Chapter 4: The Believer and the Mailmare

“Lyra?” Twilight gasped. “What are you doing here?”

“After Pinkie told everypony what had happened to Dye, I thought his condition sounded like something I read about,” Lyra answered. “So I looked through my personal collection of books and ran across this!”

Lyra levitated a book out of her saddlebag entitled Human Suffering: A Collection of Myths Concerning Human Diseases and Plagues. She flipped through it to a myth called “the Curse of Agony” and showed it to Twilight.

“Whatever Dye has sounds a lot like the condition from this story,” Lyra told her. “It says the pain was so bad, some humans actually took their own lives because they were so desperate to be free of the pain.”

Dye trotted over to the door and said, “That’s correct. The official term for the condition is ‘Cluster Headache’, but there are a lot of other names for it, including the term ‘Suicide Headache’.”

“How did you—“ Lyra began, but Dye placed a hoof over her mouth to silence her.

“Twilight said that you believe in humans while almost nopony else does,” Dye said. “I can give you some of the answers you’re looking for, but you have to keep them a secret. At least for now.”

After Lyra came inside, Twilight shut the door and Dye showed Lyra the same paper he had shown to Twilight.

“Promise to keep what I’m about to tell you a secret for the time being, and then recite this oath,” Dye instructed. Lyra barely glanced at the paper before saying, “I promise not to tell anypony what you’re about to tell me until you say otherwise. Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.”

“How’d you get it right with only a glance?” Dye asked while he stared at her in shock.

“I ran across that promise in one of my books,” Lyra explained. “I remembered it right away, so I didn’t have to memorize it.”

“Well, since you already knew the promise,” Dye said. “And I just showed it to you, you must know part of what I’m about to tell you, right?”

“Of course!” Lyra said, grinning happily. “You were about to tell me humans exist, right?”

“Yes, they do,” Dye told her as the three ponies sat down at a table. “But not here. If they ever did exist in this world, they either went extinct or are very good at hiding.”

“However,” Dye continued. “There is a world full of them. My grandfather is from there, and he used to be one of them.”

Dye went on to explain to Lyra everything he had told Twilight, pausing to answer every question Lyra asked him.

After Dye finished, Lyra said, “All those answers only gives me more questions! I have so many more I want to ask you!”

“That’ll have to wait for another time,” Dye replied. “It’s pretty late now, and I’m sure Twilight’s as tired as I am.” Dye suppressed a yawn.

Twilight nodded, and Lyra appeared as if she was about to pout, but she smiled instead and said, “Okay. I’ll ask you later. I’ll be seeing you again soon, right?”

“Maybe,” Dye said, fighting down another yawn. “I have to get my house built, and until that’s done, I’ll be sleeping in a small cloud shack, so I want to get done quickly.”

“Does that mean you won’t be going out very much for a while?” Lyra asked. The tone in her voice sounded like she didn’t like the answer she expected.

“Yes,” Dye said, nodding. “I’ll only be going out for shopping and important business for the next few days. If you run into me and I’m not in a hurry, I’ll chat with you for a little bit.”

Lyra smiled a little, and Dye added, “However, I’ve got to get home and get some sleep. Goodnight, Lyra.”

With that, Dye got up to leave, opened the door, looked back over his shoulder and said, “thank you, Twilight. I’m happy I could finally tell somepony about some of my family’s secrets. I feel as if a weight’s been lifted from my shoulders.”

Twilight nodded tiredly, and Lyra followed Dye outside, watching as he took to the sky to return to his new property.

Dye landed on the cloud platform he’d constructed, picked up his tank and mask with his magic, and returned them to his saddlebags. After he got inside his small shack, he took his saddlebags off, curled up, and fell asleep almost immediately, too tired to even bother with the blanket he’d brought along.

When Dye woke up in the morning, he was a little sore and stiff from sleeping on the cloud ground, but not very much, since clouds are still pretty soft.

He groaned as he stretched his stiff legs and wings, wincing slightly as some of his joints popped.

He started to gather some more clouds to continue constructing his house, but the growling of his stomach quickly put an end to that.

Dye returned to his shack and rummaged through his saddlebags, hoping that he hadn’t actually eaten all the food he had packed for the trip. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any food left besides a few cracker crumbs.

Dye grumbled as he fished around in the bags for his money. It took him a few minutes, but he eventually pulled out the pouch containing all the money he had to his name: one hundred twenty bits.

He’d earned every single bit himself by selling paintings back in Canterlot. He sold them for six bits apiece, so it had taken him a while to save up that much money. He hadn’t thought he’d be dipping into his meager life’s savings so soon, though.

Sighing to himself, Dye put the pouch back in his saddlebags, put them on, and dove off his property to the ground below to buy food.

Dye headed to Sugar Cube Corner first. He could’ve taken the time to buy groceries, but he was too hungry to have the patience for that at the moment.

Dye paid little attention to Pinkie as she tried to strike up a conversation with him. He was there for food, and no other reason. He pointed at a tray of twelve chocolate muffins priced at a bit apiece and said: “I’ll take the whole tray.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie chirped as she boxed the entire dozen. “That’s twelve bits!”

Dye levitated his coin pouch out of his saddlebags, opened it, and levitated two five bit coins and two one bit coins over to Pinkie, who took them and gave Dye the box.

Dye took the box in his magic and levitated it alongside himself as he returned the pouch of coins to his bags before leaving the bakery and taking a seat at a table outside.

As soon as he opened the box, a gray wall-eyed Pegasus mare was next to him, and she didn’t look very happy.

“May I help you, Miss?” Dye asked, a little upset himself that she had interrupted him before he could even start to chow down.

“You took the entire dozen!” she snapped. “Now I have to wait for them to bake more muffins!”

“Aren’t there other muffins on the other trays?” Dye asked as his stomach growled again.

“In case you didn’t notice, those were the only ones left!” the mare huffed.

“Look,” Dye sighed as he shut the box and gave the mare his full attention. “For the last week, I’ve had nothing but peanuts and crackers to eat. The party last night was mainly ice cream cake and candy. I haven’t had a proper meal for a little over seven days, and having the abilities of all three races causes my body to require more food than most ponies so I don’t burn myself out. I’m starving, okay?”

The mare continued to glare at him.

“Okay, okay,” Dye said, rolling his eyes. “I’m sorry. Here.” He reopened the box and levitated a muffin over to the mare, using his magic to make it as warm as if it were straight out of the oven.

The mare took it and smiled.

“Sorry for getting so mad,” she said before taking a bite out of the reheated muffin. “I just…“

“Really like muffins?” Dye chuckled. “I admit, I’d be pretty upset if somepony bought the entire stock of my favorite food before I could even buy one. Sorry about that, Miss…”

“Derpy Hooves,” the mare said, extending a hoof.

Dye met the hoof with his own and shook.

“Pleased to meet you, Derpy. I’m Dye Vein,” Dye said.

“Oh, everypony here knows your name, Dye,” Derpy said. “Even those of us who didn’t come to the party last night found out your name from Pinkie when you were at the hospital. Everypony could hear your screams and wanted to know what was going on.”

Dye hung his head in embarrassment. “The whole town heard that? Good grief. That’s not going to be forgotten any time soon.”

Dye reheated another muffin with his magic and took a bite out of it.

“It’s too bad you couldn’t make it to the party,” Dye said after swallowing his first bite of the muffin. Oh Celestia, it was great to finally have some proper food again.

“I was helping the Doctor with something,” Derpy told him. “We both wanted to go, but we were too busy that night.”

“I thought Dr. Stable was home and in bed,” Dye said, raising an eyebrow. “They told me that’s why he wasn’t at the hospital himself.”

“Oh, not that doctor,” Derpy said, shaking her head. “The Doctor I’m talking about just goes by ‘the Doctor’.”

Dye took another bite out of his muffin, chewed and swallowed before saying, “wait, there’s another doctor in Ponyville?”

“Oh, he’s not a medical doctor,” Derpy said. “He’s a different kind of doctor.”

“Oh, he’s got a PhD,” Dye said after finishing off the muffin. “What’s he a doctor of?”

“He’s a doctor of a lot of things,” Derpy replied. “He even has a degree in cheese making.”

Dye had just bitten into his second muffin, and the piece got stuck in his throat, causing him to cough.

“*Cough* A cheese *cough* making degree?” Dye managed to get out before properly swallowing. “What kind of university gives out PhDs in cheese making? Better yet, how’d he even get a Bachelor’s for making cheese? If that isn’t “Piled higher and Deeper”, then I don’t know what is!”

The Pegasus stated at him in confusion, and Dye elaborated. “It’s a pun Grandpa makes about what he sees as pointless doctorates.”

“Oh,” Derpy said, still not getting the joke.

“Never mind,” Dye said, taking another bite of the muffin. Derpy had finished hers by that point, and she got up to leave.

“It was nice talking to you, Dye,” she said as she spread her wings. “I own the post office, so if you’d like to chat some time, just stop by. The Doctor said that he wanted to meet you.”

“Well, once my house is done, I’ll look into it,” Dye said as he polished off the second muffin. “Later, Derpy.”

Derpy smiled and took to the air to fly towards the post office on the other side of town.

Dye watched her for a few seconds before chomping down on his third muffin. He still wasn’t full, and Dad always said that it’s important for Thestricorns to eat until they’re full, not just until they’re no longer hungry.

Four minutes and two more muffins later, Dye closed the box and squeezed it into his saddlebags before flying over to the hospital. He really needed to fill his tank, especially since headache season was starting.

Dye sighed as he paid his hospital bill from the night before. Last night had just cost him ten more bits, and Nurse Redheart told him that refilling his tank would cost him another fourteen.

Dye gave the nurse the payment for filling his tank, and she asked him to wait while she took it to get refilled.

He had already spent thrity-six bits in one day, leaving him with eighty-four remaining. And he still had to buy a few groceries! At this rate, he’d be nearly broke by the time the day was over.

Nurse Redheart returned with the refilled tank and gave it back to Dye, who returned it to his saddlebags.

Dye bid farewell to the nurse before heading out to buy some groceries.

Dye was not happy when he got back to his shack. He’d just spent another thirty bits on groceries, leaving him with fifty-four. Over half of his life’s savings had already been used up in less than twenty-four hours, and he knew that he’d have to start selling paintings again soon if he was going to be able to support himself, let alone the family he wanted to start in a few years. At least the dozen apples only cost him twelve bits. A bit apiece was a steal given that the first apple harvest of the year was still a ways away.

Of course, there was another thing Dye dreamed of doing, but that was probably never going to happen: Dye wanted to see the world Grandpa came from and bring paintings of it back to the pony world. Grandpa sometimes talked about how he missed his old home. He wished he could see it one more time, but that was probably not going to happen. Grandpa was getting up there in years, and even if he wasn’t, nopony who knew about the human world knew how to get there.

Dye shook his head and got back to working on his house.

Stop it, Dye, he scolded himself. When you made that promise to Grandpa, you were just a colt. Grandpa smiled and chuckled, so he knew that it wasn’t going to happen. Using that human oath was a foolish thing to do, and the only way you can fix it is by making Grandpa proud of you.

With that thought held firmly in his mind, Dye continued working on his house, managing to get three rooms complete (minus ceilings) out of the seven he had planned for the first of three floors before sunset.

The best part, though, was that he hadn’t gotten a headache all day! That alone had been enough to allow Dye to go to bed a happy stallion, curling up under a blanket in his shack and dozing off for the night.

Author's Note

Fun Fact: The Doctor has a doctorate in just about everything! Yes, even cheese making (I'm serious, the TARDIS Data Core says that on the page about the Doctor).