• Published 13th Sep 2013
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A Daughter and her Dragon - Level Dasher



Spike longed for years to have a family of his own. With Twilight's help, he applies for adoption. But what is it like to be raised by royalty?

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Chapter Twenty-One - Some Beans Aren't So Easily Spilled

“Hey, nice bag,” Cotton commented, turning to Steadclaw. “So I guess that means you’re done using my dad’s loaner?” she chuckled.

“Yeah, it’s in my locker,” Steadclaw replied. “I was gonna give it to you to take it home. Or, I can carry it back for you.” He winked at her as he pulled a sheaf of papers out of his new satchel. “I hope this is good enough. Your dad’ll kill me if I do badly on this paper.” Cotton laughed, then Steadclaw held out a claw to her. “Want me to bring yours up?”

“Oh, sure! Thanks.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a thick stack of papers bound with twine.

Steadclaw’s eyes widened. “Good Grover! Did you write a book? My paper’s gonna look like a pamphlet compared to that!”

“Nah, I just had an edge with my sources,” Cotton said. “There’re a lot of… nitty-gritty details.”

“If you say so, Miss four-point-oh,” Steadclaw responded as he grasped her paper, Cotton sticking her tongue out at him with a smirk.

When he arrived at the front of the room, Steadclaw dropped the stack of papers on Mr. Turner’s desk with a thwump. “Whoops! Sorry, Mr. T. Didn’t mean to be so loud.”

“Good grief, Steadclaw, did you write a novel?” the teacher asked him.

“No, that would be Cotton,” he responded, lifting his bound research paper up to reveal Cotton’s paper underneath. “And that’s almost exactly what I said to her,” he chuckled.

“Ah, that explains it,” Mr. Turner said, adding the papers to the pile already on his desk. “Just from a glance, though, you look like you did quite the job yourself. I guess I’ll see when I actually read it.”

“I hope so. Oh, by the way, I was told by a reliable source that there’s a chance for bonus points because of some particular details,” Steadclaw commented. “Any chance that’s actually a possibility?”

“You’ve got the Secretariat Comet Crisis, right?” Mr. Turner asked. Steadclaw nodded. “Hmm… Well, you just might be in luck, provided your source is properly cited, but no promises.”

“Fair enough,” Steadclaw responded before he headed back to his seat beside Cotton and sat down. Turning to her, he asked, “Hey, so what’s the verdict on telling the girls about Saturday? It’s your call; I know they’re gonna ask. I’ve got Equish with Harmony next period. I plan to keep my beak shut.”

Cotton sighed. “Well, knowing the three of them, they’ll all probably badger us before we even get to lunch, but if we’re gonna tell them anything, we should tell them together.”

Steadclaw nodded. “So, we’ll wait until lunch to decide whether or not we say anything. Until then, this beak is sealed.” He swiped two talons across the front of his beak.

Cotton smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

Ж

“You really think you can bake a full batch of cookies in less than an hour?” Daisy asked a bustling Cotton in their home economics class.

“I can if I can focus,” Cotton replied. “Why do you think this is on my flank?” She turned and showed Daisy her cutie mark, then went back to measuring out her ingredients.

“Fair point,” Daisy said. “I think you’re the only pony that actually likes Home Ec.”

“Hey, I get to use school time to make use of my special talent. What’s not to like?” Cotton responded.

“If you say so. I tried baking with my mom once and it took us almost two hours. Good luck getting those finished on time,” Daisy said, pointing to the clock ticking away on the far wall.

“I don’t need luck, I could do this in my sleep. I’m a natural baker,” Cotton responded, pouring her baking soda into a pot on a stove across from their work station.

“Well, I can tell you what I’m not—a seamstress,” Daisy grunted. “How am I supposed to sew anything if I can’t even get thread through a needle?”

“Um, ask for help?” Cotton offered, dumping all of her ingredients, except the flour, into a mixing bowl.

“We’re supposed to be doing these projects on our own, though.”

“Do you have any idea how many times ponies ask for help with a needle and thread?” Cotton asked her, pouring in flour to the mix without looking. “You ask any unicorn in this room for help, and I bet they’ll gladly give you a hoof. Or a horn, I guess.”

Daisy sighed. “Alright, but if I get in trouble, I’m blaming you.”

“Okay!” Cotton responded, as she kneaded her cookie dough together. “But if you’re that worried, I’ll even create a distraction for you.” As Daisy went sneaking off looking for help, Cotton found their teacher to let her know she was going to use the oven, and asked questions she already knew the answers to in the meantime.

When she got back to her work station to portion out the dough, Cotton found Daisy hastily putting a needle through her fabric. “See? Told ya. That took like, two minutes,” she said.

“Oh, shut it,” Daisy replied. “Just because the needle’s threaded doesn’t mean I’m any good at this. I wish floriculture was part of Home Ec…”

About fifteen minutes later, just as Daisy finished sewing one side of what appeared to be a throw pillow, Cotton came back to their work station with a tray of finished cookies.

Daisy looked up as Cotton approached. “Wow, you actually did it?”

“Never doubt a royal baker,” Cotton said with a smirk.

Daisy’s nose flared open and closed a few times. “Those smell really good. What kind are they?”

“Just plain ol’ chocolate chip. Figured I’d go simple,” Cotton replied.

Daisy alternated looking at Cotton and the cookies. “Um, can I—”

“Duh,” Cotton laughed, setting the tray next to Daisy. “But let me warn you—you’re my guinea pig this time around. Even I haven’t tried ‘em yet. I don’t know how school ingredients’ll taste—I’m used to the castle kitchen. Give ‘em another minute to cool, then be my guest.”

After a minute that felt like an hour, Daisy finally reached out and grabbed one of the sweets. She put her sewing down and slowly broke the cookie in two. “Woah… they’re so soft! How do you do that?”

Cotton’s brows arched, then she smirked. “Trade secret. Take a bite and tell me what you think while they’re still fresh,” she said.

Daisy eyed the cookie for a moment, then finally took a bite. The moment her teeth sank through the dough, she melted as quickly as the chocolate. “Mmmmmmmmmmm,” she mumbled through her moment of sweet bliss. She chewed and swallowed, then quickly shoved the other half of the cookie into her mouth. Her torso lying on the table, Daisy said, “This is a royal top secret, nopony can know about this.”

“What?” Cotton asked.

“These are too good for public consumption,” Daisy added. “Only I should know what chocolate ecstasy feels like.”

Cotton laughed. “Well, I guess that means they’re good. Thanks! Even with school ingredients?”

Daisy nodded. “Mmhmm. And you’re welcome.”

Cotton looked over the ingredients on the shelves once again. “Wow. These are the same ingredients I use at home. No wonder. How do they even have these brands?”

Looking over to the windows, she found their teacher leaning out of one of them and waving at someone, then there was the rumble of a large take-off. Cotton narrowed her eyes. “Dad. Figures.” She turned back to Daisy, still laying on the table. “Heh. Are you still in ‘chocolate ecstasy’?”

Daisy turned over and faced Cotton. “Ohhhhhhhh yah. Ya know… speaking of ecstasy… how was your date? Did you and Steadclaw have your own ‘moments of ecstasy’ together?” Daisy asked, waggling her eyebrows.

Uh-oh, here we go, Cotton thought to herself. “Yeah, we had a good time,” she answered, reaching for a cookie herself.

After a minute of waiting in silence, Daisy asked, “Uh, anything else?”

“You’re gonna have to wait ‘til lunch,” Cotton replied, biting into her cookie. “Steadclaw and I already agreed on that. Mmm, you’re right, these came out nicely.”

“Can I at least have another one if you’re not gonna talk?”

“Go for it,” Cotton answered through her chewing, “but don’t go overboard. I planned to share them with the class.”

Daisy’s eyes widened at the response.

“NO! MINE!”

Ж

Cotton’s tongue stuck out the side of her mouth as she scribbled in her math notebook. “Then… ‘cosine-x’ over ‘sine-x’ times ‘sine-x’ over the quantity ‘sine-x squared’ plus ‘cosine-x squared’ equals ‘cosine-x’… multiply, cross out the ‘sine’s… and ‘cosine-x’ equals ‘cosine-x’! Ha!” she whispered to herself, dropping her pencil on her desk. “Done and done.”

Harmony Wishes shook her head at the desk beside Cotton. “How do you do these so fast? I mean, I have a good idea of what I’m doing, but you prove these proofs like… like…”

“Like a prosecutor?” Cotton asked.

It took Harmony a moment before she rolled her eyes. “That was so terrible, the groaning is gonna give me an intestinal disorder.”

“I know,” Cotton replied, hanging her head in shame. “My dad makes enough bad jokes that I’ve gotten good at it myself. I swear, it’s a curse. Well, to answer your question, I got help from my aunt. Twenty minutes with her and I understood proofs like the ABC’s.”

Harmony suppressed a snort. “Okay, that was really bad.”

“Huh?” Cotton looked at the right triangle on her paper for reference, each side properly labeled with one of the first three letters of the alphabet. Cotton put a hoof to her face. “Ugh, I didn’t even do that on purpose,” she groaned.

“Wow. You’re literally oblivious to your own literal jokes,” Harmony snickered. “Hey, speaking of ‘Oblivious,’ how’d your date go?”

Cotton cocked a brow. “What does oblivious have to—oh, right, the movie. It went well,” Cotton replied.

Harmony leaned toward her. “And then?”

“‘And then’ what?”

“Oh, come on,” Harmony complained. “Details, Cotton! Steadclaw wouldn’t say anything either!”

“You’ll have to wait until lunch,” Cotton said. “I already told Daisy that.”

“Can’t you just tell me?” Harmony asked with a disarming smile.

“One, that wouldn’t be fair to Daisy,” Cotton replied. “Two, I know Flarechaser is going to ask me the first chance she gets, so if I’m going to say anything, I’d rather say it only once. And three—”

“And three, stop talking and let your classmates focus on their work.” The teacher stepped in between Cotton’s and Harmony’s desks. “Not everyone has the benefits of private tutoring, Miss Candy.”

“Sorry, Mr. Theorem,” Cotton responded, shrinking into her seat under his gaze.

The teacher looked at Cotton’s paper for a minute and nodded his approval. “You may begin working on your homework, Miss Candy.” He then turned and looked at Harmony’s paper, and let out a small grunt. “Check your work again, Miss Wishes. You’re skipping steps.” He then walked back to the front of the classroom.

As Harmony went back to her work, Cotton looked at Mr. Theorem’s retreating form and mouthed out, ‘Thank you.’

Ж

Cotton sat down at her desk in the Equish classroom as other students filed in behind her, the teacher shuffling papers at the front of the room.

Three… two… one...

“Sooooo?” Flarechaser came up behind her. “How did it go?”

Right on cue. “It was good,” Cotton replied simply. She didn’t even bother playing dumb.

“Save those answers for your parental unit,” Flarechaser deadpanned. “Seriously, details, now please.”

“We had fun,” Cotton answered with a shrug. “Thanks for the movie recommendation. It was… funny.”

Flarechaser groaned. “Girl, I recommended that movie ‘cause it’s easy to leave it in the background!” She walked around to the front of Cotton’s desk, rested her face on both forehooves, and whispered with a smirk, “So, did you two make out? Did you Prench?”

Cotton tried her hardest to prevent a blush from creeping over her face. She decided to try playing dumb after all. “The movie was in Equish, not Prench.”

Flarechaser grinned. “Heyyyy, I see pink in your cheeks! You did! You totally Prenched! Did you—”

“Everyone to your seats,” the teacher called. Flarechaser giggled with a snort as she sat down next to Cotton. “We’ll be finishing our poetry lesson from Friday on Wheeler Buckskin Yokes, then I’m going to have you all try your hooves at writing your own poetry.”

There was a unanimous groan in the classroom before the teacher began lecturing about the aforementioned poet. Flarechaser scribbled in her notebook. Cotton heard a tearing sound, then after a moment, felt Flarechaser poking her with a folded-up piece of paper, a huge grin still plastered on her face.

“FLARECHASER!” All the students turned to look in her direction as the teacher approached her. “We’ve barely begun and you’re already at it. You know the rules about note-passing—give it here.”

“Uh, M-Mrs. Quill, please don’t read this one out loud,” Flarechaser stammered.

“As I said, you know the rules,” Mrs. Quill responded, yanking the paper away in her aura.

“No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no!” Flarechaser repeated over and over.

Based on Flarechaser’s reaction alone, Cotton watched in terror as the teacher unfolded the note and glanced at the message. Mrs. Quill’s eyes widened before she looked first at Cotton, then back at Flarechaser. Her eyes narrowed. “This is hardly poetry!” She tore the paper to scraps and looked at Cotton again before walking back to the front of the classroom. “And it does not require a response.”

Cotton and Flarechaser quietly sighed, “Oh, thank you.”

When she reached the front of the room, Mrs. Quill whipped around and pointed a hoof at Flarechaser. “In exchange for this exception, you shall be serving detention this afternoon.”

Flarechaser groaned. “Eh, I can deal,” she whispered to Cotton.

And tomorrow, so you’ll learn to keep your nose out of other ponies’ business.”

Flarechaser smacked her face with a hoof. “Dammit.”

Ж

“You’re seriously gonna make us wait until he gets here?” Daisy asked Cotton. “Haven’t we been patient enough?”

Cotton swallowed a bite of her lunch. “Steadclaw and I already agreed in History that if we were going to tell you anything, we’d tell you together.”

“I swear, it’s like talking to a brick wall,” Flarechaser sighed in exasperation, throwing her hooves in Cotton’s direction.

“No, then she wouldn’t be talking to us at all,” Harmony responded. “She’s more like a bank safe. It’s like she’s got extra security around her just in case, yelling at her if necessary.”

“Miss, are these fillies bothering you?”

Cotton looked up to see Steadclaw, attempting to keep some semblance of a serious expression.

There you are!” Daisy cried, clapping her hooves together. “Finally!”

“Where were you? You usually beat us here. And these three have been pestering me all morning,” Cotton said to him.

“Yeah, she tried to make me talk, too,” Steadclaw responded, pointing at Harmony. “Sorry, I got held up in Math,” he said, sitting next to Cotton at the table. “Clearly, not all the teachers appreciate adding a little humor to the lesson.”

“You know, we’ve told you not to mess around in Math,” Harmony said. She smirked at Flarechaser. “It’s easier to mess around in a movie theater.”

Steadclaw looked over at Cotton, who rolled her eyes. “Is it, really?” Steadclaw replied.

Flarechaser let out another exasperated sigh and glared at him. “You too? You’re not gonna spill?” She looked over at Cotton. “You told us you’d talk when you two were together. You’re together now—talk.”

Cotton smacked her face with a hoof. “I also said ‘if’ I was going to say anything, blah blah blah. Look, since you’re all gonna be nosy about it, nothing crazy happened, alright? We had a nice dinner, then we watched a movie together, and the movie was… fun.” She winked at Steadclaw. “Happy?”

Daisy rested her cheek on a hoof. “No. You’re still being totally vague.”

“Hey, not our fault if you can’t figure it out on your own,” Steadclaw said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Exactly,” Cotton added, leaning into him. He put his arm around her underneath her wings.

“Come on! I got two detentions with Mrs. Quill for that?” Flarechaser cried.

“Where’re the details?” Harmony asked. She turned to Flarechaser and asked, “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, about that…” Cotton looked at Flarechaser, too. “What the hay did you write? Do I even want to know?”

Suddenly, the five of them heard gasps and choruses of “Your Highness!” across the room. They turned to find most of the students bowing, with Princess Twilight Sparkle walking through the cafeteria, straight towards Cotton’s table. As she passed through the crowd of teenagers, she acknowledged them all cordially. When Twilight arrived at her destination, all five of the table’s occupants had risen and made their respective bows.

“Oh come on, Cotton. You know better than to bow. I just wanted to come and say hello after working out the details for your Dance on Friday with your principal,” Twilight said, approaching Cotton and giving her a short nuzzle. She idly waved at Cotton’s four companions, who respectfully rose and waved back. “How’s your day going?”

“Um… pretty good, Aunt Twilight. Do you… think you could go home now? You’re kind of embarrassing me…” Cotton said with a blush, looking at the other bowing students.

“Oh! I’m sorry, Cotton. You know how we are—always saying hello when we have the opportunity,” Twilight responded. “I’ll see you when you get home, okay?” She turned and headed back for the door.

“Sure thing, Aunt Twilight,” Cotton replied. As soon as Twilight left the room, Cotton groaned. “Ugh, why do they insist on doing that kind of stuff to me?”

Daisy giggled. “It’s just something parents do. Or I guess aunts, in this case. It’s like, their job to embarrass us.”

Cotton watched all the students in the room rise from their bows, then shook her head with a sigh. “I guess.”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” a familiar voice sneered. “You asked Princess Twilight to come here just to try and make yourself look special? Wow, you must be really desperate for attention,” Gemstone scoffed.

“Yeah, look who’s talking.”

“She’s helping with the dance, Gem,” Cotton snorted. “You were the one who said I should’ve had my party at the castle; well, you got your wish. My dad offered to host the dance there.”

“Oh, puh-lease. By some miracle you managed to get a boyfriend, and you’re still trying to play yourself up,” Jewel added. “Pathetic.”

“That does it,” Steadclaw said, pushing himself out from the table. Before Cotton could stop him, he stomped in the fillies’ direction. The two of them flinched at his approach, but not nearly as much as Steadclaw did when he looked behind them.

“Are you two causing trouble for my niece?” Gemstone and Jewel whipped around to find Princess Twilight Sparkle standing behind them. The two fillies found themselves lacking a response, swapping worried glances. When neither filly answered, Twilight said, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ Alright, then. I’ll give you two options: I can either contact Cotton’s father and tell him what you’ve been up to—he’ll probably want to speak with you himself—” The two fillies gasped. “—or… or you can both go to the principal’s office and each write Cotton an apology letter.” Gemstone and Jewel both bowed to Twilight, then ran out of the cafeteria in the direction of the principal’s office.

After a few moments of silence, Twilight smirked. When she started laughing, all the students looked at each other, confused. A moment later, green flames engulfed Princess Twilight, and all the students found Buzz rolling on the floor in her stead. “Oh, I’ve been wanting to get them for ages!” the changeling laughed. “They actually bowed to me!”

All the students laughed with him and pounded the floor in applause as Cotton and Steadclaw approached him.

“That was really good, Buzz!” Cotton said, helping him off the floor. “If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought you really were my Aunt Twilight!”

“Yeah,” Steadclaw chuckled.

Buzz’s shoulders slumped. “Wait, you knew I wasn’t her? You flipped when you saw me!” he said, pointing at Steadclaw.

Cotton glanced at Steadclaw for a moment, and the two of them smirked. “Well yeah, I did at first, but I watched Princess Twilight leave, and she didn’t come back in, even by teleporting,” Steadclaw said.

“And she wouldn’t have suggested that my dad would talk to Gem and Jewel himself. Their parents, maybe,” Cotton added. “She probably would have tried to get them to offer their hooves in friendship, too… but you were still convincing enough for them!” she laughed.

Buzz put a hoof to his chest, smirked, and said, “Oh, it’s nothing.”

“No, thank you for getting them off my back,” Cotton said, giving Buzz a quick hug. “You did a good job preventing a fight,” she added, glancing at Steadclaw.

Steadclaw crossed his arms with another smirk. “So what’s the deal, huh? Trying to steal my thunder and my girl?”

Buzz shook his head. “Nah, I just wanted to scare those two straight; they’ve had it out for me since I came to this school, too.” He snorted, then muttered under his breath, “Stupid nobles think they’re better than everyone else.”

“What?” Cotton asked.

Buzz straightened up and said, “Nothing.” He turned to Steadclaw. “Don’t worry, dude, I wouldn’t try and steal your girl—mine would squash me.”

Steadclaw winked and pointed a talon at him. “Right, you’re already taken, you sly bug.”

Cotton leaned into Steadclaw and said, “It wouldn’t have worked either way.” She leaned up and gave him a big kiss, eliciting whoops from the crowd. After the noise died down, Cotton turned to the rest of the room and asked everyone present, “So, how long before the two of them figure out they got duped?”

“And how long before Bugster here actually does get in trouble with the office?” Steadclaw laughed.

“Dude, you’re not gonna say anything, are you?” Buzz asked. “You know impersonating royalty is the one thing strictly against the treaty! I could get exiled back to the Badlands for that!”

Steadclaw’s eyes widened. “Oh, right… damn, no wonder you guys all look so freaked,” he said, catching glimpses of the other changeling students with their mouths agape. “No, of course not,” Steadclaw replied, “but Tweedledee and Tweedledum probably will if they figure out what happened.” He turned to the other students in the cafeteria. “Lips zipped so the thespian doesn’t get exiled?” The students all nodded and swiped hooves across their mouths. Steadclaw turned back to Buzz. “There ya go, bud. Pound it.” He held up a fist to the changeling, who bumped it with his hoof with a relieved smile.

Steadclaw furrowed his brows and looked around the cafeteria. Cotton caught his expression. “Hey, everything okay?” she whispered.

“I dunno,” Steadclaw whispered back. “I heard a lot of hooves pounding, but no talons clapping. Even those feathered jerks would’ve given some credit for that performance.” Turning to Buzz, he asked, “Hey Bugster, don’t you have Science with that snob Talonius?”

Lifting his head with a sarcastic flourish, Buzz answered, “You mean Talonius the Second? Yeah, but he's been out since last week. Why?”

Steadclaw didn’t answer; he just looked around the room again. “What about the other griffons? You have class with any of them? Have they been out, too?”

Buzz put a hoof to his chin. “Actually, yeah. Now that I think about it, you’re the only one that’s been here lately. You think something’s going around?”

“If there is, I’m kinda surprised I didn’t catch it, too.” Steadclaw hummed in thought.

Cotton nuzzled his plumage. “You think something’s wrong?”

“I dunno, maybe I’m just being neurotic,” he responded, “but I just have this weird feeling.”

“About what?” Buzz asked him.

“That’s the thing…” Steadclaw took a breath, then shook his head. “…I don’t know.”

Author's Note:

Just to prevent confusion (if it wasn't clear), the 'nobles' that Buzz was referring to were Gemstone and Jewel, and not Cotton, but since Cotton is close to royalty, she also kind of falls into that category. That's why Buzz didn't tell her what he said.

Also, you get one of Cotton's freshly baked cookies if you know who inspired the name "Wheeler Buckskin Yokes."


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