Friesden smiled at the two young ponies.
“Thank you so much for agreeing to look after little Celly and Luna and Terrus! We haven’t had a night to ourselves since I had them. This is going to be so exciting!” She ducks herself under Khenal’s wing with a grin.
Khenal smiles as well, gently squeezing his love with the wing she’s hiding under.
“You two are sure you’ll be able to handle them?“
Adamant looks at the Captain. “Sir, you know I’ve helped raise my siblings, none of them were alicorns, that’s true, but I’ve dealt with magical foals, and a flying filly before, and that was without Kris to help me. It’ll all be okay. You have my word.”
Kris smiles and offers a small nod. “I’m sure everything will be fine.” She hadn’t helped care for a foal ever, but she felt confident with Addy there with her.
“Come on, Khenal, or we’re going to run out of time to ourselves!” says Friesden with a small smile on her face.
Khenal smiles, knowing their foals are in good hooves.
“Heh, alright Friesden. Take care you two! Behave, you three!”
Adamant walks with the couple to the door and sees them out, “Have a pleasant night Mister Khenal, Dr. Friesden, and don’t you worry, we have everything under control.”
Kris nods them off and turns to look at the foals that were now under their care. This couldn’t be so hard. She looks over to Adamant and says, “Well, I’m not quite sure where to start. I assume there’s a specific time to feed them?”
Adamant facehooves, “Ah, should have asked the parents when they last ate. Oh well, don’t worry, they’ll let us know when they are hungry.”
As if on cue, little Celly starts to cry. It starts as a high-pitched whine, then quickly shifts to the sobs of a foal who needs something, and needs it right now!
Kris gives the filly a concerned glance before floundering and looking to Adamant. “Um...”
Adamant give Kris a reassuring look, “She’s either hungry, needs a new diaper, or just wants some attention. I’ll go get a bottle for her, we’ll need one soon enough at least, and you check if it’s one of the other two things.”
She nods and cautiously approaches the filly. She gives the air a similarly cautious sniff to hopefully rule out the less palatable of the two options.
She smells fine, though she continues to bawl. She doesn’t seem interested in any food, either. She seems to just miss her mommy and daddy.
Kris breathes a small sigh of relief and picks her up. “Oh, what’s the matter Celly? It’s okay, we’re here.”
She continues to bawl, her poor little filly heart breaking.
Kris continues to hold her and tries to give her a reassuring cradling in a foreleg as she turns to Adamant. “Well, she doesn’t need a new diaper. She’s just upset I think...”
As if Celestia was the trigger, Terrus wakes up with another bawl.
Adamant rushes over to pick up Terrus, he rocks him a bit and tries to calm the colt, shhing him quietly, turning to Kris again, “Celly, is upset her parents left. Try to cheer her up, make her laugh.”
Celly keeps bawling like she’ll never smile again, tears gushing from her eyes.
Kris nods and sits with the filly in her hooves. Alright, now how would she do that? She tries rocking her gently and offers what she hopes are reassuring “shhs” of her own. “It’s okay Celly, your parents will be back soon.”
She continues crying, knowing that they are gone forever!
Adamant, still trying to deal with Terrus and praying to the Sisters that Luna didn’t wake up and start crying too, tries to give his fiance some advice, “You need to distract her, make funny faces, or tickle her, or lift her above your head, or I don’t know, do something with your magic.”
Terrus continues crying, his little stomach empty and in need of food.
Adamant carries the colt over to where he put the bottle and sits and offers it to the foal, hoping that that would be the answer he was looking for.
Kris thinks for a moment. How could she distract her like Addy said? She did have magic, not that she knew many spells. She tries simple like he suggested, giving her a few rough attempts at humorous faces
Gone! Gone forev- oohh, funny face! Celly pauses in her bawling to look at the funny faces that Kris is making and starting to giggle..
Terrus takes the bottle and begins to feed, the bawling silenced at once.
Kris grins a bit as she realizes that her feeble attempts were making some progress. She was usually content to just leave well enough alone, but she tries giving the filly a little tickle too. Maybe after this was over she’d go see somepony about learning some illusion magic. That would have been extremely useful right about now.
As Terrus finishes the bottle Adamant begins to burp the foal, when a knock is heard at the door.
Faces and tickling? This is fun! Celly burbles and laughs, a happy filly once more.
Adamant makes his way over the door and opens it seeing Granite standing there covered in mud and dirt, his pick on his back. “Adamant, we got a problem up in sector 3B. Hit that damnable aquifer. The whole cobatite vein is flooding. We need every hoof up there to help contain the breach. Your dad told me to fetch you.”
Adamant shakes his head and turns to Kris, “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go.” He hands Terrus over her and says, “Make sure they all get fed, Terrus still needs to be burped, and give them a bath in the shower in the back before they go to bed. They shouldn’t give you too much trouble. Trust your instincts, you’ll be fine.” and Adamant and the other miner are off, leaving Kris alone with three newborn foals.
“Oh, alright. Go help however you can. I... I think I can handle this.” She was going to have to one way or another anyway. She hopes she has some instinct in her somewhere. She really wished her mom was here right now too.
Celestia keeps giggling and burbling... oh wait, that’s not burbling. That’s spit-up. She’s still giggling, at least.
Terrus’ bottle falls from his mouth, and after a short time, the crying starts coming again.
Kris’ eyes go wide momentarily at the realization that Celly had deposited something unpleasant on the two of them before she is distracted by Terrus crying. She stands and fetches a cloth with her magic before stepping over to Terrus. As she starts to gently wipe Celly and herself off, she picks Terrus up with her remaining free forehoof and tries to return the bottle to his mouth. Juggling the two was difficult, to say the least. At least she had magic to hold the cloth... or the bottle. But not both. Hmm... this was getting complicated already.
Terrus continues to cry for a bit, before stopping as Celly continues to giggle.
Celly keeps giggling as Krys wipes at her. Thinking it’s a game, her cute little horn glows as she grabs the sopping cloth and holds it close to herself.
Kris pauses for a moment as the filly takes the cloth from her, but she was mostly clean now and if she was happy, that was alright with her. She smiles at Celly and turns her attention to Terrus, holding the bottle with her magic for him to nurse at it as long as he wanted to.
Krys can hear a small *splat* as Celly plops the cloth upon her own head, showing a cute smile as the cloth and it’s liquid entangle with her adorable pink mane.
Terrus continues to suck on the bottle, drinking it dry and dropping it out. Without another second, he starts crying again.
Kris cringes mentally at the sight of Celly wearing the soaked cloth and gently tries to take it from her. “Come on, let’s get that washed out for you.” As Terrus begins crying, she notes the empty bottle. “Oh, um... let’s see...” He probably need to be burped now. Maybe?
She steps over to the shower to hopefully have a moment to rinse out the cloth as she also gently places Terrus over her shoulder and gives him a few gentle pats. She kind of knew how that worked. Kind of.
Celly pouts at the cloth is taken away. That was her favorite hat, and she worked hard on it! The empty bottle on the floor reminds her that she is also empty now, and she starts to cry again.
Kris frowns as Celestia starts crying. “It’s okay, hang on just a second.” She rinses the cloth out as best she can and wrings most of the water out. She gently wipes the remaining liquid from her face and mane. “Oh, is something else wrong?”
Terrus burps loudly as Kris pats him, and stops crying for a second.
‘Of course something is wrong, I’m crying!’ Her tears seem to say as she slumps onto the floor.
Kris breathes a sigh of relief as Terrus stops crying. What to do about Celly though? “Are you hungry?” she asks, reaching out for another bottle with her magic. She brings the two foals into the best cradling position she can with her hooves and offers the bottle to Celly with her magic.
Terrus looks greedily at the bottle and his tentacles glow as he tries to take it for himself.
Little Celly will not stand for this indignity! Her little horn glows as well, fighting for the bottle.
Kris gives the two a concerned look as they fight for the bottle. Maybe letting Terrus have a bit more to eat wouldn’t matter, but she wasn’t so sure that was a good idea either. She scans the room for something to let him occupying himself with. Something harmless to suck on instead of a bottle. She forgets about the rag in her possession as things begin to unravel a bit, and gently lays it on Terrus as she continues to search the room with her eyes.
The cloth glows as Terrus’ magic drops the fight over the bottle with the new toy in hand. In hoof, at least. Or in magic. Whatever.
Celly smiles in triumph, and happily stuffs the spoils of her victory into her mouth. The wrong end of her spoils. After sucking a few moments, she frowns and spits out the bottle, sending it to the floor as she starts to well up with tears again.
Terrus spots the fallen bottle, and his magic glows over it again as his final victory commences in the Milk Bottle War.
Kris waffles for a moment, trying to decide how to bring peace to the Milk Bottle War. Well, he seemed happy enough with the rag a moment ago. She dangles it in front of him, trying to break his view of the bottle. “Come on Terrus, isn’t this a lot more fun than the bottle?” she says in the sweetest voice she can muster.
Terrus lets the bottle drop from his mouth as he grabs for the rag with his magic.
That’s better. She returns the bottle to Celly, right side down this time. “Here you go honey,” she says to her in the same voice.
I’m gonna starve to death and be without my hat! Oh woe is- oohh, bottle! Celly happily suckles at the bottle, holding it in her little forehooves.
Kris sighs again and gently sits, holding the two gently in her hooves. Well, this was turning out to be more work than she’d expected, but it seemed to be alright now. She smiles at the two and hopes it stays that way. Against her better judgment.
Mmm, bottle! So tasty... wait a tic. Celly gives a few more suckles before realizing the bottle is empty already. She gives the bottle her best set of little pony eyes, hoping it will magically refill itself like it does when the grown ponies do whatever it is they do to fill it back up.
Kris sees that the bottle is empty and gently takes it from her. “All gone?” She probably needed burping now too... she takes her and places her over her shoulder and repeats the same motions she did for Terrus, hoping she knew what in blazes she was doing.
‘Nnnooo, I’m still hungry!’ her eyes seem to say as Kris gently pats her. Her little horn glows as she bops Kris on the head with the empty bottle, an unhappy expression on her face.
Uh oh, looks like this wasn’t quite the mechanical process she’d hoped for it to be. Kris wonders for a moment what to do. There were only three bottles of milk, one per foal, so she took that to mean that she shouldn’t be giving them more than that each. But that face... what was she supposed to say to that?
Celly pours on the charm, really wanting the bottle to be full again. Her bottom lip trembles slightly as her little filly eyes go as wide and as moist as she can make them.
Kris hesitates at the face, but she’d had just as much as Terrus, and she didn’t think it was a good idea to give her more right now. “Come on, give it a minute to settle...” she says in a low voice and trying to offer a reassuring smile.
The bottle again bonks Kris on the head as Celly tries to assert herself for more food.
Terrus sees his sister having fun and decides to join in the great new game, his tentacles glowing as he bonks Kris on the head with the bottle himself with a giggle.
Kris can’t quite decide what to do about that. Her first instinct is to grab the bottle with her magic and try to hold it still, which she attempts. What she was going to do after that though, she wasn’t quite sure.
Terrus’ giggles slow and then finally stop as the bottle stops moving. No more fun.
“That’s right, it’s not nice to hit ponies,” she says, but using a tone to hopefully not convey anything close to anger. She wasn’t mad. She smiles at the two as she places the bottle away on a nearby shelf.
Terrus just sits still as she puts the bottle away, and when her magic fades, he grabs the bottle once more and starts to bonk her head with it again.
She sighs and tries to think of a better way to solve that problem. She gently takes the bottle in her magic again and hides it in a cupboard as she turns her back, hopefully blocking the colt’s view of where she hid it.
Celly is still a bit hungry, but Terrus’ idea of the game is starting to distract her. She scrunches up her face as she slowly levitates the cabinet. Thankfully for Kris, she can’t seem to get a good swing with it... yet.
Terrus joins in with his sister, helping her swing the cabinet with a gurgly giggle.
Kris’ eyes go wide as she sees the two lift what should be an impossibly heavy thing for foals. Things just got real. She backs away from the clumsy swing and uses her own magic to fight for control. “No, no, that’s not nice either!” she says with a bit more urgency in her voice than she wanted.
Terrus continues to try and swing the cabinet, continuing to giggle at the great new game his sister made up.
Kris uses all of her magical might to keep the cabinet anchored to the ground, hoping she could outlast the superfoals. Maybe if they got bored they’d give up. She hoped.
Celly’s eyelids slowly start to droop as a combination of boredom, fully belly and simple sleepiness start to affect her. She yawns wide and stops levitating the cabinet, sucking at a hoof.
Terrus tries swinging the cabinet a couple more times before eventually giving up as well.
Kris relaxes a bit as they give in, and notices that Celly looked sleepy. Good, one less foal to deal with! Adamant said something about giving them a bath before bed, but she didn’t think it was a good idea to keep her awake if she was sleepy. Sounded like a recipe for a cranky baby. So she steps over to the crib and starts to tuck her in for a nap.
Terrus, seeing his carer was distracted, starts crawling towards the door and with a glow on the handle of the door, tries to open it and crawl out.
Celly tucks in easily, soon quietly sleeping. Little Luna, though, yawns awake and blearily looks around. When she spied Kris, she tilts her head to the side, as if to say ‘You aren’t my Mommy.’ At least she isn’t crying.
Kris relaxes notably as Celly tucks in and nods off to sleep without a bit of trouble. She gives Luna a warm smile and says in a sweet voice, “Oh, you’re awake. Your mommy and daddy are gone for a little while, but I’m here.” All the while, she hasn’t noticed that Terrus escaped her grip and attention.
Luna pokes at Celly with a hoof, as if wanting to ask her sister what was going on. Celly, though, is sound asleep and doesn’t look to be waking up any time soon. Luna turns back to Kris, putting a hoof in her mouth to suck on as she considers this not-Mommy.
Kris simply smiles at Luna, who at least was sitting contently. Then she realizes Terrus wasn’t with her. Where did he... she turns to see the little colt fiddling with the door. She scoops him up with her magic and brings him back over. “No, no Terrus, we can’t go out there right now.”
As Kris turns back to where Luna was, she notices a distinct lack of dark alicorn filly.
Terrus starts to cry as Kris takes him away from the door.
“I’m sorry Terrus, it’s just not safe for a little foal out there,” she whispers to him as she brings him close and cradles him. Then she turns back to the crib and discovers with a small amount of distress that Luna was no longer present. She searches the room with her eyes. “Luna? Where...”
Kris can just barely hear a dull *thump* from the next room, followed shortly by another *thump*, following a slow and steady rhythm.
She raises an eyebrow at the curious noise. What was... oh. “Hang on,” she says to Terrus as she cradles him again and heads into the adjoining room, hoping she found Luna and that she wasn’t doing anything particularly disastrous.
Luna is slowly but surely emptying one of Khenal’s bookshelves, dropping the tomes on the floor and efficiently reaching for new books as each falls. She quietly looks at the not-Momma, still pulling and dropping books at a steady pace.
Oh, Khenal probably wouldn’t like that... at least she wasn’t doing something like destroying them. She calmly approaches the filly and scoops her up. “Daddy wouldn’t like that,” she says in a soothing tone. With that, she makes her way back into the adjoining room. She’d clean up that mess later when the foals were all asleep.
Terrus looks around for anything else particularly destructive for him to be doing, but can find nothing for the moment.
Well, Terrus wasn’t complaining at the moment and she had both of the awake foals in her care, so that was an improvement. Damages were minimal too. She just might pull this off. But... what next? Luna hadn’t been fed yet, she’d probably be wanting that soon.
Kris notices she is suddenly one foal shy again, as Luna has managed to disappear again, the slippery filly. “Luna?” she questions, cautiously making her way back to the library. Maybe she just wanted to be in there?
Kris doesn’t see the filly, though she can hear the distinctive sounds of a foal drinking from a bottle in the room. Looking up, she can see Luna upside down on the ceiling, suckling at the bottle as her little wings flap to keep her there, and still giving the not-Mommy an analyzing look.
“Oh, there you are,” she says, looking up to her. She wasn’t really causing any trouble by being up there, but she wasn’t happy about the filly being out of her reach. Now, what could she do about that? She reaches up with her magic and tries to dislodge Luna from the ceiling.
Terrus, with his watcher away, flaps out of the cradle and hurries to the door again. He doesn’t bother with turning the doorknob, instead pulling the door from the wall in a loud crack.
Kris’ eyes snap open as she hears what sounds like a very expensive repair job happen. For a moment she forgets completely about Luna and dashes back into main room to see Terrus wielding the door. Alarmed, she trots over to him and scoops him up with her hooves.
Terrus drops the door and pouts in Kris’ hooves.
“Come on, let’s go find your sister...” she says to him, more to calm herself than anything. The foal just ripped a door from its hinges. What could he do to her if he wanted to? She returns to the room Luna was previously defying the laws of physics in and searches for the filly.
The ceiling in the library is devoid of any alicorn fillies, though there are adorable little hoofprints on it... leading out the room... and out the apartment! A discarded bottle lay on the floor just outside in the hall, additional testament to the filly’s departure.
“Uh oh... not good...” She trots after the hoofprints on the ceiling, hoping little Luna hadn’t gone far. She’d have to leave Celly alone while she searched for her, but Luna was clearly in more danger than Celly at this point.
Luna is calmly walking along the ceiling, not too far from the home, her little wings still flapping to keep her aloft. She looks around curiously, studying everything from this unique angle.
“There you are,” Kris says with clear relief in her voice. She reaches up with her magic and plucks the filly from the ceiling. “It’s dangerous out here Luna, let’s go back home where it’s safe, okay?” She starts back in that direction.
Luna sticks her hoof in her mouth to suck on it again, still unsure what to make of the not-Momma.
Kris returns to the room with the foal in tow. She isn’t quite sure what to do now... she thought babies were supposed to get tired quickly. And yet, Terrus had dislodged an entire door from its hinges! This was going to be a long night...
Terrus looks around the room, and seeing nothing else to do that looks fun, decides to go to sleep.
With only Luna to worry about Kris find it far easier to handle foalsitting. Little Luna is quiet, almost disturbingly so as she simply sucks at her hoof and watches Kris. She occasionally walks up the walls with the aid of her little wings, but Kris is free to clean up for the most part. The books go back, more or less where they were supposed to go. The door was far more difficult, but she at least got it back in it’s hinges. Kinda. It opened and closed, at least?
After a couple hours Adamant returned. He knocked gently on the door before letting himself in, he appeared to be sweaty and his hooves had mud on them. He looks around and the house appears to be still in one piece, ‘That’s good.’ he thinks, seeing Kris he just simply says, “Hey, I’m back, the foals give you any trouble?”
Kris looks over to him through groggy eyes and offers a small smile. “Oh, Addy, you’re back.” She gives a quick glance to the sleeping or otherwise content foals and decides to gloss over the worst of the details. “No, they weren’t much trouble. Just like any other babies, I would imagine.” Well, she hoped not. “Did you get the breach sealed?”
Luna quietly watches, laying on her side to suck on a rear hoof instead of a front one. Those hooves had long lost any flavor.
Adamant nods, “Yeah, the problem is solved, the miners dug a channel away from town to slow the flooding while the mason’s guild set up a wall to contain it. The breach wasn’t as bad as Granite implied, they really didn’t need my help at all, but we don’t have to worry about the aquifer flooding the town tonight at least.” Adamant looks over the foals each in turn and sees that they all seem to be just fine.
“Oh, that’s good to hear at least,” she says, standing to nuzzle Adamant. “Their parents should be home soon I think.”
As if on cue, a knock comes on the door.
Kris opens what used to be a fine door, but had been put back in place by her less than stellar repair skills. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d explain that...
Khenal and Friesden stand on the other side of the door, obviously having enjoyed their night together. Khenal speaks up first, smiling wide as Friesden enjoys her favorite place under his wing.
“Kris! How were the foals?”
She gives a sincere smile. “Oh, they were no trouble,” she says, mostly sincerely. She’d have to explain the door somehow. Maybe she broke it? That would be hard to feign...
“That’s good to hear! Thank you so much, I had a fantastic night with Khenal!” Friesden says as she pokes her head up from his wing.
Khenal softly nuzzles Friesden, then heads inside. He spots Luna, laying on her side and sucking on a hoof, and gently levitates her up to give her a little kiss.
“That’s great, I’m glad you had a good night,” she tells the two. Maybe she and Addy could go relax somewhere now. “All three have been fed, but it might be time to feed them again soon,” she adds with a hint of a questioning tone to her voice.
Khenal levitates Luna to have her rest on his head, her little legs wrapping around his horn for balance. “They should be good ‘till morning then. Did Luna give you any trouble? It’s so hard to get her to sleep some times.”
“No, no, she was a little angel,” Kris replies. Well, she stressed her out just a pinch, but compared to Celly and Terrus she was a little angel. “Well, she’s been up for a while, but no trouble out of her.”
Khenal nods slightly, careful of the filly on his head. Said filly keeps looking at Kris with her usual analysing look. “Ya, Luna is always so quiet. She almost never cries, which is nice, but she also never laughs. She’ll smile occasionally, but never a laugh like little Celestia or Terrus.”
Kris cocks her head slightly. “You know, now that you mention it, she hasn’t laughed or giggled at all. Celly and Terrus did...”
“Well...Thank you for watching our foals. If you want to go home now...?”
She smiles in return and looks to Adamant. “Well, you’ve had a long night, maybe we should get out of your manes?” Then she and Addy could go cuddle someplace and she could tell him all about how crazy her night really was.
“It was our pleasure to look after them for you, if you need us again, please feel free to ask.” Adamant begins to move toward the door.
Kris follows Adamant to the door and very carefully opens it. As they step outside she shuts the door with a bit more force than she reasonably should, and the poorly repaired hinges violently fail, sending bolts sailing off in arcs and the door collapsing noisily to the ground. Kris freezes in place, eyes wide as she stares through the new opening into Khenal and Friesden’s room.
Khenal stares at the destruction. He didn’t even know a door could do that! As the dust settles, high-pitched, giggling laughter can be clearly heard from his direction. Atop his head, little Luna is laughing her adorable little flank off, clinging to her father’s horn as she laughs like never before. Literally.
Friesden, who was just about to lean in for another kiss with Khenal, stops in amazement. Luna? Little Luna? Laughing? The door falling off? That...Neither of those had happened before.
Kris is speechless for a moment, letting Luna’s giggling fill the room completely. “I... I... um... I-I’ll um... the door... I mean...”
“It...It...It...It fell off,” Friesden says in a shocked tone of voice.
Adamant just stares in confusion at the door, ‘it shouldn’t just fall off like that? What happened while I was gone?’
The looks on everypony’s faces, combined with Luna’s continuing giggling proves infectious as Khenal starts laughing as well.
Friesden didn’t pretend to understand what happened or was happening, but she decided to join in the laughter as well.
As all the other ponies begin to laugh, Adamant tries to contain himself, and fails sputtering out a laugh that quickly joins in with the others.
Even Kris can’t resist the laughter, and despite the fact that she was a bit mortified at destroying the door, she starts chuckling and breaks into light laughter herself. This had been a night unlike any other she’d ever experienced. If and when she had a foal of her own, she was hoping for an earth pony.
***************
Later that night, Kris is back in her room after spending a brief time with her fiance. She was pretty tired, and after catching a bite to eat with him she just decided to head home and go to bed. As she sinks down into the bed, she sees her hammer hanging from its stand and notices the light glinting from it in a strange manner.
Intrigued, she sits up and takes the hammer with her magic and brings it close. Something was written on it... “Laughter.” Laughter? What was that supposed to mean? The word Loyalty had been written on it when her mother wielded it, that certainly seemed like a more fitting inscription for a weapon than Laughter.
But this must have been the result of magic of some kind. She wasn’t quite sure she understood, but she was beyond tired and simply returns the weapon to its stand. She’d try to figure that one out in the morning.
Author
Topic: My Little Fortress. Glitterglen. (Read 272607 times)