//------------------------------// // Day Three: The Doctor's Tale // Story: Melting a cold heart // by Inferno demon Dash //------------------------------// “DINKY HOOVES, WHERE THE BUCK ARE MY CIGARETTES?” The loud, very angry scream of Derpy Hooves jolted the Doctor awake from his peaceful slumber on the couch. Being day three, the very powerful storm was long from over, much to the Doctor’s dismay. He liked Dinky. She was really wise for such a young filly and never judged anypony for their choices or mistakes. Derpy, on the other hoof, was an entire hoofful all by herself. It hurt the Doctor to say it, but if she did not have such a sharp attitude to every creature in her path, including her sister, then maybe she could have a real decent friend—if one could also ignore her drinking and smoking, but each pony was their own animal. It was not his place to judge. Even more so because his past and his own choices that were not so... innocent, to say the least, that was for sure. “They should be on the kitchen table, sis!” the shrill yell of Dinky answered back. The doctor turned his head to the left to see the older mare rush down the stairs and to the table, opening the carton with a hoof. After trying to get one out with her two front hooves, she grunted in rage when it did not come out. The Doctor yawned before he turned his whole body left, and planting his four hooves on the wooden floor, walked in a sleepily haze towards the gray mare. Derpy had successfully gotten a cigarette out and, with a huff of frustration, looked for her matches. “Everything alright, Derpy?” he asked kindly. The mare turned her angered glare at the stallion that had grown quite used to her anger and simply ignored it. Derpy rolled her eyes and replied with an annoyed hiss. “Can’t find my damn matches. Leave me alone,” she spat, making him scowl at her tone. He sighed loudly, and to this, she snapped her head towards him. “Got something to say, DOC?!” she yelled. He jumped and shook his head rapidly. He then nodded his head to the kitchen counter top where the matches rested. Derpy snorted, and with her mouth, removed the cigarette first. She grabbed one then used her tail to light it and her tobacco, blowing smoke out of the right side of her mouth. Turning her body towards the Doctor, Derpy looked him in the eyes and spoke almost softly, “You’re not as useless as I thought, Doctor. Thanks.” Her calmer tone made him smile before Dinky’s voice interrupted their ‘moment’. “Can you make breakfast, Ditzy?” she called, making the mare snap back to her cold nature and roll her eyes, blowing out a line of gray smoke from her nose. “NO! Make your own damn breakfast. You're twelve years old, Dink. Better learn how to cook yourself,” she snapped back. The sound of hoofsteps sounded from upstairs, and the little filly was coming down the steps, Derpy walking towards the stairs herself. “Please, sis?” Dinky pleaded. Derpy narrowed her eyes and walked slowly upstairs, replying, “Buck, no. Get to cooking, little mare, and I’m going to go to my room and get drunk. Doctor, you come into my room while I’m wasted, and I’ll snap your neck and use your bucking body for firewood!” she growled, and her body disappeared from view. The Doctor shivered in horror that such a pony would even think to murder another so casually. “She’s not kidding, either. Derpy hates being around stallions when she drinks,” Dinky stated calmly to him. He shook his head sadly, not wanting to ask why, figuring it had something to do with her past. Then, with a smile, he walked farther into the kitchen and started making a bowl of honey oats cereal for the both of them. “Is something the matter with Derpy? She’s acting a bit….colder than usual,” he asked, a bit confused by the turn of events that happened so far. The filly shrugged before swallowing a spoonful of her food and answering, “It’s her payday today, and since Mailponies get paid first before any other worker in Ponyville, she can’t get her check because of the storm which won’t end until the day after tomorrow. So that means no bits for rent, food, a few bits for my allowance and worst of all for her, her cigarettes.” The small unicorn slowly said this as is if it was nothing new. The Doctor frowned as he looked at the filly, who was happily eating her breakfast, and sighed. He finished his oats then drank the milk along with Dinky. When both were finished, they put both bowls in the sink to be washed at a later date. The stallion turned towards the table and sat down with the filly. Dinky smiled at him with an innocent air around her before he spoke, not wanting to make their morning awkward. “So tell me, Dinky, what grade are you in?” The filly frowned and put a hoof to her chin, thinking for a second. She had not been to school due to the storm in three days then, with a giggle, replied., “I’m in fifth, going to be in six next fall.” The Doctor nodded, thinking that this little filly could really do well in school if she stayed out of trouble and with her studies. “Do you have any friends?” he asked, to which she nodded eagerly. “Yeah, I’m even a member of a group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, along with the original three: Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. And we have some other new members, too: Pipsqueak, Babs Seed and Rumble. The girls were a bit unsure to allow the colts to join, but once they realized that they didn't have their Cutie Marks like the rest of us, they allowed them to join.” She giggled before beckoning the Doctor closing with a hoof then whispered into his ear when he was close enough. "Though I think Rumble might have a crush on Apple Bloom and Pipsqueak, Scootaloo,” she said, smiling at the Doctor. He joined in with her merriment and opened his mouth to speak, only a loud shout of a curse word screaming throughout upstairs interrupted him. “BUCK! YOU STUPID, OLD PIECE OF SHIT!” Derpy’s very loud and enraged voice bellowed at her radio was heard. Dinky simply ignored it with a small smile, and the Doctor frowned. “Dinky, has Derpy ever... well, physically abused you when she was intoxicated?” he asked slowly and clearly, ready to take mental note in case he had to report Derpy’s violence to the authorities. Dinky’s face showed an expression that which the Doctor would never forgot for the rest of his life. With complete and utter horror on her face, she shook her head, took a deep breath, and spoke so quietly that the Doctor had to leaned closer to understand her words. “Ditzy swore she would never be like our father. Whether somber or not, she would never, ever do anything to hurt me,” she explained as tiny tears of sorrow slid down her face, and she sniffed. The Doctor did everything he could to calm the little filly down, least she start to wail from dark memories as even a smaller filly. He feared of Derpy coming down the stairs, ending the Doctor’s life as he knew would happen; it was not a threat that Derpy would have killed him if he even accidentally injured Dinky emotionally. As it was, the smart child calmed down once the Doctor got her a glass of fruit juice and a green apple, which she took calmly and with a smile as if she had not been distressed moments ago. The Doctor thought that both females must have truly been through a lot to just shrug off their emotions as such, Derpy through her smoking and drinking and Dinky through her childlike innocence, which the Doctor hoped she kept with her for a long while before she reached her cruel teenage years. With a sigh, the Doctor felt as though he needed a drink, but Derpy’s alcohol was kept off limits. And he could not go to a bar with the really horrible storm in Ponyville. So instead, with nothing else to do, he thought of getting to know Dinky a bit more. “So, Doctor… tell me. What’s it like coming all the way from Dodge Junction?” she asked curiously, throwing her apple core into the trash by the kitchen counter. It missed, and with a frown, she got up before trotting to dispose of the garbage. She rejoined the Doctor with a huff as he chuckled. The Doctor put a hoof to his chin in thought as his mind wandered into the journey that led him to his place of rest today, and he started his tale. *Flash back* His real name was Time Turner. He was the son of a clock maker and a flower seller, and as odd as this pair was, they were even more befuddled themselves when their son and only child wished to be a doctor. With this, they nicknamed him Doctor Whooves, which he changed into his legal name upon his eighteen birthday. He had gotten into a fight with his drunken father before leaving his house to see the world beyond his own home in Manehatten itself. He even remembered helping a mare with an electric blue mane and magenta colored eyes slowly recover from her drug habits before he left. When he had left his hometown, he visited all of Equestria—well, most of it anyway. His visited cities included Appleloosa, Hoofington, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, Trottingham (he had laughed when he saw a white colt with brown spots on his body and brown eyes with the same colored mane and tail play with his mother and friends in the park), and even Las Pegasus itself. Forgetting to visit Canterlot, he finally, after eight years, had settled down in Dodge Junction right before his abused and violent past with his alcoholic father caught up with him. He worked with and for Mrs. Cherry Jubilee and her family. For four years, Doctor Whooves had worked for the owners of Cherry Hill Ranch, doing what he could as an Earth Pony to get the cherries off the trees and running the machine when able with a few other employees. He had heard rumors of Mr. Jubilee being very abusive of his wife and was an alcoholic as his father was. At first, he had done his best to ignore it, not wanting to get into business that had nothing to do with him. It had been about the time that Mrs. Cherry had had enough that she fought back in front of everypony when her husband had whispered something into her ear and she had slapped him, hard. He back hoofed her before the Doctor had intervened and fought him, knocking him unconscious before the police ponies had stepped in and arrested him, not doing such to the Doctor because he had defended the wife, getting some very visible bruises. He had been let go, since the husband still, by rights and law, owned the property and would have been sued if he had not been told to run away by Mrs. Jubilee herself. She spent a night of passionate love with him in reward for his service to the business and for protecting her. It was something he would never forget, and with one thousand bits, plus an extra two hundred, which he used to for his train ride and for those who needed the bits before he had left, he had taken a train to Ponyville and hoped to spend the rest of his days here, even while he was still so young. *Flash back end* Doctor Whooves, done with his tale, looked at the filly next to him whose jaw dropped in awe in wonder of this gentle, passionate and honest Earth Pony. She smiled, glad to know such a stallion, before a roaring, harsh voice shattered her hero image of the Doctor. “Dinky, keep your damn crayon drawings out of my bucking ROOM!” Derpy yelled, having apparently woken up from her hangover. She cried out something else about dinner to her, making the Doctor wince but smile, both knowing that while their lives were tough and cruel, it was their future that counted. And they could shape such anyway they wished, never wanting to be like their parents before them. Their fathers' sins were their own, and they would be damned if they were blamed to be at fault.