Delivering on Sweetness & Beyond

by abrony-mouse

Chapter 4

The late afternoon sun warms Ocean’s back as she returns.

Thoughts whirl in her little blue head: Wysteria offering help; Kimono’s advice; the Equestrians asking for a grown-up.

‘I know I can play my part, but how…’

The Equestrians glance at her questioningly as she trots towards them.

---

Crafty grunts as she approaches and makes his way over, but Derpy forestalls him.

“Hey, want a muffin?” Derpy offers, as Ocean returns.

She holds out her hooves, but instead of a pastry, she is directed to a picture.

“It’s the best I could do,” says Derpy, brandishing a branch. “But I hope it made you smile.”

Ocean nods and her expression relaxes a little.

“Thanks.”

“Any ideas?”

Crafty tries again to get her attention.

“Shh! She’s thinking!”

Ocean has cocked her head and is looking fixedly down at the muffin picture. After a moment she looks up at Derpy, then back to the muffin, then back up. She stops and her eyes fix on the branch.

Crafty opens his mouth to speak, but just then Ocean pipes up.

“A bundle of sticks!”

“What!?”

“I’ll be right back!”

"You did that on purpose," Crafty growls at Derpy under his breath.

---

It was one of the first fables that Kimono had taught Ocean. The ancient tale of the 'Bundle of Sticks' was about an unruly family: the mother gave each sibling a stick to break but while it was easy to break them individually, when combined, even the strongest were unable.

‘I have to get everypony to help!’ she thinks.

Ocean considers taking up Wysteria on her offer, but decides against.

‘Everypony together includes Kimono! She’s the stick in the middle.’

She opens the door and trots into the living room with purpose.

Her hopes are dashed when she sees that Kimono is still intently writing. The purple muzzle is bent over a tome, eyes wild. Ocean had never seen her quite so ‘in the zone’.

With a gulp, she steps forward once more.

“Miss Kimono?”

No response. She rears up, placing her forehooves on the desk.

“Kimono?”

Still none. She reaches forward to put her hoof over the book Kimono is reading.

"Kim—"

“What!?”

Ocean flinches, discombobulated, and says the first thing that comes to mind.

“You are the middle stick.”

“What?”

“I mean — we all need to help move the strangers’ wagon, together!”

“I’m in the middle of something right now. Ask Starcatcher — she could move it in a blink.”

Ocean shakes her head — she was determined.

“But it should be you and everypony, together.”

“Oh, should it? Honestly, what has gotten into you!? Give me one good reason.”

Ocean wracks her brain and purses her mouth.

“Um…”

Kimono arches an eyebrow.

“Now, stop being silly. I mean it! No bed-time story if you keep this up.”

Ocean’s face is hot with embarrassment as she is shooed from the room.

Once outside, she shoots a look to the departing violet tail.

‘You will be the middle stick!’ she promises.

---

Ocean pouts at the closed door to the living room, sticking her lip out at the teak panelling.

‘But how?’ she muses.

Ocean paces in the corridor outside, brushing her pink tail against the dado on each turn.

Unlike her friends, she could hardly persuade Kimono with a story. Kimono knew more pony tales than even she did!

Could she get the nice Equestrian, 'Derpy', to offer something? Kimono loved exotic things, especially from Equestria…

But no — the aliens just wanted to go home, so she couldn’t pester them for knick-knacks.

With a start, she remembers the vision that came to her when her wish was granted by Starcatcher earlier.

‘Of course! Maybe she’ll become the middle stick for her friends!’

She heads upstairs, prancing happily, her tread muffled by the plush stair-carpet.

---

Sunlight spills between thick curtains and into the landing of Kimono’s house. Dust motes twirl idly until Ocean’s passage scatters them.

Squeezing past occasional tables sporting ornate oil lamps, she heads into Kimono’s room, looking for the charm bracelet from her vision.

The room has the musty smell of a sun-warmed interior, which asks of an entrant 'why are you not outside?' An old sprig of heather on the wall has long since ceased to lighten the mustiness.

Ocean surveys Kimono’s bedside tables but sees only pictures of unfamiliar-looking Equestrians. A pale-yellow unicorn with a tri-tone red-purple-lilac mane smiles out from a framed photograph. The picture is signed.

‘Moondancer’

On the dresser are various alien items: a strange block, which occasionally vibrates; a large, blank screen with wires coming out of it; a pile of dog-eared books whose peculiar titles proclaim ‘Quantum for Ponies’ or ‘The Origin of the Species’.

Taking up an entire section of wall, is a huge, framed map.

‘EQUESTRIA’

Ocean gazes over the foreign landscape. Sea serpents peer out from the crannies of vast coastlines. Griffons, dragons, hippogriffs and more dot the mountain chains. Whole sprawling areas declare: ‘dragon-lands,’ ‘changelings,’ ‘frozen north’, ‘crystal empire’. In the centre, the word Equestria traverses grasslands, swamps, deserts, jungle. Within the circle of the ‘q’ is a city, and in the flourish at the end of the cursive ‘a’ is a castle. In the middle of the map stands a giant mountain, alone. No dragons top this, but rather a sprawling city: Canterlot.

“That’ll be where their unicorns live,” Ocean says out loud, thinking of the majestic mountain castle of the Rainbow Princesses in Unicornia.

Ocean gazes a while, fascinated, her imagination bubbling.

“So many tales…” she murmurs, tracing the lines of the map with her hoof.

She shakes her head.

‘Get back on task, Ocean Mist!’

Thrusting away the expanse, she forces her mind back into the quiet, small room, and her little ‘quest’.

Leaving Kimono's room, Ocean heads past her own bedroom and alternately eldritch or beautiful tapestries, to the spare room.

She twinkles at dusty pictures of Ponyvillians clustered on a dresser: Pinkie and Minty smile in front of a purple Christmas tree; Sunny Daze and Sparkleworks wink from under wide-brimmed floppy hats; Razzaroo and Kimono hug next to a towering cake.

Ocean noses around the bric-a-brac on the bedside tables and peers inside a glass cabinet. Smiling faces with colourful manes and tails and cutie marks peer back at her. Each one is meticulously brushed and labelled. Ocean’s eyes go wide as she sees a likeness to herself.

She inspects the label.

‘Blue Mist.’

Ocean scrunches her muzzle.

‘I prefer my name.’

Turning to the other wall, she passes her eye quickly over a bookcase which holds large, brightly decorated folders. Scraps of paper poke out between the covers.

‘Sparkleworks <3 Sunny Daze!’ proclaims one of these.

After a while of searching around the crowded room, Ocean finds no bracelet.

‘But if not here?’ she wonders. She knew it wasn’t in her room, and it wouldn’t be in the bathroom…

Ocean Mist trots back onto the quiet landing.

She idly looks at a wall-cupboard. Despite knowing it couldn’t be in there, she opens the door anyway and wrinkles her nose at the musty smell from a stack of used dusters.

Under these is a stepladder which Ocean looks at curiously.

“Ah!” she exclaims, out loud, the sound echoing.

Directly above her is the square wooden trapdoor entrance to the loft.

---

Ocean paces nervously — the attic is out of bounds, and she was risking everything by going up there.

But it was worth it.

She sets the stepladder and hops up, pushing out the trapdoor to peer inside.

Fortunately, Kimono’s loft-space is lit by a skylight and is not inhabited by ghosts.

Dangling her legs, she squeezes up into the gloom.

Large black plastic bags labelled ‘Old Bed Sheets’ give off a musty smell. She gingerly steps over piles of framed pictures and books.

Spying a likely-looking pile, she lifts the heavy fabric of curtains to reveal only more miscellanea. Among these is a little music box that catches her eye.

Wanting to hear something in the oppressive quiet, she winds it up and hears the familiar melody.

‘My little pony…’

She turns abruptly and disturbs a hatstand, knocking the floppy items about.

“Fiddlesticks!”

After removing a green feather boa from her tail and returning the hats to the stand, she moves into the centre of the clutter.

There, she sees the table from her vision. Resting in the middle of it is the bracelet.

The little charms splay out over the unswept surface: a yellow balloon against a pink background signifying Pinkie Pie, a rainbow for Rainbow Dash, a strawberry for Sweetberry, a smiling sun-face for Sunny Daze, a dazzling star for Sparkleworks, a flower in a vase for Wysteria, a rattle for Razzaroo, and an ice-cream cone for Cotton Candy.

Ocean sweeps it up in her hoof, scattering the dust, and makes her way out of the attic and downstairs to confront her mentor.

---

As she enters, Kimono looks up angrily.

“Ocean Mist, you are being so naughty!”

Suppressing the instinct to defer to her mentor, Ocean continues.

“I just think that you could take a little break—”

“Oh! ‘Just a little break!’ is it? I am on the verge of a new discovery! The Equestrians—”

Ocean places the bracelet on the table. The site of it stuns Kimono, breaking her flow.

“W-where did you…?”

Ocean hesitates, not wanting to admit that she had strayed into the attic.

“Um, just lying around.”

Kimono narrows her eyes.

“The ponies who gave you this are just as important as your book!” Ocean deflects, going on the attack.

“I… am not saying that they aren’t.”

“They miss their middle stick!”

Kimono smirks and Ocean blushes.

“But, Ocean Mist, that was given to me on my birthday. Now, you are a mare of words. What is ‘birth’?”

Ocean is wrong-hoofed by the unexpected line of questioning.

“Um…?”

“That’s what my research is all about! Do you know what that Equestrian told me, earlier.”

“No?”

She lowers her voice, conspiratorially.

“I know all about the birds and the bees!”

“Oh?”

Ocean crumples, feeling lost.

“Do they make you happy?” she asks, feeling foolish. She was sure that Kimono wasn't writing a book about birds and bees.

Kimono’s eyes widen. It was her turn to be surprised — believing Ocean to be referring to her discovery.

“Well…”

“Happy like your friends make you?”

Ocean reaches forward with her little blue hoof, to touch the ink-stained purple. As the hooves connect, her black hoof-heart lights up, and an answering glow sounds from Kimono’s yellow. The contact, both physical and magical, penetrates the academic mare’s defences.

---

Kimono reels, scooping up the bracelet.

“Oh, oh, oh. My friends!”

“It’s okay.”

Ocean pats Kimono to comfort her, seeing a telling redness creep into the purple cheeks.

She picks over each of the charms.

“Razz, Pinkie, Dash, Minty, Berry, Candy, Sunny, and Sparks,” she recites, mournfully. “I have been so distracted with my book.”

“I think they want you to go to the Spring Promenade. I do, too…”

Kimono looks from her books to the charm bracelet — Ocean’s words moments earlier ring in her ears. Tears spring into her eyes.

“My book doesn’t make me happy the way they make me happy,” she admits.

“Then why not take a break—"

“You’re right!”

Kimono takes Ocean’s hooves and presses them to her chest.

“I’m so sorry, Chibi Sakura! I’ve been so caught up in—”

She gestures to her cluttered desk.

“—all this, that I haven’t been thinking about my friends, or you!”

Kimono buries herself in Ocean’s little shoulder as she sobs, partly for herself but mainly for the pain she knows that her neglect will have caused.

After the hug, Ocean — like all her kind — is ready with a lolly, which Kimono gladly takes and sucks on through the rest of the 'making it all better' ritual.

The second stage of the ritual calls for a song.

Hush little pony,

Don’t you cry.

Misty will sing you,

A lullaby.

As you listen,

To my tune,

I hope that,

You get well soon!

Ocean proceeds through the ‘making funny noises,’ and ‘peek-a-boo’ stages, which draws wan smiles, to the final ‘making it all better’ stage.

At this stage, it was usual to kiss the part of the pony that had been hurt.

‘But she hasn’t scraped her knee or stubbed her hoof?’

Seeing the little pony’s confusion, Kimono gestures to her head.

‘Of course, her mind made her poorly.’

Ocean motions for Kimono to lean down, so that she can kiss her on the forehead.

“There. All better?”

Kimono nods, still sucking.

“Are you sure that you're ready to be ‘the middle stick’?”

---

Crafty moodily looks towards the house, despairing of getting meaningful help from the filly.

“Increased premiums or not, I think I’ll just have to leave the wagon and knock on doors in town,” he says to Derpy, pointing to Ponyville.

Derpy gives a skyward glance but says nothing.

“Stay by the wagon, OK?”

“Sure thing, boss.”

But he has only trotted a short way before he sees a throng of ponies heading from the town towards them.

At their head, is Wysteria.

“Oh! She must have told that purple mare that we needed help!”

“Yeah, boss. She’s a good filly.”

“Guess so.”

Wysteria trots forward to greet the Equestrians.

“Strangers from Equestria! We are sorry that your wagon is stuck!”

“Thanks, so if—”

“As visitors to our little town, we would love you to see our Spring parade!” Wysteria says, and produces a floral baton, which she twirls.

Derpy grins, while Crafty holds his hooves up.

“Thanks. But there’s really no—”

Wysteria, however, is too focused on her role to hear him.

“Announcing: the breezie Queen and her subjects!” Wysteria proclaims, to cheers.

The white Queen, on her bee-mount, leads the aerial procession, followed by the beautiful form of Day Lily, then Zipzee, Tiddly Wink, Tra-la-la and many others, followed by a swarm of tiny breezie-foals making trumpeting noises. The Queen raises her nose and looks away from Crafty.

Day Lily glides over to explain.

“Apologies for my Queen. She is upset about her other bee, Bea, which you made very poorly.”

Crafty just shakes his head in incomprehension.

Derpy squees as, after their parade, the flock of breezies rush over to her. Soon the grey mare is multicoloured as the bug-ponies clamber over her fur and bounce on her feathers.

“Announcing the leader of the Spring Promenade: Pinkie Pie. And her assistant: Razzaroo!”

The pink and purple ponies trot past, waving to Crafty. Razzaroo trots up to him.

“Me and Toola Roola painted you a card!”

From Ponyivlle to Equestria, with love!

On the card is a picture of Ponyville and an approximation of Crafty and Derpy’s faces, both happy and smiling.

“Thank you, but—”

“Announcing Ponyville’s premier chefs!”

Sweetberry and Cotton Candy prance up and deliver a strawberry tart.

“Announcing Ponyville’s—”

Wysteria pauses as Minty whispers in her ear.

“—Premier tailor of socks!”

Minty giggles and skips forward, offering Crafty an example of her specialty.

Crafty holds up a hoof and trots up to Wysteria. The throng of ponies pause.

“Miss! I need to get back home. I’m tired. I’m losing money. I have a bestie—wife! I have a wife to get back to.”

Wysteria nods.

“I understand. But I’m sure your bestie-wife won’t mind just a little longer…”

‘Awws’ ring out from the throng. More than one eager waiting pony’s eyes glisten at the thought that they wouldn’t get to parade for the Equestrians.

“Uh. No. No, it’s OK,” Crafty says, reluctantly.

From inside the throng of breezies, Derpy chuckles.

“Introducing the pegasi from Butterfly Island!”

Coconut Grove holds Thistle Whistle’s hoof as the two fly nervously behind Starcatcher.

The former shyly hoofs a postcard to Wysteria, who transfers it to the stallion.

Aloha! Please come visit!

“Ponyville’s premiere… celebrities!”

Sunny Daze and Sparkleworks trot past, waving to the crowd, dazzling everypony with their sequins.

Sunny trots confidently up to Crafty and gives him a signed picture of herself.

In quick succession, Wysteria introduces janitors, teachers, buck-ballers, vets, doctors, nurses and a host of ‘special ponies’.

Crafty’s expression becomes increasingly thundery, and Wysteria’s increasingly nervous. She glances every so often to Kimono’s front door. To her intense relief, it finally opens.

---

Kimono is shocked to see the gathering and gives Ocean a questioning glance. Momentarily also bemused, once she spies Wysteria, Ocean understands and explains that Wysteria offered to help.

At the latter's instigation, everypony falls silent.

With a snort at the silliness of it all, Kimono addresses the crowd.

“Hi everypony. Can we please just unstick their wagon from my garden?”

Starcatcher detaches herself from the other pegasi and, with a gesture of her hoof, an endless swarm of butterflies lifts the wagon effortlessly back onto the lane.

The assembled ponies and breezies whoop with delight.

“I told you!” Kimono says to Ocean, with a chuckle.

“Thanks,” Crafty says, tersely. “It’s just a shame that we’re so behind schedule that we’ll miss portal-close tonight.”

Starcatcher floats down next to Crafty, whose cutie mark tingles from the alien magic.

“Not at all, Equestrian,” she says.

Crafty can only look mutely at the eternal beauty.

“I will escort you. It will take no time at all!”

Derpy, having waved goodbye to the breezie swarm, trots over and bows low, accidentally bumping her snout off the ground.

“Thanks, your majest—ow!”

Starcatcher lifts the muzzle up and, with another wave, dispels the pain.

“Just Starcatcher, please.”

“Thanks,” she says, nasally, rubbing her muzzle.

Derpy gives the still mute Crafty a nudge.

“’nks,” he squeaks, feeling small and coltish in the other's awesome presence.

With a last farewell and thanks to Ocean, the two Equestrians finally go on their way, Starcatcher in tow.

---

“What was all that about with the parade?” Crafty asks, as he and Derpy fly behind the butterfly-levitated wagon.

“They were just being friendly, boss.”

“The one that led everypony was up to something — I saw her looking at the house the whole time.”

Derpy doesn't engage and just flaps, contentedly. Below her, a seemingly endless wilderness unfurls. Tiny clusters of buildings herald the existence of the minuscule pony enclaves of this world. In the distance, a castle, small by Equestrian standards, marks the borders of Unicornia, and the portal home.

“Strange world, huh.”

“Undeveloped.”

“We gonna stop off at Detrot once we're back in Equestria? It’s a long drive back.”

Crafty grimaces.

“We ain’t stepping one hoof beyond the portal, Derps.”

“What!?”

“Quarantine.”

“But…!?”

“All your foal antics and our bad luck mean we’ve been exposed to their magic.”

“What? No—"

“It’s in the stuff I sent you before you agreed to this job,” Crafty adds, hoping that the full documentation had been sent to her. He had been very distracted when they set off.

“Oh… How long?”

“I’ve heard of them keeping ponies back for weeks.”

Derpy looks down, sadly. She missed Dinky whenever she was away for longer than a day.

“Yeah. The wife will not be happy. And I’ll lose my license to work in the Geodimensions.”

He turns to her, angrily.

“You know, this always happens with you! Remember the last time when you lost me a whole wagon’s worth of goods and then the poor mare you dropped them on sued us— hah!" he exclaims, bitterly. "Not us. I mean me, of course, because you barely have any bits. You're so... you. And, even better, now I'll be stuck with you for weeks. Argh!”

Derpy’s smile falters for the first time.

“I’m sorry, boss!”

“'Sorry' doesn’t pay the bills,” he says, and turns away, cruelly.

---

“Why did you do that?”

Starcatcher was looking at them with sad curiosity.

“Mind your…” Crafty trails off, his temper draining away in the calming presence. “I’m just sad, because my bestie will be upset when I can't go back to her.”

“Do you want a hug?”

His resistance failing, he has to admit that he very much does.

With an ‘aw,’ Derpy joins in, and the Equestrians and Starcatcher float along beside the wagon together, hoof in hoof.

As the large alien sun dips behind the grand mountain-top castle of Unicornia, so their role in our tale also ends.

---

While they flew to Unicornia, back in Ponyville, Kimono is chatting with her friends and arranging dates for the promenade. Ocean, hanging on her arm, glows with happiness at her mentor's ‘normal’ behaviour.

Zipzee, Tra-la-la and Tiddly Wink invite guests to see Cofsi, explaining that the coffee plant, while not a magical beanstalk, was magical in every other respect.

Other than the breezies, who have an early bedtime, everypony stays at Kimono’s late into the evening. They have tea in the drawing room on long-disused tea-sets, restored by Ocean, who acts as maid.

As the evening draws to a close and ponies begin to leave, Wysteria approaches the filly.

---

“Thank you, Misty.”

“Oh, I did nothing! None of my tales helped, really.”

Wysteria stifles a chuckle, patting the little tale-teller’s pink mane.

“Thank you for being Kimono’s best friend. She’s a lucky pony.”

Ocean glows with pride.

“Oh! Well…”

Ocean’s voice is strangled by emotion.

Wysteria hugs her, before departing.

As she waves the latter off, Ocean feels a pat on her fetlock and her little hoof-heart tingles.

“Well done, Ocean! What a lovely first wish.” Sky Wishes beams.

“Well, while I’m glad that Scootaloo gets a pumpkin carriage, that’s not really what I meant to happen.”

“Wishes are fun like that. Night, night!

---

Kimono tucks Ocean into bed, it was past the filly’s bedtime.

She hoofs over a favourite cuddly toy, a Little Mermaid plush, and Ocean hugs it, drawing it under the covers.

“It's better under the ocean, Ariel,” she says, sleepily.

“Before the bedtime story, I want to thank you for today.”

Ocean shakes her head on her pillow.

“’s just what best friends do.”

Kimono mists up a little.

“Thank you for answering the door to those strangers, and for looking after them. You were very brave.”

Ocean smiles, proudly.

“Can you keep a secret?”

Ocean nods, putting a hoof to her lips, her eyes closed.

“I was thinking of going… there. To Equestria.”

Ocean’s eyes shoot open, shocked.

“But today has convinced me to stay.”

“I would have missed you so, so much!” Ocean says, through sniffles.

“It would only have been for a short research trip. But… no. I can’t leave you or my friends. Reading about the new world will have to be enough.”

“Thanks, Miss Kimono. They are funny ponies to make stories about, but they are too…” Ocean trails off.

Kimono’s expression hardens.

“Much. They’re just much too much,” she finishes.

Ocean nods — she had loved meeting Derpy, but Derpy came with Crafty and aeroplanes and bits and…

Her mind’s voice drifts off as her eyelids lower.

“I had better make it quick, or you will be fast asleep before we get to the good bit!”

Ocean jerks awake and gives a sleepy nod.

“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land…”

The End

Comments

[Azure Drache]

You second now complete Review is done

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[abrony-mouse]

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Thanks have responded there. You have been a really great reviewer, who has given me a lot to think about!