Adventures in Foalsitting (Rusty, Tartan Lassie) [Dead]

[waxworks]

The Ponyville Puppet Theater wasn't a gigantic building by any means. By theater standards it would've been considered ridiculously small, but by puppet theater standards it was pretty nice. It had a nice bay for audience members to sit in, a wide wooden stage with plenty of rigging areas for strings, backdrops, weights, and so on, and a small orchestra pit full of mechanical ponies. This was one of the cutest features, most would agree. The orchestra pit was, in actuality, a very large music box that you could wind up and set to play or stop with the flick of a hoof.

It was while this mechanical orchestra played a version of Can't Peel My Eyes Off of You that a wood-pattern pelted pony swung around with a broom, happily singing along in what many would've regarded as a terribly off-key but well-meaning tone.

"I wanna snug y'so muuuuch, you're just too good t'be truuuue, can't peel m'eyes offa yoooooou," the band played along uncaringly, but as it reached the next bit of the song, the stallion galloped and slid down the aisle between the seats, rocking the broom up and howling, "OH PREEEEETTY POOOOOOONY, now that I've found yoooooou saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..aaaaa...aaaa?"

Mandolin Gray looked around in confusion as the band stopped playing, leaving him wailing all by himself, which wasn't the best way to find yourself singing. With a slight grump he trotted up to the orchestra and tapped at the controls, "oy lads, who said you could have time off?"

He tapped the on/off button a few times, and nothing happened. Gray sighed and tilted his head, trotting onto the stage, through a small side passage, and to the turnkey backstage. He pressed his nose against it, grunted, strained, then staggered in surprise as it came up short. Apparently it was already fairly tightly wound, and didn't wish to be wound any tighter.

"Oy... gotta have Swazzle come take a look at this late-"

He froze as he stepped back onto the stage to find that every inanimate face in the clockwork orchestra was turned towards him. Gray twitched slightly, and leaned back a bit while keeping his eyes fixed on the faces. "Sis? Sis you back there? Oy? Coo-ee?"

A soft trotting sound from across the stage grabbed his attention, and he leaned forward, "Sis? Manny? ...Stump?"

With a loud, jarring thud, a marionette pony fell out of the shadows to the stage with a crash, causing Gray to jump and trot backwards quickly. This was when one member of the orchestra slowly approached the stage, set down its trumpet, and leapt onto Mandolin Gray's leg, resulting in a spectacularly high-pitched squeal.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaooooooooooooooooooooooooheywaxie."

The face of the orchestra pony flipped up, a grinning white face hidden underneath it, two blazing eyes locked onto him.

"Were you scared?!"

"Ay, that was a good one."

"Yeah but next time be more gentle," said the marionette on stage, slowly standing up as Mannequin Grace trotted towards the stage from the audience where she'd been watching, a small black colt and a small wooden dragon happily trotting alongside her. "I've only just been properly varnished, don't need to be scuffed."

"Aaw, I'm sorry," said Waxworks, apologizing to the marionette with the sort of sincerity one usually doesn't give to an inanimate object, "but thanks for helping!"

The wooden pony nodded, and made its way off stage and back into storage, while Grace leaned forward and flicked a switch back in the orchestra pit. Gray was still catching his breath and smiling brightly, "right, so that's that out of the way Waxy, anyt'ing else special you needed?"

She tilted her head as though there was another scare she was meant to perform but had possibly forgotten, "I don't think so... was there?"

"It'll be fine," said Stump, nudging Cobblestone as cheerfully as a wooden puppet can, "we're going to have loads of fun, aren't we Grace?"

Grace nodded, pantomiming a large smile to the small colt. The little shadow still looked a little nervous about being left with other ponies, but he felt some consolation that it would be his big sister's oldest and closest friend. Cobblestone looked up to see his sister leaning over the orchestra pit's banister, directly into his face. He quickly found her hooves hugging his cheeks.

"Aaaw, I won't be gone long Cobble! And I promise to tell you aaaall about it when I get back!"

"I woa," said Cobblestone, his face still smooshed up from his sister's hooves, "ust bee zafe."

Grace and Gray both watched the two siblings hug, Grace displaying the sort of cooing expression that said she'd like a cute hug like that. Gray noticed, shrugged, and give his own sister an overpowering hug, which resulted in an elbow to the chest. As he coughed a bit he called out, "don't worry Cobble, we're going to have so much fun the time's just going to rocket past you! Waxy will be back before you know it."

With the way Waxworks typically entered a room, this was an incredibly accurate statement.

The white pony looked around the theater, while Grace, Gray, and Stump flanked Cobblestone. Waxy wasn't sure what this feeling was, it wasn't fear, it couldn't be loneliness, could it? It was sort of a longing, but she was still standing right here so that didn't make sense either. As she put her hoof up and opened the theater door to the outside she turned back around, "am I forgetting anything?"

[Tartan Lassie]

    The streets were strangely empty as a skewbald Pegasus hurried along the street, a little grey colt in tow. Her feathered hooves clattered loudly. She looked like she was trying not to gallop and was restraining herself to a trot. A very quick trot, mind you. She was muttering rapidly as she ran and had a saddle bag strapped around her middle. “I’m really sorry, Rusty.” Honey Dust said distractedly. “But some rustic, down-to-earth spa in the country has just placed a massive order for honey.” She bounced a little, excited despite her stress. “I can’t believe my luck, but the deal is that I do the delivery. It’s quite a long journey and I’ll have to take the cart.” She frowned a little. “I’ll have to stay overnight, and I can’t have you getting in the way.” She looked back at him apologetically, regretting her tone. “I’d really like to take you, honest. You’d just be bored anyway. It’s all business.”


    As they turned another sharp corner, Honey did some more muttering, almost to herself rather than Rusty. “You get on well with Cobblestone, right?” She bit her bottom lip nervously. “I certainly hope so, because I’ll need to ask Waxworks to foalsit you. I don’t know anypony else.” She looked a little guiltily at Rusty. “I know you’re old enough to take care of yourself, but I don’t want to leave you alone all night.”


    She was heading towards Waxworks’ house, silently praying that she’d be in, when she saw the white pony herself heading across town. “Oh, Waxworks!” She called, skidding to a stop and waving a hoof. The mare didn’t see her though and seemed to be in a hurry. She vanished round a corner and Honey took off at high speed to catch her. “Come on, Rusty.”


    Honey lost track of Waxworks as she came around the bend, she had always been good at hiding. But she must’ve come this way, right? Honey thought hopefully. At the end of the street was a little theatre. Honey stopped outside it. “A puppet theatre?” She said aloud. She’d seen it before, of course, but she’d never been in it. It did seem like the sort of place that Waxworks would hang out though. Honey stood outside, shifting nervously from hoof to hoof. Glancing at Rusty, she murmured “Do you think this means she’s busy?”


    Honey considered leaving, and just taking Rusty with her… But she knew she couldn’t do that. He was a little careless and this was such a great opportunity that she couldn’t risk anything ruining it. And she didn’t want him to be bored either. There was only one solution. She would just have to go and ask Waxworks herself if she could foalsit. She opened the door and-


    Almost collided with the wax-like mare herself. “Waxworks. Hello!” She said, smiling. Looking in, she saw three other ponies and whole load of puppets and she looked a little sheepish. “Sorry... I’m not interrupting anything, am I? I just really needed to know if Waxworks is free…” Abandoning manners for a moment, that she would look back on embarrassedly, she spoke pleadingly to Waxworks. “I saw you come in here and I followed you. Not for a creepy reason! I need a favour and oh- I know we’ve not known each other long, but Rusty is close friends with Cobblestone and I was wondering if you were maybe free to foalsit Rusty tonight? Please? It’s just for one night and I have everything he needs here…” Honey trailed off into garbled speech, all her words tumbling over each other in her stressed-out state.

[Rusty]

Rusty trotted through streets which honestly was quite the rare sight since he was flying most of the time but somehow he felt like this wasn't the right time for flying. As far as he understood Honey got some kind of honey order... thingie, which required her to leave the city for the night. This part was quite obvious, but why she felt like he needed foalsitter was beyond his little mind. "I got it, really. You have work, really important work and you don't need... complications on the way." he said. He wasn't that small, he got most of it. "I know why do you want to go alone. You are traveling with soo much honey, that there is real chance that you can be ambushed by some evil bandit ponies! And you don't want to put me in harms way." even though they were in hurry it was no reason for Rusty to stop using his wild imagination!

But she was right about something. It will be great to spent some time with Cobble. After all Rusty had quite a few friends now... there were Mira and Silversky and Singularity... but they were all girls, and girls were crazy most of the time. ((no offense intended)) And Honey was right about him and Cobble being friends. "Yeah... I suppose it could be a lot of fun, but I would manage to stay home alone overnight... I could protect our home from thiefs and robbers!" he said and trotted faster, as Honey saw somepony who looked like Waxworks. But she vanished, probably in puppet theatre. "Well... I guess so..." was his only reaction on the matter.

Rusty almost thought that he will be able to spent the night home alone or go with his sister, when she finally opened the door and almost colided with Waxworks. She looked like she was in hurry herself. Rusty had to laugh a little as Honey was so in hurry she was speaking really fast and funny.

[waxworks]

Upon opening the door and coming unexpectedly nose-to-nose with the skewbald pegasus that somepony had secretly rolled in honey, Waxworks let loose with something that was an unbridled mix between a scream and laughter. "BWAAAGHAheeHAheeWAH! HOO! That was great Honey! You totally caught me by surprise! You must've been setting that up for hour-"

The waxy white pony's brain managed to wrestle control away from the mouth for just a moment to listen to Honey's explanation. A spray of various emotions tumbled over Waxy's face, as there were some things she'd just never entirely understood. It was lovely to do things for creepy reasons, she was certain of it, and how long did you have to know somepony before they were a friend? Three hours? Four and a half?

Of course while all of these questions were pinging off the inside of his big sister's head, Cobblestone's ears picked out the name 'Rusty', and a moment later he saw the little gray pegasus in the doorway of the puppet theater. His inky black tail wagging, he trotted over happily with a happy crescent smile appearing on his face.

"Hi Rusty! Are you getting a foalsitter too?"

"Yeah, I think Honey wants me to foalsit him," said Waxworks proudly. "Can do Honey! Oooo, Rusty we're going to have so much fun!"

"Uhm... sis?"

Waxworks turned to smile at her little brother brightly, not entirely seeing a problem for a moment. When Cobblestone raised his eyebrows at another pony, it was a fairly indistinguishable gesture on his little black face, so it took a moment for it to trickle through.

"OH! Right!" With a big sheepish smile, Waxworks turned to the third pair of siblings of the day, rubbing her arm, "er, see, I kinda have to be somewhere and I can't take Cobble along, so I was just here dropping him off with Manny and Mandy and OOOOH! OOOH!"

She began bouncing up and down, a new idea bubbling to the surface, "I bet they could watch Rusty for you! HEY! Hey guys! Oh you'll see, Manny's my oldest friend and she's super smart and super great with little foals!"

Cobblestone was feeling much more cheerful as he trotted with his sister, Honey Dust and Rusty. The idea of being foalsat had made him a little uneasy, but suddenly the idea that he and Rusty would get to hang out together all day and play made it seem like a much more exciting prospect.

"Hey," chirped Cobble to Rusty, "if Ms. Grace and Mr. Gray foalsit you too, then we can play all day, and tell spooky stories all night!"

Mandolin Gray had a knowing grin on his face as the group approached, while Mannequin Grace was raising her eyebrows in a questioning (but not dismissing) sort of way. Behind them, the little wooden puppet could be seen snickering.

[Tartan Lassie]

    When Honey finally stopped speaking and let Waxworks take in her spiel, her cheeks flushed a brilliant pink and she could feel her ears burning, a sure sign of embarrassment. She rubbed her left hoof with her right, nervously. She glanced around not looking at Waxworks, looking at anything except Waxworks, and noticed Cobblestone approaching. He must’ve been with the white mare before but Honey hadn’t even seen it. It wasn’t surprising. The little shadow was a master of disguise without even trying.


    Waxworks seemed to respond positively and Honey breathed a sigh of relief that the excitable pony could foalsit. However the pegasus’ smile faded after Waxworks was reminded by Cobblestone that the reason they were there tonight was that Waxworks needed her little brother foalsat. “Oh… That’s alright…” Honey was just starting to consider how much food she would need to add to her pack in order to take Rusty too, when the waxy mare was struck with an idea.


    Honey gulped and laid her ears back a little. She wasn’t sure about the idea of randomly asking Waxwork’s friends to foalsit for numerous reasons. For one thing, it was rude to just approach ponies she didn’t know and ask favours, and for another, she wasn’t sure how she felt about leaving Rusty with strangers. She’s never left him all night before and was a little nervous about it. But she followed Waxworks into the Puppet Theatre, looking nervously around, like a filly at a very grown-up party.


    She was aware that Rusty and Cobble were trailing behind them, chittering away already. This pleased her, but her attention was swiftly drawn to the two ponies in the hall. There was a large, brown stallion with a leafy green mane that reminded Honey forcefully of a tree and she smiled at him. Beside him was a mare in Honey’s favourite colour, dark purple. Honey’s first thought about her was that her clothes were torn but, upon closer examination, she realised it was her mane that seemed to look rag-like. Such interesting ponies and yet Honey wasn’t really registering surprise. Though she didn’t know it at the time, the reason for this was that these were exactly the sort of ponies she had expected Waxworks to spend time with. Unusual and alluring.


    Honey smiled anxiously as she approached. “Hello there. My name is Honey Dust. I’m sorry to intrude. I was looking for Waxworks to foalsit, but she tells me she came here looking for the same thing…” Honey trailed off, looking hopefully and her white friend, hoping she would take over.

[Rusty]

It was both funny and little disturbing, that whole world of Waxy was orbiting around scary stuff so when sis did scare her by accident she felt like it was carefully planned event. But it was really funny. Rusty was gigling behind Honey, trying to stay invisible, because there were some ponies, that he never saw before, but there was also Cobble. He totally forgot about all that adult talking and waved at Cobblestone.
"Well yeah, I suppose I do... sis must leave town and she does not need any unstable elements while doing so. For example an orange ball of destruction left home alone..." he said and smiled. He meant it just as a joke, he wasn't serious.
He didn't listen to what was Honey and Waxy talking about, but Cobble pointed out, that Waxworks herself is going to need foalsitter for Cobble. That gave Rusty an idea.
"Well so leave us alone somewhere. We can look after each other, right Cobble?" he said while grinning at Honey. The truth was, that he was little afraid of ponies, that he didn't know at all. And yes, he was getting little shy too. But it was surely more fun to spent this time with one of his best friends, that alone at home. And listening to scary stories sounded like quite fun. He looked at his sister, she was after all the one, who knew, what was best for him. Rusty had to smile, because there was no way this won't be a whole lot of fun!

[waxworks]

"That's right," said Cobblestone, nodding his inky black head in agreement with Rusty, "we can just look after each other! He'll watch me and I'll watch him!"

While Waxworks seemed to be giving this some genuine consideration, Cobble was quietly hoping she'd say no to the idea. In truth there was nothing as fun as running and playing with Rusty and their other friends, but at the end of the day he always found is reassuring to know that somepony with experience and a little extra height was watching out for them.

"Aaaw," said Mandolin Gray, pulling an insincere little pout at the two colts, "then I'd have absolutely nopony to help me defend th' city."

While Gray did his best to endear himself to the two colts, Mannequin Grace approached Honey calmly and offered her a large smile. She put her hoof to Honey's lips for just a moment, then something like a rapid percussion set followed as Grace tapped the floor, her own chest, and then with a grand gesture threw a hoof towards the wide open space of the puppet theater.

Waxworks was smiling in her typical style of manic cheer as she turned to Honey. "Grace says it'd be no problem, there's plenty of room!"

The purple unicorn shot her friend a look that was a mix of 'it's more fun when they work it out themselves' and 'thank you for translating'. Some ponies can do amazing things with just their eyebrows, and Grace was a master in that regard.

"Right," said Gray, clapping his hooves together happily and peering at Rusty, "looks like you two lads will be spending the weekend with us! Now I know Cobble here alright, but what's yer wee colt's name?"

[Tartan Lassie]

Honey looked at Rusty's face. He seemed very keen on the idea of him and Cobblestone being left on their own to look after each other, and the shadowy colt was nodding his head. While Waxworks did seem to be considering this, Honey was horrified at the idea. Known to be a little over protective, she was now seeing visions of half of Ponyville being burned down by two mischievous colts antics. Or worse! She knew that Rusty was resilient but reckless and she didn't want him getting hurt. She moved to reject the idea, but before she could say anything, Waxworks' leafy friend cut across her.

She stifled a laugh at his attempt to entertain her brother and Cobblestone. Internally, she was very grateful. If Rusty decided he liked this stallion, then he might be more willing to stay here and behave. She was always impressed when stallions made an effort to get on with foals. Her eyes were drown back to the lovely purple mare who had approached her, a warm smile on her face. Mannequin Grace touched her mouth gently. It was a fairly simple gesture, but Honey was overcome with the feeling of warmth and welcome she got from it. All the tension flooded out of her and she smiled back at the mare. Honey then watched carefully as Mannequin made some odd gestures. Tapping the ground, throwing her front hooves out wide... What could she mean? Honey was slowly realising that Mannequin Grace couldn't speak and felt another surge of warmth towards her. Was she trying to tell Honey something. The pegasus mare's gaze intensified, trying to work out the message but Waxworks translated for her.

They would look after Rusty? Well, that was wonderful. After speaking to these two ponies, Honey didn't feel anywhere near as nervous about leaving him with them as before. "Oh! Thank you! Thank you so much! He'll be really good, won't you, Rusty?" She turned and ruffled Rusty's bright red mane a little. She flushed a strange pink-ish when Mandolin Gray asked about Rusty. "Oh, he's not MY colt- I mean, he's mine but he's not- He's...Um-" She collapsed into splutters before clearing her throat and trying again. "This is Rusty Spikes." She gave the grey bundle a nudge forward. "Say "hello", little bro." She smiled at 

[Rusty]

//damn it! I swear I wrote post like a week ago and it is not here. I must forgot to send it sorry

Rusty suddenly felt a lot better, when Cobble noded and and agreed with Rusty on that one. He knew he could count on him! The funny thing was, that even Rusty deep down was a little afraid of staying alone or alone with Cobble. The truth was, that at night every sigle object was much scarier if no one elder was around. And he glimpsed his sister's face, which sent him a clear message - this idea was strictly forbidden! Thanks for vote of convidence he thought. But even though this place looked like a tun of fun. And those two new ponies must have been totally ok when Waxy left Cobble in their care. Honey was just speaking with them about him. Rusty had to chuckle a little, when Honey had to explain that they are siblings and not the... other thing.
"Hey! I am always really good, ain't I?" he said while smiling like an angel. "Hello there, I am Rusty and... uhm... well... as my big sis says I am uhm... anyway, it is very nice to meet you" he said. He was still a little shy before them. And after this weird introduction he rather pulled back to Cobble. "Uhm... I hope I am not ruining your evening much." he was a little afraid, that Cobble had some awsome plans for this evening and his arrival could spoil them.

[waxworks]

A smile spread across Mandolin's face as Honey flushed brilliantly. Of course him saying 'yer wee colt' was just the way he normally spoke when he meant someone's associate, friend, etc. Seeing Honey react the way she did made Mandolin Gray feel particularly charming, and when he felt charming, he got cheesy. Not that he ever noticed it himself, although his sister noticed it with pinpoint radar accuracy.

"'Course he's not yer colt lassie, yer far too young t'have a colt of yer own." This was accompanied by the sort of grin that got Gray a punch in the shoulder from his sister, as she shook her head and gave Honey a 'he's harmless' expression with her quick shake of her head and a roll of her eyes. Gray rubbed his shoulder and chuckled.

"And 'course you're not ruining anyt'ng laddycolt! Why, I'd planned on havin' Cobble here help me defend Ponyville from monsters and villains, and now that there's two of yers, then we've got ourselves a right proper superpony team!"

"Ahem," came a small, squeaky voice from one side as the small wooden dragon puppet waddled forward, small wooden arms folded.

"And Stump of course. A regular super team!"

Cobblestone giggled at Mandolin's enthusiasm, raising a hoof in salute as part of the team. He nudged Rusty cheerfully, "we'll have loads of fun! Mr. Gray and Ms. Grace watch me sometimes, and it's always fun!"

"Yeaaah," said Waxworks, nudging the unicorn, "you need to come by the House of Wax more often."

Grace mimicked something akin to a Frankenstein stride back to Waxworks, who waved it aside dismissively, "oh it's more fun when the figures get up and run around!"

[Tartan Lassie]

((I reckon this will be my last post in this thread for now, unless something else happens that requires Honey. I hope you guys have fun and I'll definitely be reading!))

    Honey smiled back at strange brown stallion, feeling foolish for her blundering. Though Honey was quite keen on the idea of having foals of her own, she was still young and had her whole life ahead of her. This was a frequent conversation-ender that Honey used every time her mother brought out the "Have you found a nice stallion yet?" line. Still, she knew a compliment when she heard one and didn't get them too often. Accompany this with the stallion’s charming smile and her blush spread across her face a little while she attempted to hide it with a hasty cough into her hoof.


    Switching her attention to her brother, she swelled with pride at the politeness of him. He always sounded so sweet in the mare's opinion, though of course she was biased. Mandolin too addressed Rusty with some friendly banter. Honey grinned at this. She knew Rusty had a penchant for adventure games, since she had played with him as a foal. Enticing Rusty out of shyness with a game like this was bound to work, and Cobblestone was there to help with the encouragement. She didn't know what Rusty would think of the little puppet... Stump? But he didn't seemed too bothered by him. “Thank you so much, you two. I’ll be forever grateful.” Honey pushed her glasses up her nose a little and fluttered over to the colts. She winked at Cobblestone “Look after this one for me, he’s a reckless little guy!” Then she gathered Rusty up and gave him a big cuddle, nuzzling her nose into his red springy hair. She whispered in his ear, not wanting to embarrass him too much. “I love you, little brother. Be good and I’ll be back soon, okay?” She gave a last squeeze and let him go. “Hoof bump?” She added, offering her hoof to him, just as a last sign of their friendship before she left.


    The honeyed mare leapt back over to the adult ponies, smiling warmly. “Thank you again, Mandolin and Mannequin.” She thought about what Waxworks had said about coming to visit the House of Wax. Despite her desire to get to know Waxworks better, Honey had never visited the place. She was an easily scared pony, especially when it came to loud, sudden noises. Somehow she reckoned that she would just end up embarrassing herself. She didn't want to hurt the white mare's feelings though, so she tried to avoid the subject. She gave a last glance to Rusty and sighed, not really wanting to leave; she’d gotten so used to having him around. “I’d better go. I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again!” She turned and headed for the door. When she reached it, she glanced back, wondering if Waxworks was heading out too and they could walk a little way together. She gave the group one last cheerful wave with a wing.

[Rusty]

Rusty was still little unsure of what to expect of this place, but it seemed that it will be a load of fun after all. Well at least Cobble said so. And he wouldn't lie. Rusty just give everybody giant smile. "Count in! I am always up for some creature fightning and protecting!" he said grinning. He was of course playing with Honey quite often, but other than that... Rusty didn't actually remember when was the last time he was staying somewhere over night and playing with friends!
"I believe you Cobble! This will be a blast." he said and all the shyness was long gone by now. He turned to Honey then.
"C'mon sis... that is hardly fair, I am not reckless... I am... brave" he said while saying goodbye. He was quite sad that he need foalsitter, but now it turned into potentional party!
"I love you too sis! Be safe and happy traveling!" he said loudly. After all he wasn't eshamed by his sister in the slightest. He even gave her hoofbump
"See you tomorrow!" he said and waved until Honey dissapeared.
"Well? What are we going to do now?" he said forgetting, that he barely knows those ponies, well except of Cobble of course. But now, when he felt like himself again he wasn't shy at all, mostly because of Cobble. "Uhm... I mean... I am Rusty... and I am really happy to be here... and uhm... I won't be any troubles, I promise" he said

[waxworks]

"I... guess I should be going too," said Waxworks, as Honey began to make her way out of the theater. She looked Cobblestone over again one more time, "are you sure you've got everything you need?"

As she said this, she rooted through his mane and snuffled noisily, like she were checking for any deficits in his hair. He shook his little black head and smiled brightly at his sister.

"I'll be fine sis, have fun with your tour thingy."

She gave his ear a sisterly nip, causing a small meep to emanate from him, and then trotted away after Honey. As she caught up with the skewbald pegasus, an eager chattering started to pour out of her.

"Ooo, you and Rusty have to come to the House of Wax sometime, we'll give you a special tour, it's SUPER scary! In fact, we'll show you the scariest stuff we have! What's your favorite way to be scared? Wait! No, don't tell me! Is it when you reach for a door at night to close it and it closes on its own just before you can touch it?"

Grace shook her head and smirked as her friend left. She was somewhat aware of the sort of excited, macabre, high-speed conversation Honey would be treated to until the two mares finally parted ways towards their respective destinations. With a silent chuckle she turned to the two colts now in their charge and smiled brightly at them. This wasn't the first time she'd foalsat Cobblestone, but Rusty was a new addition she hadn't planned on. Still, the more the merrier. She made a gesture of rolling a pair of dice, and moving some pieces around on an imaginary board with a number of hoof stomps, and looked at the two little ponies questioningly.

"Nah," said Mandolin Gray, leaping onto the stage and pointing at the two little ponies, "these wee lads want to help me defend the city from monsters! Isn't that right?"

Cobblestone giggled slightly, he was aware of what each 'game' entailed for the most part, but half the fun of them was finding out what they'd be. He turned to Rusty, "which one sounds like more fun to you?"

[Rusty]

Rusty's weird interduction was interrupted by leaving Waxy. She even invited Rusty nad Honey to House of Wax. Wasn't that awsome? "Neat! Of course I will come! I love being scared... well... in healthy amount anyway." said Rusty. The truth was that being scared was... well... scary. But that could be good. Rusty loved being scared but only if he knew he was safe... like being home and watching thunderstorm. "Well, let's find out what my favourite way of being scared is, I can't tell you, after all that kind of fun would that be. " he said laughing. And then Waxy was gone too and Rusty was left alone with Cobble and their foalsitters.
It was pretty obvious, that this wasn't the first time they look after Cobble since he knew what was going on. Rusty wasn't that lucky. "Well... uhm... I don't know..." he finally answered to Cobblestone. Being able to choose wasn't exactly his strong side. Now, when Waxy and Honey were gone Rusty felt a little not himself again. It was strange and new enviroment after all, and he had absolutely no idea about what will come. If it weren't for Cobble Rusty would probably crawl in some dark conrner to get his barrings. "I mean... both looks like a lot of fun... but..." he said falling back into his shy self. It was apparent, that he will not be able to choose. He just looked at Cobble hoping, that he will choose instead.

[waxworks]

The sly smile flashed on Mandolin Gray's face, but it quickly vanished as he threw up an innocent facade. He knew exactly what was going through Cobblestone's mind, and if the little pegasus was defaulting the decision to him, it was as good as decided.

The little black pony smiled at Rusty, "it's okay, I can decide if you like."

Cobblestone had wanted to show he was a fair sort of pony that could consider both sides of an argument, but the truth of the matter was that Mandolin and several other ponies had taken Cobblestone to see the newest Spider-Pony movie. It was as simple as that, the little insect-loving colt was hooked on the idea of playing superheroes, but still wanted to try his best to sound like a thoughtful little pony.

"Well, if we play city defenders with Mr. Gray first, that will give Ms. Grace time to set up everything for the boardgames?"

"Exactly what I t'ought," cheered Mandolin, trying to keep his level of excitement just shy of bouncing up and down. He elbowed his sister a few times in an "I told you so" sort of way which earned him a quick shot to the chest. He played it off with a coughing laugh.

"Right lads," said the stallion, leaning forward and crossing his hooves as he addressed Rusty, "yer wee friend here already knows 'ow to play, but I t'ink we'll need to get you set up first. Tell me Rusty, ever wanted to be a super-pony?"

Grace shook her head and grinned, as her magical aura led a costume-rack out from behind the stage. Clearly they were outfits designed for small puppets, but given the sizes they were also just right for little ponies.

Cobblestone smiled to Rusty, hoping it wasn't too much for him all at once. "You get to make up your own super-ponysona," he said eyes and teeth flashing as he spoke, "and then Mr. Gray will set up some sort of challenge, and we have to save the day as our character! I'm the Trapdoor! I can climb up walls (with a little help) and lay in wait under dark places, and I've got a silk lasso I can use to trip up evil-doers!"

The little black inkblot bobbed up and down excitedly, "half the fun is coming up with a character!"