A house, a mare and... Flutterponies?!

by Bandana The Reaper

Chapter three: The riches I've been given

After cleaning up after Sweet Tooth Shimmering had taken the flutterpony to the bathroom to teach her the finer art of 'using the can'.

“...and then you wipe yourself clean,” Shimmering said as she used a bit of toilet paper to pretend-wipe herself, “then you drop the paper in the toilet, got it?” she asked Sweet Tooth, who had been sitting on the bathroom counter.

“Uh-huh,” Sweet Tooth nodded “wipe and drop.”

“Good, and then we flush-” Shimmering continued as she did so, “after that we wash our hooves at the sink, got it?”

“Nuh-uh” Sweet Tooth shook her head as she fluttered backwards, eyes big and staring at the toilet.

Shimmering groaned inwardly, 'what now?' she thought as she raised an eyebrow at the still backing up flutterpony, “what didn't you understand Sweet Tooth?”

“I'm not going in there,” Sweet Tooth answered, keeping Shimmering between her and the toilet, “the waterfall will take me away!”

Shimmering looked at Sweet Tooth, then at the toilet, then back at the flutterpony, “Sweet Tooth, you don't flush while in the toilet, you don't even have to be IN it while you do your business, just go above it” 'I can deal with cleaning a little spill as long as its in here.'

Sweet Tooth shook her head again, “Nuh-uh, I'm not going where the waterfall is,” she gave Shimmering a pleading look, “please don't make me have to go there, waterfalls are bad.”

Shimmering scratched the side of her head, contemplating the dilemma, 'great, just great, I can't get her to use the toilet,' she thought as she looked from Sweet Tooth to the toilet, 'but then again, to a pony her size a 'waterfalls' would be something to watch out for, hay, for all I know something bad could have happen to Sweet Tooth to make her fearful of them... I'm not gonna force her to use it then.'

'But I can't have her just go anywhere, that's unsanitary,' Shimmering continued to ponder, tapping her hoof on the floor, 'how do we solve this?' she thought while looking around the room for ideas, '...that might work.' “okay Sweet Tooth, I have a compromise for you.”

Sweet Tooth tilted her head, “come-poo-mice?”

“Com-pro-mise, it means... nevermind, its not important,” Shimmering said, thinking it wasn't worth going into detail about its meaning, “the important thing is you don't have to use the toilet.”

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth shouted, zipping forward and hugging Shimmering's snout.

“However,” Shimmering continued, “I can't have you just go anywhere, so-” she tapped the sink, “-you'll go in here.”

Sweet Tooth looked over at the sink before fluttering over to take a closer look.

“As you can see Sweet Tooth, the hole at the bottom is too small for you to fit through,” Shimmering said as she pointed at the grill covering the outlet, “go on, try to fit your hoof in there.”

Sweet Tooth looked up at the unicorn, tilting her head again, “my what?”

“your hoof.”

“...”

“the things you stand on,” Shimmering deadpanned.

“...Oooh, okay!” Sweet Tooth nodded in understanding.

'Sweet Faust, please tell me she's just young and not this dense!' Shimmering thought while Sweet Tooth was trying to push her hoof through the grill.

“I can't get it through Biggy,” Sweet Tooth said after a while.

“That's good, then you won't have any problems using the sink instead of the toilet,” Shimmering said while levitating a toilet-roll over to the side of the sink, “Now then, you do your business in there, clean yourself off, then drop the paper in here-” she pointed at the trashcan while using her magic to close the lid on the toilet, “-instead of the toilet, then instead of flushing-” Shimmering lifted Sweet Tooth out of the sink, “-you turn this knob-” she turned the water on slowly, “to wash away the worst of it, then you wash your hooves and lastly dry them off on the towel, got it?”

“Uh-huh,” the flutterpony nodded.

“Good, please show me what you do when you need to go.”

Sweet Tooth fluttered down into the sink, “Do the stinky in the sink,” she fluttered up and ripped off a bit of paper, “wipe until you're dry, then drop it in the thingy,” she dropped it in the trashcan, “spin the noob to make the tiny not-waterfall come out to wash the stinky away,” she gave the knob a twist, running the water, “rub your hoof in the not-waterfall, then dry them on the fuzzy thingy!” Sweet Tooth finished of after using the towel.

“Very good, Sweet Tooth!” Shimmering said, applauding, “you're now house-broken.”

“I didn't break any stuff!”

“What? No, thats not what I-” Shimmering began before settling on rubbing herself between the eyes, “I meant you did good Sweet Tooth.”

“...oh, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth said, looking proud.

'Well, thats out of the way,' Shimmering thought as she turned the water off and left the bathroom with Sweet Tooth in tow, 'now to make that grocery list... I should probably see what kind of budget I have as well now.'

“What are we gonna do now Biggy?” Sweet Tooth asked while they went down the stairs.

“I'm going to check how much money came with you,” Shimmering answered as she passed the remnants of the mirror frame- 'I forgot to bring that up as well... I'll do it next time.' - into the living room.

“Moony?”

“Those hard, shiny things.”

“...Oooh, okay.”

'Speaking of shiny things...' Shimmering thought as she looked upon the pile of bits. 'Gold, not copper, not silver, gold,' the unicorn gave the pile a frowny glare, 'so much money and it feels like a lead weight on my nerves,' she cast the blemish spell one more time.

The result was the same.

Shimmering sighed, 'Well, I guess I'll just see how big my 'pay' is then,' she thought, sitting down on her couch and sweeping the pile to one side, giving her a open area to work on.

“So what now?” Sweet Tooth asked as she landed on the table, using a hind leg to scratch her ear.

“Now I'm going to count these here bits-” Shimmering said, sweeping her arm over the pile and picking up some bits with her magic, “-to see how much it is.”

“Ooh, can I help?”

“Um, sure-”

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth interrupted before zipping over to the pile, quickly poking bits with a hoof, going 'thats a shiny, thats another shiny, thats a shiny more.'

“Woah, wait wait WAIT, Sweet Tooth STOP!” Shimmering cried out, getting the flutterpony's attention.

“What Biggy?” Sweet Tooth said, folding her ears back as she turned around, “why did you want me so stop?”

“Sweet Tooth, thats not how you count.” Shimmering said while rubbing her temples.

Sweet Tooth tilted her head, “since when?”

“Since...” Shimmering began, only to think of something, “Sweet Tooth, what's two plus two?”

“...”

“...”

“...whats a plus?... and a two?”

'So basic math is beyond her,' Shimmering thought as she continued to look over the bits she'd just picked up, “I'm sorry Sweet Tooth, but you can't really help me with this if you can't count.”

“B-but, I wanna help.”

“Sweet Tooth-” Shimmering began saying until she laid eyes on the little flutterpony.

Ears folded, antennas dropping, tail around her little hooves, big, sorrowful eyes and even a small pouting of the lower lip... Sweet Tooth was giving Shimmering the look that adults fear, the look every colt and filly knows by heart, it was the endgame look.

“Please Biggy, I wanna help too.”

Sweet Tooth was giving Shimmering the puppy-eyes look.

'...cruuud.'

She broke in mere seconds.

“Okay, okay you can help!” Shimmering said, doing her best to resist the urge to hug the little flutterpony and making silly noises while doing so, “ju-, just let me think of how you can help, okay?”

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth was once again hugging the unicorns snout, wings buzzing a bit in excitement.

'Okay, how to do this,' Shimmering thought while sorting through the bits she was holding, sorting them into coin pillars of tens, fives and ones, 'she can't count, so how am I suppose to let her he- wait...' Shimmering looked over what she was doing, 'That’s it!'

“Sweet Tooth, listen up.”

“This is how you can help me,” Shimmering continued when the flutterpony had let go and was hovering before her, “look at these please,” she showed Sweet Tooth three bits, “you see how these look?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Good, now if we turn them over-” doing so the bits showed different numbers, “-you see that they're different, right?”

“Right.”

“Thats good, now heres what you'll be doing,” one by one Shimmering put the bits down by a coin pillar, numbers up, “you will be taking bits from here-” she motioned to the pile, “-and build pillars like these-” motioning to the coin pillars, “-using bits like these-” Shimmering pointed to a one-bit, “-for this pile, bits like thi-”

“Shinnies like that one in another pillar and another pillar for the last shiny!” Sweet Tooth finished Shimmering's explanation, smiling broadly.

Shimmering blinked at this, 'huh, she's smarter than I first thought... that or this is so simple I'm making myself look dumb by explaining it,' “yes, very good Sweet Tooth, then when you've built a pillar of the same high as these you make another one until theres no more bits in the pile, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Right then, lets begin.”

Sweet Tooth began zipping back and forth between the pile and the pillars, slowly building said structures with greater speed as she went along. Shimmering did her own counting, occasionally adding Sweet Tooth's finished pillars to her own. (she stopped checking them after the seventh or so, seeing that they were all correct.)

'This is going well,' Shimmering thought, moving another pillar to the five-bit collection, 'good thing Equestria has a solid, easy to understand economy with no silly things like being able to pay with everyday gems dug straight out of the ground.'

Eventually they finished the pile off and Shimmering did one final counting.

She almost fainted again.

'T-three and a half million bits?!' Shimmering thought, her eye twitching once again, 'they gave me three and a half million bits! I-I think I need to sit down...I'm already sitting down...maybe I should stand up so I can sit down?'

Shimmering began massaging her temples in a vain attempt to calm herself, 'I'm panicking, what did my therapist say was a good way to deal with stress?... wait, I stopped going to her six years ago since she was a fraud...WHY IN TARTARUS AM I THINKING ABOUT HER OF ALL PONIES?!'

“Biggy?” Sweet Tooth poked Shimmering's nose to get her attention, “are you okay?”

'Sweet Tooth... got to calm down, don't want to scare her,' Shimmering took a deep breath and held it, trying to get her heart rate down, 'calm down Shim, calm down.'

“D-did I do something wrong Biggy?” the flutterpony asked, when Shimmering didn't answer she hugged her snout, “I tried to do as you said Biggy, please don't not-like me.”

'Say SOMETHING Shim!' Shimmering roared at herself, getting herself out of her stupor.

“NO!” she called out, making Sweet Tooth quickly let go and flutter back a bit, “I mean I don't not-like you- I mean I like you!”

'Smooth Shim, real smooth,' she thought while face-hoofing, “You didn't do anything wrong Sweet Tooth, in fact you did very well, I just had a little panic attack just now.”

“...Was it because I hugged you?” Sweet Tooth asked, folding her ears and looking guilty.

“What? Nononono Sweet Tooth, its not because you hugged me,” Shimmering said, waving a hoof in denial, “the hugs were in fact calming.”

“Really?” Sweet Tooth's ears perked up again.

“Yes Sweet Tooth, really.”

It didn't even take a second before the flutterpony had attached herself to the unicorns snout again.

“Then I'm gonna keep hugging to keep the panic from attacking you again!”

Shimmering couldn't help but snort, amused by Sweet Tooth, 'You're as sweet as your name, aren't you.'

'Well, now that I know what my current budget is I might as well make that grocery list,' Shimmering thought while getting up... and seeing a slight problem.

“Um, Sweet Tooth, you can let go now.”

“Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna let the panic attack again.”

“Thats nice, but-”

“No panic is getting past me while I'm hugging you.”

“Yes thats very nice Sweet Tooth, but-”

“So I'm gonna keep hugging you until forever.”

'...but I can't see where I'm going.'

Author's Note:

Well... its out, chapter 3...
...
The reason this took so long is not because I wasn't writing, in fact this chapter has been up on Gdocs so that my co-writer and editor could go over it.
...
This is not the reason ether for the late chapter (Serverbrony and The Planyx were done less than a week after I put it up)
...
The reason for the delay is that my granma past away about a month ago... *sigh* ... my mom's been trying to get granma into a retirement home for years, but granma allways said no and considering her supricingly good health (she was just short of turning 97) and abillity to take care of herself mom would allways back off.

About five years ago granma started needing a little help, we got her signed up for house aid (some people would come once or twice a week to shop and clean for her) , this worked all that time and granma didn't need any more help.

Then about three months ago she started having short periods where she had small problem with breathing, which in turn caused her to get panic attacks and calling for an abulance, but once at the hospital she would be feeling better and by the next day or so she would be sent home.

This went on for almost two weeks before mom got the hospital to keep her longer as granma just kept having these panic attacks (took forever to get her on a light morpine pill treatment to keep her calmer instead of just giving her one while she was having an panic attack)

After all this time mom finally got granma to agree on the retirement home idea.

Me and mom visited the place a week before she was to be moved, to see the room and get an idea of what kind of furniture we could get there.

The place was beutiful, it was by a river, the house was an old hotel renovated under the supervison of the curent owners, a nurse and a doctor, to make it a great place for old and imparid people to enjoy there stay, everyone there were enjoying themself in one way or another, it was perfect.

I couldn't be there on the day granma was moved, don't remember what I was doing (probably something with the workers office, those guys are ruining my life bit by bit...) so mom was the one on site when the ambulance transport got there with granma.

Mom told me it was like granma got 10 years younger.

She was smiling, she talked with everyone she met, she enjoyed the view from her window (she saw a boat pass by) she asked mom if she could bring her knitting next time she visited (granma haven't knitted for almost 8 years)

Mom was euphoric when she got home, telling me about it all, this was the kind of place granma should have been at years ago, but at least she was there now.

We were all happy.

...then 12 hours later they called from the home.

Granma had passed away.

For a cupple of hours my granma was happier then she'd been for years and she got a good end.

I never got to see her like that.

The last time I saw her was at the hospital, she was misserable.

That is the last memory I have of my Granma, my kind, positive, strong and loving granma... is her lieing in a hospital bed... holding her hand... looking at me... and she accuses mom of not caring about her, that no one cared about the fact she was dieing...

The only thing I can take solanse in is that mom got to see her mother happy, one last time.

*sigh'

During all this time I've still been writing, about the only thing that keeps me from going into a deep depretion, so hopefully the next one will be sent to ServerBrony soon to be looked over before Palnyx goes over it for misstakes.

Till then, just... spend time with your family, tell them you love them, one day they'll not be there anymore... so make every day you can a happy one with them, okay?

Comments

[Stormcaller]

I'm deeply sorry to hear about your loss and just want to say I hope you'll be able to remember her not as you last saw her, but as the grandmother you've know all your life. Take as much time as you need, I'm sure we'll all still be here when you get back.

[Bandana The Reaper]

4984140 thanks and don't worry, I tend to focus on the good memories.
As for takeing time... I prefer to just keep writing (it keeps me happy)