How could everything go so wrong? Twilight couldn’t believe how things had spiraled out of control. She had been trusted with the foals of her mentor, her teacher, and her idol. Even though logic told her that these problems had been going on for a while and Celestia was aware of them, Twilight still felt guilty that everything had blown apart while under her watch. No small wonder that when Celestia left Equestria that Cadance was put in charge, like right now, because Twilight couldn’t even pull off a simple foalsitting job.
The hospital smelled of disinfectant, iodine, and Twilight’s eye-watering funk of shame mingled with failure. Guards milled about, getting in the way, and making quite a bit of noise. Twilight wished that she could send them away, but they had orders that she could not override. The waiting was the worst part, and like the guards, she paced to and fro.
“You know, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said while she stroked Corbie’s neck and tried to make the little filly feel better. “You’re looking at this all wrong. You are taking all of this the wrong way, Twilight, and you are being way too hard on yourself.”
Pausing, Twilight turned to look at her friend, but she said nothing in response.
“Princess Celestia trusted you to fail—”
“What?” Twilight snapped, cutting Rainbow Dash off, and the corner of her left eye had a frightful twitch.
Holding up her other front hoof, Rainbow Dash waved away Twilight’s interruption. “Princess Celestia trusted you to fail. Not every pony deals with failure very well. I know I don’t. But you… you take failure as an affront, and once you deal with the initial shock of it, you get mad and you dig in. See, that’s the thing, Twilight. For you to really deal with a problem, you have to fail first.”
Sitting in a chair beside Rainbow, Pinkie Pie nodded. “Yep.”
With her wings and ears sagging, Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash, and felt the sting of tears. “That’s the nicest thing anypony has ever said about me. Thank you, Rainbow Dash.”
“Eh, don’t mention it.” Rainbow stroked Corbie’s mane and the little filly let out a shuddering sob. “Are you going to calm down, Corbie?”
“No,” Corbie whined, and she squirmed in Rainbow’s embrace. “The last time there was a punchy-punchy fight like this, Mama sent me to stay with Twilight so she could punish Nuance and Radiance. I’m scared!”
“Well, don’t be.” Rainbow extended one wing, wrapped it around the sniffling filly, and shushed her.
The clanking of armor made Twilight turn around, and she felt her heart leap up into throat. Help was coming and some of the cavalry had arrived. Applejack and Fluttershy had shown up, and Applejack was shoving her way past the guards with a sneering snarl. Fluttershy was far more apologetic, but no less insistent.
“Rarity is catching a train and coming back from Canterlot,” Fluttershy said to Twilight.
Before Twilight could respond, Applejack embraced her and asked, “How bad is it? Any word yet? Was it a scuffle, a squabble, or a slobberknocker?”
“What? What? There’s a difference? I need a dictionary!” Twilight leaned into Applejack’s hug, looking a bit bewildered, and she gave her friend a squeeze.
“Where is Radiance now?” Fluttershy asked.
“In his room,” Twilight replied. “I posted guards at his door.”
“I see.” Fluttershy pursed her lips together. “I’m sorry, Twilight, but I can’t stay. There is a little colt that needs to be straightened out and I think that job falls on me. Expect to come home to a mess.”
“Fluttershy, no, wait—”
“Let her go, hun.” Applejack leaned up against Twilight and held her in place. “Although I reckon it’d be a mercy if’n I took a switch to his backside rather than let her have a go at him. It’d be over faster and there’d be a lot less crying. Flutters is real good at dealing with troubled foals. It’s what she does, Twilight.”
Falling silent, Twilight watched as Fluttershy left, slipping between the guards. She reminded herself that her friend did ‘therapeutic foster care,’ meaning that she often took in foals nopony else wanted. Which made her dislike of Nuance all the more intense, and Twilight made a note to speak to Fluttershy about that later.
Pulling away from Twilight, Applejack got right up in Seville’s face. “Cousin. How ya been?”
“I’ve had better days.” Reaching over, Seville patted the chair beside him. “Have a seat.”
“Naw, I’ll stand, thanks.” Applejack glanced over at Twilight for a moment, frowned, and then returned her attention to Seville. “How’s Aunt Orange? Uncle Mosley?”
“I haven’t talked to them in a while. I never really got a chance to know them that well, Applejack. I was raised on a farm outside the city. Though I will say, now that I’m famous they have lot more interest in me.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” Sighing, Applejack’s tail swished from side to side.
Meanwhile, Twilight resumed her pacing, but found the chit-chat soothing. Applejack and Seville connected with family. It was said that Apples and Oranges were as different as could be, but Seville and Applejack had a lot in common. As it turned out, orangebucking wasn’t so different from applebucking, not when you got right down to it. Seville might have chosen a different life, choosing to become a reporter rather than a juice maker, as his cutie mark suggested, but he could still buck a tree like it was nopony’s business. For all of Seville’s sophistication and education, he hadn’t lost his connection to his roots.
Twilight’s own roots connected to a tower in Canterlot, where her mother and father lived. There were several other ancestral homes, but she never really cared much for those, or even had much interest. In a way, Twilight envied both Applejack and Seville. When you said Apple or Orange, you had an idea of what you were getting. Sure, there were bad Apples, and bad Oranges, but there were lots of good ones.
“Princess Twilight—”
Whirling about, Twilight almost knocked the doctor over. “Call me Twilight,” she blurted out while she ventured deep into the doctor’s equinal space. “How is he? Is he going to be okay? Is he disfigured? Tell me what I need to know!”
“Well,” Doctor Horse began, “he is sedated right now. Upon seeing Nurse Redheart, he became quite irate and said he didn’t want any, uh… earth ponies near him ever again. He then attempted to set her on fire with a spell, but thankfully all it did was make her smoulder a bit. She’s fine.” The doctor cleared his throat. “We gave him fluids, because he’s dehydrated and seems to be suffering from a bit of blood loss. His eye is swollen shut and the inside of his cheek has a small, superficial cut. He clearly took a few nasty blows, but he’ll recover with time and good care.”
“Hmm.” Twilight stood there, taking in every word that had been said. “Are you going to keep him overnight?”
“No,” Doctor Horse replied right away while shaking his head. “That colt is messed up in the head, in my most humble opinion. He needs time with those who love him, that is if they can stomach being around him.” The doctor’s eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth sagged into a weary scowl. “I’m going to send you home with something that will help with the pain and keep him mildly sedated. It’s a liquid, so have him swish it around in his mouth before swallowing. It will sooth the pain in his cheek and his face.”
“And his eye?” Twilight asked, even though she already knew what to do.
“A little ice will help.” Doctor Horse gave Twilight a reassuring nod. “A bag of frozen peas would be ideal.” Lowering his voice, the doctor’s eyes darted around the waiting room, and then in a whisper he suggested, “You know, corporal punishment isn’t a bad thing. Not right now, of course, he’s too sick and frail… but when he’s better, a few loving swats across his little backside with a brush might help adjust that attitude of his. There’s lots of padding back there, lots of solid muscle tissue, and really, all it does is sting a bit.”
“Ayup.” Applejack reached up and pushed her hat back.
Eyes narrowing, Twilight looked the doctor in the eye. “Are you telling me to spank him?”
“It might save him from being punched in the face again.” Doctor Horse held his head high and his nostrils flared. “It might also make him think twice before spewing out all of that tribalist garbage he said to Nurse Redheart.”
“I’ll take that into consideration.” Twilight did her best to keep her face neutral and hold her temper in check. “Thank you, Doctor Horse. I think we’ll be leaving now.”
“Good bye, and good luck. You’re going to need it…”
Returning to her castle, Twilight was met with a frantic Spike, who was left in charge during her absence. He was clutching his tail, squeezing it in his claws, and to Twilight’s eyes, he looked like he had just encountered a grue. She paused, but her friends continued, pushing around her to come inside, and Twilight knew that something was oh so very wrong when Spike didn’t say a word of greeting to anypony.
“Fluttershy,” Spike whispered, and the little dragon cringed. “Fluttershy is angry. Beware!” And with that, Spike, who appeared to be quite unnerved, took off at a run, his clawed feet slap-flap-flapping against the crystalline floor while he sprinted away at marathon runner speeds.
“What do we do with Nuance?” Applejack, who was carrying Nuance on her back asked.
“Oh, I have a few ideas—”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cast a sidelong glance at her friend and her upper lip pulled away from her teeth. “You know, he’s almost as egotistical as you are. It’s no wonder you spend all day flying, the clouds are the only place with enough open space for that big head of yours!”
“Yeouch.” Seville Orange winced while shaking his head. “Beware the Snarkle Sharkle.”
“I totally deserved that.” Rainbow’s face was passive and her ears drooped. “Sorry Twi.”
“Let’s keep Nuance in my study. In fact, we’ll all go there.” Twilight’s lip relaxed a bit, but she did cast one final scathing glare at Rainbow. “We’ll need to fix supper soon, I’m thinking Corbie is grumpy because she’s hungry and it is getting to be about that time. Rarity’s not here yet, so I don’t know who is going to volunteer to calm down Fluttershy, but somepony is going to have to take one for the team.”
“I’ll do it,” Rainbow offered. “Least I can do after the stupid thing I said.”
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight’s tone became cordial once more. “Now is the time to restore order and regain control of this situation. Everypony, let’s sort this out.”
Twilight Sparkle admired Corbie’s resilience. Some foals, no matter what happened, would bounce back if given the right circumstances, and Corbie was one of them. She was talking Seville’s ear off, and much to Twilight’s keen interest, Seville was hanging on the filly’s every word with sincere, genuine attentiveness. It occurred to Twilight that Seville was almost a father to these foals, that he had been there from the beginning to help raise them.
She was so distracted that she did not notice Pinkie Pie creeping up on her until it was too late, and the pink pronker whispered in her ear, “You know, he’s gonna be a good dad. I know what you are thinking, Twilight, and I’m thinking it too. I do feel bad though—”
“Why?” Twilight asked in a low voice.
“We’ll be taking him away from Corbie, Radiance, and Nuance.”
Flummoxed, Twilight hadn’t thought of that until now, and now, sharing Pinkie’s thoughts, she felt just a little bit guilty. With a turn of her head, she glanced over at Nuance, and saw that the little colt was sprawled out in a nest of pillows. He had a dopey look about him, and was in a wonderful mood—a miracle of the sedative given to him in the hospital.
Looking quite sad, Nuance made a surprising announcement: “I miss my mama.”
It was an equinising moment, a reminder that even the bratty, monstrous little foal known as Nuance was still a pony, with feelings, needs, and wants. Moving away from Pinkie Pie, Twilight went over to where Nuance lay, and she flopped down beside him. When she pulled him into her forelegs, the colt made no protest, but just remained limp. One eye was shut and the swelling on the side of his face was immense. Laying on her stomach with her forelegs extended out in front of her, Twilight cradled the malicious little tyrant and felt pity for him.
“You know, you make it very difficult to love you,” Twilight said to Nuance, uncertain of the level of his cognisance. She looked down at him, gazing at his face, and for just a second, she found herself adoring him. He was true to his namesake, a shade of blue so pale it might be mistaken for white, a pale shade of nuance.
“I hate you all.” Nuance sounded drunk and his one open eye had trouble focusing on Twilight. “But I think I hate you less. You may rub my tummy now, peasant.”
Sighing, Twilight chalked that up as a victory. For now, it would have to do.
I didn't realized pones liked belly rubs from eachother.
8183924 Belly rubs are love. Belly rubs are life.
everyone wants to give corprol punishment to nuance but I feel like he would only see it as justification for his want to cause everyone more pain and suffering, worst case it might send him over to grogars side.
If he's only reacting like this now, then I have a feeling this wasn't the ten chapter story I expected*; rather, a twenty to thirty chapter story. And I find I do not mind whatsoever.
*Unless you use timeskips, but unless you have a very valid reason they're quite lazy.
8183924 Belly rubs are belly rubs.
8183353 But they're very old, and you implied that Celestia and Luna have had children before. Why don't they recognize that the therapy they're doing isn't working and prioritize their children more? It just boggles my mind that they're not more aware. Yeah, they're busy fighting for the world, but are they willing to sacrifice their family and children's livelihood to do that?
Trying to figure out what the foal's version of Sadism, Masochism, and Munchausen's By Proxy is. Seems like we've got a few minor cases here. For at least one of them, I think being spanked would be a reward, and counterproductive for changing behavior.
Spike how'd you get them to stop fighting?
I made them some fashionable boxing gloves
I figured it would get it out of their system
You got them to fight? How could you?
They never started
Those gloves looked so adorable that just laughed at each other
After they told them to fight they rebelled and just laughed at everything.
Spike Rarity you should have your own foals...
Spikey? Where are you going?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
After dealing with those three do ya blame him?
8184112
Keep in mind that while Celestia and Luna have both had foals before, in those days they relied on a gaggle of royal caregivers and nannies to raise them, as was necessary given the structure of the government.
Now that bureaucracy is in place, and with very competent assistants, they are able to take a more personal, hooves-on approach to foal-rearing and are doing it themselves. Consequently, they are making mistakes because they aren't familiar with this style of foal-rearing, and they don't have any examples to follow, and they don't have any parents to offer advice or point them in the right direction. Accordingly, not only are they making mistakes they may not have otherwise made, but those mistakes are amplified because they don't have any moderating influences, and when they try to correct those mistakes, they overcorrect or attempt an inappropriate correction and while this doesn't necessarily make things worse, it doesn't make them better either.
There's a reason why it takes a village, after all.
And I'm still curious as to where and how Radiance developed his sense of fairness and justice, because it still feels like he learned it from Flicker Nicker. I will probably get my answer to this question soon enough, though.
8184112
You have a high failure rate. Is it because you are doing something wrong? Or is it because there are circumstances outside of your control?
8184148 Ah, I forgot that point. They haven't actually raised their own children ever. That makes a little more sense.
That's not true. Gosling has his mother. She's helped raise royal children before and raised Gosling. Unless she's not involved?? Which would make no sense, she's basically super mothering and she wouldn't let her grandchildren not be a part if her life.
I still stand by the point that they could have recognized the failure of the current therapy. It's obviously not working. It doesn't take a lot of assessment time to get that figured out - our therapists would shift strategies on children regularly when things don't work, or shift them to other therapists when their strategies didn't work. I suppose we haven't been told about this, and it's possible that this has been happening, but it seems to be pertinent information considering they DID tell Twilight that the kids have been in therapy.
8184156 We often help these kids get their issues worked out and they graduate our program. We have a very, very high graduation rate. But our success only counts in the long term, after they have left our program and returned to their previous situation. The difference between these foals and the kids we work with is that they have a GOOD FAMILY and a good extended family structure. They are returning to a safe, good environment. The issue they have isn't from their environment, it's interpersonal issues and emotional issues. If all of our kids just had the interpersonal/emotional issues to deal with, we'd have a much higher success rate in the long term, but their environment is typically what causes long term failure.
8184156 The situations aren't equivalent, so comparing the reasons for our failures and the failure of these characters isn't really applicable. The majority of our success stories are the kids that have good families and good environments to live in.
8184187
And right now, you are seeing the situation mid-crisis, before it is resolved.
8183983 Corporal punishment would also be actively counterproductive for the reason that a lot of Nuance's problems are aggravated by his physical weakness, and putting his body under more strain isn't going to help that to any degree.
8184187
Also, you are in the dark just like Twilight. Rushing to judgments and making assumptions are hazardous. But I know you know this. This is an emotional issue, to be sure.
8184192 Right. And
8184148
pointed out a very good point to me that I'd forgotten, which helps my understanding of the situation. I still find it surprising that the situation was allowed to progress to the point it did when all it takes is a few fired castle staff and some more aware ponies put in proximity to the royal brood to get this situation to a better place. Where IS Gosling's mother? She knows what's up with kids. She raised a stellar stallion. Why isn't she more involved? Or at least prodding Gosling and saying "A mother could die!"
8184208
She is doing her job. In the Crystal Empire.
8184217 Oh geeze. That's right. I'm forgetting the big time jump sometimes. Bah, two time periods in your fics!
Oh my gosh ponies, you're assuming this isn't Celestia's desired behavior for the children. Twilight only became super effective because she was so neurotic. Clearly CelestIa believes that in order to be an effective Parent you have to make the children properly neurotic first. Throw in enough adversity and the children are sure to grow tough and strong.
Dim and Nuance really would get along well. I could see him telling Nuance about his childhood and really opening up to him. I think Nuance would really pay attention to someone like Dim.
I do the no spaknings are like levels of software indirection. You can solve any provlem with them - except for too many of them.
8184217
I feel she would still find the time to send a letter to Gosling that boils down to "what are you doing?!? a mother could die!"
Give him hell, Fluttershy.
A grue!? He's lucky he didn't get eaten!
It's good to see the cavalry arrive.
8184649
Radiance got some of this.
Deep chapter feels like a point where things might start to change
Im dumb, can someone explain to me why they dont just tell the blunt truth to Nuance and Radiance and Corbie?
The truth that Nuance is so congenitally damaged he cant be physically punished without pushing him closer to death, and that these defects are causing him such constant misery it is robbing him of self control and forcing him to lash out?
Is there some way that this truth telling would be harmful that Twilight and company are seeing?
8184798
In general, little kids don't understand that. It just doesn't work.
Weakness only invites more bullying.
8184803
Are Twilight and co. afraid that Radiance will react so badly to the truth being so incompatible with his perspective that he would attempt kill Nuance in a fit of temper tantrum of denial or worse, a tantrum of pity rage?
Because i have seen that happen before, when someone strong just cant emotionally deal with something so impossibly weak existing in their reality, that they decide it must either be a lie, or an abomination.
8184803 I just read Chapter 8, I don't know why all my comments ended up on this chapter.
This was a great chapter. I only wish I could see some angry Fluttershy.
Hmm the foals are, what, five right? I keep wondering WHERE Nuance got so much tribalist and elitist attitude. Has he just purposefully reversed some teachings? Corporal punishment is definitely a no-no... if this was a human situation, don't know enough about ponies. Is the doctor just being somewhat of an idiot and not really up to date to current behaviour theory, the current behaviour theory is not yet up to modern science or he is an a**hole?
Additionally what has Rainbow Dash said that is so bad?
8185454
corporal punishment does work if the lesson is directly correlatable, something i fear may not be possible with the inherent intellect of the royal foals.
8185454
Think Victorian era social mores.
Well, there's your problem! Nuance was clearly supposed to be a cat!
8185509
Punishment, corporal or otherwise, is not an effective way to deal with problem behaviors. Punishment is about making the individual feel bad because they did something wrong. That's revenge, or justice if you want to call it that. Neither is constructive when it comes to rehabilitation.
The best approach is to stop the problem behavior while it is happening and correct the individual immediately after the event. It should also be done without anger or maliciousness, otherwise it becomes a punishment and loses it's effectiveness.
8185509 hmm that is DIRECTLY in contrast with all the current understanding of pedagogy... Do you have any source for that?
You know, I don't get why spanking is a 'good thing.' Adults tell kids not to hit each other, and then we hit them when we decide they've been Bad.
Hell, you know what my only memory of my (maternal) grandfather is? The day he hunted me down and beat my little tushie red. I don't even remember what I did, only running from my grandpa in utter terror. He died when I was seven, and I remember nothing else about him. Why do people want that for their kids?