The Tragedy of Lisistrata and Goffredo

by Daxn

1- Crawler Found

As the Sun approached to the zenith, the air started to warm up, and the vast lawns around the small town of Ponyville shined for the brew.
That day, a Sunday of early Fall, and it was day of Market, on the main road of the town: the salesponies were selling products of every kind, from food to artistic knockoffs, through fabrics of every color and pattern; the few latecomers were running to their workplace; and the more numerous ponies with their morning free were going around the streets, watching what was sold by the aforementioned sellers in their stalls.

A cross-eyed gray pegasus with a yellow mane, name's Derpy, was walking away from the said market, carrying on her back several saddlebags full of the products that she bought at the market, mostly food.

As she walked, Derpy was followed by her daughter, a blue lavender unicorn filly named Dinky.Dinky, like her mother, wasn't very careful, when moving, causing her to often bump in things; and wasn't very bright, causing either odd choices in general, or cases of literal thinking.

However, all those flaws were a lot less prevalent in Dinky than in Derpy, and, often, Dinky ended up to be the guide for the gray pegasus. But the lavender filly rarely exploited the relatively lower intelligence of her mother Derpy, and never questioned the authority of the gray pegasus basing her complaints over the inferior intellect of the mother.

Now Dinky was carrying two saddlebags that contained two bags of nails for general house reparations; a roll of white fabric for patch up the damaged curtains; a broken clock for his father, a clockworker always scavenging parts from other clocks; and four cucumbers.

The load was quite heavy for the filly, but she didn't complained too much: after all, her mother's back was full of saddlebags, and Dinky was certain that she could not carry anymore bags.

While walking towards her home, the small lavander unicorn looked around her: she was on a small hill near the town and, from there, she could see the traffic going on down in town. The sight absorbed Dinky so much, that she bumped against a tree at the side of the road.

After hitting the tree, Dinky lied down for few seconds, before getting back up on her hooves, placing the bags on her back again, and returning at the side of her mother Derpy.

"I should be more careful, next time.", murmured to herself while walking "It could have ended with some damage."

Soon after saying that, the filly heard a young male voice screaming "Help ! Bitte Helfen ! Aiuto per favore !"

When Dinky heard the cry, she rolled her eyes: "Nevermind. I'm starting to hear voices.".

But Derpy stopped dead in her tracks, and asked to her daughter:"Did you hear it ?"

Dinky looked confused at her mother, now slightly hovering above the ground, and scanning both left and right with one eye each.

The filly asked: "Hear what ?"

While still looking around, Derpy said: "A cray for help from a colt !"

Dinky's eyes widened a bit, at what her mother said: she wasn't hearing a non-existent voice, but a true scream for help.

By that point Dinky put the bags on the ground, and asked to her mother:

"Shall I look around for him ?", and Derpy answered with a simple nod, meaning that she should look for the crier of help.

The filly started to follow the cry: as she followed the direction fo the scream, Dinky started to see a shape in the middle of a marsh slowly moving; and, as she got neared, the filly started to see more details of this shape, until it was clear that who was crying for help wasn't a colt... or a pony, for that matter. It was a creature slightly bigger than Dinky, wore a tattered blue and white striped dress, and its body was almost skeletal: said creature was slowly crawling towards the road, and kept asking for help at regular intervals.

The look of the creature was hideous, to the small eyes of Dinky, and yet... it inspired pity and curiosity on the watcher. The lavender filly remained still for a while in thought, undecided if call for her mother, and help it; or ignore the crawling beast, just in case if it was dangerous.
In the end, Dinky realized that the creature was mostly wounded, and that was likely harmless, in that state.

When Dinky finally decided, she ran fast back to her mother, who was scanning with her eyes the right side: Derpy's daughter said

:"Mom, I've found h.. it. This way.", and made sign to be followed: Derpy complied without asking anything to Dinky.

Arrived at the marsh, the lavender filly pointed at the crawler.
"Look at it ! It was screaming for help beforehoof !", said the filly with a worried undetone.
Understnading the undertone, Derpy flown towards the creature.

"Can you understand me ?": at that harmless phrase, the skeletal animal widened its eyes, and just stared at Derpy.

Dinky fully understood that it was surprised to see them talk, and that was panicking.

The gray mailmare, however, said innocently: "What's the matter ?"

The creature just started to say gibberish, and move frantically its front legs: at this sight, the gray mare asked to her daughter:"Are you sure that... this thing was calling for help ?"

Dinky answered slightly annoyed: "Yes, it was. I mean, do you really SEE somepony around here ?"

Derpy lowered her ears, and sternly looked with her unaligned eyes Dinky: "No, I don't, but that doesn't mean it cou...". The gray mare was interrupted mid-sentence by the skeletal creature, who jumped over the neck of the wall-eyes pegasus.

"I WAS the one screaming for help ! I am dire need of help: I have one broken leg; my whole body hurts; I haven't eaten for one day; I am alone; and I don't know where I am ! So, stop arguing with your little sister, and bring me to the hospital, or to whatever kind of medical facility is there, if there is one !"

When Derpy felt the legs of the creature around her neck, at first tried to get them off, fearing that it was trying to attack her.

However, it was soon clear that the creature was meaning no harm to Derpy, and was just asking for assistance at the gray mare.

When she realized that, the sense of pity overcame the doubt of the mare, and mare her say:
"Poor thing, you DO look beaten up. Wait us here: we will be back soon.", then she rotated her head towards her shook daughter:

"Now we will need to speed up the pace of our walking, Dinky."

Dinky, a bit surprised by the sudden change in her mother's behaviour, nodded, and proceeded to run towards her home, not too far from where she had found the creature; followed soon after that by her mother, who was running like a madpony, despite the weight on her spine.

The creature remained offended by that act, but didn't moved, maybe thinking that, eventually, it could just crawl away, if the two mares didn't returned.Two minutes later, after dropping in the hallway of the small house where Derpy and Dinky lived, the two come back to the marsh where the beast was awaiting for them.

Dinky, seeing that her mother already placed herself at ground level, immediately understood, and helped the creature to hop on Derpy, by pushing the rear legs of it: however, as the filly pushed, the creature screamed in pain, and grabbed the fur of Derpy, and, consequently, scaring the gray mare, who kicked the air behind her, and gasped.

Dinky, realizing that she had hurt the beast, said:
"Sorry: I didn't knew you had a broken leg !"

The creature, while slowly climbing Derpy's body, answered with a hissing voice:

"The broken leg isn't my only injury," it finally reached the top of the gray mare, and it gripped part of the back fur "now bring me to a medic, please."

Derpy nodded, and took flight towards the Clinic, while Dinky chased her mother.

Comments

[dream1990]

i love it a lot and i will keep my eyes on this story