Chapter 12
Smooth. Nuance was smooth. Twilight, during her many long years as a teacher and administrator for her school, had noticed that foals had a particular silkiness to their pelt that adults lacked. Nuance felt like silk velvet and Twilight knew that the texture would change with age, becoming a little more coarse. Flurry had started off so soft and silken, but as she matured, her coat became denser, thicker, becoming water-and weather-resistant.
While she held the sleeping colt, Twilight began making a list of what she knew, a report of the situation, and she did her level best to keep her own biases out of it. Nuance had it the worst, being surrounded by the best and the brightest when he felt so weak and inadequate. No doubt, he felt as though he was vying for his mother’s attention with a few hundred students, but not just any students, no. These students were part of Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, the very best and the brightest that Canterlot had to offer.
And little Nuance wasn’t even close to being on the same level. It had to be crushing.
Then there was the matter of the Lunar League Military Academy, also located in Canterlot Castle, the magical place where authoritarian discipline was law, a factory that churned out soldiers, and Radiance had fallen in love with the pageantry of it all. Twilight didn’t like to admit it, but there was a certain harmonic beauty to a hundred soldiers marching in lock-step, each in perfect sync with one another. She didn’t like the training, not in the slightest, where what little individuality most equines had was hammered out, smashed away, all to strengthen the collective herd. It was something she had an intense dislike for, but she had to tolerate, because she knew it was the foundation of Equestria’s military success.
In the middle of it all was Corbie, who had no aspirations greater than just loving her brothers, whom she no doubt viewed as nest mates. Twilight tried to recall everything she knew about pegasus ponies, the odd flock-herd dynamic unique to pegasus ponies, and everything she had ever learned from her many pegasus pony friends. For having such a tumultuous existence, Corbie seemed happy enough, and she appeared to be well balanced.
Little by little, bit by bit, Twilight Sparkle’s head began to nod while she held Nuance and it wasn’t long before she began to drift off to sleep, losing herself to blissful slumber.
The castle was quiet and Spike was mindful of his movements. With great care, he crept through the halls, making sure his toe claws didn’t click-clack too much on the floor. When he passed by Radiance’s room, the lone guard posted at the door saluted, and Spike gave him a casual wave in return.
Much to Spike’s surprise, he smelled coffee, which made him quicken his pace so that he might hurry to the kitchen. He waddled through the silent, empty corridors of Twilight’s delicious castle, ignoring the siren’s call to sample just one delectable bite, just as he always had done. Oh, he could probably get away with it—Twilight could never stay too mad for too long with him—but it was better to not abuse that trust. Spike had learned his lesson about abusing trust the hard way, and having done it once, it was not a mistake he cared to repeat.
Entering into the kitchen, he found it occupied. Both Seville and Moondancer were here, with Seville standing in the middle of the room, watching everything that Moondancer was doing. While it was not uncommon to find Moondancer lurking about before school started, she was here early. Spike took a mental note of the odd, out of place behaviour, and then noticed that Seville was looking at him.
“Good morning.” Spike waved and was ignored by Moondancer, who was getting ready to make tea. “Moonie, you okay? You feeling alright?”
“Am I a changeling?” Moondancer responded in deadpan, sounding a bit exhausted. “No, I am not a changeling. I am merely a pony with insomnia who did not wish to disturb her rather frail housemate. I came here to do something productive.”
“How’s Adventus?” Spike asked.
“Sleeping.” Moondancer didn’t even turn around to look at Spike when she spoke.
“Seville, what’r’you doing up?” Spike now focused his attention on the sleepy looking pony.
“I’m worried about my best friend.” Seville’s words were soft, thick with honesty, and he sounded a bit hoarse. He drew in a deep breath, let out a low whistle while his nostrils flared, and then he continued, “And well, everything else. The foals. Twilight. Pinkie Pie. There’s a lot on my mind right now.”
The little dragon began to scratch his chin. “You know, Twilight isn’t the hard one to figure out in this relationship, it’s Pinkie Pie. With Twilight, it’s a matter of knowing her interests to get her attention when she gets too focused on something. If you want to get her a gift, she likes Cherished Celestia figurines. Remind me later and I’ll make a copy of the master checklist of all the figurines she has so there won’t be any duplicates. We can make this work… but as for Pinkie, I can’t help you.”
“Waitaminute…” Seville, not quite awake, stared at Spike. “You’re helping me get with Twilight? Why? What you are up to, Spike?”
“Protecting my own better interests.” Spike’s nonchalant reply made Moondancer snort.
“Okay, dragon, what’s your game?” Seville appeared awake now, alert, and aware.
For a moment, Spike considered his answer, and then chose honesty. “For many long years, Twilight was my best friend and playmate. Then the most horrible thing happened. She grew up and I didn’t.” He shrugged and his tail plopped down to the ground with a soft thud. “That’s just the way it is. If I can’t have her back as a playmate, I’ll take the next best thing.”
Eyes narrowing, Seville gave Spike a shrewd, calculating stare, and Spike stared right back. The pair stared at each other while Moondancer continued being productive. The little dragon fidgeted beneath Seville’s piercing gaze, and Spike began to understand why Seville was so successful as a journalist. He was good at staring.
“Look,” Spike blurted out, “I’m not stupid about this sort of thing. I know what you and Twilight will be doing at some point. It bothers me just a bit, but I’m not going to keep you two apart. So I am just going to focus on what I get out of it, okay?”
“It bothers you?” Seville asked.
Spike shrugged. “Just a little.” He shuffled from side to side and his tail swept over the floor. “For a long time, it’s just been us. Together. Against the world. For you ponies, change happens so suddenly and you just embrace it. I think it is because your lives are so short.” Spike scratched his stomach, then snatched up his tail so he could squeeze it. “Change is difficult for us dragons. For us, the erosion of a mountain is about our normal pace. That’s why what Dragon Lady Ember is doing is so amazing, changing all of dragonkind so quickly. Look, it’s complicated, okay?”
“I suspect I understand just a little bit.” Seville gave Spike a nod. “I’ve spent a lot of time learning Celestia’s perspectives, and she can be slow to change as well.”
“That… that… that actually makes me feel better.” Spike shifted his weight, first to the right, then to the left, and he teetered back and forth. “I guess I forgot how much time you spend with Celestia. She’s the pony I go and talk to when things get overwhelming. She understands. Sometimes, it just gets to be too much and she understands.”
“Will you two just get to the bro-hoofing already?” Moondancer’s tail flicked and she let out a snort. “Or better yet, help me fix breakfast. Twilight has a bunch of guests, right? Wouldn’t it be nice if they woke up to a nice breakfast?”
Lifting his head, Seville Orange watched as Twilight Sparkle escorted Nuance into the dining room. His pulse quickened, of course it did, because there was something about watching Twilight act maternal that made the juice press inside of his mind bear down with pressure. Around the table, half-awake ponies yawned and he was distracted by a hoof poking him in his ribs. Turning away from Twilight, he focused his attention on Corbie.
“Uncle Seville?” Corbie had a strange not-quite-awake look upon her face that was both adorable and worrying. Something unknown glittered in her eyes, and she gave Seville another poke in the ribs as she leaned over closer to him. “Psst, hey!”
Lowering his head down, in a low whispered voice he heard Corbie say, “You should kiss her.”
Jerking his head back up, Seville almost fell out of his chair because of the unexpected words, and his front hooves banged against the table while he tried to recover his balance. This almost upset his glass of orange juice, something that Applejack had given him a funny look about. Somehow, Seville avoided disaster, but he wasn’t sure how. Corbie was too much like her father, too straightforward, too extroverted, too brash, and too bold.
This was worse than getting onto a train with Gosling…
“Hiyas, NuNu!” Corbie waved at her brother, but got no reply. It didn’t stop her from waving, and even blowing a kiss.
“Feeling better, Corbie?” Twilight asked while she sat down.
“Yep!”
Seville’s eyebrow lifted and he looked down at Corbie. She seemed fine, so he didn’t say anything, but he did worry. Blinking once, he gave her another quick look over, looking for signs of something wrong. Corbie was near and dear to him, almost as if she was his own daughter, and the idea of something being wrong with her was unsettling.
Coming to a skidding halt as she careened through the door, Pinkie Pie made a breathless announcement. “Radiance isn’t coming to breakfast. In fact, he refuses to come out of his room. He’s kinda upset about not seeing the sunrise, so he says that he’s gonna stay in his room, not eat, and starve to death so you’ll be punished, Twilight.”
Ears perking, Twilight took all of about seven seconds to process Pinkie’s words before she replied, “You know what, I’m okay with that. He can just stay in his room and miss breakfast. He’ll get hungry soon enough.”
“I hope he dies,” Nuance hissed.
“Hey!” Applejack turned a stern eye on Nuance and let out a huff of frustration when the colt sneered right back at her, fearless and undaunted.
Shrugging, Pinkie Pie came over to the table, pronking once, and then sat down beside Seville. He turned to look at her and there was something about her blue eyes that he found intriguing, something he hadn’t noticed before. Now, it could be said that Seville was a bitter Orange, but something about her blue eyes melted his inner cynic in a way he had never experienced before.
“You know, Nuance,” Applejack said to the colt, “You might be a real pain in the plot, but you’re also brave, I’ll give ya that.”
Stony faced, Nuance offered no reaction whatsoever, and after a few seconds of waiting, Applejack turned away, choosing to look at Rainbow Dash instead. Seville watched the two mares exchange a glance, and then they both started giggling. Feeling eyes upon him, he noticed that Nuance was staring at him, and Seville sighed, hoping that the colt wouldn’t start spewing out some awful tribalist diatribe.
“So,” Corbie whispered, “Uncle Seville, where are you gonna kiss her?”
Squirming in his chair, he did not reply. Yep, this was going to be bad: Corbie was not going to let this drop until she got what she wanted. It wasn’t that Corbie was a bad foal—far from it, compared to her brothers she was a paragon of goodness—but she had her mother’s steadfast insistence as well as her need to manipulate the world around her.
Thankfully, Corbie wasn’t quite as good at it as Celestia was.
When Corbie realised that she couldn’t get a reaction from Seville, she turned to Fluttershy instead. “One time, I didn’t obey mommy-wants time, and when I went into the room, Daddy was kissing Mommy on the crotch. It was super icky. Why do ponies do that?”
Fluttershy sucked in wind so hard that she choked, coughed, farted, and almost fainted all at once. Her wings flapped, and her face turned bright, bright red, red as a pomegranate. Rarity tried to slap Fluttershy on the back, but her wings got in the way.
“Corbie, darling, don’t say that.” Applejack’s face was in a mighty struggle, and the corners of her mouth twitched up and down. She shoved Rainbow away when the pegasus started laughing, and she repeated herself for emphasis. “Corbie, hun, you can’t say that.”
“I can’t say that Daddy is a super yucko crotch-kisser?” Corbie’s face contorted from confusion and she sat there, blinking with an almost owlish expression from behind her glasses. “Do you think Mama has kissed his peepee? Sometimes I feel kinda sick when they kiss me now…” While Corbie spoke, Nuance gagged and covered his face with his hooves.
Fluttershy was choking while making wheezing gasps, Rarity had turned a delightful shade of pink from her lower neck upwards, Rainbow Dash was clutching Applejack, Twilight’s mouth hung open enough that her uvula was visible, Pinkie Pie was giggle-snorting, Applejack lost the struggle, and the sort of chaos that Discord might have envied reigned supreme.
Unable to hold it in, Seville Orange began to chortle, and Pinkie fell over to cling to him.
Wearing an apron, Spike entered the dining room, looked around, and asked, “What’s so funny?” He paused for a moment, worried for Fluttershy, and then added, “Breakfast is almost done. Does somepony want to tell me what is going on?”
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Damn. Corbie is adorable.
Out of the mouths of babes...
Ohh it seems Corbie takes after her dad. I just hope she's not using humor to try and hide hurts.
The interaction between Seville and Spike was a great read. i love the detailed personalities you craft.
I have a bad feeling that one day corbie is going to say something she shouldn't and its going to cause a chain reaction that leads to disaster
“That’s just the way it is. If I can’t have her back as a playmate, I’ll take the next best thing.”
Let me spell that out for you, Seville. F. O. A. L. S. As in, stop waffling and get in there, you big chicken, and let's see some pecking and some clucking to get them eggs started. Two or three happy little foals would be just about perfect.
Heh. Spike wants Twilight's daughter as a playmate, because Twilight isn't one. And with Seville and Pinkie on the way, that's just more Really Important People in Twilight's life to contest her attention. (If/when they actually become Twilight's family, they are both probably going to be close to Spike. Heck, we have even been told that Pinkie still plays with Spike sometimes. This chapter is planting a seed for he and Seville, it looks like.)
Between what Twilight newly thought after Ink, and stuff like this... there's just a lot unsaid between Spike and Twilight, isn't there?
Yeah... double edge for military training, that. Gotta learn to work as a unit. Gotta have your natural reactions beaten out of you so you don't panic under the threat and reality of violence. Gotta be part of a team and not ask questions when ordered because lives are on the line.
But in a world where there is an even stronger herd instinct than in humans... it must have a much stronger effect.
8200225 Don't think she realises what she is saying yet!
Corbie... is best foal. She's reminding me of Harper something fierce.
8200349
That really just elevates the subtle horror of it all.
Equestria, as a nation, is almost just one bad day away from goose-stepping itself into subjugation of the entire world. Ponies generally don't act as individuals; they just follow whoever is the loudest and most forceful; that's just the nature of herds.
Makes you think, though: In order to win, Nightmare Moon didn't really need to be more powerful than Celestia. Just louder and with more instant results.
And that just makes you wonder how many times the world has moved to the brink of Armageddon because no one thought to wonder if what they were about to do was moral.
You can tell Equestria is a much less prudish about sex society based on the discussions that various foals have had in this series. Corbie just very graphically described Gosling and Celestia's bedroom antics and isn't bothered by it and no pony seems particularly bothered that she knows about all of this just that she is describing it in detail for all the world to hear. Sumac and Pebble while not sexually active (yet) are very direct with sexual innuendos about each other in front of adults and the adults only seem to have the same amusement they would if other adults were saying such things. Heck, Twilight and Sumac even have sat down and discussed their differing love lives and Twilight has expressed absolute zero disapproval at Sumac very openly telling her all the females he wants to have sex with.
Squad. Broken.
Magnificent Corbie's kiss-kicked you ALL in the crotch.
8200533
Well... they are naked... most of the time.
Spike may be a kid, but he's a damn good one.
And poor Fluttershy! She got blindsided by the lurking Corbie-us Corax. They can be quite startling.
I swear, as much as Corbie is trying to set ponies up, you'd think she studied under Cadence.
Corbie is too... something.
Not perfect, but I am wondering now what her deal is.
She could genuinely be the good natured, naturally well-adjusted one in the pile. Lord knows her brothers have the lion's share of damage.
But sometimes I do wonder what she's got going on.
If she has a problem, I'd go with adorable and nice manipulator. Which isn't outside normal kid shenanigans, really. Hmm.
Just speculating out loud. Carry on!
Corbie just wants them to kiss so badly. She must be quite worried...
8200533
As far as I can tell, most sexual censure in modern human society comes from religion. Take away religion and all the shame it piles up on what mammals do naturally and you get people who are much more open about discussing sexuality.
The bollocks offspring spew forth
8200921
Corbie is the well-meaning bird-horse that tries to keep the pecking order. Get it? Kiss? Peck? Pecking order?
8200963
Well, post classical western religion certainly is very hung up on control of sexuality but ancient religion was often times very much the reverse with sex being an essential part of many to the extent that the largest brothel in a given city was essentially the city temple. However there are many cultures that have very strict regulations on sexual activity past and present despite not having as strong a religious censor. Religion can be and often is a major influence on cultural views of sex but not always the culprit when a society is more sexually closed. Societies that have in the past been devastated by STDs also often move to a sexually closed nature even without religious prompting as they recognize the correlation between spread of the disease and the partners of the infected.
So if I had to guess not only is there a lack of religious discrimination against open sexual activity but the presence of sexually transmitted disease is either extremely minor or much more treatable in a world of magical healers.
Hey, if you can't have Twilight as a fellow kid for the foreseeable future, might as well get behind the "probably foals, after a bit" wagon and push. Hopefully she'll get a better set than Celestia's first modern attempt.
Yeah, a kid his age isn't really prepared to execute an actual hunger strike, not long-term.
Oh my god, Corbie.
8201464
I did say "modern" human society.
8201209
His brother makes no secret of the fact that he despises Nuance, treats Nuance like garbage, and beats the pudding out of Nuance every chance that he gets.
And yet, for some odd reason, Nuance dislikes his brother and wishes him ill. Can't imagine why. I guess that Nuance is just evil.
My God AJ, take out a loan & buy a clue.
9515484
Just because you can understand someone's actions doesn't necessarily make them right. It's usually wrong to wish death upon someone, even if you can see why that person would have come to that conclusion.