Pound My Pumpkin

1. Bond

Pumpkin sighed as she watched her brother walk towards the stairs. She had hoped he would be excited about the idea of them having the house to themselves for a week. A week just to be themselves, where they could rekindle their bond as twins. But it seemed he didn't have an interest in that after all. If anything, the idea of being alone with her seemed to upset him for some reason.

She turned back to the front counter, levitating some cupcakes over to fill where she had just sold out. She wasn't sure why, but whenever she minded the front counter, a lot of Pound's friends showed up to buy plenty of sweets...usually saying some of the silliest things. The first time she'd mentioned this to her folks, her mom said it might be the time for the talk about "the birds and the bees". However, her Aunt Pinkie had already explained that to her; bees make honey, and birds eat bees. She failed to see how that was relevant to the behaviour of colts, but her folks seemed relieved that she already knew...whatever it was, so she didn't make a fuss.

As she restocked, she felt Pound's hoof brush against her magic in the kitchen. Even as she minded the front counter, she could reach into the kitchen with her magic and mix batter, bake sweets, mix icing, and apply all the finishing touches every individual sweet needed to make it just perfect. Princess Twilight Sparkle had examined her skill level and recommended to her parents that she attend Celestia's school for Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot...but she had declined. Baking was her true passion, and she already had enough knowledge and control to do that...and she couldn't imagine leaving her brother behind.

The touch of his hoof against her magic brought a breif smile to her face, though she sighed as she could feel him turn to go up to the room they'd shared since birth, her residual magic still clinging to his hoof as he walked up the stairs. Glancing around, she saw how late it was getting and turned the sign on the door to 'CLOSED'. She then packed up the remaining fresh baked goods for the day. Some would be placed in the 'day olds' cabinet, sold at a discount the next day. The rest were donated, divided between orphanages and other community services that could always use the extra sweet bun or two.

Having finished the packing and clean up, Pumpkin worked to prepare dinner. She'd been expanding her culinary skills beyond baked goods, so she decided she'd make an eggplant primavera with apple turnovers for afters. As this dish was new to her, she needed to be in the kitchen to make it.

As she finished cooking, she set the table and turned to go get her brother. As she entered the room, however, she saw he was asleep. She figured he had a rough day.

"Zzz...wha...Pumpkin..."

Pumpkin blinked. He was dreaming about her? Why would he be dreaming about her? She didn't understand. "Big Brother?" she called out, concerned.

"Zaa...Pumpkin...Pumpkin!" He shot to his hooves in his bed tossing his covers off. He glanced out the window, then towards the door.

Pumpkin smiled at him. "Big Brother, dinner's almost ready." When he nodded, she pulled back, heading downstairs to make sure everything was just right, wanting to make sure that Pound would be comfortable.

When Pound joined her at the table, she smiled, pleased to see the effect the smell of dinner had on him. As he sat down to begin eating, she tasted the food herself. She was glad to see she had done such a good job.

"Delicious as always, sis," Pound said distractedly, devouring his food.

Pumpkin chuckled to herself, watching herbrother devour his food with his usual eagerness. Mom sometimes wondered if he even took the time to taste it. "So Pound," she began as she enjoyed her meal as well, "it's been a while since we had a chance to sit and talk, just the two of us. We've both been so busy."

Pound nodded. "Mph-hmm," he said through his mouthful of food.

"It'll be nice to get to know each other again," she said, twirling her fork in the pasta.

Pound blinked. "Mph."

Pumpkin chuckled. "You never did learn good table manners, did you, big brother? How are you ever going to catch a filly's eye when you eat like a pig?"

Pound chocked a bit, then swallowed. "Huzzawah?" he asked, displaying the usual eloquence of the adolescent colt.

Pumpkin giggled at his unease. "Well, Mom and Dad were talking about when you'd bring home a fillyfriend for them to meet. Aren't you looking? I do want you to be happy, big brother." She supressed the anticipated jealousy. That was just the usual irritation any sister felt about a girl getting close to her brother, just like how Princess Twilight acted when her older brother was getting married. "So, is there a certain filly you have your eye on, big brother?"

Pound's wings snapped violently open. That was odd. While it did happen quite often with him, she couldn't figure out what about her question could have triggered it. The only other time she'd seeen that sort of reaction was when she'd brought honeycakes to his stormball teammates and told them she had made them with her special honey. She could understand why that had made them so happy. After all, she'd been aging that jar in the back of the pantry until it had reached just the right level of crystallization for three years...not that she told them that. She didn't want anypony knowing where she kept her special honey.

Pound looked away. "No, there's nopony..."

Pumpkin looked at him. She didn't understand what was wrong with him. Why wouldn't he tell her what was bothering him? Was it...her fault? So she took a risk, trotting on eggshells.

Her next words wouldn't have made sense to anypony who overheard the conversation, assuming they heard words at all and not complete gibberish. After all, she was speaking in a private language unique to her and Pound, one that no linguist could ever unravel. She spoke in Twin.

"Big Brother, you can tell me what's bothering you. You can trust me." She looked at him, her heart in her eyes. "Did...did I do something wrong? Please, tell me how we can go back to what we had."

Pound's entire body seemed to shiver. He snatched up his turnover. "Welldinnerwasgreatasusualyou'reareallygoodcookPumpkinbutIhadareallylongdaysoI'mgonnahitthehay,goodnight!" He dashed up the stairs.

Pumpkin stared at where he had been. Tears started to form in her eyes. She had addressed him in Twin, their private language, practically the symbol of everything they had once meant to each other, the bond they'd shared since birth...and he had responded in Equesh. She had never felt more rejected - more unloved and unwanted - in her entire life.

"Is this how Aunt Pinkie feels," Pumpkin sobbed out, "when her mane and tail go straight? ...no wonder she never wants any pictures of those times..." She started to tap her magic to clean up, but she stopped. She could clean up tomorrow, or something. Slowly, she walked up the stairs.

In their room, she saw that Pound was in bed, to all appearances dead to the world. She crawled into her own bed. She started to reach for her covers, then left them off. Burying her face in her pillow, she wept, her voice letting out the chocked sobs of the broken hearted.

After a time, she heard hoofsteps...and then Pound was there, rubbing his head against her neck, trying to comfort her. With a sob, she threw her forelegs around his neck, pulling him close, crying into his mane. His wings snapped open again, and he tried to pull away, but she whispered, "Please, Big Brother...don't reject me again..."

His entire body shuddered, and he seemed to droop in shame. Climbing onto the bed with her, he lay down against her. She smiled, feeling more content now, but she noticed how stiff his wings were. Thinking she could help make him more comfortable, she began to rub the flight muscles of his back, between his wings, trying to ease the tension.

Pound let out a hissing intake of breath. "Pumpkin, wait..."

"What's wrong, Big Brother?" she asked, confused. "I just want to help you relax. Am I...doing it wrong?" She continued to rub his muscles, more gently this time, adding her magic to it ever so slightly to caress the musculature of his back and wings gently from within. "Does it...hurt?

He let out a gasp. "No, Pumpkin. It's not that, it's-" He let out another gasp, followed by a moan.

She smiled. "It feels good?" When he nodded silently, she giggled happily. "I'm glad. I've never done anything like this before. I was worried I'd got it wrong." Feeling with her magic, she sensed each tight knot of muscle in his back and wings, pressing on them with her hoof as her magic unwound the knots, rubbing as she found and released each point of tension in his body.

Pound let out a sudden gasp, louder than before. "Oh gods!" he gasped out, before his breath caught. His entire body went tense before then going slack. His eyes then went wide as though from shock. He started to scramble out of the bed.

"Big Brother, wait!" Pumpkin called out. Her hoof touched a warm, wet spot on her sheets. "Big Brother, did...did you wet the bed?" She couldn't help but giggle.

Pound went pale, then leapt for the window, pulling it open, spreading his wings. He leaped.

"Big Brother, wait!" Pumpkin's magic seized his body, pulling him back in, leaving him suspended upside down in the air. "I'm sorry I laughed. I'd never judge you for wetting the bed. I won't tell Mom and Dad, I'll just change the sheets. Just please, tell me what's wrong!" She was crying now, but she couldn't stop. He wouldn't face her. "Please! You've been drifting away, we've been growing apart...and I can't bear it! We...we haven't even held hooves like we used to since we got our Cutie Marks! That was more than three years ago!" He turned to face her, a look of compounded shock, shame, and fear on his face. "Please, tell me what I'm doing wrong, how I can fix this...Pound!"

The language known collectively as Twin is far more complex than any untwinned being could ever hope to comprehend. As the roots of each Twin language set is based in the time whilst the twins are still enwombed, the language develops tenses, inflections, and intonations with meanings that language as most beings know it could never fully interpret it. A good metaphor would be that, while a picture may be worth a thousand words in Equesh, one word of Twin is worth a thousand pictures...especially when that word is a name.

In Twin, to speak a being's name is not just simply a designation. It is a reflection of the speaker's heart, everything they think and feel and believe about the named being, what they mean to them and what they think of them, and nothing can be hidden. When Pumpkin called her brother's name in Twin, it was more than just a word. It bespoke of how much she loved him, how much their bond meant to her, the years of obscure pain she'd been through ever since he began to put up the wall between them...and the agony of rejection she felt earlier when he would not speak to her in Twin, and the fear that she would lose him.

Pound looked up at her, tears flowing freely from his eyes as realization struck him like a stampede. His eyes locked on hers, and he spoke but a single word.

"Pumpkin..."

Pumpkin gasped, her magic releasing Pound to let him fall to the floor. Turning, she did the only thing she could do. She ran.

In that single word, she had felt everything she was to her brother. She felt the pain he experienced with realizing how much he'd hurt her, the knowledge that distance between them was the last thing he wanted, how much he loved her, how much he wanted to keep their bond strong, and the fear that he would hurt her beyond redemption.

All this she could handle. But there was one more emotional impression in his call of her name in Twin. An emotion she herself had never experienced, had no true familiarity with. It had almost felt like the estrus cycle she had gone through for the first time just two months ago, but that only came every half-year. It was this emotion from her brother she did not know how to handle, and could only try to escape.

She fled from his lust.