My eyes pop open as my tummy rumbles, sending a shiver through my body.

I try to ignore it, deciding that I can just eat in the morning. Besides, that's what Daddy told me to do when I'm hungry at night. He said something about being too young for late-night snacks...

My tummy rumbles again, and I clench my eyes shut as I involuntarily curl in my hind legs in an attempt to get rid of the pain.

Okay, me, you can do this. Just do what Daddy told you to do: take deep breaths, and close your eyes. I mean, sure, I could get him to come into my room and put me back to sleep, but I told him I'm too old for that now! I can go to sleep on my own...

A tear forms in the corner of my eye as my tummy rumbles even more. I want foooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!!

But I can't cry! No, I told Daddy that I can do this! I also told that...Mr. Colbert that I could do this, after he asked if my crying keeps Daddy up at night...And I don't wanna keep Daddy up anymore. I can do this myself!

...

...

...

I open my eyes with a sense of citrus. Wait...porpoise? No, citrus! Duh.

I open my eyes with a sense of citrus, and slowly pull away from my sister, Fluttershy. I don't wanna wake her up, because if I do, I'll get in a boatload of trouble...

I stand up in the crib with a smile, and silently approach the edge of the confine. Yeah, I know some big words! Twilight told me a few of them, and what they mean. She's such a smartypants...

My body tenses as I hear Fluttershy getting up from the backways of me. Okay, maybe I don't know many big words, but I know enough!

We make eye...umm...we see each other's black-dots-in-our-eyes, and she makes a frowny at me.

"Fluttershy, don't tell Daddy!" I urge in a whisper. She pouts, and tears begin to form in the corners of her eyes. I sigh in defeat. "Fluttershy, I'm just going to get a cookie..."

With that, her expression totally shifts. She shuffles her wings in excitement, making small hushes of sound as her feathers are rustled against one another. She smiles at me, and I nod in understanding.

"Yep. I'll bring you back a cookie, Flutters. I'll be back in ten seconds flat."

With that, I look at the wall of bars, and focus on my wings. Recently, I've been able to fly over the edge of my crib, and Daddy has been super happy about that. So have I, of course. Flying is great, it's like running, only...funner.

In fact, it's like running...

Times two.

Yeah, that's right! I know multipli...multipli...multiplying things! Yes.

Oh, boy, one day I'm gonna be smarter than Twilight!

My heart skips a beat as I realize that I haven't been focusing on my flying, and that I've strayed dangerously close to the ceiling fan. I gulp in fear, shaking as I force myself to slowly descend to the floor.

My limbs shaking, I take a step towards the door, and another, slowly walking so I don't wake up everyone.

When I get to the door, I find that it's open! Score!

Maybe it's a sign from Daddy! Maybe he wants me to do this!

I walk out, and, after ensuring that nobody is watching me so I don't end up getting held back, I quickly descend the stairs, careful not to fall as I slowly make my way down the incline.

I let out a silent gasp as a giant dark form comes out of the kitchen. I press myself into the gap underneath the railing, and watch in fear and apprehension.

After a few moments, I realize that the dark form is just Daddy and the Nice Lady, sharing a happy hug. But now, Daddy's letting go of the Nice Lady, and is sitting down on the couch. I can't hear what he's saying, but he's probably telling her how happy he is that I'm able to go into the kitchen and get food on my own.

Keeping to the shadows, so I don't scare the Nice Lady, I sneak into the kitchen, and rush over to the Special Spot.

That's what I call the place where I can climb up the side of the cabinets, and pull myself up onto the counter, so I can watch Daddy cook. It's my very own Special Spot, and Daddy let me mark it in crayon so nobody steals it.

Moving as silently as I can, I make my way over to my prize: the cookie jar. It's right next to the sink, and it stands upright and is very tough to open if you're not tall enough.

Luckily, I am tall enough.

I slowly take the lid off of the jar, and place it down on the counter, making sure that it doesn't make any noise. I quickly reach into the jar, and pull out a medium-sized cookie. It's about the size of my eye, and it looks really tasty.

It's gone in about three bites.

I sigh in happiness as the cookie makes its way through to my stomach. Oh, man, so delicious...

I silence a burp, and look back at Daddy and the Nice Lady to make sure they haven't seen me. As I do, I see that Daddy is getting really energetic.

I turn away from the cookie jar, and sit down on the counter, watching Daddy in confusion. I strain my ears to hear him, as he's whispering so he doesn't wake up everybody upstairs.

"-and we really shouldn't have, and I'm really sorry, and I wish I could take it back, and-"

The Nice Lady surprises both Daddy and myself by slapping him, right across the face. Her hand and Daddy's face meeting make a quick, silent crack.

"Quit being such a little bitch," I hear the Nice Lady scold him. Bitch? What's that? Hmm...I'll have to ask Daddy about that later. "We kissed. So what? It happened, get over it. Seriously, Peter, I thought I was the woman here."

I frown in confusion as Daddy chuckles. What's so funny about that?

"Hey, maybe when Charles and Tratno get back from the U.N., you and I could go out on a date? And they could watch the kids?"

I listen to the conversation for a few more seconds, but quickly grow bored. And it is really boring. Like, none of it is about cookies. Or me.

Or me eating cookies.

Speaking of which, I have to bring Fluttershy a cookie...

After taking a cookie out, and putting back the lid, I make my way over to my Special Spot, and prepare for the climb down.

As I climb, I have to keep the cookie from breaking against the wall. I involuntarily gulp as I come up to the most challenging part of this: the part where the two handles nearly touch each other. I'll have to lean back, and push back too, just so I don't break the-

No...

No......

NO!!!!!!!!

I watch in horror as the half of the cookie descends towards the floor, and shatters into billions upon billions of pieces. My eyes watering, I climb the rest of the way down, and try to group the crumbs back together.

C'mon, come on, Fluttershy is counting on me!!! Please, get back together, cookie...please, please...

Please?

I sit down in front of the cookie, and feel tears pushing themselves forth as I look at the shattered hopes and dreams that lie before me on the floor.

No, don't cry...

Don't cry...

Rainbow, you can do this! Just...do not cry, okay?

Okay, now that I'm back in my right mind, I can do this! Alright, let's see...okay, so this crumb goes here...that crumb goes there...

Ugh, my breath scattered them again! Crumbs, I've had it with your poopy! It's time to go back together, and become a cookie!!

...

Well, mind-shouting at them didn't work to make them into a one them thing.

Maybe...maybe Daddy could fix it? I mean, he can fix almost anything, right? He said so himself!

But what if he gets angry at me for being up so late?

Ah, phooey! This is for Fluttershy! He'll understand!

I draw myself to my full, rather impressive height as I walk out of the kitchen, and into the light of the nighttime. Daddy and the Nice Lady are sitting there talking about boring adult things, so they'll probably be grateful to be able to talk to me...

"Daddy?" I call out as I walk over to the couch. He stops talking, and turns to face me.

"Rainbow Dash? Sweetheart, what're you doing up so late?" Daddy asks, immediately scooping me up in his arms. I can't help but snuggle into him a bit - he's so warm! - as he holds me. He smiles down at me before speaking.

"Were you eating a cookie, Rainbow Dash?"

I gape up at him. What kind of sorcery is this!? "How'd you know!?"

He smirks as he licks his thumb, and wipes away at the corner of my mouth. "There's a bit of chocolate on your fur," he informs me with a chuckle. I smile, and rub my cheek against his tummy.

Oh, wait! I've gotta fix that cookie for Fluttershy! "Daddy, can you help me fix a cookie?"

He raises an eyebrow at me. "What are you talking about, fix a cookie?"

"I promised Fluttershy a cookie, but I dropped it and it brokeded."

He smiles at me. "Rainbow, I can't fix a broken cookie, baby. I can give you a new one to bring to Fluttershy, though."

I pout. "But I thought you could fix anything!"

He smiles as he stands, and brings me into the kitchen. I tilt my head to watch the floor, and the crumbs that he steps around. "Rainbow Dash, do you know what happens when a cookie crumbles?"

I shake my head. "Nuh-uh."

"Its tastiness moves out, because its home is ruined," Daddy informs me as he pulls out a second cookie for me to give to Fluttershy. "And it goes to another cookie! If I were to fix a broken cookie, it wouldn't taste good anymore."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." I grin as I take the cookie in my forehooves, and prepare my wings for flying up the stairs, and to Fluttershy. "Wait until I tell Twilight about this! She'll be so mad that I know something she doesn't!"

Daddy chuckles, and gives me a kissy on the side of my head. "That's right, sweetheart. Now, let's get you back to bed, Dashie."

I nod, and he carries me back up to my room. Yay! Convenientism!

"Go on, give that to Fluttershy," he urges as he lets me take off from his arms.

"Thanks, Daddy," I whisper.

He smiles at me. "Good night, sweetheart. I love you."

"I love you, too, Daddy."

He smiles again, and watches as I descend into my crib. I give Fluttershy the cookie, and she grins at me as she slowly nibbles at it, shuffling her teeny wings once every few seconds.

Daddy goes to check on everybody sleeping, but he's stopped by the Nice Lady, who followed us upstairs. I don't know why she's up here, but it's probably to be nice.

"Can I help?" The Nice Lady asks. Daddy shakes his head 'no,' and rests a hand on her shoulder.

"Get some sleep, Barbara. You've already helped me quite a lot tonight."

She frowns, as if she's been slapped, and nods, quickly moving to exit the room. "Good night, Nice Lady," I call out after her. She pauses, and with a nod from Daddy, she walks over to me, smiling down at my face.

"Good night, Rainbow Dash," she whispers. "Your father's a great man. Never forget that."

I nod, not really knowing why she's telling me this, and she rushes out, giving Daddy a quick kissy on the cheek before she leaves.

She's really got to care about him, then. Daddy told me that honly people who care for each other give each other kissies. But then...why isn't Daddy giving her a kissy back?

Oh, she's gone now. I'll ask him about it later...along with a lot of things. Like, what's a bitch?

Daddy tucks me in, and kisses me on the forehead, smiling down at me.

"Is the Nice Lady okay?" I ask, reaching out to touch his face. His face is all pudgy and floppy, it's funny to watch my hoof bend the skin.

"Yeah," Daddy sighs. "She's just a bit stressed..."

I nod, and hug his squishy face before laying back down for sleep. I feel him watching me for a few seconds before leaving.

I snuggle into my pillow, and quickly fall asleep.

Author's Notes:

Now, for my own misgivings about this gamble of a chapter:
Firstly, I think I gave Rainbow too much of a diversified vocabulary. Then again, being raised by someone other than her pony parents, what do you expect? She would end up different from how she normally is.
Also, I feel like it was difficult to pull off the whole perspective change thing. But I hope this worked, because this chapter was really just an experiment: I hope to show some school days and whatnot through the pony perspective, albeit as bonus chapters. Maybe not bonus chapters when it comes to events that could traumatize the ponies or make them über happy.