Dr Whooves And The Mare Who Saw What Wasn't There.

by Paganbrony

Part One: The Mare Who Saw What Wasn’t There.

Part One: The Mare Who Saw What Wasn’t There.

The stars twinkled in the night sky over Ponyville as its inhabitants slept Luna’s night away, with a few ponies making their way home after a carefree evening out.

It seemed as if nothing dramatic or sinister would befall this small slumbering town that night, and as luck would have it nothing did.
That is until just moments before the sunrise, when there came a wheezing sound, at first it seemed distant but as it continued it grew louder, morning dew sparkling in the sun’s rays began to vibrate fiercely as in the town square a blue light appeared fading in and out.

Silence again descended on Ponyville, its inhabitants unaware of the return of Equestria’s silent guardian.
As morning wore on ponies came and went as the town of Ponyville came alive, shops and stalls opened and its inhabitants began to fill the streets, not ones to miss a good sunny day they talked and shopped and all was well.

Well...

Nearly all…

Ditzy Doo sat in a muddy puddle on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres on the outskirts of Ponyville.

Her golden mane and grey coat were soaked with dirty water and clinging mud, to make matters worse her saddlebags had fallen off and broken open, the letters as Mail mare of Ponyville she was supposed to deliver were now floating in the water beside her.

As she watched the nearest envelope bobbing on the surface of the disturbed puddle she sniffed loudly fighting back tears, it wasn’t fair...

She tried to be careful, to avoid branches and check where she was headed, but if she remembered those she forgot to keep an eye out for other Pegasai who might be flying around, not that her eyes ever did what they were told anyway.

Most ponies figured Ditzy Doo had walleye, or some mental problem that wasn’t discussed in polite (or her) company, but for whatever reason Ditzy’s eye’s roamed, often in different directions and rarely could she keep them pointing in the right direction without concentrating.

But as she sat there cold and dejected her eye’s focused on the cyan coloured Pegasai mare a few hooves away as she sat up groaning rubbing her head.

In a flash Ditzy remembered how she’d ended up in the puddle! She’d hit something!

She’d been concentrating hadn’t she…?

Ditzy thought for a moment, no she hadn’t...

Memories of her morning sprang to mind…

Something had happened… She had woken up early for work, breakfast as usual then... Then she had gone up stairs... To do something she did every morning… Something important… But she had struggled to remember what it was.

Of course! To wake her room mate Carrot Top! That was it… She was sure it was… Her house mate however had seemed like she too was forgetting things as after having an awkward silent breakfast Ditzy had left for work but with the nagging feeling something was wrong...

“DITZY!!!”

The shout made the grey mare jump out of her skin.

Muddy water and letters went everywhere as she slipped trying to stand and fell forwards her wings outstretched in surprise splashing down and sending even more mess flying from her puddle.

As Ditzy struggled to right herself and tried to shake the filth from her coat her left eye settled on the figure in front of her, turning her head and forcing her left eye to stay still so she could focus Ditzy mumbled a greeting to the furious looking mare.

“Hi Rainbow…”

Rainbow Dash cyan colored with a rainbow mane stood hoof deep in mud and having been covered in it head to hoof as a result of the crash glared at Ditzy.

“Hey, you back from where you zoned out to? You weren’t even looking where you were going Ditzy!”

Ditzy hung her head and tried to look sorry, but Rainbow was already fuming.

“I’m... sorry…”

Tears began to fall as a terrible sadness overtook her and gradually she broke down even more as a flood of frightening emotions overtook her.

Rainbow as angry as she was couldn’t believe what she was seeing as her old friend from flight school broke apart in front of her.

Slowly she put her hoof around Ditzy’s shoulders and tried to calm her with soothing overtones, but to avail.

“I... can’t stop... crying…”

Ditzy sobbing louder choked as she couldn’t breathe.

“I don’t know why...”

Rainbow tried to forgive Ditzy, she told her it wasn’t her fault, and it had been an accident she’d even resorted to pulling funny faces! But nothing worked the grey mare just continued crying unabated.

Eventually Rainbow stopped; honestly she had no clue what to do… Then it hit her! Honesty!

They were on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres so Rainbow decided to get Ditzy to the farmhouse where she could get a little help from a friend and fellow Element of Harmony.

Of all the Elements of Harmony, honesty is the best policy, and its flesh and blood representative, a young orange earth pony named Applejack was no exception to the rule.

She was showing her honesty with gusto as she stood in the hallway outside the bathroom fidgeting as she hollered at her older brother through the door to hurry the hay up.

She was beginning to reach numbers she wasn’t familiar with as she danced from hoof to hoof when suddenly there came a knocking from downstairs, faintly accompanied by what sounding like sobbing.

Needing the distraction she looked around the upstairs hallway for any sign of the other members of the Apple family who lived at Sweet Apple Acres, seeing the coast was clear and hoping she could get back before Granny Smith woke up and commandeered the bathroom for the morning, (forcing her to use that damn bush again) she made her way downstairs to the front door.

As she drew closer, the sounds became easier to make out, and she recognized a familiar voice repeating over and over.

“Please stop crying, please...”

Applejack frowned, looking up at the clock on the wall by the door which read a little after six she cocked her head to the side frowning deeper she opened the door.

“Rainbow what the hay are you doing up this early and what’s with all the caterwauling?”

Applejack looked at the two Pegasus stood on the porch and winced as her jaw bounced off the hardwood floor.

On the porch sat a muddy Rainbow Dash holding close to her with a wing draped over her protectively an equally muddy grey Pegasus who Applejack recognized instantly as the mail mare of Ponyville.

Looking once more at her friend Dash Applejack was taken aback as their eyes met and Dash’s screamed ‘Help me!!!’

Applejack motioned Rainbow to bring her in and moved aside as Dash maneuvered the sobbing pony through the living room and into the kitchen while dripping mud and water everywhere.

Rainbow positioned the inconsolable Ditzy by the fire as Applejack rushed to find towels, Ditzy for her part just sat staring into the flames.

After ejecting Macintosh from the bathroom and finally getting to use it, she then ran a bath, fetching Rainbow Dash the pair bathed the nearly catatonic Ditzy.

After drying her off Rainbow ran herself a bath as Applejack took Ditzy downstairs and sat her by the fireplace, which Applejack then got going before getting Ditzy a cup of hot chocolate to sip while she warmed up.

Applejack kept her company for a while before retiring to the back porch unable to get the grey mare to speak.

Dash joined on the porch a short time later still drying her mane with a towel as she brought the farm mare up to date.

As Applejack listened to how Dash had woken up early for once and gone for a morning’s flight before being knocked out the sky and what followed after, her now near permanent frown deepened.

“Rainbow you told me Derpy falls out the sky or crashes into things all the time? What’s made her react like that this time? Did you say something mean to her because she crashed into you?”

Dash winced as Applejack called the grey mare by her nickname.

“Don’t call her Derpy A.J; you know she hates being called that, and no I didn’t.”

“Sorry Dash, but honestly from the sound of it she’s mighty sore ‘bout something.”

“I know but... I tried to get her to say what it is but she kept saying she couldn’t remember what caused her to feel like this.”

The two friends looked through the kitchen window at Ditzy, who was gradually beginning to seem a little more together.

“So what’s your plan huh Dash?”

“I guess get her home? So she can rest…”

“Makes sense ah guess but that mare needs to talk ‘bout it with some pony.”

As they made their way back into the kitchen the youngest member of the Apple family appeared.

Applebloom was a miniature Applejack, but without the limited patience or self control of her big sister.

Indeed her adventures with her filly friends, Sweetie Belle the unicorn and Scootaloo the Pegasus had Applejack wondering if compared to them she had been as rebellious and energetic as a filly as she thought she’d been.

The residents of Ponyville treated the crusade waged by the three fillies in their quest to gain their cutie marks as if it was an oncoming storm.

Preferring to run and hide should the ‘CMC’ come to town, lest they be overwhelmed by questions about their cutie marks and how and when did they get them.

At first the ‘CMC’ had asked the ponies close to them, but when that failed to impress the whole ‘Give it time idea’ on them, they had expanded the process to any and all who crossed their path.

Applejack had tried to put an end to it after the CMC had cornered a local hooker outside a seedy bar in town and asked the mare why her cutie mark looked like a giant pink cucumber above the picture of a wallet.

Applejack blushed at the memory, still regretting all the lies she had to tell just to distract the girls from a conversation she herself didn’t fully understand.

But youth does have its uses as the energetic filly getting her breakfast and preparing for school seemed to awaken something in Ditzy.

As Applebloom tucked into her cereal she finally noticed the bedraggled and still drying Mail mare by the fire, and as if nothing was wrong through a mouthful of fruity ponies, she said.

“Hiya Miss Derpy watcha doin?”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash double faced hoofed as the pair simultaneously imagined the effect the nickname would have on the fragile Ditzy.

Both ponies stared at the mail mare waiting for the final blow to hit home, but surprisingly Ditzy brightened up and laughed.

“I crashed into Dash.”

“Are ya hurt Miss Derpy?”

“Nope…”

Ditzy spread her wings and tried an experimental flap or two,

“Working fine...”

The mail mare gave a lopsided grin as Applebloom continued eating ignoring the stutter in Ditzy’s voice.

Another reason most ponies called her Derpy was her problems with speech, if only they realized despite her problems with sight, speech, balance and concentration that she was in fact one of the smartest ponies around they wouldn’t have been so quick to use it.

Smarter in fact than most that used that nickname but it had stuck and some ponies didn’t realize it wasn’t her actual name.

Applebloom who was one of the ones that didn’t said something resembling ‘great’ through a mouthful of cereal, as she continued to eat she noticed the clock and with a squeal sprang from her chair and bolted for the door.

“Ah shoot ah’m gonna be late, gotta go see you later Miss Derpy!”

Upon noticing Dash for the first time she called out as she ran for the door.

“Hi Rainbow… Bye Rainbow.”

Dash just waved as the filly disappeared through the door, but as the door opened and closed Ditzy’s smile faded and she went back to looking into the flames.

Dash, more than a little tired sat down at the breakfast table and yawned giving Applejack a look that said ‘batter up’.

Shaking her head and sighing, Applejack approached Ditzy and gently laid a hoof on her shoulder.

“Are you feeling better now sugar-cube? You feel like telling us what the matter is?”

When she got no reply Applejack moved around to face Ditzy, who was staring intensely into the fire her eyes were focused forward but pretty normal looking for any other pony but as Applejack looked closer for just a second it seemed as if the fire reflected in her eyes was different somehow.

As Applejack leaned closer still she thought she could almost hear faint screaming! She recoiled as Ditzy’s left eye swiveled in her direction, in shock Applejack reared up hitting the pans above the fireplace with her head, as she stumbled and fell her hat came off and fell straight into the fire.

Applejack laid on her back eyes closed and teeth gritted as she waited for the dancing rainbow dashes to disappear from behind her eyelids before gingerly opening her eyes to see a concerned Dash hovering above her.

“You OK AJ?”

“Ah reckon so.”

Applejack sat up and instinctively moved to adjust her hat, as her hoof searched the top of her head she realized it had fallen off...

Looking down into the fire, she saw a familiar shape smouldering atop the burning logs...

Applejack hung her head as she prayed for the soul of her now cindered hat.

“Ah loved that hat it was a present from mah dad…
”
Rainbow who knew about Applejacks tendency to become attached to inanimate objects at the best of times, a prime example being reading bedtime stories to an apple tree, Dash knew that careful tact was needed.

Tact was far from the result, as Ditzy who had seemingly emerged from whatever train of thought she’d been riding began clumsily trying to apologize and retrieve the hat.

Applejack just sighed, she’d spent enough time around her friends to know accidents happen, but when Ditzy tried to give her the still smoking remains of her pride and joy the hat crumbled as burning ash covered Applejack's outstretched hooves causing her to yell and curse.

Seeing her in pain and cursing frightened Ditzy who in her fragile state scrambled for the door, before Dash or Applejack could stop her she was out the backdoor and gone...

Rainbow Dash hovered at the door as the mare disappeared into the distance unsure as whether or not to follow she spoke out loud to her friend with anger in her voice.

“Applejack, I’m going to find out exactly who or what upset her and I’m going to beat an apology out of them.”

A grunt from behind her confirmed her friends desire to do the same.

Meanwhile…

The doors of the blue box in Ponyville opened and a young looking stallion with brown fur and a darker brown mane wearing a brown long coat with a blue suit jacket, white shirt and red tie stepped forth and looked about him in a confused manner, more than a little upset he accosted a nearby pony.

“Excuse me… Where are we?”

The pony in question gave him a puzzled look before responding,

“Uh… This is Ponyville…”

“Oh… Not Canterlot…”

The now nervous pony pointed off into the distance where Canterlot could be seen sitting atop the mountains in said distance.

“Oh… Bother… You wouldn’t happen to know what year it is by any chance…”

The stallion watched as the pony gave him a weird look and began rapidly to continue on his way.

Turning to his blue box the stallion ran a hoof down its exterior as he whispered to it.

“Now why did you bring me here old girl?”

A sudden feeling of being watched made the stallion spin around to find the source, but when none presented itself the stallion with the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end realized he’d felt that sensation once before…

“Oh… That’s why…”