//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Foalsitting Follies // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// How could everything go so wrong? Twilight couldn’t believe how things had spiraled out of control. She had been trusted with the foals of her mentor, her teacher, and her idol. Even though logic told her that these problems had been going on for a while and Celestia was aware of them, Twilight still felt guilty that everything had blown apart while under her watch. No small wonder that when Celestia left Equestria that Cadance was put in charge, like right now, because Twilight couldn’t even pull off a simple foalsitting job. The hospital smelled of disinfectant, iodine, and Twilight’s eye-watering funk of shame mingled with failure. Guards milled about, getting in the way, and making quite a bit of noise. Twilight wished that she could send them away, but they had orders that she could not override. The waiting was the worst part, and like the guards, she paced to and fro. “You know, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said while she stroked Corbie’s neck and tried to make the little filly feel better. “You’re looking at this all wrong. You are taking all of this the wrong way, Twilight, and you are being way too hard on yourself.” Pausing, Twilight turned to look at her friend, but she said nothing in response. “Princess Celestia trusted you to fail—” “What?” Twilight snapped, cutting Rainbow Dash off, and the corner of her left eye had a frightful twitch. Holding up her other front hoof, Rainbow Dash waved away Twilight’s interruption. “Princess Celestia trusted you to fail. Not every pony deals with failure very well. I know I don’t. But you… you take failure as an affront, and once you deal with the initial shock of it, you get mad and you dig in. See, that’s the thing, Twilight. For you to really deal with a problem, you have to fail first.” Sitting in a chair beside Rainbow, Pinkie Pie nodded. “Yep.” With her wings and ears sagging, Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash, and felt the sting of tears. “That’s the nicest thing anypony has ever said about me. Thank you, Rainbow Dash.” “Eh, don’t mention it.” Rainbow stroked Corbie’s mane and the little filly let out a shuddering sob. “Are you going to calm down, Corbie?” “No,” Corbie whined, and she squirmed in Rainbow’s embrace. “The last time there was a punchy-punchy fight like this, Mama sent me to stay with Twilight so she could punish Nuance and Radiance. I’m scared!” “Well, don’t be.” Rainbow extended one wing, wrapped it around the sniffling filly, and shushed her. The clanking of armor made Twilight turn around, and she felt her heart leap up into throat. Help was coming and some of the cavalry had arrived. Applejack and Fluttershy had shown up, and Applejack was shoving her way past the guards with a sneering snarl. Fluttershy was far more apologetic, but no less insistent. “Rarity is catching a train and coming back from Canterlot,” Fluttershy said to Twilight. Before Twilight could respond, Applejack embraced her and asked, “How bad is it? Any word yet? Was it a scuffle, a squabble, or a slobberknocker?” “What? What? There’s a difference? I need a dictionary!” Twilight leaned into Applejack’s hug, looking a bit bewildered, and she gave her friend a squeeze. “Where is Radiance now?” Fluttershy asked. “In his room,” Twilight replied. “I posted guards at his door.” “I see.” Fluttershy pursed her lips together. “I’m sorry, Twilight, but I can’t stay. There is a little colt that needs to be straightened out and I think that job falls on me. Expect to come home to a mess.” “Fluttershy, no, wait—” “Let her go, hun.” Applejack leaned up against Twilight and held her in place. “Although I reckon it’d be a mercy if’n I took a switch to his backside rather than let her have a go at him. It’d be over faster and there’d be a lot less crying. Flutters is real good at dealing with troubled foals. It’s what she does, Twilight.” Falling silent, Twilight watched as Fluttershy left, slipping between the guards. She reminded herself that her friend did ‘therapeutic foster care,’ meaning that she often took in foals nopony else wanted. Which made her dislike of Nuance all the more intense, and Twilight made a note to speak to Fluttershy about that later. Pulling away from Twilight, Applejack got right up in Seville’s face. “Cousin. How ya been?” “I’ve had better days.” Reaching over, Seville patted the chair beside him. “Have a seat.” “Naw, I’ll stand, thanks.” Applejack glanced over at Twilight for a moment, frowned, and then returned her attention to Seville. “How’s Aunt Orange? Uncle Mosley?” “I haven’t talked to them in a while. I never really got a chance to know them that well, Applejack. I was raised on a farm outside the city. Though I will say, now that I’m famous they have lot more interest in me.” “Yeah, that sounds about right.” Sighing, Applejack’s tail swished from side to side. Meanwhile, Twilight resumed her pacing, but found the chit-chat soothing. Applejack and Seville connected with family. It was said that Apples and Oranges were as different as could be, but Seville and Applejack had a lot in common. As it turned out, orangebucking wasn’t so different from applebucking, not when you got right down to it. Seville might have chosen a different life, choosing to become a reporter rather than a juice maker, as his cutie mark suggested, but he could still buck a tree like it was nopony’s business. For all of Seville’s sophistication and education, he hadn’t lost his connection to his roots. Twilight’s own roots connected to a tower in Canterlot, where her mother and father lived. There were several other ancestral homes, but she never really cared much for those, or even had much interest. In a way, Twilight envied both Applejack and Seville. When you said Apple or Orange, you had an idea of what you were getting. Sure, there were bad Apples, and bad Oranges, but there were lots of good ones. “Princess Twilight—” Whirling about, Twilight almost knocked the doctor over. “Call me Twilight,” she blurted out while she ventured deep into the doctor’s equinal space. “How is he? Is he going to be okay? Is he disfigured? Tell me what I need to know!” “Well,” Doctor Horse began, “he is sedated right now. Upon seeing Nurse Redheart, he became quite irate and said he didn’t want any, uh… earth ponies near him ever again. He then attempted to set her on fire with a spell, but thankfully all it did was make her smoulder a bit. She’s fine.” The doctor cleared his throat. “We gave him fluids, because he’s dehydrated and seems to be suffering from a bit of blood loss. His eye is swollen shut and the inside of his cheek has a small, superficial cut. He clearly took a few nasty blows, but he’ll recover with time and good care.” “Hmm.” Twilight stood there, taking in every word that had been said. “Are you going to keep him overnight?” “No,” Doctor Horse replied right away while shaking his head. “That colt is messed up in the head, in my most humble opinion. He needs time with those who love him, that is if they can stomach being around him.” The doctor’s eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth sagged into a weary scowl. “I’m going to send you home with something that will help with the pain and keep him mildly sedated. It’s a liquid, so have him swish it around in his mouth before swallowing. It will sooth the pain in his cheek and his face.” “And his eye?” Twilight asked, even though she already knew what to do. “A little ice will help.” Doctor Horse gave Twilight a reassuring nod. “A bag of frozen peas would be ideal.” Lowering his voice, the doctor’s eyes darted around the waiting room, and then in a whisper he suggested, “You know, corporal punishment isn’t a bad thing. Not right now, of course, he’s too sick and frail… but when he’s better, a few loving swats across his little backside with a brush might help adjust that attitude of his. There’s lots of padding back there, lots of solid muscle tissue, and really, all it does is sting a bit.” “Ayup.” Applejack reached up and pushed her hat back. Eyes narrowing, Twilight looked the doctor in the eye. “Are you telling me to spank him?” “It might save him from being punched in the face again.” Doctor Horse held his head high and his nostrils flared. “It might also make him think twice before spewing out all of that tribalist garbage he said to Nurse Redheart.” “I’ll take that into consideration.” Twilight did her best to keep her face neutral and hold her temper in check. “Thank you, Doctor Horse. I think we’ll be leaving now.” “Good bye, and good luck. You’re going to need it…” Returning to her castle, Twilight was met with a frantic Spike, who was left in charge during her absence. He was clutching his tail, squeezing it in his claws, and to Twilight’s eyes, he looked like he had just encountered a grue. She paused, but her friends continued, pushing around her to come inside, and Twilight knew that something was oh so very wrong when Spike didn’t say a word of greeting to anypony. “Fluttershy,” Spike whispered, and the little dragon cringed. “Fluttershy is angry. Beware!” And with that, Spike, who appeared to be quite unnerved, took off at a run, his clawed feet slap-flap-flapping against the crystalline floor while he sprinted away at marathon runner speeds. “What do we do with Nuance?” Applejack, who was carrying Nuance on her back asked. “Oh, I have a few ideas—” “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cast a sidelong glance at her friend and her upper lip pulled away from her teeth. “You know, he’s almost as egotistical as you are. It’s no wonder you spend all day flying, the clouds are the only place with enough open space for that big head of yours!” “Yeouch.” Seville Orange winced while shaking his head. “Beware the Snarkle Sharkle.” “I totally deserved that.” Rainbow’s face was passive and her ears drooped. “Sorry Twi.” “Let’s keep Nuance in my study. In fact, we’ll all go there.” Twilight’s lip relaxed a bit, but she did cast one final scathing glare at Rainbow. “We’ll need to fix supper soon, I’m thinking Corbie is grumpy because she’s hungry and it is getting to be about that time. Rarity’s not here yet, so I don’t know who is going to volunteer to calm down Fluttershy, but somepony is going to have to take one for the team.” “I’ll do it,” Rainbow offered. “Least I can do after the stupid thing I said.” “Thank you, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight’s tone became cordial once more. “Now is the time to restore order and regain control of this situation. Everypony, let’s sort this out.” Twilight Sparkle admired Corbie’s resilience. Some foals, no matter what happened, would bounce back if given the right circumstances, and Corbie was one of them. She was talking Seville’s ear off, and much to Twilight’s keen interest, Seville was hanging on the filly’s every word with sincere, genuine attentiveness. It occurred to Twilight that Seville was almost a father to these foals, that he had been there from the beginning to help raise them. She was so distracted that she did not notice Pinkie Pie creeping up on her until it was too late, and the pink pronker whispered in her ear, “You know, he’s gonna be a good dad. I know what you are thinking, Twilight, and I’m thinking it too. I do feel bad though—” “Why?” Twilight asked in a low voice. “We’ll be taking him away from Corbie, Radiance, and Nuance.” Flummoxed, Twilight hadn’t thought of that until now, and now, sharing Pinkie’s thoughts, she felt just a little bit guilty. With a turn of her head, she glanced over at Nuance, and saw that the little colt was sprawled out in a nest of pillows. He had a dopey look about him, and was in a wonderful mood—a miracle of the sedative given to him in the hospital. Looking quite sad, Nuance made a surprising announcement: “I miss my mama.” It was an equinising moment, a reminder that even the bratty, monstrous little foal known as Nuance was still a pony, with feelings, needs, and wants. Moving away from Pinkie Pie, Twilight went over to where Nuance lay, and she flopped down beside him. When she pulled him into her forelegs, the colt made no protest, but just remained limp. One eye was shut and the swelling on the side of his face was immense. Laying on her stomach with her forelegs extended out in front of her, Twilight cradled the malicious little tyrant and felt pity for him. “You know, you make it very difficult to love you,” Twilight said to Nuance, uncertain of the level of his cognisance. She looked down at him, gazing at his face, and for just a second, she found herself adoring him. He was true to his namesake, a shade of blue so pale it might be mistaken for white, a pale shade of nuance. “I hate you all.” Nuance sounded drunk and his one open eye had trouble focusing on Twilight. “But I think I hate you less. You may rub my tummy now, peasant.” Sighing, Twilight chalked that up as a victory. For now, it would have to do.