//------------------------------// // Arrangements // Story: Fortune // by OConnerGT-R //------------------------------// Chapter One: Arrangements Despite my stomach feeling nauseated from the sight of the doctor zipping up his pants, I managed to make myself comfortable by nuzzling the pillow in front of me. A small portion of my brain questioned why a pony was even wearing pants in the first place, but then I was reminded of the fact that clothes were made to be worn in order to prevent infection to other ponies, should the doctor in question be a bit unsanitary. Just as fast as that question had entered my mind, it vanished, pushed aside by the sight of the doctor admiring his rather less impressive physique. Maybe another middle-aged pony would find the below average doctor appealing, but not me. I felt repulsed at the mere sight of him, but I needed him. His rather gruff voice snapped me from my daze. “Listen I’ve had a great time with these…meetings of ours, but I am a married stallion.” Could have fooled me, I mused coldly. His hoof adjusted his slightly crooked necklace. “My wife and I are planning to move to a small island now that I can retire, so you’ll need to make your payment tomorrow or we’re stopping the treatment.” “Bullshit, asshole,” I snapped back while sliding my hoodie back on. My hoof brushed the hairclip I had been given, which I now noticed had several large cracks running along it. “We had a payment plan! Now stick to it and treat my sister!” The doctor planted himself firmly in the squeaky chair behind his desk with his eyes stuck to me. My hoof went to my side, aiming for the climbing pick I held onto, but upon noticing its absence I recalled setting it down someplace for safe keeping. “You’re right, we had a payment plan, but now there’s a new plan. So get us the bits by tomorrow or your sister gets kicked to the curb,” he said without a hint of sympathy. My time in Griffinstone taught me that bits were the only thing most, if not all, ponies and griffons cared about here. Seeing how greedy some ponies were here, makes me thankful I grew up being on the road after running away from home. It was the best decision I’d ever made. Ponies living here, however, they only cared about the bits and never the life of the pony those bits were supposed to help. I’d call him a jackass, but that would be an insult to donkey’s everywhere. “I already paid you,” I said, my tone threatening and a hoof raised at him. “Treat my sister and I will have bits to pay you next week.” His gaze fell upon a stack of papers sitting in front of him. For a moment I had suspected that it was my sister’s file, but upon taking a glance I noticed it was for a cruise set to depart the next day or so. I slammed my hoof on the desk. “Hey, are you listening to me?!” Pushing himself away from the desk, the doctor put a hoof on me, slowly nudging me to the door. I tried to push back, but before I could put any real strength behind it, I was shoved out the door. “I’m sorry, Sky,” he said rather unapologetically. “Either you bring the bits tomorrow or her treatment ends here.” I went to throw a hoof his way, but the door slammed shut behind me. Before I could even get my hoof on the doorknob, I heard it lock from the other side. My hoof pulled the pony-made hairclip from my mane, which was just for show as my tan mane was kept short. I bent it slightly until a metal prong stuck out, then retrieved a lock pick hidden in my hoodie. It took a good long moment before my crude tools broke. I threw them both down, standing up to face the door. “Go suck a dragon’s cock!” I bucked the door making it rattle. *** *** I spent the next half hour walking around the hospital aimlessly, thinking about how I would pay for my sister’s treatment once my funds ran out. Thanks to the street racing I did on the side, I managed to pull together enough bits to keep us sustained for a while, but blowing my engine, then rebuilding it again was starting to put a strain on me. So much so that I resorted to doing any jobs I could get my hooves on to pay my bills. By the time I was done going over my options, I had arrived in front of a door with my sister’s file in its holding slot. Carefully and quietly pushing the door open, I made sure to close it gently behind me as not to wake her. Laying there in a frail unmoving state was my responsibility. Her eyes remained closed as I quietly trotted towards the chair I kept near the bed. I took a seat, eliciting a low squeak. “Sky-Sky,” the filly muttered, with her eyes slowly opening. Even with the treatment doing its best to keep her illness at bay, Buttercup looked even more exhausted than the last time I saw her, which had only been yesterday. Laying in her bed was my ice climber pick axe, with the filly's hoof draped over it. That brought a warm smile to my face. “How’s it going filly, you keeping my tool safe?” I asked earning a weak smile from her. Running a hoof through Buttercup’s mane I noticed something shining under her sheets. “Is this my camcorder?” Carefully retrieving the recorder, I took a look at the screen to find it paused on a few videos I had paid someone to take for me. Some of the contents were skiing stunts that I was rather proud of, but the ones my filly was watching were from last year. “You’re watching my Payout races? Why?” I paused for a moment to think. “Hey, how’d you get this anyway?” Normally I would scold the filly for what I assumed was snooping around in my backpack while I was sleeping, but when she began baring those puppy dog eyes at me, I couldn’t be mad at her. For a moment she tried to speak, but no words came out. After some struggle, she finally managed to speak. “I found it…and I wanted to see you, so I thought I could watch your videos to pass the time between visits.” Her words, no matter how weak they were, managed to sting me right where it hurt. I enjoyed watching over her, but making sure I could keep a roof over our heads as well as keep her treatment going was putting me through more than I could manage. “What did you see?” I asked, curious as to how much she’d watched so far. “Just you winning a few rounds,” she said with a blush. “And a lot of curse words…you’re not supposed to use those.” “Those are grown pony words so I can use them,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her. She nudged my muzzle weakly, but I moved my head as if she had put more force behind it. “Look at you getting stronger every day.” My gaze fell back to the camcorder to find which video she had stopped at. From what I could tell, it was my orange Holden Torana A9X going up against a matt grey Chevy Vega running three shots of nitrous. “That was a good race.” Buttercup nudged the play button with her hoof, making the video resume. “So are you worried about going into this race?” asked the camera pony from behind me. I scoffed at him as a cloud of smoke rose up around us. We both began coughing as a white Pontiac GTO Judge rolled to the starting line. I looked dead at the camera. “Are you kidding?” I asked without worry. “The Holden gapped that friend of his and I plan on gaping his ass to,” I slammed my car door after crawling inside. As I finished speaking to the camera, the mare I had kicked to the curb trotted past me with a sour look on her face. “Hey,” she said to her friend. “You lost the bit flip. What are you going to do about the oil spill? I mean you’re obviously getting the crappy lane.” A stallion with a matt grey coat and dark blue mane got up from his vehicle. He looked down at the road, letting out a sigh with a head shake. “I’m going to do a water burnout the first eighth mile, try to clean some of that crap off the road and give me something solid to get traction on.” The door to his car slammed shut while the mare telekinetically threw some water below the rear tires as they began to spin around without gaining traction. Smoke rose up around the tires as the stallion’s vehicle lunged forward to spread the liquid across the oiled surface. After the burnout was finished, the driver pulled back across the line getting right beside my vehicle. The video cut out for a moment, skipping over my preparations for the race. A mare, her mane hanging down over one of her eyes, trotted between our vehicles, then faced us. It took her a moment to pull us both to the line, but when we were ready, she did a twirl and flashed her horn. Our wheels squealed like pigs as we took off down the road. My Holden pulled ahead, but the GTO kept pace up until the halfway point. The white vehicle’s back end kicked out one way with the driver fighting to keep control just before it slid back the other way. By the time he had regained control, I had already finished running down the quarter mile. The video ended shortly after the front end of my car came into view with me holding my hoof up. Buttercup didn’t try to hide the grin on her face. “That was so cool, when are you going to take me out to a race?” she asked almost squealing. Shortly after, she began coughing. I ruffled her mane a bit after she finished coughing. “Maybe after the doctors fix you up,” I said softly. A long silence fell upon us while I slipped into aimless thought, which was becoming more frequent the longer I kept running on two hours of sleep each night. It was then that I noticed my ice climber still lying in bed next to Buttercup. “Did you keep this safe for me?” A proud smile on her face assured me she kept it in as good condition as I had left it. Looking at its blue handle brought back fond memories of the filly’s mother. I’d give anything to have her back now. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be looking after the sweetest little filly in all of Griffinstone. “Sky-sky?” Buttercup asked staring at mane. “Why is your mane all frazzled? It looks like you finished wrestling with someone.” Well…she’s not wrong… I mused, trying to push some rather unpleasant memories of a wheezing stallion well in his later years. I laughed, earning a questionable look from the filly. Fixing my short tan mane with my free hoof, I shook my head at her, knowing she’d never know how close she was to the truth. “I’ve just been too busy to properly groom myself outside of a few showers,” I stated as I internally cursed myself for putting myself through the wringer. Not only was keeping the house payments a hassle, but with the newly added medical bills, I’d be lucky to see my middle age with the amount of debt I’d rack up if it was left unchecked. The very thought made my stomach queasy. “Sky,” Buttercup muttered, snapping me from my thoughts. “Can you tell me a story? The one where you met my mom?” That helped keep a smile on my face. I nodded, rubbing the filly’s head. “Sure thing, filly.” Leaning back in my chair, I thought carefully, trying to recall just when everything had gotten interesting between me and Buttercup’s mother. “It all started when I was a guide on the mountains...”