- - - day 1 pt 3 - - -
The lengthy walk from the guest rooms to the clinic did the foal good. His stride had evened out, and curiosity of the world around him overtook any immediate fears. The evening hour had left the halls thankfully unpopulated. He shuffled closer to Celestia when they passed anypony in the hall, but he kept moving despite his trepidation.
When they reached the clinic, he either didn’t recognize what the office was, or didn’t care. He perked up at the sight of toys piled in a corner of the waiting room, and left her side to rummage through them as she spoke to the nurse.
The nurse fidgeted, looking back to the examination rooms. “The doctor is with somepony right now, he’ll be out in a few minutes... Unless of course you need him now, then I can pull him out of the room for you.”
“It is not an emergency. Take all the time you need,” she said, signing the paper the nurse had given her.
Taking a seat on one of the cushions, Celestia watched the colt search for something in the foals’ corner. Bright toys were shoved aside as he made his way for something at the bottom of the clutter. A second later she saw his prey, a little stack of books that had been forgotten beneath the toys. He fumbled with them for a moment, before managing to pick one up in his fetlock.
‘Why didn’t he just pick it up with his hooves or teeth?’ she wondered as he hobbled on three legs back to her. Laying the book on the edge of the cushion, he looked up at her with a mixture of embarrassment and expectation.
Celestia smiled. Taking the book in her magic, she patted the cushion for him to sit between her forelegs. The floating book dazzled him for a moment, but soon he took the offered spot, and settled in.
The book was more appropriate for a foal half his age. Big pictures with simple subject-verb sentences. The kind of thing used to teach the language, more so than reading…
‘Clever colt.’
Laying the book in front of him, she carefully read each page. Pointing to the parts of the picture that were relevant to each word. Occasionally he would stop her to point at something and repeat whatever she had just said. His voice was forced, the words pronounced mechanically. She had to coach him through some of the finer phonetics, but he seemed to catch on fast. By the time they were halfway through the book, he seemed to have a firm grasp on the words: dog, pony, filly, colt, and run.
“The doctor is ready for you now, Princess,” the nurse announced.
The colt, seeming to understand what was going on. Standing, he took a few steps towards the nurse before checking to make sure Celestia was following him. He stayed close to her as they went into the examination room, but showed no other signs of being nervous.
“Who do we have here?” the doctor asked, following them into the room.
“The guards found him alone this morning. We can’t find his parents, and I have come to suspect he may have been abused. He speaks no language I’ve ever heard, and I don’t think he has ever been allowed to interact with other ponies.”
The doctor’s happy manner wilted. “Poor guy. He doesn't understand Equestrian?” he asked, looking to Celestia.
“No, but he seems pretty sharp on understanding body language.”
Moving over to the examination table, the doctor’s magic pulled a stepping stool next to it. Recovering his smile, he met the colt’s eyes, and patted the table. “Can you come up here on your own?”
The doctor watched him attempt the steps. His movements were clumsy, the colt having to look at each of his four hooves to get them to go where he wanted. With a few moments’ struggle, he managed to sit atop the table.
The doctor’s horn lit up, its magic pooling across the foal’s coat. The colt twitched and fidgeted with nerves, occasionally giggling at an accidental tickle, but he took the examination as well as he could have hoped. “Do you know his name?”
Celestia perked up at the question, then deflated a bit. “No.”
“I need a name for his medical records.” The light of his horn went out. Moving a little to be in the center of the colt’s vision, he tapped a hoof to his chest. “Doctor Glow,” he said, then pointed to Celestia. “Princess Celestia.” Then he pointed to the colt, and waited for him to answer.
He got a confused look before the spark of realization lit up his eyes. He pointed to Celestia and recited a butchered pronunciation of her name, then did the same for the doctor. Placing his hoof against his own chest, he growled out a sound Celestia was certain she could not reproduce without magic. The doctor looked equally confused, but tried anyway. He gave up when the foal motioned for him to stop.
Looking to Celestia, he pointed to her and repeated her name, then pointed the hoof back at himself, but instead of making a sound, he raised both hooves and motioned for her to come closer. Perplexed, Celestia rose to her hooves and came closer, but the foal shook his head.
Doctor Glow scratched his chin. “Maybe he wants you to give him a name.”
Celestia looked at the foal in amazement. Her mind raced to find a name for him. He deserved a good one, something from the heart. That stallion from long ago, and his song of sunny days filtered back into her mind.
“Clover,” she said, a smile returning to her face.
The two stared at each other for a moment, before Celestia pointed at herself, and started the ceremony again. “Princess Celestia,” she said with careful diction, enunciating her name like she had the words in the book.
The foal repeated her name, this time with remarkable improvement.
Touching her hoof to the colt’s chest, she paused a moment. “Clover.”
Clover smiled. Pointing to himself, he repeated his new name.
“Well, Clover it is,” Doctor Glow said, scribbling the name into his notes. “Now let’s get you checked out.”
Clover frowned when a needle came floating towards him. He chirped something before stretching a foreleg out for the doctor, and hiding his eyes by pressing his face against Celestia.
“He’s a brave little one,” Doctor Glow said, taping Clover’s median vein, and filling a vial with his blood as quickly as he could. “There, all done.”
Celestia patted Clover on the back, letting him know it was over. She had to smile at the embarrassed look he gave her. The smile faded to concern when the doctor offered up a sucker to Clover. Instead of taking it in hoof like a normal foal, he gently clapped it between his hooves, before pulling the wrapper away with his teeth.
“I have yet to see him use his hooves to pick something up. He either does that, or uses his fetlock.”
Clover struggled with the sucker for a moment. When he finally got it in his mouth, he seemed unsure if he liked the sorghum pop, but after a second, the confused look changed to a satisfied smile.
With his magic, Glow pulled out a tongue depressor, and laid it on the table by Clover’s hooves. Reaching out with a hoof, Glow touched it with the bottom of his hoof. Clover’s face wrinkled in confusion as Doctor Glow lifted his foreleg, showing him the wooden stick stuck to his hoof. Setting the stick back down, he motioned for Clover to do the same.
Still confused, Clover mashed the stick against the table with his hoof. When he lifted his hoof, the stick remained on the table. Clover shrugged, not seeming surprised.
Again, Glow took the tongue depressor in his hoof. This time passing it to his other hoof before setting it back down.
Clover looked up to Celestia, confusion on his face. Slipping her shoe off, she held her own hoof up for him to see. Clover lifted his own hoof up, and pressed it to hers. She could see the focus in his eyes, willing his hoof to stick to hers, but nothing happened.
Celestia gripped his hoof, hoping he would understand better if he felt it. This was something yearlings taught themselves. Surely her clever colt could learn it; if he only knew he could do it.
Clover tugged lightly at her hold on his hoof. Not to try and escape it, but to test its feel and strength. When she released him, he looked at his own hoof, now in frustration instead of confusion. Again, he touched the stick, and lifted his hoof. Still, the stick lay on the table. Again and again he repeated the motion, his frustration building with each attempt.
Stopping, Clover closed his eyes and breathed. It was the same exercise she had watched him do earlier. Slowly, gently, he rested his hoof on the stick. His eyes still shut, he lifted his hoof and the stick with it. Opening his eyes, he grinned; and the stick fell to the ground.
Celestia laughed. She couldn’t help but hug the grumpy little colt.
Clover certainly is a quick learner.
That cold isn't the age he seems to be... at least mentally. His actions are way too controlled to be coming from a foal. I suspect some good backstory!
Minor grumble: one collects bodily fluids in a "vial," whether or not they be vile.
Still, this is a fascinating setup.
I think Clover may just be a human... not sure though but it would make sense wouldn't it?
5413603
I was thinking the same thing
As sad as this should be, it is really awesome on it´s own. I mean i really like it, it is more cute than sad.
5413651 I had the same thought, but at the same time it doesn´t feelt right. The way he did some things, didn´t really convinced me about that idea. It would explain, that he can´t pick up anything, but i guess he really is neglected.
I am not sure, some of the thing, like that he was embarrassed about little things, made me think again about him being a Human, at least he choosed that Book on purpose it seems.
I used to wonder what Momlestia could be, until you all shared it's magic with me!
Faved.
Clover is clever.
I wonder if... no couldn't be.
This is sad for me cuz I actually knew a kid like this once. He was scared to let people touch him and was really confused whenever people gave him stuff like he'd never been around kind hearted people before
I am beginning to suspect that "Clover" is a more realistic depiction of what happens when a certain bipedal sapient creature wakes up in Equestria in a pony body.
Should be colt?
Yep. Definitively liking where this is going.
5415216
funnily enough I was thinking the exact same thing
*Scratches head*
fley, the clapped thing is like this, make fists with your hands and do a clapping motion still with the fists till there both touching (the hands) and do the same thing with a sucker and try to remove the wrapper with your mouth, thats what he means.
5417336 ok?
There's a very minor thing you may want to edit.
I think that should be "seeming".
5422281 I believe looking could also work in that situation.
5417336 The wording is a little confusing, it's true, given that holding something between his hooves could be said to be picking it up with them. It would help to have a little more clarity - maybe something like "I've yet to see him pick up anything one-hooved."
5415216 And, rather nicely, one who is fairly mature, intelligent, and collected. I'd half-suspect it to be EG!Twilight, although the personality is a little more social than what I'd expect from a Twilight - she'd be more likely to attempt to read the book by herself first. Clover's both smart and social enough to take the book to the adult acting as his protector.
There's definitely a wrong-body vibe going on, and that usually means a human character. Unless it's a backgrounder from the EG-verse, that probably means an OC, as a crossover would most often have dumped some heavy-handed references by now.
Clover knows he's a unicorn, which means he's probably encountered a reflective surface. He's not used to walking on four legs yet, which means it's unlikely he's been in Equestria long (and explaining the Canterlotians' shock at the thought that a foal could be misparented until reaching the age of four). This is backed up even more by him being in Canterlot but not having yet realized that unicorns have telekinesis, especially since their horns glow visibly and in a variety of colors when in use. Either he's only been there for less than a day before being picked up, or he's spent most of the previous time hiding away.
Which means in turn that that the flinching at physical contact is either due to some amazingly bad experiences over the past 24 hours, or events which happened well before turning up in the capital (and possibly before arriving in Equestria, too, although maybe not something that happened his entire life, as Celestia appears to have been able to calm him down and get him interacting with other ponies moderately easily.
I would bet money that this is a HiE fic.
The human tag would ruin the twist, since this fic NOT being a HiE would be a twist in itself.
Clever unicorn... named clover. Now I'm not saying that's Clover the Clever, because that wouldn't fit in with the MLP timeline. Unless Twilight was born further in the past than in cannon. But I see what you did there. Going into Equestrian history are we not?
Perhaps Clover was raised by Humans?
Don't ponies normally pick things up with their fetlocks?
Is it just me, or could clover BE FROM AN ALTERNATE HUMAN UNIVERSE?!
... the Clever?
I like the detailed description of picking something up with a hoof. I'm wondering if it's some kind of suction, a more subtle (and non-limited to unicorns) telekinesis or a combination of the two.
Anyway, I guess this means Clover didn't just grow up isolated from unicorns, but also other ponies. Transformed human, or raised by another species?
Interesting story so far.
Here's my guess at the backstory, from my extensive knowledge of FIMfics.
A) He's a human moved into the body of a foal, most probably speaks English, though the 'unpronounceable' name indicates a more gutteral descent, or even language. Russian or German origin maybe, or even Welsh or Icelandic. Chirping language could indicate that he's from a fairer spoken country, perhaps spain or france, though English is probably the best bet as probabilities go.
Confusion at magic and trouble with hoofwork and walking lend further credence to this theory. As is the unfamiliarity with the horn. Fear at other ponies could be either a basic fear response to the strange situation he's in, or because some sick ponies treated him as different or a witchchild.
Meditation knowledge and the want to learn the local language suggests a level of intelligence and self-control not present in children, so at a guess I'd say mid-twenties, possibly thirties. And probably above average on the IQ scale.
B) Less likely scenario, he's the reincarnated soul of a griffon or pony that still has their memories for some reason. A 'glitch' in the 'matrix.'
Hmmmm.... I'm not really feeling the human vibe. It seems too....off? Perhaps raised in isolation (the neglectful kind) or by another species entirely? Maybe they decided he needed to go home?
Now, this is the Celestia I like to see in stories, the kind, caring and motherly ruler. Not the tyrant, not the malicious prankster, just somepony who really cares and wants to see everypony, even the smallest of her kind happy, even if that means caring for a foal herself.
8068972
You phrased that like you hate those with it. Or children