Licking his lips did nothing to moisten them and Nuance hesitated at the door, fearing the outcome of whatever came next. Was Quiet worth it? Was her friendship and good cheer worth all of this? His heart said yes, but his legs wanted him to run as fast as he could. Where would running get him? It was dark outside and there was nowhere to run. No, there was no other choice, no other option, he had to face the vizard and bargain with him.
But first, there was appeasing Dim’s pride with an apology.
With Flurry on one side, and Skyla on the other, Nuance was pushed forwards, making the door seem to grow ever-larger, taller, wider, more imposing. The colt whimpered, a sound that made his ears burn with shame, and he felt Skyla’s wing wrap around his neck. She was stronger than he by far, because she was an alicorn, a creature of immeasurable strength and power. Skyla was everything that he would never be and Nuance gave some thought about how me might have hated her or resented her for all this time.
After a time of thoughtful reflection, about five seconds or so, he determined that he was sorry, but an apology would have to come later, once this dreadful nightmare was over. He really was a monstrous little ingrate and he needed to make amends. It was his most sincere hope that Quiet might help him, and he planned to ask her. He would even say please, and try not to be demanding, or bossy, or rude. How hard could it possibly be to ask for a favour and not expect compliance?
The door was pulled open and Nuance expected to see Dim, but he wasn’t there. No, Sinister had opened the door, and she stood there, solemn, statuesque, a dread-inspiring guardian. Sinister was a far better pony than he would ever be, and Nuance knew it. She had pulled the soul of the Golem Lord into her body and then, using her body as a prison, she had taken the Golem Lord to Tartarus. There, she had stayed, enduring a horrible, wretched existence, until Grogar’s forces had invaded Tartarus to collect some necessary souls. Sinister had accomplished everything that Nuance had hopes of doing, and she had done so without boasting, without bragging, without being a monstrous prat.
“Have you no spine?” Sinister asked as she stared down her muzzle at the colt cowering just outside the door.
Nuance had nothing smart to say, nothing snide, his sarcasm had failed him. “No.”
“Oh, you poor dear. That’s tragic,” Sinister replied, and then she did the unthinkable: snatching him up, she hauled him inside to face his doom.
Inside, the house was very dim; Nuance reminded himself that these were creatures that had little need of light and he wondered if what few lights there were had been lit for his benefit. If they had, it was very kind of them. Blinking, Nuance tried to see his surroundings, but everything was shrouded in shadows. This wasn’t so much a home as it was a museum and what little he could see horrified him. Skeletons, skeletons everywhere. As a family, Quiet and her parents collected and assembled skeletons, and then put them on display. Overhead, skeletal owls hung from almost-invisible wires, along with bats and even a cockatrice.
Quiet would no doubt know the name of every single bone in every single skeleton.
Just as Nuance’s hooves touched down upon the floor in the middle of the parlour, he was assaulted by some dreadful bit of darkness come to life and hungry for his flesh. Wailing in terror, he was bowled over and his vulnerable, delicate belly was exposed to whatever was about to devour him. An indiscriminate black shape surrounded him, bore down upon him, and then much to his horror, sat on him.
“Hiya, Nooncy!” an overly cheerful voice chirped and Nuance very nearly wet himself in terror.
Above Nuance was a crescent smile filled with terrible teeth. Two small hooves kneaded against his barrel, and Quiet Dark was purring, as she was prone to do. Nuance was so relieved to see her that he could not withhold his greeting: “You sot! I almost wet myself!”
“Aw, Nooncy, have some smoochies!”
Before he could protest, Nuance was assaulted once more as wet, slobbery kisses were plastered all over his face. Trying to squirm away was no good and in the end, all he could do was endure it. To say that Quiet was affectionate was like trying to say that lions were predatory. All of his bluster escaped as a sigh, and then Nuance went still as Quiet drenched him with her affections.
“Quiet, don’t play with your food,” Sinister said while looming large over the pair of them.
“Aw…” Quiet pulled away, reluctant, but then gave in and managed to give Nuance just one more super-slobbery smooch right on his left cheek.
Things went from bad to worse for Nuance when he heard the Squabbling Sisters giggling, and he wriggled just a little beneath Quiet, who remained sitting on top of him. The rug below was quite soft, and Nuance found that he wasn’t as uncomfortable as he first thought when he had tumbled over. In his own way, he was happy to see Quiet too, just not as exuberant about saying his hello as she was.
“Where’s Dim?” Flurry asked.
“Studying windigo essence,” Sinister replied in a voice of terrifying, steady calm. “Dim has thoroughly rational fears that Grogar will revive the windigos and try to make allies of them.”
“Oh, neat”—Flurry’s response came with a fluttering of wings—“I wonder if he’d let me join him?”
“Perhaps, once this unpleasantness is over.” Sinister turned away from Flurry and looked down at both Quiet and Nuance. “Quiet, beloved, please, such behaviour is unseemly. Do not sit on Nuance in such a manner. It is vulgar.”
“Yes, Nana.”
Obedient, Quiet scrambled off of Nuance, stepping on him only once, and then sat down beside him. Reaching down, she hauled him up into a sitting position, gave him a good shove to check his balance, then, flinging her forelegs around his neck, she embraced him and did not let go. This tickled, and Nuance found himself squirming.
“This better, Nana?” Quiet asked as she gave Nuance fuzzy-wuzzy-muzzle-nuzzles.
“Quite.” Then, after a few seconds, Sinister let out a sigh for reasons unknown to Nuance.
“Nuance”—Quiet wrapped her forelegs around his neck in a fierce headlock—“Nuance, I’ve come up with a plan to save you, so you’d better be a good pony and do it… or else I’ll gobble your face off.”
More snickering could be heard from the Squabbling Sisters, and from somewhere in the shadows, Blackbird as well. Nuance was almost certain that he was allergic to embarrassment, and his skin felt both hot and prickly all over. There was no point in trying to wiggle away, because Quiet had earth pony strength and he didn’t.
“You have to stop being a bad pony, because then I won’t be able to see you. Is that what you want, Nuance? Do you want my cute little heart left a broken, bloody, ooey-gooey mess?”
Almost overcome with burning shame and embarrassment, Nuance closed his eyes and then just sat there like a lump, thankful to be with Quiet, but also kind of hating her for bringing up his misbehaviour. Not knowing what else to do, he leaned up against her and tried a difficult magical trick: conjuring gratitude.
“Lately, you’ve been floundering,” Quiet continued and she gave Nuance an aggressive squeeze. “I know that you’ve been trying to do better, but you get grumpy and go back to being awful. But I know that you’re trying, even if other ponies don’t see it. I’m not seeing stuff, am I? ‘Cause that would break my heart, Nuance, if I was imagining this.”
“I am trying,” Nuance whispered.
“Did Mama tell you the plan?”
“Yes.”
“Did you listen?”
“Yes—” A hard smack to the back his head caused Nuance’s eyes to fly open and then he blinked in pained alarm.
“Don’t lie to me.” Quiet’s words came out as a growl from her sharklike maw.
“Mostly… I got scared and I freaked out near the end and that made it hard!” The sound of his own whiny voice made Nuance cringe and he wished that he was elsewhere, even though he had been waiting forever to see Quiet. He hated when she did this to him, because she didn’t let him get away with anything.
“You just can’t pay attention, can you?”
“No.” Sulking, Nuance turned his head away from Quiet and armed himself with his best scowl. “I have troubles, okay? I get all worked up and I worry and I start thinking about all the stuff that might happen and sometimes I just zone off and start daydreaming. It’s hard. I can’t seem to think about any one thing for very long.”
“Being honest”—Quiet’s murmuring lips tickled the back of Nuance’s head, causing the colt to have fitful twitches—“was that so hard?”
“Yes.” Nuance squirmed to get away, but it was useless, and he really didn’t want to get away after having spent the entire day trying to get close. Quiet’s hugs were special, though he would never, ever admit it. With a huff, his resistance ended and he settled into her embrace once more, unmoving.
“I’ve heard so many stories about my parents,” the odd little filly said to the colt she held close to her. “Important stories. Really, super-duper important stories, and I learned a lot from them. This is why you hafta listen, you doofus. I’m gonna be your Blackbird.”
Nuance was almost feeling confident with three fillies at his side. He wasn’t facing an evil vizard—not at all—but he was dealing with a father who loved his daughter a great deal. Dim was—even with everything that others said about him—still a pony, just as Nuance himself was a pony, and he knew that others said much about him too, giving he and Dim something in common.
Dim’s beard was mesmerising, but his eyes were even more so. A dainty, delicate teacup hovered, aloft in Dim’s magic and little curls of steam rose from it. Quiet nudged him on one side, and Flurry elbowed his ribs from the other, and he could feel Skyla’s eyes upon him. Try as he might, Nuance just couldn’t get the words to come.
“Out with it.” Dim curled his lips back in a sneer.
Eyes narrowed, teeth bared, Quiet had this to say: “Sei nett, Vater.”
“Halt den Mund, Schatz.”
“Nein, Vater.”
“Freches Stutfohlen.”
“Du hast mich dazu gebracht.”
Dim cleared his throat. “So tat ich.”
Poor Nuance had no idea what was being said and feared this exchange was about him. It was time to come clean, it was time for action, it was time to do the right thing, even though the right thing was sure to be hard. With his guts clenched tight with fear, Nuance threw himself on Dim’s mercy.
“I’m sorry!”
“Sorry for what, exactly?”
Again, Flurry elbowed him in the ribs and Nuance knew he needed to answer quick, before his ribs were bruised from Flurry’s helpfulness. “For everything. I said and did so much… you’re angry with me, I think, but I don’t know why.” When Dim sighed, Nuance worried that an angry lecture in the language of war was coming.
“You honestly don’t know why I am angry?” Dim blinked once, twice, took a sip of tea, blinked for a third time, and then his ears pricked. “I hesitate to even say anything in front of my daughter.”
“Look, I did a lot of bad stuff, and I’ll admit to that, but I can’t remember all of it and it isn’t fair for you to expect that from me,” Nuance said while trying and failing to control his breathing.
“You’re right.” Dim bowed his head. “Nuance… awhile ago, you went off on a tear about half-breeds—”
The swift, sudden impact to the back of his head left Nuance dizzy, stunned, and in considerable pain. As bad as it was, it somehow made him feel better, because he deserved it, and he knew it. Squeezing his eyes closed, he couldn’t bear to look over at Quiet and he buried his face in his front hooves.
“That wasn’t even the first incident, but it was the one that caused me to draw the line.”
Flinching, Nuance waited for another stunning slap to the back of his head, but none seemed forthcoming. Beside him, coming from Quiet, he could hear sniffles, and it was the worst sound in the world, a sound so awful that he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. When he felt Quiet’s soft touch upon him, he tried to shy away, but Flurry’s sudden shove kept him within Quiet’s reach.
“Did you do this?” Quiet whispered.
“Yes.”Strangled by his own emotions, Nuance had trouble saying the word.
“Are you sorry?”
The constriction in his throat proved to be too much to bear, and so he nodded.
“Then I forgive you,” Quiet said in her own quiet way that left behind no doubt. “But you must never say such things ever again.”
There was a rustle of feathers from Blackbird’s direction, but Nuance didn’t open his eyes. In misery, he sat between Quiet and Flurry, the pain in his heart far, far worse than the pain on his head. For a moment, he thought about Pebble, and he wished that she was here with him, because she would be here with him, if he needed her, and he knew this to be true.
When he opened his eyes, Dim refused to come into focus and Nuance had to squint to see through his tears. A million different thoughts rushed through his mind, each one of them demanding to be said, and he thought about everything that Blackbird had said to him when the plan was discussed, or at least he tried to remember what he could.
In the end, what came out was quite brief. “Quiet is my Blackbird. What if somepony had kept Blackbird from you?”
Dim did not respond, but sipped his tea. Nuance waited, almost shivering, and all four of his frogs were slick with freezing sweat. It was all on the line now. He had thrown himself on Dim’s mercy with so little said, and he was supposed to have said so much more, because Dim could be a hard pony to reach. Even if Quiet forgave him, it would not matter if Dim did not relent in turn.. Should the worst happen, Nuance readied himself to accept it, He would cry about it, and try not to protest too much. Something told him acceptance would serve him better here.
Without Dim’s response, Nuance continued, “I’m not asking for Quiet’s company. I’m willing to work for it. I’ll do community service… I… I am willing to work to show that I am… that I am… I want to show you that I mean this. Whatever it takes. She’s worth it.” Even though his vision was fuzzy, Nuance could see that one fine eyebrow arched over Dim’s face. It was terrifying to behold, so much judgment in one tiny eyebrow.
“There is a saying used among the new ranks of nobility in Equestria,” Skyla began in little more than a whisper.
“Privilege is slavery,” Flurry finished.
“As it should be.” Sinister’s icy, imperious deadpan left behind a strange, uncomfortable silence that caused Nuance’s innards to go squishing around inside of him. “Those capable of doing more should have so much more expected of them. The aristocracy has grown decadent and has rotted from within. The Darks most of all.”
Peering at Nuance over his teacup, Dim leaned forwards, his eyes shrewd and full of cunning. “And what is to be our rate of exchange?”
“I… I-I don’t understand.” Nuance shook his head and hated himself for stammering.
“How many hours of devoted service will you give me for a mere moment of precious time with Quiet?” There was no warmth to be found in Dim’s voice, only the cold, calculating tone of a callous mercenary. “What will you give?”
“Well, I… I… uh, I thought that if I did an hour of work that I’d get an hour with Quiet.”
“Nein.”
“Oh.” Nuance gulped. “Oh. Fiddlesticks.”
“What will you contribute to our great Empire?” Dim asked as cold fire could be seen blazing in his mismatched eyes.
“What do you think is fair?” Cringing, Nuance waited for an answer that he knew would be brutal, and when Dim tented his front hooves together, he almost whimpered in fear.
“How about five minutes for every hour?” Dim suggested and Nuance let out a pained groan.
“Um—”
“Are you about to tell me that my daughter isn’t worth that much?”
Swallowing his words, Nuance wiped his sweaty front frogs on his barrel and then stared Dim in the eye, a feat that proved almost impossible. “She’s worth it, but that doesn’t seem very fair to me.”
“Life isn’t fair.” Dim’s lip—as thin as parchment paper—curled back into a fine, well practiced sneer. “Even with Blackbird’s help, do you think it was easy for me to redeem myself? To prove myself worthy? To find my own self-worth again? I think she found it long before I did.”
“If I could be a knight and pledge a lifetime’s worth of service, I would! Quiet is worth that!”
The teacup in Dim’s telekinesis trembled and the goateed vizard replied, “And just what do you know of knighthood?”
“My mother… Luna… she gave me some books.” Unable to bear looking at Dim any longer, Nuance looked down at the paisley sofa cushion that he sat on. “A few months ago. She gave me these books and she told me that they were yours. Somehow, they survived whatever happened to your old tower. She found them in the rubble. The stories are nice.”
Dim’s teacup suffered total sublimation and vanished with a hiss.
“She said that I would be inspired by what I read in there, but I’m so small, and weak, and nopony likes me, but it sounds so nice and meaningful. I daydream about it, sometimes, and there are moments when I sort of slip off when things are happening and I wonder how a knight from those old stories would do things. It’s saved me from trouble a few times, but it has also got me into trouble because I keep daydreaming when I should be paying attention.”
“Don’t stop daydreaming.” Dim’s thin, reedy voice seemed frail somehow, fragile.
“But my parents—”
“I WILL SPEAK TO YOUR PARENTS!”
Recoiling, Nuance squeezed himself up next to Flurry and hid his face behind his front hooves. Dim was terrifying; spittle flecked his mustache and his goatee, his eyelids were twitching in a most alarming way, and the room seemed far too warm for Nuance’s liking. It took several long, agonising seconds before Dim seemed to collect himself.
“I am sorry for my outburst.” Dim’s ears fell back to a more apologetic position and he continued, “I will speak to your parents, but you should follow your dream. If you dream of knighthood, then you chase that dream. Do not relent, little one. Look at me. You should know how frail I am. I dreamed of doing better… those books inspired me, and I dreamed. I chose better things, and Blackbird was my fair maiden…” His words trailed off and Dim fell back into his chair, his whole body trembling.
Raising his quivering right front hoof, Dim whispered, “If only somepony had believed in me sooner, so many years might not have been wasted. All that time left wanding about in the bleak dark…”
Leaning over, Quiet rested both of her front hooves against Nuance’s neck, and she pressed her body against him, sandwiching him against Flurry. “Papa has hurts that you can’t see. They pain him so. I know he did not mean to scare you, he did not mean for his outburst, just like I don’t think you mean yours, Nuance.”
“For every hour of community service you perform,” Dim began in a reedy, aristocratic whine, “for each hour spent in service of the Empire, I will allow you a half-an-hour with Quiet. This is the base amount of time. But if I hear from your parents that you are back to your old ways, this time will increase considerably, or you may lose access to Quiet altogether.”
Nuance took a deep breath and thought about Dim’s words, but Quiet had her own reply.
“He’ll take it, but we get to spend all the time we want together doing community service.” Quiet sat up straight and looked her father right in the eye, unafraid.
A silent, unspoken exchange seemed to take place between Quiet and her father.
Nuance, confused, had to know why she would do what she was doing for him. “Quiet, why are you doing this? I don’t get it? Why do this for me?”
Never taking her eyes off of her father, she replied, “I don’t know if I can save the world, but I learned from my mother that I can save just one pony, and that’s enough. She learned this from Grandpapa Stinkberry. Nana told me that this is the Coffyn legacy and that I should embrace it.”
“I’m gonna go bawl my eyes out now!” Blackbird announced, and then she departed the room in a hurry, her claws and hooves clattering against the floor.
“Do we have a deal?” Dim asked, casting his eyes in the direction that Blackbird had fled.
For once, Nuance had no hesitation or anxiety about answering. “Yes, we do.”
“Then we are in agreement.” Dim snorted, which caused his mustache to flap, and Nuance thought of the songbird being devoured in the sap trap grabber. “Now, begone, all of you. Go outside and stay in your tent. You too, Quiet. There is something I must do.”
Then, before anything else could be said, Dim was gone with a crackle of aetherfire.
“Hey,” Quiet said to Skyla, her best bosom companion, “Sleepover.”
“Yeah, sleepover!”
“Hey, I have an idea,” Flurry announced as she wrapped her forelegs around both her little sister and Nuance, and gave them both a squeeze. “We should give Nuance a makeover and make him one of us!”
No! Nuance thought about crying out in protest, but it was far too late, and he knew his fate was sealed. Sighing in resignation, he couldn’t see the point in fighting back, and maybe, just maybe, if he tried enjoying himself, he might have a little fun. He just might have a night to remember.