Karyn was awake and alert for when Derpy arrived that Sunday.
“Do we need to go back to your house to watch Dinky again?” she asked.
Derpy took her seat at the table. “No point to it. She’s already left the house, earlier than me even.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, she’s been following your advice and getting out of the house every day. Almost every day. More than half.”
Now that the worry about another quick turnaround had gone, Karyn relaxed and sat down with Derpy. They were able to get back into their usual routine, with Derpy taking a quick look around to make sure all was clean before having coffee and breakfast. With all the stress of Karyn’s finals and Dinky’s ailment gone, it was finally back to normal.
“I’m glad to see that you’re OK with her going out. I was worried that you were going to argue with me about it last week.”
“Karyn, I did let her go off to school on her own. I know you see me as this overprotective pegasus, always hovering over my daughter, but I do know that she has to grow up. I don’t feel it, and I don’t necessarily like it, but yeah, I have to.”
Karyn decided to take her time with cooking that day, and didn’t get up from the table just yet. “I’m glad to hear you say that. That’s something I’ve had to learn, how to deal with things that I know are true even though my intuition says it isn’t. You can do it, which is a sign of maturity.”
“Thank you. Besides, I asked Colgate to go after her and make sure that, if she got into any trouble, she could get bailed out.”
“Then maybe you didn’t get the lesson. Or I don’t understand it completely either. Whatever, let’s not worry about it.”
They had a leisurely breakfast, and it was over an hour before Karyn finished cleaning up and putting the dishes away, after which they sat down at the same table and kept up the small talk. The winter break was going well and Karyn was spending her time scoping out the job market. Also she had done some more work with the meetup group that they had spent time with. Derpy was having her own fun with Dinky back, but the hardest thing was knowing that she still felt guilty.
“So,” said Derpy, “being that I’m here and free to do whatever you like, what would you like to do?”
“Actually, I was planning to do this next Saturday, but maybe you want to come with. We haven’t done a movie in a long time.”
“Yes, we have. Remember when we saw the movie that supposedly had ponies in it, but not for long, and it was all about that weird alternate dimension with not-quite-humans?”
Karyn had to think about that for a moment. It had happened only recently, but somehow it felt disconnected from their normal weekly sessions. She put that thought aside. “But we didn’t go to the theater for that. We just watched the first one on disc and the second one on TV. I’m talking about actually going to a movie theater. Don’t you remember? It was the first time that you ever went out into the world.”
“That was a long time ago, wow. I guess it’s all right to do the same thing twice, yeah? I mean, if it’s been that long.”
“Plus there’s one particular movie that I’ve wanted to see.”
Derpy was putting on her saddlebag again to head out. “Yeah? Can you tell me about it?”
Karyn grabbed her own coat and walked toward the car. Derpy went invisible but waited for her answer, because it was clear that Karyn was thinking deeply.
“All right,” she said at last, “the thing is that some movies—most of them, these days—are just silly movies with ordinary plots and no depth. They could be action movies designed to show off special effects, or romantic movies meant to make people think that love is easy, or more likely the adaptation of some book or TV show that has a pre-made audience for it, since movies are expensive and they don’t like to spend money that they won’t get back. Then there are movies that do have a lot of ideas behind them, but also a lot of symbolism and imagery, and they tend to be depressing or just plain hard to understand.
“Sometimes I want to see the first kind of movie, and never do I want to see the second kind. I don’t like it when I can’t understand the movie. I know some people think that makes me entitled, but I want to be entertained. My point is that there are some filmmakers—they usually write and direct their works—that hit the happy medium where they have some smart concepts but I can still follow them. One of those guys has a new movie out.”
They arrived at the theater, and Derpy, although she didn’t fully understand what Karyn was talking about, did know that it was something that she cared about. Derpy herself was more interested in just having a good time. The theater was not the same one they had gone to, and she was impressed with its size. As they went inside, she asked, “Are we going to get popcorn?”
“That too is kind of expensive, and it’s way unhealthy. I’ll buy you snacks after the movie.”
Karyn went to the automated ticket machine, not because she had any disdain for ticket sellers, but because there was a line at the normal box office, and all the machines were free. She negotiated the menu quickly and purchased her ticket, declining to get one for Derpy given the high price.
“If you give them too much money,” she said, “they’ll only keep making more expensive movies that involve costly effects instead of giving the money to writers.”
In the theater, Karyn took her usual place, second from the aisle, so that Derpy was free to sit on the end and it would discourage anyone from thinking it was open and squashing her.
They had gotten there good and early, and could relax and enjoy the pre-preview previews laden with commercials. Karyn and Derpy made small talk, which drew some nasty looks from people who assumed that she wouldn’t turn off her Bluetooth when the movie started. But eventually the lights dimmed, and Karyn naturally did maintain a respectful silence.
The movie came on, and both of them watched carefully so they didn’t lose track of the plot. Depite what Karyn had said, there were some effects in the movie, and Derpy oohed and aahed at them when they did happen. Karyn enjoyed them too, but was more concerned with the narrative. She was happy that Derpy wasn’t asking any questions, though she could easily see parts where she might have been confused by the motivations of this character or that. Either she was following along just fine, or had decided that it wasn’t worth it and was just watching for the pretty images and to be next to Karyn.
As it proceeded to the climax, Karyn reflected that, unless the screenwriter had made some very odd decisions late, she was going to come out of this with a positive impression. And even if the story fell apart, she had enjoyed it thus far. But all at once, she was shocked out of her reverie by a voice to her right. For a moment she thought it had come from one of the wall speakers, but neither the voice nor the sentiment fit the movie.
“What’s your problem?!”
She looked to see that someone in the same row, about two-thirds of the way down, had stood up and was making threatening gestures at a person in the same position one row down.
Karyn couldn’t make out the figures in the dark, but she saw a bunch of small objects fly through, and concluded that one person had thrown popcorn at the other. “Wanna kick the back of my seat now?!” the lower person shouted, and Karyn heard that it was a female voice.
They continued to yell at each other, and neither Karyn nor anyone else wanted to get involved. After a few curses and obscene gestures, they sat down.
“Should we do something?” whispered Derpy.
“It looks like it’s over. Probably just some people who get annoyed easily. Better that we don’t get them annoyed at us. We’ll just let it go, and if it starts up again maybe I’ll say something.”
But Karyn knew that she wouldn’t say anything, not unless someone else did so first. She knew that this was the bystander effect, and that she was subject to it. She could make excuses to herself, how she was young and female, and couldn’t handle herself if it came to a fight, but the truth was that she didn’t have the psychology for confrontations. She wondered if ponies in general and Derpy in particular were immune to the effect, and if Derpy would try to help if she saw two ponies in a fight.
Trying to lean back and get back into the movie, Karyn couldn’t help being distracted. In the first place, the movie was nearly over anyway, and the pace had slowed as the cinematography got brighter, as if preparing the audience for the real world. In the second, she knew that as much as she liked this movie, and would probably get it on disc when the time came, she would forever remember the fight as being part of it. In a small way, two people who couldn’t just sit and watch had ruined the movie for her.
It was only ten minutes or so, and the ending came. Everyone else got up, but Karyn remained, and only once they were all alone did Derpy ask why they were still there.
“Sometimes they put a scene after the credits. It might give you a hint about a sequel, or just more information about some of the characters that they didn’t think fit in the main movie. It’s a kind of reward for sticking out for the credits.”
“Oh. I’m going to stretch my wings.”
“Go ahead.” Karyn stood up and stretched herself while Derpy enjoyed the large expanse of the theater. The credits continued to roll slowly, and the vocal soundtrack had given way to instrumental snatches that had probably played during the movie, but which the audience hadn’t noticed.
The logo came up and Karyn sat down once more. The bonus scene only lasted five seconds, and it was more of a joke than a sequel hook, but she was not dissatisfied. She called Derpy and they walked out.
Out in the light, their path back to the main lobby was blocked. The theater had two wings, each with its own person to rip tickets, and the hallways to the individual screens were narrow. Right where they were, they saw the two people who had argued inside yelling at each other again, and one of them had a bloody nose.
Karyn eyed them. Both men looked in shape, at least in their upper body and arms. She pegged them as gym rats, or possibly bouncers or some other job that required them to use their strength. Curses were still flying, and she thought about getting out of there, more for Derpy’s sake. If she went down to the far end, there was another set of exit doors there. They could walk around the outside to get to the car, even if it was cold. But a voyeuristic instinct told her to stay.
She was glad to have missed the actual blow that had caused the one man’s nose to bleed, not out of queasiness, but just not preferring to see violence. And again, she wanted to keep Derpy away from the darker side of human interaction.
What she did try to do was sidle around the crowd to get out the normal way. In doing so, she saw a black vest and a nametag walk up, and concluded that it was the manager. He was younger than her and still bore the scars of acne. Looking into the crowd and assessing what had happened, he unholstered a walkie-talkie from his belt and said, “Security, please come to theater seven.”
Karyn stayed, hoping for something more interesting to happen. Derpy seemed curious too, since she leaned over and said, “What’s going on now?”
“He’s calling in security. I didn’t even know that a movie theater had security, but apparently this one does.”
The security officer wasn’t much more imposing than the manager, but he had a thicker belt and a more visible uniform. He also had the commanding presence necessary to the position, and he spread out the crowd by force of will. He walked the aggressor to one side of the theater while the manager escorted the other combatant near to the front door. After that the crowd fully dispersed, and Karyn headed to the front with Derpy.
“Well, that was interesting,” she was saying, but as they passed the door they saw the man with the bloody nose looking for something to staunch the flow. Perhaps not thinking, Derpy flew to the concession stand and grabbed a stack of napkins. Karyn caught her move and took the napkins herself so it didn’t look like they were floating in midair. “Here,” she said, extending them.
“Thanks. I don’t know what his problem was.”
“We called the police,” the manager said. “Do you want to press charges?”
“You bet I do.” The man went into another tirade of swearing.
Karyn walked out at last, but once out in the cold, Derpy said, “Don’t you want to stay to see if we can help?”
“I think we’ve done all we can. As he said, the police are coming, so they can handle it all. We didn’t even see what happened. Probably someone else will give them the details.”
“Assuming they don’t all leave too.”
A pang of guilt hit Karyn as she again considered the bystander effect. She had excuses in the dark theater—too weak to help, too far away—but now all she had to do was stick around and give a statement.
“Fine. Let’s hang out. But then we’re still going to wait before we eat. If there’s anything more expensive at the movies than the snacks, it’s the meals.”
Back in the lobby, they moved to the side and tried to stay out of everyone’s way. Karyn played on her cell phone, more so that it looked like she was doing something other than loitering. Derpy freely watched the happenings.
After five minutes or so, the security guard came walking back. “Yes?” said the manager.
“He took off.”
The victim of the assault took the napkin off his nose and gave the guard a sharp look.
“I got his license plate, though.”
“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”
Over to the side, Derpy whispered, “Why didn’t the security guy stop him?”
“That’s not his job. You don’t want a private security guard using force to hold someone who’s trying to get away. You can get sued that way, or worse, the guy could have attacked the guard. That’s why cars have license plates, so people can be identified when they do something like this. The police will track him down. I don’t know how he thought he’d get away with it.”
“Speaking of which, where are they?”
“Police always take a long time to come when you need them,” Karyn said, but she too was getting impatient. After fifteen minutes or so she saw the flashing lights of a patrol car. An officer stepped in and the manager had a long conversation with him. Her cheeks were beginning to flush as she wondered what she was doing there. But in time the manager indicated to the officer that Karyn had been present.
He walked over and asked what happened. Karyn tried to give as precise an explanation as possible while also not claiming too much. She opened all her sentences with “What I saw was,” or “I remember it as.”
The officer didn’t even bother to write anything down, and Karyn suspected that he had seen the situation for what it was: a civilian who never gets into fights or even sees one wanting to play the part of being a witness without having actually witnessed anything.
“All right, thanks,” he said. “You can go.”
Not wanting to annoy the officer, Karyn hightailed it to her car. That also gave her the chance to turn on the heater.
“Crazy stuff, huh, Derpy?”
No response came, and Karyn realized that Derpy had not opened her door.
A moment of panic, then she remembered that she had last seen her inside, and that Derpy wasn’t lost or captured. All she needed to do was to wait patiently for Derpy to return. She considered going home and waiting there, since Derpy knew where to go, but she didn’t want to leave her friend in the cold. Besides, in the worst case scenario, Derpy could just warp home, and everyone would be in their right worlds.
But it didn’t take long. Ten minutes or so, and the door swiftly opened and closed. “Brr! A little cold out there, even for me.”
“I’ll start driving so the engine produces more heat.” Once on the road, she asked, “So why didn’t you come out when I did?”
“Well, he let you go, but clearly you wanted to find out more. So I listened to him talk to the security guard and then radio to run a search like you said he would.”
“And?”
“The person on the radio gave a lot of jargon I didn’t understand. But neither did the manager, so he explained. Apparently the guy who ran off had a lot more things he did wrong, and they were already looking for him.” Karyn focused on driving for a while, and Derpy let her, but she still had the incident on her mind and said, “Karyn, what makes people like that?”
“If I knew that, I’d be a lot more important than I am now. What makes some ponies less nice than others, like Filthy Rich or Diamond Tiara...or Rocky Top?”
“But that’s what I want to know. It’s bad enough when ponies do it, because generally the princesses are merciful and will be nice to them. But you’ve got people here willing to punch you in the face, and then hunt you down if you punch anyone else in the face. So why do they do it?”
Karyn pursed her lips. This was the only drawback about visiting with Derpy. Talking about deep subjects with her wasn’t pleasant. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe it’s to do with our base instincts, back when we were only animals and needed to fight for our survival.”
“Could be. But I’m not asking for an answer. It’s one of those, what do you call it? Ridiculous question?”
“Rhetorical.”
“Yeah.”
They made it home, and after all that they had been through, Karyn and Derpy wanted nothing more than to collapse into the chair and the bed respectively and relax. Not even bothering with a video, Karyn put on some light music, leaning back and only moving her hand when the song finished.
With no lead-in, Derpy stared at the ceiling and said, “It’s why I worry about her.”
“Huh?”
“Dinky. I’m worried that she’s like the guy who hit the other guy, or at least has instincts like that. I tried to raise her with love to do the right thing, but...”
Karyn flipped her head forward and stared Derpy down. “You raised her great. She’s not bad, even instinctually. You’re the odd one out. You have basically no instinct to hurt anyone else, even if you need to for your own sake.”
“You’re saying I’m weird? It’s OK, I’m used to it.”
“No, I mean...well, yes, that is what I mean, but I didn’t want to say it because it would hurt your feelings. But this is weird in a good way. Because it makes you better than everypony else. Even me, because sometimes I want to hit people. Everyone gets like that sometimes, and part of maturity is learning not to. But you were born knowing not to, not even liking it. Now, it’s not always the best thing for making your way in the world. I think that if you could have been a little more aggressive when ponies told you you were weird instead of internalizing it, you could have solved that problem. But that’s not who you are, and you can’t wish that different. Just trust me. The people you love, including Dinky, aren’t criminals waiting to happen. They just get a little angry now and again, and have to find some way to deal with it.”
Derpy hadn’t intended her remark to bring such a moment of honesty from Karyn, but she said, “Thank you. But that’s one of the reasons that I worry if you look up to me as someone to look up to. Because we’re not really the same.”
“Of course not. We’re meant for different worlds. Nothing wrong with that. What I do is emulate the way you interact with your world to find balance. If I can achieve that, I’ll be as happy as, well...you.”