I sat Mum back down on the couch and explained to her from the beginning, save for what I told her about what happened with Mike. She still held me while I was explaining what happened, from my perspective.
It began with telling her about my day as usual, briefly adding a mention of Mike that she gave an understanding nod to. From there it was just the usual routine after I got home and started cutting wood is where the story started to get interesting for her.
"What was that noise anyway?" I asked, turning to the chestnut brown colt sitting on my right.
"That was the TARDIS. She makes that noise when materializing but the noise you heard is the kind she makes when upset or sick, shall I say."
"She?" Mum asked, surprised.
Doctor only chuckled. "Never in a million years would you believe me if I told you how I knew."
"You're a talking pony from god-knows-where that arrived in a female time machine. What's not to believe?" I said, rather flatly.
"Honestly?" He began. "The answer would raise more questions than anything else. There are some things about me best left unsaid. Now. Is there a little colt's room around?"
Mum and I exchanged puzzled glances before something between us clicked. "OH!" we both chimed. I got off the couch and picked him up, facing forward, and hurried out the front door and set him down on the grass out front.
"You can't be serious." He said bluntly. "Back where I'm from there were proper restrooms."
I looked at him in disbelief, but one of my eyes decided to play up, so now I was getting a mixed view of the ground and the area out in front of me. It's almost like going cross-eyed. Well, it's exactly like going cross-eyed. The opposite of going cross-eyed is going wall-eyed, which is what's happening, albeit involuntarily. I closed my eyes and shook my head like I often to in an attempt to correct the issue.
"Uhm, yes, on the grass. How does something of your species and stature even use a restroom anyway? Are they like the ones we have in the house?"
"You know, what's something I never really thought about; just kind of sat in the back of my head."
"Well... I'll... just go inside and leave you to.. do whatever it is you normally do." I promptly turned and walked back inside, sitting back down on the couch, but leaving the door open so Doctor could get back inside easily enough.
~~*****~~
Apart from the work schedule of Mum and I, the next few days were anything but normal. Jill insisted on keeping an close eye on the Doctor and was rather hesitant to call him by name, rather she just used a various assortment of third-person referrals. "Your little friend", "the pony", "that thing", to name but a few.
I found it quite annoying to say the least because even if something is completely foreign, or rather in this case, alien to us in every sense of the word, doesn't mean it deserves to be treated with any less respect or dignity. So I just chalked it down to Jill's insecurity of having Doctor staying with us. But I digress.
Fortunately it was myself who caught the Doctor sticking his muzzle into all sorts of places where he shouldn't. Sometimes I would get up and find him already gone from his bed, only to hear buzzing coming from another room in the house. Or when I came home from the morning or evening shifts at work he would be fuddling with other things like the TV or microwave. Maybe I should just listen to Mum and leave him tied up outside like she insisted when we weren't home.
His defense was that because nobody was home, he got rather bored and attempted to start 'fixing' things with his little screwdriver. It didn't quite go well as one would guess from a talking nine-hundred year old alien pony. I had a couple of old cellphones laying around in my old desk drawer which I gave him to use, telling him they're still good but are just really slow, thus a pain to use for any period of time. He got them working perfectly fine, and the issue was apparently I had been "Pushing the system too hard to get it to do what I want it to."
Huh. Never really thought about it like that.
I already had a cellphone that I used on a regular basis so I gave those to the Doctor, so he could have fun with and do whatever it is he likes with them. He requested some sort of magnet. Said it was called a rare-earth magnet.
"If they're rare, how am I supposed to get one?"
"You see, that's just the name. They're made from elements that are rare, but the magnets themselves are not. They're several times stronger than normal ferromagnetic material."
"So... They're common magnets made from rare earth elements? If they're common why are they called rare?"
The resulting debate had me reeling in confusion. Honestly, there are some things that are just going to go straight over the top of my head despite best efforts to understand it. That's kind of why I got called stupid a lot when I was at school. I didn't understand something because it's not knowledge I shared, but it's just I got a different set of skills and knowledge. Those people are equally stupid by comparison.
By the end of the week Doctor had ripped into half the electronics in the house. I was belivid.
"Mum will have a fit and crawl up the wall when she realizes what you've done! You're lucky I've been able to find you before she does!"
"I made them better."
"You destroyed half the appliances in the house just so you could build... whatever this thing is!" I shouted, gesturing to the odd-looking device laying in the middle of the room. I had just got home from the morning shift to find yet more things missing, but for some reason they still worked. "And what do you mean they work better?!"
"It's like going from point A, to point B, then C, then D, right along until you get to Z. If you cut out the middle, you get the job done with more efficiency. That's where I've got all these extra bits and pieces, and from the phones you gave me last week." He didn't look up from his little project, but just kept tinkering with the thing using his screwdriver.
"If Jill finds out you've had it, Mister!"
"Doctor."
"Whatever!" I cried out.
Much to my surprise, Mum didn't notice anything wrong with the appliances around the house even I knew half the components were missing, and Doctor kept his little invention away from prying eyes, hidden under my bed. Whatever it's for I don't know, nor do I want to know. The explanation will probably go right over my head.
The next months progresses without any incident, and Doctor stops taking bits and pieces out of the appliances around the house but insists on playing with his little device when I'm not home. It's unnerving to have him playing with a device that I have no idea about what it does, but at the same time nothing bad has happened. How bad could it really be?
He does start growing a little bit, but only very slightly, not more than a couple inches or so over the last month and a half since I found him. When I had some spare time I would sit down with Doctor and just teach him about what I knew. I don't know if what I have to offer in that respect would be of any help to him, but I feel like it is. In return he would tell me about himself.
It turns out he was human at one point. Well not quite, humanoid is more like it. He told me that in his grand adventures across time and space his time machine inexplicably 'jumped' between universes.
"Imagine a bubble. inside this bubble are more bubbles. One of these bubbles is your universe. What happened was is the TARDIS somehow went from one bubble to another, and to this day I never found out how it did that to begin with because it shouldn't be possible. Some of these universes have different laws of physics, and some will alter your DNA if you stay too long, like what happened to me when I got trapped on Equestria, the country that the TARDIS crashed on."
This is making more sense, but only just.
"So. You're from one bubble, but you're in my bubble, but ponies come from another bubble?" I asked, not entirely knowing what just came out of my mouth.
"More or less. But what you just mentioned is something called the multi-verse theory, my dear. For every possible situation you can think of, there's most likely a universe for it."
"That's... both wonderful and scary at the same time, Doctor. For all I know there could be some cute fully pony-me from a magical land of talking horses, but at the same time there are innumerable situations where bad things are happening to me at the same time."
He comes and nuzzles my side. "Don't forget about all the good you've done, or will do. The way I look at it, Mel, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa the bad things don't spoil the good things or make them unimportant."
I picked up the colt and gave him a nice, warm hug. His fur is so soft I could cuddle him all day. "Hey, Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"In the universe you came from, being the one where you landed in and became a pony, is there a pony version of me?"
He looked into my misaligned eyes, and said with all due warmth in his voice. "I met her. She's the most bubbliest, happiest pony I ever met."
That one comment. That one comment made my heart flutter with happiness and joy. To know that he met a different version of me in an alternate universe made my day, knowing there was another me that could bring joy into another creatures life. How awesome is that feeling? Knowing that somewhere out there something you did has changed the life of someone else for the better. Never in a million years would I ever think I could have such an impact like he just told me.
Later that evening when we were both laying in out respective beds, he said something else.
"You can do anything you want, and it's always going to look nice. 'Cause you did it, and you're wonderful, and you have to believe that."
That gave me a lot of comfort. Besides Jill, Doctor is the only one to have shown me any affection that made me proud to be who I am. If you give someone one of your smiles, it might be the only sunshine they see all day. It can change the world. Well, maybe not the whole world, but their world.
I slept the best on this night than I have in a long time. It's a pity that I don't dream as much as I'd like, but sleeping extra made up for that. I went to bed around 10:30pm, and didn't wake up until the same time the following morning. Doctor woke up before I did, only to be greeted by Mum in the kitchen. When I woke up and began making my way into the kitchen I heard the two of them talking to one another.
"You know I still haven't got used to you in every sense of the word, no offense intended."
"None taken ma'am. I understand why you'd say so too."
I decide to hang back and listen to where this goes.
"If I may ask, what made you decide to adopt Melissa?"
"My husband died in a house fire a few years after we got married. The body was never found, so I assumed everything got burnt up and we had a closed casket funeral with friends and family. We had planned on having a family, but nothing happened. We went to a doctor to see if something could be wrong, but we were both fine, thank god."
"My condolences about your husband. I've lost family of my own, too."
Doctor never told me he had family. Did he?
"I'm sorry to hear that. Anyway, my desire to have kids never faltered and it was just too soon to move on. I feel like I'd be dishonouring my husband and his family by doing so. I allowed myself some time to wind down after the funeral, and six months after the fact I visited the local orphanage."
Right now I'm just sitting on the floor with my back against the wall with the door ajar, listening to the conversation. I know eves dropping is frowned upon, but this is the story I've been wanting to hear for years. I am a little annoyed mum is telling it to Doctor first, but it's her way of reconciling their differences. Doctor just sat on a stool listening to her. Normally Mum would have told him to get down, but her attitude seems to have changed.
"These orphanage had a programme where parents wanting to adopt would come in when the kids were playing, or reading in the main hall. That's where the kids spent most of their time outside of their communal bedrooms. The parents would just sit back and observe the kids, and the kids would either go up to the ones they liked, for whatever reason, or the parents would go to the kids.
"I went once three times that week, and during my visits I noticed one particular two-year-old girl who just sat on her own and blow bubbles. I would just sit on one of the chairs while the other parents and kids would have fun getting to know each other until they were ready to make their decision, but not me. I spent most of my time just watching this little kid with awe."
This brought a smile to my face. I don't remember playing with bubbles a lot when I was a kid, but that could just be after Jill bought me back home I just fell out of touch with them.
"This little two-year-old would just sit there for hours on end blowing bubbles. Blowing about a dozen of the things then getting up and trying to pop them. At some point I went up up to and talked to her. I said; "Hello cutie, my name is Julianne, what's yours?" She gave me a look with those eyes, a smile as wide as I've ever seen, and simply held up the little bubble wand to me and just exclaimed "Bubbles!" It was the most adorable thing ever.
"The following day I bought some bubbles with me, then Mel and I spent the whole day blowing bubbles and popping them. Toward the end of the day I went to speak with the owner of the orphanage about her. She told me the most bizarre story about how the procured her. Apparently an older couple bought her in after they found her while the husband was hunting one day. But that's not the strangest part.
"That part was... how shall I say, the environment. This old man said that the place looked like a bomb had gone off; trees were pushed away from the, it would be best described as the centre of an explosion all charred and burnt, and in the middle he found a sleeping baby."
The Doctor only gave a nervous chuckle. "Heh, yeah, that is rather peculiar."
That makes him sound like he knows something. What isn't he telling me?
"The couple did what they could for two months before the strain of taking care of a baby caught up with them. It broke their heart to do it, but they knew it was in the best interest of the child. They named the baby, and the owner decided to keep it and give her a surname when someone adopted her. That's where I came in."
"Did the orphanage owner ever call in someone to look at her eyes?" asked Doctor
"Oh yes of course. It's policy when they get in someone new to give them a full exam regardless of age. They couldn't find anything else wrong except her eyes, which they diagnosed as Strabismus. Kind of like-"
"Having one wheel on a car spin faster than the other?" Doctor chuckled, finishing off Jill's sentence. "Yeah, she told me that much."
It's nice to see those two making friends. It means a lot to me that my friend is trying to get along with my mother.
"You know, Doctor, whenever Mel has been happy I've noticed she's had a certain glow about her. You make her happy. After Michael you've helped make things bearable for her. She didn't have too many friends growing up, and the friendships she did have kinda fell through in the end because nobody wanted to hang out with a derpy-eyed person who tripped over things on a regular basis."
I think it's time to make my presence known. I just quietly get up off the floor from sitting there for the last fifteen minutes, and quietly inch the door open seeing how long it would take them to realize. I just stand in the doorway leaning on the door frame until they take notice, and Doctor continues talking.
"The lonliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. Even though Mel has had a lot of hardships, by no means does it make her any less of a strong, confident person."
"Thank you, Doctor." I say.
They both snap their head in my direction.
"How long have you been standing there?" said a stunned Julianne.
"Long enough, Mum. Long enough."
"How much did you hear?"
"A lot. I'm not mad or anything, but I know you feel good about finally getting it off your chest after all these years." I moved my stool around the table next to Mum's so I can give her a hug. "You too, Doctor." HE got off his stool and trotted around the table where I lifted him on my lap between Mum and I. We all hugged for a good five minutes. It felt good. Hugs make everything better. Some day someone will hug you so tight that all our broken pieces will stick back together. Right now, I feel complete.
After we broke the hug, I went to get ready for the afternoon shift at work. It was Mum's day off today, so it'd just be her and the Doctor home. Here's hoping he doesn't make his weird contraption known to her, she would probably flip and have a freak. Trust must be earned, and it can be lost in an instant. Mum has only just started to trust Doctor from the morning talk. It would break my heart to see something happen to the both of them, and it would tear me in two as well.
The next couple months began to get very strange. There were an increase of electrical storms and people were beginning to go missing. This had both Mum, myself, and Doctor worried. Any one of us could be next, and if someone found Doctor they could perform any number of experiments on a humanoid-turned-pony that's been to several different universes.
It's highly unlike me to do this, but because of the reported missing persons cases that were being treated as serial kidnappings, I started carrying a pocket knife on me. I'm scared that someone is going to take me, and it's for the security more than actually having to use it. I don't know what would happen if that time came, knock on wood.
The increase of the storms meant the sky was clouded over most days, although there was a few days of sunshine. Part of me thinks that was to keep people placid; having constant cloud will probably just build suspicion. The meteorologists couldn't figure out what was causing it either. They say that half way through the week on one of their weather charts, it changed drastically. One day it was scheduled sunny with a chance of cloud but instead this thick bank of cloud rolled in from literally nowhere. It had everyone in town puzzled.
Doctor seemed very worried about what was causing the storms, and not even he knew. When Mum was at work He'd take his little device outside and start pushing buttons on it. When nothing happened, that made him even more concerned.
"Whatever is causing these storms is blocking the transmission from this. This is not just a mere storm. Something is creating it."
The talk of the town was who was going to get kidnapped next, and I even heard people saying "Oohhh, I bet it's Little Johnny from up the street.", or, "Did you hear about the new couple that moved in the other day?" As if the new couple has anything to do with the disappearances, but there were people being investigated mentioned the police. Although half-arsed efforts didn't seem to be going over well.
I payed no attention to them. It was all just gossip, and if you start buying into gossip that's when shit starts to hit the fan. Gossip is the most destructive force in the universe. But doing the mail routes around town and some of the back streets, you keep an ear out for things that pique your interest. Every story has an element of truth, and I've found if you listen to them all then you can make a better educated guess about what's going on.
This is not the case.
I've heard everything from aliens to demons, and vampires were even mentioned at one point too. What a load of horse apples, how stupid do you have to be to believe in... wait... I have an alien living with me. Well that just throws my credibility out the window. The more I think about it, if anyone DID find Doctor, being an alien from another universe entirely, they're going to want to blame things on him.
But that's the problem with people, they're so quick to judge and place blame on something that they'll do it without a second thought if it means some sort of comfort or closure about the matter at hand. Frankly, you need to look at all the evidence not what you think could be the problem. It's a little something called the benefit of the doubt.
A month into this weird weather and hundreds of people kept going missing not just from in town, but it was happening all over the country.
Things turned sour for the worst one afternoon when I got a call from Mum's work saying she never made it in that day.