didn’t make that easy. He lunged forward and caught a glass jar filled with what looked to be blue lilies. The second landed on his head, making him groan, and the third hit the ground and shattered. Star cautiously opened his eyes a few seconds afterwards. The expected whirlwind of sharp glassy pain for which he had reflexively winced had miraculously missed him entirely. “You okay?” Dawn’s voice came from above him. He gingerly touched the sore spot on his head. It was going to become a bump for sure. He sighed and nodded before realising that she probably couldn’t see him. “Y-yeah,” he croaked, following it up with a more stern. “Be more careful.” “I know, I know.” When he looked up, he saw... nothing. The room was simply too dark to make out anything that wasn't in the immediate beam of light emanating from the door. The cooks would have just flicked the switch next to the door, but then... They wouldn't be taken to their mothers and scolded for trying to nab the most delectable confectionaries in the castle if they did. A second passed wherein Star mused on the idea of how awesome it had to be to be a cook, before a yelp from his sister brought him back to the real world. Looking in the direction of the noise, he found that he could see only her butt. Dawn had jumped again, and was scrambling to find purchase on the shelving unit that had been her intended goal. He wanted to help his sister, but she had always been the better climber, and he would probably just get in the way. Licking his lips, he envisioned himself helping her up with his magic, and commanded his horn to follow. At first, he didn’t accomplish much more than a few sparks, which did little more than light up his immediate surroundings, but then, slowly, steadily, he saw a glow appear around Dawn’s legs. It wasn’t quite the light pink his aura usually looked like whenever he did manage to pick something up without setting it on fire — leaning more to a darker purple; but he reasoned it was dark and that he shouldn’t be worried about appearances when his magic helped push his sister up to the shelf so she could get to the all important cookies. With his help Dawn pulled herself up to the shelf, and disappeared from view. It was the only part of the plan Star had absolutely no idea about. How in Equestria had she learned where the cookies were being kept? He still didn’t understand, but if she said that she knew, then he believed her. He looked around the dark room, and shrank back from the darkness. Now that his sister had vanished from view, he was suddenly afraid that the under his bed monsters were real, and that they would get him if he couldn’t see them. “D-dawn?” He called out quietly, half lost in his own belief that his sister had been eaten and then again louder. “Dawn?!” “Shhhh,” Dawn’s voice came out of the darkness. “Not so loud! I’ve almost got it, just wait there.” Shooting Star nodded timidly and bit the inside of his cheek. He was a big colt, and there was a bit of light coming from the door. He should be fine, right? Unfortunately, the more time passed, the more his imagination ran away with him. It no longer seemed like such a silly notion that the boogiemare existed, or that she punished naughty colts and fillies. Or that the monsters that lived under his bed really were hiding in the darkness. Gulping audibly, he shuffled back towards the door and the relative safety of the light. Their plan no longer seemed like such a good idea, made even worse when he heard something wobble for a moment before a loud crash right next to him scared his heart right up his throat. All he could focus on was the blood rushing through his ears and his breathing. And then Dawn yelped. He was all but certain that something bad had happened to her. What if the monsters had grabbed her? His fear forgotten, he rushed towards the shelf his sister was supposed to be on. “Dawn? Dawn, are you okay?” Fear made his voice crack, and he could feel hot tears stinging behind his eyes. What was he going to do if she wasn’t okay? If the monsters had gotten her, he would have to tell his mothers that he’d lost her. He should’ve— When her rounded the corner all of his thoughts came to an abrupt halt. Dawn was hanging a few inches above the ground, surrounded by a strong dark purple aura that gently lowered her to the ground. He gulped, an entirely different sort of fear catching him by surprise. That magic could only belong to one pony, which meant that... The light switch was flipped, flooding the entire storage room with the deep yellow of long-lasting illumination spells, and he saw what neither of them had been able to see in the darkness: Twilight Sparkle. She wasn’t standing in the doorway, like he’d expected, but instead walked towards them from the back of the room, smiling softly all the while. It wasn’t nearly as bad as any monsters, yet Star still felt as though his life was about to come to an end. Momma Twilight catching them in the act was just about the worst thing that could happen, she would almost certainly disapprove. At least with Momma Celestia they still had a chance to get off scot free, or even a chance that she would grab a cookie for them. “Are you okay, Dawn?” Twilight asked, sitting down beside her softly sniffing daughter and pulling her close with a wing. Dawn nodded. Clearly the fall had scared her badly, but Star knew that she was as scared of the monsters under her bed as she was of his. How much worse had it been for her? “And you Star?” His mother then asked, turning to him with that same gentle smile that put him ill at ease for some reason. “I’m okay, mom,” he replied while she drew him close with her other wing. He wondered how long his mother had been in the room. Could it have been from the start? Why hadn’t she said something earlier? “How did you find us?” Dawn asked, stifling her sniffling and leaning against her mother. Twilight’s smile widened and she gave both of them a light squeeze with her wings. “I’ve been here the whole time.” The frown on Dawn’s face after that reply looked so silly that it made Star giggle. “But how did you know we would do something like this?” Dawn asked again before glaring at Star. “Besides the fact that you left my diary where you got the idea on your bed?” Twilight replied with a smirk. “I used to do the same thing when I was your age.” Star perked up. That was new. He’d heard a few stories of his mother when she was younger, but never when she was as young as they were. He had a hard time picturing her as a filly, and an even harder time picturing her doing anything naughty. “Really?” He asked, trying and failing to ward the disbelief from his voice. Twilight giggled and looked down at him. “Really,” she said with a nod. “Did your mother get angry with you when she caught you?” That was Dawn again, her momentary sadness all but forgotten and replaced by the same curiosity that burned in Star’s chest. “No.” Momma Twilight replied, then she did something he couldn’t recall her ever doing before. She leaned down and lowered her voice, whispering: “My mother never caught me. Actually, only one pony ever did.” She winked at Star. “I was quite good at sneaking around.” “Then... who did catch you?” Dawn asked, preempting Star’s own, identical question. “Your Momma Celestia.” It was more than a little confusing for the foals. Star simply couldn’t wrap his head around it. Just thinking of Momma Twilight doing what they were doing was enough to test his imagination, but this? “Wasn’t Momma Celestia a filly, too?” he asked, slipping out from under his mother’s wing to get a better view of his mom’s reaction. “Not quite. It’s a little more complicated than that, but I promise I’ll explain it to you sometime,” Momma Twilight said, getting up as well and stretching her wings. “For now, I think it’s time we got ready for dinner. Momma Celestia has had a long day dealing with the pigs union strike,” she stopped to sigh and muttered ‘apparently they are more equal than others’ under her breath before she continued. “—and I’m sure she’ll appreciate seeing the two of you with fresh faces and washed hooves.” “So you’re not going to punish us?” Dawn asked timidly when Momma Twilight picked them up in her magic and put both of them on her back. Their mother shook her head. “No, Dawn, I’m not.” She stopped at the entrance to the storage room and looked back at them over her shoulder for a second before saying: “In fact, if the two of you can promise me that you’ll eat everything on your plate tonight, you can both have a cookie. What do you say?” Star and Dawn needed only a single look between themselves to come to the conclusion that that was better than they could have hoped for, and they nodded quickly. “Okay, mom.” “I promise, mom.” “Good.” Momma Twilight’s horn lit up, and two cookies floated over from an entirely different shelf than the one Dawn had jumped on. “Just remember,” she said when she had their full attention, “If you try again, I’ll know.” He didn’t know about Dawn, but Star believed his mother. There was apparently a lot about her that he didn’t know.