It seems that Honeysuckle wasn't done with my head just yet · 2:59pm Mar 26th, 2017
For little Alto Clef, life was spent in silence because words got in the way. Oh, there was a lot the little foal wanted to say, but when the opportunity came to talk, he chose to remain silent rather than listen to himself stutter. While at home, he might try to say something on occasion, but for the most part, he just didn’t bother.
His window watching was interrupted by his mother, who pulled him into an intense, smotherly hug. The colt blinked a few times, felt a static crackle building up between him and his mother, and then he could not help himself, he laughed, just a little. With a smile upon his face, little Alto basked in his mother’s affection while still staring at the window, waiting for his friend to come.
“Such a lovely shade of chocolate brown,” Octavia said, speaking her words into Alto’s ear. “You are absolutely perfect, you know that? Perfect in every way.”
Alto did not reply, and he did not agree. His smile faltered a bit and he thought about the fact that he wasn’t perfect—he stuttered. Still, his mother loved him, and he wasn’t going to argue that. Pulling his gaze away from the window, he looked up at his mother while she settled into the window seat, holding him.
“Your mother, Vinyl, she wanted to name you ‘Brown Note.’ Isn’t she a silly pony, Alto?” A satisfied grin spread over Octavia’s muzzle and she stroked her son’s neck. “I wish you’d try to talk just a little, Alto. I don’t care if you stutter, I just like to hear the sweet sounds of your voice.”
The colt sighed, feeling guilty, but he didn’t say anything. He did wrap his forelegs around one of his mother’s forelegs however, and cling tight to her. For a very long time now, he had heard all of these speeches, all these pep-talks, all of these inspirational words intended to somehow magically make everything better and make it alright to talk.
“It seems to me that you are excited to see your friend,” Octavia said as she gave her son a snuggle. “That makes me happy, you know. I think this is your first friend that isn’t a family member. This is a very proud accomplishment for you, little Alto.”
Thinking about his mother’s words, Alto began to nod, his head bobbing up and down. He and Honeysuckle had only played together a few times now, and he was already quite fond of her. In fact, he liked her a lot. She didn’t mind long silences and didn’t seem to have the need to fill the air with useless chatter.
“Now, you have your lesson, Alto. I know it will be hard, with company over and all, but try to think of it as a performance.” Smiling, Octavia began smoothing out her son’s mane, slicking it back, so his handsome face was more visible. “You have your grandmother’s mane, Alto, and it’s a bit unruly. Vinyl certainly doesn’t help.”
Vinyl made his mane look awesome, but of course the colt wasn’t about to say that in front of his mother, Octavia, because then she would have conniption fits. Or she’d freak out about him saying something, and then have her conniption fits. His mother could be a bit… fussy, one might even say picky. She liked things done in a certain way, she liked order, she liked calm, she liked everything that Sly hated. Which was why it was so funny to watch his mother try to deal with Sly. But Alto wasn’t about to say anything about that, no.
Seeing his big sister, Megara, Alto began bouncing around in his mother’s embrace and his stubby little wings flapped against his mother’s body. Then, a moment later, he saw her, he saw his friend, Honeysuckle. Forgetting to maintain his calm, Alto popped free of his mother’s embrace, landed on the floor, and took off running for the stairs, so that he could say hello to this friend.
Sighing, Octavia said to herself, “They grow up so fast.”
I don't know if this will be finished, but I've been pecking away at the keyboard a bit here and there and this is what has manifested itself so far. I don't know if this will be posted, but it might be. We'll see.
Now that is rather sweet. Have a few friends that stutter and im sure they once had that problem.
Already have the perfect music vid to go with this. He has music options.
Aw, poor Alto!
I hope he gets some self-confidence eventually
Don't you DARE tease us with such an adorable foal and does not deliver him to our eaguer fanfic reading eyes !
Also....Alto ? Like...the main pilot from Macross Frontier ? And Clef, from Magic Knight Rayearth ?
...
OH ! OH ! Magic Transforming Mechas !!!! All my yeses !!!!!
4472462
No. Alto clef. As in music.
Oh no, Honeysuckle has charmed kudzu and everyone else, we are all thralls to her adorableness!
But seriously, if you want to post more I'd be happy to read it.
Not sure if that's the best thing to say to a shy colt whose mother earns her livelihood with performances... As in, be the best act they've ever seen or you get no money and you starve out in the cold.
Somepony needs to teach Alto to sing when he speaks. Worked for Mel Tillis!
4472601
I stutter a bit when I talk. When I was a kid, the singing thing was tried. No worky for me. Trying to sing made me more nervous, which made my stuttering worse.
4472606
Guess it depends on the source of the stutter. ;)