• Published 17th Apr 2012
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A Sweet Taste of Cake - The Descendant



As they make a gingerbread house the Cakes reflect on their struggles, their lives, and their love.

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Once Upon a Mattress

Chapter 9: Once Upon a Mattress


It felt good to stand there in the sun.

As Cupcake stood in the sunlight that streamed in through the large picture window at the end of the upstairs hallway, she felt the heat across her face, back, and flank.

Winter Wrap-Up had taken a day and a half. Not especially good, but not bad either.

After the muddy family had returned home, she had helped wash up her nieces and nephew and then had helped lay them to their naps.

Soon each of the grown ponies had wiped away the mud and had washed themselves in the warm waters.

She had been last, and as she had come out of the bathroom to the sound of soft breaths she, had realized she was the only pony awake in the house.

It felt good to stand there in the sun.

As the rays fell over Cupcake, she could feel the last of the moisture of her bath lifting from her. At once she took her brush and began to comb out her tail, her mane, letting the rose colored wafts seek out their familiar place.

She had tried to find a place in the Wrap-Up away from her family, desperately tried to find a way to be with Carrot without looking like she was trying to get away from them.

It had not worked, and as such, she had missed being with him that morning.

She missed being with him more and more. Her brush slowly came to a standstill, and as it did, Cupcake felt her head lower until she stared at the floor.

She just had to get to a point where her father could see that Carrot did not want anything from her, that he wanted to give her everything, wanted to shower her with his love and affection.

As she stroked the brush through her mane once more, her plan, her long and consuming plan, ran through her mind. She had to help Carrot get the bakery to the point where it was prospering on its own, where no one could think that he needed money.

Once that was accomplished, she could begin dropping her small hints, let her father know that she had feelings for her partner. He had assumed her partner was a mare and she had not corrected him. Just broaching the fact that it was in fact a stallion might cause him to have an aneurism.

Her father would see that they had been working together for over a year, and as that sank in, then she could begin describing how wonderful he was, how he had been seeing her for over a year…

Before her father would have the stroke, she would point out that Carrot did not know who he was, did not have any idea about his business, did not want anything from them.

In many ways she wanted to thank her father for the violence he had committed on her behalf, as disgusting as it was to think on it that way. She began to wonder what her life would look like if any of those other stallions whose parents had made dates had slid into her life and had won her heart.

No, none of them had made her feel the way Carrot does, none of them had ever looked at her like he did.

Her father would not know the difference, of course.

She knew her father, knew that despite his brutal, horrific worldview, all he really wanted was for her to be safe and happy.

It was the same thing, she knew, that Carrot wanted.

All it would take is to bridge that gap, and all that would take is time. Time to implement her plan, maybe another year.

She pondered her plan again, wondered if it would sound as stupid if she said it out loud.

She knew it was ridiculous, knew that there was so many loopholes and chances for disaster. Yet it was working, she hoped, and every day that passed meant that it drew one day closer to being true.

As they had spent quiet moments in the bakery wiping their faces together, giving small kisses as they worked, she could hardly disagree with his choice.

She lifted her face to the sun once more, felt the wonderful heat of the first day of spring fall around her as it cascaded in through the glass.

In the window she watched some ponies go up and down the street, saw that they too were rejoicing in the sun.

Half of the ponies in this town knew of her plan, at least those in her circle. From the day she had stood in Ivory's hallway beaming with a radiant light in what she had found, the plans that the two mares had made had passed from pony to pony. They had implored all whom they had thought even stood a chance of giving it away to stand firm, to let them be drawn together.

There were only two ponies in this entire city that had been strictly forbidden from learning the rules, from guessing at "The Game of This."

They were the two stallions she loved most in this world. Quarry, her father, and Carrot Cake, her lover…

Lover. She giggled to herself at the word. As a soft smile went over her face, she continued to brush her mane. The word "lover" had been used to describe relationships far more functional and utilitarian than what she and Carrot shared. In many ways she wished she could fight to claim the word for her own use, to apply it the wonderful sensations she had found as she lay against his chest.

It was the only word that even came close to how being near him felt, how brushing beside him sent waves of happiness through her.

She felt herself starting to sway back and forth, matching the remembered cadences of their dances. The sway mimicked the way they sat together, his forelegs wrapped around her, rocking her as the smells of the bakery coasted over them.

Her swaying slowed as she remembered the feeling of his nose to hers. As the sunlight fell over, her the flat of the brush came to rest against her face as the feeling of the long, slow motions of their nuzzling caught within her.

The feel of his head wiping against her, the feel of his cheek to hers floated over her, became tangible. The soft, sweet touch of his kiss…

Cupcake's side-to-side sway stopped as she felt these things, let herself remember these things as though they were already cherished memories instead of things that had happened the day before… things that could happen this afternoon if she so chose…

Instead, her body began to move again, this time her motions taking a new direction as the sunlight cascaded over her, and she pressed the flat of the brush to her face.

Forward, backward. At first in the slightest, but soon the motion grew, and as it did, her eyes closed. She took short breaths as the vision of Carrot's green eyes stared down over her tenderly. As she looked up to him, the flat of the brush became his hoof, and she felt it, watched him as he lifted his hoof to her face.

Forward, backward. His mouth moved, and she sensed the words "I love you" floating down over her, covering her. This perfect daydream moved on as he lifted a stray bit of her mane from her face, gently placed it behind her ear. She reached up, felt him taking her hoof in his as it lay upon the pillow.

Cupcake went stark still, felt herself start to blush in pointless embarrassment as she slowly turned to see if there was any other pony in the hallway.

There were none, only the small sounds of a napping household meeting her as she cast her gaze down the hallway.

She continued blushing to herself, surprised at how real the daydream had felt, how tangible and perfect it seemed.

Suddenly she wanted to be with Carrot.

Suddenly she wanted to be looking into those green eyes and touching that freckled face.

It felt good to stand there in the sun… but nothing felt like being near him, close to him.

She quickly trotted to her room, put in the earrings he had given her. Moving quietly through the large house, she left a note for her family upon the table. "I might be back for dinner," it read, "maybe not."

Hopefully not.

With that she trotted out once more down the path and to the street. As her hooves sounded out happily across the cobblestones, she thought about all of the things that had happened, had played into her favor as he plan went forward.

It was all working, and although it would take time, she would soon be with Carrot… not have to keep secrets, not from him or her father.

She was very glad that it was working. She thought of how fortunately things have worked out. She was glad that Carrot had left in time at the mill… she couldn't imagine how devastating it would be to her plan if Carrot and Quarry ever really met, if Carrot learned about her father's business, gave him reason to believe that Carrot wanted something from him.

She chuckled at her pessimism. It was all working out, it was going fine…

… it was not as though Carrot had borrowed money from her father or anything horrible like that.



The bell of the bakery sounded out, and Carrot looked up from behind the counter. Upon seeing her standing there, he was quickly out from behind the counter and trotting up to where she stood with a vast smile growing across his face.

Within the space of moments their noses were together, sharing once more the warmth, the peaceful feeling that came when they shared this touch.

It continued as the sounds of the first day of spring fell over the bakery. It continued even as the smell of all the baked goods wafted out from the kitchen, from the pies and treats that sat in their cases.

After a good long moment they lifted their heads.

"Hi," she breathed.

"Hi," he answered, tilting his head slightly left to right to find her gaze as the light poured in through the bakery windows.

It felt good standing here in the sun with her nearby.

"I got some good news in the mail today!" he said as he towards the kitchen. He lifted his hoof for her to follow, eager to show her how well he was playing "The Game of This," that he was moving the pieces in the directions he hoped help her see the game ending.

He looked up to see her still staring at him with the same expression that had sat upon her face as their touch had parted, as he had lifted his nose from hers.

A soft expression laid there, a beautiful one.

"It's here in the kitchen," he said, "do, do you want me to bring it out to you?"

"Oh, no," she said, batting her eyes at him, "let's go and have a look-see!"

She came trotting into the kitchen, brushing past him slowly, catching him in a nuzzle beneath the chin as she looked the kitchen over.

Upon the table lay some opened envelopes. It was not much of surprise, as she saw the seal of the Royal Ministry of Finance she could guess what at least one of them contained.

She placed her hoof upon them, peered over them. As she did, something of a small game flit through her mind. With a sly glance, she peered at him as he stood there proudly with his eyes closed and chest puffed out in pride at his accomplishments.

"There's three bits of news there, the first is that…" he began.

"Oh!" she cried, placing her hoof to her face and feigning a look of discomfort. "It's simply too dark to see in here, dont'cha know?"

"Is, is it?" asked Carrot as he deflated from his prideful stance and spun to look across what seemed to be a perfectly well lit kitchen.

"Let's look them over out in the showcase room," she said, tilting her head and hiding her expression. As the soft light fell across her, he saw Cupcake take the three envelopes from the table, lifting them with her mouth.

She looked at him and batted her eyes again, and as she trotted lightly past him once more she seemed to bounce along. As she brushed past him again, she loitered along his body, nuzzling beneath his chin and lifting her tail so that it tickled him as she swept beneath and beside him.

Awareness began to grow in Carrot as his mouth moved up and down for a second. He followed her out into the main room of the bakery.

She stood there in the middle of the room where shafts of spring light flowed through the large windows.

As he looked upon her, she still held the envelopes in her mouth, the same soft expression lying across her, the colors of her coat and mane catching in the light that poured over her.

She tossed her head as though asking him to come and claim the letters, chase her if need be.

Inside Carrot, one hundred thousand voices began singing, doves flew around, and angelic beings wafted around tossing rose petals.

He slowly crossed over to where she stood. At once she lifted her hooves high and trotted to the cash register.

"Oh, no, the light is no good here either!" she said, smiling as she placed them on the counter.

"Really?" he asked as he looked upon her. "There's not enough…"

As he approached, she gathered up the letters and scampered away to the other side of the room, looking over her shoulder at him with the letters still held in her mouth.

She laid them among the pies that stood in their cupboard. "Oh dear!" she intoned. "Hardly any light here either!" Her blinking showed her to be a liar…

… an adorable, beautiful, radiant liar.

As he approached, she once more affected her disguise, gathered up the letters with a revealing giggle and scurried away as he drew near.

"Oh, nope!" she called brushing past him, catching her cheek to his as she missed the letters, grabbed them up on a second pass that sent the sensation of her coat along the length of his body. "That's not a good spot either!"

"Dearie me, dearie me!" she said, affecting the airs of one wrapped in deep disappointment. "Is there no good place to read a letter in your whole bakery, Carrot?"

He smiled as he followed her through any number of places that would have been far more than adequate for the purposes of reading. At times the tiny wafts of flour and dust that hovered through the bakery fell through streaming tunnels of light, any of which could have supplied her with enough light to read if that were her intent.

Yet he sensed, as her giggling sojourn continued, that was not her intent. It seemed to be far from it, far from it indeed.

He emerged from following her through another cascade of amber light and stood there blinking for a second as he let the dizziness of their roundabout chase fall away from him. As he looked up, he panned across the whole floor of the bakery and wondered where she had fled to, where she awaited his welcome pursuit.

He took some small breaths and realized he could not see her.

A giggle rose to meet him.

His hooves made individual sounds as he turned slowly. Carrot took a little breath and then dared lift his head towards the stairs.

She stood there upon the first few steps, the perfect resonant blue of her coat shining, the rosy tones of her mane and tail catching once more in the afternoon light.

"Perhaps, oh, maybe there's some good reading light up here?" she asked, the same soft expression across her face that had been lingering there since she had arrived.

Her eyes drifted over him.

With another giggle she slowly lowered her head. Without taking her eyes off of Carrot she gathered up the letters, batted her eyes at him once more, and then deliberately climbed the stairs, accentuating each motion of her body as she did.

Inside Carrot the chorus sang louder, the doves flew around in a turbulent haze, and the angelic beings dumped clouds of rose petals over him.

There was a beautiful mare on his stairs, the one whom he loved more than any other in the world, and she was asking for him to follow.

He went forward, placed his hoof on the first step. As he did, he heard her gain the landing above and turn slightly at the top of the stairs.

The letters still stood in her mouth, and as he focused on her, she seemed to shine back down upon him, as though he was facing into a newborn sun. Her perfect expression draped itself across him once more and he placed his other hoof upon the stairs.

She gave some small laughs, the sound muffled in the slightest by the letters. With what seemed like a tiny jubilant bounce, the giggling form of Cupcake seemed to lift into the air. She give a small ecstatic leap, and then trotted down the hallway and out of his view.

There was a clattering of her hooves overhead, and soon the sound of a familiar door opening echoed down the stairwell.

Inside Carrot the chorus began gesturing at him wildly as they held a high crescendo, the doves seemed to be flinging themselves at him bodily, the angelic beings beating at him with their petal baskets.

There was a beautiful mare in his bedroom, the one whom he loved more than any other in the world, and she was waiting for him to join her.

Carrot felt his hooves dance around beneath him. From his mouth came words like "Omigosh!" and other statements over which he only had the most basic of control.

He fought to make his anxious hooves follow his commands. He turned to the door of the bakery and quickly scanned the street. To his eternal gratitude he saw nopony angling towards his bakery.

With that he quickly took down the "Open" sign and replaced it with one that read "Back in an Hour." At once he was cantering towards the stairs.

He stopped though, felt himself spin around twice and then go back towards the door.

As soon as "Back in an Hour" had been replaced with "Closed," he found himself having to struggle to keep from galloping across the wooden floor and up the stairs.

Carrot took some breaths, ran his hoof through his mane, and with that, walked through the door of his own bedroom.

She lay there on her back, her head hanging over the near edge of the bed, humming something low and sweet while she pondered the envelope and held it over her head.

Her rear legs were crossed at the ankles, slowing waving through the air as she rolled her hips in rhythm with the delicate tune. As he entered, he let the sight wash over him, let every little curve of her body sit across his mind as she sat in such beautiful repose.

"Oh, yes," she smiled, turning those rosy eyes upon him once more, "the light is much better in here… I like it much better in here, don'tcha know…"

The room was darker than he had remembered leaving it that morning, and as he looked around, he realized that she had drawn one of the curtains… the one awakened him each morning by dropping light in his eyes.

She had not wanted any light in her eyes as she lay upon the bed.

"Now what's the good news," she said as she shifted her body, "that's worth all of this bother?"

He watched her sit up, raise herself so that she lay across the bed in a more typical equestrian pose, her legs drawn up beneath her. Her mane fell across her face in rose-colored wafts of competing tones. As she tapped the bed for him to come join her, it was all he could do to keep from floating there.

He stepped forward and lay down next to her. Soon the two sat sideways across the bed. As he did, the chorus, the doves, and the angels that had flitted around in his mind all blushed brightly and began to slowly trot and fly away whilst citing prior responsibilities.

"Well," he said, reaching in to collect the first envelope, "the first good news is that I got the refund check…"

She lifted the envelope with her mouth once more, leaned to him. He leaned forward and looked into her wishful glance as he pulled the envelope with his teeth.

He watched as she spun over onto her back, held the check over her and smiled up to it. Her rear legs fell over him, across him, and the amazing sense of her closeness filled him. "They, they found some things we forgot," he said "and they added it back in, so it's larger than we thought it would be!"

"Oh, Carrot," she said in a little voice as she turned to face him, letting the check fall past her head to the floor, "that's good news! What are you going tah' do with the bits?"

He tilted his head back and forth, looked down to her.

"Well, there's any number of things I need here at the bakery," he said with a sigh, attempting to disguise it as a chuckle, "but, well, is there anything you'd like to do with it? I mean… we, you know we could always have a really nice dinner… or go someplace…"

A single voyeuristic dove cooed loudly inside Carrot as he saw her scrunch up, bring her forelegs closer to herself and a luminous smile fly through her.

"Oh Carrot!" she whispered as she reached up, lifted his face with her hoof. She was so happy, this he saw painted over her, and soon her contentment leapt to him as she guided him down to her lips.

The kiss hovered between them. In a moment he had reached down once more, laying another upon her as she ran her hoof through his mane.

Silence hung over the bed for a second as the fading light fell through the windows.

"What was the second bit of good news?" she asked, letting a few more strands of his hair fall past her hoof.

"Hummm? Umm! Oh," said Carrot, the expression across his face like someone caught in an enchantment, "the local newspaper did a story on small businesses! It seems that the chamber of commerce ran with it. Look who got an award for best new business!"

Again she watched as he reached gently between them. Lifting the envelope, he again waited, let her withdraw what was within.

The tail of the ribbon fell away, hanging at odd angles along where it had been folded around the certificate.

She looked upon the gilded words, the long boring text beneath. It told her nothing she did not already know… it said that Carrot was wonderful, giving, welcoming.

"Carrot!" she spoke in a staged whisper. "I'm so excited for you! You, you can put it above the cash register."

She looked up to see his head raise, as though anticipating her request. He had guessed correctly. Once more she called him to her, let the touch of his lips meet hers, once, twice…

…and, to her surprise and welcome, he gave her a third. This one fell just at the base of her neck and beneath her ear, tickling her in the slightest. She first leaned into it, gave a small giggle as the feel of his whiskers brushed her coat. Then she leaned away as he settled another there, let the feel of his lips upon her neck play there.

As a single angel zoomed in to snatch up the peeping dove, Carrot looked down over her. He could not help but chance a long look across the perfect blue tones of her coat, down to where her chest lifted and lowered in slight motions, causing the coversheet to move and the pillow beyond her to rise in sympathy as each of her breaths passed with a soft sound.

His next kiss would go there.

"There's, there's one more good piece of news," he said, looking rather prideful, "my loan is gonna be sold!"

"What loan?" Cupcake whispered as the shadow of a great, vast fear fell over her.

"Oh," began Carrot with his eyes still closed and a prideful look on his face, "I took one out months back to pay for a few things… I didn't want to bother you with it. So, it's gonna be sold…"

She lifted the letter and began to look it over. Her eyes centered on the letterhead…

… and with that her world split apart.

"… and now if I sign we can pay less over the three years," continued Carrot, not sensing that anything had changed as he sat upon the bed with his head still held high, "than we would if I'd stayed with the first for the year!"

With that Carrot lowered his head and anticipated once more meeting hers, resolved to this time take his kiss farther, anticipated the small sounds of her reaction.

Instead all he received was a mouthful of blanket.

He shot upright in alarm, looked along the length of the bed. Instead of lying there with him, she was near the window, her eyes darting across the letter.

As Cupcake's eyes reached the end, the signature stood out, reached up to her as nearly a year of careful planning was washed away. As a familiar signature rested there, it sat upon her hopes and dreams like the black spot on a page of sacred text given to a condemned mariner.

"Oh no," she breathed as she cantered across the room, holding the letter to the other window as though she believed that perhaps it was just a trick of the light, as though she could somehow change the words written there by forcing a new perspective upon them.

It remained the same, the signature, the one that slowly tore away her plan and ripped at her careful choices even as she stood there.

"Cupcake?" breathed Carrot while he shifted his body and tried to reach for her, realizing that something horrible was happening to her… watching as her calmness and certainty dripped out of Cupcake. He watched her marvelous decisiveness falling from her in a puddle that gathered on the floor of his bedroom.

"Oh no," she said again. At once she dropped the letter, let it fall from her hoof as though it had burned her.

"Oh no! Oh no, oh no!" she cried aloud, her head shifting from side to side, her eyes darting around as though some horror had reached for her.

Carrot clambered from the bed, half tripping as he fell out of it.

"Cupcake, Cupcake what's wrong?" he asked, reaching his hoof out to her.

"Oh Carrot! What did you do? What did you do?!" she said as she fixed him in a gaze that was half one of accusation, half one of disbelief.

"Carrot," she said as she pointed to the signature, "Do, do you know who that is? Please, Carrot, tell me… who is he?"

Carrot looked down and saw Quarry's name upon the signature. A thousand worries went through him. Why was that name scaring her so? Well, apart from the obvious fact that the one who wore it was a massive stallion and a borderline psychopath.

"Quarry? He's my loan officer. I… the realtor set me up with him months ago, back in, jeez…the fall? You-you have to know him, he was there in the mill that one time, the time he threw those…"

"Is that all!?" she demanded of him, literally jumping to him and pressing her reddening face into his. "Please, Carrot, tell me the truth! Is that all you know about him?! Is that really all!?"

"Ughh…" began Carrot as his eyes shifted and he looked for facts, his ears laying down under her gaze, "He's got a nice secretary? He's Ledger's friend? He doesn't decorate his office very well…. he kinda likes the snacks I bring them? The goldfish in the reception room is named 'Bubbles'?"

Cupcake searched his eyes, and as she did, she saw worry growing in them, fear… fear for her. "Please, Cupcake, you're scaring me… what's going on?" he whispered, again offering her his hoof.

With a single huff of emotion, Cupcake wheeled around and stared down at the letter as it sat upon the floor.

She yelled at herself for doubting him, for thinking that the stallion who had lived to draw the pain out of her for nearly a year would lie to her. She cursed herself for believing, even for a second, that this gentle stallion who wanted nothing more than to hold her close could be so callous.

No, he did not know. He did not know.

But his innocence would not save him.

Daddy would not believe it.

Daddy would not believe a word of it.

Daddy would tear Carrot apart, rage at him for using her to get to him, for wanting something from his family.

Daddy would devastate Carrot, break him like all the other colts.

No, please, not Carrot. Not Carrot!

She took two shuddering breaths. Cupcake looked up from the paper and looked to where a set of deeply scared green eyes still stared to her, the ears still back in alarm.

"You don't know, Carrot," she said while tears gathered at the edge of her eyes, "you honestly don't know…"

"Cupcake," he whispered as he lifted his hoof to her once more.

"Quarry is my father!" she called aloud, her voice breaking as the tears began rolling down her cheek. "He's my father!"

Something inside Carrot snapped. It was as though it filled his guts with an acid, one that began to spread through him, settling in his throat and behind his eyes…

"He's my father!" she repeated, her voice tinged with tears. "You loaned money from my father!"

Carrot's vision receded. Suddenly it was as though Cupcake were standing hundreds of yards away.

Suddenly Carrot understood, understood the entirety of her fears. Suddenly the full playing field of "The Game of This" opened up in front of him and he saw the challenge laid before him. For the first time he saw what she had been protecting from him, forcing ignorance on him for his own safety.

Suddenly the massive heaving form of Quarry stood there, quivering, twitching in rage… keeping him from being with her.

Suddenly all of the threats the stallion had ever leveled, had ever let slip past his lips in regards to something as unsubstantial as money, these were all magnified a thousand fold.

He had mixed money with family. He had put himself in the spot of having Quarry's money and Quarry's daughter in the same hoof.

Suddenly Carrot understood. Suddenly Carrot knew.

Carrot shook himself, looked back to realize she was slowly circling the letter, crying as she did and looking over it as though it were a death notice.

"Cupcake," he said as he trotted forward, "we-we can figure this out… if, if take the longer period…"

"It won't matter!" she said. "It won't matter, Carrot!"

To his horror she pelted off into the hallway, her hooves soon sounding out down the stairs.

He at once circled around in his room, thought about how thoroughly the happy scene that had begun there had been cleared away. Soon he was following her, leaving the damnable letter lying on the floor in the fading sun.

"Cupcake, Cupcake!" he called as he followed her, hearing her tiny sobs echoing through the stairwell.

He missed the last few steps and stumbled down the stairs, landed on his chin. As he called out in pain suddenly she was with him, lifting him.

Had he known it was that easy, he would have thrown himself down the staircase.

As he sat there throbbing with pain, she spoke his name over and over, held him close as the rapid beats of her heart caught in his ears.

"Please, please, Cupcake," he said as he winced, "we can find a way… he's, he's not a bad guy, mostly, I mean… he likes my treats, kinda."

"Oh Carrot!" she cried again. "You don't know what he's done to colts-colts who've just wanted to be with me to get close to him…"

With that she laid a litany of horror stories upon him. How she had missed going to her Junior Promenade because the colt who had offered to take her had pulled up in a fine carriage… and had honked the horn.

As Quarry had ripped the colt from the carriage, he had yelled at him for calling for her "like she was an animal to be rounded up."

She told him about another pony, this one seemingly a gentlecolt, who had sat and spoken with at the country club. In the bathroom, Quarry had heard the colt talking about how if he dated her it would be good for his career, help him get closer to Ledger through Ivory.

Her father had almost drowned him in the very toilet the colt had been using. He had made the colt's friends watch.

Finally, the tale of how one colt had been careful, had avoided all sorts of impropriety, had negotiated the waters. She could tell that he was like the rest, the first to believe that he had "gotten away with it," yet she had willfully let him court her. She wanted to believe that she could have love too, that maybe if she just let him near, she would be able to find more in him.

As they had sat together on the porch, he had reached for her hoof, reached for her nuzzle… and then reached for far too much.

"No!" she had called in alarm.

For the next fifteen minutes she had thought for sure she was watching her father murder him, watched the whip crack across the colt and the wetness of blood shining on his coat.

It was only by some miracle that he escaped, only by some miracle that as her father sat on the porch awaiting the police and his judgment that they never came.

It was that act of brutality, that act of her father's wrath on her behalf, the way that in her father's distorted worldview he was showing his love for her that had sent her fleeing to Ivory's home.

"I-I can't stand it, Carrot!" she said. "The though… the thought of that happening to you! I-I didn't love any of them, didn't want to be with any of them!"

She lifted his face to hers, wiped her hoof across Carrot's face as he shook in pain from his fall.

"I don't… didn't want you to end up like that," she said as her voice softened. "We, Ivory and I, worked so hard to make sure that everyone knew… everyone knew except you and daddy. I was so sure… sure that if you never got to meet him…"

Suddenly Carrot's mind flashed back to the mill, saw her begging him to leave on that first day he had first set eyes on the stallion… upon her massive father.

"We-we can find a way," she said, sniffling and standing, helping him to his hooves, "it-it will just take time… take time."

He saw her looking around, saw her thinking as her decisive mind went to work.

"I'll-I'll take a job again, ask Canapés for my old job… graduation season is coming up she'll need help…" she began. Inside an instant she was giving a squeak of surprise.

Cupcake felt herself being pulled into Carrot, felt him hobble as he tried to wrap her in his forelegs.

"Please don't," he said, "I-I don't want you to have to do that for me again, for us. I want you here… I want you with me."

She tried to look at him, but she could not raise her head. He had already been so patient, had already waited for her to open herself to him… and this had been his reward.

"If-if I take a job, we can pay back the loan early no matter which one we choose," she said, the analytical part of her, "and… and then it becomes a matter of seeing how long we-we can wait before I tell daddy things, drop hints. It, it can still work, Carrot… it will, it will just take time."

"How-how long, do you figure?" came his voice in a defeated whisper.

"A year… or so," she gulped, "maybe."

A pained wail went through the bakery, and the sound of Carrot hitting the floor echoed among the pies and tarts.

"Please, Carrot!" she said, circling him as she had the letter upstairs. "I know! I know that it hurts, but… it's the only way I can see out of this! It's the only way in the long run…"

He looked up to her with sunken eyes. His expression pained, cracked. "I love you Cupcake," he said, "I just want to be close to you, near you…"

She took a long breath, looked down to him.

"I know," she said, forcing herself to smile for his sake, "I love you, Carrot. Don't stop trying to be with me, ever, please…"

"Never," he said as he rose to his hooves. The two stared at one another as their emotions settled around them, caught in the low places of the bakery and settled among the dust bunnies.

With that she lifted her nose, and in an instant his was to hers. As the small motions moved between them, something awful fell through Carrot, an insight that shocked him.

His touch had failed to lift the pain out of her, had failed to free her of worry.