Livestream

by bahatumay

Chapter 3

On the screen, Pipp angled the camera down. “Hey, Pippsqueaks!” she cheered. “We’re here in Maretime Bay, on the bay, ready to clean up. I may not be an earth pony, but I care about the earth, so let’s get started!”

Thunder scrubbed through the stream, checking for any highlights. It didn’t seem like they’d found anything odd or interesting, unless you found trash interesting, which he did not.

The little bird wearing the can as a hat was kinda cute, though.

He backed out of the archived stream and checked to see if she was live.

She wasn’t, but Sage Wisdom was online.

Thunder glanced around, and then opened it. She’d been pretty interesting last time.

She didn’t acknowledge him this time; the chat was so busy with comments and praising Sage that he didn’t even see his name before it got buried under reactions. Ooh. She’d gotten popular.

Sage clearly rolled her eyes under the towel. “Oh, I know that one. I don’t understand what makes old mares think they have the right to pry into stuff like that. You’ll have to be firm. ‘I already gave you the answer. I don’t appreciate you asking after I’ve already answered’. And if she asks again, have her leave. Literally, make her leave your house. Stand firm,” she repeated, emphasizing her words with a tap of her hoof. “This is your boundary, and you must defend it. She’ll learn, or she’ll kick herself out of your life. I repeat: this is her kicking herself out, not you kicking her out. And if it takes going no contact with her, again, that’s her choice, not yours. This is all on her. The only ponies who don’t like boundaries are the ones that stomped on them in the first place.”

There was a brief pause.

She glanced off to the side. “But maybe she’s just trying to embarrass you, or intentionally putting you in an uncomfortable spot. If so, you’ll need to speak her language to actually get her to stop. You have a filly already, right? Rope her into this. Foals love acting. Keep her close whenever she comes by, and the next time she asks when you’re having another, have her scream. ‘What did I do wrong?’ ‘Am I not good enough for you?’ ‘Why don’t you love me?’ The bigger the tantrum, the bigger the reward you give her at the end. Bonus treats for tears. And if she waits until you’re alone, why is she asking again after you told her? Maybe it’s the first sign of dementia? She’s old, after all, and it could happen to anypony. Offer to take her to her appointment. You wouldn’t want her getting lost, after all. What appointment? Remember, you told me you had one scheduled? You forgot?” She clicked her tongue. “Tragic. Can’t believe it happened so young.” She chuckled and leaned forward. “Alright. I’m running out of time, but here’s one last quick tip. If you want something from somepony else, and you don’t know if you’ll be able to get it, ask for something bigger first. Then, when that’s been declined, ask for the smaller thing you actually want. Ponies don’t like saying no, so they’re more likely to agree to the smaller request.”

Thunder considered this. That seemed deceptively simple. Could that work? He supposed it was worth a try.

In an hour, he got his chance. He came across Zoom Zephyrwing, reading a clipboard with the assignment list.

“Hey, Zoom, can I get next week off?”

“What?” she scoffed. “The full week? Are you crazy?”

“Ok. Well, how about the rest of the day?”

She huffed and looked down at the clipboard for a moment before responding. “Fine.”

Wow. It worked! He took off.

And then he slowed to a stop. Wait. It had worked.

Now what was he going to do?

Maybe he hadn’t quite thought this through.

---

Pipp sang softly to herself as she cleaned up the counters at Mane Melody. Her passion project had grown, but she still wanted to give it her personal touch as long as she was here.

Her ears pricked up as the doors opened. A new pony came in, his eyes glued to his phone.

“And in a compromise, sure, not everypony can always get what they want. But if they’re not willing to even come to the table with you, are they really your friend?”

Pipp hesitated. She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. Maybe it was just out of context.

“That’s about all I have time for today, but I’ll leave one last tip for you. If somepony is distracted, you can reach out and they’ll give you whatever they’re holding.”

Pipp thought for a moment. That was odd.

But now she was curious. Did that actually work?

She got her chance to try a little later when Sunny came in. “Sunny! Looking bright like always,” she sang. “Here for a manecut? I can always squeeze you in.”

“Actually, I was looking for Zipp. Have you seen her?”

“She’s getting some one-on-one time with mom.” She sighed. “If she actually paid attention, she’d know which fork goes where by now. There’s no reason she can’t remember which one is the dessert fork.”

Sunny, who would typically use one single fork for the whole meal, nodded, as if she had any idea what Pipp was talking about.

Pipp’s eyes flicked down at the book Sunny held. “Why were you looking for Zipp?” she prompted.

“Oh, we found a reference to buckball in one of the old journals from your mom’s expedition,” Sunny said, brightening. “It’s a sport that seems to require one player from each tribe. There aren’t many rules written down, but it doesn’t seem too hard. I’m thinking we could figure it out together and…” Her voice trailed off and she looked around. “Where did-?”

Pipp held up the book. “Oh, wow! It works!”

Sunny huffed and took it back. “Where did you learn that?”

“Another streamer. One of the ponies who came in was watching her.”

Sunny rolled her eyes.

“But seriously, that definitely sounds like her cup of tea.” There was a beat. “Does that sound natural?” Pipp asked earnestly. “Trying to pick up a tea sponsorship. Haven’t found a flavor I like yet, but they should send me some more samples soon.”

“That’ll be fun. I’m sure Izzy will be thrilled to throw another tea party.”

Pipp exhaled through her nose. “Yeah, but she likes them all, so I can’t exactly get an unbiased answer from her. It makes it hard to figure out which one is the best. When you have a reach like mine, you have to be responsible about what you recommend.”

“Well, if we ever get buckball figured out, would you shout that out?”

“Definitely,” Pipp promised. “I mean, I probably won’t play, but still.”

Sunny shrugged amicably. That was about what she expected from Pipp.

---

Hitch kicked one of the volleyballs into the air and juggled it. “Ok,” he said. “Do you think I’m supposed to be able to do this, like soccer, or is it more of a just hit the ball once kind of thing, like volleyball?”

“I would assume the second,” Sunny said, squared off next to him, “because I’ve got to be able to take it somehow.”

“Or me,” Zipp interjected from above. “I could dive bomb you. Death from above!”

“I didn’t find any kind of padding mentioned, so I don’t think it was a physical sport,” Sunny said.

“So I probably can’t carry it.”

“Maybe you just can’t tuck it,” Izzy suggested. She was currently wearing the basket as a hat, which was most likely not the intended method, but she was happy.

“Maybe it has to touch one of every tribe before you can score? Like touch limits in volleyball.”

“I could believe that. It’d be hard to keep track of, though. We don’t even know the size of the balls they used,” Sunny said.

“I would assume they’re big enough for ponies to see from far away.”

“The larger they are, the harder they are to control.”

“That might be intentional.”

“Ok, so Hitch prefers large balls,” Zipp said a bit loudly. “Come on. Kick it around. I’m falling asleep up here.”

Hitch gave it a try, bouncing it off the ground. Zipp kicked it back, where it ricocheted off Sunny’s outstretched hooves, off a rock, and right into Hitch’s face.

“Ok, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that isn’t right,” Zipp said.

“Yeah, figured that out myself, actually,” Hitch said, his voice muffled by the sand.

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

It looks like things with that Sage wisdom is giving out some attention to some of the ponies especially with her advice to the viewers and everything and even pipp wondering about that as well but she went to find sunny and talking with her about something about the tea sets or something like that but Sunny even explained about this whole Buck ball and he really want to try out the sports game but the problem is they have no idea how so they basically wing it out which that usually always happens

[Yoshifan30]

Hitch gave it a try, bouncing it off the ground. Zipp kicked it back, where it ricocheted off Sunny’s outstretched hooves, off a rock, and right into Hitch’s face.

Ohh right to the Head