Allons-y!

by Sixes_And_Sevens

Interlude: The Wilderness Years

The other Crusaders had gone home, now. Dinky was left in her room, all alone. She gazed out the window, watching the fob watch hung on it sway back and forth in the breeze. It had been the last reminder of her father, once. What was it now that he had returned? She let herself slip out of conscious thought as the watch swung hypnotically, side to side to side to side to side to

***

He had arrived inoffensively. Quite unobtrusive. Dinky had been young, but she could remember it all too well. He had just-- appeared one day, taking rooms in a boarding house on the outskirts of Ponyville. He was charming. He had been intelligent. He had been kind. His name was Ponet.

‘An artist,’ ponies had murmured. His pictures were indeed beautiful. They seemed almost to shine with an inner light, possessed of an unknown, fey quality. He did portraits for cheap, hardly more than enough to keep himself afloat. She had seen the one he had done of her and her mother many times when she had been younger. It had been hung with pride in the middle of the living room.

He had done many portraits. Most no longer existed, but there were a few where sentiment had outweighed what followed. Captivating images of sweet newborns, loving couples, happy families, and more. All seemed to be almost lifelike, but with some intangible screen separating them from the world.

That was how he had met them. Painting a portrait for posterity, so Ditzy could have a reminder of her young daughter as she grew older. Dinky couldn't remember most of the conversations between the two adults; Mr. Ponet had set out some hoofpaints for her, and she had spent the breaks between sittings busily doing sums in all the colors of the rainbow. Therefore, she had no way to know how Ditzy fell in love. Maybe Ponet reminded her of another purple unicorn stallion. Maybe he just saw how trusting she was and thought he could use that. Maybe, though Dinky hadn't thought it viable for years, he really had loved her mother in some strange way.

He had moved in with them. Between an artist and a postmare, income was limited, but they had enough to get by. They were happy together. Dinky could remember him well. He had been there on her first day of school, kissed her hoof better when she had caught it in a window, set up a little paint studio for her in the corner of his ‘workshop’.

And then, one day she woke up, and Ponet was gone. So was quite a lot of their cash, and some of the more valuable heirlooms. Ditzy’s heart had been shattered, her trust and love sold for perhaps a thousand bits.

They had sold the old house not long after. They didn't need to, not really; friends and neighbors were all glad to give their friendly local postmare a little extra envelope to help her and her daughter survive. But the house was dark, now. Tainted by betrayal. Neither mother nor daughter could stand to live there anymore, not when so much of their home had been touched by him.

Carrot Top had been only too happy to let her old college roommate and friend stay with her for a few months. It had been a hard time for them both. But Ditzy had a slew of friends to help her, old and loyal. Dinky, shy, intelligent, unearthly filly that she was, had her mother, and very little else. She had grown closer to her mother, and vice-versa. The difference was, Ditzy had grown closer to others as well. She had taken all that pain, all that sorrow, and turned it back out to the world as kindness.

Dinky had never let go. She never forgave, and-- blessing or curse-- she never forgot. Until the Crusaders, she'd never really had friends. She never thought she could trust them. It had taken nothing short of a miracle to change that…

***

She floated gently awake once more, gazing at the watch as its period grew longer and longer, until it stopped altogether. She took it from the windowsill and turned it over in her hooves. For a long moment, she considered dashing it to the floor, watching as springs and gears flew in unpredictable trajectories, order made chaos in a split instant. Like Ponet leaving. Like the Doctor returning. Like life, here in Ponyville.

She set down the watch on the table and set her head in her hooves, staring at it. She did not cry. She just stared, empty-eyed.

Comments

[raven618]

Wow. This really drives home that this is not the usual depiction of Dinky. This is not an intelligent young filly without a bad bone in her body. This is a young filly whose father left her mother, whose childhood was tainted by a dark relationship. She is distrusting, and a little scary if I'm being honest.

[Sixes_And_Sevens]

10070859
That was exactly what I was going for! Thank you.