Smiling and Laughing
“We don’t have to go home yet, Leo,” Herbal Essence told me as we left the school. “We could find something to do if you’d like.”
“Like what?”
“Well, we could go to the park again, or to the library if you’d like.”
Those options weren’t particularly appealing to me. I did want to spend time with them, but more like what we did yesterday, when I was mostly sleeping silently in their company. However, I was almost certain that they were told to get me to be with foals my age by Doctor Spark, so reluctantly decided on the park.
We quickly headed over, and I quietly lay in the grass, with them taking spots next to me. I used to go to the park all the time, mostly after I became homeless, and so did a lot of other people. It was in a section of the city the police really didn't patrol through, and was a place where you could probably get away with murder if you wanted to. It was dirty and filled with broken glass, and basically only existed to serve people like me.
This park, however, was quiet and clean, and while there was a lack of ponies, I assumed it was mostly because it was a school day. I already knew without seeing it that the rest of the city was like this. It made me sad to think about, sad that I couldn't have lived in a city like this before.
"No," I thought. "It wasn't the city. It was me."
I tried to get that thought off my mind. I was really trying to stop thinking about the past. There was nothing for me there. But still, I couldn't help it, and sighed because of it.
"Hey, Leo," Thundertail started, interrupting my thinking, likely seeing the sadness I was feeling pasted on my face. "What's yellow and dangerous?"
I looked up and stared at him for a second. I wasn't really in the mood for jokes, but the wide smile he wore didn't look like it would be denied. "What?" I asked.
"A shark infested custard."
It was the worst joke I'd ever heard, but it made me laugh. Not just chuckle, but laugh, so hard and so long that I had tears in my eyes and my sides started to hurt. I didn't know what came over me, but it sounded like the funniest thing I'd heard in my whole life. It might have been the fact that, as bad as I felt the past week, I wasn't naturally that person. Or maybe I just needed something to laugh about.
"Ow, ow, ow," I got out as I put a hoof to my side, still laughing a little.
"It was that good, huh?" Thundertail asked, laughing a bit himself.
"That was the dumbest joke ever," I told him, still smiling.
"You know what will make you smile more than that? Your face muscles."
Another bout of hard laughing came over me. I didn't think it was the jokes, but Thundertail that was making me laugh. He was like Herbal Essence in that he had a certain way about him, although to a lesser extent. He seemed like someone I'd be friends with as a human, and while Doctor Spark did tell me about his disorderly conduct charge, I didn't really care about that all that much. If anything, it meant that he probably wasn't going to be too serious with me, which was okay. Although it might also have meant that he wasn't going to be a good influence, but I wasn't planning on being influenced by him anyway.
"Wanna hear another one?" he asked as I tried to stop laughing, my stomach hurting.
"No," I told him, shaking my head as I took deep breaths to make myself stop laughing. "Laughing hurts now."
I stayed laying in the grass, my mood brightened considerably after something so small. I really didn't know why I was being so difficult before, or why I thought it would be hard to be a colt. Now that I had a change of scenery from that hospital, I slowly thought less and less about what either I or this colt went through. I could still feel my troubles there, but it was a great deal easier to ignore and manage now that there was no way for me to access what was wrong for me. I originally thought it would be easier to be an adult, but it was actually quite easy being a foal.
“So Leo,” Herbal Essence started, “Your new teacher told me you’d be visiting Canterlot at the end of April. Are you excited about that?”
“Absolutely!” Leo responded excitedly, still grinning. “I want to see the castle, Princess Twilight, and everything else there!”
"It sounds like it'll be fun," she responded, continuing to smile, happy to see him happy, glad to see that he wasn't still bothered by what went on at the school earlier. Although she was a bit concerned. "In the meantime, was there anything else you wanted to do?"
He thought about the question for a second, then answered, "I don't know. Like what?"
“Well, is there anything you want?”
“Not really.”
"We can buy you some books or games if you'd like for when you're at home. I mean, we won't be able to go out all the time."
She said it with a smile on her face, but she was worried about him. Doctor Spark had highlighted the need for him to make friends, but Herbal Essence was worried he might not be able to do that. However, while she knew that buying things for him wouldn't help him make friends, and might actually make him more reluctant to try to, she couldn't help it. She didn't want him to be sad if he couldn't find companions.
However, despite being upset by his interaction earlier, Leo wasn't particularly concerned about being alone or feeling bored. He didn’t really have any friends after Mandy left, and large portions of his day as a human were spent staring at the sky doing nothing. And while he did want to get the full experience of being in Equestria, he viewed finding friends and having fun as a minor objective in comparison to changing his life and seeing all of the world. Besides, he didn’t really care for books or games. For now, he was content to just enjoy being here.
“It’s fine,” he told her honestly. “I don’t need anything.”
“We can get you whatever you want,” she insisted. “It’s really no problem.”
“I don’t want anything,” he said again as he closed his eyes, still laying down.
The way the colt said that didn’t help her worry about him. He sounded like he didn’t care. Not that he sounded unhappy, but Herbal Essence was concerned nonetheless. She looked to the stallion next to her, silently telling him to help her convince him.
Thundertail thought for a moment, then asked, “How are you going to practice your magic if you don’t have any toys to practice with?”
Leo’s eyes flipped open at that, he quickly announced, “I change my mind.”
Thundertail laughed at that. "Of course you do," he said.
A while later, the three were back at home, Leo acquiring a book about magic and a set of blocks to practice with. He was sitting alone with Thundertail, who was watching him very slowly try to build something while the two asked each other questions back and forth.
"What do you think your cutie mark is going to be?"
"I don't know. A syringe, maybe?"
"A syringe?" he asked with a weird expression.
"For if I became a doctor," he lied, laughing silently to himself at his joke.
"Do you want to be a doctor?"
"Not really."
"You could be one, with how smart you are."
"I'm not smart enough to be a doctor," Leo thought, "but okay."
"Or maybe you'll become a world-famous magician and get a star as your cutie mark."
"Probably not, seeing how bad I am at magic," he said, still struggling to try and build something.
"You're better than me, aren't you?" Thundertail asked.
"That's because you're not a unicorn."
"Which means you'll always be better than me," he responded, laughing a bit.
"I guess that's true," Leo confirmed. "What does your cutie mark mean?"
"Oh, this thing?" he asked, looking at a dollar sign on what appeared to be a piece of paper on his flank. "That just means I'm good with finances and budgeting."
Leo thought that was interesting. Most ponies had names that indicated their coat color or special talent, or sometimes their personalities. Given his cutie mark, the name didn't really seem like it fit well for him.
"Then how come you're not super rich?" the colt asked innocently. Not that the house he now lived in was run down. It was actually quite nice. He just had a feeling that, if not for Herbal Essence, Thundertail's situation might have been more like his own situation was before.
"That… is a story for another day."
Leo felt like he knew exactly what that meant. Thundertail was probably the kind of pony who would rather work as little as possible and make just enough money to get by than work hard and make a lot of money. In essence, he was probably lazy.
"How old are you?"
"I am twenty-two years old," he told him as a matter of fact.
Leo chuckled at that. "That's older than me," he said, smiling at how unknowingly close to his age he was.
Thundertail looked up, pretending to ponder the statement. "Hmm. I guess you could say it is."
"How old is… um… Herbal Essence?" he asked, a bit unsure of if he should just keep calling them by their full names.
"She's twenty-seven," he told Leo.
"She's kind of old," the colt commented, referring to the age difference between her and Thundertail. It seemed weird to him, but didn't question it. Although, he did want to ask how they met and what Herbal Essence might have seen in him, since they seemed kind of different from each other. However, he decided not to.
"Now don't go telling her that," Thundertail responded simply.
Leo went back to focusing on building, the stallion watching him quietly. To him, Leo didn't seem like a five or six-year-old. He seemed more like a ten or eleven-year-old. Or actually, all over the age spectrum, based on what he'd seen over the past week. It seemed weird to him, but, to be fair, he didn't really know that much about foals. Besides, if anything, it made him more interesting.
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I died on that syringe cutie mark
I do lol.
Well, Cutie Marks reflect what you like, so maybe he will get a syringe or a pill bottle, something like that
Nice to see him have positiv experiences. Every littel thing helps.
The first joke wasnt really a joke or? The second was quite good.
Ponys care for there Environment. There ff there City is clean were it counts
Im shocked to hear that parks somewere would be so full of trash/glass and is not supervised.
We in germany have people for that stuff ( supervision and cleaning ).
SOL?
Characters always get assigned voices. It’s how they deserve to be.
Welp. I'm caught up now.
I gotta say this one's really pulled me in. I haven't gone through the same experiences Leo has but they have influenced my life to a large degree. The times when Leo was outright refusing to take medication almost felt like looking into a mirror. Any story that can pull off something like that deserves a follow.
10162326
Not really. Ponyville is next to the Evertree forest...
But maybe actual Citys have the occasional Diamond-Dog attack or rough pony/griffin. But a fairly secure nation.
Goals. Goals will be the method of encouragement and control. Currently his child brain lets him one-track around, which is why he's prone to spiraling into negativity if unchecked. At least when he's calm and rational his adult brain can step in and help steer the ship.
It almost sounds like Thundertail was involved in cooking books, and his exit strategy is what lead to that little smudge on his record. Makes you wonder if Herbal was into anything shady before...
Of course they all have voices! Leo is m7g12vvt4m, Thundertail is m35gg4lj9, Herbal is F7k9hh5c9s!
Keep going! ;)
10162280
Slice of Life. In other words, no action or adventure, just mundane normal everyday stuff.
Very nice chapter, I am glade that you aren't just making Thundertail a lazy ass and that you put redeeming qualities for him, like caring more about spending quality time with ponies he cares for over his job, and that he isn't just a caricature of his own cute mark. As for the question about the voices, I would say sort of, I don't actually 'read' 99.997% of the fics that I like to go thought, sense I use a text to speech program while I do art work, saves a lot of time for me. I don't really imagine the show voices but I do get the tones from them that I recognize from the show.
10162371
Oh... I was thinking it might have been a fic that he was reading... But thanks for the clarification! now I know!
As always, a very good chapter. I am loving seeing these characters develop into their own strange little family. It was especially nice to see more of Thundertail’s interactions with Leo. I hope to see more development of the relationship between these three even as we leave the SOL chapters.
I keep picturing Leo at the park and Thundertail frowning, and deciding to tell him those jokes while Herbal smiles proudly at him. Looking forward to the next chapter.
To answer your question, I do have voices for each of the characters yes. That you’re getting me to come up with them is telling: you’re bringing these characters so much they’re almost... alive.
looking forward to more!
Yes.
Aaargh, nothing fills me with anger and despair more than really getting into a story and then finding the "next" button missing.
Really enjoying it so far. I absolutely like the premise of an adult human turn foal and presumed to be abused (kind of subverted in this fic).
I find it kinda funny your inspiration is "trust once lost", (although I'm sure it was mentioned to you before) if anything the style and the tropes remind me of "oh to be old again".
And to be honest I kinda like the direction you took a lot more. The struggle with a past of substance abuse, dealing with the clash of the two minds. Much more compelling in my opinion.
I may know near nothing about substance abuse of drugs ( pretty much most I know on the subject is from BoJack horseman, and that's not the most credible source) but to me the character, his motivation and struggles seem real.
Definetly going to keep a closer eye on this.
Ah, that wholesomeness is just what was needed.
Personally I don't assign characters voices, more... attitudes I guess. A general mental feeling of them.
I think I assign voices for everyone, but really i just go based off their inflection.
I think their voices are just my head voice.
All of the characters sound different when I'm reading, though some minor characters get reused sounding voices
Yes, definitely assign all of the characters different voices. It makes things much more interesting.
10399067
Same. I actually have a "set" of voices that I assign to characters unconsciously depending on what their character is like.
To answer your question: Yes. Yes I assign voices.
I wouldn't want to accidentally imagine Leo's voice as some old lady's in her late 70s.
Yes.
Problem is that they are all OCs and i have heard none of them before. In a situation like this i use a rather narrow group of voice actors that i occasionally hear in my sleep; The Sims. I have heard them for so long that it is no problem to use those voices even if they are not speaking simese.
I assign voices more when I write characters than when I read them, but it helps me get better immersion in the story if I can hear what they might sound like in my head.
Not sound voices so much as tones
Oh wow, I didn't realize Thundertail was so young. I placed him closer to 30. I can definitely see Herbal at 27, though.
In terms of your question... actually, not really. Not specifically. I've kinda got base male and female head voices—of varying age ranges—for when I read. The males are all my own voice, between now, the past, and what I perceive myself sounding like when I'm older. The females are like a combination of a bunch of different girls/women I know from various places (friends, family, family friends, classmates, kids I've taught...). Sometimes I'll subconsciously pick a voice and just use it for almost everyone based on their gender, with maybe slight variations for each voice. But otherwise they all kinda sound the same. Seems like that's a rarity around here. (badum tss)
Kinda, I think I give them small differences, but mostly subconscious.