The Strange Case of Dinky Hooves' Cutie Mark Curiosity

by Fluttercheer

Chapter 13: Deception & Integrity

On the next day at school, Dinky was the last one to arrive in the classroom. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle already reckoned that she would not show up at all, as she suddenly trudged through the door in the very last moment. Miss Cheerilee entered only a few seconds after her.

On the way to her desk, Dinky did not give them a single look. Her mane was frazzled and her eyes marked with heavy bags under them, strong indicators of a night without sleep and of constant tossing and turning around in bed. It wasn't just Dinky's tiredness, though. All three of them figured that, even if she would have gotten a decent amount of sleep last night, she still would not heed them. Dinky had made her surrender to the vicious disease very clear. Luckily, there was now a new reason for hope.

Dinky's counselors had to wait until recess to show Dinky their discovery. As the bell rang, the foals in the classroom swarmed out onto the schoolyard, eager to get some rest and playtime. Aside from the Crusaders, only Pipsqueak and Dinky stayed behind, the latter looking like she would fall asleep on her desk any moment. As Pipsqueak still did not leave the classroom after a few minutes had passed, the three Crusaders shrugged and left their desks to join Dinky at hers. Sweetie Belle hovered the book with the potion recipe discreetly at her side. Pipsqueak followed them with his eyes, though he was too far away to be able to hear anything of the conversation they would now have with Dinky, so they continued their way undeterred.

Dinky greeted them with closed eyes. They could not tell if she had finally fallen asleep now or was just close to it, but decided to use the surprise effect. Now without anything of the discretion Sweetie Belle had shown before, she hovered the book over Dinky's desk, then let it suddenly drop. With a loud bang, it landed on the surface, causing Dinky to open her eyes.

“W-What happened?” she asked, her voice sounding unexpectedly bewildered for her tired condition. Her vision was hazy. Dinky narrowed her eyes and it took her a few seconds until she could identify the three grinning faces in front of her. She rolled her eyes at them. “What do you want?” she asked them, the annoyance still clearly audible behind her from tiredness slurring voice. “I told you I have given up, why did you return?”

Apple Bloom began to explain. “Yeah, ya might have given up, Dinky, but we didn't give up. And we have found exactly what ya need! We searched the library in the old Everfree Castle yesterday and now we have the complete recipe for the potion that will cure your cutie mark disease!”

A flicker appeared in Dinky's eyes, but it was weak and only visible for a moment. Dinky's face did not show any sign of excitement or happiness. Unimpressed and weakly, she looked at them.

“Really? Just another dead end..... This won't help me.” There was no sign of grief in her face either, Dinky could not have looked more resigned. She held a hoof in front of her mouth and let a long-stretched yawn escape it. Only her laid back ears revealed that she felt unhappy and distraught, behind all her tiredness.

“Thanks for trying anyway,” she then added, as she noticed disappointed frowns on the faces of her cutie mark counselors.

“Don't thank us!” Scootaloo corrected her. “We are sure this will help you and if it does, you should rather thank the pony who came up with this cure, this M-M.....How was the name again?”

Sweetie Belle opened the book at the correct page and held it in front of Scootaloo's face. “Meadowbrook!” she finished Scootaloo's sentence.

“Right, Meadowbrook, that's the name!” Scootaloo grinned at Dinky. Like her two friends, she was full of determination to help Dinky and would not back down until the problem of their client was solved.

“I don't think Dinky will still be able to thank Meadowbrook today, though,” Sweetie Belle corrected Scootaloo now. “This book is very old.”

“Meadowbrook?” Dinky asked. “I never heard of him..... Probably some quacksalver or jungle doctor who tries to cure you with frog blood and swamp water and even believes that works,” she scoffed.

“Her,” Apple Bloom responded to the remark. “And ya almost right about the swamp water.”

Surprised, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked over to their friend. “You know this Meadowbrook?” Sweetie Belle asked in disbelief. Scootaloo's face expressed the same.

“Yup!” Apple Bloom confirmed. “Zecora told me about her once while I helped with some potions. She was an earth pony healer who lived about two-thousand years ago. She made herself a name with finding cures for a lot of diseases and saved the lives of many ponies. Until she suddenly disappeared one day..... Nopony heard of her again, but Zecora told me she wrote down all of her cures. And that's–” Apple Bloom pointed to the open page “– is one of her cures! She helped so many ponies, Dinky, ahm sure this here potion she made will help ya too!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle agreed wholeheartedly, trying to convince Dinky on their own.

Finally, after a few minutes and a barrage of arguments and motivational speeches directed at her, Dinky gave up her resistance.

“Okay, then.....” she said. “Fine. Let's try it out. But it's the last time. If it doesn't work again, I don't want to hear anything about this anymore. I take that as my final chance.”

“Deal!” Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shouted in unison.

“And ya can bet this is goin' ta work, Dinky!” Apple Bloom encouraged her again.

“Sure.....” Dinky replied doubtfully. She did not get to say anything else, as the bell suddenly rang and signaled the end of recess.

The rest of the class trotted back inside. Swiftly, Sweetie Belle closed the book with her magic and returned with her two friends to their respective desks. Sweetie Belle let the book disappear inside of her desk, then looked around to see if anypony had noticed it. Other than Pipsqueak, who had silently observed them the whole time with a rather grim expression, all the foals were minding their own business. Relieved, Sweetie Belle sighed. Then Miss Cheerilee entered the room for the rest of the lessons and finally, even Pipsqueak turned to the front of the classroom, starting to pay attention to the words of their teacher.

A few hours later, not long after the bell had announced the end of school for today, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood outside of the building together with Dinky. Dinky swayed slightly, the school day not having done anything to improve her condition.

“Are you sure?” Scootaloo asked her. Her face was adorned with worry. “You should really get some sleep first, Dinky. Now that we have what you need, we are not in a hurry anymore.”

Dinky shook her head weakly. “No!” she exclaimed. “We need to do it now, I can't wait any longer!” With all her remaining strength, she brought a hoof down on the ground. Its impact was minimal.

Apple Bloom placed a hoof on her shoulder. “We still need ta collect the ingredients with Zecora anyway, Dinky. We can still try it tomorrow.”

Hastily, Dinky shoved her hoof away. “No, it needs to be today!” she said, firmly. “I will wait in the clubhouse for you!” Dinky turned around and trotted away. She was still swaying, which caused Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to exchange concerned glances.

“She should really go home and sleep.....” Sweetie Belle shook her head.

“Dinky should stop with everything,” a voice to their right suddenly said.

They turned around. None of them had noticed that Pipsqueak had joined their side.

“Pipsqueak? What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked.

“What she is doing with her cutie marks,” Pipsqueak answered, turning around to her. “She needs to stop pretending she got her cutie mark already and she needs to stop faking everything.”

“We know that and that's what we're here for!” Apple Bloom explained. “Dinky won't need ta fake havin' a cutie mark anymore once we helped her getting a real one!”

“And it's not as easy as just faking it,” Sweetie Belle took over the explanation from Apple Bloom. “Dinky actually has–”

“I know,” Pipsqueak answered deadpan.

“You do?” Scootaloo asked. “How?” She eyed him in disbelief.

“I heard what you and Dinky were talking. It was quiet enough in the classroom to understand everything after so many went outside.” He paused for a moment, taking a breath. “You shouldn't believe Dinky,” he continued then.

“Not believing her, about what? The disease?” Scootaloo looked at him with a blank stare.

“Mhm.” Pipsqueak nodded. “Dinky is lying to you about it. She is not sick, she is just pretending that she gets so many cutie marks so that you help her with getting a real cutie mark.” His expression was sad.

“Why would she lie about that?” Apple Bloom came a step closer to Pipsqueak. “Ya haven't seen her, Pip, she was crying and she even said she wants ta give up because we can't find a cure for her disease!”

Pipsqueak stayed surprisingly calm. “But you found one. Dinky knew you would find something to help her with the disease she told you about. Wait until you made the potion and she drank it, then she will pretend it worked and stop faking cutie marks. She's doing all of this because she wants that you help her first. Dinky was always impatient about getting a cutie mark.”

“But.....” Sweetie Belle interfered. “This doesn't make sense. How would Dinky even fake such a disease?”

Pipsqueak looked at her. “In the same way she is faking her cutie marks. With magical cutie mark potions. I don't know how they work, but they let a cutie mark appear on your flank for a few hours. They get sold on the marketplace.”

“Really?” Scootaloo questioned what she heard. “But everypony knows that there is no magic that can–”

Apple Bloom gasped. “He is right!”

“Huh?” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked over to her.

“The cutie mark potions! I saw them on the marketplace when we brought Dinky to the doctor a few days ago! They really exist!”

“Of course they do!” Pipsqueak shouted.

“And ya really think Dinky is just makin' up this disease?”

“Yes!” the young colt answered.

Apple Bloom looked at her friends. “What should we do, girls? Should we ask Dinky about this?”

Scootaloo frowned. “I'm not sure..... I don't think Dinky would do this. Do you think she would, Apple Bloom?”

“Well.....” Apple Bloom avoided Scootaloo's glance. “Maybe. Ah mean, Pip said Dinky is impatient. And ah know that ah would have done a lot of crazy things to finally get mah cutie mark if ah wouldn't have met ya two.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other.

“She does have a point,” Sweetie Belle said, sighing. “But there's still a chance she didn't trick us. We're just going to ask her, if she didn't, we can clear this up quick!”

Apple Bloom agreed.

Only Scootaloo gritted her teeth at this suggestion. “I don't like this.....” she mumbled as they left for Sweet Apple Acres.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

I told you it was worth the wait. That's not the Pipsquak I know, he would never be so rude! I can understand Dinky of being impatient but if she does that, it's a miracle she didn't had the same fate as Apple Bloom had once if you get what I meant