//------------------------------// // Schoolyard Blues // Story: Me and Mr. B // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Dinky had run half way to her school before she realized that Mr. Bubbles had been following her the entire time. She came to a stop and waited for him to catch up at the edge of the forest, looking up at him in confusion as he came lumbering up. "Um, I don't want to be rude, but I really can't play any more," she said nervously as he moved his body to look down at her. "And also, I really don't think that the ponies in my class will want to met you...not that you're bad," she added quickly. "They can just be really mean to me sometimes." Dinky had looked away as she said this, so she never noticed Mr. Bubbles eyes flash from green to red as he glanced at the building, but they were green again when they looked back to her. "So, um, maybe you should just stay here for a few hours or so while I'm in class?" she suggested as she began to walk away, but stopped when she heard the lumbering behind her. "No, stay here. Trust me, the ponies aren't ready to meet you yet. Once I've talked to Twilight maybe, but until then you can't be seen." The Big Daddy tilted his body to the side and Dinky let out a sigh. "Look, the ponies in that town are afraid of everything from a stampede of bunnies to a zebra in a cloak. So imagine what a giant, metal...whatever you are would cause them to do." Mr. Bubbles showed no signs that he understood what Dinky was talking about, so she sighed again and sat down in front of him. "Stay here," she said slowly so that Mr. Bubbles could understand. He let out one of his moans and Dinky shook her head, not understanding what he was trying to say. "Please stay here. I promise that I'll play with you more after school," she promised, once she heard the warning bell. She then got up and headed back for the school, but stopped again as Mr. Bubbles began to follow. "NO! If you keep following me, I won't be your friend anymore." Much to Dinky's surprise, these were the words needed to stop the Big Daddy in his tracks. He let out a sad moan as she slowly began to walk away again, but noticed that he wasn't following her anymore. "Don't worry, I'll be back after school," she said as she ran towards the building, knowing that she was going to be late anyway. Mr. Bubbles watched her go, feeling the desire to chase after her, to never leave her side...except that desire was no longer as strong as he remembered it being. He didn't feel like he would die if she left his side, it just hurt him emotionally. But he knew that the tone she had used with him meant that she had been upset, and he never wanted to upset her. So with eight sorrow-filled ports, he watched all the foals pile into the red building, knowing that something bad was going to happen. He could see Dinky through the window, but he could barely hear her. Barely. ===k> "...And that concludes our look at the mythology of the dark times," Cheerilee said as she turned away from the chalk board, groaning as she looked at the foals in her class who weren't paying attention. Three little fillies she knew well looked like they were talking about their Cutie Marks again, while Diamond Tiara was trying to brag about something to anypony that would listen. She sighed again before asking if there were any questions, only to find to her surprise that a hoof did go up. "Yes Dinky, you have a question?" "Um, since we're talking about mystical creatures, I wondered if you could tell me if you knew anything about titans?" she asked hesitantly. The other students had stopped talking to hear her question and while Tiara scoffed at her, the others looked to Cheerilee with interest. She figured that this was the most attention she was going to get out of them all day, so she flipped through her book until she came to the creature. "Yes, the Titans, giant creatures made of stone or wood," she read. "Not much is known about these creatures since they are believed to be mostly extinct. But back when they were around, they were giants of creatures that towered over ponies and caused terror throughout the land." "So they were evil?" Dinky asked with a hint of worry in her voice. Cheerilee thought about it for a moment before she answered. "Well, some of them may have been, but like with ponies, you had both good and bad ones. The bad ones were believed to be more of a redish color while the good ones were more green. But since there's so little on them it makes it hard to tell." Dinky thought about what she said before her hoof went up again. "Yes Dinky?" "Were the Titans only made of wood and stone or could they be made of metal also?" she asked. Tiara made another remark that required Cheerilee to give her a look before she looked through the book on ancient myth again. "Um, it does say that there were rare cases of metal titans, but they were the most dangerous and reclusive of the bunch," she said before looking at Dinky. "Why are you so curious, by the way?" "Because I like weird things," she said innocently. "Of course she does. She'd have to, with her mom being so weird," Tiara said just loud enough so that Dinky could hear. "And with that little remark, you'll be staying inside for recess," Cheerilee said, giving Tiara a look when she tried to complain. "And speaking of recess, I think that I've kept you all in here long enough. Go have..." She never got to finish as the foals shot out of her room, just leaving her alone with Dinky, Tiara and Pipsqueak, who had been late. "Dinky, you can leave if you want." "Actually, I was wondering if I could look over the book on titans?" she asked, smiling when Cheerilee gave the book to her before heading outside when she heard a foal crying. She flipped through it until she found the parts on titans, frowning as she looked at the illustrations of them, since none of them looked like the thing that she had met. She began to read about the titans until a certain pink filly walked over to her. "Wow, with their weird eyes they look just like your mom," Tiara said with a smirk. Dinky turned her head to try to avoid looking at the filly, but Tiara walked in front of her. "What's the matter, too ashamed to say anything? Not that I blame you, if I had a failure of a mom with no dad, I wouldn't want to bring any attention to myself either." Tears began to form in Dinky's eyes, but she did her best not to cry out loud. "Of course, you're not much better than her. Unable to do anything magic related and can't do anything right either. Must suck being you." Dinky was trying to stifle her sobs as much as she could, but she didn't know how much longer she could. "And worst of all, you'll grow up to be just like you mom. Worthless, a klutz and-" "Hey Tiara." Diamond Tiara turned around to get a face full of water, causing her to scream as she was drenched from head to hoof by a certain small colt. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" she shrieked at Pipsqueak, who gave her an innocent look in his defense. "I was just trying to help you clean up your act," he said with an innocent smile. "And a bath. Both you and your attitude stink." Tiara roared in rage and tackled the colt to the ground, but the fight was quickly stopped by a very angry Cheerilee. "Both of you stop this right now!" Cheerilee said as she placed herself between the two of them. "Alright, who started this?" "HE did Ms. Cheerilee!" Tiara said with a scowl as she pointed a wet hoof at him. "He threw the bucket of cleaning water on me." "Is this true?" Cheerilee asked Pipsqueak. "Guilty as charged," Pipsqueak said with a shrug. "Just couldn't stomach what she was saying to Dinky, so I figured I should wash her mouth out. No soap in the bucket though." Cheerilee looked to Tiara at this point, who shrunk under her gaze. "So, Tiara, just what did you say to Dinky that would provoke Pipsqueak to throw water onto you?" she asked. When she refused to answer, Cheerilee looked to Dinky. "Dinky, what did she say to you?" Dinky looked down for a moment before she looked back up at her teacher. "She insulted me and my mom, calling us failures," Dinky whispered. Cheerilee looked towards Tiara with a cold stare before she turned her gaze to Pipsqueak. "Tiara, what you did was unexcusable and your parents will certainly hear about this incident. Now go wait outside for your punishment." Tiara walked off with a growl as Cheerilee looked to Pipsqueak. "I don't regret it," he said before she could speak. "Pipsqueak, what you did was also unacceptable...but noble," Cheerilee said. "You will also be punished, but not the same as Tiara. Dinky, you can go home for today if you don't want to stay. All the rest of class will be is a movie." "No, it's okay. I should be able..." She stopped talking as she said this, because out the window she could see eight green eyes coming from the forest and if she could see them, so could the other ponies that were at the school. "Actually, Miss Cheerilee, I'd like to leave early. I don't want to be around her for today." "That's fine Dinky, you can go," Cheerilee said as she turned to go talk to Tiara. "Pipsqueak, I will speak with you in a moment. Please wait here." Pipsqueak did as she asked as Cheerilee left, leaving him alone with Dinky as she packed up a few things. "Thank you," she said softly as she walked by him. "But you didn't have to get into trouble for me." "No trouble at all; Tiara needed somepony to rain on her parade," he said, chuckling at his own joke. "And I also know what's it's like to be picked on for being different, so I feel for you." Dinky smiled at him as she walked out of the room, trying to ignore Cheerilee's conversation as best she could. "...One day that mouth of yours is going to get you into serious trouble," she heard Cheerilee say as she passed. "Yeah, right. My Dad pretty much owns this town. What pony would be foolish enough to mess with my family?" Tiara shot back, having no idea how close she had come to finding that out. The moment she was certain that no pony was looking at her, Dinky full on sprinted towards the forest to Mr. Bubbles, breathing a sigh of relief when she turned around to see that she hadn't been followed. The Big Daddy let out a happy moan when she ran up to him. "Shhhh! Are you trying to give yourself away?" she whispered to him as she motioned for him to follow her away from the school, which he did so without hesitation. Once they were back in the forest clearing, she pulled the book that Cheerilee had given her and opened it to the page on titans. "Okay, I'm going to show you a number of images and I want you to tell me...or moan, whatever you do when I get to the one that most looks like you. 'K?" Mr. Bubbles moaned in response and she held up the first one, which was the wood one. "Okay, that's not it," she muttered when he didn't respond, flipping the page. "How about stone?" He made no sound again, but this had been what Dinky had been expecting. She knew that he mostly resembled the metal one, but as she looked at the picture she had no idea if he even was a titan. The titan in the books was huge like him, but only had two glowing eyes while he had eight. Not to mention that the titan in the picture had both hands, while Mr. Bubbles had one hand alongside his giant drill on the other. "Is this you?" she asked, getting silence at her answer once again. She frowned as she began to mindlessly flip through the pages, until a certain figure caught her attention. It was a massive stone and metal creature that wore the helmet of a knight, but light shown between its eye slits on the helmet. In place of one off his hands was a sword that extended from his wrist, almost mirroring Mr. Bubbles. "How about this? Is this you?" she asked as she held up the picture. He let out a small moan at this, and Dinky smiled as she looked into the book to see what the creature was. "An Iron Golem, huh?" she mused to herself as she read the description. "Beings made of metal that are normally two to three times the size of ponies and are know for being very strong fighters that will protect all they hold dear to the death. Said to have been rumored to exist in the time of humans, if they exist at all, but vanished along with them. Weird, but it does look a little like you," he muttered as she looked from the picture to him. "But it also says here that they are champions of protection, so maybe you are related. You did save me after all." Mr. Bubbles let out a moan that caused Dinky to look up from the book, before an idea came to her. "Hey, there's a place that might know what you are, but it involves us going through a dangerous place. Would you mind taking me there?" she asked him, perfectly fine if he said 'no.' But Mr. Bubbles let out a moan and grabbed Dinky by her waist, lifting her over onto his head as best he could until she scrambled onto him. "Okay, we want to go that way," she said as she pointed into the forest. Mr. Bubbles groaned and began walking forwards, Dinky looking ahead as well until something on his helmet caught her eye. 'Somepony wrote something here,' she thought as she looked down at the small writing on his helmet. 'It says...My Big Daddy. Wait a minute, was Mr. Bubbles a dad at some point? And if so, where's his daughter?' She pondered these questions silently as Mr. Bubbles continued to walk.