Flashback Fantasia
written by
Tabby
"Barnacle will be coming home soon!" Sugarberry declared jubilantly as she held up
a glass bottle to show her friends gathered at the Satin Slipper Sweet Shoppe.
"Can't wait ‘till he's home!" Friendly said excitedly.
"You heard from him, did you?" Clever Clover questioned.
"Yes, I got this bottle from him in the mail just this morning--"
"I'll read it." Tabby snatched the bottle from Sugarberry's hooves and extracted
the piece of paper. "Ah, let's see here." She spread her hooves wide and began to read the note
in her dramatic voice. " ‘ARR, Sugarberry!' "
"Tone it down, Tabby!" Clever Clover said, cringing.
Tabby went on, trying to keep the pitch of her voice down a bit. " ‘I finally be a'
sailin' home to Dream Valley. Be watchin' for me in June. You can tell the rest of the gang,
ARR!!' " She laid the note down on the table.
"It'll be interesting to see this Barnacle," Thomas commented. "Was it his dream all
his life to be a pirate?"
"Actually, yes." Sugarberry nodded. "He was always coming up with piratey
games as a baby pony. Remember that, Tabby?"
"You know, I only have two more Redwall books to read," Tabby sighed. "Oh!
What was that? Ah, yes. Barnacle as a baby."
"There was that time he built a raft," Sugarberry went on. "We saw him sailing
down the river on it; you have to recall that, Tabby!"
"A raft, wot? Hmm..."
Sugarberry continued to tell the story:
* * *
Baby Sugarberry and Baby Tabby were racing along the riverbank. "You not
‘sposed to wink, Bwaby Twabby," Baby Sugarberry complained.
"Ain't ‘gainst none o' my rules," Baby Tabby snapped back.
"Bwaby Twabby! Wook!" Baby Sugarberry's attention was diverted to something
on the river.
"What that?" Baby Tabby looked out at the object floating on the river.
"It Baby Barnacle!" Baby Sugarberry squealed. "He on a raft, see!"
"Ooh, a raft!" Baby Tabby exclaimed. "Think he'd give us a ride?"
"Wet's see." Having said that, Baby Sugarberry stood as close to the river as she
could and waved a hoof in the air. "Baby Barnacle! Baby Barnacle! Come wover here!"
"He floatin' over this way," Baby Tabby noted.
Sure enough, Baby Barnacle had soon paddled his hoof-made float over to the two
other babies. "ARR!" he greeted them.
Baby Sugarberry giggled. "Silly Baby Barnacle; you're still pwacticing to be a
pirate."
"Maybe he is gwonna be a pirate," Baby Tabby said seriously.
"Me already a pirate, ARR!" Baby Barnacle declared. "Me got a boat, and me
gonna sail out to the sea."
"Got no weapons," Baby Sugarberry said.
"Can we come with ya? Pretty pwease?" Baby Tabby pleaded.
Baby Barnacle shook his head. "Nwope, can't. You not pirates."
"We could learn," Baby Tabby suggested.
"Me don't wanna be a pirate and run away from home," Baby Sugarberry sniffled.
"Me goin' back to my mommy."
"Don't be a sissy," Baby Tabby chided her friend. "It'd be fun."
"Me not lettin' you on," Baby Barnacle said, and started floating away.
"He's gettin' away!" Baby Tabby shrieked in outrage. "Me got an idea, Baby
Sugarberry. We build a raft, and we go after him! We gonna be pirates too, and we hunt him
down!"
"Wokay," Baby Sugarberry said apprehensively. "How you build a raft?"
"You just gwet some sticks together," Baby Tabby explained.
"And they stick together on ‘deir own?" Baby Sugarberry questioned.
"No." Baby Tabby sighed. "Me don't really know how to make one."
"Then you lied," Baby Sugarberry said disapprovingly. "Me gonna tell my
mommy."
"Wet's just follow him on da shore," Baby Tabby said, ignoring Baby Sugarberry's
last comment. She started running after the raft, which was far from their sight by then.
"Wait for me!" Baby Sugarberry tried desperately to keep up with her friend.
After running for what seemed like forever, the two babies stopped. "Why you
stop?" Baby Sugarberry questioned.
Baby Tabby pointed to a sight up ahead that Baby Sugarberry hadn't noticed yet.
"Wook," she giggled. "His waft broke. See? He tryin' to repair it." Tittering, the pair dashed
up to him.
"Hee hee! You not pirate after all!" Baby Sugarberry said to Baby Barnacle.
"Why you say that?" Baby Barnacle said, trying to look fierce.
"Real pirates would build sea-worthy vessels," Baby Tabby said. "We not gonna
talk to a fake pirate. Come on, Baby Sugarberry, we goin' home."
* * *
Tabby was laughing uproariously when Sugarberry reached the ending point of the
story. "I was an evil little baby pony back then, wasn't I?"
"You still are," Clever Clover said promptly.
Tabby picked up the spoon from her sundae and held it up in the air, pointing it at
Clever Clover. "One more word outta you and you're gonna get it--"
"And now he's a real pirate," Sugarberry said, ignoring Tabby and Clever Clover's
bickering. "Who would have thought it?"
"And since he's a real pirate, we talk to him again," Tabby tittered, momentarily
putting down the spoon.
Sugarberry swatted Tabby lightly. "You know full well we played a game of
hide-and-go-seek with him the next day."
Tabby nodded intelligently. "Whenever he was the seeker, he came after us waving
a wooden sword."
Sugarberry shivered at the thought. "I remember being scared to death of that
sword. Me, I preferred cats to swords back then... and still do." Her eyes glazed over as she told
another story:
* * *
Baby Sugarberry sat in her room, combing her cat, Celandine. "You such a pwetty
kwitty," she said, hugging the cat.
Celandine purred and groomed her white furr.
"Me could mwake you really pretty!" Baby Sugarberry exclaimed with a happy
gleam in her eyes. "You like that, Celandine?" The cat didn't offer any opposition, so Baby
Sugarberry pulled a shiny purple ribbon out of her toybox. "This goes around your neck," she
mumbled to herself and tied the ribbon in a nice bow around the cat's neck.
"Vwery nice." Baby Sugarberry stood back and surveyed her work. "Nweeds
more, though." After thinking, she found another ribbon, this one pink, and tied it on Celandine's
tail. Celandine just continued purring. She was a very docile feline.
Baby Sugarberry squealed at a sudden thought. She dug frantically through her doll
dresses. "This would look nice on you, ‘Landine." The baby pony held up a light pink dress with
a lace collar. "Hwope it fits."
Pulling the cat back into her lap, Baby Sugarberry struggled to get Celandine's two
front paws through the sleeves, and then buttoned the front up. Finally, she succeeded.
"You are a bweautiful cat!" Baby Sugarberry breathed in delight. Celandine did
make a pretty sight.
Baby Sugarberry dashed around her room, pulling out various other accessories.
"Here's a necklace." She strung a string of green plastic beads around the cat's neck, which
contrasted nicely with the purple ribbon already tied there.
Then she looped two green ponytail holders around Celandine's ears, to make
earrings. And she even got a cologne bottle from her mother's room and sprayed it heavily on the
cat's neck.
"You da mwost perfect kwitty in da whole wide world," Baby Sugarberry declared.
"Now me gonna show you to Mommy." With that, the pony scooped up her cat and dashed
downstairs.
* * *
"I seem to remember doing that, too..." Tabby said thoughtfully.
"I dressed up myself instead of my pets as a baby pony," Tiffany said
haughtily.
"Who'll tell the next story?" Spike prodded. "This is rather fun!"
"How about you, Tiffany? Did you get into any trouble as a baby?" Sugarberry
questioned.
"Of course not," Tiffany said haughtily. "I was the model of perfection."
"Did you eat spaghetti correctly?" Tabby asked curiously.
"Spaghetti? Oh, my family never ate such lower-class food--"
"Me like spaghetti, yeah, yeah!" Friendly interjected.
"--our cook served dignified Italian food every evening," Tiffany went on, ignoring
Friendly.
This comment was met with blank stares. "Spaghetti is Italian food," Clever Clover
said.
"It is?" Tiffany exclaimed in surprise, but quickly sobered up. "I mean, that is, I
never liked it."
"How about running? Did you run correctly?" Tabby prodded further.
"Running!" Tiffany laughed. "Of course not. I took dainty, lady-like steps. I soon
learned that running only kicked up the dust and dirt. It soiled my lovely coat terribly!" She
shuddered at the remembrance.
"Well, come on, you've got to have done something bad," Tabby reasoned.
Tiffany sighed. "I suppose I'd better get it out... there was that one time..."
* * *
Baby Tiffany discreetly sneaked out of her mother's room, clutching in her hooves
the valuable emerald necklace that the baby pony admired so. She had set her mind on taking it
for herself, so she could look at it whenever she pleased.
Running back to her own room, the young princess sat on her bed and held the
necklace up to a beam of sunlight streaming through the window. It reflected off the brilliant
jewel, casting green shadows across the room.
"I love to dweath," Baby Tiffany sighed happily. But she suddenly realized she had
to hide it; if her mother found it, Baby Tiffany would be punished severely, she knew.
Baby Tiffany searched every nook and cranny in her room, but none seemed good
enough to hide this secret. So, she got out the frilly white purse she used for dress-up and put the
necklace inside. Then she'd be safe to walk around the house without the necklace being spotted
while looking for the perfect place for it.
Baby Tiffany walked quietly through the halls. Weren't there any good hiding
places in here? The house sure was large enough. As she snuck around one corner, she just
about died of fright by nearly running into her mother.
"Baby Tiffany, whatever is the matter?" her mother questioned in concern. "You
look as if you've seen a ghost; you're certainly pale as one."
"I-I'm a-a-always w-w-white ‘cause I-I'm a-a w-white p-pony," Baby Tiffany
stuttered.
"And what have I told you about stuttering?" her mother chided. "It's dreadfully
impolite."
"S-s-sorry, Mother," Baby Tiffany apologized. "I was just-- playing a game."
"Why don't you invite Baby Royal Blue over? It's been awhile since you've had
company."
"Oh, Mother, that would be fun!" Baby Tiffany exclaimed, momentarily forgetting
about the stolen necklace.
And so, Baby Royal Blue was invited. The two baby ponies walked through the
halls of Baby Tiffany's mansion. "What we gonna pway today, Baby Twiffany?" Baby Royal
Blue asked.
Baby Tiffany furtively glanced around to make sure no one else was near. Then, in
a secretive tone, she confided to her friend what she had done. "We have to find a good hiding
place," Baby Tiffany exclaimed.
Baby Royal Blue clapped her front hooves together in excitement. "This be fun!
You not find hidin' place yet? This such a big place; there's gwotta be somewhere."
"Just can't find anything," Baby Tiffany whispered. "Maybe you find
something?"
A smile suddenly lit up Baby Royal Blue's face. "Perhaps there no place here, but
there be great place at my house!"
"Really? Really?" Baby Tiffany squealed.
"Yes," Baby Royal Blue whispered. "I'll take it home with me and put it there. No
one will look at my house."
"And if they never find it, they'll never blame me!" Baby Tiffany declared gleefully.
"This be perfect!"
And so, when Baby Royal Blue left, she had the purse containing the emerald
necklace with her. She waved and winked at Baby Tiffany.
* * *
"So what happened?" Tabby said with a blank stare.
Tiffany sighed. "Royal Blue and I had a fight the next week. I never saw the
necklace again, let alone where she'd hid it. And I got grounded for a week anyway."
"Tsk, tsk." Tabby shook her head.
"Haven't you ever asked Royal Blue about it?" Sugarberry said in concern.
Tiffany cocked her head. "No, actually, I never thought of doing that. I wonder if
she still has it!"
"Come on, Tabby, what bad thing did you do?" Spike said.
"Ha! She was the terror of the neighborhood as a baby!" Quarterback
declared.
"And still is..." Clever Clover mumbled under his breath.
"I heard that, Cleve Clove!" Tabby shrieked, wielding her spoon once again.
"Now, let's not resort to violence, Tabby," Sugarberry said. "Just tell your
story."
"And I have to isolate to one bad incident? Man, that's hard. Hmm... but the worst
of them all..."
* * *
Baby Tabby was walking home from school one day when someone tapped her on
the shoulder. She whirled around to face Baby Flowerbelle. "Baby Tabby! My mommy says I
can invite someone over to my house to play with dwis afternoon. Cwan you come?"
Baby Tabby winced slightly, but Baby Flowerbelle didn't notice. Baby Tabby
actually didn't like this other baby that well; she was too much into dressing up and having her
hair done.
"We can play hair salon," Baby Flowerbelle went on. "Me want my hair done. You
style it, ‘kay?"
A smile spread across Baby Tabby's face. She was getting an idea that might make
this afternoon worth it. " ‘Kay, sounds fun!" she exclaimed, somewhat
over-enthusiastically.
And so, the two babies trotted over to Baby Flowerbelle's house. "You can style
my hair under da willow tree," Baby Flowerbelle decided. "We pretend that's hair salon. Me go
get scissors."
Baby Tabby waited under the willow tree with a malicious grin covering her face.
This was just what she wanted. "Sit on the lower branch thwere," Baby Tabby instructed once
Baby Flowerbelle had returned with the scissors. "Then me work on your hair."
"This be lots a' fun!" Baby Flowerbelle said contentedly, taking her seat on the
branch.
And Baby Tabby got to work. Snip, snip, snip. Baby Flowerbelle's lovely tresses
fell to the ground.
"You not takin' twoo much off, are you?" Baby Flowerbelle said in concern.
"Nwope, not at all," Baby Tabby assured her. "It wook's really nice."
"I can't wait to see it!" Baby Flowerbelle exclaimed as Baby Tabby continued
snipping.
"All done!" Baby Tabby announced, swiftly pushing all the trimmed hair under a
pile of leaves.
"Me gotta see what I wook like!" Baby Flowerbelle said excitedly as she started to
run towards the house, but Baby Tabby held her back.
"First we play a game of hide-and-go-seek," the crafty baby said. "Me be the
seeker; you hide."
"You're always the seeker," Baby Flowerbelle said, not noticing how short her
once-long mane was.
"That's ‘cause I'm the bwest seeker."
"You are not! You can never find anybody when you play!"
"You only got thirty seconds to hide," Baby Tabby said, ignoring the past comment.
She pressed her face to the tree trunk. "One... two... thwee... twenty-eleven... thirty-ten... thirty!
Ready or not; here I come!" she cried out triumphantly. She glanced around. Baby Flowerbelle
was nowhere in sight.
Giggling, Baby Tabby ran back home. She'd be long gone by the time Baby
Flowerbelle found out about her mane.
* * *
"Sure was a good plan, wasn't it, wot?" Tabby said, looking quite cocky.
"Didn't you get in any trouble at all?" Sugarberry asked.
"Well..." Tabby started. "My mother made me clean the house every afternoon for
a week. First because of what I'd done to Flowerbelle's hair, and secondly because I hadn't told
her that I was going to her house."
Spike, Clever Clover, and Quarterback were all laughing. "You got what you
deserved!" Clever Clover said gleefully.
"Yeah! I never would have done anything that got me into trouble," Quarterback
said.
Sugarberry looked at him disapprovingly. "Now, Quarterback. What about that
time you tried to hang yourself?"
Now it was Tabby, Spike, and Clever Clover's turn to laugh. "Yes, Quarterback!
Tell us about that incident again, would you?" Tabby giggled.
Quarterback sighed and began the story...
* * *
"We gonna pwetend we're in da wild west," Baby Tex declared as he and Baby
Quarterback hung around in Baby Tex's backyard. "Me be da sheriff."
"And me gonna be the villain that just robbed the general store," Baby Quarterback
said contentedly.
Baby Tex shook his hoof at Baby Quarterback disapprovingly. "Then me gotta
catch you. You evil willian!"
With that, Baby Quarterback shot across the yard. "Heehee! Me got all the
jangles, and you ain't gonna catch me!" he called out gleefully.
Baby Tex ran after the "villain," but Baby Quarterback was always able to get out
of his sight. They did this for quite awhile, but finally Baby Tex tackled Baby Quarterback.
"Now you gotta go to jail," Baby Tex said. "Willians never escape the law."
"Nwo, nwo," Baby Quarterback said, coming back to the real world. "Villians
don't go ta jail. Dey get hanged."
"Wokay, you get hanged!" Baby Tex exclaimed. "Dat's whatcha get for robbin' da
store. Now, how we gonna hang ya?"
"Gotta find a rope," Baby Quarterback said, rising to his hooves. "Den you gotta
tie it onto a twee."
Baby Tex found a thick piece of rope in the house and returned outside. "Come
over to da twee, you willian!" he shouted as he swung one end of the rope over one of the tree
branches.
"Me don't deserve ta get hanged!" Baby Quarterback shot back. "Willians are
always smarter than sheriffs."
"They is not," Baby Tex said. "Now, you cwome over here!"
Baby Quarterback finally came over. "Me gonna come back as a ghost an' haunt
ya!" he threatened. "And me gonna rob all the stores in twown and you never wever cwatch me
‘cause me a ghost."
Baby Tex ignored those comments and tied the rope loosely around Baby
Quarterback's neck. "Now you tied up," he mumbled to himself. Then he tugged on the string
hanging over the branch, pulling Baby Quarterback up.
"Such cwruel tweatment for a willian!" Baby Quarterback complained.
"Baby Tex! Baby Quarterback! What are you doing?" called out another
voice.
Baby Tex immediately dropped the rope, which dropped Baby Quarterback to the
ground as well. "Uh oh, it's Daddy," he mumbled.
"And what do you think you two were trying to do?" Tex's father said in
disapproval.
"Baby Quarterback was the willian, and had to be hanged," Baby Tex
explained.
"That is no way to treat a friend, Baby Tex. Do you know what you could have
done to him? Now, Baby Quarterback, I'll take you home..."
* * *
"Ha! I think that story just proves that Tex is evil, doesn't it?" Tabby declared after
Quarterback finished.
"They were just babies," Sugarberry said. "He didn't know any better back
then."
"I dunno about that," Tabby muttered.
"Actually, I wasn't allowed to see Tex for a week after that," Quarterback went on.
"But by then I got into playing football, and Tex wasn't into that."
"And who's story is next?" Tabby prodded.
"Me tell a story, yeah, yeah." Friendly decided to relate the next experience:
* * *
Baby Friendly hopped home from the library one afternoon. He had just checked
out several books on C++ computer programming, and he couldn't wait to start reading. He
loved programming on his computer at home. "Fun, fun, yeah," Baby Friendly said happily to
himself.
Looking through the book shelves had worn Baby Friendly out, so he decided to
stop under an apple tree in the orchard near the Bushwoolie holes and look over the books. He
had told his mother he'd be back by supper time, and he still had at least an hour until then.
"Jwust stop for awhile, yeah."
Plucking an apple from the tree, he ate contentedly while flipping through the
books. The late afternoon sun shown on him, and he was soon rather drowsy. Discarding the
remainder of the apple and dropping the book in his lap, he soon nodded off to sleep.
Baby Friendly woke with a start. Cold drops of rain were falling on him, despite the
cover from the apple tree. Though the sun had been shining earlier, rain clouds had moved in.
"Bwetter get home, yeah, yeah!" Friendly jumped up, and the book that had been in his lap fell to
the ground. He forgot entirely about the books, though. He hurriedly hopped back to his hole.
"Hwope not too late, yeah!"
Baby Friendly's mother dried him off with a towel and served him supper. "You be
okay, yeah, yeah," she consoled him.
The next day, Baby Friendly woke with a start. There was something nagging at his
memory... but he shook the thought off. After breakfast, he went over to his computer, and then
he remembered.
"My bwooks, yeah!" he exclaimed out loud.
"What was that, Baby Friendly, yeah?" his mother, who was doing dishes,
asked.
"Me weft books I got from library outside!" Baby Friendly explained frantically.
"Gwotta get ‘em, yeah, yeah!"
Baby Friendly's mother peered out the window. "Sky still gray, but no rain, yeah.
You go outside and look for them, yeah, yeah."
Baby Friendly ran as fast as a baby Bushwoolie could back to the apple tree. He
looked around in dismay. His books were still there, but soaked through with rain.
"Ruined, me bwad, yeah, yeah," he said dejectedly as he walked back home.
* * *
"What happened after that?" Sugarberry questioned.
"Me had to wash dishes for a week, yeah, yeah," Friendly explained. "Mommy paid
library for new books."
"Even Bushwoolies don't get off easy all the time," Tiffany said
sympathetically.
Spike sat back in his chair with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I remember
one time..."
"What?! What?!" Tabby said excitedly.
"It was before I came to live in Dream Valley, and I was still living with my mom
and dad..."
* * *
Spike, who was a very young dragon, had been allowed by his mother to play in the
yard for the afternoon. Spike was enjoying climbing trees, swinging, and watching
wildlife.
As he dropped to the ground from one of the tree branches, he heard something in
the grass in front of him. He inspected the grass closely. It was a snake! Spike clapped his hands
together in delight. It was sleek and black, with yellow stripes.
"Hi, snake!" Spike exclaimed, and gently picked up the slithering reptile. "You
wanna play with me?"
The snake simply wriggled, and Spike giggled. "Me know. I take you inside for a
little while. You like chocolate cake?"
The snake's tongue flicked out, and Spike ran inside with his new friend. "Look,
here slice of cake. You have some, too."
The snake slithered around the table as Spike poured a glass of milk. When he
turned around, the snake was gone!
"Mr. Snake!" Spike cried out. "Where you go? Gotta have cake!" He ran out of
the room.
Spike's search proved fruitless. There was no sign of the snake. He sighed and sat
down with his cake and milk.
"Hello, Spike!" Spike's mother came in through the front door. "I'm just back
from the grocery store. Can you help me unpack?"
"Okay," Spike consented. "Me found a new friend outside," he said.
"Really?" his mother asked, handing Spike another jug of milk to be placed in the
refrigerator. "Who is this new friend?"
"He's awfully nice," Spike went on to explain. "I was gonna feed him a snack, but
he disappeared--"
Spike's comment was cut short by an ear-splitting shriek from his mother. "SPIKE!
There's a SNAKE!" She pointed a fearful hand at Spike's "friend" who was now crawling into an
empty paper bag on the floor.
"There he is!" Spike exclaimed happily. "He's still gotta have a snack. You got
anything for him?"
"Spike," his mother said firmly. "You get that... that... creature out of the house
immediately."
"Can I feed him outside?" Spike prodded.
"Just get him outside, Spike!"
* * *
"Didja get punished?" Tabby asked eagerly.
Spike shook his head. "Nope. But I never did see the snake again after I took him
outside." He sighed.
"Spike's story reminded me of something I did as a Dibbun--" Clever Clover
started.
"Now look who's been reading too many Redwall books!" Tabby cried out
gleefully. "Dibbun" was the Redwall term for the Redwallers' young ones.
"As I was saying," Clever Clover continued, "I remember the one time I went in
search of the bronze snake mentioned in the Bible."
Sugarberry nodded eagerly. "Yes! The one Moses lifted up on a pole!"
"Exactly." Clever Clover nodded. "So, one day..."
* * *
Baby Clever Clover placed his Bible back on his bookshelf after reading the
passages on Moses and the bronze snake. "Me wanna fwind dat snwake," he said determinedly to
himself. "Me give to museum; then people can see." Baby Clever Clover was fascinated by
archeology work; his greatest dream was to dig up historical artifacts.
"Gotta be around somewhere," Baby Clever Clover mumbled to himself, glancing
around his cluttered room. "Don't remember seeing it in here." He shrugged and trotted
downstairs.
"You seen bronze snake around, Mommy?" he asked his mother who was fixing
dinner in the kitchen.
"Bronze snake? You mean a bronze-colored snake?" his mother questioned. "I
wouldn't want to meet up with one; it might be poisonous."
" ‘Kay," Baby Clever Clover said and ran outside. "Me be back in a little while!" he
shouted back to his mother. He decided the bronze snake must not be in his house.
"Where would bronze snake be after all these years?" he pondered to himself.
"Wouldn't just fade away. Gotta be somewhere." He dashed into the forest behind his house,
and looked under leaf piles. No bronze snake.
Baby Clever Clover continued his quest, and wandered deeper into the forest, not
finding what he was in search of. He finally ventured into the eerie Dark Forest, but he didn't
even notice.
Baby Clever Clover angrily kicked at yet another pile of leaves. "Maybe it's not in
the leaf piles," he decided. "Maybe it buried wa-a-a-ay underground. Or maybe it in the twop of
a twee. How me ever gwonna find it?" He sat down on a rock and thought.
"Birdie, you seen bronze snake?" he called up to a robin who was singing in one of
the tree branches above him. The bird just flew away at the sound of his voice.
"Anybody know where bronze snake is?" Baby Clever Clover cried out to the
surrounding woodland. A mouse scampered by at that moment, but didn't stop.
"Mr. Mouse, come back!" Baby Clever Clover exclaimed. "You wanna come home
with me? Me make you a nice house. You like that... Mr. Mouse? Where you go?"
Baby Clever Clover ran after the mouse, but he tripped. As he pulled himself up
and inspected his scratches, he saw what he'd tripped over: a squiggly, light brown stick, which
look amazingly like a snake.
"It da bronze snake!" Baby Clever Clover cried out jubilantly, and he picked the
decayed tree branch off of the ground. "Hee hee! Me gwonna be fwamous now!"
Baby Clever Clover ran off back home. He didn't need to know yet that it wasn't
really bronze...
* * *
As always, Tabby was eager to ask the question, "Were you punished?"
Sugarberry rolled her eyes. "He didn't do anything wrong, Tabby."
"He ran off into the woods by himself," Tabby suggested. "That's worthy of
punishment, isn't it?"
Clever Clover sighed in exasperation. "My mother knew I'd gone out... no, I didn't
get punished.
Tabby looked crestfallen at this announcement. "Too bad," she sighed.
Sugarberry shook her head at Tabby.
At that point, Merry Treat breezed into one of the seats at the table. "Hi,
everybody!" she exclaimed. "Spearow went over by Tarquin and Tess over there," she directed at
Tabby, pointing at another table in the shop where the two Meowth Pokèmon were
seated.
"I still have to have a Pokèmon battle against you, Cleve Clove," Tabby said,
forgetting about the bronze snake story. "Tarquin's bound to win, especially if we have Tess
watching. He wouldn't dare admit defeat in front of her..."
"We were just all sharing stories of our childhood," Sugarberry told Merry Treat.
"Did you do anything interesting as a baby pony?"
Merry Treat paused in thought, and blushed. "I got grounded for a week once!
Here's the story..."
* * *
Baby Merry Treat skipped home from school one cloudy day. She was thinking
about the story she had to write for school. She figured a cat would be the main
character...
And then raindrops started to fall. "Wo no!" Baby Merry Treat called out in alarm
as the raindrops got bigger. "Me get soaked!" She ducked into a doorway, which blocked some
of the rain out. "Mwaybe it let up soon," she said to herself hopefully.
As she said that, she saw something cowering in the corner of the doorway. "What
that?" Baby Merry Treat said aloud, bending over to investigate.
She saw a straggly gray cat, soaked to the skin, and trying to lick itself dry in the
corner. She reached out a hoof towards it. "Poor kwitty," she said sympathetically.
The cat hissed slightly, but it was too worn out to fight back. Baby Merry Treat
scooped the cat up. "Me get you home; you live in my room. That be fun, wight,
kwitty?"
The cat struggled to get out of Baby Merry Treat's hooves, but Baby Merry Treat
streaked along back to her house. Once on her doorstep, she almost rushed right in, but then
remembered she had to sneak up to her room, or else her parents would find out about the cat.
She wasn't sure if they'd allow her to have a pet, but she didn't want to take a chance.
Baby Merry Treat slowly opened the door to her house, clutching the cat to her
tightly. The cat was still squirming terribly badly, and was beginning to use its claws.
"Is that you, Baby Merry Treat?" she heard her mother call from the living
room.
"It me, Mommy," Baby Merry Treat said. "Me got somethin' to put in my room;
then I be back down." She dashed up the stairs before her mother had a chance to reply.
After depositing the cat in her room, Baby Merry Treat ran down the hallway and
got a towel from the bathroom. Using that, she dried the cat off, who was not fighting as much
anymore.
Baby Merry Treat dried herself off, then. "You hungry, kwitty?" she questioned.
"Me go get you somethin'."
Baby Merry Treat ran downstairs. "Me gonna get somethin' to eat in my room!"
she called to her mother.
"That last time you had a snack in your room, you got crumbs all over," her mother
scolded, coming out of the living room. "No. If you want something to eat, you'll have to sit at
the table."
Baby Merry Treat sighed. "I'll be extra careful, Mommy," she pleaded.
"If you get crumbs on the floor, you'll have to vacuum," her mother warned.
Baby Merry Treat flashed her a smile. "That fine with me. Me want a... a..." She
wandered what the cat would like.
"I'll get you some slices of cheese," her mother said briskly. "That shouldn't be too
messy."
Clutching several cheese slices in her hoof, Baby Merry Treat ran back up to her
room. "Here, kitty!" She handed one of the slices to the sleek gray cat, and kept the other for
herself. The cat ate vigorously.
"You need a nwame," Baby Merry Treat said thoughtfully as she munched on her
cheese slice. "Rose? Nwope, that's twoo short. Nweeds somethin' added. Pretty Rose? Smelly
Rose? Sleek Rose?"
The cat retreated under Baby Merry Treat's bed.
"Bloomin' Rose? Early Rose? Late Rose!" Baby Merry Treat exclaimed. "Late
Rose sound nice. Yeah! You Late Rose now!"
Baby Merry Treat carefully closed her bedroom door, leaving Late Rose inside.
After supper, she read a book while sitting in the living room by herself, and entirely forgot about
her new cat... and she was also oblivious to the noise of the vacuum coming from
upstairs.
"Baby Merry Treat!" her mother's voice called out angrily as she stepped in front of
Baby Merry Treat. "I seem to have found something in your room... care to explain?"
"Uhh... Mommy..." Baby Merry Treat stuttered. "She a really nice kitty... yes she
is!"