Laying Down the Law
Scootaloo took a deep breath to steady herself. She opened the door and gestured for her friends to come in. “Welcome to my place.”
There was a distinct motion of air and a small dust cloud next to her for a moment, and next thing she knew Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were inside and their bags were thrown on the floor. Apple Bloom fawned at the fancy paintings on the wall, her eyes darting from wall to ceiling. “I’m gonna get my cutie mark in playing the violin, like my cousin Fiddlesticks!”
Sweetie Belle joined Apple Bloom in the jumping and rambling. “And I’m going to get my cutie mark in firing cannons!”
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Cannon fire is not music.”
Sweetie Belle pointed a hoof towards the Earth pony filly. “It is too. I heard it in that Tschaicudsky piece. And everypony knows Tschaicudsky made good music.”
Scootaloo, meanwhile, was standing in the doorway, mouth agape. She looked at her friends starting their argument. She slowly closed the door, but remained quiet as she deposited the girls’ bags of comic books on a nearby couch.
Is that really what we look like when we get excited?
Octavia came out of the kitchen to find the two girls arguing with each other regarding music tastes. Scootaloo walked over to them to try and defuse the situation. “Well, they do use fireworks in Wonderbolts demos, so it’s kinda like music.”
Apple Bloom grimaced. “Really? You think cannons are instruments, too? But if you’ve got a cannon for a cutie mark, then that doesn’t make you a musician, does it?”
“It would if you got it making music with the cannon.” Sweetie Belle smiled triumphantly, pleased to have found the logical conclusion to their debate.
Octavia placed a hoof to her forehead and closed her eyes to try and block out the scene unfolding. “Girls?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “Look, that doesn’t matter anyway, there aren’t any cannons in the house.”
Sweetie Belle looked her pensively. “Then where did you get the one we shot ourselves out of that one time?”
“I know a guy.” Scootaloo grinned.
Octavia, whilst silently wishing Vinyl had never introduced the girl to her pyrotechnical assistent, kept on rubbing her forehead. “Girls?”
Sweetie Belle stomped a hoof on the ground. “That’s not fair! You’re going to get your cutie marks playing music, but I won’t get mine firing a cannon just because you don’t have one!”
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “I really don’t think firing cannons qualifies you as a musician.”
Sweetie Belle pouted. “Maybe we should ask Pinkie Pie. She does a lot of singing, and she’s got a cannon.”
Scootaloo grimaced. “Don’t fire cannons in the house!”
Octavia put the hoof that had been on her forehead on the ground. The shouting of the girls intensified, their argument heated, the situation was getting out of control.
Octavia closed her eyes. The girls noticed a sudden drop in the atmospheric pressure, as if something had sucked in a large volume of air.
“GIRLS!”
The three stood perfectly still, eyes fixed on the mare in front of them. The shout had come like a blow to the chest, felt more than heard.
Octavia sat down on her haunches and straightened her bow tie before continuing. “Thank you. Now, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, you might not remember me from your little hospital trip the other day, but I am Octavia Philharmonica. I live with Scootaloo’s aunt Vinyl, I look after Scootaloo, and I’ll be in charge for your little sleepover tonight. Pleased to formally make your acquaintance.” She extended a hoof for the girls to shake.
Apple Bloom carefully accepted and shook it. “Err, yeah, that bit from the hospital’s still a little fuzzy. Pleased to meetcha.”
Sweetie Belle took the hoof and shook it with a blush. “Hi. Sorry we were so loud, that kind of happens sometimes.”
Octavia smiled. “I’m sure it does. Now, I’m not an unreasonable mare, but you are going to be in my house and my responsibility tonight. As such, I will expect a few things from you.”
Scootaloo gulped. Octavia’s calm demeanour did nothing to hide the power behind her voice, or the intimidation of those big forelegs of hers.
“For starters, you are not going to be playing any instruments tonight. We do not have that many instruments lying around, and we certainly do not have any cannons of any description. We do not run around at random in this house, we walk. Possibly we trot. If we do not, we risk breaking some of the fragile things we keep around for decoration. We do not jump on the furniture because the furniture is not designed to withstand jumping and may break. We also do not shout at one another, certainly not over something as silly as a cannon cutie mark. There is nothing remotely cannon-related in this house. This house is cannon-free, cannon-proof. You might even say the entire contents of this house are non-cannonical. I’ll try to keep an eye on you, but I’d appreciate it if you do not attempt to blow anything up or set anything alight while my back is turned. Try to be careful, and do not touch anything you do not know how to use, some of the things in this house can be dangerous. Is that understood?”
The girls all nodded. Apple Bloom gulped. “Y-yes, ma’am.”
Octavia kept up her calm, confident presence. “Good. And in the event that you should decide to yell anyway, I think it’s only fair to warn you I had a classical education that included breath training for flute practice as well as opera singing. My voice may not be able to break glass, but rest assured I can outyell the three of you without any problems. What I did just now was a mere warning shot, not a proper shout, by my standards. Your ears will hurt when I have to shout, so I’d rather not. Keep it down and we’ll all get along. Do we have an accord on the vocal volume?”
Sweetie Belle nodded, trembling. “Y-yes, ma’am.”
Octavia perked up and brightened her smile. “Right then, that just leaves one final arrangement. I gather you’re all eager to get your cutie marks, and you were hoping to get some good attempts in gaining them tonight. Is that right?”
Scootaloo nodded and nervously rubbed the back of her head. “Uh, yeah, kinda.”
Octavia nodded in kind. “Very well, then. I give you girls two options. The first is that you do whatever you want in Scootaloo’s room. You can make whatever mess you like, use anything she lets you. But Scootaloo will still have to clean up after herself and after you. You’ll basically have to stay in Scootaloo’s room to do anything, and only exit for food or a bathroom break. But you’ll get to do whatever you want without me interfering.”
The girls winced at the prospect. Scootaloo shrugged. “And option two?”
“Option two is I help you girls out with some activities, but your activities will be what’s on this little schedule I threw together.” Octavia smiled sheepishly and pulled out a sheet of paper with timeslots and activities written on it. “You either get to do what you want without me, or you get to do some things you might not have tried on your own, and with my help. You also get to stay up as late as I do. So what do you feel like doing, girls?”
They looked to one another for a moment, then shrugged. Apple Bloom nodded towards the schedule. “We’ll go with number two, thank you.”
“Excellent. How about we start with trying to get a baking cutie mark?” Octavia smiled broadly and marched off to the kitchen, the girls in tow.
Sweetie Belle leaned in to whisper to Scootaloo. “Your aunt Octavia is scary.”
Scootaloo barely caught her breath. “She’s not my aunt. But yeah, I guess she just does that sometimes.”
“Now, girls, it’s five o’clock and change, so how about we start on dinner?” Octavia stood on her hind legs and donned an apron that said “Wub the Chef”, which was a subtle clue for Scootaloo that it wasn’t Octavia who’d bought that particular item.
Sweetie Belle walked up to the stove. “Isn’t it a little early for that?”
“Not if we want to have freshly made bread by six, darling. Take a seat at the table and I’ll explain.” Octavia gestured towards the table, away from the stove.
The girls sat down and each got a small plastic bowl filled with some flour and two other powders on each side of it.
Octavia sat down with them. “Now then, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, do you know how to bake flatbreads, or bake at all, for that matter?”
Apple Bloom tapped her chin in thought. “I’ve made cupcakes, umm, burnt ones. And I did make a bread that wound up stopping our table from wobblin’, that one was nice and flat.”
Sweetie Belle raised up a hoof. “Ooh, I’ve baked lots of things! I’ve baked toast, omelettes, and juice for my sister.”
Octavia blinked in confusion. “You baked juice, Sweetie Belle? I presume it didn’t come out too well?”
Sweetie Belle's hoof went down to tap her chin. “Well, apparently it was burnt, but my sister thinks everything I make is burnt, so I can’t be sure. Rarity’s just odd that way.”
Octavia stared ahead to help the picture form, then shook her head as she deposited her own bowl. “I’ll take that as a ‘no,’ then. In any event, I thought you might enjoy making some flatbreads tonight. I’ve put the flour in your bowls along with the yeast, and the next thing to add is a good bit of olive oil.” Octavia took a bottle out of a pantry, uncapped it and sprinkled her dough vigorously before passing it on to Apple Bloom.
Apple Bloom stared at the bottle. “Umm… so I just put a good dollop of this stuff in there, right?”
Octavia nodded and pushed the bottle forward. “Just like that, yes. If you’re worried about all of it gushing out, just remember to hold the bottle diagonal and make a circle as you go. And don’t shake it around too much or you’ll grease up the table.”
Apple Bloom hesitantly took the bottle and slowly mimicked what Octavia had done, only putting in a minor squirt, before passing it to Sweetie Belle, who was decidedly more enthusiastic about the olive oil contents of her bread. “Like that?”
Octavia frowned. “It’ll come out a bit greasy, I think, but it should do the job. Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo took the bottle and tried to copy what Octavia had done, or at least match the quantity. Octavia stood up again and brought out a bottle of water. “Next we add some water. It’s cold water, that’s why I wanted to start early. If you use cold water, the dough rises slowly, but it keeps more flavour.” Octavia poured some water in her bowl. “And for the next part we will need a wooden plank.” She got out three wooden breadplanks and handed one to each of the girls, setting down a fourth. “Now all you have to do is pour the water in and start kneading ‘till all the flour is collected. No white stuff on the walls of your bowl.”
Octavia showed the proper form, moulding the dough ball until all the flecks of flour had disappeared. Then she deposited the ball on the wooden plank, making sure to keep the table as clean as she could. She looked around to the girls.
Apple Bloom’s ball looked slightly rigid and dry, Sweetie Belle had made it soggy with that shot of olive oil, and Scootaloo seemed intent on copying Octavia’s motions to the point that she didn’t even look at her own dough ball anymore. A curt nod brought the girl’s attention back to what she was doing.
Octavia suppressed a smile. They listen. They really listen. “Now, girls, we’re about to knead our dough. Do you know why this is done?”
“Makes it softer, doesn’t it? And more stretchy?”
“Quite right, Apple Bloom. What you want to do is stretch the gluten, that’s a protein in certain plants that gives bread a stretch. So you just need to get your hooves into it and stretch, try to keep it on the board.” Octavia put one front hoof steady on the ball and used the other to stretch out the doughy substance, before folding it and repeating the motion.
The girls followed suit, each in their own rhythm, each careful not to get fur into the mix. Apple Bloom went about it slowly but stretched the dough out far, even tearing it a few times. Scootaloo, as expected, did the kneading quick and with a small range of motion. As for Sweetie Belle, she didn’t do it with any sort of rhythm, which struck Octavia as odd, considering what she’d heard of the girl’s affinity for music.
Scootaloo looked to Apple Bloom. “Bet my bread’ll be softer.”
Apple Bloom glared in response. “I’ll bet mine’ll be tastier.”
Octavia stopped her kneading and reshaped the dough into a ball. “Girls, please don’t try to one-up one another. Neither of you has any real advantage over the other. You’re both just as likely to make mistakes, you’re just not going to make the same ones, is all."
Silence fell and lingered over the table. Octavia suppressed a smirk as they went. She relished the silence as they worked, content that she'd gotten through to them so quickly. “And now, after about ten minutes of kneading, you should feel the dough is nice and stretchy, and a firm ball instead of a shapeless mass. And what do you do when bread dough is done kneading?”
“You bake it?”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “No, Sweetie Belle. First bread needs to rise. You gotta let the yeast put in some air holes, and then the dough will get bigger. It gets twice as big, even.”
Sweetie Belle inspected her dough to check. “Really? Twice as big as this? Aren’t we going to have too much, then?”
Octavia chuckled. “Well, now that you mention it, this recipe involves putting little pieces of fruit, jelly or cheese into the little pieces of dough after it’s risen. You can make a whole selection of your own breads to eat, if you like, it’ll be enough portions for a bunch of healthy appetites. But how about we make it really interesting, girls?”
Sweetie Belle raised her eyebrow. “How?”
Octavia leaned over her bowl in a decidedly conspiratory manner. “How about we agree that each of us makes four of every type of bread, and lets everypony at the table have one to taste? What we’ve got here is plenty for four ponies, after all. And you’d get to hear right away if you did anything wrong.”
Scootaloo put a hoof to her chin in thought. “I don’t know. What if we do something really wrong, and it comes out so bad nopony can eat it?”
Sweetie Belle whimpered at the remark. Octavia merely shrugged as she got some more olive oil into her bowl, before depositing her bread in the bowl again to soak and rise. “You all did it slightly differently, you’d know how to do it right next time, if you like. What do you say, girls? Wouldn’t it be nice to bake a little something for each other? If you do get it wrong, at least you’d have your friends to compare with.”
The girls shared a glance, then nodded and passed the bottle of olive oil around before plopping it into their respective bowls.
Octavia winced as some of the oil splashed in their faces. “Right, forgot to warn you about that. If you just drop something into olive oil, it will splash up.”
Apple Bloom let her tongue explore her nose to get the oil off. “Not bad, actually.”
Scootaloo walked over to the sink and handed Sweetie Belle some kitchen roll to wipe it off, doing the same for herself. Octavia collected the girls’ bowls and put them in a drawer.
Scootaloo frowned. “I didn’t know we had that much stuff for baking in the house.”
Octavia smiled petulantly. “Oh, that’s just to cater to my friends, darling. When you’re friends with a DJ who travels a lot, not to mention needing other musicians for gigs, it helps when you can supply and/or bribe ponies with food.”
Sweetie Belle’s jaw hung slack. “Huh?”
Octavia didn't turn back to reply. “Let’s just say I have my social circles, and within said circles I am known for supplying food when needed.”
Sweetie Belle shook her head. “I still don’t get it.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Whenever aunt Vinyl or my parents go to a concert, it’s Octavia who makes all the snacks for everypony. And every time some ponies are looking for a cellist, they like it when Octavia brings food for everypony. That way, even ponies who don't like all that fancy food or tiny servings get something good to eat. It's so the musicians don't starve at the Gala, huh?”
Octavia blinked as realisation set in. Figured that out quick enough. Clever girl. She gave Scootaloo a brief nod. Octavia took a rag to clean the table off, then rinsed her front hooves under the sink, before moving a chair so the girls could reach and follow suit. “Now we need to let the dough rise. I’ll be leaving mine in for fifteen minutes, you’re welcome to leave yours for more or less.”
The girls shrugged.
Octavia checked the clock. “Right, then, that gives us fifteen minutes to spend and I suggest we try to answer the most important question for tonight now.”
Scootaloo arched an eyebrow. “And that is?”
The mare nodded towards the big television in the living room. “Which movie do you girls want to watch tonight?”
“A western!”
“An action flick!”
“A musical!”
Octavia sighed and looked at her schedule.
Dough is rising, girls choosing film. Fifteen minutes, easily.
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A musical western about a gunslinger!
Really nice story so far, this depiction of Octavia is really interresting and make sense. And any story without orphan/abused/crippled Scootaloo is good.
15 minutes for kids to choose a movie?
I'd average that scenario at about an hour before they all decide that they'd all really prefer to just watch Finding Nemo and The Lion King again (and again and again and...etc.)
Wow. That 'let them know exactly why the rules are in place' strategy was kinda scary...
3468274
Ehehehe, yes! It'll be The Lone Yodeler.
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And yes, Aunt Octyvinyl makes my headcanon happeh.
Well, it's either Merry Berry, or Mare Berry. Merry Berry does have a nice sound to it, but we have a Mayor Mare in the show, so both are probably valid options.
Also, that house may be cannon-free, cannon-proof or non-cannonical, but it's quickly becoming part of my headcannon.
P.S.: Ah... Tschaicudsky. I remember Pinkie Pie's interpretation of his music in that other story of yours. Or, reading about it, at least. Good times.
Bravo, sir.
3468274
So... Calamity Jane then?
3468274
Annie Get Your Gun?
I think Octavia might hit one of the immutable laws of the universe, while one child can be perfectly well behaved its not possible for multiple children to be good, they play off each other until they explode.
Octavia reminds me of the grandmother or aunt that everybody loves to death, but is also terrified of seeing angry. Good show, it actually suits her quite well!
Octavia, y u so awesome?
Ooooh lets watch "Dr. Adorable's Sing along!"
I see what you did there....
3468783
Damn it, you beat me to that comment!
Don't worry girls, you can go over to Sugarcube Corner later. Sugarcube Corner is cannonical.
Enjoying things so far.
Hmm. Octy's keeping everything stable for now. Whether she can keep it up remains to be seen. Definitely looking forward to more. This is a fascinating mass of headcanon you've got going.
Honestly hoping that Octavia leaves for a while, Belle and Bloom start going off the wall but Scoot keeps them in check. The idea that's she's wild outside the house, but inside that's not how things are done here just appeals to me so much.
As someone who really doesn't care for the CMCs, I give you props. I actually prefer this to any of their portrayals in the show- but I did cringe when they started being themselves. Just goes to show that you're writing them properly.
I kinda want Tavi to meet Dash. They're such opposites, both with such huge influences on Scoots. They'd probably just kill eachother xD
Did Octavia forget about the bass cannon? Or did Vinyl take the cannon with her?
I'm sure she mentioned it earlier
So far I'm likeing this...Please keep this going
>>>“A western!”
“An action flick!”
“A musical!”>>>
"Blazing Saddles" it is!
monsterpopcorn.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/blazing-saddles.jpg
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Knowing the CMC were coming she likely made sure the Bass Canon was elswhere ahead of time.
This scene seems like right out of an episode. Good work. And I like the headcannon that Vinyl and Octavia are taking care of Scootaloo.
You are my new favourite author on FiMfiction.
needs end " marks.
______________________
This is a great fic. Do you think we could get a sequel someday?