'Mighty things, from small beginnings, grow.' - John Dryden
Prism frowned awkwardly at the small, wriggling thing in front of him. It was tiny, slightly wrinkly, and when he reached out to poke it, it was warm.
He cocked his head to one side, an ear flopping down.
"Dis is baby?" He asked his mom, who was holding the little wrinkled sausage thing as if it were a precious vase.
She chuckled tiredly. "Yup. This," she motioned, holding out the bundle of blue fluff, "is your little brother."
A lock of gently curling red, orange and yellow hued mane peeked over the corner of the blanket as one green eye cracked open just the tiniest bit.
"His name is Sun Sweeper," his dad smiled at him, "can you say that buddy? S-uh-n Swee-per." He sounded it out.
Prism scratched his cheek. "Sah-Sweemper..." he stumbled on the name, trying to form the words in his mouth.
"Attaboy, champ! Well done!" His mom beamed, as his dad clapped his hooves together.
Prism grinned slightly. He didn't know where this thing he come from or why everyone was making such a big fuss over it, but if this was the reaction he was going to get from his parents, then it was fine by him.
"Suh-Sweemper!" He giggled, clapping his hooves together like Soarin, "Sunny! Sunny!"
Still, more praise from the parents. Prism laughed. It was like clockwork.
But then, the little blue thing- Sunny- made a horrid screechy wailing noise. Immediately his parents' attention switched from Prism to the baby. His grandparents, with whom he had a rather unexpected sleepover for the past three days, turned their attention to the baby also, Windy Whistles cooing and transferring the bundle from his mom's wings to her own.
His mom sighed, rested back down on the sofa, glad to have the- even small- weight out of her hands. Prism hopped up into the air and clumsily fluttered his way over to her. She clapped her hooves tiredly at his effort, smiling as he landed in her lap.
"Hey, Prism, I've missed you, peanut," she gathered him up in her arms. Prism snuggled into the familiar scent of green apples and cinnamon and lavender- a very mom smell. The most comforting smell known to him.
"Prism miss you too mom," he told her very seriously in his broken toddler-language. "But Ganpa lemme have waffles all the days for breakfast, not yucky oatmeal!"
Bow Hothoof was suddenly very intruiged with the smooth cloud ceiling as Dash shot a glare at her father. Shaking her head, she turned back to Prism.
"So, what do you think of your new baby brother?" She asked, kissing him on the head.
Prism wrinkled his nose. "It cry a lot. And look like a mushroom." He hadn't even quite grasped the concept of what a brother was.
Dash burst out laughing, clasping him closer to her chest as she threw him gently in the air, catching him lightly. "Kiddo," she chuckled, "for the last three and a half years it's just been us three, right? Well now, our epic trio's become a squad. What do you think about that?"
"Don't know..." Prism mumbled, burying himself further into her chest feathers. In all truth, he was tired from staying up all night, despite his granny's plea for him to go to sleep, watching through the window for his parents' return.
Dash shook her head fondly, feeling her eyes drift shut. And although she wasn't looking forward to the sleepless nights and messy clothes that was to come, life was good. Life was really good.
Prism regarded his brother across the room with a gaze that really, held much more intelligence than anyone knew.
His life had changed, and he didn't even know it.
Prism growled as he heard another high-pitched scream come from the kitchen. He didn't like the new baby. For the last eight months, all it had done was cry and poop and eat and take all his parents' attention. It made all of them tired by wailing at unearthly times in the morning. Times that no pony who possessed even an ounce of sanity should be up.
In fact, it had hogged his parents attention ever since it had crossed the threshold of the house. Some days they didn't even have a chance to read Prism his special Daring Do story, and they had only finished one chapter within the last two months. The baby was whiny and smelly and annoying and couldn't even toss a cloudpuff or play wing ball. Totally lame.
But, at least, he understood what a brother was. The understanding had come with his fourth birthday, Prism thought. Now, at four years old, he was practically as clever as a grown up, and knew that the baby was going to stay with them forever, and that Prism's mom and dad were his mom and dad also. Prism didn't mind having a brother, never had any doubt that his parents had stopped loving him. But he was annoyed at how much attention they gave to the whiny, squawky baby.
He hopped out of bed and traipsed towards the kitchen, suddenly hungry for breakfast. Maybe he would ask his dad to make waffles. Yeah. Waffles sounded nice.
His mom was sitting in front of the bawling devil-child, trying to coax a plastic spoon full of applesauce into its screaming mouth. It bashed it roughly, sending the mushed fruit right into his mom's face.
Prism snorted, before stifling it and frowning solemnly. His lips quirked as he tried to hide his mirth. He had to give the wailing thing credit, his mom with Zap-Apple Jam all over her face was a pretty hilarious sight.
His mother fixed her glare on him, and Prism's humour instantly faded.
"Heheh... hi mom..." he grinned obnoxiously widely, plastering a serene look across his face.
Her tired eyes darkened, before she smiled at him sweetly.
"Prism, would you like to have a go feeding your brother?"
Prism paled. "Uhh... no fanks mom... hehe... I eat waffles now..."
"Oh, no you don't," she swooped in, getting applesauce all over his mane as she picked him up and set him on the table in front of his brother. "It's your turn to feed him. I'll be back in literally two seconds, okay?
Prism pulled a face, taking the spoon and gingerly holding it out to his brother's mouth. Green eyes stared back at him apprehensively.
Prism stuck his tongue out, and the blue-hued foal stared defiantly back at him.
Prism wrinkled his nose. "You gross and smelly," he muttered, sticking the spoon in the applesauce. Before he could stick the spoon in his brother's mouth, Sunny tried to bat the utensil as he did with their mother, only seeming to smirk as Prism yanked his hoof quickly out of the way.
Prism glared at him, throwing down the jar on the little tray of Sunny's highchair, and jumped off the chair. His brother could go hungry, with that attitude.
He was just about the storm out of the room when he heard a scared-sounding wail. A creature had crawled through the open window- a cat, Prism knew, from all of his animal books. Usually, only critters with wings lived in Cloudsdale, but their neighbour's bad-tempered cat, Tiddlywinks, had been enchanted to walk on the vaporous floor.
It now smirked, stalking menacingly towards Prism's brother, claws out, with a practised ease that suggest it had done this before when his mother was out of the room. Bullying Sunny.
Prism wasn't sure exactly what it was, but there was some strange emotion that coursed through him, that caused him to stick one of his dad's metal pots on his head and charge at the cat, wooden spoon in hand. Nobody was going to bully Sunny, or be mean to him. (Except for maybe Prism himself, because that's what siblings were for.) Not even a stupid cat.
He channelled his inner Daring Do and waved his sword- or spoon- at the offender.
The cat yowled when the pot fell off Prism's head, and scampered off, cowardly when faced with someone who could fight back. Sunny sniffled, and grasped Prism's hoof tightly when the older colt lifted it up to see if his brother was okay.
There was a flapping of wings and suddenly their mother was back in the kitchen demanding to know what had caused the great crashing sound.
"Mean cat was going to scratch Sunny," Prism explained simply, "I scared it off. Like Daring Do."
His mother took a moment to regard the open window, the pawprints on the counter-top, and the way Sunny was now clutching her older son with a self-soothing familiarity, and smiled.
"Well, Sunny," she addressed the baby as she took the spoon off Prism, "how lucky you are to have a big brother who will always look out for you."
His father trotted in then, and before he could frown and reprimand Prism at the sight of this best pots on the floor, Sunny let out a keening cry that diverted both of his parents attention.
For once, Prism wasn't angry at his brother's screams- Sunny had just saved him a scolding. Prism grinned, and suddenly there was a newfound alliance between him and his brother.
Perhaps he wouldn't be so boring after all.
Author's Note
It feels like I've been talking about this fanfic forever and haven't actually gotten round to posting anything until now! Like I said, this isn't necessarily a chronological story with consecutive chapters, but rather a collection of shorter one-shots (although I think from time to time the longer short stories might span one to two chapters!)
Quite a short chapter to begin with, but i assure you there are plenty longer ones to come! (Ps excuse the mediocre cover art, I wanted to create my own characters and have them at the forefront of the story! The colours their names are underlined in are the colours of their fur.)
Thanks!
Dawn
Anesthesiology... and a Bucketful of Boredom
It was an indolent Sunday morning, and the sun shone languidly through the blue curtains of the Skies' living room.
"Sunny."
Silence.
"Sunny?"
Still no reply.
"Sunnnnnnnnnnyyyy-"
"What?!" Sunny snapped at Prism, who was lounged lazily across the couch, tossing a cloud ball idly in his hooves.
"I'm bored." His brother pouted, throwing the cloud ball at his face. Sunny ducked, covering his body with his Physics textbook, and glowered at his sixteen-year-old brother who smirked and swung upside down.
"Hi Bored, I'm Sunny," he replied snarkily, burying his nose in Newton's Third Law once again. His brother huffed in frustration across the room.
"You're no fun," Prism whined, groaning.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" Sunny asked, "As in, preferably not here?"
"Uh, rude," Prism sang, "I think you'll find I both make and keep excellent company."
"If you're not teasing me, you're insulting me, and if you're not insulting me, you're teasing Dawn, so forgive me, my dearest brother-"
"Oh, pish-posh Mr. I'm-So-Much-Better-Than-Everyone-Else, can't you take a joke?"
"Where's your crony, Coriolis?" Sunny rolled his eyes, "Can't you go make other people miserable with him instead?"
"Can't," Prism sighed, "he's with Twilight and the rest in Canterlot."
"That's Aunt Twilight to you, Prism Dart," their mother said, strolling into the room. "And if you're so bored, why don't you play a game. Scrabble, for instance? Has anyone seen my paperwork?"
"Ew, Scrabble," Prism pulled a face, as Dash threw down the board game and stalked out the room again, stack of paperwork in hand.
"Just because you have the vocabulary of a seven-year-old rather than a five-year-old, Prism, does not mean you're an intellectual."
"Ugh, I'm going to get Dawn. Maybe she'll actually go flying with me."
"You'll have to find her, I haven't seen her anywhere today."
"Find who?" A voice popped up from behind the couch.
"GAHH!" the two brothers yelped, as Dawn frowned.
"I have a question. Are clouds the Earth's equivalent of sun cream?"
"What the hell-" Prism started.
"Well actually, the clouds act as an insulator, trapping electromagnetic waves-"
"Blah-blah-blahdy blah, nobody cares. Why do you ask?" Prism cut Sunny off.
"Oh, no reason. Just wondering. And have you ever thought about the fact that we don't know for certain we are seeing the same colours?"
"Dawn you're being weird today," Sunny sighed.
"Oooh, is that Scrabble?!" Dawn beamed.
"We are not playing Scrabble-" Prism started.
"Hey, Prism," Dawn grinned, "if you don't play Scrabble with me, then I'll tell Mom what really happened to Aunt Rarity's prized vase."
Prism gasped. "You wouldn't-"
Dawn only smirked. "MOMMM-"
Dash raised her eyebrows, staring at her three children who she had been called down to adjudicate. "Now, we are going to play Scrabble, and we are going to do it in civilised and respectful way. Alright?" She told them sternly, her voice steely.
Dawn beamed, whilst Prism and Sunny frowned, sulking into their chairs. "Fineeee..." They mumbled.
"Alright, Prism, you go first."
Prism Dart stared at his letters for a long time, frowning, his brow furrowed in concentration. "I'm gonna put an A down," he said finally, picking up a tile, "to make the word 'a'. Score one point."
Dawn scoffed. "That's not allowed!"
Prism glared at her.
"Dawn, your turn." Their mother interrupted, shooting them warning looks.
"I'm gonna add 'n' to make the word 'an'. Score three points." she nodded, crossing her arms.
"Really, Dawn?" Sunny lifted an eyebrow. "I mean, I'd expect pathetic words from him," he gestured with his head in Prism's direction, "but I have a little more respect for you. Surely you could have gotten better than that."
"Hey!" Dawn pulled a face at him, "I only have Qs and Ws, so shut up."
"Hey-"
"Just go, Sunny," their mother sighed.
"Fine," he grumbled, taking a quick look at his letters.
"I'm adding my letters to make 'anesthesiology'. Score 43 points."
Dawn and Prism gaped at him as Dash looked mildly impressed.
"Is that even allowed?" Dawn asked.
"That's not allowed. Mom, tell him that's not allowed."
"How do you even have enough letters for that?!"
"This is why nobody likes to play with you," Prism huffed, still moping about his one point.
"Oh, just because I'm smarter than both of you-"
"MOM!" Dawn and Prism complained.
Dash simply raised her eyebrows. "Kiddos, this sounds like a you problem, not a me problem."
Prism flipped the board.
"I'm still bored." Prism said.
"Well it's your fault, stupid. You're too immature to play Scrabble."
"I hate you both," Dawn crossed her forelegs.
"No you don't. You know you love us really," Sunny rolled his eyes for what seemed like the fifth time in three minutes.
"No, its true. She really doesn't like us," Prism said shrugging, then turned to address his sister. "I've read your diary. Or, rather, a vent-book."
"You read my diary?"
"Well, at first, I thought it was a very sad, hoof-written book-"
"I hate you."
"Love you too."
"What about poetry?" Dawn exclaimed, jumping up from her seat. "That's a good way to cure boredom!"
"I'm not bored, only you two are. Because you have nothing interesting to do with your lives." Sunny said from his textbook.
"Hmm... okay, what about this," Dawn cleared her throat dramatically.
"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
If I had a brick,
I'd throw it at you!" She blew a sweet kiss in Prism's direction.
"Well, roses are red,
Violets are blue,
A face like yours,
Belongs in a zoo,
But don't be sad,
I'll be there too!
Not in a cage, duh,
But laughing at you." Prism sneered back.
"Hah! Take that Sunny," he turned towards his brother. "I told you I was intell- intelle-"
"Intellectual?" Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"Exactly," Prism smirked.
"Huh. Well, what about this," Sunny inhaled.
"Shut up both of you-
Here's something new:
Violets are violet,
Not fucking blue."
"Woah, language little bro," Prism chuckled. "Stop fucking swearing!"
"You both make me despair," Sunny pinched his brow. "I hope you know that."
Dawn smirked. "Oh, we know."
"Hey, what about jokes?" Dawn asked, sitting up from where she had been trying to amuse herself with watercolours, and ending up tearing a hole in the soggy paper.
Prism scoffed, "Oh, Celestia, no Dawn. Your jokes are absolutely horr-"
"Hey, Sunny," Dawn interrupted him, "you know the joke about 'no' and 'me neither', right?"
"No?"
"Me neither!" She burst out laughing as Prism and Sunny shared a look.
"What, you don't get it?" She asked, seeing they weren't laughing.
"No." Prism rolled his eyes.
"Me neither!"
"I mean, it could be worse," Sunny shrugged as Dawn rolled about on the floor. "It wasn't that bad..."
"Please," Prism sneered, "Dawn's the living embodiment of 'it could be worse'. So-"
"Not nice, asshat," Dawn replied, punching him on the side.
"Okay, I'm going up to my room to read. Goodbye, losers."
"Hey," Prism whined indignantly, "Mom said you should try to spend more time with the family, Sunny-"
"Mom also respects my personal space. So I'm going now. Ta ta."
Before he could flounce out the room, Prism seized his foreleg. "If you walk up those stairs, I'm going to spam call your telephone until it drives you mad."
Sunny rolled his eyes. "Then I'll just switch it off."
Dawn gasped then, vibrant curls flopping back over her face as she pressed both hooves to her cheeks.
"I've just had the most funnest, amazing idea ever..."
Sunny and Prism simply glanced at each other dubiously.
"Alright...?"
"Hey Cori... look, I'm really sorry to have to tell you this way, but something bad happened to Prism yesterday."
Sunny held the phone up to his ear, frowning sadly.
"He... he um... well, I get a little choked up talking about it actually. Anyway, he hit his head on a tree branch, suffered a severe concussion, bashed his pre-frontal cortex... and he has amnesia. Can't remember a thing."
"Is he crying? Is he crying?" Prism hissed, from where him and Dawn were rolling silently on the floor with laughing.
"A little," Sunny whispered back, smirking. "Not really."
Prism frowned, jumped up, and snatched the phone out of Sunny's head.
"You stone cold BITCH!" He yelled, "You should be SOBBING! WAILING! WAILING, I SAY!"
They all burst into laughter as Prism slammed the phone down.
"Oh, man, I could just picture the look on his face!" Prism wheezed.
Sunny pulled his face into a reluctant grin. "You know what, hanging out with you two idiots isn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"Wow, high praise," Dawn rolled her eyes, but was beaming nonetheless.
"Yeah, yeah," Prism rolled his eyes, somewhat fondly. "Now let call Twilight!"
Author's Note
Lol why did this chapter take so long to write 
Anyway, PLEASE leave a comment!! I really appreciate any opinion on my writing.
Dawn x
