//------------------------------// // Night // Story: The Majestic Tale of Red Velvet the Magnificent // by Crystal Wishes //------------------------------// Silly Faces had decided it was time to get to work, and I couldn't agree more. My public awaits. While she delivers orders to tables, I ride upon her back and ensure the customers are happy. The bakery is very important to my careservants and I must do my part to help out. Thankfully, I am an expert pony relations pony. "Here you are! One chocolate milkshake and three cookies!" Silly Faces says as she sets a tray on a table where two ponies waited. "Thanks!" one of the ponies chimes, then looks at me. "Aww, he's so cute!" Yes, yes I am. I smile at her; she is most welcome. Silly Faces inclines her head to look at me out of the corner of her eye. "Yup, he's the cutest!" You flatter me, Silly Faces! But now is not the time for flattery. I must make sure these customers are satisfied, so— "Enjoy your sweet treats!" Silly Faces says and starts the trot to the back room to pick up the next order. No, no, wait! I haven't checked on their level of satisfaction! I haven't asked what we can do to improve their experience! Silly Faces, this is a place of business, and we must conduct ourselves accordingly! Silly Faces laughs. "Calm down, wigglebutt!" She wiggles her ears almost as if to mock me, but I know she would never do such an awful thing. "I'm going to drop something if you don't keep still!" I give her my sternest look, then nod. All right, I shall allow the insubordination this one time, but only because it's you, Silly Faces. "Do you need me to take him?" Mama Snuggles offers. Before I can state my case, Silly Faces shakes her head. "Nah, it's fine, Mom. He just gets worked up around the customers sometimes, but they love him, so who am I to deny 'em what they want?" Thank you, Silly Faces! I couldn't have said it better myself! Mama Snuggles laughs softly. "All right, all right. Do you mind delivering these cookies to table seven?" Silly Faces nods. "We're on it!" After balancing the tray on her head, she and I set back out for the main room. She pauses when she looks over at the table we were assigned. I peek around her head and gasp. There, sitting at the table, is The Other Little! She's the most fascinating pony I've ever known in my short but wonderful life. I bounce with excitement as we approach her table. The Other Little is one of the few ponies like me that I've met, but more than that, she is somehow able to effortlessly communicate with the big ponies like Silly Faces and my careservants. "Hi, Azu!" Silly Faces chimes. The Other Little turns her little blue head to look up at Silly Faces and she smiles wide. "Oh, hi Velvet! I didn't know you were working today!" Silly Faces drops the tray on the table, shifts me into the embrace of one foreleg, and sits down between The Other Little and my kinspony's friend, Wheels. "I work almost every day, you know." She winks while bouncing me on her knee. "How did the kite flying go?" The Other Little sighs, her ears falling flat to the sides. "Mr. Peepers got in a fight with a pigeon. The pigeon would have won if it weren't for Sandy's dragon chasing it off!" She looks over at Wheels with a renewed smile. "Thanks again, Sandy!" Wheels waves a hoof. "It's no problem. Always happy to help in the crusade against rogue pigeons." I try to wave to get The Other Little's attention. I must ask her how she can so easily get her words across to the big ponies! It's almost like she's one of them! She doesn't seem to notice me, her focus instead diverted to the cookies. Which is understandable, because now I want them, too. I wave my hooves at the plate. Silly Faces, notice me and my need! Because she seems to contain no faults—other than not always being around when I want her, and sometimes she takes Mama Snuggles's side, and sometimes she doesn't make silly faces when I want her to, and, wait, no, this is supposed about how perfect she is... Because she seems to contain very few faults, Silly Faces takes notice and points at the plate. "Okay if Red has a piece of one?" The Other Little gasps and nods. "Of course! Anything for Red!" I smile as Silly Faces breaks a cookie in half and offers it to me. I do not delay in taking it from her. Papa Sweets makes wonderful sweets and I am not one to waste his talent by playing coy. "So how are things?" Silly Faces asks. Ah, gossip time again. I nibble on the cookie and look between the mares as they talk back and forth about the ups and downs that their lives have to offer. Sometimes, listening to the gossip of mares, I'm not sure if I want to ever grow up... I look at The Other Little as she talks. Not only can she talk like a big pony, but she has a big pony's life, too. Perhaps that is the trade-off when one learns to speak their language: you become one of them. Perhaps communication is the catalyst to the little-to-big transformation. Maybe it's better that they don't understand me. "Okay, sorry, girls, but I gotta get back to work. Enjoy the cookies!" Silly Faces maneuvers to stand and puts me on her back again. The Other Little and Wheels wave goodbye. I sigh; someday, I would like to schedule a play date with The Other Little. I will have to consult with my careservants about this. After the sun has started to set and we are on one of our return trips to the back area, Mama Snuggles looks up when we come into her view. "I think we're about done with the orders for today, so why don't you and Red take a break until we close up shop?" Yes! I love breaks! I squeal with delight as Silly Faces sets me on the floor, lowering her head to keep it in line with mine. "Okay!" she replies, booping her nose to my own. "Come on, Red, let's see if you've gotten any stronger since yesterday, huh?" Stronger? My eyes widen. Oh, no, no, no! I didn't prepare myself for this! I am still too weak to challenge you, Silly Faces! Yes, I lifted my blocks earlier, but that isn't enough. I sputter and gurgle as she gently pushes me onto my back with one hoof, the other catching my head to guide it to the floor. Then, with both hooves, she begins to tickle my sides. The sensation is overwhelming. I squeal and giggle and cry and squirm and want to push her away but I also never want it to end. My hooves flail of their own accord and I manage to fend off one of the attackers, but the other catches me right under a foreleg. "Ooh, good move!" She laughs. "But not good enough! Rawr!" She ducks her head and blows a raspberry—at least that is what she calls it, though I greatly disagree, raspberries are nothing like this—against my stomach. While she is distracted with her attempt at a finishing blow, I get both of my hooves on either side of her face and give the mightiest push I can. It is just enough to give me room to wriggle out from beneath her, and my wobbly legs grace me with their compliance as I bound away. Silly Faces gasps. "Don't run!" But I must! I must, for your tickles are too much! I must—oh no, no, no legs, no not that way! Crash! I have collided with my block tower. I am sprawled in the ruins of my glorious block tower, destruction all around me, and despair fills my soul. There shall never be a block tower as great as this one had been, and now it is gone... forever. "Red! Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?" Silly Faces scoops me up and cradles me to her chest. "Shh, shh, don't cry." I hide my face. I'm not crying, Silly Faces! Why would I cry over the loss of a perfect, great, wonderful block tower that I destroyed? No, I didn't do it. It was these cursed legs of mine! I force my forelegs away from my face and hold them as far away from me as I can. Bad legs, bad! Silly Faces follows their direction as if she thought I was pointing. I follow the direction, too, and find that my legs were reaching for the remains of the block tower. Perhaps I was too harsh in my judgment of them. Perhaps they feel remorse for what they have done. Well, I'm in no mood to forgive them. "Oh, the blocks?" Silly Faces looks back at me with a smile. "Well, tomorrow, I'll bring you some more blocks and we'll build a whole fort, how's that?" A whole fort of blocks? I gaze at Silly Faces, Future Bringer of Blocks. Awe, admiration, and a bit of fear blooms in my chest. She can just do that? Bring more blocks? What sorcery is this? "Okay, ladies and gentlefoal," Papa Sweets says as he leans in through the portal. "The bakery is officially closed." Closed? Silly Faces nods and passes me off to Mama Snuggles. "Okay! I'll clean up. You two can go on and head home, I'll lock up when I'm done." Go home? A whimper springs from my depths and all eyes turn to me. I am not ashamed to admit that now I am crying, Silly Faces. Now you may hold me and tell me not to cry. I still will, but the comfort would be appreciated. "Aww, don't give me that look, little guy." Silly Faces ruffles my mane. It is not comforting. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? With blocks!" Mama Snuggles sighs and rocks me gently. "You know, he doesn't look at me like that when I leave him with Pepper." That's because you're not Silly Faces. I love you, Mama Snuggles, but Silly Faces... Tears are falling down my cheeks. Silly Faces is special and she's leaving and what if she doesn't come tomorrow and I never see her again and I never get my fort of blocks and Silly Faces isn't there to come with me to the Rose Kingdom and I never see her again and she's gone forever and— Silly Faces plants a kiss on my forehead. "Love you, Red. Be a brave boy and don't cause trouble for Mom, okay?" I sniffle and try to stifle my tears. If that is what the Silly Faces wants, then that is what the Silly Faces gets. A brave boy. The bravest there ever was! Mama Snuggles stands, holding me with one foreleg. "Be sure to not stay too late, muffinlump. I'll clean whatever you don't in the morning." Silly Faces nods and raises one hoof to salute. "Yes, ma'am!" "Pepper?" Mama Snuggles asks as she carries me through the portal. "Can you—" "—get the blue blanket from upstares?" He smiles and trots for the portal that hides the stares. "On it!" Mama Snuggles waits for him, humming a little tune. It is comforting. I like it. I try to hum along with, though I don't know the tune, so she giggles at my incompetence. I forgive her because she has a good point; I'm just humming nonsense. "Got it!" Papa Sweets descends the stares, closes the door, and walks over. "Ready to go home?" "Yes." She raises her voice to call, "Have a good night, Velvet!" "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!" Silly Faces calls back. And just like that, Silly Faces is gone from my life. But I do not cry. I must be brave for Silly Faces and trust that she will return to me tomorrow, and that we shall build a great fort. It shall be named Silly Fort in her honor. It doesn't take long before we are at the building that our home lives in. Many homes live together in the building, like how the cookies all live together on one sheet. Except our homes don't go in the oven. Thank goodness for that. "I'll get started on dinner while you put him down," Papa Sweets says once we are inside our home, draping Blue Blankie over her back. Mama Snuggles nods. "Thanks, dear." She looks down at me while we head to my portal. "Okay, honeytickles, what will it be tonight?" I stare at her. I want a tale about a princess and a knight, but how do I make that clear? She sets me in my crib, which is much nicer than the one above the bakery, and tucks Blue Blankie over me. Then she goes over to the bookshelf against one wall. "Hmm, let's see..." A princess and a knight! I do not know if we carry such literature in this household, but if we do, that is what I want, Mama Snuggles. "How about Pet the Bunny?" she offers, picking up the book in question. What? No, Mama Snuggles, that is a book for foals. I am too old for such nonsense! If you make me pet the bunny one more time, I will commence the tantrum! Mama Snuggles does not heed my warnings, instead sitting on the stool by my crib and leaning over the edge. "Look, Red. The bunny is soft. Don't you want to pet the bunny?" No, I do not. I look at the little bunny on the page. She takes my hoof and guides it towards the fluffy figure. No, Mama Snuggles, do not want! My hoof comes in contact with the bunny. Oh. It is soft. Very soft. I stroke its fur. Had I remembered how soft it was, perhaps I would not have been so quick to spurn the idea. We finish the tactile experience and Mama Snuggles sets the book aside. I am soothed by all the soft, velvety things I have touched and close my eyes while she sings one final lullaby. "Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, smiles await you when you rise. Sleep, pretty baby, do not cry, and I will sing a lullaby." Mama Snuggles has a beautiful voice. It calms my very soul and I feel myself drifting to the land of slumber. "Cares you know not, therefore sleep, while over you a watch I'll keep. Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry, and I will sing a lullaby." A gentle kiss is planted on my forehead and Mama Snuggles whispers, "Goodnight, my precious little cupcake." I hear her hoofsteps moving toward the door and try to reply. "Googni," my mouth says. Hmm... That sounded better in my head. I shall have to practice my goodnights in private. For now, however, I must sleep.