My Heart's Content

by Doctor Disco

4 - I've Been Inclined

“So you’re saying there’s a ‘Canterlot’, 'Manehattan’, and Fillydelphia?” I ask in increasing worry for this world.

“Of course there is!”

Of course there is.

Of course.

“Wait ‘til my father hears about this,” I mutter under my breath with a head shake. “If I ever make it back home.” Seriously, can I just take a break from this ridiculous world? Maybe find my friends in one piece, assuming their minds aren’t destroyed from sheer insanity? I mean, my friends have to be fine, right? They’re strong, I’m sure nothing has happened to them. I can always count on my friends to pull through from me.

Right?

I refuse to believe otherwise. Where was I going with this again? Weird city names? “I mean, Ponyville I can get. There’s probably a Humans-ville somewhere back where I’m from, but whats with the punny names?”

“What are you talking about?” Derpy asks, cocking her head to one side. “What’s wrong with how we name our cities?”

“Well, I guess, you see,” I try to explain, but sigh. How am I supposed to explain to her that those names are literally knock-off horse puns of our own city names, when she doesn’t even know I’m from another world and has no prior knowledge of our own city and province and state names? ‘Oh hey, Derpy! You have weird names based off our own cities that you somehow were able to appropriate when you’ve never even heard of our cities, much less our race!’. Oh yes, that conversation would go swimmingly.

“Nevermind,” I say with a huff. Derpy just frowns slightly.

“Okay,” she says. She then grins in a sudden burst of thought. For a second, I swear I see a lightbulb turn on above her head. “Oh! And once you come to my place, I can cook you some muffins! My own well-renowned recipe! Pinkie may have everlasting muffins, but she doesn’t compare to my own muffin baking!”

Muffins better than Pinkie’s? I’d like to see that… Or would that be taste? See the taste? Taste after seeing? Where was I going with this? Wait, what?

“When did we get to muffins?” I inquire as we approach the marketplace where Derpy needs to get some groceries.

“When I said you would join me for some!” Derpy exclaimed before flying into the edge of a corner. She then fell ungraciously to the ground before rolling back up as if she’d done it a million times.

“Derpy! Are you okay?” I ask worriedly, walking as fast as I can to her position. She brushes herself off with her wings and checks them instinctively.

“Yep! I’m fine, this corner just always pops up out of the blue whenever I’m talking to somepony.” She narrows one eye and raises the opposite eyebrow in thought. “It’s a really weird coincidence that keeps happening. Or it might just be me and my clumsiness.”

“Hey, don’t say things like that about yourself,” I say as I hug her real quick, “Self deprecation is my weakness.” I chuckle to myself before I see Derpy doesn’t get it.

“Don’t you mean forte?” Derpy scrunches her eyebrows as I pull away. I wince

“Sure, but I thought it would be ironic to… ya know,” I try to explain, but spectacularly fail.

“Ironic? Oh, I get it! Ha!” She finally laughs after connecting one and two.

“Yeah, heh. That’s me, horrible at life and everything…” I feel a heat rush through my ponified cheeks. Horrible at keeping your friends safe, a voice tells me and I brush it away. Laughing nervously, I continue my sentence. “Let’s just keep going and make it to wherever I’m staying, alright?”

“Okay,” Derpy smiles and we continue to walk.

We soon enter the thick of Ponyville and I look around at the passing scenery as we do so. The houses look like they can be from medieval or middle aged times. Simply built, with flowers hanging off windowsills and roofs made of hay. The windows themselves are mostly arched at the top and square at the bottom, with wood separating each pane. The materials that coat the exterior walls are smooth and white, and the chestnut wood that stretches from each window only adds to the olden-days type feel. It all feels fresh, natural, and very down to earth. I just get a feeling of peace from this wonderful landscape.

It is all very beautiful. I smile as I think about my new friends. Derpy and Octavia. How did they come to make friends with me? Are all ponies just as friendly as the next? It warms my heart to think that, but I can’t help but feel that there’s more to this kindness than just ‘There’s a new pony, let’s make friends!’. It can’t really be that simple, can it?

Well, one thing’s for sure, some of these houses are just impossible. It’s literally hanging off at least a metre from any support beams. I may not be an expert in architecture, but I know my physics. “Derpy, how do some of these houses hang off like that?” I inquire. It is a question that needs to be asked… Well, needed now, I guess.

“What?” Derpy hums before looking around and raising an eyebrow. “You don’t know why?”

“I’m not from around here, remember?” I remind Derpy, and she still looks at me a little confused.

“Well, you must have at least encountered magic before, right?”

I cock my head and frown in response. Yes, I’ve seen magic work at levitating small things and such, but surely they couldn’t make whole… things of architecture float like that, right? Right? When can I take a break? Can I just sit right here on this doorstep?

“I guess. But that doesn’t mean magic can break the laws of physics, can it?” I ask.

“The laws of what-now?” Derpy questions. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but we do have ‘the Laws of Fillycs’.”

No. They did not. Derpy did not just. Urgh!

“Nooooooooooooo!” I shout as I fall four-hooves-down to the ground. Ponies that were walking around us are… surprisingly still walking as if over-dramatic displays are a common occurrence.

“Are you done now?” Derpy asks, and I slowly get back to my hooves. Partly because I’m still new to having four legs. Partly because my mind is still gathering it’s shattered pieces.

Composing myself and checking my fur (a habit I’ve only recently gotten around to) along with my mane, I nod. “Yes, thank you.”

“What’s wrongs? Did mentioning fillycs bring back bad memories? Celestia knows I hated fillycs in High School.”

No! Please! Stop saying that word! “Uh, sure! Yup, bad memories, let’s just change the topic now, can we?”

“There’s also Colton’s Law… Schrodinger’s Cat thing… Sapphire Marenstein’s equation for light, and Twilight Sparkle’s 1,000 page thesis on the technicalities of magic.”

Nope, not going there. Nooooot going there. Nope. I begin to walk and Derpy catches up to me. “I think I’ve had enough pony-puns for the day. Let’s just get to that marketplace, please.”

After another short bout of walking, we found ourselves nearing a bustling spot of road and ponies. Vendors were patiently sitting as ponies came and went to buy various wares and produce. A common theme I noted was that there was no meat. Then again, ponies and horses were largely vegetarian so I understood how meat was more than frowned upon. “Is this where everyone buys their things?” I ask Derpy.

“Mostly. Some ponies get stuff from imports across Equestria and others like to do it themselves. Of course, most ponies just go the easy route and come here, but when ponies want something special there’s always an event or something happening somewhere that ponies can go to.”

“A simple yes would have sufficed,” I tell Derpy as I rub my hooves to my head in a stagnant position. Too bad I can’t walk with three feet yet.

“Okay! Yes, it is.” Derpy clapped her hooves together with a smile.

“Hmm,” I hum. Finally, we start going around buying things Derpy needs and it is pretty uneventful. I’m just happy that we’re not chatting the ridiculous anymore. Maybe I can now set my mind to more important things… Things that won’t hurt my brain…

Or I can just not think at all. Yes. That would be nice. I just won’t worry about anything. Just… just worry about the present. Not the future… or- or the past…I close my eyes and begin to

Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut shut up shut up-

“Melody?” someone asks. I continue to try and stop my own head from thinking. I repeat the same phrase over and over in my head…

“Melody, stop!” the voice says again. I then feel the warm embrace of someone and I turn my head to look at them. It’s Derpy. Why are you looking at me like that, Derpy? I’m perfectly fine! Perfectly fine.

“Stop it, Melody! You’re only hurting yourself!” Derpy says. She then grabs my hoof and holds it still. I then realize that I had been hitting myself in the head with my hoof, trying to stop my own train of thought. I look around to see a few ponies looking my way, and I stare at my hoof in Derpy’s grip. Why am I doing this to myself? I’m supposed to be happy! Nothing’s wrong with the world! I look to Derpy and smile, but she continues to eye me worriedly.

“Melody, why are you doing this to yourself? One minute, you’re fine, the next you’re hitting yourself in the head! I’m your friend now, Melody. Please, I don’t like seeing you like this,” Derpy pleads. I look at her with tears in my eyes before I try and blink them away.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Derpy. Nothing’s wrong. Can we just finish this so we can… so we can go wherever?” I sniffle and Derpy let’s go of my hooves.

For the remainder of the trip, I notice that Derpy is carefully eyeing me. I try and act normal like I had before, but her look is bothering me. I can’t shake her away. Can’t she see I’m fine? I’m absolutely fine. I may be a pony now, but there’s certainly not anything else wrong with me. I really hope we finish this soon. I don’t think I can handle being in this marketplace any longer.

After an eternity of being watched by my new flying friend, she leads us quietly to her house. Soon, we find ourselves in front of a small forest, what Derpy called ‘Whitetail Woods’, and she leads me to a house at the edge of a clearing. She then sighs and lays her groceries down before turning around to look me in the eye. I smile the most genuinely I can muster.

“Before I let you in, I want you to promise me something,” Derpy says lowly. I cock an eyebrow.

“That is…?” I ask.

“I don’t want anything to be held back in this house. I want it to be a place you can call home, a place where can be friends. I want it to be a place where you feel safe.” Derpy then nears me and holds my shoulder with a hoof. “Whatever’s on your mind, I want you to tell me. Please. You’re hurting inside, I can see that. I can help. I know what it’s like.” She then hugs me and takes a step back. “Please, Melody.”

“Derpy, what are you saying? I’m fine. See? There’s nothing to worry about,” I grin, but I can tell Derpy doesn’t believe me. She then nods and smiles sadly, the reason for the pained look in her eye slipping my mind, and she whispers something as she unlocks her home and I follow her in.

“Okay.”

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Will you say how Octavia meets Vinyl?

[Doctor Disco]

7801362 Can you clarify what you mean by that?

[Texus]

Okay first of I really like that the main char seems to have a really bad moment, and I also like that it seems to be something that one can easily understand. I think I actually tried to say that a scene like this is usually written pretty akward, but I like it this time.

He or she, probably really hates how everything she was used to suddenly changed, even "physics" into "Fillycs", while that maybe wasn't needed looks pretty good in the whole problem she has now.

Derpy maybe takes it more serious than it actually is, but either they are all very emotional in your story, or what I'm actually hoping for, that she is just assuming great emotional pain because it happened to her too. It isn't bad, but I hope it isn't just that type of universe where everyone is too emotional, where her Human behavior would be more than odd. I mean where they would look at her with hate in their eyes if she wouldn't simply want to hug someone if you know what I mean.

I don't find the right part, but did she already told them about being a Human? I don't want her to talk about the show, but I was just tryting to think about what kind of reason Melody would use to explain her odd behavior. At first I thought she would somehow try to explain it as a weaker amnesia, and that it is to much stuff that didn't made sense to her, which was the reason why she suddenly started to hurt herself.