Chapter 10 - A Solo Mission
Chapter 10
A Solo Mission
Content Warning; The latter end of this chapter will briefly touch on a Crisis of Gender Identity.
Melissa trotted through the village with her posture of confidence. It was a faux confidence, identified by the slight wobble of her smile and frequent repeating of the mantra 'It's just the post office' to herself was any evidence.
She was making a beeline directly to the post office, not risking running into anyone who might know Turnover and who would then decide to stop for a talk. She'd rather not have to perform as Turnover at all today if she had the opportunity to, but she had to put a brave face on at the least for the visit to the post-office and then to Doc Rapid's office.
Melissa had soon enough made it to the post-office, successful in not being sidetracked by anybody on the way. However, she knew that her peace wouldn't last much longer as she passed through the doorway of the brick building into the foyer. Unfortunately, throughout the events of yesterday and the focus spent on maintaining her performance as Turnover today, Melissa had completely forgotten just who she was going to see manning the desk at the post-office.
Melissa's mind flipped into distraction-mode to avoid the growing anxiety she began to gain after laying eyes on the mare at the desk. 'I suppose it can't be “manning” the desk here... Would it be... ponying the desk? Stallioning it? Mareing?...' her thoughts raced before producing a bout of frustration internally. 'Urrgh, Why'd you have to fall asleep now of all times Turnover?!'
Sat behind the wooden service counter was Popcorn, the dark blue pegasus who sported a dark purple braided mane and the instantly identifiable glossy string of porcelain popcorn weaved into her hair. She was also Turnover's long-time childhood friend. And who Melissa ended up locking eyes with almost instantly upon walking into the post office.
It was still early enough in the morning for the front of house of the post office to be dead quiet besides for Popcorn and Melissa standing there at opposite ends of the room. If there were other mail-mares or mail-stallions around the back of the building, Melissa couldn't guess. All that was pertinent for Melissa to recognize is that Popcorn was right in front of her.
And Popcorn seemed to notice the frozen Turnover at the entrance opposite to her, proceeding to call out to one of her best friends.
“Yoohoo! Turnover?! Nightmare calling Turnover?! You okay bud?” Popcorn called out, flailing a fore-hoof in the air in the direction of Melissa. All of which seemed to break Melissa from her internal panicking. She made an exaggerated shake of Turnover's body to get out of her funk.
“Ahh, hey there... Popcorn...” Melissa wildly guessed, hoping she had remembered the mare's name correctly. “Just... uhh... here to post a letter is all.” She eventually explained.
“Well that we can do!” Popcorn shot back enthusiastically, beaming a smile towards Turnover. “Is it still Apple-bucking season? You seem totally checked out.” the mail-mare continued.
“Erm... ye... yeah... it is...” Melissa unsurely replied while fumbling to pull out the envelop containing Applejack's letter, Turnover's muzzle now holding a tight, straight expression in the best poker-face Melissa could make.
“And this your letter?” Popcorn asked, softly taking the letter out of Turnover's hooves as Melissa held it out for her. She only replied with a nod.
Popcorn proceeded to follow-through with her regular procedures for accepting a letter for post. As she did, she continued attempting to strike a conversation with her “customer”.
“Did Lobo like whatever that package was yesterday?”
“Ye... yeah she did.” Melissa replied, wishing to get this interaction over with as quick as humanly possible.
“How are you all doing? Actually... your probably still out of it from that medical thing from a few days ago, right?” Popcorn probed, trying to find a reason to explain the awkwardness of Turnover towards her today.
“You... could say that, yeah...” Melissa confided, a weary smile cracking at the internal thought where she had that continued 'and you don't know even the half of it!'
Popcorn turned around and approached a series of fabric sacks aligned on the back of the wall, each labelled with a different location as far as Melissa could make out.
Names such as Fillydelphia, Manehatten, Canterlot, Trottingham. Even places that seemed to break from those pony-pun naming conventions, replaced with names incorporating what Melissa guessed was other sentient creatures; names such as Griffonstone and the Dragon Lands. Some sacks seemed to be made of a thicker material than the others, like the ones labelled Yakyakistan and Crystal Empire.
As Melissa inspected the line of sacks, Popcorn deposited the letter into the sack labelled Ponyville, before her attention turned back to Melissa.
“So what do you got planned for rest of today bud?” She asked making her way back to the counter. “If you don't mind sticking around, I wouldn't mind catching up a bit!” Popcorn proposed, making Melissa tighten back into that straightened poker-face she held earlier in the conversation. Unprompted, Popcorn continued “So yeah, how things going on the farm? Has that weather team apologized to Carnation yet?”
“Ahh... Ah'm sorry... but Ah... gotta be in a rush foooor... meeting with Doc Rapid, right!” Melissa stumbled through her hastily formulated excuse.
“Oh okay okay, got you! Well... do you want to meet up at my lunch hour? Say... 2 hours time?” Popcorn ended with.
Melissa was already well on her way towards the door, rushing to get out of this situation, so before taking any time to think on Popcorn's proposal, she instead uttered a muted “Yeah, sure.” And she stopped in her tracks, shot a fore-hoof up to her muzzle, almost giving herself an upper-cut at the suddenness, and instantly questioned what she just did. What she had just did was both figuratively and literally, as Earth would say, “shoved a foot in your mouth.”
“Okay awesome! Meet out front of here in 2 hours then?!” Popcorn chirped back.
“Why did I do that? Why did I do that?!” Melissa reprimanded herself, out-loud but in hushed tones in Turnover voice. She had walked a bit away from the post office back towards the bridge. She had stopped herself short of the bridge, and followed the river down slightly to a bench where she plopped herself down.
On this bench, she was now collecting herself, attempting to rationalize her actions, and not fall into a new panic over her promise to meet with Popcorn for lunch. It was yet more masquerading as Turnover that she'd rather not have to be doing today.
'You know... I joked about throwing us into the river to wake you up earlier, but it seems like the more preferable option right now Turnover.' Melissa internalized, directing the statement to Turnover's presence, to which her only response was a moan of complaint. 'How could you still be asleep?!' she scoffed before letting out a sigh, letting their head drop against their torso.
“You know... maybe this should be good for me... Turnover did say Popcorn was a “good pony”... and what if I ghost her and it ends up breaking Popcorn and Turnover's friendship apart?” Melissa fretted out loud to herself.
She adorned her brave face again, raised Turnover's head up and stared off into the patchy autumnal sky. Letting out another sigh, this time paired with a slight smile, she continued her path of reasoning. “And... huh, I don't know how long I'm gonna be stuck here... I'm gonna need more people to lean on. More than just Turnover at least. Maybe Popcorn just handed me the perfect start for that.”
With revitalized confidence and commitment, she continued to gaze at the skies above and made a silent promise to go through with befriending Popcorn. Raising Turnover's body off of the bench and giving it a shake to loosen up the muscles, it was only then that she realized how tense she had been for that entire time.
“Okay Mel, one task done... Gotta hit Doc Rapids now. That shouldn't be hard at all” Melissa reassured herself before finally setting off.
Across the river from the post-office, and nestled among the stalls of the market streets of the village, Melissa had arrived at what she was sure was Doc Rapid's office. The building was rendered in a brightly coloured design that would not feel out of place in an amusement park. But now she noticed it, she couldn't ignore that a lot of the other buildings around her were equally bright or fantastical, sporting equally cliché cheesy designs.
The building's design clearly mirrored an old European style of cottage. It's front plastered in white, divided only by Tudor style wooden beams that were painted a faded red alongside the front's architectural features, mainly the window-sills, frames, doors, and even sets of shuttered adorning the windows. Even the shingle slate roof was coloured a rose-pink. Hanging above the painted front door was a wooden sign, spelling out that this was the town's clinic.
The clinic was surrounded on three sides by streets, where the architectural details continued on each respective side. To the right of the building, jutting out over the street from the roof was another cylindrical tower like what the post-office had for their pegasi to use. Melissa guessed that this was where Rapid Aid would shoot off from when she was needed in a rush.
Melissa pushed open the door to the offices, which were on the furthest left of the front-facing facade, and entered into a small foyer that took up the rest of the front of the building, complete with a lengthy segment of bench that butted up against the back wall. Directly in front of her was a hallway that extended back with a series of doors, which Melissa concluded was split between two doctors, and a remaining administrative room.
Behind the desk in the foyer was an earth-pony mare, sat on her haunches and smiling towards Melissa as she took in the building. “Hey there, name's Franky, how can I help you sir?” the pony introduced herself casually. Melissa's attention turned towards this pony, and at a glance from Melissa, the mare seemed to experience a twinge in her emotion as the smile she held twisted slightly in confusion for a split second.
On top the desk was a simple green triangular name-plate which gave the mare's full name seemingly as Frankincense, the pony of this name sporting a plain beige coat with a brown mane and tail, her mane curled up and cut short on her head.
Startled slightly at being addressed as a “sir”, Melissa was slow to respond but eventually ended up responding “Good Mornin', ahh... Ah'm looking to speak with Doctor Rapid Aid?”
For a second, Franky seemed rejected at the mention of Melissa seeking out Doc Rapid, but turned her attention away from Melissa and towards a large tome that sat on her desk. Opening it to the middle of the thick book, she quickly scanned through both pages before turning up to face Melissa. “Don't seem to be an appointment scheduled... but she is free right now. Can I get your name please?”
Melissa complied, answering “It's Apple Turnover, she's seen him... uh... me, recently about an issue... just wanna update her on things.”
“Okay, just head down that hall there. Third door down and that'll be Rapid Aid's office.”
Melissa gave her thanks to Franky, and began her way down the hallway, inspecting the doors as she passed them. The whole clinic gave off a vibe more befitting a private-eye's office than a medical clinic from the inside. Outside at the least the colours used seemed to reflect the caring, comforting feeling a clinic is meant to give off. But inside, each of the doors down the hallway had a glass-window front-and-center at the perfect height for a pony to peer into, had they not been guarded off with horizontal shutter blinds. Each of the three doors sported a metal plaque that carried the name of the room's intended occupant.
She was somewhat correct in her suspicions as to the usage of each room. A door was labelled under Frankincense's name, assumedly where she stored all her massive tomes and other records. Further down was a door labelled under the name Camomile. Finally, Melissa approached the last door in the hallway, labelled Rapid Aid.
Entering into Rapid Aid's own private office, Melissa first clocked a mini mezzanine that looked like the interior of the tower that she had a glancing view of from the street, which to her confirmed more that this office was that of Doc Rapid.
On scanning the room, Melissa's eyes eventually fell on Doc Rapid who was sat behind her desk, surrounded in stacks of loosely assorted papers and files. Those papers and files spilled off of her desk and scattered across the floor in an unorganized mess.
Doc Rapid had her muzzle buried into an file held in front of her by her wings, completely unaware of Melissa's presence, until Melissa made her presence known with a quiet cough from Turnover's chest. This made Doc Rapid peek over the top of the file she was engrossed in.
What followed was a flutter of panic from Rapid Aid, her wings dropping the file as they shot back to a defensive, extended position on her back before she collected her composure and awkwardly coughed back to clear the air. “Hey there Mister Turnover!” she chirped in her usual happy tone, seeming nonplussed by Melissa's unintentional jump-scare. “Didn't expect to be seeing you today... Err... How long were you waiting there?” She continued, flushed embarrassment growing on her face as she slowly slid the file she was just reading underneath a pile of papers before ruffling them into order.
“Ah just arrived in here doc'. No need for the panic.” Melissa responded in her Turnover impression, capping it off with a little chuckle. “What was... all that anyhow?” She proceeded to ask, approaching the desk and taking a passing glance at all the files. She couldn't tell what any of them were, but they all seemed to be in the same style of format.
“It's ahh... nothing to be worried about Mister Turnover. Just some uhh, research into a local case!” Rapid Aid re-assured, but in a barely passable lie. To some level, Melissa already knew well enough to knew what “local case” it was she was looking into.
“So what brings you to see me this fine morning?” Doc Rapid proceeded, crossing her fore-hoofs while doing so, resting upon the stacks of loose papers still on her desk.
“Well doc', Ah just wanted to shoot by while Ah was in town to tell ya. We've gone sent a letter to Cousin Applejack down in Ponyville, try an' see if that... Council of Friendship there could help with what's goin' on here.” Melissa explained.
Doc Rapid gave a slight nod in acknowledgement, her smile continuing to show, but a sense of disappointment beginning to radiate from her as that smile had shallowed at Melissa's information. “Sounds like a good plan. Do keep me in the loop about this Mister Turnover, please.” Doc Rapid responded, before looking back down, towards all the papers on her desk, her face portraying a pony in process of making a decision.
“Do you... need any help with anything doc'?” Melissa probed, out of kindness.
“No no, it's fine, I just got some thinking to do now. It was nice to see you this morning though Turnover. Do keep looking after Lobo, will you?” Doc Rapid closed out the conversation, her thoughts seemingly already occupied again by the papers on her desk, and hurrying Melissa through the rest of the conversation.
“It was nice to see you as well doc'. Ah will keep an eye on Lobo, don't you worry 'bout that!” Melissa stated, ending her side of the conversation and trotting back towards the door.
On the other side of that door, she stood in place and took another deep breath, regaining her composure, and smiling at herself for a job well done in lasting through that conversation. She then made her exit.
Stepping out of the clinic, Melissa went through the mental checklist of tasks her and Turnover had intended to do today, and found it finished. Her smile continued as she began walking back through the market. This smile was short-lasting however, as a missed item in the checklist was suddenly remembered. Melissa had still inadvertently promised Popcorn that her and “Turnover” would hang out over the mail-mare's lunch break.
Frankincense, or Franky as she preferred to be called, waited for the strange stallion to leave the clinic, barely holding her excitement into the intrigue she felt for the pony.
She scooted around her desk and hurriedly trotted to the door of Camomile, the other doctor at this clinic, and her confidant, giving the door some excited but gentle knocks, accompanying it with a sing-songy call of “Oh Camille!”
Answering the door was a pale green pegasus with a white, puffed up, cloudy looking mane. “Franky? What got you in this good mood?” Camomile questioned, before she was unceremoniously shuffled back into the room by Franky.
“How I got to tell you about this pony!”
Camomile let off a frustrated sigh, approaching the door once again now they were both inside the room. “Franky, what have I told you about sharing what isn't yours to share?” Camomile admonished, slowly shutting the door.
Melissa had found herself wondering the streets of the village after leaving Doc Rapid's clinic, and she had ended up at the base of the clock tower in the village's center. She glanced up at it and it told her that there was still an hour before she would need to meet up with Popcorn.
After leaving Doc Rapid's clinic, Melissa did encounter an intrusive thought that advised that she should just ditch the get-together and just return to Willow Springs, but she quickly sought to correct this line of thought. She would not be ditching Popcorn after promising her they would hang out, despite the fact that it was Turnover that Popcorn was expecting to hang out with.
And after everything was said and done, was it not Melissa herself that said making a new friend would ultimately be good for her in the long run? And she would not risk breaking up Popcorn and Turnover's friendship. So for the good of everybody's sake, she will push herself through this meet up.
To occupy her mind away from the worries she held about the meet-up, and as a side, being able to satisfy her curiosity, she chose to spend the time before the meet up exploring what the village's market had to offer.
Never had Melissa seen anything quite this quaint and old-worldly before while she was on Earth. Sights like this market were commonly something you'd only see in Europe, or a very poor recreation of one at a Renaissance Fair.
Each stall was “mared”, or “stallioned”, by ponies of varying hues, and seemed to primarily consist of earth-ponies or pegasi. Each pony's stall reflected their cutie-mark and talent that came with it, from greengrocers of varying singular fruits and vegetables, to artisans like crafters, painters, and jewellers. Tailors, seamstresses, and ironically farriers who in Equus seem to fill the roll of cobblers. And those were just the common types of stall that Melissa clocked.
Each pony also had their own response to Melissa browsing their wares. Responses that varied from friendly welcomes and attempts at sparking up small talk, to stoic disinterest, to glares of suspicion.
Moving away from the front of the clock tower, Melissa resumed her window-shopping endeavours. One stall that caught her eye was specifically selling woollen-weave berets from within a portion of their store.
While back on Earth, back as a human, a woollen beret would have been right up Melissa's ally to wear. She never had any regard towards the concept of cliques and stereotyping fashion, not that she had any regard to fashion either. But if you would describe her aesthetic in any way, it would be that sort of “arts-college student” look. Glasses, jumpers and pullovers, often seen carrying a book or two, fabric jackets, and berets of course.
The temptation for Melissa to get one of these berets was tricky for her to ignore. It'd probably give back some homely-comfort for Melissa, or at the least be something a bit more personal for her to wear going into the future.
While her eyes studied a particular scarlet coloured beret, the owner of the stall had trotted her way over to the browsing pony, and made her presence known. “Greetings my dear! Looking at getting something for your special mare-friend, hmm?” She began, Melissa's attention whipping away from the beret to focus on the store's proprietor. “Maybe you plan for an early Hearth's Warming gift, perhaps?”
Melissa stared back, gauntness and flustered. Being herself as her personality still, yet trapped within the body of a stallion, had stunned her slightly before. But she'd always thought of the situation as being “a guest in Turnover's body”. But now, being as true to herself as she had been so far today, made it all the more real that Melissa was in a body that was not hers, specifically a body that was not female. This left her even more flustered than any point before.
“Ahh, um... yeah... yeah sure...” Melissa stuttered out in Turnover's masculine voice, a blush developing on their face and diversion of eyes to the floor, as each additional word Melissa heard in that deeper tone added another layer of fluster.
“Well, I'm sure she would love it, my dear.” The muted-pink earth-pony continued with a giggle.
“Ah'm... uhh... only window-shoppin' for now... but... how much would it cost?” Melissa braved to ask, shrinking further into herself.
“For that scarlet one you were looking at? A Silver bit and 5 Gold. The quality is worth it!” the mare announced.
That was about as much as Melissa could handle of the situation, slowly drawing herself away from the stall, giving a quick and bashful “Thanks” to the sales-pony as she departed.
For the first time since arriving here, Melissa had an extreme pining for her old body, her old existence on Earth. How quick events had hit back-to-back and how quickly she and Turnover were focused on fixing this issue, had not given any time for Melissa to truly reflect on the entire situation.
More so than ever now, Melissa's apprehension towards the meet-up with Popcorn flared. But it had evolved from thoughts of ditching Popcorn, into an indifferent determination to just get it over with.
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12030130
Thank you! You timed it perfectly as well as the newest Chapter just dropped!
12030128
You're very welcome