//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Nom's Mom Bomb 
// by kudzuhaiku 
//------------------------------//

Chalcedony might have been blind, but she wasn’t weak, and she made for a most excellent pack pony. The plush pale white filly had surprising strength, strength proportional to how much she was glowing at any given moment. She bore the load without complaint and performed well, but extra care had to be taken to ensure that she did not stumble or trip. As with everything else involving the blind filly, it was an exercise of trust.

In Canterlot, it was customary to hire a wagon or a sturdy pack pony on market days, and Chartreuse remembered that her mother, Remède, always went out of her way to be kind, thankful, and appreciative for whomever had been hired that day. She had always tipped well and as such, on market days, there was no shortage of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed earth ponies willing to take the job. Some of the noble families could afford to keep an earth pony or two on staff for jobs such as this one, but not Chartreuse’s. They were working class nobles and every saved coin mattered.

“There just had to be a sale on potatoes,” Chalcedony grumbled as she was lead along by Nomination. “Charty just had to be responsible… why can’t she ever pay full price for anything, Nom? I’m starting to think our friend is cheap!”

“Chalcedony, Chartreuse isn’t cheap. The condition she has is called frugality. We have to humour her illness and do our best to support her.”

Condition, eh? Illness? What a wisepony. Bringing up the rear, Chartreuse glared at the back of her friend’s head with a disturbed smirk.

“You know, Nomination… if Charty was to grip a penny with her plot cheeks and if you tried to take it away from her somehow, you’d end up with copper wire stretched as thin as spider silk. That’s what happens when you’re tight with money.”

Oh, that did it. That was just dirty. It was time for a lesson and not one in friendship. Chartreuse’s smirk now had a wicked air about it. She would show them the lethality of her frugality. “Nomination?”

“Yes, Chartreuse?”

“How much coin do you think we can make renting out our little potato hauler?”

“HEY! Not funny!”

The colt shook his head. “She can’t see, so not much, I’m afraid—”

“Guys, this isn’t funny.”

“But Nomination, the money saved on blinders…”

“Oh yeah—”

“S’NOT FUNNY!”

“Watch out, curb. Step down.”

“Thank you, Nom.”

“Don’t mention it.”





Sunburst awaited when the trio neared home and Chartreuse wondered how long her teacher had been waiting near the mailbox. Reading a book, he didn’t seem bored or even particularly bothered by waiting, and might have even enjoyed a chance to do nothing more than pleasurable reading. He looked to be quite happy, satisfied even, and seeing this, Chartreuse began to feel sulky once more about her earlier failure.

Looking up from his book, the vibrant orange unicorn assessed the situation and then said, “Shopping, I see. What do we have?”

“Mostly potatoes,” Chalcedony replied while her pace quickened so that she might hurry to Sunburst for inspection. A happy nickery-wicker could be heard as the crystal filly’s hooves clattered against the paving stones that lined the path.

“A fine and sensible choice,” Sunburst remarked in return. The sunlight glinted off of his glasses whilst his head tilted off to one side. “You know, buying a little junk food won’t hurt your marks in independent living studies. There is being sensible and then there is… nevermind.” Sighing, he shook his head, smiled, and braced himself for Chalcedony’s inevitable impact.

Even though she slowed, Chalcedony still almost bowled Sunburst over, and she pressed her face into his neck, nuzzling him with deep affection. Chartreuse, who came to a halt while watching, thought about Chalcedony’s relationship with Sunburst. There was a blurry, indistinct line between father figure and teacher. The affection on display suggested much, and it was heartwarming to witness.

“Your pretty face—”

Indignant, Chalcedony’s ears stood rigid and she stomped her sturdy hoof against the paved pathway. “Forget my pretty face, my friends loaded me down with potatoes and then made jokes about renting me out as a potato hauler!”

Before she could stop herself, Chartreuse burst out laughing.

Sunburst, looking stern, serious, and solemn, nodded. “Mmm-hmm. Very good. Discussing employment is important. The goal of independent living studies is to teach you how to be independent. Transportation of goods is vital to society. Would you limit yourself to potatoes or would you take on the transportation of other root vegetables?”

Sunburst had an odd way to pronounce the word, ‘vegetables,’ being very drawn out with a hard focus on all of the consonants.

“I’m betrayed!” Chalcedony shuffled on her hooves, the load on her back shifted, and several of the tinned goods clunked against one another.

“About that little altercation in school today—”

“Oh, you mean the one where I delivered a hot fresh beat down to Snow Dust?”

Rolling his eyes, Sunburst sighed, then nodded. “Yeah, that one. You’ve been assigned to community service detail, which means that either Nomination or Chartreuse has also been assigned to community service detail, because you need a seeing eye pony. What you did was completely uncalled for, and now, because you have to be punished, one of your friends must now suffer with you. Take your pick.”

“Why not both?” Chalcedony replied without a second’s hesitation. “They wanted to rent me out as a potato hauler!”

“Hey!” Chartreuse interjected, and started to say more, but Sunburst cut her off.

“Sometimes, Chalcedony… sometimes I worry if I am making an adequate effort to reach you. You’re supposed to feel bad about getting one of your friends involved in your punishment… and you shouldn’t immediately see it as an opportunity for playful revenge. A life lesson is being taught here. What you do will affect your friends by virtue of who and what you are.”

Pulling away, Chalcedony almost appeared bashful now, and she began to make little hoofy kicks with her left front hoof against her right front hoof. “Nomination got bucked in the face. Look at him. He’s probably pretty messed up. I don’t wanna drag him into this, ‘cause that’d make me feel worse. As for Charty, it seems like she never has any free time ‘cause you and and Dim are mean and bury her in assignments. Don’t make me do this, Mister Meanpony.”

“Nevertheless,” Sunburst replied, “it must be done.”

“What about Snow Dust?”

“What about him?”

“Tell me, is he in trouble for what he did?” Chalcedony turned her milky, pinkish-white eyes upon her teacher and waited for a response. “Will he be doing community service detail?”

“Snow Dust faces a permanent expulsion hearing.” Sunburst cleared his throat, glanced down at the paved path for a moment, and when he spoke again his voice was quite low. “Princess Cadance has stern rules against bigotry and intolerance in her school. Snow Dust shows tremendous potential and has the makings for greatness… and chances are that he’s going to be expelled. He faces very different consequences, Chalcedony.”

“I really wanna gloat right now, but a part of me also feels bad.” Chalcedony continued her hoofy kicks and Nomination drew nearer to her side to comfort her.

“That is very honest of you, Chalcedony. That takes some courage to say.” Sunburst smiled, a warm sight, and he looked upon Chalcedony with such affection that it made Chartreuse’s heart begin to ache from the sight. “Violence is sometimes unavoidable, and Princess Cadance understands that altercations take place among juveniles. Intolerance and bigotry are traits in need of stamping out entirely and have no place in our enlightened society.”

“So… he said something in anger and his life is pretty much over, I guess.”

“Even his failure serves purpose,” Sunburst said in a reassuring voice to the now-downtrodden filly. “His slip of the tongue and his actions are now being used to instruct others. His classmates and peers will hopefully be more mindful in the future. With luck, this will cause attitudes and outlooks to shift. I am optimistic.”

“Can we please get Chalcedony inside so that we might relieve her of her burdens?” Nomination made a polite series of clicks to punctuate his words and he cast a meaningful glance in the direction of the door.

“I’m not even burdened at all,” Chalcedony huffed and when she moved to face Nomination, more tinned goods could be heard clunking. “This is nothing. I… I… I feel so loved… there’s been so much love lately that it is hard to control my strength, actually. Life has changed so much with the two of you around.”

Sunburst blinked several times, perhaps to clear his watery eyes. He sighed, cleared his throat, sighed again, and made a gesture at the front door. “Let’s get you inside, Chalcedony.” With a turn of his head, he faced Chartreuse, smiled, and added, “I have a message for you, by the way. You’ll be working with Dim tonight. Be prepared. Shadow detail.”

“Oh… goody…” Chartreuse could not help but note her lack of enthusiasm.





Getting good telekinetic exercise was important and putting away groceries was ideal. Chartreuse had the kitchen all to herself with nopony in the way, so she let fly. Nomination was down one floor with Sunburst and was talking about his mother. Chalcedony was one floor above, in the bedroom, doing whatever it was young fillies did alone in the bedroom when the tower had company. No doubt, she was up there having herself a good think.

Sixty pounds of potatoes was scarcely enough to last a few weeks for three hungry, growing foals, but Chartreuse was glad to have them. Nomination liked cooking with potatoes more than he did eating them, and his many experimentations kept them well-fed. The potato bin only had enough room for about forty pounds or so of potatoes, so she was now forced to find creative places to store the rest. Like Nomination, they had to be stored in a cool, dark place.

Tins of condensed milk were stacked just so in the cupboard, each with their label and logo facing forward. A supply of Grunhilda Griffoness’ All-Day-Breakfast-In-A-Tin were all for Nomination. A growing… whatever Nomination was, he needed lots of specialised proteins and this meant eating meat. Grunhilda Griffon’s All-Day-Breakfast-In-A-Tin was a nutritious meal of beans, sausages, gammon, and egg nuggets. Everything a carnivore needed for a full belly all morning and gas all afternoon.

Once, Chalcedony had tried to sample some and Chartreuse had been forced to put her hoof down.

Several famous Oddbody Family cheeses went into the cheese bin in the icebox and Chartreuse couldn’t wait to cut those later. Flour went into the flour bin, apples went into the crisper, bread went into the breadbox, tea and coffee went into the cupboard, and in no time at all, everything was stored in its proper place, as was proper.

The crackle of a phonograph from the bedroom above caused Chartreuse’s ears to prick and she stood frozen in the middle of the kitchen. A chilly terror crept up her spine, slinking from vertebra to vertebra with slow, torturous steps while she wondered if her companion was about to play that record. A near-silent prayer to Chantico was murmured, but her hopes were dashed to pieces when she heard the infectious buzzing of a bass guitar, heavy with distortion, accompanied by the warm, raspy sound of the hi-fi phonograph itself. The record had been played so much that it was already showing extensive signs of wear.

Before the singing started, Chartreuse’s face burned hot and when she blushed, her face took on a greenish cast, a peculiarity of her unique colouration. No. No… no! Life just wasn’t fair. How could this happen? Sunburst was about to hear… and then would judge what Chalcedony called ‘groovy’ music. Life was over and the nightmare was now in full motion.

From above, Chalcedony’s voice could be heard, belting out a song with more feeling than talent, but keeping up with the vocals on the record.

“I said what… what… in the butt—I said what what in the butt? I said what… what… you wanna rut—I said what what you wanna rut? I said rut… rut… in the butt—I said rut rut in the butt! I said what… what… bust a nut—I said what what bust a nut? Where? Right there in my butt!”

Chartreuse facehoofed, having heard this awful, awful song one too many times.

To make matters worse, Sunburst’s voice could be heard from down below, and it was with great horror that Chartreuse realised that he was singing along with this dreadful, awful, horrible, no good song. Why? Why did life have to be this way? This had to be Starlight’s influence, because there was no way her wise instructor would seek something like this out on his own. Hearing her beloved, respected, genteel teacher singing—this song of all songs—was too much for poor Chartreuse to bear. With all hope crushed, with all optimism lost, with nothing left to live for, Chartreuse too, raised her voice to sing along…