Chapter 52 (spoilers) · 3:00am Jun 20th, 2018
Is almost finished. Got over 10k words so far. Just a bit more to go, and assuming I actually find time between work and playing copious amounts of vidya games, it should hopefully be finished in the next couple of days.
Key word is hopefully.
So to tide you all over, here's a bit from the chapter.
Ditzy let out a quiet sigh as she lay in bed. Applejack and Twilight had long since left for their own rooms, leaving her alone with the foals and her own thoughts. That’s not to say she didn’t welcome a bit of alone time right now, but what she really wanted was to be with AJ in his time of need. Unfortunately that would probably only make this whole thing even worse. All she could do right now was wait and hope.
She looked down as she felt something moving around in her hold. Knight, who she was hugging to her body with her left arm, was adjusting in his sleep. A slight smile grew on her face as his little hooves began gently kicking against her. ‘He must be having a dream,’ she thought to herself. Even if he was putting any sort of strength behind the kicks, he wasn’t strong enough to make it hurt.
Dinky, who was being held in her right arm, let out a yawn as she nuzzled into her right breast. Ditzy was honestly surprised with just how well Dinky was taking everything over the last week and a half to two weeks. She was actually kinda worried she was just keeping everything deep down so nopony would worry about her. When asked about it, the only thing Dinky said that really bothered her was ‘Daddy’s sick and there’s nothing I can do.’ In the morning she would make sure to ask Twilight or Applejack to take the kids to see AJ. Maybe seeing them would help him.
Ditzy looked up from the bed as she heard a knock on the door. She was curious who, exactly, it was at the door, considering just how late it was. She figured most ponies in the castle would be sleeping at this point. “Come in.”
The door opened slightly and a snow white mare’s head poked in and began looking around. “Hello? Dit...zy?” The mare’s eyes grew wide and her voice trailed off when she found who she was looking for. Soft Spoken had met Ditzy once before. She and her daughter were over at the farm house for dinner one day when she came for AJ’s consultation. She was nice, and her Daughter was absolutely adorable. This is why seeing her how she was now was a bit of a shock to her. If AJ hadn’t had told her about the change when she was talking to him, it probably would have been even more of a surprise. “O-oh...right. AJ did say you were a...a...human? I think he called them?”
Ditzy squinted to get a better look at the pony in the dark as she entered the room. “Aren’t you AJ’s therapist? Soft...Spoken, was it?”
“Y-yea. That’s me.” She was clearly still a bit uncomfortable around this strange species she’s never seen before. This was the second time that day she saw one of these big, hairless ape like creatures, and it still wasn’t any less weird. “I know AJ said you’re all just ponies turned into...that, but this still feels really surreal. Like something out of a fantasy novel or something.”
“Did he tell you that he wasn’t originally a pony? That this is what he used to look like?”
“That...might have come up, yea.” Soft Spoken closed the door and walked further into the room. She didn’t want to have to speak too loudly this late at night. “He told me a lot about himself. A lot of things he just so happened to leave out on our first day. Can’t say I really blame him. If not having actually seen one with my own two eyes, I probably would have thought him to be insane. Probably would have had him diagnosed with some sort of psychosis, and...well it would have been a mess.”
Ditzy didn’t even want to think about that. AJ’s already been through enough in his life. The last thing he needs is somepony throwing false diagnoses at him. She pushed those thoughts away and let the real question bubbling around in the back of her mind come to the forefront. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Well, that entirely depends on your definition of the word ‘okay.’ He’s pretty drained right now. Both physically and mentally. On top of that he’s so...scared right now. About everything. Going to visit his mother. If your parents will ever fully accept him. Making sure Knight Wind is healthy and that he’s raising him right. About your unborn foals. Congratulations on the twins, by the way. But mostly about you.”
“Me?”
Soft Spoken nodded. “He kept going back to you. Asking if I knew if you were okay. No matter how many times I said I wasn’t sure, he’d bring it back up ten minutes later. That’s actually why I’m here. Before leaving for the night he asked if I could come and make sure you were okay. I don’t know exactly what happened, he couldn't really give me the specifics, but whatever you did, it terrified him to his core. So if you really want my professional opinion, no. He is far from okay. Though I’m hoping I’ll be able to make more progress tomorrow.”
Ditzy knew she didn’t even need to ask this, but she couldn’t help herself. “Please, is there anything I can do? Anything at all?”
A gentle smile grew on Soft Spoken’s face. “The best thing you can do is take care of yourself,” she said as she placed a hoof on Ditzy’s arm. “If he’s really worried that you’re not okay, that you’re hurt or whatever’s the case, the best thing you can do is show him that you’re fine. When he’s able to see you, prove to him that he doesn’t need to worry. And you can start by doing the exact same thing I’m going to go do in a minute here.”
For the first time since this morning, Ditzy let herself giggle. She was right. If AJ truly was terrified that she wasn’t okay, then she would prove to him that he has nothing to worry about. And besides, she was pretty tired. “Thank you. For everything.”
“I’ll come let you know how he’s doing when I’m done talking to him tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have better news to give you. Just be strong, and most importantly, don’t blame yourself. You had no way of knowing he’d react like that. Good night.” With a smile Soft Spoken stood up and left the room.
Oh my goodness, it's been so long since I've caught up with this story. Probably last time was back in 2014. I need to get back into it!