Sunday, May 8, 2016

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Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.

Early Morning

Today is Mother's Day. Everybody—well, almost everybody—is up early. Rarity and Sweetie Belle leave before eight, and Sonata's mother picked her up shortly after; Cadance and Pinkie are busy making a big breakfast for Velvet (and the rest of us). Fluttershy rounds up all the critters and takes them out for a little while, and Rainbow...is sleeping in.

When breakfast is ready, Shining Armor brings Twilight's parents to the dining room, where Twilight and I are setting out plates and silverware. Cadance and Pinkie bring in the breakfast spread. Cadance serves Velvet first; Pinkie serves Cadance second, then the rest of us serve ourselves. They really went all out: we've got waffles with strawberry syrup and whipped cream, crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns, fresh fruit, orange juice, and coffee.

"Girls, I'm trying to lose weight," Velvet says with a laugh.

"Where's the fun in that?" Twilight asks as she loads up her plate.

"Not everybody has your crazy metabolism, Twi," Shining Armor says.

"Yeah, some of us have to exercise to keep our figures," Cadance agrees.

"Oh, Twilight gets plenty of exercise," Pinkie says with a grin.

We all pause and stare at her.

She blinks. "What?"

"Pinkie," Twilight groans. "How many times do we have to go over this? Think first, THEN open mouth."

I can't help it. I bust out laughing.

After breakfast, we move to the lounge, where the others give Velvet her Mother's Day gifts. I'm the only one without something for her, and I feel kind of like a jerk...

"Don't worry about it, dear," Velvet says as she puts on a new pair of pearl earrings Night Light gave her. "I'm not expecting anything from you for Mother's Day yet." Her eyes sparkle mischievously.

"Still, I gotta do something," I say. "Tell you what, I'll pay for lunch, and if you happen to see anything you want when we're in town, let me know."

Velvet smiles. "That's very thoughtful of you," she says.

"Yeah, Flash can be surprisingly thoughtful when he's thinking with his brain instead of his pants," Twilight says, poking me in the shoulder.

"Too bad it doesn't happen that often," Pinkie adds with a giggle.

Velvet raises an eyebrow and gives me a smirk. "Really, now."

"Well, everyone in this dorm has certainly been getting an education lately," Cadance says with a giggle.

"'Everyone'?" Velvet asks. Her eyebrow climbs even higher.

"Hey, I was taught to share my toys," Twilight says. She and Pinkie both burst into giggles.

I feel like crawling under something and dying...

"Okay girls, knock it off," Shining Armor says.

"But if they knock it off, how am I supposed to get any grandkids?" Velvet asks. This sends the rest of the girls into fresh peals of laughter.

"You sure you don't want to run away?" Night Light stage-whispers. "Maybe move to another country?"

"They'd find me," I say, burying my face in my hands. "I'd come home and find every last girl in the dorm waiting in my bed."

"NAKED!" Pinkie adds before falling over and giggling.

"Is...is she always like this?" Night Light asks.

Twilight shakes her head. "Only when she's in heat," she says. She pauses, then adds, "She's usually in heat."

It's gonna be a LONG day...

Daytime

We head out for a little driving tour of Canterlot, after which we head for a popular country-style family restaurant—the one where it's half restaurant, half massively crowded general store slash flea market. The food is amazing, fresh and delicious, and plentiful; at my insistence, everybody orders as much as they want of whatever they want. Over lunch, we talk about school, life in Canterlot, and other things. After that, we decide to pick a movie to go see. Cadance and Shining Armor insist on paying for everything at the theater...except for Twilight's snacks, which I pay for in a panic when I see the piles of candy and popcorn she's picking out. After that, we return to the dorm. Cadance and Velvet head over to the apartment for a little "mom talk", while Night Light and Shining Armor park in the lounge to watch baseball. Twilight goes up to her room to sleep off everything she ate, and I head up to my room to call home.

Evening

"Good afternoon, Flash!" Mom says.

"Hi Mom. Happy Mother's Day."

"Thank you! I got the pocketbook you sent me. I really like it! How'd you know I needed a new one?"

"I didn't, but I'm glad you can use it."

"Oh, absolutely! My old one was getting really worn out, but I keep forgetting to go out and get a new one." She smiles. "So, how was your day?"

"Pretty good," I say. "Went out with Twilight and her family and Pinkie, had lunch, watched a movie."

Dad pokes his head into the camera. "Did you pay for everything?" he asks. "I got an alert that your debit card took two pretty big hits within two hours."

"I paid for lunch," I say. "And for Twilight's share of the snacks at the theater. Cadance and Shining Armor paid for everyone's tickets and everyone else's snacks."

Dad blinks. "Your girlfriend ate fifty dollars' worth of snacks?"

"Probably more than that, she went back for more halfway through the movie. She paid for those herself." I shrug. "What can I say? The girl's a black hole."

"No kidding," Dad says. Mom laughs.

"We'll have to give you an extra fifty a week then," she says. "Just to make sure you can keep that girl fed."

"I'm good with what you already give me, but thanks," I say. I frown. "You're monitoring my account?"

"Of course we are," Dad says. "We have to make sure you don't run out of money down there, and that you're not going too crazy." He smiles. "Especially now that we realize that's pretty much all we've ever really been doing for you."

"So, Flash, are you coming back home for the summer?" Mom asks.

"Actually, I need to stay in Canterlot this summer, but I was thinking...you two should probably come down here for a little while, maybe in June or July. It'd be better all around to have you come here than me come up there."

Mom and Dad look at each other and shrug. "Sure, we can do that," Dad says.

We talk a little while longer; I notice it's almost dinnertime, so I say goodbye, wish Mom a happy Mother's Day again, and head back downstairs.

I find Applejack and Apple Bloom in the lounge with Night Light, Shining Armor, and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow is in her "gamer clothes", which seems to be making Night Light and Shining Armor a little uncomfortable. The front door opens, and Rarity and Sweetie Belle walk in.

"Good evening, everyone!" Rarity says. "I trust you all had a splendid time today?"

Twilight walks down the stairs, stretching and yawning. "Mmm, good nap," she says. "When's dinner?"

"Your mom and Cadance went out to pick up sandwiches," Night Light says. "They'll be back soon."

"Where's Sonata?"

"Upstairs with Pinkie, she got back about a half hour ago."

Within the next hour, we get everyone together in the dining room. Cadance and Velvet have returned with sandwiches, and we all dig in.

"So Applejack, Apple Bloom," Twilight says, "how are you two holding up?"

Applejack sighs. "We're good," she says. "We...we hashed a lotta stuff out this weekend, an' there's still stuff t' deal with, but..." She shrugs. "We still got each other an' Big Mac an' Granny, so we're good."

"It's...hard," Apple Bloom says with a sniffle. "But...we'll make it through this."

"Twilight mentioned something the other day that I think is a good idea," Velvet says. "She thinks you should all go up to Sweet Apple Acres one week in June after school lets out to help out."

"Hey, yeah!" Rainbow says. "We should totally do that!"

"T' be honest, Ah'd be mighty grateful," Applejack says. "Ah seen whut y'all could git done in jes' one weekend. If we had y'all up there fer a whole week, Big Mac could git ahead o' so much stuff..."

Rarity smiles. "We'd be delighted to help out, darling."

After dinner, I watch television with the others in the lounge for a while. At around eleven, I head upstairs to sleep.