The middle of the night. Another few days had come and gone and Her Education to human was progressing. Slow as it was, she had her moments and sometimes, briefly, her mind would slip into that adult phase and say ‘no, you shouldn’t do that’ but the times were only brief.

At least there was times when it did happen however, for that beat it not happening at all as it had been previously. But more often than not, her mind liked to regress back to the good old kid days. Those days when Little Seren liked to sneak about and be a mischievous little girl.

James would simply say ‘At least she’s not being a Mischievous little pony’ during those times when she got playful. Gerald the butler would just laugh and make sure that his cookie stock was always full. He had learned one thing about little Seren. She liked Chocolate chip cookies. No, she loved chocolate chip cookies.

And sometimes she would take those cookies and crumble them purposely on the couch just to get his attention. At first he thought to ignore it but James had pulled him aside and had a little chat with him. He told the friendly butler to react to it for it was Seren’s way to get his attention and get him to notice and or play with her.

It was always known to James that Gerald didn’t exactly approve of treating the girl like a child when she obviously wasn’t one and he couldn’t really see how it would help to indulge this behavior. But James pointed it out just HOW it would help.

By doing what she did, she was attempting to open up to him on an individual level instead of a common level. Finally he saw this and that’s when the grocery bill had started to grow abundantly because the cost of cookies was added to the list. It was for therapeutic means so there wasn’t any way that master could complain.

The master had said see to her re-education and help by what ever means you can. So that’s what he was doing. And this night was just like so many other nights for Gerald and Seren. It was his little game with her. He would put the cookies in the whinnying cookie jar and hide them on high shelf. He would then make sure that the foot stool was in an opposite corner.

She would have to think, like a human would, and drag the foot stool over to the counter to climb up and get to the shelf where the sacred chocolate chip cookies were hid. Of course if he hadn’t seen her start to open up to him with his own eyes, he probably would have never continued with these little games.

It was just one day that she walked into the kitchen, on two legs, and held up the empty cookie jar. Seren then smiled with her cutest face and said ‘Gerald..we’re out of cookies. I’m sorry.’ That did it for him. She had walked and she had talked without needing urging or encouragement to do so.

Ah but right about now, Little Seren, who’s mind set always seemed to take over the Big Seren at night, was sneaking down the stairs and heading to the kitchen. No one was awake. No one would see her. Seren’s thoughts, Caballo’s thoughts even, were she couldn’t ger in trouble for not acting like a pony if no one saw her.

So there she was, sneaking into the kitchen, which conveniently always had a night light on in it, to raid the cookie jar. These cookies were especially calling to her because Gerald had spent the entire morning baking them fresh from scratch. She really liked those cookies. He even put candy sprinkles in the batter to make the cookies colorful for her.

On some of them, he put some food coloring onto them to make them different colors. So she knew that there were red, blue, green, purple and regular chocolate chip sprinkle cookies waiting to be eaten in that cookie jar. Seren just needed to get to them.

But where was the cookie jar’s hiding place. She looked in the normal spot on the regular counter by the microwave and nothing was there. She then knelt down and checked under the cabinets. She’d found the jar stashed there once. However, it wasn’t there this time.

Grunting, standing. She was getting a little frustrated because she wanted her colorful cookies! Little Seren didn’t like to wait where the rare big Seren said she could eat them in the morning. Her mind was a jumbled mess of confusion and multiple personalities apparently but it was something that James was willing to deal with.

Her eyes spotting the white headed pony cookie Jar way above, she grinned. Seren hmd and looked around though because she was short and that jar was WAY up there.

“Oh that meany.” Mumbling to her self. Actually speaking. “How do I get up there?”

She couldn’t jump. That was too high. It was then that Seren saw the little foot stool step ladder. That little light bulb clicked and, once again, the little game of make Seren think like a human to figure a problem out, worked.

The girl drug the foot stool over as quietly as she could and then proceeded to climb up to get to the top of the counter so she could climb on that and then reach up to grab the jar out of the high pantry. All very human actions that a pony could not do in any shape, size, form or fashion. Then again, that was the entire point to the little game.

Steadying her self, reaching in. Seren pulled the jar off the shelf and grinned. She found her prize! Now all she had to do was get down and eat the prize.

“Hehe..Found my cookies.”

Little Seren was back on the ground with Jar in hand. But first that big her said to put the stool back because someone might trip over it. The two sides of Little and big were actually starting to get a long. But Caballo didn’t like to get along with them. They would always make Caballo get yelled at by that voice again.

It was all finally done though. She had the booty and now it was time to get back in bed before anyone saw her.

“Shh..” The head of the jar whinnied when she opened it. “Don’t talk.. They will hear us.”

Seren didn’t consider horses to be animals. They were people and they talked. Because Caballo talked and she was a pony. So this horse talked. It was an item that Gerald purchased in hopes that she would start using the human item and not being scared of it because it had a horse that said hi to her every time she did.

Her delighted eyes meeting the colorful cookies. There was only one little baggie full in their though. He’d hidden the rest to avoid a certain girl getting a tummy ache because she ate the whole jar of cookies.

“Aww..”

It only had a cookie of each color in it for her. Seren grumbled as she continued to sneak up the stairs to James’s room where her ‘Stall’ was. It was her safe zone. Even if they did catch her with the cookies, if she was in her stall, they couldn’t get mad because she was a good girl who went to her ‘stall’. It was Caballo’s over powering logic and not the other two.

James was sound asleep on the bed and Seren stopped to smile at him. She liked to crawl up beside him and lay down sometimes. She could tonight and then she could share her cookies in the morning for breakfast with him!

Pushing the baggie back into the jar, she closed it and snuck over to Jame’s bed. The girl quickly crawled up beside him and snuggled against her naked back against his chest. She cuddled the Jar of cookies in one hand and pulled his arm around her to hold her and protect her and her sacred cookies.

Sighing happily, her eyes closed. James shifted only slightly before he felt her against him. His arm hugging her a little tighter. He mentally chuckled because she had shed her night gown. And when his fingers touched the jar, he raised up just enough to see her asleep and nuzzling her cookie jar.

“Seren the Raider strikes again.”

He whispered to him self as he laid his head back down on the pillow. James yawned and nuzzled against her. It was hard to sleep next to her naked and not feel aroused by that but he wanted to respect her.

He’d sworn that he wouldn’t do anything with her like that unless she was completely her self and only if she really understood what doing THAT with him meant. He loved her dearly and that was just something he expected of him self.

But until then, he could smile, hold her and fall asleep knowing that he had a breakfast of cookies waiting for him in the morning. She always shared with him and that was special because Little Seren was very protective of her cookies.

He’d definitely noticed the personalities. He noticed the changed in her demeanor when little Seren was in charge or when Caballo was trying to take over. Caballo liked to partially help little Seren take over in the mornings at times.

She would sneak out to the stables and let the real horses out of their stalls before the stable boys could go in to care for them or exercise them. She said the horse people said that they didn’t wanna be ridden because it was mean to ride em.

James supposed that attributed back to her having been a pony and that those were her feelings so she associated those feelings with the real horses. It was always nights like these, however, that he would just sit and think about things like that.

Sometimes he wondered if he was really helping her get back to her self by indulging the personalities. Then there was the fact that he could see that human fighting in her to come out and he knew he couldn’t give up. But should he be doing it a different way? Should he scold her and say ‘no, Teenagers don’t sneak down and take cookie jars’.

His heart said to leave it alone. His heart said that it was helping her because just over two weeks ago, she wasn’t walking and talking. She wasn’t trying to be anything but a pony. James sighed and nuzzled him self closer. His chin above her head and her white, curled hair tickling the underside.

There was just so much and yet he felt so over whelmed all the time. But at times like these, when she would crawl into bed and cuddle against him, those feelings were worth it. That’s just the kind of thing you put up with for someone that you loved.

A tinge of guilt striking. His heart thumped hard to shove that guilt away. Yes he loved her. James loved her so completely that he hoped to be with her on more than the emotional level that they shared now. But his guilt came from the slight doubt of what if she never got better?

Shaking his head, clearing that ugly thought from his mind. She would get better. Seren had to get better. He had faith in her to be able to find where she’d hidden the old Seren. She was there, buried deep, but she was inside her still.

His thoughts tiring his mind. He protectively cuddled her and yawned again. So many thoughts. So many worries that he had to contemplate. And yet it all seemed so very simple when ever he looked at her. The answer came to him always.

That answer was simply to love her and to be there for her because he was her James and she was his Seren and his Caballo.