Oversleeping

by Equimorto

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Other, Pinkie Pie, Slice of Life
Length: 1004

On one late spring morning above Sugarcube Corner, a filly wakes up late.

Late spring. The weather is warm, but not yet hot, the Sun shines not too bright in the sky. It's a pleasant morning in Ponyville. One filly in particular though isn't yet up to enjoy it. But things won't stay like that for long, not if Pinkie has a say in it at least.

An entry into the A Thousand Words contest, under the "Fluff" category.

Prereading and general inspiration courtesy of Reviewfilly.

Published 2022-05-29 16:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2022-05-29 16:20:01 UTC

Good Morning, Sun

A door quietly creaked open, then closed. Hooves tapped on the wooden floor as they made their way across. Light streamed into the room as the curtains were drawn and the window was pushed open, and along with the midmorning Sun's rays came the chirping of birds from outside. Despite the thick yet not too heavy covers putting up their best efforts, some light still filtered through them. The filly lying hidden beneath them groaned.

Pinkie Pie let go of the window and spun around back towards the room. "Rise and shine, filly! Those who sleep catch no fish!" She stopped midway through her twirl to tap her chin in thought. "I'm not sure why you'd want to catch fish, actually. But that's how the saying goes." She shook herself and finished her pirouette, then walked closer to the bed. "Come on, breakfast is ready. It's going to turn cold if you don't come."

The filly only answered with more groaning, then hissing when the covers were removed from over her head and her closed eyes were exposed to the most heinous thing that could befall them: Pure, unfiltered natural sunlight. She helplessly clawed with her hooves to try to snatch the covers back, but they were already out of her reach. Defeated, she resigned to covering her eyes with her forelegs.

Pinkie gave a maternal smile as she noticed the open book lying next to the filly's head on the pillow, the same she'd been holding the day before. She'd gotten quite a bit further it looked like. "Stayed up late to keep reading again, didn't you?" she asked rhetorically. "What did Twilight tell you about that?" At least she hadn't drooled all over the pages in her sleep, like that one time.

"Sleep is for the weak!" the filly weakly tried to protest. Or at least Pinkie guessed that was what she was saying, given half the words were munched up. She sat down on the bed next to the filly, and gently rubbed a hoof where her green coat met her shaggy black mane. Despite her earlier attitude the filly seemed to like that, even leaning into her hoof a little. Her groaning stopped, turning into something closer to a pleased sigh.

"Come on, now," Pinkie softly said. "Besides, you're sleeping right now, you silly filly. You can't read like this." She stretched out her other hoof to grab the wooden brush lying on the nearby nightstand. The filly slowly opened her eyes, briefly squinted, then blearily blinked. She groggily sat up and leaned against the headboard. "There we go," said Pinkie.

The filly groaned one last time, but otherwise stopped protesting. She rubbed her eyes with a hoof, only achieving very mild success in removing the tiredness from them. Then she leaned a little forward, allowing Pinkie to start brushing her mane back into something more ordinate. "Thank you," she said, as the brush straightened out her hairs. Pinkie Pie had a talent for making it feel pleasant even when taking out all her knots, probably born out of years of experience with her own, far messier mane.

Pinkie just smiled and kept on brushing. After a couple of moments the filly looked to the side, then she picked up her book again and started to read it from where she'd left off. A couple of seconds later she paused, flipped the book around, and actually properly began to go through it, after making sure twice it was actually right side up that time. Pinkie chuckled lightly, but it wasn't mocking, it was simply friendly. "You really like reading, huh?"

The filly gave a small nod. "One day I'm going to be a writer," she said, her still half closed eyes running over the page. "I need to read a lot so I learn how to do that well." She went to flip the page, and paused halfway through to yawn. Then she finally finished turning it. She stared at the new one awhile, then flipped back to the previous, finally admitting to herself that she'd mentally missed at least half of what she'd gone through.

"That sounds nice." Pinkie put away the brush, then stepped off the bed. "Come downstairs now though, little fillies need to eat breakfast and writers do too." She got to the door and looked back at the reading filly. "We'll be going to Twilight's place after that, we shouldn't keep her waiting. You can pick up a new book there if you want." She stayed a little longer, watching the filly read, then finally headed out and down the stairs.

The filly read until she got to the end of the page, properly so that time, then stretched herself out and blocked another yawn before it could come out. She slowly stepped off the bed, grabbed her book from the inside so her hoof would keep track of where she'd gotten, and placed it open over her back like that. She stared out at Ponyville from her window for a moment. The shadows were growing shorter as noon approached, but the season wasn't too hot yet. The soft breeze blowing in from outside was quite pleasant. After a few more blinks, and a quick yawn she failed to catch in time, she finally headed downstairs, carefully balancing the book on her back so it didn't fall.

Truth be told she was getting kind of hungry, and Pinkie's breakfasts were always tasty enough to get her through the excessive portions. Besides, better to eat while the food was free. Last she'd heard, being a writer didn't put too much on the table by itself, unless you were one of the big names. Not that she cared. She wanted to do it because she loved reading, and she'd do it for free if it came down to it, as much as she hoped it wouldn't. One day she'd be making fillies stay up at night with her stories too, she swore it.