Chapter 9
Holly had somehow managed to tackle the entire mess by the time that Noctilucent had finished his shower. The foal seemed to be in a much better mood, and the harness had been returned around Noctilucent’s neck. This was somehow comforting.
Upon having his foal returned, he had given her a kiss on her head to let her know that there was no hard feelings and all had been forgiven. It pained Noctilucent to admit it, but he was already feeling a strong sense of attachment.
It was now bathtime for the colts, and Holly had taken them downstairs, leaving Noctilucent in charge of the fillies. They seemed to be well behaved enough. For now.
Sassafras had pulled out a battered small guitar, one of her few possessions, and was trying to pick out a tune from the badly tuned instrument. Noctilucent couldn’t help but notice that the griffon actually had some measure of talent, what she needed was a better guitar and perhaps some lessons. Her talon fingers were ideally suited for quick nimble movements, and her claws allowed to her pick and pluck on the strings. She clacked her beak together to keep time as she tried to coax a tune.
As Noctilucent sat watching the griffon, he felt a gentle prodding. Looking down, he saw Candy Corn.
“Hi,” she said in a shy whisper. “Cactus says I should talk to you, she says you’re nice and you don’t scold her for being a blabbermouth,” the foal explained.
Cactus sat just behind Candy Corn, staring ahead at the wall, nodding her head slightly. She had one hoof resting on Candy’s back, and gently rubbed Candy as she spoke.
“I hear that you and Cactus are very close friends,” Noctilucent said.
“We are,” Candy squeaked. “I am her eyes, and she is my courage. I can’t remember your name, I’m sorry.”
“My name comes from an old language and it is difficult to remember. It is a special type of cloud that only comes out at night. My name actually means ‘Night Shining’ so you could call me Night or Shining and I could try to remember to answer to those names,” Noctilucent said, offering to help the foal if he could.
“You’re freckled,” Candy said, touching one of Noctilucent’s many white spots. Reaching a little higher, she gently stroked the foal, causing the foal to burble a bit.
“I’m dappled,” Noctilucent explained.
“Cactus knows what you look like, she had a dream about you,” Candy said.
“No tellin’!” Cactus cried, prodding her friend.
“Sorry,” Candy replied, hanging her head.
Noctilucent peered at Cactus, eyeing her curiously. She seemed flustered that her secret was out. The prod changed into a brief hug.
“Since you spilled a secret, I get to spill a secret,” Cactus quipped. “Candy wants to be my sister,” Cactus blurted.
Candy meeped and covered her face with both of her forelegs, still in Cactus’ embrace, which kept her from falling over.
“There is nothing wrong with that,” Noctilucent said.
“Yeah there is, nopony is ever going to adopt both of us,” Cactus snarked.
“I don’t want to be adopted unless Cactus comes with me. I’m her eyes,” Candy whispered, shaking her head. “And I need her for so many reasons.”
Noctilucent hadn’t been aware that Sassafras had quit playing he guitar until she sat down before him with the foals.
“You haven’t ran away yet,” Sassafras said bluntly.
“I don’t plan to run away,” Noctilucent said. I couldn’t run away even if I wanted to he thought to himself.
“I don’t know what to make of you,” Sassafras admitted.
“Make of me?” asked Noctilucent.
“You are almost too good to be true. I mean, that foal dropped an explosive poo-bomb and you never once shouted, got angry, or did much of anything. That ain’t normal,” Sassafras pointed out.
Upon hearing the words “explosive poo-bomb” Cactus Blossom fell apart with a terrible case of the giggles.
“She can’t help that she was sick, shouting at her wouldn’t have accomplished anything,” Noctilucent replied.
“But shouting would have made you feel better,” Sassafras countered. “And most adults only want to make themselves feel better. Most adults are horrible and selfish, and think only of themselves. They never stop to think about how what they do might hurt us.”
“Adults make mistakes,” Noctilucent admitted.
“I really hope you stay,” Sassafras said, repeating her words from the other day, when she had first met Noctilucent. “I’m starting to like you.”
“You’re nice,” Candy said. “I wish you had been my father…” her words trailed off and she began to sniffle, her eyes flooding with tears.
Noctilucent, knowing what Candy’s father had done, suddenly felt quite sad, a pain he wasn’t sure that he could deal with right now. And if any of them knew the truth he thought to himself.
Suddenly, he wanted to be far, far away from the fillies and the griffon cub.
“Will you help us with our schoolwork?” Candy asked.
“You have schoolwork?” Noctilucent replied with a question.
“Well duh, of course we have schoolwork,” Sassafras replied. “They have to torture us somehow.”
“They?” Noctilucent asked, a faint smile coming to his lips in spite of his own inner turmoil.
“Them. They. Horrible adults that want nothing more than to torture us because we are too small to fight back,” Sassafras said, flexing her talons.
“Or they could love you and want what is best for you,” Noctilucent retorted as he stared at the griffon.
“Yeah, adults making all the choices for us, because we aren’t allowed to make our own choices,” Sassafras grumped. “We have a right to do what we want to do and we should be free to do as we please,” she added.
“Free to do stupid things that cause you to hurt yourself?” Noctilucent asked. The dreadful realisation of what he was saying struck him dramatically. So much for free will he thought to himself.
“If you wanted to eat a pony should you be free to do that?” Cactus asked Sassafrass.
“Oh no… I didn’t mean that. I would never eat a pony the thought makes me feel si-HHHHUUUUURRRRRUUUULF!” The griffon covered her beak with her claws and gagged, nearly throwing up on the floor.
Cactus moved towards the sound of the distressed griffon, feeling her way forward. When she found her, Cactus pulled the griffon into a hug, which the griffon accepted gratefully.
“Sassy eats bugs and sometimes fish they send in for her to keep her healthy, but the idea of eating somethin’ that talks makes her sick,” Candy explained.
Noctilucent nodded, still thinking about his own situation.
“I am a cheese eating griffon,” Sassafras said queasily. “It’s been proven that griffons can survive on cheese and eggs and stuff like that. Eating things that talk… GLUUUURPH!” she covered her mouth again as she almost spewed.
The foal around his neck farted, causing Noctilucent a great deal of panic. He waited, as did the foals, who were now frozen in terror, six eyes staring at the foal in the sling. Regaining her senses first, Sassafras scrambled away, pulling Cactus along with her, and Candy, seeing the others retreat, also scurried away.
Thankfully, nothing else happened, other than a nostril burning stench.
Noctilucent raised one foreleg and hugged the foal to his chest and kissed her once again on top of her head. “Baby has a troubled tummy,” he mumbled in a foal-talk voice.
School turned out to be a simple affair. Holly taught the foals basic things they needed to know. Holly had mentioned to Noctilucent in passing that sometimes, one of the several retired school teachers who lived in Mustang Springs came in to teach a special class or a series of lessons.
But mostly, it was Holly. Holly did everything for these foals.
Her every waking hour seemed devoted to their care, and she was a devoted caretaker. She had no days off, no time to rest or recuperate, no moments to look after her own needs. Noctilucent was staggered by her dedication.
Today’s class was all about writing a letter. How to format a letter, how to fold a letter, how to address a letter, and how to send a letter. Mail was the primary means of communication in Equestria, and how to communicate was a vital skill that the foals needed.
Cactus of course could do none of these these things, but she listened with interest, a look of intense concentration upon her face.
Arroyo was having some difficulty, and, oddly enough, Graves was actually helping the pink unicorn colt, and Arroyo seemed quite confused by Graves’ assistance. Holly noticed as well and kept eyeing the pair, as though waiting for Graves to let go with his usual string of insults, complaining about Arroyo’s stupidity.
Biscuit had folded his paper over and over again, until it was almost the size of postage stamp. He sat, looking a little bored, staring at his folded piece of paper discontentedly.
Sassafras and Candy worked together, Candy failing to produce crisp folds in her paper. Applying that amount of pressure meant violence, and Candy didn’t have that in her. Candy however, had amazing script, her control with a pencil held in her mouth a marvel to watch.
Watching all of this made Noctilucent think about writing a letter himself, but he didn’t know the address. There was a mare out there somewhere that was a school teacher, and she had a foal, and for some reason, Noctilucent wanted to know that she was alright. He suffered a painful flashback of her as he had walked away, leaving her on the couch, knowing full well what was going to happen. His mental recollection caused him to physically cringe, and he did not see Holly eyeing him curiously.
He then thought about his first crush, the very first time he felt something so strong for another pony, and the ill fated attempt to communicate with her on Hearts and Hooves Day. No one would have him. He hadn’t even wanted himself.
Sending a letter to Merriweather wouldn’t fix anything. She had no reason to ever want to speak to him again, not after what he had done. Or what he had not done, depending on how you looked at it. What he had allowed to happen. It was nice to know that Merriweather had moved on, becoming a teacher and keeping the foal.
His thoughts were interrupted by a “clunk” from the front door. Rising, he went up the steps to the front door, pulled it open, and saw a package on the stoop. The mailpony was traveling down the road, sweating, and looking hot. It wasn’t even noon yet. The heat was oppressive.
He picked the package up by the string around it and carried it inside, hauling it down the stairs. It had his name on it, and it was probably the painkillers Princess Luna promised. He set it on the table that stood near the stairs going up to the front door and then resumed watching the lesson, occasionally hugging or kissing the foal slung around his neck. Each nudge, each nuzzle, each touch of affection made him feel better and pushed some of his depression back.
Lunch was cold, salad greens and vegetables, along with leftovers from the night before, the cold beans now exceptionally delicious after having sat in the fridge overnight. And there were of course, lots of avocados. Noctilucent was getting a taste for them, and had eaten several wedges.
The foal was still struggling to take in formula. Holly had changed formula types, and the mixture in the bottles now was faintly orange. Noctilucent hoped the change would help, he did not want a repeat of the incident earlier.
Noctilucent observed within himself an odd feeling when Holly had taken the foal from him to cuddle it for a while and change its diaper. He wanted the foal back. And he had become quite flustered not having her secured around his neck. The feeling was troubling. He was quite relieved when the foal was returned.
Unknown to Noctilucent, Holly had noticed his behaviour and was quite pleased to see the pegasus acting paternal. Holly wanted the foals to have a dependable father figure. Every single one of them needed a father figure in their lives.
With lunch and the break time over, it was time for school to be back in session, followed by an afternoon snack, and then it would be naptime to prepare for the evening.
The foals were excited about this evening. The library wagon would be stopping by, loaded down with books. While Graves showed no actual excitement, he did keep expressing his desire for new books to read.
Feeling full, a little sleepy, and sort of bored, Noctilucent was looking forward to naptime. He yawned, causing other yawns in all those who had observed him.
Watching the foals do their schoolwork, Noctilucent settled into a chair to cuddle with his foal. Words could not describe the soothing effect it was having upon his troubled soul.
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4420040
I do run my work through a spellchecker.
I suspect the spell checker in Gdocs isn't the best spell checker there is available.
Holly had somehow managed to tackle the entire mess while Noctilucent "was" in the shower
or
by the time that Noctilucent had finished his shower
Yes!!! I got the first comment on one of the most endearing (my most favorite), and severally depressing, stories on fimfiction!!
4420075
That works thanks,
I really love where this story is going. Keep up the awesome work!
you could make one more change to make your story a little bit better. towards the end, the sentence
Unknown to Noctilucent, Holly had noticed his behaviour and was quite pleased to see the pegasus acting paternal.
you switch perspective from one pony to another. This is a little disruptive to the reader
what if she just handed the foal back with smile and a sly wink, maybe even a comment on how great of a father he would make.
sorry, im just a stickler for taking good writing and making it GREAT!
4420143
Perhaps breaking it into a new paragraph.
4420156
No, well yes, that is an option, but you need to get rid of that perspective flip. This is only coming from the main character( I cant remember how to spell his name) so you have to write it as if you are the main character. You cant leapt into some other ponies mind (only if your an all powerful goddess)
SO adorable, and so sad at the same time.
Also, I love the griffin
after reading the chase i can imagine nocturn (i dunno how to spell his name) fluffing his wings like derpy does
4420186
I do occasionally step outside of the character and offer narrative from a free floating omniscient point of view.
I shall have to puzzle this out. I really want Holly's thoughts intact.
4420197
Yes... protectively.
4420196
But she is a bug eating savage!
4420208 No, see is a bug eating rockstar! She has a guitar, therefore, she is eccentric musician.
4420064 Yeah, the spellchecker in Google Docs is pretty bad.
This is great! Keep up the good work!
I've been thinking about Noctilucent's name. It was stated to be a portmanteau of Latin words meaning "Night" and "Shining", but since English is a backwards language, it could be translated "Shining Night", or it could be interpreted as "Shining Knight".
Of course, I could be reading too much into the name. Keep up the good work.
Congrats, you made me laugh out loud at work when the orphans stared in horror at the fart.
4420534
Cactus Blossom. Her long talk with Noctilucent.
And Candy saw the whole thing go down...
4420546 Did Candy see what happened with her parents or did she see Cactus telling this to Noctilucent?
BTW, I see the Noctilucent has gotten attached to that foal...too attached. What will happen to him if that foal gets adopted?
4420829
Candy saw her parents.
4420303 yeah, that happens since its a free thing so it isn't going to be the best like with ones from paid programs like Word or Pages
Yay! No more Feces! Also we get some cute interaction between Cactus and Candy. I want them to be sisters too. So that was a nice chapter, I'm excited for the next one.
4420198
Actually, your story is fine. You seem to be using third person limited, but, should you wish to include another perspective, the switch to third person omniscient works just fine. Since the story is being told in third person, rather than first person, I see no reason to edit.
Keep up the good work!
4422897
Uh, careful there.
Noctilucent ran away before the assault happened.
He still has his V-card.
I think this should either be "but he did not see" or "and he did see".
I can see why Noncholent would want to write the mare a letter, but I have no idea what he'd say
I find it a little bit sus that nonchelont is healing this fast and the foals are liking him this quickly (especially the colts in the last chapter how quickly they came to understanding their own behavior.) That said; virtually all stories do that as it would take eons to write anything going at a realistic pace, so no hard feelings.
Edits, yay!
no time to rest of recuperate
or
six eyes staring at the foal in the sling.
Given the setup from the previous sentence seeming to make this phrase purely about the foals-plus-Sassafras (and thus not include Noctilucent), there may be three orphans present, but is Cactus likely to be so accurate with her gaze?
Amusingly, I keep thinking that Noctilucent is related to Twilight Sparkle's family, due to his name evoking those of Shining Armor and Night Light. If he was a unicorn instead of a pegasus, that is.
(Of course, it's also linked to Luna, he being the Illuminating Night and her being the Illuminator of Night.)
On a tangent, I wonder if Cactus's knowledge of what Noctilucent looks like comes from Luna importing his likeness into Cactus's dream? Has Luna shown Cactus what her fellow orphans, Holly, and the interior/exterior of the orphanage look like, so she has a comparative frame of reference? Could Cactus be taught reading/writing in the dreamscape?
4424357
She heard the sound.
Blind people can still technically stare.
With my glasses off, I cannae see nothing, but if I hear something, I still point my face at things and my eyes go wide.
Ingrained behaviour.
4424357
Also, dreaming.
When you are dreaming, you cannot actually recognise most numbers / letters. Please note I said most.
If you cannot tell if you are dreaming or not, try to look at a watch or try to read something in a dream. Everything will come out garbled. The process is called a "reality check" in psychology. And it is a major part of lucid dreaming.
The reason why this happens is because the part of our brain that allows us to tell time and read stuff is actually asleep during the dream, shut down for restoration.
That said, other parts of our brain can recreate these images under special circumstances. For example, when we speak we speak from one part of our brain, But when we swear, we swear from a completely different part of our brain. Stroke victims for example, can learn how to speak all over again if they pepper their language with profanity and trigger the part of the brain that allows for swearing and not the damaged speech center.
The same is true of spatial relations. How we view a house in a dream is always different than how we view the same house in real life. So even if Cactus was shown everything, it would not be a good or safe frame of reference. Things would be distorted and unreal. The stairs for example might be two feet tall each. Think about how much stairs looked to you as a child, and how scary they were. The brain exaggerates their size to trigger a fear response, to keep you safe. In a dream, all of this exaggeration would be greatly amplified. Stairs are inherently dangerous, and your brain will do anything to drive home that point, including making the stairs endless, super large, or otherwise imposing.
4424380 Oh, absolutely. I was just wondering if Cactus's stare would be as precisely targeted as the other two.
It's entirely possible, of course - I was just confused a little by the description and wanted to check as to whether the number of fixated eyes described in the scene was accurate.
4424415
It is really funny actually.
Even in people and greater apes that have never seen anything, blind since birth, this behavior is still displayed. It is one of the great mysteries about us as a species, as turning our heads would actually be beneficial for our hearing.
There are lots of theories as to why we do it, and some promising leads, but the last time I learned anything about this phenomenon, we still didn't know anything for certain.
I did read an interesting theory involving the hairs in our nose and how they react to sound waves though. Sort of like how dogs and cats whiskers can detect sound vibrations. Only ours is much, much weaker.
4424405 All excellent points. I was assuming that Luna would be able to stabilize such factors if she chose. I guess it depends on her exact dreamwalking abilities in this story, and how much time she'd have.
4424422
I have given a lot of thought to this actually.
I am hesitant to move in one direction or another.
I thought it would be pushing it to allow a blind foal to see in dreams.
I've been quietly following along since the first few chapters and I thought I might just drop a comment.
It's not often I see a story that successfully deals with some very touchy topics, I hope you continue as you have been and allow us a to see this healing process both for the foals and our main character. Please don't feel like you have to suddenly change the tone of the story, add in random plot points or just turn the whole thing into a contrived mess. I've seen to many stories do that.
This is just a thank you for writing such a touching piece and an expression of my fears.
Good luck,
Willsons