Grandpa Carrot and Grandma Cup
When Pinkie Pie came back home to the loft above Sugarcube Corner after another busy day of planning and throwing parties, it warmed her heart to see her husband and her son waiting there for her (like they often did). To her they meant everything. Well, almost everything. There were a few particular ponies besides these two that she also had a special connection with.
And it was the subject of two of those specific ponies that had caused the pink party pony to come home with an exceptionally bright smile, not to mention an even bigger spring in her step than normal.
"Welcome home, honey," Cheese Sandwich smiled as he trotted up to his wife and kissed her. "Another busy day at work?"
Pinkie nodded her head. "Don't I know it! But those smiling faces made it all worthwhile. Such is the life of party ponies like you and I."
Meanwhile, Lil' Cheese had come bouncing right over to his mom. As soon as he had her attention, he bounced up again and gave her a big hug. "Hiya, Mommy!" He greeted. "Guess what? Mr. Pound and Miss Pumpkin let me help them in the kitchen today."
The earth pony mare smiled while returning her son's hug. "That's great. You didn't make too much of a mess this time, did you?"
"Nu-uh," Lil' Cheese innocently insisted. "I did exactly what they told me to do. And you were right, baking is fun! I'll bet someday I'll be just as good a baker as you and Auntie Applejack."
Pinkie smiled as she patted her son on the head. "I'm sure you will be, Lil' Cheese. After all, you're just like your father and I. You can tackle anything life throws at you," Then she cleared her throat as she made her announcement. "Now it's my turn to give you a surprise, Lil' Cheese. You know about the ponies who used to run Sugarcube Corner?"
The little colt firmly nodded his head. "Uh-huh. You told me stories about them all the time, Mommy."
Pinkie Pie then declared. "Well now you're gonna get to meet them: Your Grandpa Carrot Cake and your Grandma Cup Cake. We're all going to Silver Shoals to visit them!"
Lil' Cheese gasped as his mouth dropped wide open in disbelief! "No way! You really mean it?"
"Yes indeedy!" The pink party pony proclaimed. "I already wrote them a letter telling them we were gonna come and see them. We leave for Silver Shoals first thing tomorrow."
Cheese Sandwich began to smile too. "Ah, Silver Shoals. I don't think we've been there since the time we celebrated the anniversary of Celestia and Luna's retirement," And then he added. "It'll definitely be nice to see Mr. and Mrs. Cake again. They always were some of the nicest ponies I ever had the pleasure of knowing. I can see why you lived with them, hon."
Pinkie smiled back. "Yup. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were truly special. That's why I want to go see them again, just to see how they're doing in their retirement. And so that they can get a good look at Lil' Cheese. They only saw him briefly when he was born. Just wait until they see him now."
Lil' Cheese beamed from ear to ear while all but shouting. "Uh-huh! I even got my cutie mark to show off to them!" And he proudly gestured a hoof to his flank, which depicted a slice of cheesecake.
It was then that the colt's mother spoke up again. "Well, we'd better start packing so we can be ready for tomorrow. And we'll have to make sure to get up bright and early so we can spend as much time as possible at Silver Shoals. After all, it'll be a long journey to get there." And with that, the conversation among the happy family ceased for the time being.
There was so much excitement in the air and in the minds of all three earth ponies that sleep was difficult that night. Still, they managed to catch a fair bit of it before being woken up by the sound of alarm clocks.
Soon, a frantic rush enveloped the loft where the happy family lived as they all scrambled to gather their belongings as quickly as possible! They only just had time to pop downstairs to Sugarcube Corner proper for a quick breakfast.
"Say hi to Mom and Dad for us." Pound Cake called out to Pinkie Pie when breakfast was over.
"And tell them we miss them very much." Pumpkin Cake added as she and her brother waved goodbye to the departing trio of earth ponies.
Pinkie only just had time to call back to the twins "I will." before she, her husband and her son were out of sight.
The trip out to Silver Shoals seemed to take forever, especially in the mind of Lil' Cheese. He always loved going on trips with his family, especially to places he'd never been to before. And this was no exception.
At last, however, the lovely seaside setting of Silver Shoals came into view. And it wasn't long after that before Lil' Cheese and his parents had departed, setting hoof on the dock that led up to the massive estate that was the dream location for ponies from all walks of life to retire to.
Pinkie Pie proudly led the way to the Silver Shoals estate. She'd visited here many times before, the most recent trip having been undertaken with her husband. As such, she knew by heart where everypony within this retirement community lived: The Cakes included. She took her family up a flight of stairs, around a corner and down a long hallway until finally reaching the room she knew the Cakes resided in.
Yet upon pushing said door open, Pinkie (along with Cheese Sandwich and Lil' Cheese) found the room to be empty. And there was no indication that its usual inhabitants had left a clue as to where they might be.
"Oh, I hope something hasn't happened to the Cakes," Cheese Sandwich spoke up as he noticed the worried look on his wife's face. "My 'Cheesie Sense' didn't flare up at all, so I'd like to think I would know if something was up."
"They're not here?" Lil' Cheese asked with a frown. "Where could they be?"
Pinkie put a hoof to her chin as she pondered the predicament. "I guess we'll just have to ask around. On a day as nice as this they could be anywhere: Sunbathing, windsurfing, playing bingo, you name it. There's always something to do around here besides just wait for visitors to come by."
However, at that very moment a familiar female sounding voice called out from afar. "Were you looking for us by any chance?"
And a familiar male sounding voice replied. "I think they were, sugar plum. Looks like they got here even sooner than we expected."
The trio of earth ponies spun around as they saw two more earth ponies standing behind them: One was a lanky stallion with a light brilliant amber coat somewhat wrinkled, moderate green eyes that looked faded and a light brilliant orange mane and tail with just a few well hidden gray streaks sticking out. His cutie mark was three cut carrot cakes. And the other was a plump mare with a very light blue coat that showed signs of her advanced ages, brilliant rose eyes that hadn't lost their luster despite their age and a pinkish mane and tail styled up to look like frosting on a cupcake (even though gray streaks were visible throughout). Her cutie mark was three cupcakes.
Pinkie Pie recognized the two old ponies in a heartbeat and was the first to rush over to embrace them! "Mr. Cake! Mrs. Cake!" She hugged them tightly. "Oh, how I've been waiting for this day!"
Mr. Cake and Mrs. Cake both smiled, stroking Pinkie's mane with their hooves while they shared the embrace. Time had not weakened their bond with this pink party pony they had come to know so well. "It's good to see you again, Pinkie Pie." They both said at once, and that was all that needed to be said between them.
Eventually, the joyful embrace ended as Pinkie once again took the lead. "Mr. Cake, Mrs. Cake, I hope you don't mind but I brought my family along with me," She gestured a hoof to her husband as he simply stood there, looking tall and proud. "You already know Cheese Sandwich, my husband."
Cheese bowed his head as he re-introduced himself to the old bakers. "Always a pleasure to meet you both. You're looking well for your age."
Mr. Cake smiled as he told his fellow stallion. "I could say the same to you, despite the gray streaks."
"How's fatherhood been treating you?" Mrs. Cake asked Cheese Sandwich as he came trotting over to her and her husband.
Cheese Sandwich sheepishly admitted. "It was an experience I'll never forget, that's for certain. Thank goodness Pinkie Pie had experience from foalsitting the Cake Twins, or I would've been completely lost on everything."
Pinkie Pie giggled as she remembered a particularly funny experience she'd once witnessed. "Like the time you tried to change Lil' Cheese's diaper, and somehow got one stuck on your head and another on your rump?"
The party pony stallion blushed bright red in embarrassment. "Hey, come on! It was my first time changing diapers, okay? I was just trying to do what any good father should be able to do."
"Hey, it's alright," Pinkie still giggled. "It happened to me too the first time I had to do it. Still, it's your own fault for not attending those parenting classes like I told you you should. But you proved to be a fast learner once I gave you some pointers," In a more sincere and sympathetic tone she added. "You turned out to be a wonderful father to Lil' Cheese, and an excellent father figure for Lil' Cheese's friend: Big Sugar."
Lil' Cheese nodded as he bounced up. "Yeah! Big Sugar's dad's cool, but nowhere near as cool as you are, Dad! You and Mom are like the best parents in all of Equestria!"
Mrs. Cake smiled as she eyed the little colt that now stood before her and her husband. "You must be Lil' Cheese. My, how you've grown. The last I saw of you, Pinkie Pie was bringing you home from the hospital the day before Carrot and I retired."
Mr. Cake then noticed a particular detail on the young earth pony's flanks. "Say, do my eyes deceive me or have you gotten your cutie mark, Lil' Cheese?"
The colt with a coat color for which he'd been named happily displayed his cutie mark as he confirmed. "You bet I have! I just got it a few weeks ago, in fact. I got it helping Mommy while she was helping Mr. Pound and Miss Pumpkin in the kitchen. And I really like Mr. Pound and Miss Pumpkin, they're some of my favorite uncles and aunts, and I've got a lot of 'em!"
Pinkie smiled as she pinched Lil' Cheese's cheeks. "You most certainly do. And you're totally the best nephew to all of them, aren't you? You're not the little stinker you used to be, right?"
"Nu-uh!" Lil' Cheese firmly protested. "I always try to be on my best behavior, because I don't like it when other ponies get upset, especially with me."
Mrs. Cake trotted towards Lil' Cheese and hugged him. "Oh, you're a chip off the old block, Lil' Cheese! You know that? You're just like your mother and your father, always eager to make other ponies smile."
"By the way," Mr. Cake inquired. "How have Pound and Pumpkin been managing Sugarcube Corner? Do they still need a little assistance from time to time?"
"Not really," Pinkie Pie declared. "Those two are all grown up, they don't need my help. But they do make for great foalsitters whenever Lil' Cheese still needs one. You wouldn't believe how many foalsitters he went through, it was so hard to find one on his unique level. And I was so worried he was gonna drive Pound and Pumpkin crazy the first time I left him in their care. But they managed, somehow."
Mr. Cake smiled as he fondly recalled. "Probably because they had a lot of experience living with you while they were growing up. You knew how to make anything they had to do seem like fun," A sigh of longing left his lips. "Sometimes, Cup Cake and I still reflect on what it was like when we ran Sugarcube Corner."
"Oh come now, honey bun," Mrs. Cake playfully ribbed her husband with a hoof. "You know we still do baking here all the time. It's not like we hung up the aprons for good."
At that Lil' Cheese blinked in confusion. "Wait, you guys still bake?" He received two confirming nods. "But then, why did you guys retire to here? You could still run Sugarcube Corner and you'd get to see your children, my mommy and daddy and even me every day."
Mrs. Cake was quick to explain to the young colt. "Carrot and I held on for as long as we could, Lil' Cheese. It wasn't easy to admit we were slowing down, getting older, that our skills weren't what they used to be," Tears started to form in her eyes as she recalled. "Carrot in particular was quite insistent that we hold on even when Pound and Pumpkin were old enough to take over from us. He felt we should give them a chance to live their lives however they wanted, even if it meant going down a different path from the one we'd planned out for them."
Mr. Cake started to tear up as well as he remembered. "But Pound and Pumpkin, they were quite insistent that they were ready. They wanted to run Sugarcube Corner and give us a break. We didn't want to, but they showed us they could be trusted. So it was that, reluctantly, we made the decision to retire to here. We wanted to retire to somewhere in Ponyville so we could still see you and see our children," The tears in his eyes began to fade as he then recalled. "But when we learned that Silver Shoals was in need of good bakers: Well, our minds were more or less made up for us."
"But didn't you guys ever want to come back, just to see what you were missing?" Lil' Cheese pondered.
"We thought about it several times," Mrs. Cake explained, recalling all the letters she and her husband had received over the years. "Pinkie Pie would always write to us, especially when you were younger. Being a mother gave her the kind of insight that only fellow parents could truly know. She was always worried about whether she was raising you right, whether it was a good idea if she let you have sweets just to keep you occupied, or if she wasn't rushing things while trying to potty train you."
Cheese Sandwich could well remember that particular phase and all the "experiences" he'd never be able to forget. "Boy were those times an adventure and a half! I think I know where a lot of my gray streaks came from. Never had I ever seen your mother so frazzled."
Pinkie Pie breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia it all worked out in the end. The only other time I worried so much was when you went off to school on your first day, Lil' Cheese. That was the day I realized I couldn't always be there for you, I had to start letting you live your own life even if it meant you stumble or get hurt. It gave me a new kind of appreciation for the Cakes, even though I already knew I owed them a lot for letting me live with them and work for them."
Mr. Cake then chimed in. "But Cup Cake and I, we were confident that your parents could handle anything life might throw at them. We were certain they'd get it right in the end. After all, they'd already done things Cup Cake and I could only dream of even in the prime of our youth."
"So that was why we stayed here. We'd done the best we could to prepare the ponies we loved most for the challenges ahead of them," Mrs. Cake concluded. "But we'd passed the torch, and Carrot and I knew that much like with Celestia and Luna, we had to let the next generation take over. Our skills were needed here."
Lil' Cheese then did something he almost never did. He stood there in silence. He'd been struck in amazement at all he had learned about these two elder bakers. He could see now why his mom had always been telling him about them. They really were like a family to her. And by extension, that meant they were family to him as well.
Cheese Sandwich looked back to his son, noticing the unusual expression on his face. "Everything okay, junior?" He asked the colt.
Lil' Cheese slowly but surely found the words he wanted to say. "I'm just thinking about how incredible Grandpa Carrot and Grandma Cup really are. Seeing them in pony, they're even greater than I realized from Mommy's stories," He rushed up to both bakers. "I wish I'd gotten to meet you two sooner! You're even more amazing than Auntie Celestia and Auntie Luna, or Auntie Twilight for that matter. And they're really amazing!"
Carrot Cake and Cup Cake smiled. "I'm glad you think so, Lil' Cheese," Cup Cake spoke up. "Carrot Cake and I are happy to consider you part of our family. We couldn't have asked for a better grandson. Gosh, now I really feel old."
Carrot Cake couldn't help but tease. "Oh come now, sugar plum. You don't look a day over forty. You're still as young and beautiful as you were the day I met you."
"Oh stop it, honey bun!" Mrs. Cake playfully swatted a hoof while blushing. "Not in front of the kid. You know he probably hates this kind of mushy stuff, especially since I'll bet his parents do it all the time."
Lil' Cheese only giggled. "Bleh!" He playfully declared and pretended to gag.
Pinkie Pie then spoke up. "Well, now that we're all caught up, why don't we head to the bingo parlor? That way we can all play together as one big, happy family. And as I always say: 'A family that plays together stays together!'"
Author's Note
Seeing as I've written stories involving Lil' Cheese interacting with the Pies and with the Cake Twins, it was only natural I write one involving him interacting with the Cakes (Mr. and Mrs.). I figured this could serve as a bit of a bridge between Mother's Day and Father's Day, both days to celebrate parents.
I decided to give the usual running joke about Lil' Cheese's stickiness a rest, seeing as I've featured it in all my other works involving him up to this point. I also threw in a nod to my most recent work to feature him before now: (Mis)Adventures in Cheese Sitting.
