The Sun Shines

by Convalescence

Intermission 1

Raindrops patter on the windows facing out of Kopis' house, which let in hazy daylight from overcast skies outside. The rain isn't a surprise to anypony who pays attention to the Weather Patrol's forecast, but that usually doesn't include the town's youngest ponies. Still, despite being more than a drizzle or sprinkle, the rain is nothing an umbrella and maybe some galoshes can't handle, and isn't going to stop the colt from spending some of that money that's been just begging to be used on something.

He’d spent the night before trying to figure out what to spend his bits on, but there were too many possibilities to narrow it down to a useful set of things to consider. Instead, about the only thing that came to mind was something sweet. Even though Nightmare Night wasn’t too long ago, he could go for some candy, but even better would be some of those great cupcakes he’d seen in the displays at the Cakes’ bakery. Not that his mom couldn’t make good cupcakes too, but they were there and he had the bits, and his mom hadn’t made any cupcakes, so he was going to get one. And nopony could tell him no! Especially since his mom and Kris were both off on their daily rounds, so as long as he got home before mom did he’d be fine. He had hours and hours to kill.

After a little consideration of his options, he almost decides to head out without anything but a jacket on since a little rain didn’t bother him, but it was pretty chilly so he figures he should be a sensible pony and grab an umbrella. Annoyingly, his mom and Kris were both unicorns and could use those fancy umbrellas with just a handle and they didn’t have any umbrella hats, but he could kind of manage to carry it in his mouth. Donning his jacket and grabbing the water protection device, he trots outside, locks the door and starts heading for the bakery.

Kopis finds the town mostly unperturbed by the light rain, with ponies still going about their business. Some of the literally, as Applejack has an umbrella-covered cart where she calls out to nearby ponies, advertising her apples. Nearby, Applebloom splashes in some puddles with her rainboots.

And she's not the only pony Kopis' age out and about. A pegasus filly who he recognizes as his classmate Arabesque is practicing her graceful dancing under the rainclouds, apparently enjoying the rain on her fur. She rears up on her hooves to the sound of music nopony hears, taking poses even Kopis isn't sure he could hold for very long. Occasionally the little pegasus will jump and use her wings to float softly back to the ground.

Ah, what it must feel like to fly around like that. Kopis watches her for a moment or two as he walks along, before being distracted by the apple cart and the possibility of a yummy apple in his mouth. As tempting as that was, he didn’t want to ruin his cupcake appetite with an apple, so he just trots along past the cart, reflecting on how he avoided doing something mean to Applebloom there. And she had no idea. Hmm, did anything happen to Diamond Tiara after she got home that night? He could dream, right?

He arrives at the bakery a few minutes later without incident an pauses at the door. There was some old and silly superstition about open umbrellas indoors, so he closes his umbrella, shakes it off and awkwardly slings it over his back where he hopes it’ll stay put. He pushes the door to Sugarcube Corner open and steps inside where it’s nice and dry.

Apparently the rain discouraged some ponies, Kopis can see as he walks inside and finds the store mostly-empty. Mrs. Cake sits behind the counter and perks up as he walks in and the bell above the door rings. "Hello, dearie."

He smiles at her and approaches the counter, practically salivating at the array of baked goodies visible in the display. “Hello. Um, how much is one cupcake?”

“Mostly only a bit or two,” the older mare assures him. It’s a business model that works well, when that’s all the money many of their regulars can be expected to have for cupcakes. Kopis sees a rainbow array of cupcakes, some simple and some more intricate. He can surmise the latter are the more costly ones, but it’s not like he needs to worry about that right now.

He nods and taps a hoof to his chin, examining the flavors available. Hmm, chocolate, some kind of strawberry, something he couldn’t pronounce… oh, key lime! He points his hoof to the green cupcake and asks, “Can I get a key lime one?”

“Why of course you can,” the motherly mare tells him, using a thin wooden spatula to bring it out of the glass counter and set it on top. “Is that for here, or did you want a bag?”

Hmm, he hadn’t considered that, but it was messy outside and clean, dry and warm inside. “Um, for here.”

“Alright, that’ll be one bit, and take a seat wherever you like,” she says with a smile. While waiting for Kopis to get his money out, the fellow earth pony shifts the cupcake onto a flat, wooden plate of sorts, with a mouth-hold sticking up off of it.

“Okay.” He pulls a bit out of his bag and passes it to her. “Here you go.”

Mrs. Cake taps one of the large keys on the cash register, which makes a pinging sound and opens. Taking the bit, she drops it in the drawer and takes the cupcake holder around the counter to give to Kopis. “Thank you. Enjoy!”

He accepts the holder and grins. “Fank you!” he says around the grip in his mouth before turning to find a seat. He finds a seat near the window and carefully sizes up his cupcake and how to tackle it. At home he’d probably just jump straight into gobbling it, but this was somepony else’s place so he didn’t want to make a big mess. And it was such a nice looking cupcake too! But, cupcakes were meant to be eaten, so he carefully peels the liner off and nibbles at the little cake. There was so much frosting on it that he has to lick a lot of it off to avoid making a mess, but slowly he makes progress on eating his treat without getting crumbs everywhere. Wow, this was really good! If he wasn’t afraid Mrs. Cake would give him a weird look or a lecture he might even be tempted to get another one.

Unbeknownst to Kopis for the moment, a pair of piercing blue eyes are watching him from under a curly pink mane, peeking up from the other side of the same table he's sitting at.

Nope, if he got another he’d probably regret it. He gathers up the wrapper and starts looking for a trash can when he notices the very pink pony staring at him. He starts visibly and backs up a hair. “Uh, hello.”

“Hi, Kopis!” Pinkie Pie grins at getting him, and rears up to put her forehooves on the table. “Did you like the cupcake?”

Oh, it was just Pinkie. He collects himself and nods with a smile. “Uh huh, it was really good.”

“Good...good…” she answers in a mock-ominous tone, rubbing her forehooves together and sinking back to eye-level with the tabletop. “I’ll take care of that liner for you. You have puddles to jump in before they dry up!”

That was nice of her, if perhaps a little creepy. He smiles and hops down from his seat. “Okay, thank you.” He backs away and gives a little wave to both Pinkie and Mrs. Cake before heading to the door. Jumping in puddles did sound a little fun, but it was more fun with friends and he was alone. He’d think about it.

---

Earlier that day, Peat wakes up to the smell of his ma cooking breakfast for the family, which isn’t unusual on any given day. The sun’s barely up over the horizon when he rolls over in bed and sits up, stretching his legs. Even getting up a hair after the crack of dawn, she’d end up already being in the kitchen. But, the colt reckons he has some time yet before breakfast is ready, and lays back down for a few more minutes. It is a Saturday after all.

...Which isn’t to say he gets the whole day off. Work in the bog doesn’t stop for weekends or rainy days. Like his pa jokes every time the Weather Team schedules a sprinkle, ‘You’re gonna get wet anyway, what’s it matter if it’s from the swamp or the sky?’ It hardly feels like any time at all before he hears her calling that the food’s ready, and other ponies in the modest house moving into the kitchen. Peat twists to untangle himself from his blanket and falls partly out of bed, in his haste to get some before it’s gone.

The colt takes a seat at the crowded table, between his little sister Turquoise, who’s busy tearing away at a pancake, and one of his brothers. “Mornin’ lazy bones,” his ma says, scooping some eggs onto his plate with a wooden spoon.

“Morning,” Peat answers. “Thanks,” he remembers to say, before digging in immediately. Around him his family talks about what they’re doing today. This time of year, the cold means they need to get as much as they can for the winter out of the swamp, before it freezes. ...And if he’s going to be expected to go out and help, it’s gonna make what he wants to do a lot harder. Peat slows down his pace, eating even more slowly than he normally does.

His plan works, and everypony else finishes before he does, asking to be excused one-by-one, until they’re all mostly gone outside. The stallion musses Peat’s mane as he passes by. “Don’t go taking all day, alright slowpoke?” The colt looks up and nods, mouth full of pancake.

By the time he finishes, everypony is outside and getting a headstart on the day’s work, save his ma, who’s cleaning up breakfast. Peat gets up to go wash up… or he gives that impression. The colt on a mission sneaks back into his bedroom and gets the pouch of bits from under his pillow. Holding it in his mouth, he trots loudly over to the bathroom and shuts the door from the outside, and then moves as quietly as he can over to his parent’s bedroom.

Thankfully, the door to their room is open. Peat listens to make sure his ma is still moving around dishes in the main room. If she heard him poking around here, or started to wonder what was taking so long, he could risk her finding him in here. He doesn’t feel like getting beaten like an old rug, and keeps moving before his opportunity disappears.

Ironically, it actually helps that his family couldn’t afford some fancy safe,
and doesn’t have enough money to be worth it anyway. Peat thinks that’s ironic anyway. Looking around, he quickly spies the bad where his parents keep their money before it goes to the bank.

Quietly… so quietly, the heavy colt sneaks over to where it is, and opens the bag. Then, opening his own pouch of bits, he adds to the wallet, saving one or two for himself. This whole past week, he couldn’t decide what he wanted, until he realized that someponies else could use it more. Just as sneakily as he arrived, Peat leaves and makes his way outside.

---

After getting that cupcake, Kopis had some extra energy to burn off and nopony to burn it off with. Jumping in the mud puddles wasn’t going to be too fun by himself, so he decides it’s best to go looking for Sonata or Peat. Sonata wins the distance lottery, so he scurries in the direction of her house, unicorn umbrella awkwardly held in his mouth as he canters along.

By the sort of luck that seems coincidental when somepony sees it first, but makes more sense when they think about it, Kopis sees a familiar goldenrod filly bouncing from puddle to puddle in his general direction. It’s not long before Sonata happily realizes who’s coming from the other way and gives up on playing in the rain to approach.

Hey, looked like somepony was already enjoying the weather. He grins and waves her way. “Hey Sonata.”

“Hi, Kopis.” Her galoshes make squelching sounds as she trots up. “Where are you going?”

“Wooking for you actually. I got borefd at home and waf coming to cfheck if you wanted to do anyfing.” Wow, it was hard to talk with an umbrella in your mouth.

“I was just coming to look for you!” Sonata answers, grinning. “Hehe, let me,” she says, lighting her horn and floating the umbrella between them with an incorporeal aqua-blue light.

Kopis works his jaw a couple of times and licks his lips. “Thanks. I’ve really gotta get one of those umbrella hats for earth ponies and pegasi.” Hey, he even had some bits for that sort of thing! “So, got any ideas on what to do?”

She walks up to his side, close enough to make sure they can both fit under the umbrella. “I already spent some of the money, so I was going to go by Sugarcube Corner.”

Well, now he feels a bit embarrassed. “Oh, really? Believe it or not, I, uh, just went by there.” Dang, why didn’t he think to look her or Peat up first? “I don’t mind heading back by if you want to go though.”

“Cool, thanks,” she says, already starting to move in that direction and taking the umbrella along with her. “What’d you get?”

“A key lime cupcake.” He reminisces in the thoughts of the tangy, fruity flavor. “If you don’t know what to get, I’d really suggest that. It’s super good.”

“Oooh, I just might do that.” Sonata bumps against him . But then again… she still has a few bits left over and there sooo many flavors to choose from. The filly debates whether she should even settle for just one.

Kopis turns around so they can head back to the bakery. “There’s a huge variety, so it was hard to choose. I only got one, but wow, I thought about getting another.” He snickers. “Mom would probably flip if she knew I was spoiling my dinner like that.”

“Yeah, heh. That must be the only downside to having a chef for a mom.”

He nods, still smiling widely. “Yep, but she hasn’t made any cupcakes in a while, so I think it’s only fair.”

“Fair enough, I think,” Sonata says and laughs. “Hey, did you see Peat yet today?”

“Nope, not yet. I was going to go check for him if I couldn’t find you though. It’s a bit out of the way, but did you want to go find him first?”

“Nah, that’s alright. He’s probably busy anyway, and we’ll see him on Monday,” she answers. She’ll make it up to Peat another day.

“Yeah, I wish he lived a little closer. It’s a bit far to venture out there on a whim,” Kopis muses.

“Just a bit.” As they talk, the two ponies arrive at the distinctive cupcake-and-gingerbread house facade that separates Sugarcube Corner from the surrounding houses. Sonata uses her free hooves to push the door open, and the bell above it chimes as they enter. Closing the umbrella and shaking it off, she gives it back to Kopis.

Mrs. Cake, coming back from the kitchen with a fresh batch of muffins to go inside the display cases, looks at Kopis especially with amusement. “Hello there. I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

He chuckles and adjusts his mane. “Heh, yeah, me neither. Guess I should have waited on my friend.”

“Yes, you should have,” Sonata tells him with a good-humored smile. She trots over to the case of cupcakes and assorted desserts, eyes widening as she skids to a stop. “Wow... “
“Take your time, dearie,” Mrs. Cake tells her while straightening things around the room.

Sonata looks at Kopis, tearing herself away from the array of sugary treats. “You said the key lime one was good?”

He makes a big nod. “Yep, it was really good.”

“Hmm…” There are just too many choices! Cherry, raspberry, both definitely with real berries. Lots of cupcakes using apples, pears, even carrot cupcakes. Vanilla, chocolate… Sonata is overloaded by options, and decides to take her friend’s advice, just to make it easy. “I’ll have one of the key-lime ones!” The filly starts digging out what’s left of her bits.

The mare is charge for the moment walks back over, and smiles at Kopis. “Well, you must have liked it if you brought somepony else just to try one. That will be one bit, dear.”

“Uh huh, it was,” he emphasizes. If there’s anything he’s learned in life, it was that you should appreciate good food and to let the cook know it was good. Speaking of which, it was becoming increasingly hard to resist getting another, but he really shouldn’t…

Sonata exchanges one of her remaining bits for a very tasty-looking green cupcake, with whipped cream on top. She gives an enthusiastic “Thank you!” before taking it over to a table nearby with her magic. Her horn glows again, and as she stares down her food in anticipation, a sedate classical melody plays, the sounds of pianos and harpsichords coming from nowhere in particular. Sonata does little without musical accompaniment when she can help it!

Kopis joins her at the table and waits for her to finish before asking, “See? I told you it was great, didn’t I?”

“You did, and it is!” Sonata licks a little bit of the frosting off her lip, and immediately feels sad that it’s gone already. “They don’t last long enough, hehe.”

“Nope, that’s for sure.” Hmm… he was getting an idea. An idea that he probably shouldn’t. “Makes you almost want another, doesn’t it? We could, y’know, split one maybe…”

“Sure! I mean, it won’t ruin your appetite to have half a cupcake, will it?”

He shakes his head. “Nope, definitely. Now… which one this time?” Something other than a fruity one, probably. Chocolate maybe, but that was kind of boring…

“Hmm… what about a pumpkin spice one? It’s festive,” Sonata says, grinning. The pumpkin spice everything that comes to town this time of year, every year, won’t be around anymore in a few months. And cupcakes are the best place for it, besides pumpkin pie! Not like that gross coffee that grown-up ponies always drink.

“Ohh, I like that. Sure, let’s do that. I love pumpkin.” Hmm, now how were they going to split the bill?

The bill ends up being easy to split, with the seasonal treats at a premium price of two bits instead. After paying, the two little ponies receive a their cupcake, along with a small, blunt, knife to cut it.

Hey, that was doubly convenient. Kopis lets Sonata handle the cutting since she had the precision of a unicorn, then eagerly accepts his half. Mmm, it didn’t have quite the kick of the lime cupcake, but the rich pumpkin flavor was in a class of its own anyway. “Oh, that was good,” he says after he’s done licking his lips. Wait, wasn’t this about the point that Pinkie was likely to show up?

If there is a pink pony hiding somewhere, Kopis doesn’t see her. Quite possibly because he was expecting it, and that particular pink pony is anything but predictable. Across the table, Sonata hums. “Yum… we probably shouldn’t get another, hehe.” As tempting as that thought is.

“Yeah, I think my mom would say something about it making us sick, even if I bet I could eat another.” He giggles. “We really would spoil our appetites if we did though.”

“Yeah…” Sonata knows she shouldn’t. “...but I don’t think my parents are making anything special for dinner.”

His probably wasn’t making anything really special either, but… “Yeah… well, we probably shouldn’t spend it all in one place, right?” he says, echoing what Filthy Rich told him earlier. “Not that I’m really sure what else to spend my bits on.”

“I guess not. I’m almost out though,” Sonata admits.

Kopis blinks a few times. “Wow, what did you spend it on?”

“I got a new book of sheet music,” she answers happily. More than worth the bits, even if it had taken all of them.

“Oh, cool. I didn’t know those costed very much. I’ve never really looked though.”

“It depends.” Sonata shrugs. “But this one was worth it. I’m gonna look at it more as soon as I get home.”

He nods. “Hmm, that does give me an idea though. Maybe I should buy a book on painting for beginners or something. I tried doing that some the other day, but it’s hard.”

“Hehe, art is like that,” the filly speaks from experience. “But it’s like other stuff. If you practice a lot, you definitely get better. What’d you paint?”

“Um, some landscape stuff,” he answers vaguely. While his mom claimed it was all really good, she’d do that anyway, right? To him it just kind of came out all blobby.

“Ooh, did you keep it? Can I see?”

Please no? “Um… yeah, it’s at home if you want to see it the next time you’re over.” Maybe he could conspire to get rid of the evidence by then. Eh…. okay, it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t as good as her music though, but then she’d been doing that how long now?

Hmmm, and when will that be…? Sonata wonders, but isn’t just going to invite herself. “Alright, can’t wait. Maybe you’ll be as good as your mom is if you keep practicing,” she says encouragingly.

He smiles nervously and chuckles. “Thanks. Yeah, she’s got quite a few years of practice ahead of me, but practice makes perfect right? Kind of like… uh, how long have you been playing music now?”

“Like… years,” Sonata stresses. A whole year feels like forever, and she’s been playing for more than one! “Since before I could even use magic to do it.”

Wow, yeah, he could believe that. “Yep, and that’s why you’re good at it. Guess I’ve got years to go, heh.”

Sonata would be smiling at the compliment now, if it had ever left her face in the first place. “Probably, but that’s okay. It’s fun to see how much better you get, if you just keep at it. That’s what my music teachers always said,” she imitates a much older mare’s voice, “Practice, practice, practice. practice makes perfect.”

Kopis giggles and nods. “Yep. So… um, did you want to go find Peat or do something else? If not we could head to my house if you want.”

“We could go look for him, but if he hasn’t found us yet, I don’t know if he can do anything today…” Sonata feels just a little guilty, but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to spend time with just one of your friends sometimes! She’ll make it up to Peat another day… again.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Kopis agrees. He grabs a cupcake wrapper to dispose of it and hops down from his seat. “Okay, let’s head back to my house then.”

“Okay!” Sonata hops down off her seat and waves goodbye to Mrs. Cake, then follows alongside Kopis.

Kopis gives her a goodbye wave too and leads Sonata back outside and toward his home. It was probably for the best they went home anyway, since if his mom got home and he wasn’t there she’d be pretty upset.