4.1: Encouragement
4.1 (Encourage)
Humming wasn’t the sort of wakeup call Sunbeam was used to. The old one involved the grand cycles of the sun, servants physically whisking her out of bed to be washed and bathed in the palatial baths of the royal suites, and other routines that she was glad to replace with her own no matter how lesser they might be in comparison. She could literally raise the sun in her sleep, thankfully, a handy feature of her power that had saved her from going mad while her sister was away.
But the humming of the theme tune to a rather infamous horror movie involving a shark? No, she couldn’t recall such a thing happening off the bottom of her head. Or was that supposed to be the top? It was too early in the morning to remember.
As she groggily raised her head to atomize the annoyance with the royal glare of sleepy glariness, so too did the sun wobbly rise above the horizon early in a drunken arc, a rise that spilled the golden light of the morning into the room. The giggle of her tiny unseen predator reminded her of the threat as the little fluffy blond mane molded into a shark fin descended behind the bare dresser by the door. Right, fuzzy blond shark.
Nope, not having that.
With it being too early in the morning-o’ clock, Sunbeam decided with all due finality that she wasn’t going to rise to the bait and thus she was going to ignore her problem until it went to school. The sun was up, Luna had it; she only had one thing left to do that morning: pull the covers over her head and pretend that she neither saw nor heard anything before going back to sleep so the limpet foal would go away.
Once more did the menacing humming begin, betrayed by its owner’s giggles; a threat steadily climbing the musical scales as the foal-shark crawled across the floor. Sunbeam cracked an eye open to peer out from under her covers, spotting the blond shark fin erratically approaching her bed. With the threat level of her awakening rising, Sunbeam rolled over and buried her head under a pillow until the threat went away.
With little squeaks, the coils of the box mattress beneath the fluffy down bed creaked and betrayed the attacker a little more right before Surprise jumped up, then jammed four little hooves into Sunbeam’s soft tummy. Jumping up and down over and over, Surprise giggled with each hop as she drove the sleep and breaths from her target’s chest. “Wakey-wakey!” Hop. “Wakey-wakey!” Hop. “You’ve gotta get up, my daddy is home!”
Snatching Surprise from the air with her super-equine reflexes, Sunbeam glared with bloodshot eyes at her well-meaning attacker until the foal booped her with a hoof. A great shudder ran through Sunbeam’s body as she fought off the last of her need to sleep in through a millennia of being up before the dawn and supreme will. Surprise giggled again, laughing at the way Sunbeam looked at her own nose cross-eyed crossly.
“Surprise, what are you doing? Stop.” Sunbeam said quietly, without any enthusiasm at all from her tired state.
Pouting, Surprise attacked with her hideously adorable look of disappointment, looking her dead in the eyes. “But it’s a bee-outiful day, full of Appa- Oppa- Uh-Opor-“
“Opportunity?” She didn’t dare take her eyes or forehooves off of Surprise, even with the foal being outside of her cocoon of comfiness. Any weakness could see the foal sitting on her head in a moment’s notice, and then she’d never be rid of her without arousing suspicion.
“Yeah, that good stuff!” Surprise shouted, using her sickening cuteness to full effect. A deep shudder ran throughout Sunbeam’s form as the sight made her mentally gargle liquid sugar, and at last the older pegasus rolled over and put Surprise down on the wooden floors with a huff of long-awaited exhaustion. Surprise looked up over the bed, sadly watching as her favorite old pony playmate curled up into a ball with a light mewl of tiredness and pulled the covers over her head and around herself until she was immobilized with warm fuzziness.
Surprise sat back down on the floor, sticking her lip out as she pouted and tried to figure out what could possibly get Sunbeam out of her bed. She wouldn’t want candy as early as it was in the morning, adults were all boring like that. But-oh. “Awww, that’s too bad. I guess daddy will have to eat ALL of mommy’s crazy birthday cake pancakes by himself. Then once you find out how yummy they were you’ll be all grumpy and pouty with everypony all day.”
Sunbeam poked her still wrapped head over the edge of her bed, looking through a mysterious break in the sheets caused by wrapping them around an unseen object just above her eyes. “Birthday cake... pancakes?”
“Why would we call them pancakes if they don’t taste like cake?” It was utterly obvious logic, born from the mind of a foal, and yet-
“Fair enough.”
“Yaaaaaay!”
Sunbeam’s glare returned tenfold as she looked down at Surprise, who was far too chipper for a foal in the early, early morning. “You are adorable and irritating.”
Surprise frowned. “I’m not irritating. I don’t have any scratchy bits at all, I’m fluffy.”
No, there would be no arguing the point with her, it seemed. Sunbeam sighed once more, miserably stretching a leg out and letting it fall over the side of the bed. “Very well. Lay on, McFluff.”
“What?”
“Shakespeare. Interesting pony. Read more.” Sunbeam said tiredly, not even looking at her adorable harasser as she wriggled about on her bed. She inched to the side wriggle by wriggle like a well-wrapped earth worm until she tumbled over the edge in a sloppy pile of tired pony and sheets. More wriggles ensued as she practically oozed off the bed in totality and laid out on the floor.
Deliciously, the faintest whiff of baking cakes slowly inserted a tendril of beckoning smell into Sunbeam’s nostrils, tempting her from her safe cocoon. Ignoring the youthful giggles as Surprise bounced around her with the energy and playfulness of her age, Sunbeam slowly unwrapped herself from her grand cocoon one limb at a time, a slithering set of movements that extracted her bit by bit. With a last tedious press of movement she groggily stood up and yawned, making a big show of putting up with the morning.
Surprise cocked her head, looking up at Sunbeam’s towering form as the older pegasus slowly yawned again and sleepily licked her lips. “Why’ya faking it?”
“What?”
“You’re faking it!” Surprise chirped before hovering herself up and over Sunbeam. Dropping to the old mare’s back deftly and lightly to keep from unbalancing her, and wrapped herself around Sunbeam’s neck like the little limpet of adorableness she had become on a regular basis for Sunbeam. “You’re doing the whole zombie thing I do when I want mommy to ignore me in the morning. All ‘blarrghle’ and ‘ahh, the sun, it burns’, and stuff even when I want to play but not go to stupid school all early like everypony else around here.”
Sunbeam straightened up, still groggily glaring at Surprise beaming back at her from her back. Cheeky little adorable terror. “You’re annoying and perceptive.”
“If per-specky-tive means ‘sees stuff’, then yup!”
Chuckling ruefully to herself before huffing an exaggerated sigh she barely felt like at all, Sunbeam shook her rump to wobble her surprise passenger a little. “Don’t ever stop being adorable. It’s your greatest defense.”
Little shudders ran through her as Surprise beamed even more happily and brightly over the praise; it was far too early in the morning to deal with somepony relentlessly cheerful like that. Slowly trotting with zombie state of mind she felt without her morning coffee, the two passed through the still bare and unfinished rooms that comprised her addition and side building to the family house. Opening the side door didn’t help as the bone-chilling temperatures that had come with the winter roared in, swirling about them chillily trying to devour every last ounce of warmth from their bodies.
It was all worth it to her, as she reached the side door to Marble’s house and was bowled over by the sweet scents of fresh-brewed coffee and the tail-curling pleasure of the smell of modified cake batter on a griddle. Her ears perked up instantly, and the mere caffeine of the scent was enough to wake her from her semi-slumbering stupor with a moan of needful hunger and a growl from her neglected stomach. Surprise giggled as Sunbeam lifted herself partially from the floor on a swell of pegasus magic and a light flittering of her wings to drift dreamily through the house to the kitchen.
There, little Rocky Road played in his seat, bouncing up and down happily while banging his high-chair table set with giddy glee and giggles each time Marble booped his nose between flipping a pancake. At the counter-table on the end of the room, Limestone drearily studied, letting his own stack of pancakes go unattended in his desperate need of stimulants. Sunbeam took the opportunity to limply flop onto a stool and the countertop much as a half-filled sack of sugar would while she awaited a set of pancakes for herself while Surprise hopped from her back to stalk her brother’s pancakes and messily devour them.
“Oh, Sunbeam? Oh, you look horrible this morning!” Marble exclaimed as she saw the frazzled state of the pegasus. Sliding over a stack of pancakes taller than an alicorn’s horn lightly drizzled in honey and butter did the older pegasus a world of good; as did pouring a cup of white coffee for her to slurp down. A few giggles got away from her as Sunbeam feebly stuck her tongue out towards the pancakes while shifting her head over inch by inch with little ‘unf’s of need. “Well goodness, you normally do so well in the mornings. I was hoping you could help poor Limestone with his geometry, what happened?”
“I keep having to go save Scootaloo from plaid Rarity, in my dreams and out of them. And In my dreams, she has mad plans to turn the whole world plaid to share her suffering while trying to make Princess Luna marry Prince Blueblood, who for some reason keeps turning into a woodpecker with his head. And then Twilight keeps dragging me away to discuss magic theory all night, and she keeps on insisting on giving me candy from your sister to keep me up all the time.” Sunbeam complained, making up some of her story lamely so that Marble wouldn’t ask further. Another serving of white coffee was her reward, and she could feel herself returning to her cheerful normal state as she drank it down.
Surprise had her brother in a headlock, rubbing his mane with a hoof while he chewed the last of his pancakes and had one of her legs in a submission hold. Marble carefully disentangled the two of them, dangling them to either side of the counter while glaring at them both with disappointment. “Behave, there’ll be more pancakes since Pinkie is in town to share more of her mix. You’re making yourselves look horrible in front of our guest who helps you both with your homework, and what would your daddy thi-eeeeiiiiiiiiek!”
Marble’s stern lecture was cut short as sea blue hooves wrapped around her middle and hosted her up into the air against the whine of hydraulic motors. Kicking her hooves widely as she was wobbily hauled into the wide-open center of the room, she shrieked as she felt her husband slowly kissing his way up her back. “Berry Bubble, you put me down this instant and don’t you dare-mmmph!” Her grumpy howl was cut short as Berry leaned his head around her own and flexibly kissed her on the lips before singing.”
“Oooh, Ah’ll tame the strongest seas for you; Ah’ll sail the strongest tides! Ah’ll move the whole wide world for you; will you love me, my brushing bride!?”
Marble giggled wildly as Berry’s bouncing curly mane kept bonking up against her head and over her face as he twirled about, and as his extra silky and downy fur tickled through her own coat. “It’s all made of sugar and chivalry! Kids, save me from your daddy!” She yelped as he began using his flexible natural forehooves to tickle her tender belly until they fell over onto his back. The sea-pony, still clad in his royal guard uniform, stood no chance as Limestone jumped over his book and pancakes to tackle down his father’s fishy tail while Surprise scrambled under her mother and began blowing raspberries into his sides just below his prosthetic legs. Rocky giggled at his family’s antics, having taken after his father far too much.
Sipping her white coffee with barely contained bemusement, Sunbeam watched the family free-for-all reach its exhausted and tickled out conclusion. There was also the blinding panic that kept her from making a sound, that too. She had taught Berry nearly concurrently with Twilight, and unlike her, his seapony senses had seen right through her tricks. She was so dead, so busted, he was going to tell her and then she was going to go back to Canterlot and be bored forever and have to put up with Redcoat until she turned grey and crazy.
Wait, there had to be a way! And she was not abandoning his wife’s coffee and pancakes! MMm, so good. Did she say that last part out loud? Uh-oh. “Ah, Captain Bubbles! I know your wonderful wife told me her husband had a bad habit of playing in the mud, but I thought I taught you to stop doing that with Princess Celestia’s help.” She said, emphasizing her alter ego to ensure he knew the situation. There was still a chance to salvage this.
Berry’s head swiveled up, and he looked at her with wide, horrified eyes. He stroked his wife’s back as she remained clutched to his mud-stained and well-worn uniform warmly. Hesitantly, he asked her. “H-honey? Oh, why didn’t ye tell me ye had made friends with P-“ Ahem- “Princess Celestia’s best teacher?”
“What? Who? That big cuddly goof?” Marble giddily responded as she rolled off of him at last, instead sliding up next to him on the cold grey tile to savor his warmth. She looked over to Sunbeam, who sheepishly waved while still expecting to be revealed at any second. Mistaking it for nervousness at meeting somepony new, she waved off his concerns. “She was coming to live here in Ponyvile and had no place to stay. She’s a friend of Twilight.”
Sunbeam nervously laughed, trailing off quickly before gulping another sip of her coffee.
“She was great with the kids, and has been helping Limestone with his homework. Honestly, give her some coffee and some of my sister’s famous pancakes, and she’ll be friends with anypony.” Giddily giggling again, Marble pressed her husband back to the floor with a nuzzle and a kiss, making his tail curl from the affection and her sons gag at the mushy romance. Berry mumbled into the kiss, hugging her tighter.
Deciding to take control of the situation, Sunbeam continued. “Oh, your daughter is the one who dragged me into your family, Captain. She decided to have a bit of fun while on the way by climbing up on me while we were on the way to town and got caught in a security checkpoint set up after Princess Celestia temporarily abdicated the throne.” She sipped once more, drowning her nervousness in caffeine.
“You-!” Berry spluttered, pushing his wife off of him in shock. Correcting himself, and realizing that she was trying to hide since she hadn’t let his wife know yet. “She what? When? Why?”
Marble rubbed her head as she sat up beside him. “Oh, just about two weeks, two and a half now.” She rubbed the small lump from where she had fallen to the floor on her rump, and huffed in irritation. It was a big deal, but she didn’t see a need to throw her off like that. “She said something about giving her sister more time on the throne and some nonsense about taking time off. It had everypony worried right up until Princess Twilight and Princess Luna saved everypony from Tirek of all things. Luna held him off while Twilight and her friends pulled out some crazy new power from the Tree of Harmony! How did you miss it?”
“Ooch, Ah was stuck in the Everfree Forest doing surveying for a road, me darling. Blasted place is terrible to scout through.” He waved his tail, letting everypony see the bite marks in the fin on the end, and showed all the scratches in the enamel paint of his prosthetic legs. “We had a path all the way through it from the other side to Froggy Bottom Bog when Ah got attacked by this wee lil’ hydra.”
Berry smiled at the gasps of his family while he tried to calm himself from finding out that Princess Celestia was slumming in disguise under his roof. Sunbeam rolled her eyes as he held his forehooves wide for the next part of his tale. “His little necks were only this long. Poor fella thought he could take a couple of bits out of me before Ah gave him a swift kick to his heads. Oh, me poor tail.” He let it fall back down to the floor with a slap, wincing in pain from the bite along its body. “The whole thing made his momma something fierce and mad, it did.”
Sunbeam put a hoof quietly to her mouth. “Oh dear.”
“Yer telling me. Me and me boys all start running back for the tree line when this little graceful slip of a lass comes out of nowhere with a wagon of frogs! She was all pink maned and yellow. Looked scared as the dickens for a moment before looking between me and the little fella.” Berry shuddered, tucking his forelegs close to his chest as he remembered her fury as she helped chase them out of the bog. “Ah swear, she turned into the scariest banshee Ah’ve ever laid eyes on.”
Marble groaned in frustration after she got over her wide-eyed worry for her husband. She knew exactly who that ‘wee slip of a lass’ was. “Honeybunches, you big idiot. That was my sister’s best friend, Fluttershy.”
“Who happens to be the bearer of Kindness, and kind of an important pony even if she doesn’t realize it.” Sunbeam groaned and thumped her head against the countertop as the connection was made for her. So it was. She bet he had unnecessarily chased the hydras down to do another one of his ‘documentaries’ on them. They liked sea life more than ponies. Wait.
Sigh. Right, seapony.
“Oh. Aye, that might explain why they sent me back to handle logistics fer a while.” Berry rubbed his curly mane, flicking his slick and densely furred ear with his natural forehooves. Raising an eyebrow, he turned to Sunbeam, wondering why exactly she was in town. “So what exile did ye bring on yerself?”
“None, other than one of my choice.” Sunbeam replied, exaggerating the emphasis on herself a little more than necessary in defense. She sighed as she realized that If Berry had wanted to out her, he could have already done so. “There are three foals who are going to change the world in town, and I’m the fool who thought she could take them all on and teach them everything.”
“Wot, again? Like Twilight?”
“Yes. She’s teaching them. Your sister in law is good friends with them, the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
Berry moaned slowly in pity for Sunbeam. “Yer gonna need an adult for this one.”
“I am an adult!”
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Why do I have a feeling that there were Dragonballs, a Saiyan, and a very old Namekian that hates natural sunlight involved?
I've always loved that phrase.
" I need an adult!"
" I am an adult!"
Lol,
5294179
I need an adultier adult. One capable of properly adulting.
Firstly, shame on you for that "a millennia."
With that out of the way, a very amusing home scene. I admit, you got me with the bait and switch with Bubble Berry. ("Wait, she married the Rule 63 version of her sister?") His knowing Sunbeam's secret should certainly make for an interesting dynamic.
Looking forward to more.
5294258
You can call in as adulty an adult as you want. The Crusaders will remain unadulterated.
5294258
Unfortunately, some adults do not dampen Cutie Reactions, instead acting as a moderating fluid to cause spontainous Cutie Criticality Reactions, leading to Cutie-Disaster in which we're all gonna DIE.
Berry is one of that second class of adults. For he is a wanna-be norse-irish seapony with engineering degrees and a need to fuck with Celestia. And he happens to be the brother-in-law of Pinkie.
His Cutie Reaction potential is so excessive that more than one mole of Berry introduced to a Cutie Reactor can cause a massive surge vastly beyond the original Cutie Specifications.
But we're not introducing one mole of Berry, but instead one whole Berry.
You may commence the screaming of the horrors and wailing of the damned now. The CMC just found a professional engineer with an accent.
Was that a modified "For the dancing and the Dreaming?"
"You need an adult."
"I am an adult!"
"You need a responsible adult!"
Cute chapter.
Though, I have to ask. What's white coffee? Not heard of that term before.
--Spade
5294655
It's like black coffee.
Except turned white with stuff.
After reading the title I was grossly disappointed when this was not in fact foalcon.
5294037 AC-DC Be damned, no one was getting a power boost in this episode.
5294474
Time for SUPER PIRATE SPACE ENGINEER CRUSADERS YAY!!!!
Great, he's back. So now we can get more Scottamom updates too?
5294968
I can neither confirm nor deny that the CMC have already discovered a revolutionary new form of propulsion.
5295169
Ohh, you.
So much win!
Do I even need to make a joke here?
5294037
Wouldn't be surprised.
He's a Seapony? My_god.
Seaponies with prosthetic hind legs are canon!
5294721
You'll need to find a clopfic for that, m8!
What's wrong with plaid? That sort of talk could get you blackballed by the International Department Of Inadequately Trained Scotsmen (IDOITS), and then you'll never drink single malt in this town again.
Celestia, you are an adult, but you are so much an adult that you've come full circle and are now approaching childhood again from the other side.
Surprise frowned. “I’m not irritating. I don’t have any scratchy bits at all, I’m fluffy.”
Most adorable line i have read in a long time. I also subconsciously put a lisp in there and pronounced it Fwuffy
I must admit, I was severely confused as to where Celestia was and with whom she was lodging for most of this chapter. I think I figured it out towards the end, though.
Who was it that made a return appearance? Last time I saw you write a seapony related to Pinkie, I think he was named Clyde. Then again, I could easily be misremembering details of Scootamom.
5306735
That, too. I assume it would be included in Basic Biomancy class.
Now it CAN be larger than the actual amount of soil in the pot, but that's because it absorbs CO2 from the air, and it includes carbon, which would then solidify into the actual tree structure.
I need to re-read this fic. I have utterly no flipping idea who Surprise or Marble is. And I thought Tia was staying with Twilight.
5307531
Marble: Pinkie's eldest sister. Met Sunbeam on the train to Ponyville, got Sunbeam to stay with her after finding out she knew Twilight and could be trustworthy while being good with kids. Mentioned IN THIS CHAPTER as recap.
Surprise: Marble's daughter. Oldest, but immature like Pinkie. Pretty much pegasus Pinkie, her father's favorite and his protege. (also now Pinkie's). Beware, for evil evilness of schemes lurks within her head. One prank to rule them all. One prank to find them. One prank to bring them all, and in the cake batter bind them!
5307678
Ah. Thanks. Now I can read the last chapter without feeling lost Thank you.
5295966
Plaid is also confirmed to let you reach ludicrous speeds and beyond
That was the second time that the "adult required" and "you're/i am a adult" was used.
5731255 Who doesn't like Spaceballs eh?