“Curb.” Navigation now was second nature and Chartreuse was determined to make certain her friend didn’t stumble. Even distracted as she was, thinking of everything said during tea, she was watchful, mindful of Chalcedony’s needs. They were simple needs, simple demands, and when one thought about it, they were the same needs and demands that any pony had, only somewhat more pronounced due to her condition.
There was a lot of city to explore, but that would happen on other days, other outings. There was so much to see, so much to explore, so many shops with inviting window displays. Hat shops, tea shops, curiousities from exotic lands, a weapons store named ‘Bloodbath and Beyond,’ the Gnome Depot, and a place that sold magical items, all of which were promised to be one-hundred-percent non-evil, guaranteed, or your bits returned without question.
“Ash Wipe Chimney Sweeps,” Nomination said, reading the sign that hung in front of the business. “I wonder what it’s like to sweep a chimney?”
“I dunno,” Chalcedony replied, “but if you get the right cutie mark for it, it soots you.”
“Oooh, Junk and Disorderly! A thrift shop.” Chartreuse refused to even acknowledge the dreadful pun her friend had made. “Oh, Planet of the Grapes, for all of your wine needs!”
“Nim Com Soup.” Nomination craned his head to look up at the sign. “Stupidly good soup.”
“Pita Pan, our food will keep you young and healthy forever.” Chartreuse eyeballed that one in total disbelief, it was quite a claim and she had her doubts. As she continued, she saw another enticing sign: “Hey, Back to the Fuchsia, we have two of those in Canterlot.”
“Beauty and the Bleach,” Nomination said as he swung his head around to see another ornate wooden sign. “Discreet genital and anal bleaching, remove unsightly stains today.”
“Hey!” Chalcedony came to a sudden stop, her tail tucked between her legs. She stood there for a moment, squirming, uncomfortable, and her ears pivoted around into a dozen different positions in just a few seconds. “Being my friends, you would tell me if I had any unsightly stains back there, right? I mean, I hope somepony would tell me that and that I wouldn’t be walking around with unsightly stains back there.”
“Chalcy”—Chartreuse felt funny shortening her friends name—“I would tell you.”
“I could have a look—”
“Nomination, no!” Chartreuse stomped her hoof and the colt dropped into a submissive pose. “Although that is kind if you to offer, this is a job better left to a fellow filly.” She felt bad for the pitiful looking colt, but not too bad, and after studying his face for a short time, she could see that he was sincere in his feelings, as near as she could tell. No doubt, there was probably some regulation that prevented him from doing untoward things. “Let’s go home. It’s getting late in the day and we could all stand to do some productive studying.”
“Home.” Chalcedony lifted her head, blinked, and her ears stood up out of the wild, curly thatch of her mane. “I do have a home. Not a dormitory bunk in the boarding hall, but a home. It makes me feel all grown up inside.”
“It’s home for now,” Chartreuse said to her companion.
“Home, with a budget, and shopping, and tidying up, and staying indoors when it is rainy and bleak… home… listening to the rain falling and the wind howling on stormy nights. I’ve never had a home before, homes are generally something that orphans don’t have—” And then, without warning, Chalcedony exploded with tears and began sobbing.
Fighting back the urge to sniffle, Chartreuse approached her weeping friend, gave her a full body bump to reassure her, and then she said, “Yes, home… let’s go there now and get you cleaned up. Come on, little steps, you can do it. Maybe when we get home, we can find that smile of yours.”
Home. This was home. Chartreuse led her friend along the little stone path through the garden around the tower to the bath shed in the back, leaving Nomination to explore the compact garden. Coming around the side of the tower, she saw the shed for the first time, and halted for a moment to take it all in.
It was pleasant, and not at all what she expected. There was a green copper chimney sticking up out of the red shingled roof, and the door was red too. The walls were a dark stained cedar. There was a little round window near the door, and a compost hatch off on the right side. This was no mere outhouse, but a teeny, tiny bathhouse, a needed addition to the tower, which had been created in a time when indoor plumbing didn’t exist.
She resumed her movement, walked to the door, and pressed the latch with her magic. The door opened on well oiled hinges, revealing an inviting space just beyond. To the right of the entrance, there was a door leading to the compost toilet, but it was the main room that held her attention captive. There was a tub in the corner, a copper basin that would serve as a tub well enough. There were benches along the walls and some kind of brazier in the middle that was filled with rocks.
It was a primitive sauna.
No modern steam fed contraption here, just rocks that could be heated. There was a wrought iron stove and an insulated water tank. Nearby, there was a sink for washing, and Chartreuse realised that if she wanted hot water, she would either have to heat it up herself or light a fire to heat the tank.
Chalcedony vanished behind the door, going into the closet where the compost toilet was hidden, leaving Chartreuse to continue her inspection of the bath shed. There was no electricity here, no electric lights. There was an oil lantern that hung from the ceiling and that was it. After looking about, taking in every detail, the clever unicorn filly knew that she would have to cast some permanent light spells in this place.
From beyond the door, Chalcedony shouted a sentence that made Chartreuse shiver in fright: “I really hope that spiders don’t come crawling up out of the compost pit and tickle my plot!”
Things had settled into a quiet calm and the three friends were now nestled on the couch together. Chartreuse held a book in her magic, Nomination did the reading, and Chalcedony listened while clinging to Chartreuse. It was a pleasant time, comforting and comfortable, and at some point during the day, the three had become fast friends.
“You’re a bit grabby,” Chartreuse said to Chalcedony, and this caused Nomination to stop reading.
“You know how you look at a pony’s face to tell what they are feeling?” the crystal filly replied. She took a deep breath, redoubled her squeezy grip on Chartreuse, and closed her eyes. “Well, I can’t do that. I can’t connect to other ponies by looking at them. I can’t tell what they might be feeling, or how they are responding, or what they might be thinking. If I touch them, I have a somewhat better idea.”
Nodding a little, Chartreuse thought of the way that Chalcedony had hung onto Nomination in the tearoom. Then, without prompting, she began to think of why that tearoom appealed to her friend, and came to the conclusion that it was one of the quietest tearooms she had ever visited, due to the water features and what not. She made a sincere effort to try and understand how her new friend perceived the world.
“One of my previous assistants quit because I was too clingy,” Chalcedony said, almost sighing out these words, with her voice sounding so defeated and sad.
Clingy. Turning her head, Chartreuse looked down at the filly pressed up against her side, and much to her alarm, she noticed that Chalcedony was… rather cute. She was a creature made of soft curves, was a pleasing pale white, she had the most intriguing curls that just begged to be brushed into submission. When her mouth went dry, Chartreuse swallowed.
“Hey, your heart is racing. Is everything okay?”
“Fine.” Chartreuse heard the huskiness of her own voice and was mortified by how strange it sounded. For some reason, her glasses had fogged over, and she suffered distracting thoughts of Rarity. Also, the soft glow of Chalcedony only added to her appeal and Chartreuse’s brain transmogrified itself into a pile of mush.
What was going on?
She didn’t get a chance to figure out what was going on because the door opened without warning, and Sunburst came in. Chartreuse gasped, feeling dirty, as if she had been doing something wrong, and had just been caught. She couldn’t even look Sunburst in the eye while he stood there, adjusting his glasses, and clearing his throat.
Busted! Chartreuse’s brain blurbled in its current mushy state. What I do? she demanded of her own mind.
“The alarm went off,” Sunburst said in a matter-of-fact way. “Specifically, the alarm that warns of colts passing through the front door.
An enormous droplet of sweat rolled down the side of Chartreuse’s face.
“We’re studying together,” Chalcedony said to Sunburst. “This is Nom—”
“Nomination,” the colt corrected. “Nicknames are against regulations.”
“Okay, somepony has to explain what is going on. I’m not angry, not yet, anyway, and I’m tough but fair. Spill the beans and I will be merciful.” When Sunburst sat down upon the floor, his spine crackled and he grimaced. “Ugh, Starlight really messed up my spine, ouch!”
“Back problems?” Chalcedony asked in a sweet, sincere voice.
“Twister,” was the only word said in return as an explanation. Sunburst leveled his gaze and focused on the three ponies on the sofa. “Enough about me. Tell me about you and why I shouldn’t move you back into a dormitory.”
The crystal filly gulped.
“Well, I was taking Chalcedony to her favourite tea room, and we cut through the school and administration buildings, and we found Nomination here crying in a garage because he was having a bad day. After that, we went out for tea, and we talked, and we became friends I think, and Nomination came home with us to help Chalcedony study and—”
Raising his hoof, Sunburst cut Chartreuse off with a gentle gesture. “Okay, I get the gist of it. You had a complicated sequence of events that lead to an impromptu friendship. As innocent as this might be, and I hate to be the one that does this, but I am going to have to—”
“Can Nom be one of my assistants?” Chalcedony blurted out. “Please? Can he stay here with us? Charty is going to be busy sometimes with her apprentice stuff and I like Nom. Please?”
“Coed cohabitation isn’t allowed—”
“Nom is probably gay, so really, he could be just one of us fillies!” Chalcedony slipped off of the couch, almost taking a tumble, and she stumbled over to where Sunburst sat. When she was inches away from Sunburst, she began pouring out her heart. “Nom isn’t a bad pony… he’s too scared of his mother to do anything bad and he has all of these regulations that he makes himself follow, and everything is about the regulations, and I don’t think he’ll do anything stupid!”
“Chalcedony…” Sunburst’s ears splayed out left and right. “Chalcedony there are rules about this sort of thing—”
“You and Princess Cadance are always telling me to ask for help, that I need to ask for help, and I need to be more direct with my needs and this is me asking for help! I’ve found a pony that I think will make a good assistant for me and that I’m comfortable with. I am asking you for help, and how you answer this will probably determine if I ask for help in the future.” The crystal filly sat down on her fuzzy backside with a muffled whump, and then gave Sunburst a hopeful, pleading, sightless gaze.
Sunburst’s ears drooped a bit more, sagging, and his right front hoof tapped against the floor. “Chalcedony—”
“You said that I have to start trusting in the good of ponies… you said this a couple of assistants ago when I said I was sick of it all and wanted to give up! You said it! I needed to trust in the good of ponies! Well, I’m doing it and right now, I’m trusting in Nom’s goodness and I am trusting in your goodness… please, please, please give this a chance.”
“You make a point.” Sunburst sounded defeated, and he let out a longsuffering sigh. “You there, Nomination… how do you feel about being her helper?”
The colt sat on the couch, blinking, looking quite panicked. “I am not against it.”
Raising his right front hoof, Sunburst began rubbing the side of his head, making little circular motions against his temple. This caused his glasses to go askew. “I can’t make any promises, but I will bring this up to Princess Cadance. Chalcedony, I’ll make sure that you get a chance to speak to her and plead your case. I suppose there is something to be said about asking you to trust in the good in ponies, and this is a practical application of that lesson.”
“Not being trustworthy is against regulations,” Nomination mentioned, and his words were punctuated by a few clicky sounds. “I cut class today and I screwed up, and I came back here to help her study so I could self-punish, so if you wanted to, for my infraction, you could sentence me to civil service—”
“I might just do that,” Sunburst said, cutting the colt off before he could get worked up. “Would you feel better if you were given punishment disproportionate to your alleged crime?”
“YES!” Nomination let out a huff of relief and then fell over on the couch. “Please punish me and get it over with so I can feel better, this is driving me crazy!”
Now, Sunburst looked shrewd. “Well, the punishment should fit the crime, I suppose.”
Reaching out her hoof, Chartreuse placed it on the dull blue-grey colt to comfort him while he buried his face into his forelegs. She understood self-punishment, having done it more than a few times herself. The colt made a curious variety of clicks, pops, squeals, and squeaks, all sounds of echolocation, and she found something about them to be quite endearing.
“I hate asking for help and I hate that it feels like I’m a chore that has to be done,” Chalcedony said, whispering out the painful words. “Today was like the greatest day ever, because my new friends were nice to me, and Charty kept me from tripping on the curbs, and I felt special, and we did something that I liked to do, and I wasn’t just dragged around and made to follow somepony else while they did things they wanted to do. Nopony shouted at me or hollered at me to keep up. This has been, like, the greatest day ever and I don’t want this to end.”
“Chalcedony, I won’t say that I understand, because that would be patronising, but I do acknowledge what you are saying.” Sunburst scooted forward a bit, reached out his foreleg, and pulled the blind filly into a tender embrace. She resisted for a moment, sniffling and sad, then gave in completely, pressing against him as she began blubbering.
Clearing her throat, feeling a bit choked up, Chartreuse coughed a few times, and then had this to say: “The right thing needs to be done. If this is something she wants, then somepony needs to make sure that she has it. It sounds like she’s had a rough go at things, and this might go a long way towards restoring her hope. I don’t have a problem with Nomination staying with us. I think it would be a fine thing to do.”
“When I explain all of this to Princess Cadance, I’ll keep that in mind.” Sunburst wrapped his foreleg around Chalcedony a little tighter, closed his eyes, and then began to rock back and forth with her, trying to bring her some measure of comfort. “Take heart, little one, Cadance is an understanding pony.”
Turning her head, Chartreuse prodded the colt beside her on the couch to get his attention. “Nomination, we have an obligation to do good. You know of what I speak. Duty. Shall we endeavour to do this together?”
“Yes.” The colt’s response was muffled from behind his forelegs.
“Sunburst, when you go to speak with Princess Cadance, I request to go with you.”
“Why, Chartreuse?”
“I wish to plead with her.”
“I don’t know if that is necessary.” Sunburst reached up and stoked Chalcedony’s neck.
“But she”—Chartreuse pointed at Chalcedony with her hoof— “needs to know that she is worthwhile… worth fighting for. This isn’t a chore, but a privilege that is a reward of trust.”
At this, Nomination struggled to sit up and his face contorted with intense concentration while he did so. He grunted a bit, and once he was upright, he tucked his wings back against his sides. “I’m coming too. If this is to be a formal request, then I demand the right to represent myself, to plead on behalf of myself and my friend.”
“Okay, all of you… you’re coming with me so we can sort this out. Princess Cadance might be busy, so we might have to wait a while, but you’re all coming with me and you’re staying with me until we get this settled. Okay?”
“Okay.” Chartreuse nodded.
Nomination replied, “Fine with me.”
“I’m having a really emotional day,” Chalcedony whimpered. “I’m feeling hopeful, and I haven’t felt this way in a long, long time. I want to believe that this will somehow be okay.”
“And somehow,” Sunburst responded, “I want to make this okay for you.”
“Here’s to doing what is right and good,” Nomination said while he held out his hoof to Chartreuse.
Nodding, she gave him a hoof bump in return. “To camaraderie.”
“Let us give good, kindly Cadance an earful,” Sunburst said, resigning himself to his task. “This is the social progression she wanted, I hope she’s ready to have it. This pretty much covers every major social issue that she frets over.”
“But first, before we go, let me help Chalcedony clean up her face again!”