//------------------------------// // Doubles Therapy // Story: Fatherhooves // by Violise //------------------------------// It was a couple minutes after the sudden bombshell before Whooves could calmly converse with the physician. "In all my days, I have never come across a case like this," the aged Colt spoke nervously. "I have only once a long time ago, just didn't think it applied to Equines, though. Don't rightly know what DOES apply to an equine in the case of disease." Whooves wore a serious expression. "Does that mean that you are a doctor, then?"The physician raised his head slightly. "The Doctor, to be exact." "In what field?" "Oh, I've never practiced medicine." "Then you have been to college." "Sorry. Wasn't my cup of tea.' "Then why do people call you The Doctor?" "Ah. Yes, that is an important question." He paused and leaned on the bed lightly. "Before we continue, how is this relevant to Dinky?" The physician paused. "U-uh, you're right. We should stick to the matter at hoof. In your opinion, since you've handled situations like this before." "Right. i'll just have to grab something from home first." Derpy's gonna kill me for this. ~~~ Whooves entered the hospital room after an hour of rushed searching through his house. Derpy was back in the room, cradling dinky while she slept. She looked up at Whooves and was about to ask him what took him, when she noticed what he was holding in his mouth. in an instant, she was glaring at the vile item. The item in question was none other than Whooves trusty Sonic Screwdriver, fresh from the bottom of a musty truck in their attic. "I told you never to touch that thing again!" Derpy yelled silently at him. "I need it for this though." Whooves whined. "Last I check she just has some sort of amnesia, not Lazar's disease." Whooves looked at his wife. "I know that. I just need to get a quick resonance scan," by this point he was already next to her and was quickly running the screwdriver all around the base of Dinky's horn. The light ringing of the machine felt like magic to Whooves. ' 'I really have missed this old thing. It's a shame really, to have to hid it so Dinky doesn't find it.' It was Derpy's idea not to tell Dinky of Whooves' layered past. she felt that the strain of the wedding, couple with that kind of information would have put the poor filly into a state not to dissimilar to that of Miss Screwball. Whooves chuckled at the idea of a floating swirly eyed Dinky, and almost dropped the Sonic in the process. He retreated from dinky and studied the result carefully. The Physician and Derpy both just stared at him, unable to help in any sort of manner. The physician did want to ask what the contraption he had was, but he knew that all he would get was another run around answer that left him with even more questions. Whooves eyed Derpy and softly smiled. But before she could ask him what he found, he motioned her to give him Dinky. Whooves looked down a the filly, who was still snoring away, as if she just played outside for too long and needed a nap. He closed his eyes and whispered something into her ear. At first, nothing happened; but as if she had heard a really brilliant joke, she popped her eyes open and started to giggle furiously. Tears were steaming down her face as she laughed. Whooves again whispered in her ear, but this time he pointed towards Derpy with a grin on his face. "He-Ha-ah- Of course I know who that is, silly. That's mama!" At the sound of her moniker being called by her child, Derpy rushed over and grabbed the two of them in a sweeping hug. It had felt like the roller coaster of the past month had finally ended. ~~~ The three were just about to exit the hospital when the physician stopped Whooves. His breath was ragged, as if he had just run a two hour marathon. "Okay. I need to know..."The colt finally breathed. "Know what?" Whooves turned to face The Doctor. "How did you cure her? I mean all it took was some little light and some whispers and BAM, that's it, all better?" "It was actually simpler than that doctor." "Well then what was it?" "Laughter. I thought all doctors knew that was the best medicine?" "Well, yes that's true when someone is depressed; but it doesn't exactly treat broken wings, now does it?" "Ah! There lies you problem then." "Yes?" "You just haven't found the right words to the joke." Whooves grinned enigmatically and turned to leave. ~~~ Derpy looked to Whooves as they walked home. Now that she had thought on the physicians question, she had one of her own. "Honey." "Muffin. Oh, that made me hungry!" Whooves looked into nothing and grabbed his stomach. "Honey." Derpy stated flatly. Whooves kept looking off into space, as if the imaginary food was floating towards him from the heavens. "Daddy!" Dinky shouted. Whooves snapped out of his delusion and whipped his head towards Dinky. Dinky responded by nodding her head to his immediate left. He turned his head to find a mare who had an expression that would scare a Dalek out of it's machine. "Hehe."Whooves shakily laughed. "Sorry, you were saying." "Anyway," Derpy turned and looked ahead. "What did you mean by 'you haven't found the right words, then'?" Whooves grinned, "That is an excellent question. I have one for you too." Derpy looked confused. "What?" "Are you sure Dinky wants to hear something so boring." Derpy looked over at the filly, and realized what he really meant. It was then that she wore a flat expression and said to Dinky flatly, "Muffins, your daddy is a Time Lord." She turned back to Whooves, who had a bemused expression spread across his features. "Does this mean that I-" "No you cannot walk around carrying that infernal contraption!" Derpy interrupted. Whooves wore a slight look of sadness. "...Sigh, alright. But only in the house. We don't need the neighbors freaking out about their house falling apart cause somepony wants to wave his toy around." Whooves frowned at the accusation. "Now when have I ever done that?" She looked him dead in the eye. "Carrot Top." "Oh yes. Quite right." As I was saying," she continued for a third time, "What did you mean with that statement?" "Well, when I was on the Earth all those years ago, I didn't have the luxuries of 'Unicorns' and 'magic', but what we did have was science. And a very of race of scientist was on the earth. Now mind you, this particular race was not the most well behaved, in fact they were only bent on the destruction of order in the whole universe. They were the equivalent of Discord on my planet, and they had a very interesting name on Earth. The humans there called them 'Witches'; and they had a very unique ability. in Laymares terms, they used words as codes for manipulation of time and space." Derpy stared at him blankly, trying to absorb this information. "Now, I bet you're wondering how this all fits into Dinky." She wasn't, but she nodded her head all the same. "Dinky's mind is like a... a post office. When she get new letter, she puts it into a specific pile. Each pile belongs to a larger pile, and that one belongs to an even bigger one; all of them forming a very large tree of letters, with each branch a very neccessary bit of information." "Now," he continued, "Imagine that the letters containing all of 'you' were all locked away in a secret vault. That's essentially what happened to Dinky. All I did was create a key using the words I learned from my time on Earth." "O-okay,"Derpy shook her head. "One last question. Why was she laughing?" "Oh, that. Her ear tickled when I whispered into it." Derpy just stared at him a moment before she collapsed into a laughing fit, followed by Whooves. After a few moments, they both realized that a specific pony was not very amused with any of this at all. The two of them stared a Dinky with a small amount of worry on their features. Derpy was the first to speak. "Are you okay, Sweetie?" Derpy already knew the answer. " No." "I am sure that whatever questions you have, we can answer them as best as we can." "No. I don't really have any questions...Well, I do have one." "Ask away." Whooves said. "Who is that." Dinky had a knack for pointing out the strangest things in an already strange situation. Whooves thought this as he surveyed the new pony that had just landed, rather ungracefully, at their hooves. "I know this one." Whooves said quietly. "W-who is ti?" Derpy said as she cowered behind Whooves. He pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver, "Queen Chrysalis..." TO BE CONTINUED