• Published 7th Sep 2014
  • 5,862 Views, 50 Comments

The Problem with Being a Foal - AlliePastel



Coco Pommel invites Rarity over with the implicit purpose of pressuring her into role playing. With the unique role Rarity is offered to take up, will she overstep her boundaries for as a caretaker?

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Pick Up Your Toys

It was sundown in Ponyville as the town’s wintery sky switched from a dim lighting to a cold black night sky. All the shops closed extra early now and Rarity’s boutique was no exception. Perhaps it was just the atmosphere as the town prepared for Hearths Warming that everything seemed so relaxed. Not a single eye was battered anymore; Hearths Warming Eve was a time for reconsolidation and peace among all ponies of Equestria.

Amidst the quiet clopping of hooves among the street, inside the hallowed boutique were two young mares working patiently with their craft.

In the one corner a white unicorn mare patiently sewed the last of her requested orders. She had spent countless hours doing over time in preparation for the short break that was to come. It was hard labor, but it was worth it. Creating over dozen dresses in mere hours was something she’d never accomplished before.

Of course, creating all those dresses wouldn’t have been possible without the help from her timid assistant Coco Pommel. The poor young filly was exhausted. It wasn’t so much the work load as it was the hours.

Months ago when Coco still lived in Manehattan, she was worked a lot but it was in small intervals. Not that she didn’t appreciate a good challenge, but this was a lot of stress for her.

With a final push of her hooves, she fed the last of her silk fabric through the sewing machine. The end result being a fine ruffled trimming to a dress. She admired it for a few seconds until her tired eyes shut and she collapsed on the table.

“Oh my dear…” Rarity said, trotting over and picking up the fabric with her magic, “I know things have been busy around here, but we’re done now.”

Picking her head up from the table, Coco yawned stretching a bit, “W-wha? We are?” she questioned.

Rarity mended the last line of ruffled fabric to her dress’s skirt. A formal winter gown with a glittery like Lolita styled ending. It was formal, perfect, and she simply adored it.

Coco raised her head and sat back on her cushion. A searing white sensitivity shook her spine as she tried her best to keep her proper poster. She had to empress her boss, she always had to impress her boss, even if the two were on the best of terms.

Frowning, the young filly turned her head towards the ground and whimpered, “I’m sorry Ms.Rarity. I-I’ve just been really tired lately and the studio has been so cold anymore. Please understand I don’t mean you any disrespect, I-it’s just hard for me to-“

“Coco…” Rarity interrupted, planting a hoof on her assistant’s muzzle, “You’re overreacting dear. You worry me sometimes.”

“I-I’m sorry…” the timid mare replied.

A subtle smirk appeared on the white unicorn’s muzzle as she sat on the ground next to her assistant. She was never much one for awkward situations, but having a little sister for so long had taught her a thing or two about when a pony was denying the truth.

Resting a bit herself, Rarity hugged her assistant against her side as she asked, “Coco dear, whatever is a matter with you. I know you’re stressed out, we all are. But you’ve been acting really bizarre around me for a while now. Almost like you’re on the verge of telling me but you seemed pained every time you look at me.”

Taking the hug in for a second, Coco melted against Rarity’s gentle figure. Her shaky hooves became relaxed as she had someone to hold unto. Her deep rooted physical strain didn’t seem so bad all of a sudden. She liked hugs.

A bit more confident with her friend so close by, Coco bit her lip and looked at the ground, “H-have you ever had a special ‘something’ that kept you going. L-like something that you looked forward to everyday that you couldn’t share with anybody.”

Rarity raised a suspicious eyebrow, “You mean like a guilty pleasure, do tell.”

“Well…” Coco said, wrapped her hooves around each other, “I-I used to talk to my mom whenever I was stressed. Her and I used to be really close to each other, but I left her when I came to Ponyville. I love and appreciate the work, b-but I just-just…” she whimpered, covering her eyes.

“You just miss her? Is there something you’ve been meaning to get off your chest dear? You’re always free to tell me, there’s no one here but us.” Rarity said, petting her intern’s mane.

“Oh Ms.Rarity…” Coco said, diving into a hug around her friend’s waist, “I-I’ve been wanting t-to t-talk about this for s-so long b-b-but.” She struggled to finish her sentence as she broke into a sob.

“W-woah dear, take it easy now.” Rarity cooed, patting Coco on the back, “That’s it, let it all out. Is there something you want to discuss? I am free you know? I’m actually free for Hearths Warming and a little more than that if you just need time to talk to someone.”

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Coco looked up hopefully at the white unicorn, “Y-you really mean it?” she questioned.

“Of course I do dear… I can have my bags ready by the end of the evening. Of course I’ll be a little while trekking through the snow and all. Still, I’ll be around later okay?”

Coco calmed herself as she looked up at her friend, “O-Okay...”

***

Inside a well-lit modern loft house, the young cream colored Coco paced back and forth on her wood laminated floors. It’d been so long since she had a guest over. Hopefully things didn’t look too ‘childish’ for Rarity’s sake.

Climbing on top of the couch, Coco sat herself on her bed; a rather spacious couch that matched her own coat’s color. She wasn’t exactly proud of her accommodations, but what remained inside her real room had to remain secretive. Too bad the lock to the entrance was broken. Hopefully Rarity has a little bit of respect for privacy.

Perhaps it was best if Rarity knew about her real room though, her real life; it’d definitely explain the stuffed animals and childish toys scattered across the living room like some nursery school. How she’d explain any of her dolls and action figures was beyond her, perhaps she could just biff it.

Besides, the living room itself looked alright. Nothing was particularly out of place aside from her toys and other childish entities. It’ll be fine, just say she babysat and never got a chance to pick up. ‘Yeah, that sounds good!’ Coco thought to herself, trotting around the toys.

An abrupt knock on the door startled her and she tripped unto a toy pony. The plastic poked her tummy as she fell onto it. She cuffed her hooves over her mouth, a dams’ worth of tears being held back under her eyes.

“Ouch…” She muttered under her breath as she stood up. She looked over at the doorframe which stood guard to her accident. Trotting over to it, she answered meekly, “W-who’s there?”

“Rarity Dear…” the voice returned.

“Right…” Coco muttered, opening the door, “Hello. Sorry for the wait, I kinda was busy. Ms.Rarity, you brought a bag?”

Rarity smiled, trotting in lightly, “Of course dear, a lady always has a backup plan.” Awestruck by the serial nature of Coco’s bizarrely pristine living room, it was all so well designed yet the actual décor was… ‘off-putting’.

She walked in, curiously examining all the toys as she went. There were little figurines of princesses and nights, stuffed animals of all verities, and huge play sets scattered all across the floor. Not to mention the childish looking posters, coloring books, and other randomly assorted activities everywhere.

Coco cleared a pathway, carefully moving each toy off to the side in a neat order. It was obvious that she cared for the toys, the way she nudged each one to the side with her hoof was all too gentle to be ‘efficient’.

After several awkward moments of clearing toys, Coco had successfully made several straight alley ways in which some pony could roam about freely.

An eyebrow raised, Rarity trotted over to the couch and crawled on top. At first she sat back and relaxed until she noticed a desperate impatient look on her apprentice’s face. It was bizarre, like Coco was worried. Her eyes fixed on something that was on the couch.

Looking to her left, Rarity reached over and pulled up a small pony with a light yellow sundress that bared a similar coat to Coco.

Coco hopped on top of the couch and reached out her hooves, desperately grabbing the doll and hugging it close to her chest, “I-I-I’m sorry…” she said, kissing the stuffed pony on the forehead. Looking up at Rarity, she hugged the animal close to her chest, “Her name is ‘Apple Blossom’. I’ve had her since I was a little filly!” she added nervously.

“I see…” Rarity added, looking a bit uncomfortable. Her hooves sink against the arm rest as she gave Coco a minute to snuggle with her doll. Still feeling weary of her surroundings, she looked over at her friend, “You’re really into dolls aren’t you Coco? Such an eager girl, I’m surprise you’ve kept this habit from me for so long.”

Smiling a little bit, Coco blushed. Looking around the room she looked cautiously at the ground, “I-I’m sorry about the mess. I-I’ve been collecting these- I mean. I’ve bought so many of these for the kids I baby sit that I…” she looked up at her unconvinced co-worker.

Trying to contain her curiosity, Rarity just gave the girl a sympathetic smile. She reached her hoof unto her friend’s shoulder and cooed, “It’s quite alright dear, I’m sure you’re just a little ‘protective’ of your childhood or something. I know plenty of other ponies who like bizarre things you know?”

Coco swallowed hard at the words ‘bizarre things’. Perhaps the toys were something Rarity didn’t mind, it probably didn’t really mean anything without the context. After all, she herself didn’t quite understand her desire to buy toys. All she knew was she liked cuddling and Apple Blossom had been doing that with her for all these years.

Smiling Coco leaned back against her couch’s soft padded cushions. The next few moments of silence felt like an eternity, like nothing could break the tension in the air. She wanted to just start a pleasant conversation, but no words would come out of her mouth.

Swallowing a bit louder than she intended, Rarity looked over at her stuffed animal cuddling friend and smirked, “You know I have a little sister you know?”

“Really?” Coco questioned, rubbing her hoof up and down Apple Blossom’s ear; a nervous habit of hers.

Rarity nodded her head as she leaned back a bit further in her seat. Her mind brought up several images of Sweetie Belle’s similarly toy plastered bed room as she made the comparison between the two places. Look over at Coco, her eyes drifted towards Coco’s ear stroking, “Yes, she’s nearly still just a filly. She’s almost out of her primary school, but she still has some behavioral flaws. Poor dear just can’t help but feel overwhelmed by stressful situations.”

“You don’t say…” Coco whimpered, feeling a little bit guilty for bring the matter up. It was Hearth’s Warming Eve after all, things were supposed to be joyous. Scooting a little bit closer to her co-worker she spoke, “I-I Used to be that way when I was a little filly.”

“I’m sure you were Coco. No offense, you seem so…” the white unicorn gestured her hoofs, trying to come up with the right word.

“Stressed?” Coco added quite matter of factly.

Shrugging her shoulders, Rarity sat up and looked at her friend. Blushing a little bit, she gave her friend a small smirk. ‘How do I put this?’ she thought to herself. “Well Dear…” Rarity said, trailing her eyes around the room, “The toys actually concern me a bit. How come you didn’t clean them up before I came her. No offense, I’m just curious.”

Coco frowned a bit, looking at her stuff. She hugged her stuffed animal a little tighter to her chest and looked up slowly at Rarity, “I-I dunno. They’re my toys but I uh-um… I got them out for my niece to play with yesterday and never put them back; I just didn’t mind I guess.” Coco lied.

The crème colored pony stared at her employer for a second as time slowly crept on by. She wanted to say something, but judging by Rarity’s perplexed facial expression, that didn’t sound like such a good idea. Was her own explanation that unbelievable?

“I-I don’t why I invited you over. I just felt kinda lonely and all. M-my family all lives in Manehattan or Fillydephia and I had no one to spend the holiday with.

Raising an eyebrow, Rarity pondered what her friend was saying. ‘If all her family lived elsewhere, then why would she have her niece over. It didn’t make sense’ she thought to herself. It was around this time she was getting right suspicious, more so than her usually well-mannered self would allow.

Scooting over to her friend, she wrapped her hoof around Coco’s shoulder. Like she’d done so many times before with Sweetie Belle, she cooed in her friend’s ear, “Awe, it’s quite alright Dear; we can just relax a little if you want.”

Looking at her friend reluctantly, Coco cracked a very subtle grin. It’d been a while since she even touched another pony. Her cuteness wasn’t the issue, it was usually her confidence that kept her from getting any affection. She was awful introverted the majority of the time.

“A-are you sure?” she asked, tilting her head over on Rarity’s shoulder.

Rarity let out a small giggle. Blushing a bit herself, “Actually I could use the little filly’s room if you don’t mind.”

“Oh…” Coco said, tensing up a bit. She sat up straight again and pointed with her hoof, to a set of rooms back behind her. Trying to keep cool, she blushed, “I-I… Only use the right door. M-my bedroom is really messy too and I uh… please don’t.” she muttered, blushing a darker shade of red again.

She really hadn’t thought anything out for this visit. Maybe she should have just stayed alone on Hearth’s Warming. It wasn’t like she hadn’t already expected to. Rarity was almost certainly going to find out now and she had no one to blame but herself.

Staggering over the toys scattered across the floor, Rarity eventually made it to the bathroom’s doorway. She hit the lights, which blinded her temporarily as she shut the door.

Coco listened carefully as she heard the two sounds she dreaded to hear. The first was the locking of the bathroom’s door and the second was the startup of the bathroom’s fan; she couldn’t hear a thing now.

Rarity sat on top of the toilet and let her bladder loose. Looking up at the ceiling fan, she realized just how loud the contraption was; she couldn’t even hear herself peeing. Taking a bit of toilet paper she ‘cleaned’ herself and hopped off her porcelain seat.

Something stuck her odd about the bathroom. Much like the living room, the bathroom had a bit of a ‘foal’s flair’ to it. The bathtub seemed to have contain bottles of bubble bath, not the kind a mare would use either. That wasn’t even to mention the plastic boat and duck she seemed to have stored at the bottom of the tub.

This was bizarre, really bizarre. Opening the closet’s shutters, an array all the average pony products were displayed. Looking further down the shelf on a level that could only be reached when couching, a set of fabric curtains protected some mysterious floor level shelf.

As quietly as she could, she undid a small snap that gave way to the curtain’s connections. Her jaw dropped as she gandered at what was in front of her. Using her magic, she pulled out a large piece of plastic… it was a mare sized training potty. At that, one with several used diapers inside of it.

Gagging, Rarity set the plastic pink potty back into its place and redid the curtains, shutting the cabinet’s shutters once more. She closed her eyes and tried to think rationally for a moment. There was no way Coco was pretending to be a-a ‘foal’. She probably would tell her if she was really. It might be hard for her friend to answer, but her suspicions were peeked; she had no idea what was going on.

She hit the switch to the power and opened the bathroom door. To her surprise, Coco had put away quite a few of her toys into a decorative pink chest. Walking over to her earth pony friend, Rarity took as seat right next to her.

Coco turned her head to the side only to be surprised by her friend’s perplexed expression. Confused by Rarity, she set her toy breezie into the chest and asked “Is there something wrong?”

Smirking, Rarity looked to the open bathroom entrance and back at her now nervous looking friend. Swallowing hard she looked her friend in the eye, “I-I-no.” she answered punctionally.

“Well…” Rarity said, looking up at the ceiling in a quiet pause. It was difficult to put the question lightly. The only phrase that came to mind ‘what in tarnation is wrong with you’ was the only one way she could think of saying it. But that wouldn’t work now would it?

“Hmm… how old is your niece? Mind me asking.”

Coco set another toy in her chest. Her heart pounding faster with each second, she answered, “S-seven.”

Rarity raised her eyebrows; Coco was almost certainly lying to her. A bit annoyed by her friend’s obvious avoidance, she looked at the ground disappointed.

“Funny, most foals are stall trained by then. Any reason your niece is having so many problems?”

Blushing, Coco looked at her friend in a panic. Her mind started to fog up as she started rambling incoherent nonsense, “I-um… you see? I uh…”

Rarity stood up and reached her hoof over to her friend’s shoulder, gathering her full attention. Her own sapphire blue eyes met with Coco’s worried turquois eyes as she whispered softly, “Tell me what’s going on her.”

“Coco’s vison got blurry with tears as she begged a subtle way to put it. She knew this was bound to happen with some pony, but with her idol was another question. Her hooves tensed up as she took a deep breath and frowned…

“I-I-I’m just a foal.”

Author's Note:

I find my one offs rather enjoyable to write. I feel like I can be a little bit more creative with the narrative in a short time and boy am I having fun with the next chapter. This story is going to be a bit more playful with the 'padded pony' aspect than my prior have been lately! ^3^

Anyhow, the next chapter will be out in about (5-7) days!

I hope you all have a wonderful day! ~England ^-^