Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare – Part 2
Zedd slowly awoke. The sweet smell of fresh steamed vegetables was coming from the kitchen. He suddenly noticed how warm he was… and whatever he was lying against was soft.
He took a moment to try to wake up and gather his thoughts and remembered it was Ditzy. He looked across to her leaning against him, her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open. Her breathing was soft and level.
She is… incredible, he thought to himself, still staring, eyes still half closed. Ditzy suddenly shifted and slid off of his shoulder to lean against the back of the lounge. Zedd suddenly felt another hoof on his other shoulder, and turned with a start to see Pine looking down at him with a hoof to his lips.
Pine beckoned for Zedd to get up and follow, so he did. Oh no… I shouldn’t have done this. Now I’m in trouble! But… it was just sleeping, nothing else! He thought to himself frantically wondering what Pine was going to do.
Pine pulled out a seat at the kitchen table; then took a seat for himself next to his wife, Spring.
What’s going on? Why are they both here? Oh no, they’re going to tell me never to see Ditzy again… they’re going to tell me to leave the house and they never want to-
‘Zedd’ said Pine, cutting off Zedd’s thoughts.
‘Yes, sir?’ he asked ‘err, Pine, sorry’
‘I can see you still don’t like calling people by their first name. Well, I guess that just means you’re naturally respectful. I like that in a person,’ said Pine.
‘Um… to be honest, you’ve never given me a reason to be disrespectful… not-not that I’d ever be disrespectful to you!’ he stammered.
Pine laughed softly, trying to stay quiet so as to not wake his daughter. Right. Ditzy.
‘So, Zedd. Ditzy’s already told us a lot about you, but we’d still prefer to hear it first-hoof from you. Where exactly did you come from before Ponyville?’ asked Pine.
‘Well, I was born in Manehattan, but I moved to Fillydelphia when I was only young. I lived there until a bit over a year ago when I moved here. I had a hard time fitting in with anyone until I met Ditzy’
‘And what do you like about her?’ asked Spring. He noticed that he hadn’t ever heard her say anything before, and noticed how her voice was somehow softer and kinder than Ditzy’s.
‘Well… she was kind to me after I moved here. People usually pick on the new kid, and I only ever wanted to be kind to people. I noticed that she was getting bullied a lot more than me, and when I saw her run away, I decided that she needed a friend. I did, too, but I went to help her for her sakes, not mine. She was nice to me, though… while other people made fun of my mane or my name, she didn’t’.
‘I notice you’re going out of your way to not mention her eye condition’ said Pine accusingly.
‘What? Oh, yeah. I forgot about that… I judge people on personality, not looks; and Ditzy? She has the best personality of anypony I’ve ever met’ he said, staring off into space. He suddenly felt a pair of forelegs on his shoulders and a head leaning against his neck.
‘Thank you’ whispered Ditzy, a tear forming in her eye, but not falling. ‘So, dad, can I keep him?’ she asked, raising her voice to a normal speaking level.
‘I suppose, but only if he cleans up after himself’ Pine said. Zedd just stared at him for a few seconds, wondering why he was being treated like a dog; then everyone else started laughing. Realising it was a joke, he joined in.
‘Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Go and wash up’ said Spring, returning to the stove.
Ditzy left the room first. When Zedd moved to follow, Pine gently put a hoof on his shoulder to stop him.
‘Zedd, you’re the first real friend she’s ever had. I don’t think you would anyway; you don’t seem like that kind of person, but just… don’t hurt her. You seem to be getting closer than just friends; and that’s none of my business, but this had to be said.’
‘Don’t worry. She’s actually the first real friend I’ve had and I have no intentions of hurting her. She’s-… she reminds me of me. I never thought there was another pony out there who was like me, but… she is.’
Pine smiled at him and removed his hoof from Zedds’ shoulder. Spring moved over close to him to say something quietly.
‘Look out for her. She’s going to need a friend when we aren’t around anymore. She’s smarter than most and one of the kindest ponies you’ll meet, but she will always be rejected because of her eyes.’
‘I’ll always be there for her. I promise. There wasn’t really much point in saying this quietly, though. Knowing how much like me she is, she’ll have a way of finding out. She probably already knows, I’d say. Isn’t that right, Ditzy?’ he called out to the doorway. They heard a small ‘eep’ and rushed hoof-movement and laughed as she slipped and fell in the doorway, exposing her eavesdropping.
Zedd immediately rushed over to help her up, but continued to chuckle softly as she blushed. ‘Come on, we still need to wash up for dinner’ he said, helping her up the stairs on her sore ankle.
---
It was finally time to head home. Zedd had stayed over at Ditzy’s house yesterday and walked with her to school today, but he still had to go home at some point so he didn’t arouse suspicion. He was somewhat amazed that Ditzy didn’t realise that she had never seen his house.
‘What’s up? You don’t look too happy there, Zedd,’ said Ditzy, waking him from his thoughts.
‘What? Oh, no, it’s nothing. I just, uhh… final exam pressure? Yeah, I’m nervous about the final exams coming up.’
‘You, Zedd, are the worst liar I’ve ever met. We both know you’re going to pass your exams with no less than a B on everything, so why the long face? Well, except for the obvious that you’re a horse.’
He smiled a bit at this. It was an old joke, but she had a way of making even the worst jokes seem funny.
‘Fine. I’m wondering what I’m going to do for dinner. The fridge is nearly empty and I haven’t been to the shop in a week.’
‘Well, doesn’t your mum do that for you? My mum does the shopping for my family…’
‘Oh yeah, uhh… my mum never leaves the house.’ Think, Zedd, think! ‘she injured her hoof a while ago and can’t walk. Mayor Mare gives her a pension, but I have to do the chores like shopping and cooking’ Please buy it… please!
Ditzy looked at him sceptically for a bit but eventually nodded and said ‘It must be tough’.
‘Well, I get to keep any bits that aren’t needed for the bills or food, so it’s not that bad. Being able to take care of my mum makes me happy, I guess’
‘Not that. Living alone’ she muttered, looking at the ground.
His jaw dropped. He knew she was smart and that she was nearly impossible to lie to, but even so; how did she find out? How did she guess it? His heart rate rose and he felt a small pit of fear rise from deep in his chest.
‘Ditzy…’
‘Why did you keep it a secret for so long?’
‘How long have you known?’
‘Does it matter? I’ve known you for three years now, did you think you could hide it from me?’
‘No, I just… I didn’t want to lose you. Being alone… it-‘
‘Do you think it would have changed anything if you told me? If I’d known, you could probably have come to live with me! You didn’t have to be alone!’ she said, voice rising with her temper. Tears were forming in her eyes. ‘I said I’d be here for you if you ever needed me, but it looks like you don’t! If being alone for years on end is something you don’t need me for, then you don’t need me for anything!’
‘That’s not true! I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t find the right time and-‘
Zedd couldn’t help but notice how incredible she looked. Her eyed, despite facing off-centre, were clear and golden. Her mane was smooth and silky, and her face itself was perfectly level. Symmetrical, almost.
‘No!’ she screamed, tears freely flowing down her face. ‘You’ve proven you don’t need me, and I don’t need you either!’
Before he could respond, she turned and flew as fast as she could through town. Zedd fell to his haunches staring after her. The most perfect pony he’d ever met, and he had just lost her because he was too stupid to tell her something. Spring Glow landed just behind him.
‘Zedd’ she said, softly. She never really raised her voice above a loud whisper. ‘Go after her. Quickly. It’s not too late to fix this if you hurry.’
He turned and looked into her eyes. Ditzy was the spitting image of her mother, less the few wrinkles lining her face. Looking around through the square, he saw many of his classmates watching him. They all knew that the two had been together for years, and never thought they’d have any troubles.
‘Go to her. You know where to find her’ she said. She looked deeply sorrowful, but not a tear was present.
He thought for a moment about where she would be, but nothing came to mind. He was about to ask where to find her when she took off again, flying back to the Weather Team HQ.
I always go there when people pick on me. Mummy and Daddy don’t like me going in there, but it’s… peaceful. I can go in there and just enjoy the silence. Came the voice of Ditzy from the deep recesses of his mind. The forest. The Everfree Forest. Where they met for the first time.
He took off at full speed, ignoring the shouts from ponies he had nearly knocked over. He needed to find her, quickly. He noticed a pink blur beside him. Everything was a blur at the speed he was moving.
‘Hey, are you having a race? Can I join in? Pleeaaassee?? Come on, Zedd! One-two-three go! Wait, where are we going? Are you heading over to the forest? What’s happening in the forest? Fluttershy doesn’t live there yet and Zecora hasn’t moved from whatever land she comes from, so-’
‘Not now, Pinkie! Leave me alone!’ he shouted. He didn’t care if he hurt her feelings. He needed to do this alone, and her running along beside him speaking in riddles. She always spoke like that; talking about ponies no one had ever met, and he couldn’t handle it right now. he glanced back and saw that she had stopped completely and was sitting on her haunches with flattened hair. Now wasn’t the time to apologise; that would come later.
He reached the forest in record time. Normally a 15 minute walk, he made in three minutes flat. He barrelled straight between trees, cutting himself on bushes and shrubs, and scaring small woodland creatures. The brush thickened the further in he got and then suddenly stopped as he toppled into a clearing. He could hear sobbing coming from nearby.
Looking around, he noticed how much the clearing had changed. It was still green and full of life, but the log Ditzy had hidden behind the first time he met her had been eaten away and replaced with blackberry bushes. He finally saw a moving golden mane. He had missed it because she was in tall grass and between yellow daffodils.
Zedd began to silently walk over, but stopped when he reached the tall grass. He sat and stared silently at the ground. The sobbing stopped for a moment and he knew she was watching him.
‘I’m sorry’ was all he could say. He thought about all of the things he could have said better than that, and the many ways in which she could, and was about to, reject his apology when he was knocked over backwards and felt her muzzle pressed to his own. His eyes opened wide to see Ditzy’s own closed, and he closed his eyes, too, simply lying there; overwhelmingly glad that she didn’t hate him.
After what felt like an eternity, yet still not long enough, they broke apart and Ditzy buried her face in his mane. ‘I’m so sorry, too! Please don’t hate me!’ she sobbed.
‘I could never hate you, Ditzy. I’m sorrier than I have ever been… I was worried that you wouldn’t like me anymore if you found out that I lived by myself and that your parents would tell you not to see me and that-’ he was interrupted by another soft kiss; then the two lay in silence.
The sun was inching closer to the horizon when Ditzy finally let him go. They’d been lying in that clearing watching the clouds and listening to the birds for hours, but it was time to return home.
They got up and began to walk back into town literally touching sides. Ditzy draped her left wing across Zedd’s back as they walked back into town, drawing stares from strangers which they ignored. They were happy to be as close to each other as possible and strangers staring at them wasn’t going to change a thing.
‘Come on, Zedd. You’re going to live at my house from now on. I swear my parents will be overjoyed about it. Let’s go and pack up your stuff,’ said Ditzy, breaking the silence. Zedd nodded and they turned the corner to his house.
Ditzy had never seen it before. It was completely dilapidated. The roof was crumbling, the paint on the outer walls were peeling, and in some places the walls had holes eaten through them by termites.
Ditzy removed her wing from Zedd’s back and he walked to the door. He reached a hoof out and lightly pushed it. The door swung open for a few inches, then creaked, cracked, and fell over; breaking into a few pieces. Ditzy winced when it hit the floor with a crash, but Zedd just said ‘It’s been threatening to do that for a while. Good thing it happened today and not a week ago.’
They both entered the house and Ditzy’s first thought was where’s the rest of it? It was one single room with a stained mattress in a corner without sheets. There was a cooler in another corner of the room that was leaking. Zedd went and dropped his saddlebags next to it, taking out three carrots and four celery stalks, then dropping them into the left bag. His schoolwork was in the right bag.
He looked around the room for any other possessions he had. From the wall he retrieved a picture of an earth-stallion and unicorn-mare with a unicorn-foal between them. The foal was asleep and both parents were smiling with pure joy in their eyes.
There were two more frames on the walls. One was of a young Zedd and a sad, brown mare, but his father was nowhere to be seen. The final frame held the deed to the house- if it could be called that- signed to Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander. This was the first time Ditzy had seen his complete name and, under lighter circumstances, would have giggled at it. Zedd took it off the wall and placed it in his bag with the other two photos and his schoolwork, then lifted his bags and moved to the door.
‘That’s it. You’ve now seen my house. Come on, I don’t want to stay here longer than I have to.’
Ditzy wanted to ask what had happened to his parents. She stifled the thought as she didn’t want to offend him, and moved to the door by his side.
‘I’ll tell you another time. If you get three A’s on your final exams, then I’ll tell you.’ He said to her, somehow reading her mind yet again.
How does he do th-
‘I can do that because we think so similarly. You just wanted to know how I always guess what you’re thinking, right? Well, I put myself into the mindset of being told what I just said and what my reaction would be to it. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but whatever.’
‘Well, what am I thinking about now?’ she said, forcing herself to think about bubbles. She had always liked bubbles. They floated so lightly on the wind, freer than birds. They would reflect light into rainbows and-
‘Probably that spider on your back’ he said, reaching forward to brush at her. She felt something crawling on her back and immediately flapped her wings as hard as she could to get it off, then slammed into the roof not realising she had even taken off. She settled back down on the floor a little bit dazed, but glad that the crawling had stopped. She hated spiders.
‘Well, that’s one way to get rid of them.’ He said, looking up. His grin fell immediately and he dived forward, pushing her through the door and onto the ground outside, then dived after her. Not a moment later, the entire decrepit roof caved in, collapsing the floor, and the walls fell in after it.
Zedd got to his hooves coughing. When the dust settled he saw Ditzy lying still on the ground staring wide-eyed at nothing in shock. ‘Come on, get up. Let’s get to your house’ he said, offering her a hoof up. She didn’t take it and so he lifted her to her feet with magic. His magic was still weak, so this took a lot out of him. Her knees shook, but she still stood.
‘You… saved my life, Zedd…’
‘Yeah, and you killed about a hundred spiders. We’re even.’
She turned to look at him and noticed that despite acting cool-headed, there was fear and shock in his eyes, too. She nodded without saying anything and took a few tentative steps forward, then immediately retched. Zedd rushed over to hold her mane back and a few other ponies stepped around the corners of houses to see what had happened.
When she had finished being sick, half the town was already there. Rarity rushed over with a napkin and began to dust off Ditzy.
‘Oh, Miss Doo, are you alright? I hope you’re not injured. Please let me- oh, you can get that bit… and that one… here, take the napkin. Keep it’ she said, handing the napkin to Ditzy who began to wipe the corners of her mouth. Not trusting her voice anymore, she looked at Zedd and nodded. He took the message as her wanting to get home.
Zedd turned to the bulk of the crowd and called out ‘It’s alright, everyone! Nopony was injured. The house was collapsing anyway. You can all go and return to your business’, then lifted Ditzy’s left foreleg over his neck and helped her to walk back to her house. They barely made it to the front gate before Pine came rushing out the front door and said loudly ‘What happened! Is Ditzy alright? You’re not hurt are you, darling? Come on inside and lay down’
Pine came up quickly and lifted her onto his back. He beckoned Zedd inside and rushed in to lay her on the lounge. ‘Spring, get some tea going, quickly. That crashing earlier was something to do with Ditzy’
From the kitchen they heard a kettle being placed on a stove and Spring walked through the doorway to see what had happened.
‘What. Happened’ said Pine, a little more viciously than he should have.
‘My house kind of… collapsed, and I pushed her out the way. She’s just in shock from nearly being inside a collapsing house. Oh, and there was a spider on her back’ he said, scared by her father.
Pine immediately turned to face him and shouted ‘your house nearly fell on her?!’ then sat and thought for a moment. She isn’t injured… what else did he say? ‘You… you saved her. Zedd, thank you! Thank you so much’ he said.
‘Zedd’ mumbled Ditzy from the lounge. She had turned to face the colt and the stallion; Spring watching from the doorway. ‘You’re so brave’ she muttered, weakly smiling at him.
‘No, I just… reacted. I don’t like seeing ponies get hurt, and if you did; I’d never forgive myself. I would have saved you even if it meant sacrificing myself. Thankfully, it didn’t.’ he replied
Pine felt heartened by this. She was definitely in good hooves. ‘Well, since your house is… gone… perhaps we’ll need to clean out the guest room’ he said.
Zedd stared at him for a moment before realising what that meant. Suddenly, a huge grin broke across his face. He was going to live here! Live with Ditzy, and actually have a family!
‘Thank you so much! Oh my goodness, I… it’s…’ he trailed off unable to say anything further. Spring walked into the room with a tray on her rump holding a kettle and four cups. Grateful to have something to help with, Zedd lifted the tray off her back and settled it on the rug between the four, using magic to pour tea into the four cups and life them to each pony, one by one. He could use magic, but not well enough to lift the cups all at the same time.
As Ditzy sipped her tea, she felt strength returning to her and her heartbeat began to slow. She was releasing tension that she hadn’t realised was there, and Zedd came to sit next to her. She gladly leant against him as Pine said ‘That was a fair show of magic for a colt your age’.
Zedd nodded at the compliment. He knew that it was on the lower side of average magic ability for his age, but he wasn’t going to say anything against a direct compliment from Ditzy’s father.
Conversation eventually returned to normal and as the sun came close to the horizon, Spring quietly said ‘how about we all go out to dinner tonight? We have a new house member and he saved the life of our only daughter; I think that’s reason enough to celebrate. Besides, I could use a break from cooking’
‘I think that’s a great idea,’ agreed Pine, moving to take the tray of cups and a kettle back to the kitchen, then to leave.
They headed into town and many ponies waved and congratulated Zedd on his bravery that night. They had already forgotten about the shouting match in the street as word had spread of him diving into a collapsing house and dragging Ditzy from the wreckage. He would have a hard time quashing these rumours with the truth, but that could wait for a while.
Ditzy draped her wing across his back and nuzzled his neck whispering ‘my hero’. He smiled and nuzzled her back as they walked to town. Zedd noticed Spring also had her wing draped across Pine’s back. They entered the restaurant as a family, Zedd happier than he’d been in years.