Art by Sammacha
One would think that a loving grandfather would spoil his grandkids, indulge them and wink at their whoopsies.
But Theodore Clydesdale knows he can't. Not with his grandfoals Debra and Dylan. Not when His Little Pony sired My Little Powderkegs. Not when their brawls are best described as All Hell Breaking Loose.
Especially not today. His son Daniel—their sire—was hospitalized in another city after a bout left him with a cracked rib. and their dam Karen is with him, so Theodore and Persephone are taking care of the grandfoals.
The kids take pride in being scrappy—hence what they scrawled on their t-shirts. Being proudly scrappy siblings, they often wrestle each other (which is permitted), but sometimes goad each other into knock-down, drag-out, beat-each-other-bloody fights (which is NOT).
But with Dad being in the hospital making the kids extra edgy, a light tussle wasn't likely.
So when Theodore heard Dylan jeering that Debra looked cute enough for a beauty pageant (does that colt have a death wish?) and Debra exploded and called Dylan a heap of Jackass Roadapples
(the language of that filly! She's worse than Dan ever was!) and the thumping around, he knew it wouldn't be pretty.
It wasn't; he got their just in time to see Debra kick her downed brother in the gut; Dylan already had a black eye and Debra a bloody nose. Ted managed to pull Debra away from her brother and was trying to calm her down, but Dylan yanked her back by the ponytail snarling get over here
and the battle started anew.
He was forced to get between them and physically pull them apart, and finally cut off the barrage of verbal napalm by thundering ENOUGH!
and exiling them to their rooms.
Harsh? Perhaps. But Theodore loves his grandfoals, and deep down fears that if their fights aren't stopped now, what will their battles be like when they're teenagers?
Thanks in part to his and Persephone's discipline, the Clydesdales never had to find out.
Commission from Vancoufur 2015. Theodore Clydesdale is © Albert Temple.