Frazzled, unsettled, and more than just a little disturbed, Twilight Sparkle yanked both Seville Orange and Pinkie Pie into a private room with her, and then shut the door. She studied their faces for a time, reading every wrinkle, crinkle, and crease, only to discover that neither of them could look her in the eye. Of the two of them, Seville squirmed the most, and his hooves clicked against the ground as he shuffled. He might be kind of handsome, but that wasn’t enough to get him spared.
“Look, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie began, “my Pinkie Sense isn’t perfect. Like right now, it is telling me that something is very wrong and that you are angry. With me. But I don’t know why.”
“Nuance wet the bed,” Twilight said, keeping her voice down. “Nuance wet the bed and I discovered that there was quite a bit that I wasn’t told. Now, I am trying to get down to the bottom of this. He wet the bed and I am worried by everything I’ve found out so far.”
“I know that he wet the bed.” Pinkie nodded while she spoke, and her tail swished around her hind legs.
“He also had a major nosebleed,” Twilight added, and her voice went even lower from sympathy for Nuance's shame.
“I… didn’t pick up on that.” Pinkie Pie seemed rather subdued, and her face became downcast. “I only picked up that he was panicking. Seville told me to let you handle it.” While she spoke, Seville drew in a deep breath, and held it.
“Why?” Twilight asked, looking into Seville’s face. “Why wasn’t I told?”
“Because Celestia wanted you to form your own opinions and conclusions without the introduction of outside bias!” Seville blurted out with uncharacteristic volume and speed. “We’re all too involved and too close to the situation, that’s what Cadance said, and she and Celestia both agreed that you might deal with this better if you were allowed to draw your own conclusions without being told anything at all about what is going on.”
“I see.” Twilight relaxed a little, causing both Seville and Pinkie to let out sighs of relief.
“You’re a different kind of princess,” Seville continued, “with different instincts and a different approach. Celestia admitted she doesn’t know what to do on this issue. She’s had a lot of foals before, but they’ve always been raised by nannies and an army of helpers. And uh… well, uh… um… I don’t know if I should be talking about this. I don’t have permission.”
“So Celestia took a more hooves-on approach for maybe the first time and found things were a bit more complicated than she anticipated.” Twilight paused, reflecting upon her own words, and she drew upon her own senses. “Things have spiraled out of control and the perfect opportunity presented itself for Celestia, Luna, and Gosling to dump the Royal Brood on me. Now I am left to sort out this mess.”
“More or less.” Seville nodded and his expression seemed apologetic, but it was hard to tell. “Luna said that you would say something like this.”
“You know what?” Twilight smiled so hard that laugh-lines crinkled the corners of her eyes. “I have this. I am the Princess of Friendship, and if anypony can get those foals to be friends with each other, it’s me. This will be a piece of cake. But I am going to need your help.” When Twilight looked at Seville, she found that she had his eye contact, and then, when her head turned in Pinkie’s direction, she found Pinkie’s blue eyes staring back at her. Returning her attention to Seville, she asked, “I’m going to need at least some information to work with, but I will respect the process and will try to form my own conclusions without biases.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Seville replied, and he sounded relieved.
“Alright then… for today, we need to focus on a few things to get started…”
Spike found himself worried about Nuance. It was odd, this worry, and the little dragon didn’t like it. Nuance wasn’t talking at all, he wasn’t saying anything, he wasn’t being bossy, or monstrous, or mean. Perhaps that was the most worrying sign that something was wrong—the little unicorn wasn’t being a snot. The colt had been bathed again this morning—this time by Twilight—and was at the moment wrapped up in a crocheted throw blanket, shivering. Moving with slow caution, Spike put down the saucer and the cup of tea on the table next to the couch.
“You’re supposed to drink this special tea,” Spike said to Nuance, and the colt shot him an icy glare in return.
“I can’t,” Nuance replied, and his voice sounded frail… strained even, to Spike’s ears.
“Why not?” Spike asked. “Does it taste gross? Is it bitter? It smells weird, like it’s metal or something. It’s some kind of red tea I’ve never seen before.”
“I can’t make my magic work right now,” Nuance muttered as his teeth clattered together.
“Oh.” Spike blinked once, pondering this information, and then climbed up onto the couch, his scales snagging a bit on the fabric. Sitting down, he got himself comfortable, pulled Nuance a little closer, and he ignored the fussy sounds the colt made. Picking up the cup of tea with his claws, he held it in front of him and gave it a sniff. It really did smell like metal… like… iron… and maybe copper? Turning his head, he looked Nuance in the eye. “Tell you what. How about I hold this for you, and you drink it? It’s hot, so you’ll get warmed up. Seville said it wouldn’t be a problem to get you to drink it.”
The colt gave the dragon a wary stare and said nothing.
“Seville also said to remind you that we have the ways and means to pour this down your throat,” Spike said to Nuance, and he shook his head. “I’d rather not do that. It seems mean and you look like you’re having a hard morning.”
“Fine, dragon, I’ll drink it if you’ll hold it.” Nuance slumped over against Spike, going limp, and then just remained there, taking shallow breaths and not moving. “You’re very warm.”
“Well, I’m a dragon,” was Spike’s deadpan reply, and he felt the claws of worry raking against the back of his mind. The little unicorn colt was ice cold, the parts poking out from beneath the blanket, and this caused Spike no end of alarm. Was Nuance sick? Did the little colt catch something? He somehow seemed even frailer and weaker than last night, when Spike had given him a bath. With but a thought, Spike began stoking his internal fires and he raised his body temperature as he began to blow on the cup of tea, which was still steaming.
“Let’s see if we can get you warmed up…”
Moving with absolute silence, Twilight Sparkle shut the door to the room where Spike and Nuance were. The colt was sleeping, wrapped up in a blanket and curled up against Spike, which was just what she wanted. As for Spike, he had a good book. So far, everything was going as planned, more or less. Twilight knew with absolute and total certainty that Spike would follow through with the simple instructions she and Seville had given him: keep Nuance company. Spike was her most trusted assistant for a reason. Sure, he made mistakes every now and then, but when it mattered, he could be trusted to do the right thing.
She moved through her private study while trying to wrangle her thoughts, and there was just so much to think about. Not just the situation with the Royal Brood, but everything. While she paced about, Radiance paid her no attention and kept his nose in his textbook, Fun Physics for Kindergartners. Even though doing his schoolwork wasn’t required, the colt had insisted, and who was Twilight to refuse? It kept him quiet and occupied, and Twilight needed quiet right now if she was going to make a plan. That was why she had sent Corbie outside with Pinkie Pie, because Corbie had explosive bursts of loquacious verbosity.
Seville had taken over her desk and her table, which she didn’t mind. Someday soon, he was going to be a Doctor of Journalism, which Twilight thought was just perfect for a pony that had a cutie mark that was an orange press for making juice. While passing by the table, she had to fight the urge to spell-check his papers, knowing that it would irk him to no end if she did that while he was working on them. It drove her crazy that he did not spell-check as he wrote, but only afterward, when his writing was finished. She hated him just a little tiny bit for this habit, which she was certain that he only did to drive her to distraction. But alas, she couldn’t just wander over and start spell-checking, no matter how right it was for her to do so.
That was how fights started, but the temptation was just so strong.
Sitting down in the soft grass, Pinkie Pie watched as Corbie fluttered her wings. The filly didn’t get to play outside as much as she should, and this bothered Pinkie a great deal. Corbie’s very existence raised all kinds of troubling questions for Pinkie—like when she grew up, what would she do then? She lived under constant protection now to keep her safe, but what about when she was an adult?
No matter Corbie’s age, hurting her would be a way to hurt her mother, Princess Celestia.
Not too far away, some of Twilight’s students played, and it made Pinkie Pie sad that Corbie wasn’t allowed to play with them. They didn’t have clearance, and if they came too close, one of the nearby guards would swoop in to intervene. Other foals could be rough, or not play nice, or might be mean, or any number of things. Ears perking, Pinkie watched as Corbie began to follow after a ladybug.
The smile on Corbie’s face made Pinkie Pie feel much better about everything.
Mid-pronk, the filly let out a huff and sat down in the grass, breathing hard, but still smiling. Her wings continued to flap, teased by the breeze, and her bright eyes focused on Pinkie Pie. “I’m having a wonderful time!”
“Are ya?” Pinkie’s ears leaned forewards, angling out over her face.
“I’m a little worried about my brother, but yeah. This is nice!” Sitting on her bottom, Corbie began clapping her two front hooves together while she bounced in place. “The royal gardens are nice, but I really don’t get to see other ponies there. Here I can see so much of Ponyville. It’s great!” The little filly, who needed her askewed glasses adjusted, began to turn her head so she could watch whatever caught her attention.
“One time, I got to visit Mister Teapot in his house, and that was nice, but this is better.” Corbie looked up for a time, squinting at the blue sky, and then continued pony watching the citizens of Ponyville. The sun glinted off of a silver spoon hanging from the filly’s neck, but was covered when she wrapped her forelegs around herself so she could give herself a hug.
Then, Corbie began to giggle, and Pinkie Pie felt a growing sense of dread.
“Are you and Twilight dating?” Corbie asked while her head tilted off to one side.
“I’m not sure yet,” Pinkie replied, being honest. Her mouth went dry, and no wonder, all of the wet that was in her mouth was now all over her frogs. How did that happen, anyhow? “We’re just extra-close extra-special friends.”
“Why?”
Pinkie shrugged. “Right now, we’re both at a point in our lives where we want something.”
“Oh.” Corbie nodded and then she straightened out her glasses. “What do you want? Do you want Seville? He’s my uncle and he’s really nice. Daddy says that Seville is his brother even though they’re not related. How does that work? Can you just claim somepony as your brother and sister? If you can, does that mean you can get rid of a brother or sister? That worries me because I think Rad would get rid of NuNu if he could, and if that happened, I would be really sad. I like having two brothers and I’m a really lucky filly, aren’t I? I think Sumac needs a sister and was telling Moon Mom that maybe he could borrow Skyla as a sister for a while? What do you think? Is it okay to borrow a sister? Can I be borrowed? What if I don’t wanna be borrowed? What if Skyla doesn’t want be borrowed?” Corbie came to an abrupt stop, sucked in a deep breath, and then let heave a sigh while saying, “It’s nice to talk and not have Nuance screaming at me to shut up.”
“I bet!” Pinkie Pie grinned at the little motormouth, who reminded her of her sister Limestone. “Say, what would you like for lunch, Corbie?”
https://derpibooru.org/1112485
Poor nuance ... after severe blood loss and a stress migraine, I think anyone would be ice cold.
The tea ... a blood replenishment blend of medicinal tea, perhaps?
Chatty happy Corbie is adorable. And Radiance is chill, when he's not taking a misguided sense of fair justice out on his brother Nuance or voicing said opinion. His waking up Twilight to watch the sunrise in the previous chapter was just a few shades of adorable too ...
8171431
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8171438 The librarian shark was more adorable.
8171431
That never stops being adorable.
8171438
That, less so. But then, we all know that Kudzu has made a dark pact that enables them to use their writing as a gravity well of adorableness, leaving no room for it in their life outside of their writing. That's just science.
Get warm Nuance! Rest! Replenish that iron deficiency!
Okay, yeah, Corbie definitely reminds me of myself when I was a kid.
I had my suspicions, but this cements it for me: Radiance doesn't actually hate Nuance at all.
What he hates is that Nuance gets weak tea for a punishment, while he gets an actual punishment when they're doing the exact same things, and he especially hates it when Nuance does something really terrible (like setting Corbie on fire, I guess?) and gets off with basically no punishment at all. Radiance is absolute right: It's not fair, and he beats up on his brother because he feels that his parents aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing.
To be truthful, they aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing: Parents are supposed to discipline their children equitably. If one gets no punishment for misbehaving, and the other gets full punishment for lesser misbehaving, then the one learns that their actions have no negative consequences, and the other learns that since they'll get in bigger trouble no matter how bad the other misbehaves, they should go all in and do the worst thing they can think of (like holding their brother's head underwater) because at least then, the punishment is justified.
I get that Gosling's never had his own foals (to raise, at least), and Celestia is both out of practice and generally let the domestic staff do all the actual work, but good lord, this isn't rocket surgery. How is it I seem to work out this parenting thing better than they do when they have an entire university at their disposal and all I have is a few nieces and nephews and some late fees at the public library?
8171541
And how do you know it isn't equitable?
So far, all of the evidence presented is heavily biased from all parties.
8171555
I know it's not equitable because Radiance said so, that's how!
Put another way, it doesn't matter if it's equitable or not. Radiance believes that it's inequitable, and I still have enough evidence to claim and show that no one's done much of anything to show him otherwise. Not anything he finds meaningful, at any rate.
8171598
Radiance is also five and believes in a lot of silly things, like his mother teleporting her farts into a giant burning ball in the sky.
Interesting chapter and comments. Of course the comments are biased even unintentionally people put their own spin on things. As said there are two sides to every story does Radiance see absolutely everything that happens to Nuance and visa versa No..
Little surprised that Celestia is taking a more hooves on approach with the Royal Brood compared to previously. AS said she is out of practice if she ever was with letting Nannies and the like raise others. Gosling never really had a chance to practice before this
Aw. Poor Corbie. That's depressing...
For godess sake ! Corbie is my son ! I swear, the 10 year old terror speaks LITERALLY like Corbie. Sometimes I can even feel my brain freezing mid question when he (dialy) starts the questions-feed machine gun !
8171431
8171438
Hehehehe. And of course my mind immediately went into a MLP sharknado crossover.
8171622
1) There is no evidence that she does not do that, and given what happened the last time....
2) Reality is only relevant when it lines up with perception specifically because Radiance is five. If he believes it is inequitable, then it is inequitable, regardless of the reality of the situation.
8171862
What if I told you that Radiance enjoys most of his punishments? He gets put to work... hard physical labour, which is something that Nuance can't do. Most of the time, his 'punishment' involves following Seville around and being a little pack horse. It is the reason why he was carrying the saddlebags in the beginning of the story when they arrived. He was being punished then. Nuance's punishments involve other methods, but they are no less terrible.
8171871
Then an outsider's perspective is exactly what is needed, because damn if Celestia and Gosling aren't doing almost everything wrong. Nuance feels like he has no control over his life, so they respond by taking more control away from him. Corbie is a social foal who needs to play with others, in the outdoors, so they respond by keeping her indoors where no one can ever see her except for her brothers, who are interested in other things. And Radiance likes to be put to work, so they respond by effectively rewarding him whenever he torments his lazy, good-for-nothing brother.
I admit, it's kind of hard to fault them for that last one, because I can see that being challenging to spot. And it's kind of hard to fault them for the first one, too, because Nuance doesn't seem inclined to talk about his feelings of powerlessness because he feels like he'd be giving up even more control by doing so. The jury's out on Corbie. But, sure, ok, Cadance was right; being right there in this hot mess was blinding them to what seems obvious to the rest of us.
I still say it's not rocket surgery.
8171913 it might not be rocket science but unlike rocket science there is no one solution. There probably aren't a dozen as each parent and child are individuals and unique
I think this should be smells
Probably missing a like here or the 'to' should not be there.
Considering the smells Spike is picking up I'm betting the tea is something to help Nuance with blood loss. Not sure about copper but iron is critical component in blood
8171862 Where do you think solar flares come from?
This is doubly complicated, because kids are a puzzle. And I bet each kid adds to the puzzle complexity exponentially because it's not just interaction of the you and the kid but you and the kid and their siblings and aaaarg.
I only have one kid and I get flummoxed. Then I just default to being straightforward and honest, even when the truth is unpleasant.
Radiance seems to have a sense of justice, which can be good and bad, depending on how it is applied. He tries to redress injustices, but currently we only see him on one end of the redress spectrum: doling out punishment when he believes previous punishment was insufficient. I'd be curious to see the flip side of his sense of justice, in redressing inadequacies of compassion, or fighting for those wrongly hurt.
That would certainly show us his nature. Does he only care about the punitive aspect of justice, or does he care about the uplift of proper justice as well?
Super interested to see how this flies.
8171913
I think that what you may be missing here is that nowhere has Kudzu claimed that Gosling and Celestia were doing their jobs right. Readers have frequently howled out at the actions of the characters, and the response, correctly, has always been thus: the characters, though doing the best they can, are flawed, and will thusly make mistakes. Sometimes frequently. Sometimes, they'll get things wrong that it's really very important that they get right. I find it no less frustrating than you to see those of whom I have grown to care to err, and yet, don't we all err as well?
As to the child-rearing, you do have a point, that for justice to be done, just should be seen to be done, but which punishment is more just? That which the victim views as a punishment, or that which the offender feels as a punishment? My own parents had similar problems with my brother and I. We were sufficiently different that I did by choice those things that he viewed as a punishment, so to punish me, what should they have done? Made me do something that I liked, which was something that he would have viewed as a punishment, or something that I would have felt was a punishment, but was actually something that my brother did for fun?
Even when parents do everything right some kids will still act up or have issues. Some of it has to do with environment, some with the actual kid's biology or psychology. My sister has a kid with certain issues that lead him to take drugs just to feel "normal". She may not be perfect but I know for a fact she's done everything she could to help him deal with his issues in a more constructive way. If there was some way to remove the problem causing him to act this way, he would be a perfectly well adjusted and happy individual.
Limestone? Limestone is the Pie sister who Pinkie thinks of as the motormouth? Take a look in a mirror some time Pinkie!
Oh my god. Kudz. Twilight is literally doing my job.
This is so cool. I mean, holy crap, good luck, Twilight. Helping kids fix themselves is not easy, and they've gotta want to fix themselves. Internal change. They are the ones that have to do the work. It is your job to set boundaries, be consistent, reinforce good behavior, and correct poor choices.
Just remember: you can't fix them. You can only model good choices and show them paths to self-actualization and healthy, positive living. They have to follow you. No amount of pushing and pulling will do the job.
8171871 Seriously, I am so close to this story. I think it's so close to home that I'm feeling some deja-vu. Thank you for writing this, I am seriously looking forward to further chapters. If you want to pick my brains about my work with at-risk kids for ideas, please don't hesitate to ask. I would love to share with you some wisdom I've learned over the years I've worked with such kids.
8177130
I studied bedwetting and it took me to dark places.
There was a seven year old that set his parents on fire in their bed after his mother let it slip that he wet the bed during some party or somesuch. Other family members found out, and the embarrassment became too much. That poor kid just wanted the hurting, shame, and embarrassment to stop.
8177245 That is the kind of kid that would end up with me. Not kids having a rough time... like, the most severe and intense cases. We classify them as the highest level for at-risk behavior and aggression. Very intense stuff.
8177659
Well, that's Nuance.
And it is not neatly resolved in this story.
8177678
It frankly shouldn't be solved in one go.
Dealing with deep issues like this is a life-long process, and I wouldn't expect Nuance to get 'better' right away at all. Most kids, unfortunately, don't succeed in the sorts of programs I work for, simply because they don't have great family support structures. Nuance's situation isn't ideal (all three parents are royalty and exceedingly busy), but he's got more than his direct family to help him, so he's in a good spot to succeed eventually. That said, I've seen kids find success at a fairly fast rate. I have one kid that regularly sends in his report card to my work e-mail, he's been out of the program for a year. He also has a good foster family that's helped him find a lot of success after his time in the program.
Just so you know, the facility I work at has one of the highest success rates in the state. We measure success by the number of kids that don't get arrested or killed within five years of completing our program. Our success rate is 10%. Yes, that's ten percent. One in ten. We work with 30 kids, knowing that likely only three of them are gonna make it... and typically, those kids are determined by who has the better family support when they go home after their therapy and work and their participation in the programs' goals.
Yeah...
It's a tough job.
8177702
wow
i have no emotions for what you describe