Back at the clinic, the nurse casually bopped the good doctor on the head. "Why were you acting like that?!"
"Acting like what?" He rubbed where she had struck him. "I was completely professional."
She rolled her eyes. "We don't charge for what we do, anyway. Why did you pretend like we were doing them a favor?"
He crossed his arms. "Look, it just increases the odds that they'll come back, that's all. I wouldn't dream of charging them, you know that."
"Of course I know that." She glared at him with renewed energy. "Which is why I don't like it. Be honest with patients."
"Right right…"
Gloomy yawned heavily as her head hit the pillow. It had been a long day. She had won, she and Charlie had challenged fate and not-lost. But she needed to sleep. She needed her doll, and he was out there somewhere in the wide world, flopping around in the dark again. Trying to figure out if he was blind. And she had to sleep alone. Without him even in her room. Her anxiety blossomed like a sickly flower… who would tell her it was only a dream? It was going to be a long night.
The next morning found the one with the least legs up the first. He was casually grabbing things out of the fridge, but not to eat himself, but putting together something as he hummed to himself a nameless beat about an athletic elf that would save the world from aggressive pottery..
“You don’t even know he’s gone?” Gloomy wasn’t stating a fact as much as making an accusation at the cheerful human who had no reason to doubt that all was right with the world as she walked in.
"Hm? Morning." He threw something on the stove with a fresh sizzle of cooking… something. "You had some frozen stuff in there. I think it's hash browns? I assume you like it. Cooking up a batch for you and the others." For all his troubles the day before, he showed no signs of it as he dusted the concoction with some spices. "Want me to check for drinks?"
“He respected you a lot, just so you know.” Gloomy walked almost in a trance to her ice box, removing a bottle of bitter ale and two small glasses. “I could never see what he saw in this stuff. Charlie, I mean…” Gloomy’s voice hitched sharply. “It tastes like stale bread and it’s thick as mud.”
"What's up with Kai?" David glanced from where he was cooking, but saw no doll about. "Does he… eat? If so, what?" Having slumbered through it, he lived along with ignorance. "And I'm guessing that's not a random fruit drink." Clearly, he hadn't looked at it very hard.
“Does he eat? He doesn’t even have a real mouth!” Gloomy screamed at the only target her rage could see. “He’s gone! He’s lost out there. And I don’t even know where he is!” The mare tossed back her drink. “I hope it was worth it…”
"And you lost me." He swirled breakfast with a videogamey noise to accompany it. "Did he wander off? What for? You two didn't get into a fight, right? Crap, wasn't about me, was it? I can get out of the way."
“The text took him… we pushed too hard. We pushed too far…” The young gray mare poured herself a second glass as she spoke absently.
"Wait, what?" He poured what he had made out onto a ready plate, scraping as much of it off the pan as he could. He got water into it with some splashes to let it soak. "Why are you arguing with the Text?" Not all humans were as aware as he was. Most weren't. He wasn't thinking of that. "Arguing with it feels like a waste of time."
“Charlie had an ‘in’.” Gloomy explained. “I could force the rhythm. A filly needed her medicine tested, so we pushed. Because it was you testing, Charlie pushed again. We forced the deal.”
“I still have jinx in play, but without Charlie I’m playing blind to a deaf audience,” Gloomy sighed heavily.
Not me. Must be their other Text. Writing with another Text around makes things odd, but here we are.
"Here we are," echoed David. "Sorry." Still, that told him things… "You're involved with a different Text." He grabbed a small plate and pointed at it with a fork. "Want some? You should get something in there besides that, even if you're upset, for good reason."
“I don’t know what charlie ate… when he could still eat, is this something he liked?” Gloomy sighed before turning her attention to the words.
“I can see you.” Gloomy glared at the space the words occupied. “Just tell me where to look.”
I’m not taking anything. I’m giving you the chance to find out, “Who is Gloomy Sonnet without her doll?”
Oh, you're here? Figured you'd be with them. Oh, no, that wouldn't make much sense. She isn't mine. But she is here. Why did you make her see us? That only makes her miserable.
"Pretty sure he likes that." David brought over a small plate towards Gloomy. "Here. You should get something in you, even if you're not super feeling it." Not that he had eaten any of his own food.
I didn’t make her do anything. THEY bushwhacked ME. And then she… that one right there, tried to force the narrative with a musical number. Against ME. A musical number, dude, you should have seen it. I was proud. I had to step up my game yo.
Not even for the first time. Pinkie did that to me.
"I remember that." David waggled the plate at Gloomy, not at all bothered by his Text's presence. "That was a good story, even if it got dated with time. So many saidisms."
"I smell something good." Joypad was entering with Back Story a few steps behind. "You must be feeling better." Joypad hurried up to get a plate of what her talented human had prepared. "Are you feeling better?"
"He has to be, I think?" Back peered suspiciously, but grabbed a plate for herself. "Don't push yourself, but thanks, it smells great."
“Yes.” Gloomy looked up from her breakfast and scowled in a rare display of earnest emotion. “Your friend is still here and feeling better. David cooked breakfast. There’s also juice in the fridge. And bitter ale. It goes surprisingly well with hash browns…”
David hiked a brow as he set the dirty dishes aside. He grabbed a little of the hash browns himself, literally, just snatching some right off the cooled pan and stuffing it in his mouth with a literal "nom" of a sound along the way. "The ale? Thanks but nah. I'm alright."
Joypad did not look convinced. "You said it comes and goes… Glad you're in a good swing, but we still have to deal with the issue, or accept the consequences, which I'm not ready to do!" She stomped a hoof on the floor, then glanced at Gloomy. "Not to shrink your thing. I'm still confused about that."
“So long as the medicine works, we won.” Gloomy stated as if it might as well have been her opinion on the quality of her chosen breakfast beverage. “I am sorry that I am a mess this morning.”
"Got a good reason to be." David snatched one more bit before he put the pan away where it could be reached for additional treats. "So, you deserve some answers."
"Please." Back Story grinned at David with her attention entirely captured. "What can you tell us?"
"It's complicated…" And he didn't want to wreck their world views. "But I've written about this sort of thing before. So far as I can tell, I'm living that out, but that's a me problem, not a you problem."
Joypad hiked a brow, much as David had done. "Pretty sure it's a me problem right now."
“It’s an ‘us’ problem,” Gloomy nearly growled. “Everypony here had a hoof in this. We all made deals to get here. We are going to win this!” The normally taciturn unicorn downed her drink and proclaimed. “Like that mongoose that defended his unicorn family from those cobras.”
David blinked. "But… That is a human story, not a pony one, I think? Is that a shared story? Neat if so."
Back clopped her hooves together. "Or did you hear it from your human?"
“Rikki Tikki Tavvy?” Gloomy Sonnet blinked in confusion. “The story with the mongoose? We are all talking about the same story, right?”
David nodded as he sat near the other ponies, taking his time getting to the floor with a soft grunt. "That's the one, but you avoided the answer. Did you hear that from Kai, or is that a pony story? That the name is the same makes it being from him even more likely."
“I don’t know, and I doubt he does either, whatever he says otherwise.” Gloomy confessed with a scowl. “We tell each other stories. Did he tell me that one, or did I tell him? It bothers me that he didn’t ask me this before this started.”
That seemed to settle the issue. A cross-universe story it was not, just shared between friends. That was good enough, right? With breakfast devoured, Joypad was peering at David. "So you've told this story, about visiting Equestria, the old one, before… things… But you don't know a damn thing about the new ages."
Back was practically vibrating with excitement. "In your last one, you became a pony, which you were alright with. Were you a… What kind of pony were you?"
Joy raised a brow. "Does it matter? This is his, you know, everything. What do you want, David? We're here for that."
Gloomy followed along with the group in a despondent daze, watching, listening but responding in little more than non-committal hums.
David waved a lone finger towards the quiet Gloomy. "One of her, actually. A little unicorn pony. Learned magic and everything, but that was a story. I wasn't actually a unicorn, just writing about what could happen if it happened. Wow… that was an older me. A different place and a different time."
“Charlie used to talk like that.” Gloomy’s posture slumped notably. “Like it all happens in layers…”
"Don't know about 'layers', but that sounds like something he'd say. But back to… present, the present." He had done so well to avoid any trips for a while. "Seriously, I'm not actually attached to the physical me. I have more things going wrong than going right, so whatever."
Joypad inclined her head slowly. "Dude. You were acting like everything was fine. And now you're not? What happened?"
"I faked it." He shrugged softly with his palms turned up. "Pains don't always have to be shared, especially with people I was still learning. You had a business to run, and I was helping. Complaining a lot doesn't help."
Back scribbled in a pad with a pen held in a wing. "Until it all fell apart, and we arrived at this point."
“We are that this point.” Gloomy agreed. She tapped a catchy little beat with her hooves. “We’ve done what we’re able. We’ve tilted the table. Next move, win or lose, it’s just yours to choose.”
"It's a crappy decision." David leaned back and discovered there was nothing behind him, allowing him to flop backwards with a defeated digital noise. "This is so stupid. Whatever the future is." He was lying on his back as this came out. "I don't want this. This sucks."
“We are going to see the doctor, David.” Gloomy pulled the floppy human onto her back in her magical grip. “If he is not open yet, I will knock harder. This needs to be done.”
With the support of the ponies present, David got back to his feet, and they all headed out. "This is both exciting and terrible." Back squinted suddenly. "Huh, come to think of it, that's most exciting things past 'free ice cream!'"
Joypad looked sideways at the other mare helping things along. "You are something else… I heard… That's hurtful, sorry."
"Well, now I'm curious." Back moved in as far as she could, trapping David between them. "What do they say?"
"This is from the before times." Joypad slapped a hoof over her face. "But I heard pegasi were warriors to the last, all tough and strong. You are so not that."
Old stereotypes aside, they had a doctor to visit.