//------------------------------// // What Every Father Fears // Story: Me and Mr. B // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Dinky awoke the next morning with a skip in her step as she ran down the stairs to the living room, ready for another day at school. Now that she knew that Bubbles would no longer be as dangerous as he had previously been, she could bring him without fear of him attacking. She landed at the foot of the stairs and ran to her mom, who was in the kitchen with Bubbles. "Morning Dinky," Ditzy said with a smile as her daughter hopped up onto the stool at the kitchen table. "You seem peppy this morning. Something exciting happening?" "Nope," she said with a smile as her mother served her breakfast, saying good morning to Bubbles before she began to chow down. "Just happy to have today be a regular day after so much chaos and uncertainty." Bubbles let out a moan in agreement as he walked over to Dinky's backpack and handed it to her. She took it from him with smile before taking her bread and placing it in her mouth as she headed to the door with Bubbles following behind her. "By mom, see you when I get home!" she yelled as she ran out the door. Ditzy waved as Bubbles left as well before placing her mail hat on her head and heading out as well. "Today is going to be a great day!" Dinky exclaimed as she ran down the streets, waving to all the ponies that weren't afraid of the tin daddy following behind her. "I can just feel it! Don't you agree that today looks like a great one?" Bubbles moaned again as he looked around, not remembering the last time he had a great day. But that was the least of his concerns as he saw something massive being constructed off in the distance, causing him to pause long enough to gain Dinky's attention. "Oh my Faust, is it that time of the year again?!" she squealed with excitement as she looked up at the giant wheel off in the distance. "The fair is already here? I have to bug my mom to go when we get back," she said before looking up at Bubbled, who was looking down at her in confusion. "You don't know? Right, you wouldn't. The fair comes here once a year for about a week and it's a place full of fun and excitement and...At least I think it is. I actually haven't been there. My mom normally works those days and I can't go there alone, but maybe this will be the year she finally takes me!" Dinky began to hum to herself as she walked towards her school, while Bubbles wondered what a fair was. They had events back in Rapture that he guessed were exciting, but those had been for splicers in masks and suits, not for daddy's or their little sisters. He shook the thoughts out of his head as the two of them reached the school, where a number of foals waited outside of the door while waiting for Cheerilee. "Hey, it's Dinky and Bubbles!" one of the foals exclaimed, causing the group to run over to the two as they approached. "Hi Mr. Bubbles!" Bubbles let out a moan as his eyes turned green and he knelt down on one knee so that the foals could begin to climb onto him. Only two fillies stayed away from Bubbles and Dinky, but they did mutter about him. "I can't believe that she brought that monster with her to school again," Tiara muttered. "My father had a talk with the principal and he said that they would see what they would do about it, but in the meantime I'm stuck with this mass of ugly." Silver Spoon nodded in agreement and made a remark about the Big Daddy, but both of them shut their mouths tight when the eight eyes looked towards them. "Hey Dinky," Pipsqueak said as he walked up to her, still looking at Mr. Bubbles with uncertainty as Bubbles turned his frame toward the tiny colt. "C-can I talk to you about something?" "Sure Pip, what is it?" Dinky asked him. He opened his mouth to answer but Cheerilee chose that moment to show up, the look on her face telling the students that she was in a mood. "Six bottles of vodka and she's still conscious enough to be bugging me about finding a stallion," Cheerilee grumbled as she walked right past Bubbles without noticing him. "I swear that sister of mine is a right pain in the..." She realized then who she had just passed and slowly turned to look at the Big Daddy, a bit afraid as she saw the eyes change from green to yellow. "Um, Dinky? May I speak with you a moment?" Dinky walked over to her after telling Bubbles to stay, where he remained a jungle gym for the foals. "What's up?" she asked Cheerilee, who looked from her to the Big Daddy nervously. "Um...the parents at the school the other day said that they didn't like the idea of their foals being in the same class room as...him," Cheerilee said nervously as she looked over at Bubbles. "So, I've been asked to tell you to leave Bubbles at home from now on." Dinky blinked once at Cheerilee as she processed what her teacher was saying while Cheerilee looked at the titan nervously. "Sure," she said with a shrug. "That's it? You're fine with it and he'll be?" Cheerilee asked in disbelief. "Yup. He should be more prone to separate with me, so it should be no problem," she said as she turned back to Bubbles. "Hey Mr. B., you'll be outside today while I'm in school. Okay?" Bubbles let out a moan that sounded like he was disagreeing, but Dinky gave him a look that broke him. He let out a quick moan before he sat down where he was, knocking some of the foals off their hooves. "See, he listens." Cheerilee figured that it was the best that she was going to get and opened the doors for the foals, where they walked in with less enthusiasm than before. "Alright my little ponies, today we're going to be talking about..." Cheerilee began once all the ponies were in their seats, immediately loosing most of the class as she began to talk about the past history of Equestria. She went on like this for a few minutes before she turned to see that only a few of the ponies were paying attention, while the others were looking out the window at Bubbles, who had a number of birds all over him as he sat in the sun. "So, the students of my class are more interested in the giant metal thing than my lesson...yeah, I can see that." "Sorry, Miss Cheerilee," the students apologized when she called them out on it. She looked at them for a moment before she had an idea on how to get their attention back. "Alright foals, since we're talking about the past today, how about we talk about a subject that you all seem to be interested in...The humans." She smiled to herself as she saw their eyes light up and she placed her current planner on her desk as she pulled out a book on myths. "Now then, since very little is known about humans, we'll need to take this story with a grain of salt. But this tale begins in the final days of humanity, where the humans on the land were supposedly attack by those that had taken refuge in another hidden city, believed to be the Atlantis of the humans." "Rapture," Dinky muttered under her breath. "Now the most popular theory is that the humans engaged each other with weapons of mass destruction, believed to be able to dwarf any kind of power the princesses wield," Cheerilee continued. "In fact, it is believed that these weapons were responsible for wiping the humans off the planet, but due to us finding no evidence of these weapons most believe they are just myth. We do not know the exact date as to when they vanished, but we do not it was not long before the first alicorn appeared." The ponies began to mutter to themselves about how the humans could create such a weapon without magic, but then Cheerilee looked at them with a smile. "So, now I want you to open your books to the section of first Equestrian culture and read to yourselves what it says." The ponies all groaned as they flipped open their books while Cheerilee smiled to herself at her ruse. ===K> The end of the day couldn't come fast enough to most of the foals in the class as they raced for the exit the moment the bell rang. Most of them said goodbye to Bubbles, who had been sitting in the same spot they had left him in. Dinky ran up to him as he stood up to greet her, offering her his hand so that she could climb onto his head. She was about to do so when once again Pipsqueak flagged Dinky down. "Hey Pip," Dinky said with a smile as he walked up. "Oh right, you wanted to ask me something earlier, didn't you?" "Y-yeah, there was," he said nervously as he avoided looking at her directly. "Um, I wanted to know...if you wanted to go to the fair with me on Saturday." "Huh?" was all Dinky could say after a moment of silence. "Rrr?" Bubbles echoed, causing Pip to swallow hard as he tried to get his courage up again. "I've wanted to ask you for a while, but with everything going on," he began, Dinky noticing how he looked at Mr. Bubbles as he said this. "I've had trouble trying to. But...if you want...we could go together?" Dinky placed a hoof under her chin as she thought about it while Pip held his breath in silent anticipation. "Sure, I'm fine with it," she said with a smile after a moment. Pip let out a sigh of relief before Bubbles let out a groan and looked down at Dinky. "Oh no you don't, I can choose whether or not I want to go. You will not stop me." Bubbles moaned again as Pip wiped his brow, wondering if he had made Bubbles angry at him by doing this. "G-great. So what time do you want me to pick you up?" he stammered nervously. "Dunno. How about noon? That seems to be a good time," she offered, having no idea on how this was supposed to work, since nopony in her class ever talked to her, let alone ask her out. Pipsqueak agreed immediately and the pair stood in place awkwardly for a moment before Bubbles picked up Dinky and placed her on his head, leaving the school yard as Dinky waved weakly to Pip. "You didn't need to do that, he's a nice pony," she said as she jumped on his helmets. Bubbles grumbled in response as he headed to the house, reaching there in about ten minutes. Much to Dinky's surprise, she found her mother sitting at the table when the pair came in through the front door. "Mom, what are you doing home so early?" Dinky asked as Bubbles put her down. "I thought you had work?" "I do, but I've been thinking about how much time I spend working and how that's affected my spending time with you," she said as she hugged her daughter with a smile. "So I figured that the two of us should do something this weekend...unless Bubbles makes it the three of us." Dinky inhaled slightly as she looked around the room, an action that was not lost on her mom. "What's up?" "Well, that might be a problem because...I'm going with a colt in my class." Both of Ditzy's eyes focused on her daughter as she said this in shock and the room went quiet for a minute, before Ditzy turned on Bubbles with rage. "A colt asked her out and you didn't flatten him?! What kind of father are you if you don't do even that?!" Ditzy roared in rage as Bubble's eyes flashed yellow and he moaned in response. "She is way too young to be dating anypony and yet some colt convinces her to while you're there?! Useless!" Bubbles roared angrily in his defense, but Dinky entered the fray at that moment. "Hey, Pipsqueak is a nice colt and one of the only ones in my class that didn't pick on me," she said in his defense. "Plus, it's not a date; the two of us are just going as friends." "That's what all mares tell their mothers," Ditzy said with a sigh. "You should have talked to me first before you made this decision." "Why? It's my life?" Bubbles let out a moan and nodded his massive head in agreement with Ditzy, causing Dinky to turn her frustration towards him. "Oh don't you start on me too! Ugh, parents!" She walked past the both of them and headed up the stairs, leaving Ditzy and Bubbles alone in the living room. Bubbles figured that he had upset her and he tried go up the stairs to comfort her, but they broke under his weight. Ditzy sighed but knew what he was trying to do and she placed a hoof on his leg. "Thanks, but I'll go talk to her," she said. "We overreacted a bit, didn't we?" Bubbles sunk his helmet a bit as she said this, telling Ditzy that he agreed. She patted him on the leg before floating up the stairs to where her daughter was laying on her bed. "Honey? Look, I'm sorry about the way the two of us reacted." "You should be," she said in a tone that told Ditzy that not all was forgiven. "A pony in my class finally bothers to talk to me in a way that isn't insulting and you want Bubbles to crush him." "That was my parental side talking," Ditzy said as she sat down on her bed next to her daughter. "I'm sorry about that, but ever since your father passed...I've been afraid of some colt coming to take you away from me and that seems to becoming a reality." "Please mom, no colt could take me from you," Dinky said. Ditzy chuckled a bit at that remark, but stayed silent. "Plus, it's only as friends. It's nothing serious." "Alright dear, but I want you to promise me something," Ditzy began, causing Dinky to roll over a bit to look at her. "Promise me that you'll take Bubbles with you." "I thought that you just said that you didn't want Pip crushed?" Dinky muttered. "Please? Just so I know you're safe." Dinky sighed and agreed begrudgingly, wondering how in Equestria she was going to explain this to Pip. "Now come on. I want to take you out for ice cream." Dinky perked up at that and jumped off her bed. "Fine, but only if Bubbles gets some," she said. Ditzy agreed, although she wondered if Bubbles could even eat anything with that helmet on. The pair went down the stairs to find that Bubbles had tried to climb the stairs again. Ditzy made a mental note to call somepony to fix those as the three left the house, each thinking different thoughts about the future.