//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Buying Happiness // Story: Derp Eyed Ponies // by Perfect Prime //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Buying Happiness A dull thud sounded as the saddlebag held in the filly’s mouth fell to the floor and a high-pitched creak came as Dinky took a step back from both her mother and her beloved aunt Carrot. “Mom...Are you serious?” managed the filly, her legs shaking under her. “Yes, I am Dinky!” declared Derpy proudly, taking both bags in her mouth, opening them and toppling them over. The contents poured out and the silver coloured coins dazzled Dinky as she stared at the small puddle they made before her eyes. There was easily two thousand bits in the coins she could see, and even more than that still inside the two cloth bags. “Wow...” mumbled the filly, trotting closer to the money on the floor. Gingerly, she reached a hoof forwards and felt the cold surface of the bits against her coat. It was a feeling she seldom experienced and one that she always looked forward too, since it would signify the day her life -- and also her mother’s -- turned around. “Mom, these are real right? You’re sure they didn’t get switched? And you’re sure that they are genuine?” “Yes Dinky, I’m sure!” confirmed Derpy, no longer able to contain her excitement and clinging onto her daughter. “All this money is real, and this isn’t a dream! We really have five thousand bits Dinky!” Carrot took a few steps back and watched as the corners of Dinky’s lips were pulled up into an unimaginably wide smile, from ear to ear. The genuine joy embodied in the glistening eyes of both mother and daughter made Carrot’s heart ache just a little, and she could feel the tears welling up under her eyes as Dinky sniffed and rubbed her face against Derpy’s cheek. Derpy extended her wings and wrapped them around her daughter, pulling her closer into their embrace. The smell of cheap shampoo from the filly’s mane overwhelmed the mailmare and now that her daughter was with her, it seemed like the tiny, one-room residence was finally her home again. She felt Dinky move slightly, and eventually the filly popped her face out of her wings to stare up at Derpy through overjoyed eyes, covered in a thin film. For a moment, Derpy’s eyes both fixated on her beloved miracle. Dinky was clear in her vision for just a second, and for that second, Derpy understood how elated Dinky was. As a gentle smile crept across her face, she noticed that Dinky was still moving and before she realised, Dinky freed her hoof, and her horn was coated in her signature, magical aura. Her eyes split up again and out of one her two eyes, Derpy saw a clipboard with a number of papers on it float towards them. Dinky hoofed through the various sheets before her very eyes, focussed and determined. Derpy hadn’t a clue what was going on and inevitably, she loosened her grip on her daughter, cocking her head and eyeing that clipboard. Seizing the opportunity, Dinky rushed away from her mother and with the aid of her magic, she obtained a cracked biro with so little ink that it wasn’t even visible anymore. With her tongue out and her brows furrowed, Dinky turned the pages, crossing out lines, adding some in and ticking the boxes next to some others. Before Derpy got a good look at the figures and the words, Dinky had moved away from her again and lifted a half broken calculator with a only portion of all the keys visible. With her right hoof, Dinky entered the various numbers and functions, taking note of all the results one by one and crossing even more figures off of her list. Before long, her smile grew even wider, and she tucked the pencil behind her ear as she placed the clipboard on the floor in front of her, delighted with her work. Derpy and Carrot both stared at her curiously, and Derpy was the one to break the silence that had descended upon them. “Sweetie...” she started, reluctant to carry on. “What is that?” “Hm? What, this?” asked Dinky, pointing to her clipboard. “This is just a record of all the money we owe listed in chronological order,” she explained simply. “I started keeping track when I was six!” Derpy and Carrot trotted closer to the filly, both staring eagerly at the work she so proudly flaunted. Though Carrot found it hard to comprehend the true meaning behind the rows of numbers with varying decimal tails, Derpy saw through it all. Dinky had not only created a list of all major debts, but she also kept track of all the money they’d ever spent buying food, necessities, or the few, not-so-exclusive luxuries that they owned. On the bottom of the last page, Dinky had also done a grand total. The number was larger than Derpy remembered, and the size of it diminished that joy she felt after she won something from the national lottery. Before Dinky put away the clipboard, Derpy stole one last glance and noticed that a few of the numbers were starred, some had been crossed off and some were re-written as either a smaller or a larger number. At first, Derpy didn’t realise the importance of these changes, but as the afterimage of the list lingered before her mind’s eye, she noticed that these particular amounts of money were owed to either banks or other ponies that were important to them. It was then that she realised Dinky also made it clear which debts should be paid off first before the rest, and although she felt even more disheartened knowing that her daughter spent that much time of her life arranging this list, she also felt a small sense of pride. She was proud that Dinky was capable of being so responsible. “With all this money, we can finally pay what we owe to the bank, and we won’t have to worry about the interest rates anymore! We’ll have enough left over to pay back aunt Carrot what we owe her, and still pay our rent for next month! Assuming you make the same amount of money this month as you did last, we’ll have an extra fifty bits which we can put into our savings jar for when we’re ready to pay back some more of the money we owe!” Dinky skipped around them, gleefully squealing as she circled the others. All the while, Dinky’s smile remained and it never faltered. She had nothing to gain from her plan apart from an opportunity to rid herself of some pressure and responsibility, yet she was still genuinely excited about it all. However, the same could not be said for the mailmare who wore a look of despondent disappointment and hesitated as she spoke. “Oh, sweetie, that’s so...So...Thoughtful of you,” managed Derpy as she approached her daughter and knelt down to look her in the eyes. “But honestly, mommy was thinking that maybe we could spend the money on something else...” Dinky stopped and stared at her mother cautiously. “What do you mean?” she asked with a brow raised. “Well...I mean that I already have something in mind -- but don’t worry! We’ll both be satisfied with this!” “What do you already have in mind?” continued Dinky, even more anxiously and slightly saddened. Derpy looked back at Carrot Top and grinned when she gave her an unsure nod as if to say it was OK for her to continue. Then, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and calmed herself before staring back at the amber, determined eyes of her filly. “I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time now, and I can finally do it now!” declared Derpy exuberantly. “Mom, tell me what you had planned already!” whined Dinky, desperate to know. “Well Dinky, I have decided that I will use four of the five thousand bits, to pay for an operation that can fix my eyes!” she exclaimed, throwing her hooves up into the air and hovering in the room with two shocked ponies. She was the only one that celebrated the news, and she was the only one that exemplified any form of joy. Whilst she was in the air and a dumb, toothy grin lingered on her face, both Dinky and Carrot Top stared at her with mouths wide open, eyes disappointed, muttering incoherent strings of confusion. Soon, Derpy felt the tension around her and firmly planted her hooves on the floor before looking from one pony to the next, begging for some sort of reaction other than the dumbfounded one they both gave her. “Guys...?” mumbled Derpy, shuffling her hooves as she stood between them both. “Mom, are you serious?” questioned Dinky, aghast. “Derpy, you didn’t mean what you said, did you?” asked Carrot, taking a single step back from her friend. “Of course I meant it!” defended Derpy, stomping a hoof down. “Why aren’t you guys happy? I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life! Ponies have always laughed at me because of my eyes and I can’t even remember just how many times I’ve broken a bone or two because I have no depth perception!” Neither of the ponies could find the words they wanted to say, but their silent stares said more than they could manage. “Dinky, you even used to complain that you were embarrassed because your friends used to laugh at you for having a mother like me!” continued Derpy, gritting her teeth and holding back her building anger. “I thought you’d be happy! I thought that this way you wouldn’t be so embarrassed to be around me in public! How come this isn’t what you want anymore?” Dinky bit her lip for a second before replying to her mother. “Mom, I used to be embarrassed by you. I used to be embarrassed by you when I was eight!” retorted Dinky, stepping forward and raising her voice. “I don’t care about any of that now! All I care about is the fact that we might not even be able to afford our rent for the next few years, and you plan to spend the majority of the money you won -- which could have pulled us closer to the top of the hole we’re in -- on something as unnecessary as an operation for your eyes?” “Unnecessary? What do you mean unnecessary?” demanded Derpy, reluctant to talk any louder. “It’s not unnecessary! I’ve had to deal with these eyes all my life! It’s horrible to not be able to see where you’re going, it’s horrible to not be able to read a book once in a while, and it’s horrible to not be able to see the ponies you care about clearly!” “But you still managed to live with it didn’t you? You still managed to survive all these years, so what is there to say that you can’t live for a few more years like this? If you could live your entire life up until this point with your eyes like that, then why can’t you put up with it for a few more? Why do you want to waste this great opportunity??” screamed Dinky, tears rolling down her face. “Because this would make me really happy, and I thought it would make you happy too!” cried Derpy as her separated eyes stared to water. “We could pay off our debts, or we could use the money to make us happy! Where’s the point in living if you aren’t happy?” “This won’t make me happy though!” declared Dinky, sniffling. “This would just give me unnecessary stress, since I’m the only one in this two-pony family that keeps track of our taxes, the amount we’ve spent and just how much we owe! I’m the one that has to keep track of who we owe money to, and I’m the one that makes sure we pay off our debts before they become unmanageable. I’m a twelve year old filly, I shouldn’t have to do things like this! But you have to when your mother is as irresponsible as you are!” Gasping and eyes wide open, Derpy stepped back, distancing herself from her now irate daughter. Dinky ground the crowns of her teeth to a fine dust and with every one of her huffing breaths, the vein at the side of her head bulged and pulsed furiously. “Dinky, you can’t talk like that to your mother!” exclaimed Carrot Top, appalled. “Argh!” screamed Dinky as she clenched her jaw, slamming her hoof onto the floor again and again. Derpy had fallen to the floor and she found herself staring up with both eyes focussed for a rare moment on the red-faced filly before her. Dinky looked from one pony to the other as she rubbed the tears from her eyes and dried her face with a towel controlled by her magic. Giving her mother one, last look of angry disappointment, Dinky turned and bolted, almost flying out of the single room home with her bag on her back, leaving her favourite aunt with a pony she no longer knew. Derpy’s eyes split again, and as the tears cascaded, Derpy’s ears listened intently to the sound of keys turning. Indubitably, Dinky ran out of the building and with Celestia preparing to descend the sun, Derpy feared that she might run into to trouble she’d never seen before in the daytime. Cautiously and reluctantly, Carrot Top approached her childhood friend and placed a hoof on her shoulder as the floorboards beneath the Pegasus felt the fury of heavy rainfall despite being inside. Looking out the door, Carrot pondered where Dinky had run off to whilst Derpy wondered what she was going to do.