//------------------------------// // A Very Blustery Day // Story: Oh, Bother // by Daemon McRae //------------------------------// “Oh, Bother” Chapter 1: A Very Blustery Day This could be the room of any small boy. But it just so happens to belong to a boy named... Christopher Robin. Now, Christopher Robin, like many small boys, has a very big and active imagination. He has many toys he likes to play with. His favorite among them, however, are his stuffed animals. Together, they go on many grand adventures, exploring and doing big things and small things, every day in the Hundred Acre Wood. Today was a little different, however. You see, today was a Windesday. And as such, it was very blustery out. All of the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood had all closed themselves up tightly in their homes, waiting for the wind to pass so they could go outside and do much less windsome things like collecting honey, or planting carrots, or… or… whatever it was Tigger was doing. Tigger… what are you doing? “Well, I’m not bouncin’, for sure,” Tigger grumbled. Well, yes, Tigger, I can see that. But what are you doing? Tigger seemed to be crawling all over his room like some kind of very large, orange, stripey bug. “I’m lookin’ for somethin’ to do, ya know? It ain’t no good to keep a Tigger cooped up like this.” No, of course not, Tigger. But of course, being as windy as it tends to be on a Windesday, it is rather inadvisable to go bouncing outside. One might catch cold. “Aw, shucks. Tiggers do not like Windesdays. Hmm, there’s gotta be something to do around here...” he said, prowling about his room like a... well, like a Tigger. He prowled here and there, near and far. Or, as far as one could in their own home. Eventually, he found himself digging through his closet. “Hmmm, you don’t say, yeah. Ooh, interesting. Well, would you look at tha—” Just then, there was a knock at the door. Tigger paused his pawing through his things, and looked up. “Who is it?” There was no answer. Tigger’s head tilted left and right as he stared at the door. Then, there was another knock. “Hellooooooo~” he called out. Again, no answer. So he stepped out of the large pile of toys and things in the bottom of his closet, shaking a rather clingy tennis racket with no netting off of his foot. He hopped— “Excuuuuuse me. Tiggers. Don’t. Hop. They bounce,” said Tigger. Hee hee, yes. Quite right, Tigger. Tigger bounced all the way to the door. He leaned in close, and called out again, “Helloooooo~.” And, like before, there was no answer. Tigger grumbled to himself, “Why, if it was any closer to Winter I’d think it was one’a’dem phony Sandy Clawses.” He looked at the door. Then the door hinges. Finally, he gave the doorknob a good long stare. “Rooooowwwwrrrrr,” he purred, staring intently at the doorknob as if it where ready to pounce. Or rather, like he was getting ready to pounce on it. Then, as Tiggers are wont to do, he threw the door open anyway, just to see who was outside. “Hey, who’s out—” He was about to say “there”, but was cut short by a large ball of pink something tumbling into him. Tigger and the pink something rolled across the floor, until eventually they came to a stop: Tigger on his back, and the pink something standing on his belly. The new, pink something was... well, it was something. It looked kind of like an Eeyore, except not. It was much too cheerful and—pink—for that. It had a bushy mane and tail, a smooth, pink coat, and big, blue eyes. “Hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Well hello, Pinkie Pie. “Hi, mister narrator!” Pinkie Pie said joyfully. She looked down at her bounce-y, and smiled again. “And hi there, Tigger!” she greeted. Bouncing off of his belly, and hopping about the room, she smiled at everything she saw. Sometimes, she “ooed”. Other times, she “ahhhed”. But mostly, she just smiled. Tigger was rather confused. It wasn’t often he was the one being bounced. However, being the fan of bouncing that he was, he smiled and looked up at the newcomer. “Why, hello there! My name’s Tigger! Tee Eye Double-guh Er! That spells Tigger! And that’s me!” he looked at the exploring pink newcomer curiously. “ Saaayyyy, I never heard of no Pinkie Pies in the Hundred Acre Woodses. Are you sure you’re not a hephalump or sumthin’?” Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing, and gave Tigger a curious look, as well. “Don’t you mean an elephant?” “Yeah, a hephalump. That’s what I said,” Tigger explained. He walked in circles around the Pinkie Pie, until he walked behind her. He disappeared for a moment, dipping out of view behind the pink... whatever-it-was, and reappeared as— “Tigger! Private Ear!” he called out. He wore a funny-looking hat, a checkered cloak, and carried around a big shiny bubble pipe. “This thing smells like a mythtery to me. And who better to solve the unsolvabible? To sleuth the unsleuthable! Why, it’s that master detective! The champeen of the undercooked! Tigger, Private Ear!” he re-introduced himself. He took out a magnifying glass and began closely inspecting the Pinkie Pie. “Pffft heeheehee. No, silly. I’m not ‘a’ Pinkie Pie. I’m Pinkie Pie! I’m ‘a’ pony!” she explained. Tigger gave a very curious look. “A pony? Oh, well why didn’t you say so!” he laughed, throwing all of his Private Ear-ing stuff to the side. “I always wanted a pony!” “And I always wanted a... what are you, again?” Pinkie Pie asked, tilting her head. Tigger smiled off to the side, hiding his words behind his paw. “I love it when they ask me that,” he said wistfully to no one in particular. In response, he hiked up one leg, pulled his arms up to his chest, and sang: “Thhheeeee wonderful thing about Tiggers, is Tiggers are wonderful things! Their tops are made outta rubba, their bottoms are made outta springs! They’re bouncy trouncy pouncy flouncy fun fun fun fun fun! And the most wonderful things about Tiggers iiiiiisssss.... I’m the only one! Hoo hoo hoo hoo!” he sang as he danced in a circle around the room, demonstrating his bounciness and his pounciness to the new pink pony, who sat on her hind end and clapped her hooves and laughed. “Ooh, so that’s a Tigger! I mean, you’re a Tigger! And this place is… this place is… I have no idea! It was just getting really windy outside, and I had to go to Sugarcube Corner to pick up some cakes! Then, before I knew it, I was whooooaaaoaoaoaoaoaing it all the way here, and my cakes are gone! ...Say, where is here, anyway?” she asked, looking out the window. What she saw made her eyes go wide. Acre upon acre of bright green trees, blowing in the blustery wind. Creeks and rivers, wide open fields, and the occasional rock or two. “Wow-ee! This place is huge!” Tigger looked outside, where the blustering wind was, as a matter of fact, becoming much less windsome, and a bit more winsome. In fact, while they had talked, the wind seemed to have let up enough to go outside. “Yeah,” he laughed. “It’s pretty terrific all right. That out there’s the Hundred Acre Woodses! Hey, now that the winds’ all calm and breezy-like, you wanna go bouncing with me?” Pinkie thought about this for a moment. “Well, I should probably be getting home to Ponyville. I mean, they are expecting me to bring some cakes back, after all. Is there any place where we can find cakes here? I don’t wanna go home empty-hooved.” Tigger also stopped to think. “Well… I don’t know where this Sugarcane Corner place is, but… Say, we gots a Pooh Corner! Maybe we can find some cakes there! Then you can take ‘em back home!” Pinkie Pie smiled again, saying, “Ooh, ok! And we can bounce on the way there!” “Hey, yeah!” Tigger cheered, bouncing on his tail and springing over to the door. He then held it open for Pinkie Pie. “After you, madam,” he said politely. Pinkie Pie bounced on all four hooves right out the door. “Okie-dokie-lokie!” Tigger chuckled to himself. “O-okie dokie l-loki-hee-hee-hee,” he laughed as he, too, bounced out of his home, and proceeded to show Pinkie Pie the way to Pooh Corner. ———————————————— Well, as it turns out, there was a house at Pooh Corner. And an Eeyore. “Thanks for noticin’.” “Hiya, donkey boy!” came a loud, Tiggery voice from over the hill. Eeyore looked slowly to his left as he saw not one bouncing figure, but two: one orange and striped, the other... pink. So very, very pink. Eeyore didn’t have a great deal of time to look at the new pink creature, however, as Tigger bounced him not soon after. “Hyonk!” cried Eeyore as the two tumbled over the grass. The disturbance of being bounced was so great, that Eeyore heard his small house—a pile of sticks lined up against each other—tumble to the ground. “Hello, Tigger. What brings you here?” Eeyore said slowly. “Hey, uh, Eeyore, ya got any cake?” Tigger asked. “No,” said the donkey, pulling himself to his feet, “I can’t say that I do.” “Awww, shucks,” grumbled Tigger, who sat down and frowned. Pinkie Pie bounced up to the two of them, and introduced herself to Eeyore. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?” “‘Lo. My name’s Eeyore. Don’t worry if you don’t remember it,” said Eeyore. Pinkie Pie tilted her head again. “Why are you so sad?” she asked in a sad voice. Eeyore looked over at his house, and then looked back to Pinkie Pie. “Well, I gotta rebuild my house. ‘Side from that, no reason.” Pinkie looked at the house with great interest, while Tigger grumbled to himself about finding cake. She looked and looked, and when she wasn’t looking, she observed. Finally, she smiled that big happy smile of hers, and said, “Well, that’s easy enough!” Then, she started stacking the sticks together. Balancing two against each other, with a middle for support, she made a triangle with another two, and put the middle stick on top. Then she had what looked like the shell of a house just right for a donkey. Until, that is, it fell down. “Oh, fiddlesticks!” she said, picking up said sticks and fiddling with them again, till they stood up like before. And, like before, they fell down. Just then, Eeyore walked over. “Don’t worry about it. I have a specific way I like to build it. Keeps me occupied,” he explained. He himself then went to work at putting the house together, balancing the sticks with little more than his teeth. Even though it looked like both of Pinkie Pie’s attempts, it seemed to stay up just fine. In fact, it even held up while the donkey started to put more sticks on it. That seemed to be good enough for Pinkie Pie, who stepped back and let Eeyore work. “Say, do you know where we can find some cake?” she asked. Tigger looked up. “Huh? Oh yeah! Askin’! Well, donkey boy, do ya? Huh, huh, do ya?” Eeyore thought about it a little bit, as he laid another stick on his now halfway-done house. “Well, Kanga’s a mother, and mothers like to bake cakes. Maybe you should go ask her.” “He-hey, yeah! Great idea donkey-boy!” Tigger said joyfully, as he slapped Eeyore on the back as a thank you. And, of course, the motion sent the pile of sticks to the ground, as Tigger hopped away. “TTFN! Tata for now!” Pinkie started to hop after Tigger, but looked back at Eeyore, who sighed and started working on his house again. She zipped over to just behind him, and gave him a big hug. “Have fun, Eeyore!” she said happily, and bounced away. Eeyore looked behind him as the two disappeared into the distance, and went back to building his house, with just a hint of a smile on his face. And so it was that Tigger and Pinkie Pie went to Kanga’s house, looking for cake.