Chapter 9
Derpy stretched out her wings where she sat somewhat relaxed on a cloud above Ponyville. The mare was trying not to think too much about latest events. There was nothing much to do but wait anyway and she didn’t feel like worrying herself over it, as the social workers had said, she had a solid case no matter what.
“Aaaand there.” The voice of Foxy caught her attention.
Looking over the gray pony could see where the bigger Pegasus mare was hovering next to a cloud she had slowly been molding with her hooves. Derpy tilted her head, the good eye focused but the other one went slightly upwards. The cloud resembled a pony rearing upwards.
“Voila, my current masterpiece.” Foxy Stripes proudly presented the cloud statue.
“Nice,” Derpy smiled. “So, you do this when Barricade upsets you?”
“That and other things.” The big mare shrugged and backed up until she could sit on the same cloud and Derpy. “What do you do?”
“Usually bake muffins,” the gray pony said, though right now she just didn’t have an appetite for anything. Foxy nodded and glanced over to another cloud where Dew Doe lay, she seemed to be thinking and paid no attention to the other mares.
“You didn’t mention you two were sisters during the first meeting,” Derpy pointed out, Foxy’s expression became a little more uneasy.
“Yeaaah, we usually don’t mention it too much, especially when on a job. Dew probably mentioned it to Time Turner because I had already met him and blurted out that I had my sister with me here and he could probably guess Dew was the sister I spoke of when seeing us in the inn.” The maroon Pegasus shrugged then she blinked and looked at Derpy. “Wait, we haven’t told you we were sisters. Dew confirmed it before you came.”
That prompted Dew to look up towards them. Derpy was chuckling to herself. In truth, she had merely guessed but it was apparent she had been spot on. Now the two social workers just stared at her wondering how she had figured that out.
“No, you didn’t, but Carrot Top and I started thinking yesterday and wondering how familiar you two acted with each other. I mean sure good friends can give each other hard time and all but you seemed to do it on a different level. Then during our second meeting at the inn it just hit me, you two reminded me so much of Dinky and Tootsie,” she explained to them.
“Our clever ruse, it has failed us,” Foxy gasped and pretended to pout.
“Well we were bound to run into somepony who would not be fooled,” Dew chuckled and rose to sit up on the cloud.
“I don’t understand though, you clearly like each other, so why aren’t you more open that you are sisters?” Derpy asked with a mild frown.
The two social workers sighed both at the same time. Then Foxy gave the white color on her legs a rueful look. Dew looked down for a second before turning her head towards Derpy.
“I hate to admit it, but there are worse ponies than Barricade,” the blue Pegasus said. “There are some who just can’t accept it that ponies don’t always look all pretty and symmetrical, all the colors in the right place or the mane just utterly perfect.”
Derpy raised an eyebrow, then her good eye wavered towards Foxy. Yes, it was unusual for a Pegasus mare to be this large and cruel as it was to say, she wouldn’t be winning any beauty contests, but it was still a stretch to call her ugly. Then again, the white color on her foreleg and the one on her hind leg did make her stick out a bit.
“I know the feeling,” Derpy said and looked at Dew again, her other eye didn’t focus almost as if to confirm that point. The blue Pegasus nodded.
“So as a rule we rarely bring it up that we are sisters, because we became rather tired of the ‘cute sister/ugly sister’ remarks,” Dew clarified. “We don’t mind ponies knowing we are sisters, but don’t advertise it either.”
Derpy nodded but before she could say anything, Foxy suddenly dropped from the cloud and hovered below them. The maroon mare stared at the clock tower for a second before lifting herself up again.
“You know when the next train from Manehattan comes here?” she asked.
“Ah no, why?” Derpy asked confused then she remembered the inn meeting. “Oh wait, you think he did go and will come?”
“If Private did go then yes he will come, whether he could talk any sense into his brother is a whole another matter,” Dew told her and stood up.
“Private and talking; now there is a concept.” Foxy rolled her eyes with a chuckle.
“Oh hush, let’s go and see the train schedules.” Dew dropped from the cloud and glided towards the train station with Foxy following.
“You two check the schedule, I need to go check on the girls at the park,” Derpy called after them before taking off towards Ponyville Park.
The gray pony felt bit more relaxed and at ease. It had been Dew Doe’s suggestion that the three Pegasi Mares went on a short flight. Stretch their wings and forget the current troubles if only for a short time. Carrot Top had gone back home to do some gardening in the meantime.
You know, maybe I should call Turner, Time instead of Turner, it still sounds too formal to call him Turner, she mused as the pony began circling the park looking for her two youngest.
I still can’t believe he called me just Derpy. She grinned wide when remembering the part of the meeting the stallions attended.
Derpy was no longer really paying attention to the ground to see where her daughters were playing; her thoughts kept wandering back to Time Turner. As she kept repeating the first part of the meeting at the inn in her mind, the mare didn’t notice she was descending. Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when she crashed right into the canopy of a tree.
“Ow, ow, ow,” Derpy complained and tried to untangle herself from the branches and the leaves. She finally managed to loosen enough that now she just hung on the lowest branch, but her mane and tail were full of twigs and leaves.
That could have gone better. She grinned nervously. Ponies in the park were staring at her; some were snickering while others did look mildly concerned.
“Mom? Are you okay?” Dinky stood under the tree along with Tootsie, both fillies looked up.
Derpy chuckled weakly, seeing that she wasn’t that high up the mare allowed herself to drop down to the ground. She landed in front of the girls and almost immediately began cleaning out her mane.
“Oh just a little shaken, nothing broken I think,” Derpy assured them, she was sore and suspected she would be feeling this in the morning, however nothing felt out of place and she could move easily enough. Just in case she did sit down to rest a little.
“So you girls having fun in the park?” she asked the girls while continuing to clean her mane and tail.
“Oh yes, we were playing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but we didn’t have a third for a team at first, but then we found Button Mash and Sweetie Belle managed to convince him to get away from the arcade to play,” Dinky began telling her mother.
“Uh huh, though I don’t think Sweetie Belle was happy he was on our team, dunno why.” Tootsie Flute shrugged, her foster sister nudged her.
“Duh, everypony in school knows she’s crushing on Button Mash,” the violet filly said in a matter of fact tone of voice.
“I didn’t know that,” Tootsie countered and stuck her tongue out.
Derpy just listened to the girls bicker with a smile on her face. Dinky had now gone into a long description who had a crush on who in their class, something Tootise was apparently unaware of and her foster sister felt needed rectifying. Derpy couldn’t help but wonder though how her birth-daughter was so informed about the various school yard crushes. Then again, Dinky had been the one most enthralled by the Gabby Gums column that had run in the school paper a while ago.
“Diamond Tiara? Really?” Tootsie stared at her sister in disbelief.
“Yeah, she is totally just acting, haven’t you seen sometimes how she looks at him?” Dinky asked as if it was the most obvious fact.
If it is true, then I do pity him. Derpy shook her head trying not to laugh out loud how enthusiastically Dinky held on too her claim.
Dew and Foxy landed by the train station platform and climbed up the steps. The Pegasi walked over to the schedule and scanned it for trains coming from Manehattan. Foxy couldn’t make heads or tails out of it and decided to just take a look around while her sister worked out the trains coming from Manehattan today.
There weren’t many other ponies on the platform, at least no one looked to be waiting for a train. Foxy looked around but couldn’t see a concession stand, she peeked in through the window of the station and saw it was located inside. The maroon mare was still pondering if she should go in and grab a snack when Dew approached her.
“There are two trains coming from Manehattan today from what I gather, the first one comes in few minutes and the next one isn’t until later in the evening,” Dew Doe told her.
“Knowing Private, he would probably try and get this over with and is probably on the next train,” Foxy stated and entered the station.
“True.” Dew agreed and followed her sister in and towards the concession stand. “He is always reliable like that.”
Foxy made no comment; she wasn’t looking at Dew but could already guess there was a dreamy smile plastered on her muzzle right now. The bigger mare instead just continued towards the stand. She took a quick glance at what was available before ordering chocolate chip cookie and a paper cup of coffee.
“So… how is this case going to affect next weekend?” Dew Doe wondered, she didn’t order anything and just followed her sister to a nearby bench to sit down. Foxy sighed heavily and for a moment didn’t respond, just munched on her cookie.
“To be honest, I’m almost tempted to cancel the whole thing,” she finally muttered. “But Coal wants to do it, in fact she hasn’t quit asking for a year now and I… I just don’t know. I don’t think he deserves it, especially now.”
“I’m just surprised you agreed to the visit at all, even Private was surprised, then again he didn’t agree with his mother either about it being a good idea to give Barricade a chance,” Dew said shaking her head.
Foxy Stripes gave a halfhearted shrug and rolled her eyes. The mare sipped on her coffee and for another moment, the sisters just sat in silence. Outside a train arrived and stopped before the platform. Dew stepped down from the bench and walked over to the ticket stand.
“Excuse me, is that the train from Manehattan?” she asked, when receiving a positive nod the mare hurried to the exit and looked outside.
There weren’t many ponies stepping off. Few had arrived recently who were going onboard. Dew almost went back inside when spotting a familiar face; she signaled to Foxy that Private had arrived before going outside. The mare stopped short when seeing Time Turner and Caramel come out of the train as well.
Private wasted no words, in fact the other stallions hadn’t heard further peep out of him the whole rest of the trip, the Unicorn immediately headed towards the blue Pegasus. Dew however, surprisingly for those who knew her, paid no attention to him and just stared at the two stallions coming up behind him.
“Ah yes… uh you’re probably wondering why we were on the train coming from Manehattan.” Time Turner smiled uneasily, Caramel cleared his throat and for some reason found the platform rather fascinating.
“Wait, did you two go to Manehattan?” Foxy approached, much like her sister stared surprised the Ponyville stallions.
“Yeah we did.” Turner glanced at Private; the Unicorn was silent as ever, eyeing them now with a neutral expression.
Time Turner realized he better explain, so he told the mares about the trip to Manehattan and the reason why. Dew and Foxy listened without betraying any emotions at first, but both of them raised their brows in confusion when the clock smith began telling about Dinky’s letters and Barricade’s reasoning for questioning Derpy.
Dew glanced at Private who nodded to confirm what the stallions were saying. Turner then gave her the letter Barricade had allowed him to take. The mare looked it over before giving it to Foxy who also quickly scanned it, the Pegasi just looked even more confused now.
“Look I know Derpy, she did not write that. I think Dinky is not has happy about her father as she lets on,” Turner added in.
“Even I will give Barricade this one thing, he is maybe a jerk but he is an honest jerk,” Private chimed in. Everyone looked at him. “If he thinks he’s being played with, he lashes out.”
“I hate to admit it but he’s right, Barricade never outright lied, sure he could play up the charm but he never did seem to try and hide it that he was a jerk.” Foxy gave the letter back Dew.
“Yes, we better talk with Derpy and ask her to talk with her daughter, this needs to be cleared up, seems we have a serious miscommunication issue on our hooves,” Dew Doe said and held up the letter to Turner. “I assume I can take this to Derpy?”
“Yes of course, the sooner this is cleared up, the better.” Turner nodded. The Pegasi mares spread out their wings and took to the air.
“Alright, uh could you take care of Private for us while we go to Derpy, next train to Fillydelphia isn’t for another three hours, thanks,” Dew called as she and Foxy flew off in search of Derpy.
Turner and Caramel watched them go before glancing at Private who stood there in silence, still with that almost bored yet neutral expression. The Ponyville stallions wondered if it was even possible to see another facial expression on him.
“I guess we could show you around,” Time Turner mused.
“We could go to Sugarcube Corner; the Cakes are having a pancake special,” Caramel suggested.
It was almost as if the amber stallion had pushed the start button on a turned off animatronic. Private’s eyes lit up, his ears perked and his entire demeanor changed completely. Turner and Caramel blinked in confusion when the Unicorn went past them with the most eager grin possible on his muzzle.
“Well what are we waiting for? We can’t miss a pancake special.” Private suddenly sounded more like an eager child.
Time Turner and Caramel could only exchange glances in mild confusion before running after the Unicorn to make sure he went in the right direction. Caramel was though impressed with his own luck to have hit on something Private apparently enjoyed, they would at least be able to entertain their guest.
Derpy stared at the letter slack jawed, she had been like that for a short while now after Dew and Foxy found her in the park. The mare had found a bench to sit on and watch her daughters play with their friends.
“I think we broke her,” Foxy whispered when Derpy still hadn’t moved.
“Miss Hoo… I mean, Derpy. I know this is both shocking and confusing,” Dew said in reassuring tone. The social workers had already explained the stallions’ trip to Manehattan before giving Derpy the letter.
“He seriously thinks I would write something like this?” Derpy turned towards Dew before she could continue, waving the letter in agitation.
“He does it seems.” Dew Doe nodded and carefully put a hoof on Derpy’s back. “Which is why it’s very important right now that you talk with Dinky first before doing anything else.”
“W-why would Dinky not tell me she was telling him off,” the gray pony whispered and looked over to where her daughter was playing; none of the foals had noticed the exchange between the mares.
“That is why you have to talk with Dinky, we need to clear this up and then show Barricade that he was in fact wrong and that it was Dinky writing these letters,” Dew pointed out.
Derpy sighed; she grabbed the letter into her mouth and climbed down from the bench. For a moment the mare hesitated, she didn’t really want to interrupt her daughter while playing. After steeling herself the pony approached the foals. Dinky was the first to notice and immediately broke off from the ball game to go to her mother, Tootsie followed very shortly after; the two girls told their friends they would be right back, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Button Mash resumed the game.
“Mom, something wrong?” the violet filly asked, she had already noticed the disappointed expression on her mother. Dinky raised an eyebrow when the mare dropped the letter in front of her. The girl picked it up and behind her Tootsie peeked over her shoulder. The sisters both gasped when recognizing the letter.
“Dinky,” Derpy started though she wondered at Tootsie’s reaction, then she recalled that she often helped her sister write the letters.
“Mom, I can explain,” Dinky started, quite ready to be harshly scolded and was picturing the weeks, no months of grounding she was facing.
“Yes, we can totally explain you see…” Tootsie fell silent when Derpy looked right at her with both eyes focused on her and frowned. The filly knew that when her foster mother managed to focus both eyes and frown she best not test her patience.
Derpy returned her gaze to Dinky who was smiling nervously, the reaction of the fillies looked more though as if they had been caught with their hooves in the cookie jar. The mare knew that was just because they didn’t realize the gravity of the situation.
“Dinky, why haven’t you told me this is how you feel about your father?” she asked quietly and sat down in front of the fillies.
“Well… mom…” the filly laughed nervously. “You’re always telling us to be nice to other ponies, even those we think are mean. Be polite and thankful and stuff. I figured you would just tell me to be grateful that he at least writes and sends money. I sort of hoped he would just stop writing if I wrote the letters like that.”
Dinky’s mother stared at her daughter dumbstruck. Derpy hadn’t in her wildest imagination even considered this scenario being the reason for the letters. Yes, she had always instilled into her daughters to be good to others, even if some ponies might try to bring them down. Yet she never, ever imagined it would be interpreted like this.
“Though we are sort of kind of not being nice by writing the letters like that,” Tootsie said and grinned innocently when receiving a not very amused glare from her foster-mother.
“Dinky, come here.” Derpy waved to her daughter to come closer. The filly did so but with some hesitation, still fearing that she was so in for it now. Her mother gently took her in a one legged hug.
“Dinky… if this is how you feel about your father, you should have told me. I wouldn’t have told you to be nice or grateful that he writes and sends money. I would have understood perfectly. Dinky, your father was not nice to me and I can’t say I care much for him,” the mare explained quietly.
“Is that why I stopped visiting him?” Dinky asked now with a thoughtful frown.
“Well…” Derpy wondered how best to put this. “I told him few years back, that if he couldn’t bother visit you, then you wouldn’t be visiting with him. It was when you and your class put on your first school play.”
“Aunt Derpy, where did you get the letter? It’s one we sent few months ago.” Tootsie suddenly interrupted; she had been examining the letter closer while Derpy spoke with Dinky.
“I got it from Dinky’s father.” Derpy realized there wasn’t really much going around it, though she didn’t need to go into all the details. “He thinks I wrote them and is not happy with me as a result.”
“What!?” both Dinky and Tootsie shouted in shock.
“Are you in trouble, mommy?” Dinky whispered looking much more worried now. Her mother hugged her closer. Tootsie, who had approached, was also drawn into the hug.
“Of course not, my little sillies, not now that I can clear it up with him,” the mare told them reassuringly.
Derpy then let go of the fillies. She took the letter from Tootsie, rolled it up, and placed it in her mouth. She then spread out her wings and rose to the air. She didn’t go far, hovered just above them and was looking straight at the confused girls.
“You two be good now, remember to listen to Carrot Top and Sparkler, you know they are in charge when I’m not home, I might be a little while,” she said and first now took off at impressive speed. The fillies blinked, still a bit confused over their mother’s sudden action. They barely noticed when Dew and Foxy came running.
“Wait, where is she going?” Dew asked the girls, both social workers looked startled and concerned.
“I uh… think she want to see dad.” Dinky glanced up at the blue Pegasus.
“Oh dear, Foxy go after her. If you can’t turn her around, then go with her,” Dew ordered her sister who started to take to the air but then glanced down at Dew unsure.
“Why me?” she asked.
“You are a faster flier than me. Also, I just love the mental image of Barricade having to face two angry mothers,” Dew explained and grinned.
“You’re evil,” Foxy chuckled before taking off after Derpy who had already disappeared over the horizon.
End Chapter 9