The Album

by Peregrine Caged

Cup Cake -- Bedtime

Written by: bobdat
Rated Everyone

"Please stop chewing your toys, Pumpkin." The hyperactive foal had been grabbing and biting all during lunch, chewing everything in sight. Except for her dinner, of course; that was half-smeared across the floor, half-smeared in Pumpkin's mane. Her mother sighed and tugged the giant dragonfly away from the foal, before stowing it in the toy cupboard.

"Now it's time for bed. Your brother will be joining you shortly," Mrs. Cake added, wiping a bead of what she hoped was sweat from her brow. Actually, Pound had been causing all kinds of mayhem downstairs with his father, and there was a cupcake order overdue. The blue mare was simply relieved that she'd at least gotten one of her children into the crib.

"Wah-wah," Pumpkin replied petulantly, rolling onto her tummy and flailing her tiny limbs.

"No complaints. Just close your eyes and count sheep."

Her daughter didn't seem happy to comply, but the foal was clearly tired and let out a huge yawn.

With a bit of careful hoof work, the mare managed to gently push Pumpkin into a curled up position, where the foal drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

"My, that was more trouble than I had expected," Mrs. Cake said to herself, quietly, as she left the room. Now she had to go downstairs and relieve her husband of Pound, then getting him off to sleep and making an evening meal for three, then an early night for early bakery hours in the morning. She'd slept in until nine o'clock that morning, but it was her husband’s turn tomorrow.

The carpeted stairs made barely any noise as she made her way down into the bakery. She could hear Pound crying at the top of his lungs, but thankfully it wasn't that audible upstairs.

"How’s it going, dear?" the blue pony asked when her husband emerged, his handsome features looking a little haggard.

The orange pony shrugged in return. "He won't settle down, keeps hitting the high chair with his hooves. I'm sorry to burden you..."

"...but you need to make those cupcakes. Don't worry, I'll manage," Mrs. Cake replied, finishing his sentence in a resigned tone. "We said we'd keep the cake orders up when we had the twins and we've done well so far."

"Thank you for understanding," Mr. Cake said, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead. "I'll be finished by six o'clock."

They went in different directions, with the mare heading for the crying coming from the kitchen. Inside the well-decorated room she found her son's eyes wet and his mouth wide open, screaming as loud as he could. She shut the door to contain the noise.

"Oh, don't cry Pound. It's okay, I'm here." Her maternal instincts kicked in, and she picked her son out of the high chair and held him on her shoulder, his tears hot on her coat. But the foal was not to be discouraged, and paused crying only long enough to give a huge sob, before continuing in the same fashion.

It was some comfort to think that all of his crying would be tiring him out, the baker thought, but it was only a small comfort with an infant doing his best to deafen her. She wrapped her blue hooves lovingly around him, hoping that her motherly warmth and scent would slowly calm him down. It was to no avail. She tried giving him a bottle, burping him, tickling and making silly faces, but nothing seemed to pacify him. His brown mane was damp with the exertion of crying so much, and the mare began to have all kinds of disconcerting thoughts about fevers, illnesses...

She was on the brink of a phone call to the local baby doctor when Pound sniffled and suddenly went quiet, contenting himself to breathe into his mother's coat as she rocked him gently.

"There there, now what was all that fuss about? Come on, let's get you to bed," she said, smiling happily despite the somewhat disgusting coating of tears and other worse things on her shoulder. "You got yourself all worked up over nothing."

Her soothing words seemed to help, but as she moved Pound seemed dangerously close to starting up again. After some deep and desperate thinking, Mrs. Cake came up with another solution.

"Do you want a nice lullaby?" she asked tenderly, the words sounding impossibly tired as they came out of her mouth.

After three wobbly renditions of Pound's favourite lullaby, the foal was finally close to sleep. Mrs. Cake could hear the industrious sounds of cupcake-making coming from the bakery, so she went back up the stairs as quietly as she had come down, praying to Celestia that Pound didn't wake and disturb his sister.

"Here we go. Time to go to bed," she whispered, laying Pound down in the crib next to Pumpkin who was sleeping soundly. "Let me just tuck you both in." The turquoise blanket covered the two foals and transformed them from a pair of terrors who ran her ragged into the cutest sight in all of Ponyville.

A bedtime kiss on their foreheads wrapped up the twins until the early hours of the morning, when they would both no doubt wake. But that wasn't for many hours yet, so this was good enough for the exhausted mare.

As she entered the landing, she spotted Pinkie Pie poking her head out of her bedroom.

"Is everything okay, Mrs. Cake?" the party pony asked, her normal shrieking tone replaced by one of concern.

"Everything's fine, Pinkie. Just keep the noise down a little," Mrs. Cake replied, sighing involuntarily. "The twins are asleep."

"You look... tired," Pinkie added, the look on her face suggesting she meant it in a caring way. "Are you sure you don't want a lie-down yourself?"

"Oh no, Pinkie, I'm okay. I've only got a few things left to do. I should be finished cooking in half an hour or so."

"No no no, Mrs. Cake, please, let me cook. I haven't done anything all day for you, it's the least I can offer."

With cooking delegated to Pinkie Pie, Mrs. Cake took the opportunity to run a basin of warm water in the bathroom and pause for a few moments. Her reflection looked as tired as she felt, and the twins' restless night had left her with unsightly bags under her eyes. To think that she had been so chipper before having the children.

She dipped a white facecloth into the basin with her hoof and used it to mop up the worst messes that had found their way onto her coat. The warmth soothed her tired muscles, and she couldn't resist mopping her face a little too, feeling the relief spread through her tired eyelids.

"How's it going, dear?" Mr. Cake said, his bass tones jerking her out of her relaxation. She put the washcloth back on the side.

"It's okay. Just tired, you know?" she replied, looking into his eyes and finding them just as tired as her own.

"Of course." The orange stallion hugged her, planting a kiss onto her cheek. "Thank you for looking after the twins earlier, they were really hard work today. I'm sorry I wasn't around more during the day."

"It's the bakery, it's getting us both down, being so busy."

"Even so, I'll look after the twins tomorrow morning at least. And tonight, of course."

Mrs. Cake didn't like seeing her husband get more tired than he already was, but the prospect of a good night's sleep cheered her up a little. "How're the cupcakes?"

"Nearly done. Once they're iced, I'll box them to be picked up tonight."

"Pinkie's cooking. She offered."

"It'll be delicious, I'm sure. She's really coming along when it comes to meals, as well as baked goods."

The mare nodded and hugged her husband again. "I'll go and tidy the playroom."

The playroom was a disaster zone, but by simply throwing the toys into boxes at random it didn't take long to restore a semblance of order. They were all going to be tipped out and thrown, chewed, and generally scattered by lunchtime tomorrow, so what did it matter if Pound's alphabet blocks were buried underneath Pumpkin's giant stuffed bunny.

The bakery was filled with the sounds of baking trays scraping on the work surfaces, which suggested that her husband was getting the cupcakes ready to be iced. And the smells coming from the kitchen made the mare think that Pinkie was doing a good job with the food.

In fact, the blue mare found herself in the nice position of not actually having to do anything imminently, apart from washing her hooves before eating. And that could wait a few minutes, so she sat down heavily in the armchair in the corner. It was one of two that she and Carrot had bought when they moved in together, before the twins. And before Pinkie had arrived, of course.

It was comfortable, and that's what she needed; like a ten minute snooze after the alarm clock went off. Closing her tired eyes, she listened to the relative peace and quiet that was Sugarcube Corner without the twins awake and tried not to think about the fact that she'd have to move in fifteen minutes or so.

When Mr Cake had finished icing and boxing the final order of the day, he handed them over to the customer and headed for the kitchen.

"Seen Mrs. Cake?" he asked Pinkie, who was putting the finishing touches to the meal with a surprisingly delicate hoof.

"Not for a while, Mr Cake. I think she might still be in the playroom."

The stallion pushed open the door to the playroom and took in the sight of his wife sleeping in the armchair, her hooves curled up under her and her eyes closed in that way he always found beautiful.

"Pinkie?"

"Yes, Mr. Cake?"

"You can leave Mrs. Cake's dinner in the oven. She'll have it later, I think."

Comments

[wubstep pony]

Cute, I like how it shows the way a mom's day is.

[Peregrine Caged]

1563920
Depending on your particular headcanon, heh.

[Themaskedferret]

*giggles* very cute. though speaking from far more years of babysitting than I like to admit and being a capable godmother if you can get the kid to sleep you don't care what you're coated in.

[Archlyn]

That was what I was thinking of when I read the part about the lullaby...I know it belongs to Fluttershy but...

Very nice tale

[Peregrine Caged]

1567400
That's...way more than I ever expected to ever hear, in regards to my own snapshot, haha. Funnily enough, you're only the second person who thought the transition was just a bit off--myself being the only other one. I'm not 100% pleased with it, yes, but I'm glad you feel it's not a huge break. I felt it was, while not perfect, solid. Part of it is her characterization that I'll be going after--in a lot of ways, my Tavi will be very even-tempered, except for a few individual issues which can strike seemingly unexpected (something I deal with myself).

Thank you a lot for saying it feels like some small part to something larger, since it very much is. As well as Al Niente and another short I'm working on (though I'm having a bit more trouble on this one). I had always wanted to do my own VinylTavia shipping story, but of course worried on my actual ability at such a thing--it's been done so often and so well, how on earth could I give it enough of my own spin? Al Niente came from nowhere, a mental image of Tavi staring at a clock awaiting Vinyl's return, and it met with fairly decent success. So when I started working on my own snapshot, I decided to make it yet another sneak peek at the larger story I'll write (and am currently planning). So, if you liked this, and if you like Al Niente (and Marcato if I ever get it done correctly), be on the look out for more from me, heh.

1570811
I dunno, the fact that you ask those questions (the 'what has gone on before' ones) is proof positive to me that it is a successful snapshot. For some of these I take Slice of Life quite literally. It should feel like it is taken from a greater, more interesting whole.

[Brony_Fife]

1567652

Oh my Gee. That very nearly had me crying.