Eight-year-old Riley Blythe lay in bed with the covers over him and his eyelids covering his brown eyes. But that wasn’t to say he was asleep. No, he was fully conscious of the physical world around him, and couldn’t seem to get access to the land of dreams.
His belly gurgled. He had figured quite some time ago that this denoted he was hungry. But this was a special type of gurgling. It meant he had a hankering for a specific food. This time, it was cookies.
And yes, there were cookies in the house. In the kitchen to be precise, where there was a whole jar of them sitting on top of the refrigerator. But Riley wasn’t tall enough to reach such a height, nor climb onto something else to get up there. He couldn’t use his wings yet, either. Whenever he wanted cookies, he would have to ask his parents, who would either say yes or no. Riley tended to ask his mother, since she tended to be less strict than his father when it came to treat consumption – or anything, really.
Just then, a brilliant idea found its way into Riley’s unpredictable mind.
He got out of bed and went over to the crib at the other side of the room. In the crib sat his baby brother Reece, not even a year old yet. The pale red foal slept peacefully in his wooden shelter.
Riley needed Reece for his plan. The older colt hadn’t approved of having to share his bedroom with the new arrival, but it did make for easy access.
“Hey,” he whispered. “Wake up.”
Reece did not respond. He continued his slumber, a faint smile on his foalish face.
Riley reached into the crib and nudged his sibling. “Up!”
Reece looked up at the larger pony who had interrupted him from his dream about an ice cream mountain, eyeing him with great curiosity.
“You’re gonna help me steal some cookies,” Riley informed the baby pony, as he reached into the crib and plucked out the tiny bundle within.
Reece flailed his limbs around as he was lifted out of his crib, then perched on top of the red giant’s back.
Riley set out of the room and now stood in the corridor. He could ever so faintly make out the sounds of his parents’ breathing and snoring from their bedroom.
His focus was now set on the staircase at the end of the hallway. He crept across the corridor until he had reached the staircase, the passageway between upstairs and downstairs.
Slow was his front hoof as it came down upon the first step. There was a very faint tapping noise as it made contact with the step.
Riley set his other front hoof on the step. As both of his front hooves progressed to the next step, his rear hooves touched the first step. Careful not to drop the passenger on his back, Riley slowly continued to traverse the staircase.
Riley suddenly remembered something, and stopped just in time. In front of him was the creaky step. It was a rule of life that every staircase had at least one.
Since his mission required as little noise as possible, Riley skipped the creaky step and went directly for the next one. But his legs were so short… it strained him a little, attempting to stretch out like that.
Unfortunately, the straining did not act as a deterrent. He found himself falling forwards. Anyone who was watching the scene in slow motion would have seen Reece hovering in the air for a split second before Riley whirled around in mid-air, grabbed him, then landed on the floor downstairs.
Riley seethed through his teeth in pain as he got up. Said pain was on his back from hitting the hard floor, and his belly from having a baby pony land on it.
Reece simply giggled from the journey down before Riley stuck a hoof in his mouth. “I’ll admit it was fun, but we can celebrate when we’re not trying to avoid Mom and Dad waking up,” he said, placing the foal onto his back again.
Now that they had passed the first stage of the mission, Riley looked around the central room of the downstairs portion of the house. There were several doors that led to various places. The living room, the kitchen, outside.
Resisting the urge to enter the living room and see if there was anything good on TV, Riley headed for the kitchen door. He opened it, giving a view of what lay within. The stove, the oven, the table and chairs, the refrigerator, and most importantly, the jar of cookies that lay on top of said refrigerator.
“Okay Reece, here’s the plan,” said Riley. “I’ll hold you by the back legs, and you can pick up the jar of cookies and bring ‘em down here.” And with that, he grabbed ahold of his brother’s stubby hind hooves, and then attempted to stand on his own hind legs. He succeeded… barely. He was stumbling around trying to keep balance, and this was not helpful for Reece’s mission of grabbing the jar of cookies.
Soon enough, Reece’s front hooves sent the jar tumbling down from its place on top of the refrigerator and onto the floor, Likewise, Riley fell over backwards and hit the floor, and of course, so did Reece, whose fall was even higher. The foal’s diaper crinkled loudly as it hit the floor.
Reece just sat there for a few moments as his eyes watered. Then, he started to cry loudly.
Riley felt a pang in his chest. “Hey! It’ll be okay, shush…”
He heard the sounds from upstairs of hooves rushing across the corridor into the other room. Then came panicked voices about how neither of the kids were in the room. The source of the hooves, undoubtedly Riley’s and Reece’s parents, started to rush downstairs before entering the kitchen to see the jar of cookies spilt on the floor, little Reece bawling, and Riley looking very guilty.
“What happened?!” asked their mother, a pink mare with a brown and white mane.
Their father, a maroon stallion with a grey mane, picked up Reece and carried him back upstairs.
“Riley Blythe,” said Mom again. Her voice was less amplified, but just as intimidating. “There’s some explaining to do. Upstairs.”
Riley gulped, and followed his mother back upstairs.
“So what happened?” asked Mom to her son as they sat next to each other on his bed. “And don’t lie – my motherly senses will pick it up.”
Riley instantly cooked up a story. “I woke up and Reece wasn’t in the room, so I went out to look for him, and found him in the-“
“Stop,” his mother cut him off, holding up a hoof. “What really happened?”
Riley started up again. “I woke up and Reece was coughing, and I thought there’d be some medicine on top of the refrigerator. Just seemed like a medicine-keepy kind of place-“
“Stop. What really happened?”
“I woke up and Reece needed a diaper change, but I didn’t know where fresh diapers were, so I went to-“
“Stop.” His mother sighed. “Just tell me the truth.”
Riley was silent for a few moments before he looked down at the ground. “I was using Reece to steal cookies. That’s about it.”
Mom got up and headed for the door. “We’ll talk about this more tomorrow. Good night.” Her last sentence did not contain her usual cheery attitude. She exited and closed the door behind her.
With his hunger unsatisfied, his backside sore from falling smack-dab on it two times, and being in serious trouble with his parents, Riley found it hard to return to sleep, so looked at his baby brother in his crib.
Reece reached a hoof into his diaper and pulled out a cookie.
‘Please tell me the last story I told really was a lie,’ thought Riley with a grimace as he went back to bed.