Chapter Fourteen: Seen Better Days
The mood was calm; a weak torrent of wind forced its way across the park. Whistling and rustling of the leaves high on top of the trees created an eerie mood for both John and Dinky, the candle light held a small orange glow across the whole room. Luna kept her head rested on Dinky's lap so that she wasn't able to move towards the evil ranch owner.
John took a swig at his large bottle of whiskey, letting the ginger liquid go down his throat, gripping tight onto his weapon to keep Dinky at bay. He heard the wind pass by, a perfect time to tell his little story to the curious eight years old. Luna didn't like what he was going to say, she didn't trust him also adding the fact that Dinky was going to listen to him was a slight problem. He could lie and she would believe every single thing that he was going to say, Luna had to do something.
"Right..." John gasped for air after guzzling down more whiskey from his large glass bottle.
Dinky leaned up to listen in on what he had to say, but she had her own questions.
"Mister?" Dinky politely whispered, causing John to look up at Dinky.
"Yeah?" John coughed, clearing his voice to make him seem louder.
"Where do you come from?" Dinky asked with common curiosity.
"It dun' matter." John replied back, leaving a small sarcastic smile for Dinky. "Ah'm goin' out on a limb here, an' ah' need ya' ta' trus' me, issat' clear?" John began to speak, calm and quiet for the time being.
"Uh-huh." Dinky nodded.
"Listen..." John paused, he looked down at the tiara and breathed in. "Ah' think this tiara is made'a magic." John began to speak.
"Why?" Dinky butted in.
"Why? cause' it's ta' do with these here horses, ah' need yer' help t' try and figure out how t'make it work." John said to Dinky.
"But why? Ditzy didn't do anything wrong! And you hurt her!" Dinky raised her voice at John, feeling like standing up and screaming her little lungs. She still couldn't believe what he had done to Ditzy, making her cry was the worst thing that could ever happen to her and it was making Dinky even more angry.
"Ah' didn't do anythin'." John replied back, keeping his cool without raising his voice.
"But she was crying!" Dinky yelled.
John quickly leaned closer towards Dinky and Luna who both widened their eyes when they saw John getting closer to them, he didn't look very angry and he still had a very tight grip on his weapon and the golden tiara in his hands.
"Ah' said: Ah' didn't do anythin' it was the dang headband that made her cry." John still kept his cool and leaned as close as possible to Dinky and whispered right in front of her face, Dinky couldn't see his face due to the large shadow covering it.
"What do you mean? You hurt Ditzy!" Dinky stopped for a moment to listen to what he had to say, she was a little confused at what John was trying to say, if he didn't hurt Ditzy... then what did it to her?
"Ah' took Ditzy into ma' shack after she dropped ya' off into ma' stables, it was easy seein' ya' under alla' that hay. Ah' tied her t' the wall with some rope an' then ah' put the head band on her, but then it started t'glow inta' loads'a different colours an' then it caused Ditzy t'look black an' white." John explained himself to Dinky, she didn't, however, know if what he was saying was the truth.
"You mean... you didn't do it?" Dinky asked John, playing along to his words.
"Yeah, ah' didn't do it." John nodded, tilting his head back to take another swig of whiskey.
"Why did the magical hat do that then?" Dinky asked, slowly stroking Luna's neck to comfort her.
"Ah' dunno, ah' believe is' magic thas' doin' it." John gasped, putting the bottle of whiskey down to the floor next to him.
"Magic? You mean magic, magic?" Dinky's mind could have exploded here, all this information was causing her head to hurt. How could magic be real? What did the magic do to Ditzy? Why is the hat golden? Why has it got diamonds in the middle of it? Why is there a giant purple star on the front of it? - Too many questions to think up of and ask at the same time.
"Yeah, magic." John rolled his silhouetted eyes.
"Hello? Is anyone in there?"
John and Dinky both paused for minute to confirm what they just heard, a woman’s voice echoed through the shack causing John to stand up with his trusty weapon at standby. Dinky kept herself quiet as long as possible so that she could hear the strange voice again, John turned from side to side trying to figure out the source of the sound.
"Hey rancher guy? You in there?" Another voice yelled; it sounded like it was coming from the outside of the shack. Dinky's eyes were wide open as she knew who shouted that, John turned to see Dinky's reaction and it was clear that she knew who was shouting.
"Lyra?" Dinky whispered under her breath, Luna perked her head up to listen in on the drama as she heard the voices coming from outside. John pointed at the child and mare with his spare hand.
"Stay here." John ordered Dinky and Luna, they didn't reply, but they didn't move at the same time.
John put down the fancy tiara on a nearby table and cocked his shotgun ready for anything; he slowly walked out of the shack to see that the lights around town had turned on. In the distance were three women both standing at the edge of his gates, one of them were waving their arms up in the air trying to get his attention.
"Yoo-hoo! Over here!" Lyra shouted as she waved her arms, she watched John get closer as Bon-Bon and Derpy were not able to see him holding something they didn't really expect.
"Woah! It's a shotgun!" Derpy raised her voice and pointed at the firearm that John was holding.
"Hello there." Bon-Bon said her hello to John, ignoring Derpy's remarks about his weapon.
"Whaddya' want?" John bitterly asked the three women standing before him.
"Hello there, I was wondering if you could spare us a moment of your time and help us out." Bon-Bon tried her best to sound formal and polite to John as possible, knowing that he was holding a firearm it was a time to be calm and politely speak to him.
"What?" John asked.
"Do you remember us from earlier today? We all came here to watch a little girl called Dinky ride one of your horses for a few minutes, she is eight years old and she wears a gray t-shirt and has blonde hair. We would like to know if you have seen her, since she has recently disappeared from my friends home and we are just wondering if you have seen her." Bon-Bon explained the appearance and situation of Dinky to John; he didn't react in any way to what she was saying.
"Ain't seen 'er since this afternoon." John quickly replied back to Bon-Bon.
"Why do you have a shotgun?" Lyra butted in, curious to why John was holding, and more importantly owning a shotgun. "You know that those things are illegal in Rumsville, right?" Lyra meekly pointed at his firearm.
"Ah' did not know that." John bitterly replied to the green haired woman.
"Luna, my mommy and her friends are out there... what should we do?" Dinky whispered to Luna, the blue mare raised her head and looked up at the child. She didn't reply, and it was causing Dinky to worry. If she doesn't alert herself, then her mother and her friends won't be able to rescue her. But then if she does go, then who would look after the horses when she goes home?
Dinky looked around the shack and noticed that John had put down the shiny golden tiara with the purple star on top of a table in the middle of the room, slowly but surely, Dinky stood up and quietly walked over to the tiara on the table and looked at it with all of it's grace and beauty. Dinky raised her hand and used her finger to slowly touch the golden tiara that was said to be filled with magic, the surface of the tiara was hard, and it felt like a sharp type of metal that could easily slice even the hardest of stone.
"Cool..." Dinky cooed, she wrapped her hands around the tiara, slowly picked it up and felt it's weight in her hands. It was a very heavy tiara, who in the world would wear it and why? Dinky took small quiet steps back over to Luna and sat herself down next to the blue mare trying to figure out what the tiara actually does. Luna tilted her head back from the tiara, feeling like something was going to happen.
"Luna?" Dinky whispered.
The mare turned her head and looked at the child.
"What do you think John meant by magic? This hat looks so cool!" Dinky giggled with excitement as she placed her hands on top of the giant purple star that was at the top of the tiara. Feeling it's jagged edges across her fingers and how thick the purple diamond itself was, it was very strange. Dinky could see her own reflection inside the diamond, truly a brilliant sight.
Luna didn't reply; she instead kept her head down looking sad as ever, Dinky didn't notice until she turned around and saw that Luna was now rested her head in the hay looking upset about what was going on.
"Luna? What's wrong?" Dinky quickly put down the tiara on the piles of hay and quickly attended to Luna's matters; she placed her hand under the blue mares head and lifted it up to look her in the eyes at head level.
Luna did not reply, she instead pushed Dinky's hand away from her and then turned her whole body round to face the wall.
"Luna..." Dinky whimpered, wondering what Luna was trying to do, but then realized that Luna looked very upset. She didn't understand what was going on, but she knew that something had to be done around here. Dinky couldn't stand that everyone was feeling sad, all because of the evil rancher and the strange, yet cool looking tiara that he had.
"No maam, ah' ain't seen no kid today after she left. All ah' did after ya' left was go back ta' bed an' fall asleep." John explained to the women in front of him, Bon-Bon and Lyra were suspicious of his quick-fire replies and his bitter tone of voice, sounding rather annoyed by the presence of the three women. Derpy on the other hand, was taking any lead and chance she would get; she was starting to believe what he was saying, even though she didn't really understand what was going on.
"Are you sure?" Lyra crossed her arms, looking at John rather suspiciously.
"Ah' ain't seen no kid, now... could ya' please leave me alone so ah' can't get some more rest?" John raised his voice a little at Lyra and Bon-Bon, Derpy on the other hand was listening to what he was saying, but she couldn't help a certain feeling that Dinky was nearby.
"We're sorry for wasting your time mister...?" Bon-Bon apologized, but stopped at his name.
"Lancie, John Lancie." He revealed his name to Bon-Bon and Lyra; he turned round and began to walk back to his shack to get back into his comfort zone.
"Wait a minute..." Lyra called out, John turned around and looked at Lyra again, feeling rather angry about these persistent women asking him questions, he had a plan to work off and they weren't helping.
"Whaddya' want now?" John moaned, gripping even harder onto his shotgun.
"Can we come inside for a few minutes? We need to rest... and after we're ready, we'll go home, no problems." Lyra asked John, he didn't like the idea that she had; it was only delaying the inevitable.
"Why not?! Ah' could always use some dang company!" John walked over to the front gate and opened it, allowing Bon-Bon, Lyra and Derpy to walk though into the main part of the small ranch.
"Sheesh, calm down." Lyra replied as she walked into the main ranch.
"Lyra..." Bon-Bon warned her partner, slightly tapping her elbow trying to make her not say anything bad.
"Ah' was enjoyin' some sleep, but ah' guess it's okay... ah' could always use some kind'a company t'keep me awake even longer!" John droned on with his complaining, he turned around and walked to his shack. He got to the front door and realized the child and the mare inside of the main part of the shack; he needed to hide them away from the women before his plan would all be for nothing. He turned around to face the women who were standing right behind him, expecting him to open the door.
"Stay here fer' a moment." John ordered all three of them.
"What's wrong now?" Lyra asked.
"Nothin'" John paused. "Ah' jus' gotta clean up ma' shack is' all... make it look friendly... fer' such purty ladies." John slipped open the door and quickly slided himself through the door and entered into the shack, leaving Bon-Bon, Lyra and Derpy behind to stand outside while John started to shift his master plan.
John closed the door on the other side and took a quick view of his room; the shack was mostly clean for the most part. Spare for the few odd bottles of whiskey, cider and scotch left out on the tables, he had to move Dinky and Luna so that his plan wouldn't be blown. His first priority was on the move and he walked over to Dinky, where he spotted her holding the golden tiara, Dinky quickly looked up and hid the tiara behind her back.
"Plans changed lil' Dinky, ya' need t'go into th' stables." John leaned down and grabbed Dinky by the arm; he pulled her up and dragged her into the stable. Kicking open the stable door and dragging the poor child along with the tiara in hand.
"Wh-What's going on? Is my mommy here to take me home?" Dinky squeaked; she didn't like being dragged around like a simple rag doll, trying to pull away from John, the man turned around and looked at Dinky.
"Ah' guess you could say that!" John exclaimed, he opened the stable gate and pushed her inside, causing her to trip over and land on some hay. Both Scootaloo and Fluttershy immediately came over to the child to check if she was okay, Dinky leaned upwards and got back on her feet, feeling really scared about what will happen next.
"If ya' wanna find out what if goin' on with this magic stuff, then ah' suggest ya' stay here, but if ya' wanna go home an' leave the horses here, not wondering what type of magic is inside that head band, then go home cryin' to yer' momma." John explained, he didn't leave Dinky much time to think about her options whether to go home and forget about everything or continue on knowing that something amazing would possibly happen.
"Uh... I..." Dinky tried to think as fast as possible, it was a tough choice to go back home or stay with the horses.
"Ah'm keepin' Luna in th' shack, so them women are distracted while ah' clean up th; place." John referred to the three women waiting outside to be let in. "After ah'll deal with them, ah' let ya' decide whether ya' wanna go home, but ah'm not gonna' let ya' sit on yer' tush and wait it out." He warned the child.
John immediately placed the lock on the stable gate, keeping Dinky, Scootaloo, Ditzy and Fluttershy inside of their confinement until he gets back, with a sly grin on his face. And a small plan in his head, he quickly set out and left the stable, closing the door behind him and leaving Dinky to ponder on her thoughts with the other horses in the dark.
John turned to the left to see that he needed to clean up, but he then looked at his wooden chairs and saw that they were perfectly clean and had no exact problems with them, he shrugged and let out air from his nose.
"Screw it." He said to himself.
Picking up his shotgun and releasing the locks from the front door and letting the door to slide open, letting his shack room light to stretch out and glow over Bon-Bon, Lyra and Derpy. John moved to the side and allowed the women to enter his shack, giving them a good view of what has been going on in here. They all saw the alcohol, the small statues, the picture frames that had no pictures in them, the poorly lit candles and strangely enough. One of the horses lying on one of the piles of hay in the corner of the shack, Derpy smiled seeing the blue mare and walked over to it, leaning down to try and give the mare some attention.
"Ah' wouldn't do that if ah' were you." John mumbled, closing the door and turning two of the doors locks.
"What's wrong with the big horsey? She looks sad..." Derpy strangely felt sad for the mare, she never seen something look so sad before in her life.
"Why does it have all that strange jewellery on it?" Lyra turned to John, glaring him for a good answer.
"Dunno." John shrugged, he walked over to his little counter and picked up the whiskey bottle he was drinking from earlier and took a massive swig of the liquid. Bon-Bon took a quick look at Lyra, she looked back at her partner and Bon-Bon rolled her eyes.
"Why can't I pet the horsey?" Derpy asked, still trying to figure out why.
"She don't like people touchin' her." John replied to Derpy, taking another swig.
"You should really cut-down on the alcohol; it can hurt your liver." Bon-Bon pointed out, John just turned around to look at Bon-Bon and gave her a hard glare for a few moments.
"Ah' can do whatever ah' want to ma' body, is' the best way t'cut down on stress." John replied.
"It's cool to get drunk on weekends, but on weekdays... not cool." Lyra butted in, standing next to Derpy also giving her inspection on Luna.
"Yer' laws in this country ain't gonna do nothin' fer' me, even if ya' have got two Princesses tryin' to keep the land intact." John took another swig of whiskey and slightly coughed. "Even if ah' haven't got any good food, ah' can keep on drinkin', people these days last twenty eight days b'fore dyin' a' hunger." John continued, shaking his head to remove his tipsy feelings inside.
"You should put that whiskey down; I think you had too much..." Lyra put her hands on her hips, staring at the whiskey bottle and then watching John take another swig of it.
"An' what are ya' gonna do about it?" John walked over to Lyra, getting up close with her, his speech and movement started to delay itself and Lyra felt like it was the right time to move away.
"Bon-Bon... you said this was a good idea... I'm ready to punch his lights out in a minute..." Lyra growled to her partner, Bon-Bon worriedly walked over to John and tapped him on the back of his shoulder; he slowly turned round to get a good view of Bon-Bon.
"Please, just sit down and calm down sir, we don't want any trouble." Bon-Bon calmly spoke to John. "We just want to rest for a few minutes before we head home, just maybe a little drink or just some rest." Bon-Bon tried to reason with him.
John groaned out loud, he walked away from Bon-Bon and backed himself into the corner of the room next to Luna, Derpy had managed to give Luna some attention and she was running her fingers through the blue mare’s mane.
"See Mr. Ranchowner! I'm making Luna smile!" Derpy dug her fingers under Luna's chin and began to scratch her long blue fur, the blue mare smile and wiggled her flank to the side from the enjoyment of being stroked.
John didn't reply; he didn't even look down to see what she was going with Luna. He just kept his eyes on Bon-Bon and Lyra, making sure they didn't go near the stable doors whatsoever.
Bon-Bon sat down on one of the wooden chairs and proceeded to rub her forehead, the lack of sleep and the stress built up by Carrot Top, the destruction of the Candy Shack and the case of Dinky being missing. She too wanted to go home and get some sleep, but she promised that she would help Derpy find Dinky no matter the cost, Lyra felt exactly the same, and she walked over to her partner and sat down on a chair next to her. She rested her head on her partner and kissed her on the cheek.
"Man... am I tired..." Lyra yawned, licking her lips from just kissing Bon-Bon.
"Lyra darling... can I speak to you in private?" Bon-Bon lowered her tone of voice, making it hard for either John or Derpy to hear them as they talked to one another.
"Might as well whisper, that creep keeps on looking at us." Lyra lowered her tone of voice and whispered to her partner, keeping her mouth close to Bon-Bon's ears. "What's the problem?" She added.
"I find that rancher to be a little... suspicious..." Bon-Bon began to whisper her private conversation to Lyra and she listened well.
"Gee, I wonder if it was the shadow covering his face that got you that idea!" Lyra sarcastically whispered, sounding angry and comedic in her tone of voice.
"He seems to try and ignore us whenever we talk about Dinky... he has a very dangerous weapon... do you think he is trying to hide something around here?" Bon-Bon asked her partner, who still kept out for their words.
"I wouldn't surprised if he kidnapped half of the kids from town and gagged them all up into his basement." Lyra growled, causing Bon-Bon to shift back a little with a slight blush on her face.
"Lyra!" Bon-Bon exclaimed.
"You did say suspicious..." Lyra tried to reason with Bon-Bon after what she had just said.
"I have a feeling that he is definitely hiding something, but I don't know what it is..." Bon-Bon whispered.
"I have a feeling were going to be up all night if we keep on looking for Dinky..." Lyra closed her eyes and began to yawn out loud, she opened her eyes and turned her head a little to see that John was still looking at them, occasionally taking a swig from his whiskey bottle.
"Lyra... please..." Bon-Bon pleaded.
"Okay... I'll stop it..." Lyra groaned.
For a minute and a half, Bon-Bon and Lyra looked around the shack to look for possible signs of Dinky, but all there was is the blue mare, a large wooden table that had alcohol on top of it and the smell of John's foul smelling breath. They noticed that John stood next to another door that didn't lead to the exit of the house; instead it looked like a door that lead to another part of the shack. Lyra was the first one to break the silence and got up from the chair and walked over to John, he looked down, groaning at the fact that the green haired woman was going to open her mouth and start asking him stupid questions.
"Where does that door lead to?" Lyra pointed at the door that John stood next to, he turned his head to look at the door and turned back to face Lyra again.
"Is' jus' a part of th' stable, where all th' horses sleep." John finally spoke, his speech was audibly now slurred and he had trouble keeping his eyes on Lyra.
"Then why isn't that horse in the stable?" Lyra asked, pointing at Luna.
"She don' like t'sleep with th' others." He replied.
"Well... it's night time... and all of the horses should be asleep right?" Lyra began to question him again, feeling like she was starting to get somewhere with this conversation.
"All 'cept Luna." John groaned; he wiped the sweat off from his fore head, being careful trying his best not to knock his hat off from the top of his head.
"Can I go inside and see the other horses?" Lyra calmed herself and politely asked John, even giving a small smile to the rancher.
"Ah' said, they're sleepin'." John repeated his words, leaning his head closer to Lyra.
"Then that shouldn't be a problem, the horses are sleeping, why can't I go inside and at least see one?"
To be continued.