FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Series/Folder Name: MLP

Story Name: Mocha's Cutiemark

Story Theme: MLP

Story Audience: General

Summary: Mocha and his friend Zephyr find a coffee kettle in the kitchen of Luscious Café.

Story:

Mocha woke up and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning, then hopped out and gazed through the window into the snowy wonderland beyond. He loved snow - the way it felt under his hooves, crackling and crunching as he walked; the way it tickled his cheeks as the flakes landed on him; all the different sizes of snowball he could make and throw at his two older brothers. He particularly liked it when he could watch Mum and Dad work at Luscious Café - he would walk alongside them in his little red wellington boots and his little red scarf then be escorted into the back room behind the counter where ironically he spent the least of his time. He usually wandered around the area behind the counter, looking at all of the delicious cakes that Mum made and put on the glass display shelves and watching as Dad waited on the customers. It was more of a restaurant than a café, truth be told, but there were no fancy 3-course meals to be found; just cakes, biscuits and various drinks like squash. Not tea or coffee though, which was odd considering café is French for coffee.

Mocha trotted downstairs and into the living-room where the Christmas tree was being set up. As usual his older brothers, Zach and Darren, were sitting on the sofa chatting, letting Dad do all the work. He sat next to them and watched the tree being decorated, the baubles being lifted up by magic and slid onto the branches, followed by the chocolate objects and finally the tinsel. His Dad made sure the tinsel covered the chocolate enough so that prying little hooves didn't find them.

"Right," he finally announced, "Darren, you're coming with me to open the café."

"But Dad," Darren whined, "I'm supposed to be... well... I'm supposed to stay here and look after Mocha!"

"Mocha's coming as well, so tough luck, squirt."

Zach laughed as Darren sagged and slid reluctantly off the sofa, leaving him open for Mocha to use his back as a landing platform for when he jumped off. Fortunately he wasn't very heavy so the oldest brother didn't get hurt in the process. Mocha yanked on his boots and wrapped his scarf around his neck and bounded outside, his horn emitting golden sparks in his excitement. He loved hopping between Dad's comparatively large hoofprints that he left in the snow; it was a quick little hopscotch game that never ceased to amuse him. They were about halfway to the café when he caught sight of his friend from school, Zephyr Cloudpony. He called his name and waved, beckoning him over to have a chat.

Zephyr was a shy pegasus, with invisibly white fur and yellow mane and tail. He was an incredibly unremarkable pony except for the fact that he had antlers. Not Hearthswarming Eve costume antlers - real antlers. He was teased about it at school which was why he kept as unobtrusively close as he could get to his best friend. He had recently gotten his cutiemark and was telling Mocha excitedly about it.

"Have you met Macintosh?" he asked. Mocha shook his head.

"Oh, well, he's a red earth pony with ginger hair and freckles. He works at Sweet Apple Acres with his granny. Anyway, I saw him in Ponyville last week pulling a whole cart full of apples - I'd say it was twice as big as him - and he was having trouble, so I helped him out. He was picked on by the bullies from school, called nasty things like 'country bumpkin' and whatever..."

Mocha's father visibly tensed up when he heard the insult. He didn't say anything though.

"... So I stood up to them. After I shooed them away he looked a little down in the dumps, and I told him to keep his head up high and never give up hope. Then I just sort of... found my mark, if you see what I mean."

"Literally and metaphorically," Mocha's father added. The colts pretended to know what he had meant by that. Mocha looked at his friend's flank. On it was a grey cloud with a sun rising from it, symbolising the silver lining everyone talked about.

"We're just going to open the café, wanna come see what it's like?" Mocha asked. Zephyr nodded. He had never been inside Luscious Café and had heard only good things about it, so he jumped at the chance.

The door was locked as per usual, so Mocha's father brought out a set of keys from his saddlebag and unlocked it, leading them inside and turning on the light. The seating area was twice as long as it was wide, possibly a little longer, with 9 tables and 22 seats - 7 two-seater tables and 2 four-seaters. They were easily rearranged if a large group of ponies wanted a party setting or just a get-together. The true magic, however, happened behind the counter and in the kitchen: mum would batch-produce scrumptious cakes and biscuits using her magic to measure ingredients accurate to an eighth of a millilitre or millimetre, capturing the intense fascination of her coffee-coloured colt. He'd always wanted to learn how to levitate and make more complex movements with his magic; so far he could only nudge objects, and even that was an effort.

Zephyr and Mocha were lead into the back room where they sat and looked at all of the boxes of ingredients and utensils, some half-emptied and some completely so. They looked in some of them, finding weird wireframe teardrop-shaped things on sticks labelled 'Balloon Whisks' and using them in a sword fight. They had some fun for a couple of minutes before wandering into the kitchen next door and having an explore there. Mocha looked in the cupboard under the sink and found an unused, new coffee kettle. It was shiny grey and angular, with a soft black plastic handle that would never be used considering hooves don't work like that.

"Why haven't we used this yet?" he wondered aloud. Zephyr shrugged. Then Mocha had an idea.

"Maybe I could get my cutiemark using whatever-this-is!"

Zephyr looked incredulous. The kettle seemed clunky and big, far too big to be lifted with Mocha's feeble magic. He didn't tell him that for fear of upsetting him.

"Go for it," he eventually replied.

Mocha put the kettle on the counter and got a nondescript teacup - probably used for tea or something - before concentrating solely on the kettle. He focussed on his horn, protruding more or less 3 and a half inches from his forehead, parting his mane around it. He felt it tingle that familiar tingle of pure, undiluted magic, and felt it course through the entire length. Sparks flew as he tried to drag the coffee kettle from the countertop with his eyes; that usually started the levitation, as his mum always said. He saw the golden aura around the kettle and immediately felt its weight pressing down on his horn, a well-known resistance felt by every unicorn who levitated an object. It was something to do with... what was the word again? Gravel-tea? He never liked the idea of gravel-tea. Sounded disgusting.

The kettle didn't move.

Frustrated, Mocha tore his concentration away, breaking the flow of magic, before trying to lift the teacup. A lesser resistance, but even then he couldn't get it to move.

"Darn it all!" he growled, putting the cup and the kettle away.

"Don't give up, you were doing really well!" Zephyr urged. He felt his cutiemark fizz in response. Mocha grunted and got the items out again.

"It would also help if you actually put coffee in the coffee kettle," Zephyr suggested.

"Oh, that's what this is? Fair enough. I'll start with water first though."

Mocha turned the tap on and searched the kettle for the lid before finding it where lids are supposed to be. On the top. He filled it with water, closed the lid, and hoisted it back onto the counter with some difficulty before channelling his magic into his horn again. Ironically he progressed further into the levitation even with the heavier load; it rose about an inch or so off the counter.

"You can do it!" Zephyr cheered, clapping his hooves in time with some nonexistent beat. Mocha used said clapping as a rhythm for his magic, inching the kettle further and further off the counter, getting it to about the height of the centre bar in the window above the sink. Zephyr applauded him, giving him the morale needed to try the ultimate test.

Precision aiming.

He envisioned the kettle tipping at a 45-degree angle, the water gushing out and filling the cup. Somehow the picture didn't seem right - perhaps Zephyr's idea of coffee was the way to go? When he snapped back to reality the kettle dropped back onto the counter with a dull clang, rocking back and forth. But that meant he had actually tipped it, right?

"You're getting there," Zephyr commented, "you just need to give it a few more tries."

"I'll try coffee this time, I'm not feeling the idea of the water."

He searched the cupboards for whatever it was that made coffee and came across a jar of instant coffee powder, the voluminous brown stuff filling the unopened jar. So they had endeavoured to include coffee on the menu, but didn't get round to it, it seemed. He twisted the lid off and used his horn to rip into the protective foil before opening the kettle lid and tipping about a cup measure of powder in there, then closed the lid and shook it.

"Don't you have to boil the water first?" Zephyr asked.

"It's called improvisation, my dear Watson."

Mocha aimed carefully and shot some sparks at the kettle to heat it up. He was actually quite good at this sort of thing, it seemed, as he continued to shower sparks on the shiny grey, angular coffee kettle. The metal became tinged with cherry-red, at which point Mocha stopped immediately. He could hear the water boiling quite happily in there and allowed himself a cocky grin before getting serious again. He wondered if heat could travel through magic, and if so, he didn't want to burn his horn. It already looked singed, like his muzzle and hooves, but that was just his natural fur colour. He clapped his hooves in time to the aforementioned beat, once again using it as a rhythm for his magic, now feeling a warm sensation at the tip. Heat did in fact travel through magic, and he thought about stopping, but urged himself on to victory. The tendons and veins in his neck stood out as he strained against the resistance of the kettle's gravel-tea, ever so slowly tipping it over, the first few drops of coffee dripping onto the counter and forming a small steaming puddle. Zephyr noticed this and dashed over to catch the brown liquid in the cup without disturbing the unicorn. He could feel the magical field around Mocha grow stronger - imagine a bubble whose interior atmosphere feels slightly thicker than air - and it made him shudder. Mocha had gone red in the face and was sweating.

"Sweet_Celestia_ this is hard work!" he squeaked, unable to speak properly from the effort. Five minutes passed and the teacup was now ¾ full.

"Come on, soldier through it," Zephyr compelled him, "you're almost there!"

There was a bright white light somewhere behind them and Zephyr looked back to see what sort of punishment they would get for messing around with potentially dangerous equipment before realising that the light was coming from his best friend's flank. He gasped, catching the attention of the unicorn, who turned his head almost completely backwards to see what the fuss was about. He saw the light and his eyes widened.

"I'll be back in a minute," Zephyr said before dashing out of the room.

A few moments later Mocha's entire family was in the room with him along with the pegasus to marvel at the life-changing event that was unfolding before their eyes. Mocha felt an almost overpowering fizz in both flanks as the light situated there started to dim, his new identity being fabricated then and there. He didn't particularly care about anything else, not even the thing that was powering the event - the coffee kettle and the cup - he was too wrapped up in excitement.

There was a collective joyous gasp.

"What is it?" he asked, "What does it look like?"

"It's a ¾ filled coffee cup on a saucer," Zephyr told him accurately, "and the one you're working with has overflowed, I must remind you."

"Ah, sugar," Mocha hissed as coffee dribbled onto the floor from the ever-growing pool on the counter.

"Don't worry, dear," his mother said, "I'll clean it up. Gosh, my little coffee bean, growing up so fast!"

Mocha could hardly contain his excitement. He skipped out, levitating the coffee kettle and the teacup alongside him, his family and Zephyr following in his hoofsteps. He sipped from the cup so that it didn't overflow again and noted how silky the drink tasted.

"Hey everyone," Zach called out to Ponyville in general, "my little bro's got his cutiemark!"

Doors and windows were opened and crowds gathered outside of houses to welcome the procession, cheering and applauding Mocha, who waved shyly before getting his mane ruffled by his brothers. Zephyr bounced along behind him, beaming.

"Did someone say cutiemark?" a pink filly with outrageously frizzy pink hair in the crowd asked, receiving nods and waves from the other ponies, "Because if so, I think it's time for a good ol' Cutiesiñera!"

She produced confetti out of nowhere much to the amusement and excitement of others, soon followed by a massive celebration outside Town Hall with lively music, bunting, streamers, confetti and of course lots of lovely snacks like sandwiches and cake from Luscious Café. There was a meet-and-greet with Mocha who willingly obliged when ponies asked him to 'give them a twirl' or 'show us his skills', to which there was jubilation when he started handing out free coffees. He had brought the coffee kettle and cup with him but was keeping the cup away from the other ponies - it was special to him for the exact same reason that they were having the celebration. A couple of fillies asked him to show them how it was done so that they might get their cutiemarks, and he did, but they were disappointed when they found that they were still blank at the flank. Zephyr approached him and gave him a little playful nudge with his antlers.

"See? I knew you could do it. You just needed a little encouragement."

"Thanks for helping out," Mocha replied, "you really do live up to your mark."

Zephyr giggled then asked for a coffee, to which the answer was of course he could. He shuddered when he took the first sip.

"Tastes really nice," he remarked, "I've never had coffee before. Nice and warm too."

"Glad you like it."

"So are you planning to work at the café now that you're Ponyville's official coffee-maker?"

"Well, why not? I have all the stuff I need, and we never got round to making coffee for our customers before, so I might as well. Get some more bits out of it too."

"Ah, ever the businesspony."

They chuckled and had some more coffee.