It was a silent morning when the sun rose. Light reflected off the snow the weather team had pulled in the night before, creating an air of stillness throughout the town. Nothing dared break the silence nor fresh powder, especially on this day.
But it was not to last as the light finally shone through the window of one filly’s room. Said filly grumbled under the unwelcome barrage, sinking deeper into her blankets.
“No, you won’t win this time, hero.” she said. “My monkey army will defeat you.” With a yawn, she rolled over for good measure, only to find herself landing on the floor.
“Ahh! You think you can stop me?!” Yaocihuatl, now fully awake, jumped back onto her bed and attacked her pillow. “Take that! And that and- wait, this isn’t a battlefield. Where am I? What happened to my army of darkness?” The gears in her head slowly turned as she looked around her room until it finally clicked in.
“Aww, it was just a dream.” She said, pouting. “I was so close to ruling the world that time! Then I would have all the toys and candy ever made! Stupid sun. Dumb heroes.” She looked at her mess of a bed, how it was fitted out with the latest in camping and staying up late technology.
“Why do I have my flashlight and candy in bed? Mom said that’s how you get ants.” Yaocihuatl asked herself. It took her tired mind a few seconds to make the connection. Once she did, she gasped.
“Omigosh! It’s Hearth’s Warming! Santa Hooves came last night!” She paused after her last words before throwing up her hands. “Oh come on! I missed seeing him again!” She glared at the wrappers that littered her bed.
“Dumb candy, not keeping me up to see him.” she said before leaping off the bed and bounding over to her parent’s room.
Judging by the rise and fall of the covers, they were still asleep. Not for much longer. Yaocihuatl leaped up, using her wings to boost her onto the bed before bouncing up and down while shouting, “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! It’s Hearth’s Warming! C’mon, Mom and Dad! We have presents to open!
The lumpy mass shifted under her, trying to buck her off, but Yaocihuatl stayed on. Eventually, the two massive heads of her parents rose from the comfy depths of the covers and stared at her with tired eyes.
“Is that so?” Mom said, punctuated with a yawn. “Guess we better get up then.”
“Hey, Yaoci, how about you go wake up Auntie Silver?” Dad asked. “Mom and I need to do some power cuddles before we can get up.” He got two very different looks from the two females.
“Power cuddles?” Yaoci asked. “Does that make you get up faster?”
Mom had a weird smile on her face. “Yes, dear. We’ll get up really quick after some power cuddles, but it takes a bit. How about you also get some breakfast too? Make sure Auntie Silver doesn’t eat all the cereal again.”
Yaocihuatl gasped before running out of the room yelling, “Not my Cursed Amulets!” When she reached the top of the stairs she leaped and glided her way down to the couch where Aunt Silver Spade slumbered. The snores she produced sounded like a rockslide or a troll’s grumbling. Perched above her prey, Yaocihuatl approached the beast in the best way she knew how.
“Auntie, wake up.” she said, booping the beast’s nose over and over. All that earned her was a grumble and shift in her Aunt’s sleeping form. However, giving up isn't what tiny tyrant terrors do.
“Hmm, looks like this calls for plan B.” Yaocihuatl said. Using her small size and expert cuddle skills, she squeezed in between her aunt and the couch. Once she was in position, Yaocihuatl pushed with all her terrible might. It took several tries until her aunt dropped like a rock off the couch edge, still sleeping like one too.
Once she caught her breath, Yaocihuatl said to herself, “Phase one is complete. Now to start phase two.” One trip to the kitchen later, she hovered over her aunt’s head with a glass of cold water in hand. However, right before she could do the dastardly deed, a sleepy eye opened and stared at her.
“Do it and Santa’s windigos will take your presents.” Aunt Silver said, her voice dull, but still able to hold the threat behind her words.
Yaocihuatl gulped and offered the glass. “Uh, you want some water?”
“Nice save, kid.” Aunt Silver stretched herself like a cat as she got up off the floor. “Where's mom and dad? Figured they'd be up if you were.”
“Daddy said they needed to do power cuddles to get up. Momma said it helps them get up faster and that we should make breakfast.” Yaocihuatl said, oblivious to the blush on her aunt’s face. “What're power cuddles? Are they different from regular cuddles? Do they give you superpowers? Oh! Does it make you stronger?”
Aunt Silver scrunched her face for a moment before answering. “Well, you see, being an adult is hard, but being a parent is very draining. Power cuddles help them recharge their parenting batteries. They'll need it if they want to keep you out of trouble.” She gave her niece a small noogie. “You'll understand when you get older. For now, let's get some grub before we tear our gifts open.”
“Oh! I want waffles! With berries! And bacon!” Yaocihuatl said, bounding ahead to get the ingredients.
When Derring and Ahuizota finally came down, they found their daughter putting the last plate of food on the table and Silver Spade starting to clean up their mess. The table was set with stacks of waffles, a large bowl of berries, some scrambled eggs, both hay and regular bacon, and a tall pitcher of juice.
“Yaoci, did you help make this?” Derring asked as he sat down. “It looks great.”
“Auntie Silver let me use the waffle iron and I didn’t set the fridge on fire this time!” she said with a beaming smile. “Also, I made sure not to put eggshells in the eggs!”
“It’s certainly easier with supervision, that’s for sure.” Silver said as she put the last mixing bowl in the sink. “She still needs to not make a huge mess when mixing, but otherwise she did pretty good.”
“Well, I for one am hungry. Power cuddles work up an appetite.” Ahuizota said, already piling food on her plate.
“Hey! Don’t hog all the waffles!” Yaocihuatl said. She jumped into her chair and tried to fight her mom for the dwindling stack of fluffy waffles. It was a bit one sided until her dad jumped in to sabotage the enemy’s supply. Auntie Silver just laughed and just went for the other food piles instead.
The food war continued for a few minutes before settling down and everyone consuming the food until there was little left. Once the plates were put away, they all sat around the tree. Auntie Silver was on the chair and Mom and Dad took the couch. Yaocihuatl was scampering about the wrapped ruins of the living room jungle, looking for the best treasure. She grabbed a few labeled boxes, careful not to trigger the ruin’s collapse and jumped out.
“These four first!” she said, presenting the presents to the others.
“Alright, let’s see what we got.” Auntie Silver levitated the presents to their respective receiver and thus began the opening.
Yaocihuatl shredded through the wrapping paper and almost through the box itself when she saw the label on it. “Omigosh! Norf swords!” She lifted out a pair of foam swords as long as her forelegs with a grin a mile wide. “Now I can really kick Airsoft’s butt next time he tries to ambush me!”
“Really, Silver?” Dad said, pulling out a huge whip. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Hey, what makes you think I didn’t buy it for you to go on adventures with?” Auntie Silver asked as she pulled out a gem studded scarf. She also had that smile on her face like when Yaocihuatl ate a bunch of cookies before dinner and tried to deny it to mom, who always knew what she did somehow..
“I’m sure we can find a use for it, dear.” Mom said before smooching Dad. “I can think of a few.”
The morning went of with the pile of wrapped gifts disappearing by noon, leaving only a crater of paper in its place. Yaocihuatl was excited by not only the foam swords, but the action figure set, adventurer’s hat, and snowboard out of the rest of her gifts. Dad had gotten some books and Mom got a bunch of pretty jewelry. Auntie Silver had some fancy bottles and ‘trash books’ that she seemed happy with.
As the adults cleaned up, Yaocihuatl played with her new lieutenant, a skeleton pony plush named Arial. She was laying out battle plans for her next friend attack next to the tree, using her swords as pointers.
“Alright, Arial. I think I got it this time. If we head out soon enough, we could build a fort near the school and make a tunnel system so when Airsoft tries to attack the fort...BAM!” She slammed her sword on the map. “We’ll be right behind him with snowballs in hand. All you have to do is lure him in and this’ll work like a charm.”
The skele-pony plush provided a toothy grin in response.
Yaocihuatl rolled her eyes. “He’s not going to see the rice because it’s white and the snow is white! You don’t even know how to cook rice!” Groaning in frustration, she headed for the kitchen. “All this planning makes me hungry.”
“Like mother, like daughter.” Dad said, who came back in from throwing the trash out. “What does my little tyrant’s tummy want now? Revenge?”
“No, daddy. It’s too cold for that.” Yaocihuatl said with a giggle. “I know we already had breakfast, but can I get an eldritch summoning?”
“Sure, one plate of eggs coming right up.” Dad pulled out the skillet and eggs and got to cooking. After the eggs were cracked, he looked over and asked, “Is something wrong, Yaoci?”
“Huh? N-no, not really. Why?”
“You look like you missed out on something. What’s wrong? Did you not get a toy you wanted?” he asked.
“It’s not that, daddy. It’s just…” she trailed off into vague gestures and grunts.
“Well, what does,” Dad tried to copy the gestures and grunts, “mean? Are you a zombie now?”
“No, daddy!” Yaocihuatl said, trying not to smile. “I mean, I felt like someone’s been missing for a while.”
“Missing, hm?” Dad took on a serious voice now, abandoning the eggs to sit across from her. “What does this missing person feel like? Is it a ghost?”
“No, it’s more like somepony in our family.” she said. “Like somepony to play with besides my friends, but still around. Somepony to make evil schemes with and eat cookies and milk! I tried wishing for them to come around on Hearth’s Warming, but they didn’t show up.” She looked up to see her Dad smiling. “You know what I’m talking about?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. I think you want a little brother or sister.” he said.
Yaocihuatl’s eyes lit up. “Yes! That’s it!” She then looked past his shoulder. “Uh, dad? The summoning is burning.”
“Uh-oh!” Dad quickly pulled the eggs off onto a plate and put it in front of his daughter who tore into it with gusto. While she ate, he slipped out for a while and returned with his wife a minute later.
“Yaoci, do you want to tell Mom what you told me?” Dad said, a silly grin on his face as opposed to Mom’s confused one.
Finishing her eggs with a burp, she shouted out. “I want a little brother!” Following up with cute smile number three.
After the initial shock wore off, Mom raised an eyebrow. “A brother?”
“Yeah! I want a brother so I can take over the world with him as my sidekick! Any hero or villain needs a sidekick.” Yaocihuatl said as if it was the most obvious thing.
Mom glanced at Dad, then asked, “Why a brother? Why not a sister?”
“Because then she might be prettier than me or something and then we’ll have to fight over the same colt or whatever and end up never talking again! She might even try to betray me to my enemies because she got kissed by the hero or she’s jealous because I’m better than her.” Yaoci said. A future tyrant had to know these things after all.
Mom and Dad were stunned by the amount of detail in her explanation. So much, that they told Yaocihuatl to take Auntie Silver to the movies and park while they talked about a new brother. It was fine with her. After all, it meant that Yaocihuatl could scout out the perfect fort spot for her attack and with Auntie Silver’s help, dig the tunnels.
*****
“Well...that was detailed.”
“She’s certainly a smart cookie. She’ll take the world by storm someday.”
“Indeed. It seems like I lost that bet. You and your ‘female intuition’. I definitely thought she would want a sister. At least I get a stallion around the house. Maybe he’ll balance Yaoci out.”
“Uh-huh. Anyways, you lost and you know what that means.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get the costumes, your Highness.”
“Oh, and bring the whip, my delicious love slave.”