During teatime, confess
Casual-Tea of a Name was a Canterlot tearoom, except it wasn’t. It emulated the style, it was a mimicry of an established institution, except there was one fundamental difference that Chartreuse noticed right away: this place was far more relaxed and a lot less stuffy. With but a few seconds she discerned why, too. Crystal ponies were like earth ponies in that they didn’t have horns for advanced manipulation, so many of the tea drinkers lapped their drink from wide, accommodating teacups.
She and her companions sat around a small table that was low to the ground. The cushions were a bit worn, but comfortable, and the table was really meant for two, but three could be made to crowd around it. The table, like so many other things, was made of shaped crystal that had been grown from the earth. The shaped crystals were perhaps, the most unique and most fantastic part of the Crystal Empire, in Chartreuse’s opinion.
There was a lot of flowing water features to help muffle sounds from other tables and privacy dividers covered in fine fabrics. Fans whirred overhead and the place had electricity, a feature so prominent that it was boasted about with a sign on the front door. Chartreuse knew from experience that pegasus ponies did not like ceiling fans, and she wondered what Nomination must have thought about them.
Near the table, there was a most delightful water feature: an alicorn frolicked in a birdbath.
On the table, tea sat cooling in cups and a collection of treats was piled upon a petite platter that there was little room for. The steam that rose and tickled the companions’ noses smelled of a king’s ransom, a collection of fine, exotic spices from far away lands. Today’s special blend was a spicy green chai that promised the bite of a dragon.
Or as Canterlot called it, Tuesday tea.
“My mother is going to destroy me—”
“Nom, stop that,” Chalcedony said to the colt wedged in beside her.
“She’s going to remind me how much trouble it was to pass my egg and how all of her hopes and dreams were in that one little egg—”
“You hatched from an egg?” Chalcedony’s voice was squeaky with incredulity.
“Yeah, I hatched from an egg.” Nomination sighed, squeaked, and his leathery wings creaked. “My mother and father are really, really proud that I come from an egg. I think they think that those of us that come from an egg are better than those of us that don’t. It’s complicated, and I don’t like it, and my mother is always going on that one day, if the program is successful, we’ll become a stable chimera race just like the griffons and I’m a big part of that future.”
“Uh huh.” Chalcedony nodded.
“What if I really am gay? What if I’m not confused and I really do like colts and I grow up this way and how do I start a family and do what is expected of me? This isn’t the usual pressure of starting a family. I’m real small for my age but I’m still considered viable breeding stock because we need variation to stay healthy and have strong bloodlines and all of this is just so much pressure—”
“Nom.” Chalcedony held up one hoof and reached in the direction of Nomination’s voice. There was a clumsy collision and a boop-bash on the nose that left the colt unharmed but rather silly looking.
“Yeah?”
“Nom, your most valuable asset can be pumped and squirted into a cup.”
“Oh gross!” Chartreuse recoiled and then discovered that she couldn’t look at the pitcher of heavy, foamy cream left on the table. Yanking off her hat, she reached across the table and slapped Chalcedony with it. “Bad! Bad filly!” Now she understood why wizards wore hats. She gave her friend one more slap and then pulled her hat away.
“What’d I do?” Chalcedony demanded in the shrill way of distraught fillies being assaulted by slap-happy apprentices everywhere.
“You just about ruined teatime!” Chartreuse snapped, and Nomination began to chortle.
“So when I just about ruin teatime, you’re going to slap me?” Chalcedony’s head turned in Chartreuse’s general direction, nostrils flaring, and she began to rub her neck.
“Yes!”
“Well, that seems fair, I can’t argue that.” Ears pinning back, Chalcedony continued to rub her neck while making indignant little snorts. “Ow, what was that anyhow? A tassel? It stung!”
“Yes!” Chartreuse began to try and calm herself down. “Keep that in mind the next time you say something lewd.” The cream-filled cakes no longer seemed quite as appealing and the treacle tarts with clotted cream? Ick. Unable to look at the table, she focused on a nearby statue of Spike the Dragon instead.
Reaching out with her front hooves once more, Chalcedony made a bold advance on Nomination. She clubbed him on contact, but he didn’t budge, and her further attempts were far more gentle. A look of concentration appeared on her face while she touched his cheeks, his muzzle, and then she clopped him on the ear while trying to get a better feel.
“What tribe are you?” she asked.
“I’m a draconic pegasus,” Nomination replied, bearing the assault upon his personal space with surprising grace and aplomb. “We’re not part of your tribes, and technically, we’re not ponies.”
“I don’t care about technically stuff.” Chalcedony smooshed Nomination’s face like clay. “You sorta feel like a pony so I am just going to think of you as a pony. You can’t stop me.” She pulled her hooves away, swayed a bit to maintain her balance, and then with a sweet smile she asked, “Nom, could you please guide my hoof to my teacup? If I go feeling around for it, I’m bound to knock it over or slosh it or make a mess and that’s always so embarrassing.”
Turning her head, Chartreuse watched as Nomination took Chalcedony’s foreleg and guided it towards her hot, steaming teacup. There was surprising gentleness there, a sincere kindness. It was heartwarming to witness and it served as a reminder that good creatures came in all shapes and sizes.
“Meals are the hardest,” Chalcedony said in a low whisper. “If I was a unicorn, I could just magic my food. As it is, I am always burning my face, scalding my snoot, and making a big mess. It gets me down, sometimes, and I hate asking for help, because ponies always sound so exasperated that I can’t do something as simple as feed myself. Thank you, Nom.”
The colt was silent—making no verbal response—but nodded, a gesture that Chalcedony could not see. Chartreuse saw it though, it caused an emotional jolt, and it was something she needed to see. She thought of her parents, all of their many lessons, all of their helpful advice and wise words. Chalcedony lowered her head, her hoof resting against the side of her teacup, and with much caution, she stuck out her tongue to test her tea.
“It seems like such a foalish question,” Chartreuse began, and she took a deep breath to prepare herself. “But it is perhaps the question that has the most profound impact upon our lives. What do you want to be when you grow up? Nomination, you and I, we have something in common, in that we’ve both been told what is good, right, and true. Much is expected of us.” The filly, pausing to recollect her thoughts, remained focused upon her tablemates. “I came here to fulfil a dream, to become Shining Armor’s apprentice… but now that I am here and doing this, I don’t know what comes next. Do either of you understand what I mean?”
“Yeah, actually,” Nomination replied, and he glanced at Chalcedony, perhaps expecting to be interrupted again. “I want to be a cook… a chef. Cooking is art and science, and I want to explore both. Cooking is the best medium to do that. But I have no idea what to do once I become a cook. If I listen to my mother, I’ll end up in the guard, and what I cook and how I cook it won’t matter. All that matters in the guard is that the food is hot, brown, and that there is plenty of it.”
“We have these cutie marks, but no plan. At least, I don’t.” Chartreuse lifted her teacup, deciding that it had cooled enough. “I was young when I got my flaming kite shield. I was so happy, I was overjoyed really, but then I woke up one day and realised that I didn’t know what to do with it. It had arrived, but it offered me no vision on how to become whatever it was that my flaming kite shield wanted me to be.”
Nomination too, lifted up his teacup, pinching it between his clawed thumb and the central, bulbous knuckle on his wing. “I was happy when I got my mark, but my mother wasn’t. She wasn’t anything. Not a speck of emotion. It hurt me. When my chocolate covered strawberry appeared, I was the happiest colt in the world, but then my mother had to ruin it. Later, she told me that it would be fine to do as a hobby, but that my duties posed more pressing obligations than frivolous food.”
“How many ponies get their marks, I wonder, and then never truly live up to their purpose because they don’t know how to go from being the pony they are to the pony their mark intends for them to be?” Chartreuse asked of her newfound friends. She held her cup less than an inch away from her lips and each spoken word caused ripples in the surface of the liquid. “Rarity taught me to strive for success. I grew up in that mare’s shop doing everything she asked of me. I can honestly say that I am where I am because of her and all of her lessons about striving for success… without her, I might have been just another member of the rank and file in the guard. Another buckethead. Rarity made me want more, she made me demand more from my mark and the options it offered.”
Taking a sip, Chartreuse almost shivered from the burn of black pepper and ginger. At the moment, she was feeling quite grown up, she felt accomplished, she had done worthwhile things and achieved her goals. But she had not arrived, no, she had only just begun. Where to go next was the great unknown. Become a wizard was the distant goal, but a wizard doing what?
Chalcedony paused in her lapping, but did not raise her head. “Both of you… listen to you. All these big hopes and dreams. Me, I just want to get passing marks in independent living studies. Princess Cadance requires it from all of her students. It’s part of her new initiative for social development. The pressure is on. I’m blind and the world is not friendly to blind ponies.”
“That’s a friendship application,” Nomination said to the crystal filly beside him. “I’m studying the Twilight curriculum right now. As it stands, being a blind pony, your best option is to make the sort of friends that will help you survive and maintain your independence. Twilight says that the innate equine herd structure is a magnificent engine of survival, but like any engine, it can still be fine tuned and made better. It is possible for ponies to survive now that might not have survived during more difficult, more primitive times. Going back even five hundred years ago, crippled ponies and blind ponies were often abandoned in the woods. Society has changed and advanced enough now that such barbarous treatment is no longer necessary.”
“Nom, you’re smart.” Chalcedony raised her head, and tea dribbled down her pale white chin, staining it.
“Are you surprised?” Nomination asked.
Giggling, Chalcedony made no response, much to Nomination’s annoyance, and she lowered her muzzle back down to her tea. Still giggling just a little, she began lapping up the rich brown liquid. Beside her, Nomination squirmed on his cushion while displaying visible signs of exasperation. All of the grown up feelings that Chartreuse was feeling fled from her and she too, began to giggle, because Nomination was just that expressive. His almost vulpine face showed displeasure in a manner quite different from equines and now, with both fillies giggling, he made clicking, popping, squeaky sounds.
“It’s against regulations to be stupid,” Nomination said while he stared down into his teacup, trying to ignore the two giggling fillies. This made the two fillies giggle even more, and the colt snorted.
Lifting her head, Chalcedony went to put her foreleg around Nomination, but smacked him instead. Her smile vanished and she made another cautious attempt, looking irked. Leaning over a bit, she managed to slip her foreleg around his neck and give him a half-hug. “I’m supposed to study Twilight’s teachings, but I can’t read the books. Since you’re a smart, helpful… whatever you are, do you think you can help me? Being blind is no excuse and I’m a little behind in my studies. Also, sorry for slapping you.”
“I bet there is a regulation where Nomination can’t turn down a filly in distress,” Chartreuse said just as the colt was starting to say something.
“Actually, there is a regulation stating exactly that.” Nomination turned to look at the filly with her foreleg around his neck and there was something kind about his expression. “I’d still help you even if there was no regulation. I am a firm believer in the Twilight principles.”
“Shining Armor is really devious.” Chartreuse put down her teacup, licked her lips, and leaned over the table. “He said that provisions would be made for my schooling as his apprentice, because this is a working apprenticeship and that makes it hard for me to continue my secondary schooling. I just realised, if I am reading stuff to Chalcedony here, and helping her with her schoolwork, I’ll be learning this stuff too. That has to be what he has planned. My master is smart!”
“And he’s providing me with a trusted helper…” Chalcedony’s lips pressed together and her sightless eyes narrowed. “That’s efficient.”
“That is actually pretty clever, if this is what he had planned.” Nomination too, now looked thoughtful. “Regulations state that if I commit an infraction, I am supposed to self-punish. How about when we get done here, I help you study for a while?”
“Oh, I’d like that, Nom… you have a nice voice,” Chalcedony replied, and a vivid pink blush overtook the entirety of her face. “I’ve started to get my hopes up… please don’t crush them like the others. I’ve had quite a number of ponies who say they want to be my friend… my helper, but they never stick around.”
“Regulations,” Nomination said, and he began to chuckle even though the expression upon his face was one of sadness. “I’ve had trouble making friends since I came here. I scare others because of what I am.”
“You can’t help what you are, just like I can’t help how I am.” Chalcedony closed her eyes and leaned up against her new friend. “You smell like rotten eggs and woodsmoke. I think I’m getting used to it, but your breath does smell like farts. That might have an impact on you making friends.”
“It might.” Nomination’s sadness vanished and when he grinned, a great many horrible teeth could be seen. “I’m what Twilight calls ‘friendship challenged.’ It takes hard work and extra effort to be friends with me, so I am not a common selection for a friend-seeking equine. There are a variety of factors that present themselves and ponies make snap decisions on potential friends after a few initial quick judgments.”
Chalcedony’s eyes opened and her eyelids fluttered. “I think I fall in that category too! Being blind… I guess that gives me a friendship handicap, and you, right now, your breath could tip a yak over.”
Hearing this, Chartreuse almost dropped her teacup, and the struggle to remain composed was real.
“Twilight said that making friends with a dragon completely realigned her friendship determination factors and completely changed her perceived perceptions, the things she looks for when making a friend—”
“Nom!”
“Yes?”
“How do you know this stuff?” Chalcedony asked.
“Well,” Nomination began, “cooking is merging of art and science. I am studying all of the traditional sciences just to get a feel for them, and I find Twilight’s friendship sciences to be quite fascinating. I’ve been wondering if you can influence friendship establishing dynamics with food… sort of like how we’re sitting here having tea. You’re blind and I have yak-slaying death breath, and these are handicaps that might exclude us from many social activities, but here, in this place, in a more intimate setting, this teatime might be an external factor that is helping us to overcome our initial biases and aiding us in our potential friendship determinations, whatever those are.”
“Nom…”
“Yes?”
“I have decided that I like you.” Chalcedony batted her eyelashes in a feminine way.
“I’m glad.”
“Nom, we have a job ahead of us.”
“We do?” Nomination now looked concerned.
“It’s Charty—”
Alarmed, Chartreuse almost choked on her tea. Charty? Really?
“—I think she’s gonna be the stick in the mud in our group.”
“Hmm.” Nomination turned his head and focused his thoughtful expression on Chartreuse. “She’s wearing granny glasses, you might be right.”
“What? No! They’re not! No!” Chartreuse sat there, stammering, her teacup trembling.
“So, I am a blind filly stuck with two sticks in the mud—”
At this, Nomination scowled and shook his head, knowing he had been duped.
“—one is bound by regulations, the other by apprenticeship. I suppose this is the best I could hope for.”
“Regulations have to be followed,” Nomination whined. “Failure to follow the regulations is against regulations! Surely you can see the logic in that—”
“Nope.”
“Nope? What do you mean, nope, Chalcedony? How can you not see the logic in that?”
“I’m blind.”
“Oh… you! You are impossible!” A stream of echo-locative vulgarities spewed forth from the colt, who squirmed on his cushion while Chalcedony clung to him, giggling.
“I do not wear granny glasses!” Chartreuse set down her almost empty teacup and then began to eye the food on the table, wondering what she would destroy with angry, fierce chomps. When Chalcedony began to laugh, not giggle, Chartreuse let out a throaty whicker to express her displeasure. “Both of you are awful!”
It was at that moment that Chartreuse realised, yes, they were awful, but she was fond of them anyway. Such was the way of friendship, mysterious and strange as it was, and she really wasn’t angry with them. Not really. No, she was just annoyed with them in a pleasant, enjoyable way that for some reason, she wanted to have continue. She liked being somewhat annoyed by them, which was a most peculiar realisation indeed.
Both of them were the most awful, yet somehow enjoyable friends a filly could ask for.
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<snrk>
A Particular Pink Pony Princess should really tell Nom's Mom exactly why she shouldn't seek to micromanage his entire life, & that his Talent/Destiny matters a whole lot more than her precious plans for him.
It makes perfect sense that meat eaters (I assume the draco-pegasi eat meat) would have breath offensive to herbivores.
I don't know why I try to read your stories while I'm eating, I really don't. You always manage to put me off my feed. I try to make myself a nice cup of tea, you write this, I make a chocolate cake for a group of friends, you write "Flurry Heart and the Mud Monsters", I prop my phone up against the salt cellar while having my dinner, you give a lengthy monologue about excrement. I blame you entirely for my recent weight loss.
Apart from that, this is absolutely excellent.
8343535
Déjà vu.
Have we had this conversation before?
8343539
Yes. It gives me something to enjoy complaining about. If I could, I'd beat you with my favourite panama, since you seem to think that's a reasonable response to grossness during feeding time.
8343545
In my defense, I don’t know when local mealtimes are.
Did Chalcedony just pull a Toph? PRICELESS! XD
8343597
I don’t know what this means.
There is suddenly way too much cream at this tea time.
I was apparently partially wrong last chapter, there's also going to be a lot of carefully used and abused regulations.
8343597
yes she did, and it lookes like she will continue to do so for the rest of the story
Nom and Chalcedony are so cute together. It was dawww moment of cuteness. I hope there story continues on.
They remind me a lot of Flicker, Piper and Hennessy. I hope to read more of that trio too.
Nom and Chalcedony are so cute together. It was dawww moment of cuteness. I hope there story continues on.
They remind me a lot Flicker, Piper and Hennessy. I hope to read more of that trio too.
8343603
Toph is the blind earth bender from Avatar: the last airbender - one of my favorite characters.
Heh. I think i only got that cause i just finished being French in Battlefield 1.
8343225
Shar-trooss compared to Kahl-seh-don-ee
And!
Chartreuse over Chalcedony.
Literally only the first three letters are the same.
8344185
And Shar-trooss was shortened to Shar-tee.
This is why Chalcedony is such an awful pony.
8343603 If you did not see the glory that was Avatar: The Last Airbender series, I feel very sorry for you missing out on such a wonderful experience. If there's another Toph relevant to a blind character I didn't know about... I apologize and leave this video of some of her funniest moments to clarify.
People really don't seem to want to understand the position of (what we so far know) of Nom's mother. It seems like they need every pure nocturnal pegasus to excel at some task of acceptance granted to them, which seems to be serving as Luna's personal army and/or Wardens. It's easy to levy hate on her when we think, 'Oh this poor thing', and it's true, I feel for sweet Nom, but there are many causes greater than the individual. I wouldn't doubt his parents had had aspirations of their own, their own dreams and desires, even if they weren't as expressive about them at his age. But ended up living for the greater good of their whole species instead of indulging themselves and only themselves.
We know Nom's special in some way because he's a forefront story character. He might help change the strict handling required of his species. But the characters do not know this, they just know that he's deviating from what's safe and expected of nocturnal pegasi. If he runs too afoul, it could set back the efforts of every noctunal pegasus - nullifying the sacrifices of MANY of them, sacrifices that Nom himself is not willing to make and they were, so long as it helped the others - rendering those sacrifices moot would mean all the dreams and wants given up were done in vain.
This is where it becomes hard to say, "Should the individual's wants matter more, or should the needs of the whole matter more?" Logically, it is the latter, because if we said the former was true, then whatever chance they were given at being accepted as beings rather than dangerous beasts (which I imagine they can very easily be without strict discipline, otherwise Luna wouldn't be so demanding of them) might just vanish, destroying what all other nocturnals had worked much of their lives for. I would postulate that once they have this treasured acceptance (that was worth possibly generations of labor, blood, and obedience), something which ponies who are outsiders in this issue don't truly understand since they've always had it, that is when they can live like true ponies. They are working this hard, making these sacrifices, so that one day their species can ALL do the things that Nom wants to do, follow their hearts and minds, be free to make choices and decisions, fit in where they wind up in life. Anyone whose forebears were relatively recently second-class citizens striving to be seen as real people, would at least understand such a viewpoint, as none of what they have now would be possible without sacrifices like I've described.
We have very little information so far. She just might be some horrible, stick-up-her-ass beefy crone that someone is going to put her in place and I'm overthinking it. But so far, this is what it sounds like to me. There's... usually more than one side of an issue with Kudzu's writing. Stacking behind Nom because he's cute, and makes sense based on our reasoning which is tied up and founded on our own societies and way of living as humans means that we lose sight of the full issue because we picked a side and reject all other views.
I do at least hope that he can fulfill his dreams and somehow also fulfill his duties to the acceptance of his species. Perhaps even by doing so, which I imagine is previously unheard of given the strict nature of every nocturnal we've seen so far.
8343603
you would have to Watch avatar the last airbender......
i would encourage you to watch avatar the last airbender in fact.
is braille not a thing for ponies?
8344689
Yes, and they can read it with their fingers!
And Nom has more depths to be found.
I appreciate Chalcedony's candor.
It occurs to me that with Chartreuse's eye for detail and Chalcedony's limit to only tasting meals, the two of them would be a boon to Nomination improving his cooking.
I wonder if a spell or magic item could be made to bounce magical energy off a cone in front of the caster for Chalcedony to see. Thus turning her into a radar receiver, making her one step closer to being Daredevil.
Seriously, Starlight hide your kites!!!
But I'll bet he can can-can.
8343603
I’d love to see a short story from you telling of a stallion and dragoness, or mare and dragon going through the breeding program. It would be interesting to get more information about the hybrid program, and the mindset of those going through it.
Repeated word
Also, you have quite the knack for endearing friendships.