37: Never to part, baby of mine. (MMC)
Never to part, baby of mine.
Chapter published 22nd July 2014
***************
As the shop door - painted as it was a quite lovely shade of Oxen-ford blue - closed behind them, cutting off the sound of the jangling door-chimes, Ditzee waited a few seconds before quizzing her companion.
“Are you sure the two of you aren’t in cahoots?” the grey pegasus queried of her earth pony friend, a single eyebrow arching to indicate that no matter the answer she probably wouldn't believe it anyway.
“Pardon?” Tavi responded, distracted with checking that the buckle on her saddlebags was properly fastened. After all the time - and way too many bits - that had been spent on repairing her third alarm clock of the week, she’d hate it if it somehow fell out and got damaged before they could even get it back to the cottage. Not that even then the darn thing would have much chance of surviving long enough to see tomorrow’s breakfast. The poor things had all been meeting some quite nasty and gruesome ends for the last few days.
“You and Time Turner,” checking her reflection in the many segmented shop window, Ditzee fussed with the large pink bow in her mane. “We’ve had to come and buy you a new alarm clock pretty much every morning since we got here. I’m starting to think that Ponyville’s local chronologist has put you up to it.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Well, you’ve seen the way he looks at me everytime we’re here.”
Satisfied that her head dressing was just-so, Ditzee gave Tavi a good long dose of ‘the eye’.
“You must have seen him. He can’t take his eyes off of me from the second we walk through the door. He thinks he’s being all clever, hiding behind his clocks, thinking I can’t see him, peering at me from other side of that big, round workbench thingy in the middle of his shop, waving that silly wand of his at me.”
“Really? Hadn’t noticed.”
Peering back into the shop though the window display - beyond the silly cuckoo clocks and those creepy little clockwork Prench period-piece donkeys - Tavi watched as Time Turner dashed back and forth around around his workbench, picking up tools just to put them right back down again, poking at the odd blinking button here and there as he scurried about.
Squinting so she could better see through the glass, Tavi got the impression that the obviously overworked stallion was muttering to himself, or to the strange glass column towering up from the middle of his bench. He was an odd lad, that was for sure, but quite cute in a gangly kind of way. Maybe he’d be up for a threes-
“Ahem!” The eye was still in full effect, even though Tavi hadn’t had the decency to even notice. “If this is some kind of elaborate pre-courting ritual and you're both hoping that I’ll ask him out then you’re going completely the wrong way about it.”
Ditzee gave up on wrestling the truth from her companion with optic power alone. It didn't seem to be working anyway.
“Which is a shame as he’s rather good looking, even if he is daft as a brush.”
As the DJ watched through the window - the stallion pulling one of those gummy sugary treats he seemed so fond of from a paper bag, blowing off some fluff before chewing the end of it - she was struck by a strange thought.
Trotting over to the corner of the small emporium - where a large sign proclaimed that those within would attempt to ‘fix anything timey-wimey’, plus that they should ‘pull to enter’, even though the front door obviously opened inwards - she peered down the alleyway, along the side wall and all the way to where the shop ended and the empty lot behind it began. Then she moved back to the front window and peered into the clock store again.
No, she was right, it really did seem so much bigger on the inside than it had any business to. Maybe there was some kind of trick to it... an optical illusion maybe?
Wanting to share her observations about this so-called ‘Clockwork Clinic’ with her pegasus friend, Tavi turned to find that she was now standing all alone.
Looking about, she spotted Ditzee already half way across the market square, heading at quite a clip towards Sugarcube Corner, nose high in air as she followed the heavenly scent of freshly baked goods.
*************
Patting crumbs from the corner of her mouth, Ditzee patiently waited outside of Sugarcube Corner as Tavi settled the bill for their post-breakfast, pre-lunch, mid-morning repast.
As she waited, she watched the many happy ponies as they went about their business; noon was fast approaching and many of the more successful market traders were beginning to pack up for the day; the occasional small group of foals ran through the square on their way to only-Luna-knew-where to get up to only-Celestia-knew-what; while courting couples or trios or more walked the streets, browsed the stores or took time to rest and recover on communal benches or outside the local cafes.
Reflecting its beginnings as a humble earth pony settlement, those without either horn or wing were still more heavily represented than the other two tribes. Even so, though there were still more than enough unicorns and pegasi to stop the town from allowing any single tribe to have a definite majority.
A small nugget of information rolled up from the back of her mind, something from an article she remembered having read a long time ago now - almost decade back now if memory served - about how, after Baltimare and Fillydelphia, Ponyville had proportionally more single mothers than anywhere else in Equestria, especially those with foals of another tribe to themselves.
According to the article; with its liberal tribal mix and reputation for tolerance, Ponyville had become one of the havens that herdless mares who, for whatever reason, found themselves ‘in the family way’ would gravitate towards.
Of course, all these unattached mares and their foals joining the town’s population meant that over the years the ratio of mares to stallions had slipped even more towards being female heavy than was usual, something like nine to one instead of the more usual four to one. This tended to make for either larger herds, lazy stallions or a lot of lonely mares.
Breathing in the air - so much fresher, cleaner than the air back in Canterlot - Ditzee felt satisfied, comfortable... like... maybe she belonged here.
It’s nice here. Maybe I should think about staying?
Clean air, friendly ponies. Lots of earth ponies, a few pegasi like me...
Ditzee’s eyes followed a pair of unicorn mares who chatted happily as they strolled past; one a orange coated blonde with a spanner for a cutie mark while her friend had a pink coat and a two tone purple mane with a purple four-leaf clover on her flank.
...and the few unicorns here are all quite pleasant, which is a nice change.
It wasn't that Ditzee disliked unicorns, far from it. In fact she’d always been in awe of their magic, the way so many of them could affect the world around them in any number of delicate ways without even having to move a muscle. It was more that she often got the feeling that there were some unicorns back in Canterlot that didn’t like her at all... not one little bit.
“I quite like it here,” she commented idly as Tavi came out of the shop and stood by her side. “The longer we’re here, the more reluctant I am to head back to Canterlot. It’s as if this town has something I’m missing.”
“Like what?” Tavi asked, peering over the top of her sunglasses in search of this magical ‘something’ that her friend was on about. All she saw was some hick town out in the sticks... the complete flank-end of nowhere. The eye candy wasn’t bad though, and plenty to choose from.
“I don't know!” the pegasus huffed, her nose scrunching up in that way that Tavi found adorable, “I just feel that there’s something here for me... something I’m overlooking. It’s right on the tip of my tongue.”
As Ditzee poked her tongue out, crossing her eyes so she could stare accusingly at the end of it, Tavi’s attention was caught by... well, she was having a hard time figuring out what the heck it was... going on on the other side of the square.
“Something I must have missed, something not in the plans.” Ditzee mumbled around her tongue, totally unaware that Tavi had wandered off, “I don’t know.”
Standing at one corner of the square, standing with a hand raised in the air, waving like a fool, was the town’s resident alien.
As Tavi came closer she could see what the human was waving at. All the way down at the other end of Petticoat Lane - standing just outside of her boutique, waving back at the biped with matching enthusiasm - was DiamondJack, the town’s premier (according to her anyway) fashionista and clothing designer.
If what the human was wearing was any indication of what the town’s best and most successful fashion house could come up with, then Tavi wept for the runners up.
Dropping his arm, the human turned to resume his walk through the market. As he moved, his clothing caught the sun, though Tavi really wished that it hadn’t. Silently she whispered a thank you to the quality workmareship that meant that her sunglasses blocked out the worst of it.
If she had to describe it, and she’d really have rather not, she’d had started thus:
Yellow pants with black pinstripes, held up with red question mark suspenders against a white shirt with more question marks on the collar, and red gingham trim on the barrel cuffs. A massive silk handkerchief hung from the white shirt’s collar in lieu of a necktie; white polka dots on a red background. Over the top of this shirt; a red and white checker-plaid vest, which had watch chains in the pockets.
But most striking of all was the extremely multicolored patchwork overcoat, like an explosion in a rainbow factory. Red tartan, purple felt, green felt, red felt, pink felt, peach wool, a checked collar and yellow over-dyed cuffs. The overcoat sported extra-long lapels - one yellow, one pink. An enamel cat brooch was pinned to the pink lapel.
“See, I told you that Ponyville must be the most open and tolerating place in all of Equestria” Ditzee commented as she came to Tavi’s side.
“Because they let a human stay here?” Tavi asked.
“No, because they let that outfit stay here.” Ditzee snorted. “If he tried wearing that back home he’d get lynched for crimes against fashion.”
“Well he sure likes it.” Tavi laughed, wondering if the guy was colour-blind or something..
“Well she sure doesn’t!” Ditze pointed to an irate looking earth pony who was stomping her way across the square.
Rapidly closing in on the human, a lime green mare was shouting up a storm; alternating between questioning the extent of the human’s path down his species’ branch of the evolutionary tree, suggesting that he might like to find a nice tree to climb somewhere away from town, pondering the question of whether he could possibly be interested in indulging in a banana while he was up there, and postulating that the town clown had been relieved of every last one of her comedy outfits.
“Well, not everypony can be as enlightened as us, Ditz,” Tavi sighed.
Catching the attention of a random passerby - the grouchy earth pony mare from the local apple farm, the one whose brother’s joining ceremony was the whole reason they were in town in the first place, Pink Lady wasn’t it? - Tavi waved a hoof at the loud and obnoxious light green mare whose face was starting to turn a very complimentary shade of red.
“So, the shouty one, what’s her problem?”
“Her?” Pink Lady plonked herself down on the cobbles next to the DJ, “Nothin’ complicated about ol’ Honeydew. She’s just a bitch.”
As Tavi watched, the pink pony pulled a package of freshly popped popcorn from somewhere deep within her dull, flat mane.
“Used ta be that she was just ya average, run-of-the-mill tribalist bigot, but then when her sister darn near drowned ‘bout year or so back she got even worse... now she’s a total biter.” After offering Tavi some of the popcorn, she tossed a couple of pieces into her own mouth. “Confrontations like this happen all the time, it’s nothin’ ta worry yaself about, honey.”
“But isn’t anyone going to help him?”
“Help? Him? Ha! Heck no.” Pink Lady snacked on a few more pieces of popcorn as she pointed at a white unicorn who’d arrived on the scene. “Just watch, it’s about to get fun.”
As the popcorn was offered again, Ditzee took a few pieces and held them with her wingtips, nibbling on them as she watched a white unicorn, the one with the short, curly indigo ponytail, step up to the larger - and by now positively incandescent - earth pony.
Ditzee’s eye caught the subtle movements from the unicorn as she casually positioned herself into one of the more unobtrusive opening stances of the Drunken Hoof style. The grey pegasus smiled to herself, feeling quite pleased that even after all this time she could still pick up the subtle clues and tells she had learnt from her own granddam so many years ago
The common pony wouldn’t have recognised the unicorn’s movements- the way she had rolled her shoulder and positioned her forehoof just so. The earth pony martial art style of Drunken Hoof was notoriously hard for either unicorns or pegasi to master, based as it was around the concept of using earth pony magic to affect an opponent's blood-sugar levels and oxygen content via hoof to coat contact.
But its rarity amongst non-earth ponies wasn’t the main reason it was so easy to overlook.
One of the defining elements of the style was that many of its establishing moves appeared, to the uninitiated observer, to be nothing but random and innocuous body movements, or, if the practitioner was a true pro, the full on wobbling and staggers of a complete drunkard.
What looked to most like a hoof placed just a little too far to the left, or shoulders that were swaying just a little too much, or the twitching of a hip that would normally signal that the owner was a little ‘worse for wear’, were in fact a master’s carefully placed preparations for an attack that their target would not only never see coming, but would often not even realise had even occurred until it was all over.
As she watched the unicorn, the alabaster mare’s multitude of tiny movements going completely unobserved by her opponent, Ditzee smiled to herself again as she finished her last piece of popcorn. By this point she was sure that, much like herself, this unicorn, this Rare Deluge, had more than a touch of earth pony to her bloodline. Even with the larger earth pony’s impressive size and aggressive nature, there was no way she would win against a unicorn using the gifts and skills passed down from her own earth pony ancestors, especially if she was defending her stallion.
The antagonistic earth pony however, had not realised any of this and, after a few choice words from the unicorn - so, she was also a master of the unicorn martial art of The Cutting Word - the infuriated mare launched herself towards her smaller opponent.
The unicorn, for her part, gave the impression of being completely unphased by the mighty, meaty mass of the massive and malevolent mare that was hurtling in her direction like a lime green freight train packed brimfull of fury. In fact, she even took the time to check the edge of her hoof for cracks, a snub that stoked the enraged earth pony’s fire even further.
As the melon flanked mare thundered close enough to reach out and pound the unicorn into the ground she just... well, she just wasn’t there any more. A loud crash and an equally loud shout of surprise had every pony that had stopped by to watch turn their head towards a spot at least a dozen body-lengths across the market square.
From under a cluster of overturned tables and piles of cushions, this ‘Honeydew’ clambered back into view, tossing soft furnishings aside as she stomped away from the cafe, leaving its now demolished outside seating area and a rather annoyed maitre’d in her wake.
While she was still just as furious as she was before, maybe even more so, her ire was now directed away from her previous target and now towards another pony... the pony that had facilitated both her brief pegasus impression and subsequent crash landing.
A cream coloured earth pony mare with a curly mane of blue and pink was now standing exactly where Honeydew had been when she’d been launched into the air... just standing there, casually glancing around as if she was checking the weather, maybe trying to decide where they should think about taking lunch. It was a nice day after all, maybe they could dine al fresco?
Honeydew was getting even more annoyed. With a sly, enigmatic smile, the cream coloured mare lifted a single forehoof. Holding it out towards the lime green mare, she rotated it frog-upwards before, with little flick of her ankle, challenging her opponent to ‘come get some’.
Well Honeydew didn’t need asking twice, and with with a mighty roar she bounded across the cobbled ground, her sturdy shoes thundering as she charged.
Unfortunately for her it would take a lot more than just hot air and heavy hoof-falls to win a battle with a grandmaster like Lyra. Before the melon seller could even react the curly maned mare had stepped forward, planted three carefully placed hoof-hits in places that most well-to-do mares didn't even like to talk about in polite company, and stepped back again before ninety percent of the crowd had realised that she had even moved at all.
Before she even had time to figure out what was going on, Honeydew’s chin had hit the floor, her own momentum causing her to slide along the cobbles on her belly, finally coming to a stop at least half a dozen body-lengths past her target.
To give Honeydew her due - no pun intended - she wasn’t one to give up, even with as obviously foolish the idea of going for a third attempt was.
As she staggered to her hooves, one of the local shopkeepers stuck her head out of her confectionery store and in no uncertain terms suggested that at this point the earth pony might prefer to return to her domicile and tend to both her wounded pride and her possibly tattered sobriety rather than make herself look even more of a fool than she already had.
Whether she decided to heed this fine piece of advice. or just didn’t fancy taking another hoof to any other part of her anatomy that she was particularly fond of, the melon seller slinked away, the sounds of laughter and the occasional jeer following her as she left.
“See, what did I tell ya?“ Pink Lady shook her now much-depleted popcorn bag over her wide-open mouth, the last few crumbs falling onto her tongue. “With all the scary-flank mares that dude’s got in his herd, he don’t need savin’ from no bigoted idiots. More like it’s the idiots that need warnin’ about pickin’ on him!”
Rolling the empty bag into a ball, Pink Lady tossed it into the air before flicking it across the market square with her tail, the paper projectile ricocheting off of a tree, then a lamp-post and a park bench, before dropping into a nearby trash can.
Wandering away, the dull pink earth pony nodded a greeting towards the human and his herd before heading off back towards her family’s apple stand. The gaily attired human in turn waved to the farmpony before he and his two mares also drifted away into the rapidly diminishing crowd.
Pretty soon the immediate surroundings had returned to normal and the most pressing concern Ditzee now faced was that her stomach was telling her that it was time to start thinking about her post-pre-lunch, post-breakfast, late-morning, pre-lunch snack.
“So, where to?”
“Hmmm, what?”
Finding her companion to be somewhat distracted, Ditzee followed the earth pony’s gaze to where it fell on the unicorn confectioner from before. The blue maned mare was still standing outside of her store, talking to a bunch of local foals, all three of them wearing matching capes.
The unicorn had tossed the small towel she’d been holding over her neck where the two ends hung loose about her shoulders. Some of the icing sugar she’d been cleaning up had gotten into her mane, making any loose strands that had fallen out of her hairband stick up in a series of two toned spikes wherever it had become sticky.
Some food colouring had dribbled down her flanks, partially covering the three wrapped sweets with a pair of long dark streaks with blobby smears at the lower ends. Tavi’s eyes, Ditzee noticed, was glued to the white unicorn’s shapely flanks.
“See something you like?” the pegasi teased.
“Wha..?” the earth pony spluttered. “No...“
“Are you sure?” Ditzee raised an eyebrow. That denial was just a little too quick in coming to be believed.
“Yes, I’m sure. It’s just... I don’t know... There’s just something about her that’s...”
“Sexy?”
“No.” Tavi huffed. “No. It’s just... I dunno. But I was not checking out her plot.”
“If. You. Say. So,” Ditzee sang as she skipped away.
****************
Trotting through town towards home, chatting away to Tavi about what they could possibly eat next, Ditzee spotted the town mailmare - Heartsomething wasn’t it? - out on her afternoon rounds.
Apparently she preferred the name ‘Derpy’, or so they had heard. Ditzee didn't have the faintest clue what on Equestra a ‘Derp’ was, or how the minty mare could possibly be one- but she liked the name anyhow, It sounded like something fun. The word had a great sound to it, rolling off the tongue with a big, round ‘Duuuurrr’ and ending up with a lovely lip-popping ‘peee’.
“Hey, watch out for the-”
**Dong**
-lamppost”
Ditzee cringed as her warning shout was just too late to stop the minty mare from walking headlong into the street furniture.
Shaking herself off, Derpy greeted Ditzee with a smile, one of the unicorn’s pupils still spinning slightly from the collision.
“Thanks for trying, Miss Strudelhoffen. It’s a real mean old lamppost, that one. It’s already jumped out at me three times this week.”
After giving Ditzee a wave, Derpy straightened her mailbag around her neck and headed off towards her next destination.
“Must be tough” Tavi commented.
“Hmm?”
“Having wonky eyes an’ all. Disability like that must play havoc with depth perception and stuff.”
“I would think that it does,” Ditzee agreed. “but it’s not something that I would think she lets get the better of her. We all make the best of what we have, Tavi. One is only truly ‘disabled’ if you let other ponies tell you that you are. I prefer the term ‘differently abled’ myself.”
Tavi rolled her eyes at her friend's rather twee expression, but she wasn’t going to disagree. Life probably wasn’t easy for the town mailmare, but it wouldn’t be helped any by the two of them feeling sorry for her or treating her at all differently to anypony else.
Continuing their journey home, they didn’t get far before those three blank-flanked foals from earlier, the caped ones from outside the confectioner’s shop, charged past them on some kind of scooter and cart combination, almost bowling poor Ditzee over in their hurry to get past.
“Hey, watch it, kids!” Tavi shouted after them, though they were too far away by then to hear her, not that they’d have stopped even if they had.
Turning back to her pegasus companion, she found the grey mare starting intently after the rapidly receding troublesome trio, her eyes glazed over as she mumbled the same few words to herself, over and over.
Moving closer, Tavi tried to make out what her friend was trying to say.
It sounded like a lullaby.
*********************
She could see herself, small and blurry, her grey coat and blonde mane. If was hard to focus but it was definitely her, from when she was young, as seen from her mother’s point of view.
A forehoof reached out, stroking the filly’s mane, her own eyes looking back up at her mother. She was warm, and she was safe- her mother was singing her a song, a pretty song, a simple song.
But how did it go?
Little one, never alone,
my heart will always be your home
Sun will shine and moon will rise
but you're the brightest in my eyes
Mom? Singing? To me? When did this ever happen?
She was always so strict with me, so cold.
The only thing I ever got from her was her disappointment, so annoyed by my clumsiness.
The gentle hoof stroked her mane again and again. A mane brush moved back and forth. The child was so happy, she looked up at her mother, she smiled, such a big smile, such a happy face, such a happy child.
Little one, never you fear,
mama will always be near
Clouds will soar and birds will fly
but you're the highest in my eyes
The details became clearer, the pattern on the back of the manebrush, a picture of a tiny gecko, a popular childhood character. The adult put the mane brush down on the dresser, leaning forward she picked the child up, lifting the filly closer, their faces pushed together, the child’s horn rubbed against her cheek. The soft lullaby pushed at the child’s hair, the long strands tickling at her nose as her horn pushed again mother’s cheek.
Horn? Who’s got a horn? I never had a horn!
The adult moved the child onto her own back, between her wings, before turning towards the old, careworn dresser, the large mirror above it reflecting both mother and child. They looked so much alike, except that the adult’s long blonde mane was a mess and one of her golden eyes was misaligned.
Little one, my darling foal
to you belongs your mama's soul
Rest your head, and realize
that you are perfect in my eyes.
The song... it wasn’t her mother singing! No, it wasn’t mother, it her, Ditzee, she was the one singing the lullaby! And she was singing to... she was singing to her own daughter!
What’s her name? I can’t remember her name!
Deee, Dooo, Diiii... Stinky, Pinky, Blinky...
Other images flashed through her mind, mostly blurry, indistinct. The little filly, her little girl, she was always in the middle of her vision, always crystal clear. Shimmering mane and vibrant eyes, both of beautiful gold; a violet coat so pale that it could easily be mistaken for her own grey.
I can’t remember her name!
I can’t remember my little muffin’s name!
The images faded away, the tiny filly fled from her mind, Ditzee reached for her, begging her not to go, not to leave mommy behind.
Reality returned, and with it a view of a grey earth pony rubbing at her face.
***************
“Ow, that hurt.” Tavi wiped the dirt from Ditzee’s still outstretched hoof from her own eye. While she’d been hoping that her unresponsive friend would respond to her pleas, she certainly hadn’t been expecting a hoof to the face.
Blinking away the last of the muck, she asked.
“Ditz, are you okay? here...” pulling a ‘purloined’ napkin from her saddle bags, not noticing that in her haste she’d also pulled out her recently repaired alarm clock which fell to the ground with a resounding crunch, she dabbed it carefully against the pegasus’s face. “...hold still, your nose is bleeding.”
As the earth pony patted at her nose, Ditzee’s left eye twitched, then her right, both pupils contracting down to twin pinpricks of black within the gold.
“My muffin! I need to find my muffin!”
“But... gah... hold still. We already had breakfast. I’m sure we can stop back at Sugarcube Corner if you like. Grab some muffins for the road?”
“No!” Ditzee pulled away, “I’ve gotta go, she needs me!”
“Who?” Tavi shouted over the sudden breeze as Ditzee spread her wings and shot off into the sky faster than the earth pony had ever seen her fly before. “Who needs you?”
But she didn’t get an answer. Instead, all she could hear was Ditzee’s cries as she sped away above the rooftops.
“Muffin! Where are you?”
“I’m coming!”
“Mommy’s coming!”
************
Concentrating hard, Derpy forced her eyes to focus on the unfolded letter held in her forehoof for the third time in as many minutes.
Down around the rest of her hooves, Dinky darted back and forth, never straying too far as mommy had told her again and again that the train station platform could be a very dangerous place is she wasn't paying attention. The filly was super excited, jumping up and down on her tippy-hooves as she tried her best to peer over the horizon. The train from Canterlot would be here soon and she wanted be the first to spot it.
Derpy turned the letter over and over, checking the back just in case there was something she had previously missed. Nope, still blank.
Stuffing the letter back into her mailbag, the minty mare scratched at her chin. So, Dinky’s older herd-sister was coming into town... and this was a good thing... probably. The youngster was beside herself with excitement at the prospect of seeing Sparkler, though her mother wasn't quite as overjoyed.
No, confused with be a closer description of what Derpy Heartstrings was feeling at this point.
No matter how she tried, she couldn't remember being on good terms with any unicorn ‘family’ back in Canterlot. In fact, the more she thought about it the more she could remember it being made quite obvious that she was a disappointment to the family, that she had let them down, brought shame upon them all... though right now the reasons for their ire was muddy, clouded, incoherent.
It was like she had two sets of memories rolling around in her head, so similar yet so different. Different dams, different sires, many many herdsisters- all so angry, so disappointed.
One thing was constant though, they had all been happy to see her go, hadn't even come to see her off at the station, didn’t even bother to say goodbye.
She remembered moving away, coming to Ponyville to get away from the city, to start over. She found ponies here that cared for her, for her daughter, they didn't care what had happened to her before Ponyville, they made it plain that if she didn't want to talk about it then they wouldn't push her on it.
In her mind’s eye, she saw fleeting glimpse of a cream coloured mare, with flashes of pink and blue... but just as quickly the image was replaced with that of her daughter, of the day she was born, how tiny and precious and beautiful she was. She remembered the first light of morning seeping in through the hospital window, piercing the side of the incubator to touch the newborn filly’s mane, the still damp strands of hair so crisp and golden like a freshly baked muffin.
So she wasn't exactly welcome back in Canterlot... well, who cared? She had everything she needed right here in town; dancing around her hooves, squealing in excitement as the first puffs of smoke and steam appeared on the horizon. Pretty soon the clouds of smoke were followed by the pastel shades and cheerful whistle of the Friendship Express as it chugged its way into town.
Well, there had been one member of the family who’d kept in touch. Dinky’s half-sister, Sparkler - barely a teenager when Derpy had left town - had written to her every month for years. It had taken a long, long time before Derpy had built up the courage to write back. But she was glad she had. Monthly letters soon became weekly, letters had soon became short visits, short visits had soon become longer and longer, and Dinky had received an older sister in her life.
“MOMMY! There she is! I can’t wait to show her my new cutie mark!”
Dinky’s shout brought the mailmare back to her senses as, at the far end of the station platform, a pink unicorn mare stepped down from the recently arrived train and waved in their direction. After looking up towards her mother for permission to leave the safety of her side, Derpy nodding that it was safe to do so, Dinky shot off across the wooden boards, her hooves making far more noise than a filly of her tiny build had any business to.
As the sisters hugged out their greeting, the younger taking great delight in waving her recently branded flank about while the elder made such a fuss over it, Derpy gave them some time together before she too made her way over.
“Hey, lil’ sis. I’ve missed you so much.” Sparkler cooed as she pulled her much smaller sibling into another big hug. “Oh my word, isn’t your cutie mark just the best! And so much like your mommy’s too. I’m so pleased for you.”
Putting Dinky down, Sparkler cast her gaze about the platform, a frown coming to her brow.
“So, where’s your mom? She never usually lets you come to the station on your own.”
“She’s right here, you silly filly,” Dinky waved a hoof up at Derpy who smiled a greeting to her daughter’s sister. “See?”
“Where?” Sparkler asked, peering around the minty mare to see if anypony was hiding behind her. “Only pony I can see is Miss Heartstrings.”
Turning her attention to her fellow unicorn, Sparkler’s eyes caught on the mailbag around her neck, the slightly disheveled mane, the carefree grin.
“Hi Lyra. Are you here with Dinky? Did Ditzy ask you to come with her?” She asked, her brain trying to tell her that there was something just a little bit off with Miss Heartstrings... was it the eyes? It was the eyes, wasn’t it? When did Lyra come down with a case of strabismus?
“Who?” Derpy asked.
“Ditzy... Ditzy Doo?” Sparkler responded slowly, there was definitely something not right here. “You know, Dinky’s mom?”
“I’m her mom.“ Derpy’s eye twitched as she answered curtly, all emotion draining from her voice.
“Haha, nice one, Lyra.” Sparkler attempted to laugh the obvious prank off, eyes casting about for any sign of a blonde pegasus hiding anywhere nearby. “So, where’s her mom. Is she back at the cottage?”
Derpy’s eye twitched again, harder this time. The pupil that hadn’t been previously focusing on Sparkler swiveled around to lock onto the younger unicorn. She spoke again, her tone held an edge of anger that Sparkler had never heard before, even during the rare times that they’d talked about Dinky’s - and her own - father.
“I’m. Her. Mother!”
“Ahh, hehe, yeah...” Sparkler was starting to get worried, and maybe even a little scared. Turning her head she looked about for...
Amongst soft pink fur her own eye twitched, black pupils within purple irises contracted down to twin pinpricks. A forehoof moved to her brow as the headache hit, almost knocking her off of her hooves. The pain was overwhelming, and onslaught of confusion crushing and pushing and pulling at her brain...
...and then it was gone.
“Yes, of course you are. Haha, silly me. You're Derpy... Derpy Heartstrings. Always have been, always will be. Hmmm, let’s...erm, yes...”
The forehoof moved away from her brow, the headache nothing more that just a fleeting memory.
“What was I saying? Oh, have you been baking? Shall we go? I can practically taste your muffins already.”
As a smile returned to her face, Derpy used her magic to lift Sparkler’s bags onto her own back As the three unicorns - two mares and one tiny little filly - walked away, a small spot of blood soaked its way into the wooden boards of the platform floor, the pink mare totally unaware that the liquid had even left her nose.
********************
Hovering a good few feet above the Friendship Express’s footplate, the train’s conductor used his bear paw to lift his hat from his head, giving his scalp a good scratch with his other clawed hand.
As he watched the three females disappear into the crowd he idly tossed the hat into the train’s smoke stack where it instantly exploded into a column of bubbles, turning the massive steam engine into one huge bubble blower.
With a click of his fingers, he vanished in a flash of light, disappearing from the station as if he had never been there in the first place. Whatever he’d been thinking before his departure, he hadn’t looked happy about it. No, not one little bit.
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probably thinking that somehow once again, a few have started to remember and broken the hold on their memories.
One of them has now performed the feat twice
At first I was confuse, until I realize this is part of the 'cure magic mishaps' series.
Good chapter, and very good look into Derpy's love for Dinky.
Keeping track of the different threads to this story is hard, and the chapter titles don't help much, but they're all good.
I am finding these swap chapters increasingly annoying and tedious to slog through
This series is always so confusing yet interesting to read!
Man, that really is a terrible job for someone to get stuck with.
Also I swore it was a lion's claw, not a bear paw
4734834 Is Discord swapping body parts occasionally that far fetched?
Also does anyone have a chart showing who thinks they're who?
A foalish error.
4735144 Mike Teavee made a chart.
4734557 That's why I didn't finished this chapter. I don't have energy to go through it.
My idea? Just do a freaking another story, seperated from this one, containing all those mini stories with diffrent swap versions, ok? It is tiresome to read them here and I honestly am starting to not enjoy them no matter how good they are written.
Well, this silliness of swapped lives has finally gotten so far out of
handhoof that even Discord is finally taking notice. I'd think that as the very spirit of discord and chaos, he would be overjoyed to see what Twilight's wrought, but on the other bearpaw, chaos of this magnitude is his job, not some upstart of a unicorn. Besides, it's not even chaos when everypony is so... fine with it. There's no drama, no... no chaos!I strongly believe that Discord will be visiting Twilight soon and pushing her towards fixing this mess.
There's only one master of chaos, and it's not Twilight.
To balance things out, I must interject that I'm quite happy to read every new chapter in the swap arc! New characters, new lives. And a new take on the swap. This one's infectious! I can't decide if I'm rooting for supermom to break the swap or fanon to be averted.
I am now equipped with Mike Teevee's chart. Bring it on.
More of this swapped lives nonsense? The joke was funny maybe even entertainig the first two or three times but now I cant ring myself to care anymore. Thid plot line is dead, the story isnt advancing and it is mid numbingly boring. If we could just admit it amd finish the funeral everyone would be better off.
I apologise for my rudeness but this has been grating on me for months now and I needed to say something.
4741292 It needs to be put into diffrent story that's all. All those mini-series that's it. For now it's getting less "Xenophilia further tales" and more like "Swap tales".
4741404 I tend to skim the chapter and if I notice that it's part of the switched series, then I don't even bother to read the rest. They need a heading at the beginning highlighting them as switched series chapters.
Past all the unrest and unreasonable responses to this arc, I must say that this one has been easier to read than some parts of the changeling hive one.
I like this arc, so keep it up as you can, and thanks for it!
Oh my god, this is horrible. The swap can force people to have fake memories and push out the real ones. I'm rooting for you Derpy, to be the heroine that everyone needs otherwise everyone will be depressed. This is one of those arcs that I really want to be focused on instead of the chapters popping up whenever they feel like (according to the author). But at least there's a slice of hope in this latest chapter to the arc.
4741292
There's a difference in this chapter Derpy has fought against the brainwashing and is trying to reclaim the life she had back.
I like it, but I think it's getting a tad too long. We know the Swap isn't gonna break that easily anyway. I want us to get back to Lero and see what he'll do to help Twilight fix this!
I know I'm a bit late to the party here, but I just wanted to say I'm glad one of my martial arts ideas saw use here. Thanks for thinking it was good enough.
Derpy's love for Dinky is even stronger than the Swap.