Dr Whooves and the Missing Companion

by Paganbrony

Part Six: Huff Puff and Blow Your House Down

Part Six: Huff Puff and Blow Your House Down

Vinyl continued her search of the house but after hearing what sounded like a door closing she headed through a door under the halls main stairs into what looked like the kitchen.

Here she found Octavia busy lighting a candle with what looked like very old matches, Vinyl was about to say something to get her attention when the match in Octavia’s mouth flared and lit the candle.

The sudden flash of light made Vinyl cry out as she covered her eyes with her hoof, Octavia who hadn’t heard her friend approach jumped out of her skin knocking the candle over causing it to go out.

“Hi…”

“You could have warned me you were there…”

“Sorry… I was about to but you lit that candle… Where did you get that from? And matches for that matter… Especially since it’s pitch black in here?”

“Hmph says the pony with the sunglasses on…”

Octavia who was fiddling with another match sighed as she replied.

“When I was little I used to sneak around the house late at night for food or using my imagination to pretend I was in some dark spooky house… It’s not like nowadays where you can illuminate a room so easily so I learned to navigate the house in the dark since I was too little to be allowed to use candles on my own…”

Vinyl averted her gaze as Octavia succeeded in relighting the candle she then placed it in a brass candle holder and gripping its flat horizontal handle in her teeth motioned behind her at the kitchens far wall which had a small door set into it.

“There’s a secret supply cupboard at the back of the scullery, looks like the ponies that have been using this place as a slum never bothered to come down here…”

“Although I don’t know if having a light is a good idea… After all I may have stepped in a few things on the way down here I would rather not be able to identify…”

Vinyl nodded in sympathy since her vision had allowed her to avoid the very things Octavia had found so unpleasant.

“So what do you want to do now?”

Octavia paused for a second before it clicked.

“I wish to see the upstairs; I am hoping my room hasn’t been too trashed…”
Vinyl stepped back from the doorway and gestured up the stairs inviting Octavia to lead the way.

As they walked up the grand stairs and onto the second floor Octavia gave Vinyl the Tour which was relatively short including her room her parents room (Utterly Trashed) and finally her fathers study.

In Octavia’s room the motif of the house continued since it looked just as devastated with all the trash and juvenile damage. It took her a few moments and silent tears to reconcile the images in her mind but as she did something fought its way through her memories.

Vinyl who had laid a comforting hoof across her companion’s shoulders amid the tears watched curiously as Octavia sprang into action and began sweeping away debris in the corner of her room…

After a clearing a space she then proceeded to pry at one of the oak floorboards before getting a hoof under and tearing up the ancient mouldy board and casting it aside.

Octavia laid the candle holder on the floor and instead reached down into the space under the floor before triumphantly standing back up with a dust covered satchel in her mouth.

Moving over to what remained of the desk that had always sat underneath the massive now utterly smashed main window of the room she placed the satchel down and after hacking like a smoker coughing due to the taste in her mouth from the satchel opened it and displayed the contents for Vinyl.

Vinyl studied the stack of paper and immediately realized it was sheet music…

The musical notes were exquisitely drawn and in the margins were little notes added parts and little sketches…

“It’s my symphony… My personal copy of the piece I was meant to play that night…”

Octavia’s excitement overcame her other emotions as she placed the papers back in the satchel and after quickly brushing it off placed it across her shoulders retrieved the candle and continued her recollection.

“That was my secret place I hid the symphony there so it would be safe, I think I chose well… I really didn’t think I’d find anything that was my own still here… I’d forgotten about it after everything...”

“Well I think you chose right too, it certainly is in great shape for being so old! Just like its creator!”

Octavia and Vinyl laughed at her teasing before they resumed their wandering finally entering her fathers old study, much like the rest of the house this room had too taken a beating.

It was however Vinyl who whistled in a low tone as she spotted the only object in the room still intact.

Even in the flickering candle light Octavia saw what had caught Vinyl’s attention, the wall behind what once been her fathers desk had been demolished leaving in a carved out alcove a giant black safe.

Vinyl made her way to it and as she studied the wall it was clear the safe had been originally set into the wall but over time some-pony or lots of some-ponies had tried to crack or damage the safe in a bid to open it.

Inspecting the front of the safe it was obvious by the gouges in the metal and various scorch marks and what looked like blast marks from magic, whoever had tried to gain access had continually failed and given up as Vinyl checked the door was still firmly shut.

“Wow this things taken a kicking but it’s still intact, must have been really expensive… I guess no pony passed on the code…”

“My father could be a little paranoid at times concerning his money and private papers… He probably didn’t trust any pony enough to tell them…”

Octavia sat beside Vinyl and answered Vinyl’s obvious next question with a big smile!

A quick few spins of the giant numbered dial and quite a bit of pulling and swearing from both mares and the heavy door finally gave up the ghost and agonizingly creaked open as Octavia scrambled for the candle to illuminate the contents.

On the three shelves within were several folders containing the deeds to everything from land to mines to housing and more, her mother’s jewels as Vinyl stared open mouthed at the shiniest things she’d ever seen!

Babbling with fantastical approximations of value and worth which neither knew were actually pretty close to the mark Vinyl went into shock as Octavia barely managed to heave several bags of gold bits from the bottom shelf that given the amounts labelled on the outside of the money bags contained more than Vinyl’s cash strapped existence could handle.

As Vinyl finally lost her voice Octavia just blushed with an only rudimentary understanding of all the fuss Vinyl was making, since to her it was hardly worth getting excited about, after all it was only her father’s petty cash…

It took a few sweeps of the house but eventually they found a couple of heavy satchels in the attic that after piling the safes contents into and struggling to lift them even with Vinyl’s magic onto their backs, Octavia bid a final farewell to the ruins of her foal hood home and with Vinyl in tow made her way down the grand stairs and towards the front door…

It was at this point a low growl made them freeze at the bottom of the stairs, in the candle light and the moonlight shining in from outside was stood the most monstrous thing Vinyl had ever seen…

Octavia however stared into the eyes of the beast and in a heart stopping moment realized she recognized that feeling that malevolence…

“Oh no… But that’s not… How…? How did it…?”

Vinyl broke from her fear induced inaction and gave her companion a questioning glance…

“Run…”

“But…?”

“Vinyl just do it run!!!”

As the two mares broke and ran the beast howled in excitement! The chase was on!!!

Doing better elsewhere

The Doctor… Well both of the Doctors weren’t being chased by a monumentally pissed Timberwolf, they instead were sat next to each other in the dust of the ancient planet as Miss Cheerilee marched up and down berating them both as her three students laughed loudly in unison and mimicked her in telling them off.

Despite her gratitude at being saved and off of that jungle world she still had several pieces of her mind left to give the Doctors as they sat like a pair of naughty school foals heads hung low…

Given the opportunity they would have happily have been chased by a Timberwolf.