//------------------------------// // Ch. 4 // Story: Consequences // by Exelzior //------------------------------// Consequenses Chapter 4 Time Turner took one last look at himself in the mirror before wiping his face with a towel, getting the last patches of soot out of his face. This hadn’t been a very good day for him, though that wasn’t uncommon around his house. It had begun as usual; wake up, eat muffins, do his morning routines, eat more muffins, come down to breakfast and be served another batch of muffins, have the thing in his attic try to escape and force it to eat muffins, the list went on. He sighed and just stared at the miserable stallion looking back at him in the mirror, frowning at him like he wanted to leap out of the glass and choke Turner. He muttered a bit and grabbed a comb, going to work on his mane to get it just right. With a little luck he’d be able to cover up the burnt part that stretched over his head like a black ditch on an otherwise fine lawn. He sighed again and inhaled deeply, feeling the ever-present smell of his wife’s baking penetrate his nostrils like an unwelcome assailant. He almost threw up a little in his mouth, but decided it wasn’t worth it. He’d managed to help himself to a daisy sandwich this morning, and by Celestia he was going to keep it down. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his wife. On the contrary, he loved Derpy more than anypony. When he’d first arrived in Equestria, she’d been the first to approach him and help him. He’d known from that moment on that there was something special about the mare, and over the years they spent a lot of time together, either going out for a friendly lunch or taking a road trip through time and space together, it didn’t matter back then as long as they were together. He finally broke the question after about five years, and soon they were settled in this house, and not long after that they’d gotten Dinky on their hooves. It was almost picture perfect. Except for the muffins. He hadn’t bothered with them too much at first. In fact, when they first started going more serious he welcomed it. It was nice waking up in the morning and smell a fresh batch brewing, and each day held a little bit of surprise in it. But then it had taken a turn for the worse around the time Derpy got pregnant. For several months she lived exclusively on muffins, and towards the end of it all she’d started with the muffins shaped decorations around the house. The doctors and psychiatrist Time Turner had talked to (in secrecy), had told him that it probably wasn’t anything to worry about, that it was just a side effect of the pregnancy. They told him she’d get back to normal once the foal was born, and that he’d just have to endure. And now Dinky had been with them for almost nine years, and Derpy still wasn’t normal. He shook his head and looked into the mirror one last time. His reflection just gave him a tired stare. With heavy steps he exited the bathroom and made his way downstairs, trying his best to not seem unhappy. Derpy was always very caring, and if she even suspected that something was up he’d be tucked into bed before he knew it, with a thermometer in his mouth (or someplace else), and a steady supply of baked goods to make him feel better. He cringed at the thought and slapped himself in the face. He stopped for moment in the hall and looked himself in the mirror, just to make sure he looked alright. He always made sure to look his best whenever the family had guests, even if it was just a casual visit. He opened a drawer and pulled out a small red bow-tie and white collar. He put them on and looked himself in the mirror one last time. “Lookin’ good, doctor,” he said to himself and chuckled. He made his way to the kitchen where he was met by the sight of his wife and daughter, as well as Applebloom and Caramel seated around the table with teacups and muffins, chattering happily amongst each other. He smiled. “Hi everyone,” he said a little awkwardly, “Sorry I took so long, I had some business to take care of.” “Oh good, you came just in time,” Derpy exclaimed happily, “We were just about to have some tea and muffins.” Time Turner smiled, but on the inside he just wanted to cry. He sat down at his usual spot, and not even had his butt made contact with the chair, before a blueberry muffin appeared on the plate before him, and some steaming hot tea was poured into his cup. He never even saw Derpy move. It was with extreme reluctance that he picked up his muffin, looking at it like it was some devilish contraption straight out of Tartarus. He slowly brought it to his lips and opened his mouth, taking a large bite out of the sugary treat. The bread almost melted on his tongue, along with the sweet frosting and warm blueberries. To any other pony it would’ve been next to heavenly, like their mouths were being filled up by some godly entity of pure delight, and they wouldn’t be able to wait to enjoy yet another bite. Time Tuner on the other hand felt like he was about to gag. Years of this sugary torment had done a number on him, and it felt like a miracle that he actually managed to swallow. He grinned at his wife, a drop of sweat running down the back of his head. “You’ve really outdone yourself honey, these muffins are great!” Derpy blushed a bit and waved her hoof. “Oh stop it, Timey, we have guests,” she said as her cheeks went crimson. Dinky blushed as well, mostly out of embarrassment, while Applebloom and Caramel just snickered quietly. “Oh, right, sorry honey,” Time Turner said and turned to Applebloom and Caramel, the latter suddenly losing his ability to speak as he lay eyes on the stallion. While the rest of the world would’ve just seen Time Turner as any other stallion, Caramel saw pure beauty in front of him. It was like the light from the windows reflected in Time Turner’s fur, making him glisten like a swimmer fresh out of the water, and Caramel was speechless. “So, I heard the two of you wanted to see me?” “Yes it’s very nice outside today!” Caramel blurted out without thinking, right to Turner’s face. The brown stallion backed off a little and looked at Caramel with a mix of shock and confusion. “Sorry,” Caramel said in a small voice, cheeks blushing. “Uh huh…” was all Time Turner managed to squeeze out. An eerie silence draped over the scene, until finally Dinky broke it after what seemed like an eternity. “They wanted to see you about a broken cart, dad,” said the little unicorn flatly. Applebloom gave a small sigh in relief. “Oh, well, what seems to be the problem?” Time Turner asked, turning to Applebloom this time seeing as Caramel was just sitting there. Applebloom then went on to tell about her day with Applejack, about her sister’s little joyride to Ponyville, their stop at the cakes, and the cart suddenly breaking down in the street. She spent quite a while talking, and the tension in the room slowly lifted with every passing moment, until the whole group were laughing merrily at poor Applejack’s misfortunes. Applebloom strategically left out the part about Applejack swearing, and not once did she mention any of the two words she’d learned in the market that day. After about half an hour Applebloom had finished her story, and things seemed a lot better around the table by this point, even Caramel had managed to sputter out a few coherent sentences, though he still stammered a bit when addressing Time Turner directly. “Well, okay then,” Time Turner said, “Let’s not keep your poor sister waiting any longer than she has to. I’ll just grab some of my stuff and we can get going,” he finished and got up from his seat, stretching his back and legs a bit, making Caramel’s mouth water. While Applebloom helped Derpy and Dinky to clear the table, Time Turner made his way upstairs to grab his tools. Caramel just waited in the hall, having finally gotten over his wallpaper phobia he was looking at all the photos decorating the walls. He recognized some of the locations the photos were taken in; places such as Manehattan, Detrot, Chicoltgo and so forth, but then there were other places that he didn’t recognize. Most of the pictures featured all three family members, but some only featured Time Turner and Derpy, probably back when they were dating, Caramel thought, and these were the ones that drew his attention the most. One picture had them both standing in front of some strange monument where four large alien faces had been carved into a mountain wall, while another one featured them both with the backdrop of what Caramel could only describe as a huge muffin shaped cloud rising out of the ground. He kept looking at the pictures for a while, getting an increasingly strange feeling in his gut. Back in the kitchen Applebloom had finished helping Derpy with the dishes and now she and Dinky engaged in small talk by the table while Derpy had returned to her garden, no doubt figuring out a new recipe she’d be trying out. As they talked, Applebloom felt she was beginning to like Dinky, as they had quite a lot in common. “So, ya’ll are lookin’ ta find out yer special talent too, huh?” Applebloom asked, as their conversations had moved into Cutie marks. “Yeah,” Dinky said with a small sigh, “Mom says it’ll come naturally eventually, but it feels like that’s just something grownups say to keep you from thinking about it. But how can I not think about what my future talent’s going to be?” “Ah hear ya, mah sister’s the same way, always goin’ on with how Ah have to be patient an’ focus on just livin’ life while Ah still can. Whatever that means, does she think Ah’m gonna be dead soon or sumthin’?” Applebloom said and tapped her chin a bit, glaring at something in the ceiling. “Yeah, grownups are strange,” Dinky mumbled, “Well, at least you have your, what do you call them, Cutie Mark Crossriders?” “Crusaders,” Applebloom said and looked back at Dinky, “An’ yeah, Ah really don’t know what Ah would’ve done without ‘em. Ah mean, we haven’t found our marks yet, but we sure have fun-“ Applebloom stopped mid-sentence when she noticed Dinky looking down into the table, a gloomy expression on her face. “Hey, what’s wrong, Dinky?” “It’s nothing really, it’s just, well, you three always look like you’re having so much fun together and, well…” “Wait, are ya’ll sayin’ you’re jealous? Ah thought ya’ll had a lot of friends at school?” Dinky just sighed heavily, “Not really. I have maybe one, but I’m not sure about where we stand. No, most of the other kids at school avoid me because they think I’m like Mom,” Dinky said gloomily and looked at Applebloom whom were just about to say something when Dinky interrupted her, “Don’t take that the wrong way, I love Mom, but…well you’ve seen how she is, and when she gets out of the house she’s even worse, at least when I’m around. I guess the other kids think she’s nuts and avoid me because they think I am too.” “Ah never thought ye were strange or anything, Dinky,” Applebloom said softly, “But Ah still don’t get it, ya always seem to be surrounded by ponies every now and again, and yet ya say ya don’t have friends?” “Muffins,” Dinky said flatly, “Mom makes muffin baskets every now and then that I have to take with me to school, that’s what you’ve been seeing. In truth, I really don’t have friends,” the little unicorn said and stared at the table again. “Well, ya do now,” Applebloom said sternly, “An’ Ah won’t take no fer an answer. Ya’ll have shown me that yer a good pony today, an’ in my family that’s all we need ta know.” Dinky just looked at Applebloom with mixed expressions of doubt and happiness, “Y-You really mean that?” she asked, trembling a little on her voice. “Of course Ah do, an’ don’t worry about the others, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo won’t mind, Ah know they won’t. An’ let’s skip that stupid introduction ceremony,” Dinky just looked confused at this, “Ah hereby declare ya a Cutie Mark Crusader,” Applebloom said with a big smile and reached a hoof over to Dinky. Dinky couldn’t believe what she’d just heard, and instead of shaking Applebloom’s hoof, the little unicorn made a leap across the table, surprising Applebloom, and embraced the earth pony in an almost bone crushing embrace. They both fell backwards with a crash. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” Dinky almost shouted as she hugged Applebloom, the yellow filly struggling to breathe under the immense pressure. It was like being hugged by a machine. “Yer…welcome,” was all Applebloom managed to squeeze out. At that moment Derpy stormed into the kitchen wearing a straw hat, with blue stains on her hooves. “What going on in here? I heard something fall over, no one’s hurt are they?” she said, looking around for a bit until her misaligned eyes caught the sight of her daughter laying on top of Applebloom in the middle of the kitchen, with the yellow filly’s face slowly becoming blue due to a lack of oxygen. “Uh, honey, what are you doing?” “I just made a friend mom! Applebloom said she wants to be my friend!” Dinky shouted, tears of happiness streaming down her cheeks as her grip tightened ever more, making Applebloom fear that maybe this was what Applejack meant by “enjoying life while she could”, because she was pretty sure that soon enough Dinky was going to kill her via strangulation. “Oh, that’s…that’s so beautiful!” Derpy shouted and scooped up both Dinky and Applebloom in an affectionate hug, “My little filly finally has a real friend!” she cheered as she hugged both fillies. Applebloom wasn’t enjoying it as much as Dinky and her mother, as Derpy was immensely strong, and coupled with Dinky’s affectionate hugging earlier Applebloom was more certain than ever that this was it. She could almost hear the straining on her little bones as Derpy wince-like grip tightened, threatening to snap her body in half. Just when Applebloom thought the end was near though, she felt Derpy’s powerful grip finally loosen up as the mare put both fillies down. Being free to breathe, Applebloom inhaled deeply, feeling like a balloon being filled up, and slowly her face returned to its natural yellow. “Oh, sorry Applebloom,” Derpy said with a sheepish smile, “I forgot how strong I can get sometimes. I hope I didn’t hurt you.” Applebloom didn’t bother answering. True she had been close to dying, or at least passing out, but she decided not to hold it against either of the two, they were probably just happy, and this was their (albeit very painful) way of showing it. She put on a smile and looked up at Derpy. “No, *gasp*, problem miss Derpy,” the yellow filly said between breaths. Derpy just smiled back at her. “Well, Ah think it’s about time fer us ta git goin’,” she said, when suddenly a low growling sound interrupted her. “Oh mah, um, where’s the bathroom?” Derpy just snickered as Applebloom’s cheeks turned a nice shade of red. “Dinky, be a dear and show Applebloom to the restroom, then maybe you can give her a quick tour of your room before she has to leave.” “Okay mom, come on Applebloom!” Dinky exclaimed happily and grabbed Applebloom’s hoof, dragging her out of the kitchen and up the stairs past Caramel, whom still just stood there analyzing each photo on the wall. Once Applebloom had done her business she was dragged off to Dinky’s room, the unicorn filly almost forcing her in, and then eagerly showed Applebloom her belongings. The room itself was quite sparse, with a couple of drawers, a fairly large closet, a writing desk next to the window and a large spacious bed littered with stuffed animals of different sizes. Other than those however, Dinky didn’t seem to have a lot of toys, or at least none which Applebloom could see. “Well, this is my room, it’s not much, but I like it. Come on, try the bed, it’s real comfy,” Dinky said and jumped up on the mattress, Applebloom following her example. What struck the yellow filly almost instantly was how insanely soft and plushy Dinky’s bed was. It felt almost like marshmallow, or a water bed. The bed sheets were smooth and silky, colored deep red with a rose pattern on them. “I got to pick out the sheets,” Dinky said when she noticed Applebloom examining them, “Mom wanted a muffin pattern, but I liked these better. So what do you think?” “It’s lovely, Dinky, Ah really like yer room. May not be as big as mine back at the farm, but yers is much nicer, makes ya feel homey,” Applebloom said and rolled over on her side, looking at the unicorn filly with a smile. Suddenly, an idea struck Applebloom, and she waved for Dinky to come closer. “Hey Dinky, Ah know we’ve barely had time ta get ta know each other, but can Ah tell ya sumthin?” Caramel was snapped out of his wondered state as he heard somepony coming down the stairs. Looking behind him he saw Time Turner step down, wearing a tool belt, and Caramel’s eyes instantly widened a bit. Wearing that belt Time Turner looked like a real hard working stallion, and Caramel felt butterflies in his stomach. “So, what do you think, Caramel? Think this’ll do?” Caramel didn’t answer at first, in fact, what he mostly wanted was to just lunge himself at the brown stallion, tear of the belt and make sweet love to him right on the spot. He collected his thoughts though, and instead just sputtered out a compliment. “Yeah, I think that’ll do just fine. You look good in that belt…” Smooth moves, idiot, Caramel thought and mentally hoofslapped himself, Now he’s gonna think you’re a complete weirdo. “Oh, why thank you, Caramel, always nice to get a comment like that,” Turner said and pawed a little at the floor, much to Caramel’s surprise. They both stood there in awkward silence until Caramel finally spoke. “Well, I guess we’d better get going, Applejack’s probably pissed for having waited so long,” he said and turned towards the stairs, “Come on, Applebloom, we’re leaving now!” he shouted, and soon the yellow filly appeared on top of the stairs. “Comin’ cus’!” she responded, trotting down the stairs with Dinky in tow. Once they were all assembled by the door Derpy joined them to see her husband off, and of course, giving him a lunchbox even though he’d only be gone for the afternoon. Time Turner put a saddlebag over his back and put the box in it, determined to get rid of it the moment he stepped out of Derpy’s sight, then gave his wife a peck on the forehead, making her blush. “Oh, before you go honey, give this to Applejack and say hi for me, will ya,” Derpy said and ran out to the kitchen, returning moments later with a small basket covered up with a small blanket, “Poor dear must’ve been through a nightmare today, these are bound to cheer her up,” she chirped happily and gently put the basket in Turner’s saddlebags. Time Turner made a change in his plans about getting rid of the muffins in his lunchbox, seeing as how Applejack would be getting some anyway he might as well slip a few extra in there. “Will do hun,” Time Turner said and turned to Applebloom and Caramel, “Well guys, let’s go then, no time like the present.” The five ponies exchanged pleasantries and bid farewell to one another, Applebloom carefully avoiding a goodbye hug from Dinky by offering a simple hoof shake, which still felt like shaking with a jackhammer. The yellow filly couldn’t for the life of her figure out how a small unicorn like Dinky possessed more strength than some of her Apple family cousins, and made a mental note to not play wrestle with Dinky anytime soon. Once they were all set, Time Turner, Caramel and Applebloom turned tail and headed of towards the town’s center, with Derpy and Dinky standing in the door waving their hooves. “Well, Dinky, that was certainly an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, donthca think?” Derpy said as she watched the three ponies disappear around a corner. “Sure was, mom,” Dinky said happily. “Hey, mom?” “Yes sweetie, what is it?” “Do you think dad should’ve brought a bigger cock with him?” Derpy was silent.